2013: Curse You and Your Inevitable Betrayal!

I fell off the wagon and jumped back on "convenient food." It started out easily enough, with a quick chicken sandwich before the gym and eventually I started eating less healthy items like donuts and sugary snacks. Starting next week, I'll swear off gluten and then later in the summer I'll get back to Paleo. This all will consist of me planning meals better and keeping motivated with apps that'll show some accountability (Fitbit). I'll even start making meals to keep in the freezer to prevent this from happening again.

2013: Week 6 and 7

Weight: 189.4 lbs

BMI: 23.6

Body Fat: 11.8%

I'm finally feel as though I am back to my "better self." My room-mate made a pizza with whole wheat dough the other day and its smell was potent enough to make me leave the room; which I can only assume means that my body is back to a gluten free state, and not that he burnt the pizza. Recently, I've gotten into some "diet talks" with several of my friends (yeah we're pretty fucking awesome). One of my friends, a "cave-woman" (started up her own blog), we discussed the omega 6 to 3 ratio.

Q: So just what are Omega 3s and what do they do?
A: Omega 3s are essentially fatty acids that come in 3 different flavors (ALA, EPA, DHA), I'll spare the lecture but the key point is that Omega 3s reduce inflammation (Where as Omega 6s cause inflammation).

Unfortunately most diets in America are deficient in omega 3s, leading to ratio of 15:1 or higher (Ideally we'd want to achieve a ratio around 3:1). This imbalance isn't the sole reason that we get fat, but it exaggerates the problem (its the proverbial whip-cream on the ice-cream). So I've been exploring on how to incorporate more omega 3s into my diet. After looking several places, all sources pointed to fish as the best place to get the desired omega 3s; however I'm not a huge fan of fish. Outside of fish, it seems my salvation will be found in the form of pills, needless to say I've always been a bit skeptical at best about vitamin supplements, but for fish oil I will make an exception (1 after breakfast and 1 after dinner). Protein wise: grass feed meat seems to be the best way to get lean and balanced protein. I'll continue to experiment with my protein sources, maybe venison (I have a lot of friends that are hunters) and other interesting meats (and a few friends that are rednecks) will land on my plate.

Lastly, I'd like to say since I've started this new life-style, I've learned to change for the better. I strive for eight hours of sleep every night (despite missing all my favorite late night tv shows), I eat healthy and nutritious foods that I had previous aversion to (I used to get sick even looking at scrambled eggs), and put forth a lot of effort in even the most mundane of tasks and chores and find satisfaction and happiness (both during and after the completion of said activity).

Not So Eggy Scrambled Eggs
2 Large eggs (whipped in a bowl)
[Optional 1/3 cup meat (Steak or chicken previously cooked and seasoned)]
1 green pepper (diced)
1/2 an onion (diced)
1 tbsp tabasco sauce
A dash of Salt and Pepper

2013: Week 5

Weight: 190

BMI: 23.7

Body Fat: 11.8%

Over the last 3 weeks or so, I went through a weird period of time (Paleo lifestye-wise). My gym partner and fellow peer landed a new job and moved away, during that time I suspended the Paleo lifestyle to hang out with him and grab some of our favorite foods/meals/drinks. Pizza, lots of Mexican food, Hibachi Japanese food, etc. Very little is considered Paleo friendly, but it wasn't all "fun times with gluten," he and I went hiking (my iPod said it was roughly 6 miles that we hiked, but all of this was uphill). I've decided to make it into a monthly goal to go hiking once a month (It was a great field test of my new DSLR Camera). The camera made the perfect excuse to "stop and rest by taking pictures." Also more recently, my fancy pedometer came in, and since it came it I've aimed for at least 10,000 steps a day and have averaged just under 11,000. Every week that I get an average of 10,000 steps, work will give me about 100 points (for our new health and fitness system) and at 2000 points I can get a $25 iTunes gift card. I'm very passionate about music, so I'll definitely stay motivated by this incentive. Things will get back on course as far as gym-going activities go, I joined bodybuilding.com's contest last week (I'll post the link to my profile in this blog, when I get more a bit more progress) with a former gym partner and finally renewed my gym membership (after convening my room-mate to be my new gym partner). So things are starting to get back on course for my current lifestyle. I'll be trying a new recipe tonight "Madras Chicken Curry" and also on a cheerful note: coffee beans aren't beans (they are actually seeds), so they might be Paleo friendly after all.

Madras Chicken Curry

1.5 lbs of chicken cut into cubes (froze this to make it easier)

Madras Curry Sauce (To marinated/cook chicken with) [The curry sauce contains tapioca starch, which is pushing the Paleo friendly]

Poultry Seasonings (sprinkle to give chicken more flavor)

(All cooked on medium high)

Veggies

2 Bell Peppers (Red and Yellow diced)

1 Yellow Onion diced

1 teaspoon of garlic

Some Olive Oil

(all sauteed on medium high and added to Curry)

0xDEADBEEF

Since beginning this diet, to me its become very obvious about how much more meat I consume. As a former vegetarian, I still feel an ethical obligation to the animals I eat. I try to eat as organic as possible (cage-free, antibiotic free, etc.). I've kind of mandated a new 2/3rds rule to my diet, where 2/3rds of my plate is veggies/fruit. A lot of paleo recommendations are that we subsist on at least 1/2 protein. If I could get away with it I would subsist on a lot of veggies; however from my own personal experience, I would quickly get anemia (despite consuming a lot of iron from spinach). I have calculated how much protein, that I'd need to consume daily using this calculator it gave me just under 300 grams of protein (which for a body building website is obviously going to be higher than my needs). So using a reference I was able to calculate that I'd need about 2 lbs of lean chicken breast a day. I can think of this as the "upper bound", which I probably won't hit even on work-out days. After reading about "rabbit starvation" and noticing my hunger is much less these days, I don't think I'll consume more than 1 lb of lean meat per day.

To help ease myself on the ethics of being an omnivore, I'll try to consume kefir (buying when on sale in bulk) and experiment with lentils (which seem to be the lesser of evils, that are legumes). It might be that, it comes back and bites me in the ass (much like returning to non-organic milk did. and organic milk to a much lesser degree). Regardless, I've really come to enjoy both organic meats and lots of veggies in the last few months.

2013: Week 2

Weight: 189.4 lbs
BMI: 23.6
Body Fat: 11.8%

Through out this past week, I was either sick or recovering so I ate some less than healthy foods and a drank a lot of kefir to help my gut's flora. My gym partner and I have decided to not sign up for the gym until February, so that we can pursue some of our own interests while the gym is super packed with people that won't be there for a long period of time. I'll be reading the next book on my list, using my hang-board, walking 10,000 steps a day (Just bought a pedometer that will help me gain points with my work's system). Towards the end of the week I made paleo spaghetti, which was good, except that the pre-made pasta sauce I used had too much sugar in it. I found an article, which inspire me to make my own pasta sauce.

My pasta:

Noodles
Gluten-free Noodles (I think that they are brown rice based which isn't paleo friendly, but certainly better than whole-wheat noodles. The article I linked previously uses spaghetti squash, which is what I'll try next time)
(Add to boiling water and then drain when noodles achieve ideal firmness, the noodles I got never got too "soggy")

Sauce Portion
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 6 oz cans of tomato paste
A dash Italian seasoning
(all simmered over low in a 1 quart pot)

Meat Portion (I did this in my wok)
About a teaspoon of Olive Oil
1 yellow Onion
2 cloves of garlic
(heated at medium high for about 4 minutes and then add meat)
1 lb of (grass-fed beef)
A dash of Italian seasoning
(heated until meat is cooked, and then add the Sauce)

Pasta Concoction
Add Sauce (to meat)
Add Noodles (or whatever to the meat)
(cook at medium low so that everything mixes well together)

2013: Week 1

Weight: 190 lbs

BMI: 23.7

Body Fat: 12.4%

Update: I survived my family vacation and actually came out in better health than when I left, we had a hotel suite so I was able to cook my own food for 8 of 9 days that I was on vacation. The first night and second day, I drank some generic milk and noticed that my acne quickly flared up. I haven't got a clue as to whether this was from the antibiotics passed to the milk or lack of milk in my diet. My acne disappeared over the following days, after I "detoxed" from milk. During the vacation, I drank some of my protein via casein protein shakes. Milk's protein is roughly 80% to 90% casein. I think that I'll add casein powder to my exception list, but only consume it on days that I work out. Speaking of working out, my ipod recorded an average of 8,000+ steps per day while I was on vacation and one day I managed to go climbing/bouldering for about 3 hours. I think that I'll strive for that magic number of 10,000 steps per day, by the end of the month, with a legit pedometer. My plans for this year are 4 days of working out (2 weight training and 2 climbing/bouldering days). The weight training days will be distinctly different.

Day One: I'll hit 6 muscle groups with 3 different exercises of 3 sets that will contain 5 reps (to increase my strength) (Solo)

Day Two: I'll hit 6 muscle groups with 2 different exercises of 3 sets that will contain 12, 10, 8 reps (to increase my endurance) (Solo or Partner)

My climbing goals will be a bit different:

Climbing: I've progressed very well on climbing (even while wearing a weighted vest), I'll cut back a bit.

Bouldering: I know that I should do more and be better after starting this hobby up a year and a half ago, but I'm still no where near my level of expectations. My points of failure seems to be finger strength and some core/balance issues. I bought a hang-board with mid-level holds to help me get stronger fingers. I'll try to boulder twice a week from here on out.

End of year goals

Climbing: 5.10 successful climb (at 5.9+ right now)

Bouldering: V3 successful problem (at V1+ right now)

Bench: 12 reps of Body Weight (71% right now)

Squat: 12 reps of Body Weight (n/a)

Deadlift: 12 reps of Body Weight (n/a)

Of course loosing more weight will make all of these goals much more obtainable, but only if it is fat. So I'll continue my paleo lifestyle. I've lost just over 12 lbs in 2 months and I am nearly half way to my "ideal weight."