"The best measure of quality is not how well or how frequently a medical service is given, but how closely the result approaches the fundamental objective of prolonging life, relieving stress, restoring function, and preventing disability."
-Lembeke, quoted by Jeffery Bland in an article in Functional Medicine Journal
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
"A Day in the Life of a Hunter-Gatherer" by Loren Cordain
"Ten thousand years ago sounds like a long time, but in terms of how long the human genus has existed (2.5 million years), 10,000 years is a blink of the eye on an evolutionary time scale. The lifestyle of today's hunter-gatherers still holds invaluable clues to the exercise and dietary patterns that are built into our genes. The idea that cross training has value could have been figured out much earlier had we taken notice of clues from hunter-gatherers. Few modern people have ever experienced what it is like to "run with the hunt". One notable exception is Dr. Kim Hill, an anthropologist at Arizona State, who has spent 30 years living with and studying the Ache hunter-gatherers of Paraguay and the Hiwi foragers of Southwestern Venezuela. His description below represents a rare glimpse into the activity that would have been required of us all, were it not for the Agricultural Revolution."The Ache hunted every day of the year if it didn't rain...GPS data I collected ... suggests that about 10 km per day is probably closer to their average distance covered during search. They might cover another 1-2 km per day in very rapid pursuit. Sometimes pursuits can be extremely strenuous and last more than an hour. Ache hunters often take an easy day after any particularly difficult day, and rainfall forces them to take a day or two a week with only an hour or two of exercise. Basically they do moderate days most of the time, and sometimes really hard days usually followed by a very easy day. The difficulty of the terrain is really what killed me (ducking under low branches and vines about once every 20 seconds all day long, and climbing over fallen trees, moving through tangled thorns etc.) I was often drenched in sweat within an hour of leaving camp, and usually didn't return for 7-9 hours wi th not more than 30 minutes rest during the day.""The Hiwi on the other hand only hunted about 2-3 days a week and often told me they wouldn't go out on a particular day because they were 'tired'. They would stay home and work on tools, etc. Their travel was not as strenuous as among the Ache (they often canoed to the hunt site), and their pursuits were usually shorter. But the Hiwi sometimes did amazing long distance walks that would have really hurt the Ache. They would walk to visit another village maybe 80-100 km away and then stay for only an hour or two before returning. This often included walking all night long as well as during the day. When I hunted with Machiguenga, Yora, Yanomamo Indians in the 1980s, my focal man days were much, much easier than with the Ache. And virtually all these groups take an easy day after a particularly difficult one.""While hunter gatherers are generally in good physical condition if they haven't yet been exposed to modern diseases and diets that come soon after permanent outside contact, I would not want to exaggerate their abilities. They are what you would expect if you took a genetic cross section of humans and put them in lifetime physical training at moderate to hard levels. Most hunting is search time not pursuit, thus a good deal of aerobic long distance travel is often involved (over rough terrain and carrying loads if the hunt is successful). I used to train for marathons as a grad student and could run at a 6:00 per mile pace for 10 miles, but the Ache would run me into the ground following peccary tracks through dense bush for a couple of hours. I did the 100 yd in 10.2 in high school (I was a fast pass catcher on my football team), and some Ache men can sprint as fast as me.""But hunter-gatherers do not generally compare to world class athletes, who are probably genetically very gifted and then undergo even more rigorous and specialized training than any forager. So the bottom lines is foragers are often in good shape and they look it. They sprint, jog, climb, carry, jump, etc all day long but are not specialists and do not compare to Olympic athletes in modern societies." Dr. Hill tells us part of the story, but not everything. Today, women are just as likely as men to be found at the gym lifting weights, or running or riding their bikes. In stark contrast, hunter-gatherer women almost never participated in hunting large animals. Does this mean that women did no hard aerobic work? Absolutely not! Women routinely gathered food every two or three days. The fruits of their labors just didn't include plant foods, but also small animals such as tortoises, small reptiles, shellfish, insects, bird eggs and small mammals. They spent many hours walking to sources of food, water and wood. Sometimes they would help carrying butchered game back to camp. Their foraging often involved strenuous digging, climbing, and then hauling heavy loads back to camp while carrying infants and young children. Other common activities, some physically taxing, included tool making, shelter construction, childcare, butchering, food preparation, and visiting. Dan ces were a major recreation for hunter-gatherers, and could take place several nights a week and often last for hours. So, the overall activity of women, like men, was cyclic with days of intense physical exertion (both aerobic and resistive) alternated with days of rest and light activity.What hunter-gatherers had to do in their day-to-day activities is turning out to be good for modern day athletes. When the famous track coach Bill Bowerman advocated the easy/hard concept back in the 60's, it was thought to be both brilliant and revolutionary. Using his system of easy/hard, athletes recovered more easily from hard workouts, and their chances of getting injured were reduced. Ironically, coach Bowerman's revolutionary training strategy was as old as humanity itself.Similarly, weight training combined with swimming was a stunning innovation at Doc Counsilman's world famous swim program in the 1960's. Now, it is a rare world class endurance coach who doesn't advocate cross training to improve performance, increase strength, and reduce injury incidence.For humans living before the Agricultural Revolution, energy input (food) and energy expenditure (exercise) were directly linked. If Stone Age people wanted to eat, they had to hunt, gather, forage or fish. In the modern world, we have totally obliterated the evolutionary link between exercise and food. When we eat more energy than we expend, we gain weight and our health suffers. Two thirds of all Americans are either overweight or obese. Forty million American have type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S."
Kind of makes sense doesn't it? I especially liked the approach to so called "periodization": If you are beat down from a hard day, rest the next day! Crazy I know, but thats where the recovery comes from, not to mention muscle growth!
Friday, February 27, 2009
Glycemic Overload
Glycemic Load - a ranking system for carbohydrate content in food portions based on their glycemic index and the portion size.
Why is this important? As a matter of fact it is the absolute in any Nutrition Plan. By eating foods (carbs) that have a low end glycemic load, we can keep our insulin in check. Too much insulin, and our ability to burn fat is nil. Studies have shown that sustained spikes in blood sugar and insulin levels may lead to increased diabetes risk.
Here is a list of some NO-NO high GL/GI foods:
-Rice, Wheat, Pasta, Potatoes, Corn, Bread, Tortillas, Oats, Grains, Beans, Tropical Fruits (Bananas, mangos, papaya, pineapple, etc.)
Now here are some foods that are perfectly fine to eat:
Broccoli, Cauliflower, Squash, Carrots, Turnips, Rutabagas, Green Leafy Vegetables, Zucchini, Tomatoes, Onions, Garlic, Peppers, Artichoke, Asparagus, Brussel Sprouts, Eggplant, Mushrooms, Alfalafa sprouts, bamboo shoots, Celery, Cucumbers, Apples, Apricots, Berries (strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries), Cherries, Grapes, Grapefruit, Kiwi, Lemons, Limes, Nectarines, Oranges, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Cantaloupe.
So, there is a whole bunch of different veggies and fruits that one can eat and still maintain a healthy diet. Get away from that lame excuse of "I just have to have my bread and comfort foods". Get off the Grain Train and enjoy a healthy life with plenty of options to help fuel your everyday needs.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
End of January Detox Challenge
A whole 30 days with no alcohol, grains(not that that was an issue anyway), sugar, tobacco, processed foods, little caffeine in the form of coffee and hot tea, and eating out. What a month! I feel great and have leaned out a bit and put on some muscle in the process. My times keep improving and so do my heavy lifts. So a lot of good came from this. I am going to continue with this system from here on out, minus the alcohol restriction. This will be on a limited basis and limited quantity (as I am now a cheap date) since I enjoy a cold beer or some whiskey every now and again. As a trade off for this, I will still keep sugar and "processed foods" out of my diet for the duration leading to the 2009 CrossFit Games Qualifiers in May at GSX in Ft. Worth. For those that don't know check it out: "2009 CrossFit Games". Hopefully I can keep them out for good as my insulin sensitivity is getting to the point where any amount of sugar just bombs me. This makes a good reason to keep it out of my diet.
I would encourage anyone to give this challenge a go for minimum 30 days and see what kind of results you can get. I promise you they will be positive. You will not only notice a better looking and feeling self, but everything gets better: sleep, workouts, and life in general!
I would encourage anyone to give this challenge a go for minimum 30 days and see what kind of results you can get. I promise you they will be positive. You will not only notice a better looking and feeling self, but everything gets better: sleep, workouts, and life in general!
Friday, January 23, 2009
4 Nutritional Challenges for the New Year
As probably seen in earlier posts, I have thrown down a couple of nutritional challenges to start of the year and potentially help everyone get into that realm of "being fit". Lets remember that we work out for 1 hour of a 24 hour day. That leaves us with 23 hours to complete the cirlce and actually make that 1 hour intense workout worth something! So with that being said, lets recap the first two and bring on the third and forth! As a note, you can tackle these one at a time in order from 1-4, or all together. I would recommend for the nutritional newbie to take things slow though, i.e. one step at a time.
NUTRITION CHALLENGE #1:
Eat protein with every single meal. EVERY meal! What kind of protein? A once living, breathing, roaming, walking, swimming, animal!
To spell it out even more: (in no particular order of relevence)
- Chicken, Beef , Pork, Fish, Shellfish, Eggs, Turkey, Lamb, Venison, Duck
NUTRITION CHALLENGE #2:
Drop sugar from your diet for a minimum of 2 weeks and see how you feel at the end. Once you realize how great you feel continue on with the NO SUGAR challenge. Of course its ok to indulge every now and again, but for the ones that have a soda or ten, a cookie, a doughnut, candy, etc. on a daily basis needs to stop! Try it and see what happens. The benefits will definitely outweigh any kind of negatives your pesky brain will come up with.
NUTRITION CHALLENGE #3:
Now that we have rid our diets of sugar and we are eating protein with EVERY meal, (yes this includes snacks) its time to take away the comfort food of our time: Breads, starches (minus the occasional sweet potato or yam), grains, cereals, wheats, pasta, rice, corn, and the like.
Here is a good article about the evil that are these!
"The Definitive Guide to Grains"
These things have been linked to all types of illness, disease, allergies, and just all around health problems. If anything, drop sugar and grains from your diet to create longevity of life! Once again, try it out for minimum of two weeks. After the two weeks, evaluate how you feel and carry one once you realize the benefit that you have just given your body.
NUTRITION CHALLENGE #4:
Once the first 3 challenges have been completed either one at a time or all together, its time to bring the final piece to finish our Nutrional Puzzle. Eat some GOOD fats with all your meals. By good fats I mean:
Olive oil, coconut oil, coconut meat, avocado, nuts, seeds, some nut oils, REAL butter, lard, EFA's (Omega 3's), Animal fats
Heart healthy fats that will help promote a healthy lifestyle. A plug from the FDA (although they are akin to the Anti-Christ in my opinion). This is now a primary fuel source for our body since we have ditched the grains and sugar, so you want to make the right choices. Not to mention they are more caloricly dense than carbohydrates (sugar and grains) at 9 calories per gram than 4 calories per gram respectively.
Read: "Definitive Guide to Fats"
Bringing it all together......
Once this has come full circle, whether it takes 2 weeks or 2 months, you WILL see a noticeable difference in how you look and feel and I would imagine that you will want to carry on this new lifestyle change from here on out. It will only allow you to live a longer, happier, and healthy life so why not?
NUTRITION CHALLENGE #1:
Eat protein with every single meal. EVERY meal! What kind of protein? A once living, breathing, roaming, walking, swimming, animal!
To spell it out even more: (in no particular order of relevence)
- Chicken, Beef , Pork, Fish, Shellfish, Eggs, Turkey, Lamb, Venison, Duck
NUTRITION CHALLENGE #2:
Drop sugar from your diet for a minimum of 2 weeks and see how you feel at the end. Once you realize how great you feel continue on with the NO SUGAR challenge. Of course its ok to indulge every now and again, but for the ones that have a soda or ten, a cookie, a doughnut, candy, etc. on a daily basis needs to stop! Try it and see what happens. The benefits will definitely outweigh any kind of negatives your pesky brain will come up with.
NUTRITION CHALLENGE #3:
Now that we have rid our diets of sugar and we are eating protein with EVERY meal, (yes this includes snacks) its time to take away the comfort food of our time: Breads, starches (minus the occasional sweet potato or yam), grains, cereals, wheats, pasta, rice, corn, and the like.
Here is a good article about the evil that are these!
"The Definitive Guide to Grains"
These things have been linked to all types of illness, disease, allergies, and just all around health problems. If anything, drop sugar and grains from your diet to create longevity of life! Once again, try it out for minimum of two weeks. After the two weeks, evaluate how you feel and carry one once you realize the benefit that you have just given your body.
NUTRITION CHALLENGE #4:
Once the first 3 challenges have been completed either one at a time or all together, its time to bring the final piece to finish our Nutrional Puzzle. Eat some GOOD fats with all your meals. By good fats I mean:
Olive oil, coconut oil, coconut meat, avocado, nuts, seeds, some nut oils, REAL butter, lard, EFA's (Omega 3's), Animal fats
Heart healthy fats that will help promote a healthy lifestyle. A plug from the FDA (although they are akin to the Anti-Christ in my opinion). This is now a primary fuel source for our body since we have ditched the grains and sugar, so you want to make the right choices. Not to mention they are more caloricly dense than carbohydrates (sugar and grains) at 9 calories per gram than 4 calories per gram respectively.
Read: "Definitive Guide to Fats"
Bringing it all together......
Once this has come full circle, whether it takes 2 weeks or 2 months, you WILL see a noticeable difference in how you look and feel and I would imagine that you will want to carry on this new lifestyle change from here on out. It will only allow you to live a longer, happier, and healthy life so why not?
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Cold Remedies for the "Modern Man"
There are a couple of articles I would like to link in refernce to this post:
1. "Maintaining Your Immunity During the Holidays"
2. "Make Your Own Flu Shot, Or Just Stay Healthy in the First Place"
3. "What Happens to Your Body When...You Carb Binge?"
There is something that I noticed over the recent holidays. I got sick for a few days. I never get sick! This got me to thinking about what might be the cause of it so I am going to make an assumption on the issue. Around this time of year I tend to get more into sugar than normal, whether it be through pies, cakes, brownies, ice cream, candy, etc. After reading a little about sugar, it can cause an immune suppresion in the body. As can over-indulgence in alcohol, which also tends to happen around this time. Bad news. Especially this time of year when the Flu seems rampant. So, scan or read the accompanying articles and make your own assumptions, but I am going to attribute this recent sickness to too many sweets and too much drinks! Especially the 2 huge pieces of cheesecake that I ate for my brother-in-law's birthday a few days before Christmas. Well, I started "feeling bad", sore throat, congestion, runny nose, on Christmas Eve Eve (the day before Christmas Eve: not a typo). So I took meds and nothing really worked. NyQuil, my once favored drug of choice for a small cold, didn't do a thing but make me sluggish in the morning. Mucinex, which can dry out a 5x5 childrens sand box didn't work either. I had all the symptoms that these medications are supposed to take care of! After all the holiday hub-bub, I got back on track with my diet [lots of protein, good fats, fruits and veggies] and a couple of days later everything went away. So where am i going with all this? Well, it sounds like a good "prescription" for a cold or the flu is to just eat right (read older posts) and stay the hell away from mass quantities of sugar in the form of sweets and high density carbs.
Food for thought.....SUGAR = BAD
NUTRITION CHALLENGE #2:
Drop sugar from your diet for a minimum of 2 weeks and see how you feel at the end. If you say you feel worse I know you're lying!
1. "Maintaining Your Immunity During the Holidays"
2. "Make Your Own Flu Shot, Or Just Stay Healthy in the First Place"
3. "What Happens to Your Body When...You Carb Binge?"
There is something that I noticed over the recent holidays. I got sick for a few days. I never get sick! This got me to thinking about what might be the cause of it so I am going to make an assumption on the issue. Around this time of year I tend to get more into sugar than normal, whether it be through pies, cakes, brownies, ice cream, candy, etc. After reading a little about sugar, it can cause an immune suppresion in the body. As can over-indulgence in alcohol, which also tends to happen around this time. Bad news. Especially this time of year when the Flu seems rampant. So, scan or read the accompanying articles and make your own assumptions, but I am going to attribute this recent sickness to too many sweets and too much drinks! Especially the 2 huge pieces of cheesecake that I ate for my brother-in-law's birthday a few days before Christmas. Well, I started "feeling bad", sore throat, congestion, runny nose, on Christmas Eve Eve (the day before Christmas Eve: not a typo). So I took meds and nothing really worked. NyQuil, my once favored drug of choice for a small cold, didn't do a thing but make me sluggish in the morning. Mucinex, which can dry out a 5x5 childrens sand box didn't work either. I had all the symptoms that these medications are supposed to take care of! After all the holiday hub-bub, I got back on track with my diet [lots of protein, good fats, fruits and veggies] and a couple of days later everything went away. So where am i going with all this? Well, it sounds like a good "prescription" for a cold or the flu is to just eat right (read older posts) and stay the hell away from mass quantities of sugar in the form of sweets and high density carbs.
Food for thought.....SUGAR = BAD
NUTRITION CHALLENGE #2:
Drop sugar from your diet for a minimum of 2 weeks and see how you feel at the end. If you say you feel worse I know you're lying!
Friday, January 2, 2009
Bringing in the New Year: 2009
Well it's time to end the 2008 chapter and start 2009. It's always nice to take some time and reflect on the years past to make some decisions for the upcoming one. So what is on the books for 2009? What, if any are your new goals or resolutions? I have decided to test myself for the month on January and clean up my act a little. I have other goals and resolutions as well but here is the main one that I hope to accomplish over the next month.
January Detox Challenge:
The goal of this challenge is to rid your life of anything that is "harmful". I will use that term loosely as there are many things that could be qualified as harmful to one person and ok to the next. So, things that I will be doing away with for January are as follows:
1. Any food that is processed. By this I mean any thing that comes in a box, jar, or has more than 3 ingredients.
2. Sugar
3. Tobacco
4. Alcohol
5. Eating out at restaurants
--What I will be keeping:
1. Whole natural foods; fruits, veggies, meats, nuts, seeds, good fats, fish oil. little starch in the form of yams/sweet potatoes.
2. A varied workout program to benefit from this "clean" living.
3. A positive frame of mind
I am doing this challenge for 2 reasons: 1) So I can see if I have the mental fortitude to undertake something like this for 30 days. 2) To see what kind of changes can be present without the influence of "harmful" substances such as alcohol and tobacco. So to all I say, give this challenge a try or cheer from the sidelines and wish the followers luck! I will keep an updated log along with this to track my progress.
January 2, 2009 - Start of challenge
January 6, 2009 - 5 days in and so far so good. I have made some amendments to allow for things that are in a container but are not laden with garbage. This would be milk, cottage cheese (not the Shepps kind) and some cocktail sauce I used for Oysters that Bevin and I bought at Sprouts. It was made from a tomato puree and not ketchup which has "HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP (HFCS)" in it. I haven't had any cravings for anything in particular. So, all is well for right now!
January 13, 2009 - 12 days in and all is good! No cravings for anything and all we have eaten has been great, wholesome, delicious food. We did eat out once but it will be an exception to the rule because it was Jason's Deli. We had the salad bar and only salad and veggies with a homemade olive oil dressing. For the protein there was eggs, and I just brought a steak from home. So, it was basically like eating at home, we just had to meet my little brother for lunch. Will probably do this again as its nice to eat outside of the house sometimes. NOTEABLE CHANGE: My weight has kept dropping and is now to 177....Don't know if this is good or bad yet as I have not lost any strength, so I figure its fat and water that is leaving. I hope so!
January 26,2009 - Well the month is almost up and I haven't had any issues keeping this challenge going. I am going to extend it 14 more days to Feb 14th to make a total of 44 days of clean living! Set a huge PR the other day on Grace @ 3:14. I can attribute that to this change and my consistant workout scedule.
January 30, 2009 - End of Challenge
January Detox Challenge:
The goal of this challenge is to rid your life of anything that is "harmful". I will use that term loosely as there are many things that could be qualified as harmful to one person and ok to the next. So, things that I will be doing away with for January are as follows:
1. Any food that is processed. By this I mean any thing that comes in a box, jar, or has more than 3 ingredients.
2. Sugar
3. Tobacco
4. Alcohol
5. Eating out at restaurants
--What I will be keeping:
1. Whole natural foods; fruits, veggies, meats, nuts, seeds, good fats, fish oil. little starch in the form of yams/sweet potatoes.
2. A varied workout program to benefit from this "clean" living.
3. A positive frame of mind
I am doing this challenge for 2 reasons: 1) So I can see if I have the mental fortitude to undertake something like this for 30 days. 2) To see what kind of changes can be present without the influence of "harmful" substances such as alcohol and tobacco. So to all I say, give this challenge a try or cheer from the sidelines and wish the followers luck! I will keep an updated log along with this to track my progress.
January 2, 2009 - Start of challenge
January 6, 2009 - 5 days in and so far so good. I have made some amendments to allow for things that are in a container but are not laden with garbage. This would be milk, cottage cheese (not the Shepps kind) and some cocktail sauce I used for Oysters that Bevin and I bought at Sprouts. It was made from a tomato puree and not ketchup which has "HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP (HFCS)" in it. I haven't had any cravings for anything in particular. So, all is well for right now!
January 13, 2009 - 12 days in and all is good! No cravings for anything and all we have eaten has been great, wholesome, delicious food. We did eat out once but it will be an exception to the rule because it was Jason's Deli. We had the salad bar and only salad and veggies with a homemade olive oil dressing. For the protein there was eggs, and I just brought a steak from home. So, it was basically like eating at home, we just had to meet my little brother for lunch. Will probably do this again as its nice to eat outside of the house sometimes. NOTEABLE CHANGE: My weight has kept dropping and is now to 177....Don't know if this is good or bad yet as I have not lost any strength, so I figure its fat and water that is leaving. I hope so!
January 26,2009 - Well the month is almost up and I haven't had any issues keeping this challenge going. I am going to extend it 14 more days to Feb 14th to make a total of 44 days of clean living! Set a huge PR the other day on Grace @ 3:14. I can attribute that to this change and my consistant workout scedule.
January 30, 2009 - End of Challenge
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