unconvegetable

…as a FIDDLE: week 3 of 5 – HALFWAY THERE!!!

Mark Hulme — Sun, 13 May 2012 05:19:35 +0000

WooHoo! We’ve made it two weeks. On Wednesday, we’ll be halfway to our 5-week Get Fit as a Fiddle goal. Even if there have been slip-ups, “Oops – I just ate that entire chocolate bar”, or you only managed a couple of days of exercise, “I’m so tired” …Don’t give up. Dust yourself off, get back on the horse, and keep going.

I’ve discovered in working through this challenge, that it takes discipline in all areas of my life to reach the goal I’ve set for myself. If I don’t go to bed, I’m too tired to get up the next morning to exercise. If I’m tired all day, I don’t want to put in the extra effort to cook a healthy meal. And if I’m failing in meeting my goals, I just want to grovel and make myself “feel better” by eating comfort food, a.k.a., junk.

So, starting now, I’m going to go to bed at 10PM and wakeup refreshed at 6AM ready to conquer the day. It being 9:30pm now, I can’t get to bed by 10 if I spend the next two hours developing a meal plan. So after a quick google search for “paleo meal plans,” I discovered that I’m reinventing the wheel. There are GOBS of meal plans out there. The following two include recipes and grocery lists:

I haven’t tried any of their recipes yet, but I will soon. Let me know what you think.

We’ll stick with The Get Mohr Fit 28-Day Paleo Challenge for our workouts. This week starts a whole new set of exercises.

LET’S GO!

WARM UP

WORKOUT Week 3 – Day 1 of 4

WORKOUT Week 3 – Day 2 of 4

WORKOUT Week 3 – Day 3 of 4

WORKOUT Week 3 – Day 4 of 4

STRETCH

WORKOUT – Bonus

…as a FIDDLE: week 2 of 5

Mark Hulme — Sun, 06 May 2012 05:43:18 +0000

Meal planning tips and shortcuts. When you cook dinner, double it! Even if you don’t like leftovers, you can always freeze it and have it in a week or so – whenever it feels “new” again. Also, if you have extra time on a Sunday or if you’re feeling particularly culinary midweek, do some prep work: chop veggies and store for quick cooking, make meatballs, omelette muffins, anything that will reheat well. (And if a recipe does not sound appealing – don’t make it. If you are having a particular craving, do a google search for that menu item + “paleo” and you’ll probably find a great recipe for it.)

Again, the meal plans are my own with recipes from all sorts of great bloggers (you’ll see links at the bottom of the recipes), but the workouts (and the challenge concept) itself comes from: The Get Mohr Fit 28-Day Paleo Challenge. This week’s workouts are the same as last weeks. We’ll switch ’em up a bit next week.

If you prefer yoga or pilates, you might like these:

10-minute Solution – Sculpting Pilates

10-minute Solution – Slim & Sleek Stretch Pilates

10-minute Solution – Yoga Basics

MEAL PLAN – Week 2

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Other
Day 1	Yam & Spinach hash, Fried eggs, Leftover Flax Bread	Chicken Legs, LEMONY CABBAGE-AVOCADO SLAW	Lamb Neck Curry, Steamed vegetables	SNACK – carrot, Nuts, Fat coffee
Day 2	Fried eggs, Sauteed zucchini, Flax Bread	Tuna salad, Green salad, Bell pepper	Salisbury Steak, Steamed broccoli & cauliflower	Smoothie, Nuts
Day 3	Spinach & Mushroom Fritatta, Flax Bread	Leftover lamb neck curry, Greens salad	Slow Cooker Grass Fed Beef Shanks & Cabbage Stew	SNACK – pickle, Veggie sticks, Pistacios
Day 4	Omelette muffins, Fat coffee, Meat & Veg Loaf	Tuna Stuffed Eggs, Green salad w/ avocado	Quick Vegetable Stir Fry, Chicken Legs	SNACK – fruit, Cucumber, Nuts
Day 5	Anything omelette (put in anything), Leftover Flax Bread, Fat coffee	Leftover slow cooker beef shanks, Veggie sticks	Paleo Larb, Big green salad	Snack – ants on a log, Cucumber, Bell pepper
Day 6	Fried egg on leftovers	Bone Broth, Leftover Meat & Veg Loaf, Veg soup addition	Bobotie, Sauteed green beans, Fresh tomato slices, Banana Chocolate Chip “Cakies”	SNACK – fruit, Carrot, Nuts, Fat coffee
Day 7	Fried eggs, Sausage, Wilted spinach, Fruit salad, Leftover Flax Bread	Leftover bobotie, Salad, Sliced apple	SLOW COOKER CHICKEN CACCIATORE, Cauliflower Mash	Snack – jerky, 1 fruit, Veg sticks, Nuts, Fat coffee

for the Chocolate Chip “cakies” – I substituted 3 smashed dates for the apple butter. Yummy!

GROCERY LIST – Week 2: You can edit the grocery list (change quantities or make additions) by clicking the edit button.

RECIPES – Week 2: Recipes are written for a family of 4. You can edit the grocery list accordingly, or better yet, freeze the leftovers for quick and easy meals.

WARM UP

WORKOUT Week 2 – Day 1 of 4

WORKOUT Week 2 – Day 2 of 4

WORKOUT Week 2 – Day 3 of 4

WORKOUT Week 2 – Day 4 of 4

STRETCH

WORKOUT – Bonus

…as a FIDDLE: Ready, Set, GO!

shannahulme — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:57:16 +0000

Fit as a Fiddle – being very fit or well; in perfect health. That is what I’m striving for. Well, that and some really good looking muscles. But my commitment level doesn’t go much beyond a month, and I’m not about to spend money on a gym membership. So, thanks to my husband for discovering a better way to eat, and to Get Mohr Fit, for posting short work out videos (and a 28-day challenge), I’m making May my month to get as fit as a fiddle.

For each of the five weeks, I’ll post a meal plan, recipes, a grocery list, and work out videos. But first, a fitness test.

*If your fit test score is < 150, do the Beginners workout.

We’ll take the fitness test after the 5 weeks.

Let’s get started! Go to: …as a FIDDLE: week 1 of 5

…as a FIDDLE: week 1 of 5

shannahulme — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 06:03:41 +0000

So, you’ve taken the FITNESS TEST and you’re ready to see what you can do. This should be everything you need to get you started – a Meal Plan, Recipes, Grocery List, Warm-up Exercise, Daily Workouts for 4 days, and a Stretch routine. The meal plans are my own, but the workouts (and the challenge concept) itself comes from: The Get Mohr Fit 28-Day Paleo Challenge

MEAL PLAN – Week 1

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Other
Sun 4/29	Spinach & Mushroom Fritatta, Flax Bread	Veg soup addition, Bone Broth	Chicken Legs, Roasted Zucchini, Herb Roasted Carrots	Snack – jerky, Nuts, Veg sticks, 1 fruit
Mon 4/30	Scrambled eggs, Roasted zucchini & carrot leftovers	Tuna Stuffed Eggs, Green salad w/ avocado	Cabbage and Kielbasa Curry	Smoothie, Nuts
Tue 5/1	Leftover everything eggs, Flax Bread – use leftovers (minus last night’s curry) and mix with beaten eggs.	Cabbage and Kielbasa Curry leftovers, Green salad	Cauliflower Mash, Crockpot braised lamb shanks (Osso Buco) with tomato sauce – start the osso bucco in the morning.	SNACK – pickle, Veggie sticks, Pistacios
Wed 5/2	Leftover cauliflower mash, Fried eggs, Flax Bread	Tuna salad, Green salad, Bell pepper	Fish, Green beans, Sweet potato	Jerky, Carrot, Nuts, Apple
Thu 5/3	Anything omelette (put in anything), Flax Bread, Fat coffee	Tuna Stuffed Eggs, Bone Broth, Veg soup addition	Beef & Eggplant Chili	Smoothie, Nuts
Fri 5/4	Omelette muffins, Avocado, Fat coffee	Chicken Legs, Quick Vegetable Stir Fry	Chocolate Custard, Jicama Salad, Thai Fish Curry	Snack – ants on a log, Cucumber, Bell pepper
Sat 5/5	Yam & Spinach hash, Fried eggs, Flax Bread	Meat & Veg Loaf, Green salad, Sliced pear	Daphe’s Greek Food – greek salad, any meat, …maybe some hummus.	SNACK – carrot, Nuts, Fat coffee

.
GROCERY LIST – Week 1: You can edit the grocery list (change quantities or make additions) by clicking the edit button.

RECIPES – Week 1: Recipes are written for a family of 4. You can edit the grocery list accordingly, or better yet, freeze the leftovers for quick and easy meals.

WARM UP

WORKOUT Week 1 – Day 1 of 4

WORKOUT Week 1 – Day 2 of 4

WORKOUT Week 1 – Day 3 of 4

WORKOUT Week 1 – Day 4 of 4

STRETCH

WORKOUT – Bonus

30 day Paleo challenge results

Mark Hulme — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 05:44:21 +0000

As previously stated, weight loss was not the primary goal of this month’s challenge – rather it was to learn about how certain foods affect us and what changing one’s dietary composition can have on health, energy, stamina, etc. Weight loss is, however, an important measure of what changed. Here are the mathematical results:

Patient Zero:

Age 35	Weight:	Body Fat:	BMI:
Friday July 1	213.4 lbs	26.4%	28.2
Friday July 15	208.4 lbs	25.6%	27.5
Sunday June 31	206.4 lbs	24.7%	27.2

Month-long % weight change: 3.28% reduction

Month-long % body fat change: 6.43% reduction

At the mid-month point, patient zero spontaneously decided to begin a light strength-training exercise program. On 10 days in the last half of the month, each of the following was done:

10 pushups
10 squats
10 situps
30 second plank
10 second side planks

A total of 8.7 miles was walked in these two weeks, and he biked the 10 miles to work on 4 occasions. Had we been measuring muscle mass, this would likely explain for the slowed loss of pounds in the second half of the month – building muscle offset fat loss., but fat loss was a higher percentage with the exercise.

Even though weight loss slowed in the last half of the month, it is interesting to note that patient zero is also currently in the middle of a weight loss phase – a vegetable-focused Atkins plan. This program began in February 2011, from a starting weight of 235. Prior to the July experiment, average weight loss was 0.84 pounds per week. In July, with no calorie or carb counting, the average was 1.74 pounds per week. The difference is likely better quality of food, with less artificial sweeteners, bars, shakes, etc. Patient zero plans to continue eating real food.

Patient One:

Age 26	Weight:	Body Fat:	BMI:
Friday June 1	220 lbs	32.3%	35.5
Sunday June 17	214.2 lbs	31.2%	34.6
Monday August 1	212.0 lbs	31.2%	34.2

Month-long % weight change: 3.63% reduction

Month-long % body fat change: 3.40% reduction

Patient one decided not to exercise any more rigorously in the second half of the month. Without exercise, patient one still lost more weight (lbs) than patient zero. It is remarkable how similar the percentage weight loss results are between these two patients, even with different ages, different activity and stress levels.

Fat loss is somewhat different – the exercise increased fat burning in patient zero, and the continuing weight loss mode is also likely a contributing factor to patient zero’s consistent fat loss. Patient one started this program, and the initial weight loss is more likely in part to be water weight as the body adapts to burning fat instead of carbohydrate.

Again – this is just from controlling what you eat, not counting calories or carbs, or trying to control how much you eat. The foods selected are more nutrient dense, and more satisfying – second helpings were very rare this month. Neither patient felt like they were starving ourselves, and that’s a nice feeling.

Can we agree? Let’s eat real food.

Mark Hulme — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 11:33:44 +0000

Much of the Paleo/Primal diet’s background is based in in the theory of human evolution – the idea being that humans are genetically selected and adapted to eat the foods our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have eaten prior to the invention of agriculture approximately 10,000 years ago. While you might not subscribe to this view of how human life came into existence, you don’t need to believe in it to see results from the dietary approach.

You don’t need to pretend to be a caveman (even one as eloquent as this).

Image Source: http://flic.kr/p/rTLGL

In the 1930s, a dentist named Weston A. Price performed an extensive study of cultures who were isolated from western civilization – modern hunter-gatherers, if you will, who did not eat modern processed foods. Price was seeking to find out how they avoided cavities without access to modern dentistry. What he found and subsequently documented in the book Nutrition and Disease Prevention was a much larger body of knowledge on health and diet, as the people he studied were on the whole healthy, free from diseases of affluence (obesity, heart disease, cancer, etc.), and had very little in the way of dental problems.

Modern hunter-gatherers don’t suffer the health problems we in the west do. No need for evolutionary basis there – either it works or it doesn’t.Eating natural, whole, real foods as close to their production as possible is a method that seeks to avoid:

Processed foods
Junk foods
Sugar & High fructose corn syrup
Sodas and sports drinks
Agribusiness & subsidized monocoulture crops
Factory farming & animal cruelty

Even if you believe the items above are not harmful, are there any of the above that you would argue are beneficial or necessary to human health? Can you live without these things? If you tried this for 30 days, what might you discover?

The Trouble With Grains

Mark Hulme — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 04:17:22 +0000

Grains like wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, and rice all have three main problems:

High carbohydrate levels – these grains are mostly starch, which if eaten in large amounts, raises insulin, leading to a host of problems including obesity, diabetes & heart disease.
Anti-nutrients – the grains we eat are the seeds of grasses. The seed has a starchy core and a hard exterior, the bran. This exterior coating contains fiber (which is not as necessary as you might believe – you get plenty of it from vegetables). The bran is designed to protect the seed from being digested by an animal who might eat it and transfer it to a new location – the seeds “wants” to live and grow anew. Your body also fights to digest these compounds, which also bind to vitamins and then pass through your system undigested – they rob you of the nutrients you have eaten with them.
Lectins & gluten – these are proteins that your digestive system does not know how to process well. They can pass through the intestine wall into the bloodstream undigested, where they appear to the immune system as foreign invaders. Your immune system fights against these proteins, and will often develop an immunity against them. The problem is that these lectins are structurally very similar to the proteins that are the building blocks of many of your internal organs. Chronic continued exposure to these lectins can result in developing an immune response that attacks your own tissues, resulting in inflammation and auto-immune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis…. Eating grains has also been linked to schizophrenia, depression, infertility and cancer – PDF link.

While sprouting grains can reduce the levels of anti-nutrients in grains and make them slightly more healthy, they are typically not quite the nutritional powerhouse we might think they are: PDF link (see table 4). They lack Vitamin A, C and B12, and the (admittedly inexpensive) calories they provide will offset more nutrient dense foods like non-starchy vegetables and meats. It’s all enough to make one wonder if they should be the foundation of the food pyramid.

While toast in the morning is delicious and chocolate cookies can be nearly impossible to resist, the problems above are serious enough for me to at least avoid them on a trial basis – it’s really not all that difficult.

Willpower – not what you might think

Mark Hulme — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 03:59:25 +0000

One reaction upon hearing about this way of eating is: “That sounds like the way we should be eating anyway….” An all-too-common follow up is: “but I could never do it. I’d never be able to give up my ….” bread, toast, candy, soda, sugar, whatever. In my experience, it’s not easy, but it’s certainly not difficult. It’s simple, but it’s not necessarily easy. While I found it incredibly easy, not everyone does.

We have been conditioned to think that weight loss is hard: you have either have to starve yourself and/or wear yourself out exercising for hours. My experience is that neither deprivation or chronic exercise is necessary, and it can be almost effortless.

I’ve heard it said that nutrition & diet are perhaps 80% of the equation, exercise is maybe 20%. If you’re not eating sugar, it stands to reason that you don’t have to burn it off.If you stop eating (refined) carbohydrates & avoid added sugars, you are probably 50% of the way there. Making sure to eat good fats (avocado, coconut, olive), proteins, plenty of vegetables and avoiding industrial oils (canola, safflower, “vegetable”) is perhaps the next 30%. If you do these things, even without exercising or counting calories, I have seen swift and substantial changes.Your body has the ability to heal itself – you don’t need a drug to get better if you cut yourself, to get over a cold, to mend a broken bone. If you give your body the nutrients it needs to function and stop giving it garbage it fights, my experience is that your weight will very likely normalize and level off based on the balance of food you are eating.Strength of Will

Willpower is needed, but not the way you might think. It’s not really about having to control HOW MUCH you eat – the satiety provided by protein and fat takes care of that naturally, especially if dietary sugar isn’t increasing your appetite and excess insulin and lectins aren’t blocking the hormonal signals telling your brain you’re full.

Willpower is needed in WHAT you are eating. The good news is that it gets easier. It took a month or so before my desire for sweet foods diminished, and they really aren’t much of a temptation anymore. Your tastebuds change over time, and are no longer overwhelmed and desensitized by sugar. After several months of avoiding sugar, some fruits now taste almost unbearably sweet – letting me know how much natural sugars are in them. I recently tasted an almond that was startlingly sweet: I had always wondered whether Amaretto’s flavor had any basis in reality – now I know (not that I’ll be drinking Amaretto any time soon). Vegetables I used to dislike now taste different. It’s not them, it’s me.

Once you start to normalize, my experience is that you feel the desire to exercise – it happens spontaneously, not as a requirement to lose weight. I exercise now because I feel good when and after I do, and I like feeling stronger and healthier.

I don’t exercise to loose weight, or to compensate for sugar in my diet. Functional strength and flexibility are my goals. Here’s what seemed like a balanced approach: exercise so that you can play – whatever you want, whenever you want. You should be fit enough to tackle any physical activity you come across without undue fear of injury. That’s where I’m aiming. I want to want to play with my kids, and be healthy enough that they won’t outpace me when they get to be teenagers.

Sugar is not a Necessary Nutrient

Mark Hulme — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:15:03 +0000

Sugar is not a nutrient: at best it is an empty food additive, at worst it is an addictive substance.

Refined sugar is not needed by your body – there is nothing in it that your body needs to survive. There are only a couple of body functions that require glucose (blood sugar), but you don’t need to eat sugar to feed these functions. The body can create whatever glucose it needs through gluconeogenesis (source), a process that takes protein from your diet (or from your muscles if the need is dire) and turns it into glucose.

In the FDA’s instructions on how to read a nutrition label, they note the following about sugar:

No daily reference value has been established for sugars because no recommendations have been made for the total amount to eat in a day.

Sugars are not identified an a nutrient to avoid eating too much of, nor to get enough of; they are simply a blank area in the FDA interpretation. Is this an oversight or a cop-out?

Sugar is addictive. It hits the same opioid receptors and dopamine centers in your brain that are activated by cocaine and other drugs. Here’s an interesting study for you: Intense Sweetness Surpasses Cocaine Reward.

Sugar makes you eat more of it: most foods are a combination of the three main macronutrients: Fat, Protein or Carbohydrate. Protein and Fats are both satiating – they make you feel full. When you have eaten enough, the body’s tissues to send the hormonal signal leptin to the brain, indicating you are full and can stop eating. High levels of insulin and insulin resistance block this leptin signal, meaning you continue to eat more than your body needs. Carbohydrates raise insulin, which blocks leptin, therefore carb/sugar consumption causes you to eat more.

For more info, this lecture “Sugar, The Bitter Truth” from Dr. Robert Lustig is a engaging and measured look at what effect sugar consumption has had on our bodies in the last 30 years. Watch below or listen to the audio podcast.

If your body doesn’t need sugar to function and eating it is both fattening and addictive, it begs the question, why eat this refined carbohydrate at all?

Two Drink Maximum

Mark Hulme — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:08:44 +0000

While alcohol can be a poison and is processed in the liver like other poisons and harmful substances, moderate consumption of certain kinds of alcohol can have several benefits:

Red wine contains resveratrol, a polyphenol liked with decreased health risks.
Moderate alcohol consumption can decrease the risk of heart disease and strokes, (up to 2 drinks per day for men, one for women).
It cheers the heart

The choice of alcohol is important. It is suggested to avoid beer (liquid grain, contains gluten), and sugary liqueurs, fortified wines and mixers – Port, Sherry, Midori, Bailey’s, Triple Sec, Jaeger, margarita mix, tonic water, ginger ale, sodas, etc. Distilled spirits are acceptable – gin, brandy, tequila, rum, whiskey, as are red and white wine. And Rose. (Sweet wines should probably be avoided on principle.) –Editor’s note: Friends don’t let friends drink white zinfandel.

So it you are going to drink alcohol, try a two drink maximum per day, and choose non sugary spirits. Here’s a recipe to get you started:

Añejo Especial

1 oz. tequila
Juice of half a fresh lime
Juice of 1/4 fresh grapefruit
Splash of sparkling water

Substitute the tequila for gin, add some bitters and you have a pretty passable paleo gin and tonic.

Much respect to the Norcal Margarita – also highly recommended.

Perhaps a healthful strategy would be: “Unless they can be shown to have positive health effects, don’t eat things your body fights to digest, & don’t eat things your body processes like poisons”. This is one poison to take in moderation.

More info