1. Tummy

2. Teeny

3. Adorable

4. Squee!

5. Smoothie

6. Snuggly

7. Bunny

8. Sweepy

9. Hiney

10. Piggy

Any other nauseating words that a man should never use?

I wish I didn’t have a fresh story to tell, but, that’s the way life goes. If you leave valuables unattended and unsecured, there is a good possibility that someone doesn’t use the same set of ethics you do.

Last Monday, during preschool hours at the church, a man walked in with his preschool age daughter. He immediately noticed a Samsung Galaxy II tablet unattended and untethered (huge mistake) to his left, just showing a slideshow of pictures.  He approached the counter to discuss reversing his earlier decision to enroll his daughter in the preschool and get a refund since she had not yet started.  During the first break in the conversation, he stepped over to the table with the tablet, casually removed it from its stand, and laid it flat on the table.  He returned to the counter.  During the second break in the conversation, he again stepped over to the table, this time casually placing papers over the top of the tablet to conceal it. Again, he returned to the counter. Finally, he took another opportunity during another conversation break to reach up and hand-turn the main camera view.  He and his daughter left, and the preschool later reported the tablet missing.

Fortunately, he didn’t turn all of my security cameras. And, having enrolled his daughter in the preschool earlier, we had all of his contact information.

I left two voicemails requesting a return call on our preschool enrollment processes. These calls would simply be to establish that he was actually on site and not using a fake name in the first place. Since I had not received a return call, I gathered up all of my evidence to make copies to turn over to the police.  I placed one last call, again leaving a voicemail, but this time straight to the point:

“Hi, Xxxxxx, this is Rick Knowles again from the church. I’d like to talk to you about a Samsung Galaxy II tablet. I have some very interesting video I’d like to review with you.”

Within 30 minutes, he dropped off the tablet at the front desk, then called me to blame his daughter for “accidentally picking it up.” I thanked him for returning the item,  reviewed the very interesting points of the security footage with him, and thanked him again for returning it.

After the conversation, I reviewed the usage of the tablet to ensure it was safe and free of nasty stuff before it was reissued to the preschool.  Private browsing was used, so it was at least clean, but the evidence trail showed it had been used that morning to log in to Starbucks’ network. How did his preschool age daughter know how to connect to the Starbucks network? Crazy, right?

I pose that question because it seems that the autoimmune protocol is never really done. It’s simply a starting point to calming down your autoimmune system so that you can better evaluate how things affect you.  You may need to go 60, 90, 180 days or more in clean eating and testing over and over across a wide spectrum of foods to really get dialed in on how your body reacts.  For some, a test of a food that results in a reaction may call for a new 2 week period of strict eating before the next food challenge.  The process can take months, perhaps even a couple of years of strict/test/strict cycling.  That’s a pretty daunting task, so you have to ask yourself the question:

At what cost am I willing to explore how my body reacts to certain foods?

In January, my wife and I ate exactly one meal at a restaurant.  Even that meal violated strict autoimmune protocol – it’s pretty hard to find a meal devoid of nightshade-derived spices at a Mexican restaurant.  We skipped chips and salsa, rice and beans, and tortillas – all delicious things – in order to stay as close to our commitment as possible while we enjoyed a nice dinner out with friends.  Fortunately, we didn’t hit any reactions that evening.  Do you enjoy eating out? This protocol makes it really difficult to do that, and honestly, it’s easier to not go out versus trying to find the one thing of the menu that you can eat (if you modify it).

So what DID we eat?

Lots of meats and vegetables, and some fruit. I logged everything I ate into myfitnesspal, so if you’re interested in seeing exactly what I ate, just friend-request rick_knowles. We ate very simply and used the crockpot pretty frequently. An excellent resource for autoimmune paleo information and recipes is The Paleo Mom.  To find new and interesting stuff to make, we would typically take a look at our ingredients and google search for what to do with it, as in “autoimmune paleo chicken carrots”.

As far as a macronutrient breakdown goes, each week of the 4 weeks, I ate 53% fat, 25% carbs, and 22% protein.

What happened from the experiment?

Initially, following the protocol, the greatest result was annoyance and a desire to quit.  Breakfast was the most challenging, because eggs were a huge staple of our mornings. Eliminate cereals and eggs at breakfast and suddenly not much is left that matches what you think breakfast should look like.  The easiest way to resolve this problem is to adjust your mindset.  There’s nothing wrong with eating last night’s leftovers for breakfast, but it didn’t “feel” right because, you know, that’s not the way I was raised. The next easiest way is to simply skip breakfast and practice a little intermittent fasting.

I did lose weight and size over the month, dropping 10 pounds and 5.5 total inches across the neck, chest, waist, hip, and thigh measurements. Following this protocol got me back on track for the weight I had gained from enjoying my holidays a little too much, but I can’t say that I felt much better. I suspect that’s because I really didn’t have much in the way of food sensitivities in the autoimmune realm in the first place. I was joining in on the experiment in support of my wife. Now, the weird thing that did happen to me during the protocol is that I had my first gout attack in 2 years at week 3 of the experiment.  This was a major bummer for me, as I had felt “cured” from gout from the last 2 years of clean eating. To tighten up my nutrition even further and have a gout flare return was depressing, to say the least. The why it happened is still a mystery.

For my wife, she reported fewer headaches and other body aches. In the reintroduction phase, eggs, paprika, and cumin have been added back successfully. Almond butter seemed to bring on a stomachache. Chili powder definitely brought on a stomachache. A glass of red wine led to a migraine, but red wine in cooking did not.

For both of us, we’ve had a few successful reintroductions to grass-fed butter in small doses with no apparent issues. That’s after 20 years dairy-free for my wife and the last year dairy-free for me. However, it’s too early to tell if it’s a long-term keeper, an occasional okay item, or something we should leave alone entirely. If there’s one dairy product that we’d love to add back, it’s real butter!

So what now?

Really, it’s more of the same. Eat clean > test > evaluate, then move on to the next item. Better information leads to better decisions. Happy eating!

“Marfan Syndrome Crossfit” – I’m pretty sure I didn’t tackle this directly in whatever post was found, but I will here. No. Don’t do it. This is a terrible idea. The number one concern for the Marfan patient is a dissecting aortic aneurysm, so it seems prudent to avoid high intensity exercise that cranks up blood pressure, but I’m no doctor. You can build core strength through challenging, but less intense forms of exercise. Hiking, air squats (focusing on technique and stability versus high volume and speed), wall push-ups, slow-paced swimming, and yoga are much better alternatives than Crossfit.

“What macronutrients are recommended for the primal diet” – Ummm… Protein, fat, and carbohydrates? Seriously though, I assume the asker is wondering about percentages, as in what percent of your diet should come from…? Here’s the deal – Paleo/Primal eating is not Barry Sears “The Zone Diet.” The 40-30-30 carb-protein-fat breakdown is completely ridiculous and neurotic. At last night’s dinner, I roasted a whole chicken (with garlic and rosemary), roasted butternut squash with coconut oil, cinnamon, and nutmeg, then sauteed swiss chard with bacon and onion. My macronutrient ratios for this particular dinner were 29% carb, 46% protein, 25% fat. Does that dinner sound unhealthy at all? Some alarmists might freak out about coconut oil and chicken skin, but generally speaking, that’s a pretty awesome meal. My dinner a couple of nights ago was 12% carb, 49% protein, and 39% fat. So far this month, I’ve been about 25% carb, 25% protein, and 50% fat. All that to say: whatever. Make diet choices that fuel your goals and activity levels. If you’re looking to lean out, low-ish carb is probably a smart way to go. If performance is suffering, maybe more carbs make sense. Experiment with it and find what works for you.

“What’s the most unmanly workout equipment?” – This one, no question:

“King Turd Of” – Obviously this searcher is looking for the proper phrase to complete the sentence. The answer is “poop mountain.”

“Can you urinate in a waterless toilet” – Pretty sure you can. A toilet (even a waterless urinal) is designed to handle human waste products.

“Jeans size 40 I am fat?” – Probably. I know I was. You know it’s bad when the size 40′s are getting uncomfortable and your wife says: “You are not getting the next size up. You need to lose weight, not buy bigger clothes.” Thank God for my loving and honest wife and her willingness to give me a reality check. (Currently 34 jeans, sometimes 36, depending on the cut)

“South Beach Diet Phase 1 I just cheated” – You’re going to be fine. It may slow your progress toward your goal, but it surely won’t kill you.

“Deadlifting is very functional porn xxx” – Seriously? What’s wrong with you?

“Well, what the hell DO you eat?”

No grains, dairy, legumes, eggs, nightshade vegetables, and nuts might be a little daunting. Maybe I should reframe it as just eating meat, most vegetables, some fruit, and some quality fats. That doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

This week, beyond just doing AIP, I challenged myself with a low-carbohydrate approach as well, working on keeping my carbohydrate intake at 100g or below per day. Definitely not easy. If you’re interested, here’s what week 1 looked like (feel free to connect with me at myfitnesspal at username rick_knowles to see what I eat):

Day 1 – nothing solid until 2PM*
B: Dirty Chai (my go-to daily favorite drink made up of: strongly brewed chai tea, raw honey, coconut milk beverage, ice, full-fat coconut milk layered on top, then 2 shots of espresso on top of that), half glass of organic carrot juice, lots of brewed coffee
L: Big-Ass Salad with lettuce, grilled chicken, dates, apple, mandarin oranges, and a pear-cinnamon balsamic dressing. A cup of homemade chicken broth.
D: Herb-crusted New York strip loin, cauliflower mash, sautéed mushrooms
S: An unsweetened latte

Day 2 – nothing solid until 4PM*
B: dirty chai
L: skip
D: Big-Ass Salad similar to the one above. Leftover roast, pan-fried chicken wings, herb sautéed spaghetti squash, kale salad

Day 3
B: leftover chicken, leftover roast, bacon, dirty chai
L: ate so much meat at breakfast that I wasn’t very hungry. Just a little carrot juice, coconut oil, and an unsweetened latte
D: roasted turkey breast, sweet potato, sautéed rainbow chard

Day 4 – nothing solid until noon*
B: dirty chai
L: a ton of marinated skirt steak, mandarin oranges, coconut oil, small glass of almond milk
D: Chicken soup made from broth I’d made earlier in the week. Add chicken, sweet potato, asparagus, and turnips.
S: my wife found a recipe for an AIP-compliant Paleo Breakfast Cookie. Yum! And a 2nd dirty chai.

Day 5
B: dirty chai, apricot breakfast sausage, coconut oil, chicken broth
L: pork rinds!
D: bacon avocado lettuce wrapped grass-fed burger.

Day 6
B: Sausage link, bacon strip, coconut oil, dirty chai
L: Deli ham, fruit smoothie, grass-fed burger patty
D: Slow-roasted pork in a lettuce cup, glass of Merlot
S: Dirty Chai, coconut oil, pork rinds

Most of my challenges with keeping carbohydrates low comes from my love of the dirty chai. My carb count for the week ranged from 58g to 112g, with each chai covering 20g on its own. Total calorie intake has been between 1468 and 1913. Normally I would eat at least 2500 calories a day, so leaning out quickly has been pretty easy. My clothes fit better after about 3 or 4 days, so that’s a win. As far as how I’m feeling is concerned, I haven’t really felt very hungry because the ample intake of fat and protein works pretty well to stave off hunger. And, my energy level has been good. I’ll probably do some “carb-refeeding” today and get 200g in, then take it back down again tomorrow.

* Just to reiterate: The autoimmune protocol has absolutely nothing to do with a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic approach. The autoimmune protocol also has nothing to do with intermittent fasting.

Last year, starting on January 1st, I did a 100% paleo (no grains – not just gluten-free, no dairy, no legumes) experiment and had great results.  This year, I’m going a little further with what’s called the paleo autoimmune protocol.

Autoimmune diseases occur when the body has an overactive immune response to things that are normally in the body.  Essentially, the body attacks its own healthy tissues.  That’s not a good situation.  Rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, lupus, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis are all in the autoimmune spectrum.

The goal of this experiment is to continue to explore how foods affect me.  Layering in the autoimmune protocol to standard paleo will surely be challenging, but, if the result is feeling better, it’s pretty worth it.  So, for the next 30 days, not only will I do a full elimination of grains, dairy, and legumes but I will also eliminate:

• Eggs
• Nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, white potatoes)
• Nightshade-derived spices (peppers, paprika)
• Nuts

At the end of the 30 days, I’ll reintroduce these less common gut irritants one at a time and see what happens.  If I feel better without it, I’ll either eliminate it completely or just limit it.

Also during the month, I’ll add in a couple more things designed to help lean out from the extra holiday weight.

• An actual workout schedule versus just winging it: Each week will include a sprint session, a moderate (2.5 mile) to longer (3.5 – 4 mile) run, a bodyweight workout session, and a heavy lifting session.
• Minimum 1X/week of intermittent fasting, compressing the feeding window to between 2-10PM.

Here we go!

In the summer of 2009, I hit a personal best deadlift of 445 pounds at a bodyweight of 250. I had been hitting personal bests again and again as crossfit tuned my ability to handle more volume than I had ever done before.  However, as injuries from frequent and intense crossfit beatdowns mounted, I found myself needing to back off in order to recover.

In 2010, I backed off weightlifting quite a bit and began a running regimin. I had never been a runner before, so I set a goal of being able to qualify for a law enforcement physical agility test.  I found that my local agency had a standard of 1.5 miles in 15 minutes and the nearby federal agency had a standard of 1.5 miles in 13 minutes, so I set my sights on 13 minutes. As I practiced my running course trying to build speed, I found myself suffering from exercise-induced asthma, and again, I had to back off to recover.

In 2011, I began to experiment with nutrition as a means to improve my health and performance.  Cleaning up my diet yielded dramatic results: dropping weight, eliminating medication, and reversing disease. I continued to push my running harder and faster, achieving a 6:50 mile in August 2011. Unfortunately, almost immediately after that personal best, I stopped running for nearly 2 months to recover from plantar fasciitis.

In 2012, I reshaped my views on exercise to look more like the recommendations in The Primal Blueprint. I rest more, work out with less intensity – focusing more on the fundamentals of the movement, work on my mobility and flexibility, and occasionally lift heavy.  The result is continued improvements in body composition, fewer nagging injuries, and strength gains relative to bodyweight.  In 2009, I pulled 445 at a 250 pound bodyweight for a 1.78X bodyweight deadlift.  Today [Three years later at age 44], I pulled 400 pounds at a 215 pound bodyweight for a 1.86X bodyweight deadlift.  The last time I had even attempted heavy deadlifts was at least 6 weeks ago where I had maxed out at 385.

How did I get stronger relative to my bodyweight with less work? Each year I backed off on something after some sort of damage. So I focused on:

• Increased recovery time.
• Sleep.
• Nutrition.
• Fundamental movement practice.
• Mobility.

This article from May 2012 is a great one to drive the point of recovery home.  Here’s an excerpt:

And this…

“Exercise is an excellent example of hormesis in action. An appropriate “dose” of physical stress provokes a positive adaptation in your body (you get fitter), but dosing progressively larger and larger amounts of exercise can be seriously detrimental to your health.”

The same is true of life in general. Running full throttle all the time simply isn’t good for your health.  What are your constant stressors?

• Sleep? Are you getting enough or frequently in a sleep deficit?
• Work? When you’re off, are you actually off or just working in a different location?
• Exercise? Are you pushing yourself too hard through intense programming like p90x, Insanity, Crossfit?
• Nutrition? Are you eating well, choosing low-inflammatory, high nutrient density foods or are you frequently eating highly processed drive-thru food? It may not seem like it, but terrible nutrition is absolutely a chronic stressor.
• Relationships? Are you in healthy, life-giving, accountable relationships or are you sinking in someone else’s cesspool of suck?

Got it. What about exercise?

The answer is pretty simple, but you have to answer a question first:

Why do you want to exercise?

This is an important question, because if your answer is “I want to lose weight” or “I want to change my body composition” and you haven’t addressed your diet yet, you’re starting in the wrong place. Body composition improvements are about 80% diet-related and 20% exercise-related. Body composition does not follow the standard burn-more-calories-than-you-take-in model. Don’t get me wrong, calories DO matter, but in the context of losing weight or body composition change, it’s secondary to HOW the food is used in your body. It’s much more HOW (your body uses the fuel you give it) than HOW MUCH (total food you eat).  Oh, hardcore workout routines coupled  calorie restriction (or overfeeding if you’re trying to gain mass) work for rapid body composition changes, BUT, how long can you sustain it?

If your answer is something like “I want to get in shape”, you have some more thinking to do, like: what does getting in shape mean? Your answer may lead you to something useful. Maybe it’s something like “I want to be able to…”:

• …run a mile in less than 10 minutes.
• …run a 5K with no stops or walks.
• …deadlift 2X my bodyweight.
• …walk through the mall without labored breathing.
• …get more rebounds in my weekend pickup basketball game.
• …hit a longer drive in golf.
• …look good naked.
• …prevent injury.
• …live longer.

There’s already something you enjoy doing. Exercise should simply support or enhance what you already enjoy, and it should make sense according to what you’re trying to accomplish. It’s best if you enjoy the exercise, but in lieu of that, at least being able to tie the exercise back to what you’re trying to accomplish is a good thing.

Recap:

Eat what you thrive on. Look-Feel-Perform.

Exercise to support and enhance what you enjoy doing.

I spend a lot of time studying what is and isn’t good for you in the world of diet. I’m certainly no expert, but I’ve got a pretty good handle on how to approach what to eat in order to be as healthy as possible. So, what do I think you should eat? That depends on many factors, but the short answer is:

You have the freedom to eat whatever you want.

That’s a good start. From there, depending on your goals, you may want to tweak (or in some cases, radically alter) some things in order to thrive.

Think about what thriving means to you and let that steer your decision-making.

If you are completely medication-free, symptom-free, meeting all of your athletic and body composition goals, enjoying life and eating anything and everything in sight: (1) I wish I was you and (2) you probably don’t need to change a thing.

If your definition of thriving includes…

• Excess bodyfat
• Headaches
• IBS
• Joint/bodyaches
• Skin conditions
• Anxiety
• Stress
• GERD
• Acne
• Allergies
• Asthma
• Shortness of breath
• Most anything you take a medication for

…then you probably don’t need to change a thing.

If you do want to change something in order to really thrive, remember: you still have the freedom to eat whatever you want. The difference now is weighing the cost of the change against your freedom. A ridiculous example: you have a severe allergy to peanuts that causes you carry an epipen in case of accidental exposure. You still have the freedom to eat a peanut butter sandwich. On one hand, it’s delicious! On the other, you will have an anaphylactic reaction which will require the epipen and paramedics. You wisely choose to never have peanuts again.

You’re faced with the same choice in less severe and obvious ways all the time. I recently let occasional use of Diet Coke back in to my diet. Soon enough, I was having more aches and nasty headaches. I like Diet Coke, but I don’t like the symptoms, so I chose to give it up again. I like chips and salsa, but I don’t like the bloated feeling that comes from piles of corn chips, so I eat fewer chips and less often than I used to. I like croissants and breads and cookies and cakes and gluten-y things, but, stomachaches and pre-exercise inhalers are no longer my idea of fun so I’ve chosen to skip out on gluten. I like sugar, but I don’t like gout medication or gout symptoms, so I’ve chosen to skip added sugars the majority of the time. Making other choices with my diet has allowed me to have an occasional adult beverage, pain-free – that’s after skipping alcohol for 13 years to avoid symptoms.

You have freedom. Use it wisely.

To some, the video may be extreme in minutia. For example, from Bullet #2, Sacred Space:

“The main floor of the studio is sacred space. This includes all surfaces in the shop, welding room, office, bunker, and kitchen. Respect of this space is essential. The kitchen table must remain clean and windexed at all times.”

But, taken in the context of applying a broad brush principle to all things in the studio, it elevates the importance of even the seemingly minor things.

If I were to add a broad brush principle, I would add Bullet 11: Apply Logic. Maybe I’d do the voiceover like this:

“Things follow a logical flow from a defined system. USB plugs connect to USB ports. Web applications require an internet connection. Follow cables from beginning to end. Items not secured are at greater risk for loss than secured items. Building strength requires lifting and moving progressively heavier things.  Building speed requires moving faster. Food is not neutral – it will either support your health or it won’t.”

What code would you add to your workplace or life?