Monday, March 29, 2010

Back to the old neighborhood sweat shop!

Back in February, I made the grave mistake of joining Planet Fatness (I mean Fitness). Brand new place, a few minutes away, open 24 hrs. a day throughout the week, only $10 per month - seemed too go to be true. This place was the oddest gym I have ever stepped foot in. It's really a cardio dance hall more than a gym. First of all, if you get there anytime after 4pm, good luck finding any one of the 100+ cardio machines available to use. The place is packed! Mostly with college kids who dress like they're on their way to a club - hair done, makeup and all.

More importantly, let's get to the free weights area... Wait a minute! What free weights area? Sure they have all the different plate machines (which, I suppose, do serve their purpose - just not my purpose) - again, packed with the college guys struttin' their stuff to impress the girls.

The dumbbell rack stops at 80 lbs.; the fixed bars stop at 60 lbs.; they don't have a weight bench - nor do they have a real Olympic barbell. What!? What kind of place is this... how is a man supposed to get a real workout in a place like this. Well... you don't, nor do they want you to. They want to keep it a "family like atmosphere".

Check this out - they actually have something called a "Lunk alarm". Which means if you happen to grunt or make any type of noise while you're lifting - or god forbid drop or clank a weight... a siren goes off! If you don't believe me, google it - I do not lie!

But wait, there's more! One Friday of each month is pizza night and one Tuesday of each month is bagel Tuesdays. Who are these people kidding?

If you don't like it... go somewhere else - which I did. Adios Planet Fatness, I'm going back to the old standby - my original gym. It's small, it's clean, they have real equipment, an awesome staff and are never crowded. I am so glad to be back!

I did Workout A of my 5x5 today:

Squats 5x5
Bench Press 5x5
Inverted rows 3xF
Reverse Crunches 3x12
Push ups - 5 sets of mixed reps - totaling 48 perfect form, military style, push ups.

I don't think I mentioned this in a previous post but I'm now in week 2 of a 6 week program to complete 100 consecutive, perfect form, push ups. I'm gonna make it for sure by the end of the 6th week.

Needless to say, my chest is on fire right now!

I also added 10lbs. to the bar for each of my workouts to catch up from last week. I should be adding 5lbs. to the bar each time I work out, as per the program I'm doing, but Planet Fatness didn't even have 2.5lb. plates for their smith machine so I wound up having to stay at the same weight for the past two previous weeks - glad that's over with.

Awesome workout tonight!

Ah... Mondays

I'm not one of those people who dread Mondays... though it was a very long day for me. I had an early rise and had to go to the hospital for a complete set of lab work that my doc had ordered for me. I'm excited to get these results (which I will next Monday at my appointment with him) because it's been 6 months since my last lab work was completed and I'm looking forward to seeing where my levels are at. The longer I eat and treat my body this way, the more positive my results are. Last time, my only real issue was a vitamin D deficiency - I've since been taking 2000 IU's daily but will probably cut that back to 1000 pending my lab work. Now that spring is around the corner I'll be able to get out in the sun a lot over the next 6 or 7 months - which would be my ultimate and first choice for vitamin D supplementation!

I'm re-adjusting my macronutrient ratios to benefit me with my recent switch in my workouts for maximum results. I have upped my carbohydrate intake to about 30g per day and upped my protein way up to 200g per day. For the first time ever, I entered in all the foods I eat in one day into an online program called FitDay. It's a real cool website that you can chose foods from the list (they have every food you can imagine in their database) or add your own custom foods to and it comes up with the exact ratios both numerically and as a pie graph.

After some tweaking, I finally got everything exactly where I wanted it to be. Fat at 60% - Protein at 35% - Carbs at 5%. Perfect! If I cared about calories, I'd further emphasize that this puts me at 2500 calories per day, which according to the "gurus" of body building and weight loss, is exactly 500 calories below my maintenance level and optimum for fat loss and building muscle. But I don't... Just put it out there because it was part of my results once my foods were entered and my macros were figured out.

Also, for the first time ever, because my protein and fat consumption is very important to me, I actually weighed out my all my meats today. I used a digital postal scale that my brother gave me a while back. Did you know a paper plate weighs 0.2 oz? Bet ya didn't! lol

Food for the day:

B: 6 cage free scrambled eggs cooked in 2T of clarified organic butter w/ some green pepper slices mixed in.

L: A big salad w/ lettuce, sliced green and red pepper, fresh mushrooms, cucumber, 8 oz. grilled chicken breast, 3T olive oil, 1T fresh squeezed lemon juice.

Pre-workout: 4 oz. roasted beef and 1T of organic virgin coconut oil - this stuff is so good I can drink it - which I did... right off the spoon :)

Workout

D: 8 oz. of roasted beef, steamed asparagus sauteed in 2T organic clarified butter with some sea salt and pepper.

As always, a ton of water throughout my day.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

The Primal Food List

Here is the list of all primal foods that I eat or have tried in the past. There are, of course, additional foods out there such as exotic fowl and other wild animals that could be included on this list - but they are not available in my region nor have I tried them.

Eggs (Cage free / Organic)

Fish (Wild caught)

* Catfish
* Cod
* Crab
* Flounder
* Grouper
* Haddock
* Halibut
* Herring
* Lobster
* Mackerel
* Perch
* Pike
* Pollock
* Salmon
* Sole
* Swordfish
* Trout
* Tuna
* Octopus
* Shrimp
* Squid
* Tilapia

Meats (100% Grass fed / Free range)

* Beef
* Buffalo
* Chicken
* Duck
* Elk
* Lamb
* Pork
* Turkey
* Veal
* Venison

Vegetables (Organic)

* Artichoke hearts
* Asparagus
* Broccoli
* Brussels sprouts
* Cabbage
* Cauliflower
* Celery
* Chicory
* Collard greens
* Cucumber
* Eggplant
* Endive
* Garlic
* Kale
* Leeks
* Lettuce
* Mushrooms
* Mustard greens
* Onions (Preferably red or green)
* Parsley
* Parsnips
* Peppers (all)
* Pumpkin
* Radish
* Seaweed
* Spinach
* Squashes (all)
* Watercress

Nuts

* Almonds
* Almond butter
* Brazil nuts
* Hazelnuts
* Macadamia
* Macadamia nut butter
* Pecans

Flour

* Almond flour
* Macadamia nut flour

Oils

* Coconut oil
* Ghee (Clarified organic butter)
* Macadamia nut oil
* Olive oil
* Palm oil

Primal Protein Shake

I was experimenting with different ways to come up with a dairy free primal protein shake and wound up with this concoction... I gotta say, it's pretty darn good!

12 oz. filtered water
1/2 cup 100% egg white powder
1/4 tsp. organic almond extract
1 Tbsp. organic unrefined virgin coconut oil
Ice cubes

Simply mix it all up in a blender. The combination of almond and coconut make for a unique but pleasant taste. If you choose to add a sweetener, that's optional - but I don't use artificial sweeteners and either did cavemen :-) Believe me you won't miss it!

You can experiment with different extracts too. For example, if you used an orange extract (no worries, the oil in the extract is drawn from the rind and contains no fructose!) you'd have a nice tropical shake with the coconut and orange flavor.

32g protein
1.8g carbs (from the egg whites)
0g sugar
14g fat
270 cals - even though we know this is irrelevant ;-)

I'm going to have one of these before workouts because I'm trying to get my protein up to 200 grams per day and it's tough for me simply because I just can't physically eat that much food. However, between my eggs for breakfast and beef, chicken, pork or fish for lunch and dinner, I've got the rest covered.

Fruit Part II (For the super geeks!)

In my previous post, I talked about how once a glucose molecule gets inside our cells, it is converted into cholesterol as well as triglycerides. Well just last week, I was on a forum that I frequent and was having this discussion with some people who were interested in the topic - when in steps a genuine Biochemist telling me I was wrong!

His claim was that he didn't THINK either glucose or fructose can actually be converted to cholesterol in the body, but did agree that both glucose and fructose are converted to triglycerides (fat).

So... being I'm not a biochemist myself, I had to take a step back and let this dude explain himself in super geek terminology that I don't think anyone else in the conversation understood, including myself.

I listened to what he had to say (as best as I could understand it) and as he got deeper into his conversation, he started to think back to his studies and thought... well maybe, just maybe, he was wrong himself!

He then said... hang on just a minute - let me pull out one of my biochem texts and see if I can find the exact answer.

Now based on what I have learned, and how it was explained to me (which was in an easily understood sort of way - not in super geek terms of biochemical pathways that would make the average person's head explode) I knew what I was saying was correct but with my limited knowledge of in-depth biochemistry, I was in no position to put up an argument with him without the absolute detailed facts.

Anyway, he comes back and said - You're right and I'm wrong!

Sweet, I'm thinking to myself - this was like beating a professional poker player, in a heads up match, as an amature, without showing your hand :-)

So here was his reply and this is the exact, factual, biochemical explanation of how fructose converts to cholesterol in the human body:

Found it! Cholesterol can be synthesized from acetyl CoA, which is the intermediate molecule that both fats and sugars are metabolized into before they enter the krebs cycle (where most of the energy is generated). Glucose and fructose can be shunted into a side pathway (as opposed to their usual conversion to acetyl CoA several steps down) called the pentose phosphate pathway, which modulates NADPH levels (a way of carrying protons around the cell for doing certain types of chemistry).

Among the things its used for is one of the major steps in cholesterol synthesis (conincidentally, the same step that statins inhibit). The pentose phosphate pathway, however, doesn't tend to drive NADPH levels up any higher than basal levels for long (NADH and NADPH levels are very tightly regulated by a series of feedback mechanisms), so they're not going to have much of an effect there.

So in short, sugars convert to cholesterol, but so does fat.

Still, I'm always excited to be wrong on something! It's the only way you learn.

____________________________________________________

Just what you all wanted to read, right? lol

The bottom line is, fruit is not a necessary or beneficial food group for human consumption - unless, of course, you're looking to raise your bad cholesterol and get fat!

There are plenty of other food sources that provide us all the nutrients and antioxidants our body requires for optimal health. Eat more meat, fat and the right vegetables!

Is eating fruit really good for us?

Let me begin by saying that although biochemistry, particularly nutritional biochemistry, is a fascinating subject for me, I am not a Biochemist (yet). A lot of what I write comes from the studies of my mentors, what they have written and how it has been explained to me. The chances of my friends, family or anyone else who comes across my blog finding this information published in medical journals, biochemical textbooks or anywhere else for that matter is slim to none - so I'm simply passing the info along on topics that I enjoy and apply to my life.

Here's the lowdown on fruit (fructose):

Lets begin with Sugar is Sugar is Sugar.

This includes fructose... which means it doesn't matter what the source is - be it sugar from fruit, brown rice or cakes and candies. This is a biochemical fact; not a belief.

A lot of people adhere to the incorrect thinking that our body's somehow use a glucose molecule differently, if it comes from different food sources. For instance, the medical profession, registered dietitians and nutritionists alike, think if a glucose molecule comes from whole wheat bread it is somehow treated differently than if it came from a cake or candy item. The glucose molecule will be treated the same by our body no matter where it came from.

What happens once the glucose molecule gets inside our cells is that it will be converted into plaque forming deadly cholesterol as well as the fat we call a triglyceride.

The sugar fructose, found in fruits, will also be converted into plaque-forming deadly cholesterol. Again, this is a fact. For some reason the medical profession thinks that the sugar fructose is somehow better for us, but the facts are that it is transformed into cholesterol and triglycerides faster than glucose.

Claories Calories Calories!

Oh no... The calorie! It amazes me that some people freak out and count calories for everything single thing they eat throughout their day - let alone, some going to the extremes of putting themselves on a strict caloric deficit in their diet in an attempt to lose weight. Not only are they potentially doing irreparable damage to their metabolism, they are starving themselves!

This one of the big dietary myths out there - You HAVE to count calories to lose weight! - but the scientific truth is that the calorie is completely irrelevant in human nutrition. This is a biochemical FACT!

Here's why and here's the real deal on what a calorie is:

A calorie is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water 1 degree celsius from 14.5 degrees to 15.5 degrees. It's a quantitative heat chemists tool which they use to determine how much heat is given off when you burn something.

I don't think anyone would adhere to the reasoning that when you eat a steak it travels down into your stomach and blows up!

However, that's exactly how a calorie is determined - you'll take a piece of meat or whatever food product - you'll put it in the calorimeter and you'll burn it - you'll turn it to carbon - a heat is released into the water which raises the temperature on the thermometer. So to determine a calorie - it's nothing more than a combustion process.

What does this have to do with human nutrition? Absolutely nothing.

So my point in explaining this is it is a huge dietary myth that you HAVE to count calories to lose weight. This is absolutely false. So STOP the nonsense with the calorie counting already!

However, if we are talking about a person who is a professional bodybuilder looking to get down to a low, single digit body fat % for a competition, the story and demands of a caloric deficit do change... this is neither sustainable or healthy for any extended period of time.

For the avg. Joe (or Mary) this is doing far more harm then good. Pay attention to the types of foods you're eating and your carbohydrate intake and forget the calorie even exists.

Friday, March 26, 2010

So... what did I eat today

Being Primal - I eat all meats, fowl and fish, eggs, animal fats, healthy oils (olive oil, macadamia nut oil, coconut oil), nuts (particularly macadamia and almonds) and select vegetables. I do not eat any dairy except for ghee (clarified organic butter). Although they get pricey, it is ideal to eat organic veggies and 100% grass fed meats for many reasons... One of the main and most important reasons, aside from the humane treatment and slaughter of these animals, is that the essential omega-3 to omega-6 ratios of grass fed animals is far superior to the traditional, grain fed meat from a mass production meat plant you'd typically find at your local market. This is yet another topic I will blog on in the future - man, I've got a lot of writing to do!

I will also explain why I say select vegetables another time in another post because it's a long story. However, the primal veggie list consists primarily of the low carb, seedless type, such as: any and all green leaf lettuces, kale, spinach, escarole, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, zucchini, squash, peppers... the list goes on. In fact, I'll post up a list shortly comprised of all the great foods on the Primal menu.

I eat according to how I feel - listening to your body is extremely important. If I'm hungry, I eat; if I'm not, I don't. It's that simple and I never eat past the point of satiety. Some days, I'll have two meals and other days I'll have five. Again, it all depends on what my body is asking for.

So with that being said, let me get to what I had to eat today - which was a typical day of eating for me.

Breakfast: 4 cage-free organic scrambled eggs cooked in clarified organic butter and topped with sauteed mushrooms and peppers.

Lunch: A big salad w/ lettuce, cucumber, sliced mushrooms, green and red peppers, two pieces of grilled chicken, olive oil and a bit of fresh squeezed lemon juice

Snack: A small handful of macadamia nuts

Dinner: Skirt steak (one of my favorite cuts - especially marinated!) and sauteed fresh asparagus.

My Workouts

In the past I was trying all sorts of different methods of exercise - Isolated weightlifting, pyramid lifts, 4 day splits, high rep / light weight, no weights - just massive amounts of cardio, etc. The end result - sure I made some progress but nothing in comparison to what I've been up to lately!

As I mentioned in my last post, Primal exercise consists of mimicking the gathers & hunters of years past. Slow walking (or any type low intensity cardio), sprints and lifting heavy objects.

Now I'm not out in the woods with a spear hunting down animals and then carrying them over my shoulders back to camp for dinner... so how did I incorporate all this in to a modernized version that benefits me with strength building and getting leaner?

Two ways. For my heavy lifting, I'm doing StrongLift's 5x5 program which is absolutely killer! A massive core and mass building routine that requires heavy lifts and a shorter time spent in the gym. It's a win win situation! I do this on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. There are two workouts as part of this plan - Workout A and Workout B - which I alternate back and fourth each time I'm at the gym. I will explain what the workouts consist of in just a few. For my low intensity cardio and sprints, which I do 2 days out of the week (not on lifting days of course!) I switch things up with walking, cycling, or hiking. I go at least 1 hour at a moderate pace so I don't elevate my heart rate too high - I like to keep it right at around 120 bpm, which for my age and weight is right in the fat burn zone. For the sprints, this can be obviously done with any of the aforementioned exercises by incorporating a 20 second max push back to your moderate pace for ten seconds, then repeat. I do this at least 8-10 times over the course of my hour.

The StrongLift 5X5 Program

Workout A

Squat 5x5
Bench Press 5x5
Inverted Rows 3xF
Push-ups 3xF
Reverse Crunch 3x12

Workout B

Squat 5x5
Overhead Press 5x5
Deadlift 1x5
Pull-ups/Chin-ups 3xF
Prone Bridges (Planks) 3x30sec

For those who may not know 5x5 means: 5 sets with 5 repetitions per set. 3xF means: 3 sets with each one to failure.

Seems simple enough right?

Well let me tell you, as you progress by adding 5lbs. to the bar each time you workout, regardless of what pound weights you were able to start with from day one, and no matter how much of a man (or woman) you think you are, this routine will push you to your absolute limits in no time at all. It is BRUTAL!

Today, Friday, I finished up the week with Workout B and plan on a casual 5 mile hike through some local trails tomorrow... it's supposed to be up in the 50's and sunny. I'm looking forward to it!

The Primal Life

Most of my family and friends know how I choose to eat and what my exercise routine consists of. Some have an understanding and agree with my views; some think I'm out of my mind.

In a nutshell, The Primal Life brings us back to the day of the caveman. A time when life consisted of hunting & gathering, survival from the elements & wild animals, lots of exploration, relaxation and play time. In today's modern society, this is not only beneficial to us as humans but it's still very achievable on most levels.

Now I don't live in a cave and spear my dinner (although I wouldn't mind giving it a shot sometime), I do live a modern version of this lifestyle adjusted to my own liking, from my research, and from the teachings of my mentors.

Regarding how I choose to eat: In 2008 I met a terrific doctor, Dr. James Carlson, who is my physician, mentor and friend. He educated me and showed me a path of proper eating that I never knew existed. Not only is he a practicing family physician, he also holds degrees in biochemistry & medical law, among a host of other credentials. Simply put, the man is a genius.

Back then, I was eating like garbage. The standard American diet accompanied by large quantities of fast food and sugars. I was in very poor health at the time. My cholesterol and blood pressure were off the charts and I needed to lose weight desperately. I was not only headed towards diabetes and a possible stroke but also cirrhosis of the liver. I was in bad shape and only 35 years old! This is supposed to be the prime of my life; not a time wondering and worrying if I was going to check out an early age.

Dr. Jim introduced me to the low carbohydrate way of eating and educated me on how this is how we all should be eating. This is a biochemical fact; not a belief - contrary to the propaganda endorsed by America's leading medical associations.

Now I'm not going to get in to a long discussion on biochemistry at the moment (although I probably will somewhere down the line), but the results I have achieved through eating low carb have been astonishing. I have lost a lot of weight, I am no longer on any medications, my blood work is textbook perfect and I am also no longer in any danger of developing cirrhosis of the liver as a result of a change in my food choices and eating habits. This all happened within about a year. A miracle? No. I am not an exception to any rule - I'm just a normal guy who implemented these changes in my life and let nature take it's course.

I eventually reached a point where my weight loss plateaued and my exercise routine was way out of whack for my goals. This is where, in my research, I came across a book written by a man named Mark Sisson called The Primal Blueprint. In this book, I have learned that as humans we are still genetically the same as we were 2 million years ago. It wasn't until about 10,000 years ago, when the agricultural industry began to develop, and in turn, began to diminish the human body via the intake of grains.

This is just a basic outline of nutritional evolution, in it's most simplistic form - I will get in to far further depth in future blogs. I highly recommend reading the books The Primal Blueprint by Sisson and Genocide (How your doctor's ignorance will kill you!!) by Dr. James Carlson. There are also many other books I've read and will mention as this blog progresses but these two books are a fantastic start if this is something that sparks your interest.

Back to my Primal Life... that was the title of this entry right? I get lost in my own mind sometimes :-)

Primal eating consists of exactly what man ate millions of years ago. All meats, fowl and fish, animal and other healthy fats and oils, nuts and wild vegetation. Primal exercise consists of mimicking the movements of the hunters and gatherers - slow walking and exploration (hiking is a good example), heavy lifting and sprinting (to catch prey or hopefully avoid being the prey!). A Primal lifestyle also includes proper sleep, rest and play!

I will also get in to further detail on how I adapted to these principles, how I include all of them in my life, and where I'm at with each of them in future blogs.

That's all for now - I've got to get my mojo on and get some important things done today.

Until next time, peace and primal love!

Welcome to my blog!

Greetings and welcome to my Primal Blog!

My name is Greg, I'm 37 years old and I live on Long Island, NY. I'm excited to keep this (hopefully daily) blog rolling with updates on my Primal lifestyle, my eating and exercise routines, my career or anything else that's on my mind at the moment.