I Need Meat

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Tonight after strength training, I needed meat! My body started craving protein before I could even finish. Coincidentally, Coach D had started the class by informing everyone of the need for protein during a strength cycle. Here is the recommendation:

1 to 1.5 grams of protein for every pound of lean body mass. To know what your lean body mass is, you need to know what your body fat percentage is. Multiply your percentage of body fat by your total body weight and subtract that number from your total body weight. That will tell you what your lean body mass is.

If you haven't had your body fat measured, talk to one of the coaches about doing a caliper test on you. It's a quick, painless and accurate method to determine body fat percentage.

I picked up two pounds of beef brisket on the way home.  I felt like eating half of it on the drive! Fortunately it didn't take that much to fulfill my craving. Don't forget to get your protein fix!

Posted by: Michele Deaton

Staying Full

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Well, aside from the news about arsenic in apple juice, I haven't really run across anything in the last week to post here. Nor have I had much time to do research. But, we want to keep you coming back to check the Nutrition Blog so I will talk about something that I also need to remind myself.

Do you feel like when you eat "clean" you have a hard time making it from one meal to another? Does it seem like all that good food burns off really fast? That's actually a good thing! If our food is being burned off quickly it means our metabolism is moving along. It is important to remember to space out meals and put good healthy snacks in between. I usually have breakfast about 6:45am. By 10:00-10:30 I'm ready for a snack. Many days I have raw almonds. Not too many. One ounce is a good amount. I weighed them on a food scale and it comes out to about 20 whole almonds. Sometimes I have a hard boiled egg, but only if I haven't already had one or two eggs for breakfast. When I'm in the mood for some "crunch" I go for bell pepper strips. Another good snack is a low glycemic fruit, such as 1/2 an apple. Try to include healthy fats to help you feel fuller longer. 

Recently I grilled burgers for the family. I opted for an open-face bunless burger and topped it with homemade guacamole. I must say it was looking a little lonely on my dinner plate without the bun and a side of chips. So I added a wedge salad and sliced tomatoes, and I was stuffed! For me, I need the visual of a full plate.

Another thing to remember is that when your stomach growls it might not necessarily mean your body is hungry. It may mean it's dehydrated. Try drinking at least 8 ounces of water first and wait a few minutes. You may find you can wait until meal time without caving in to your supposed hunger.

I hope these tips help some of you on your nutrition journey. It's the simple things that sometimes make the biggest difference!

Posted by: Michele Deaton

Healthy Entertaining

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Tonight I hosted the neighborhood Bunco group at our home. That meant I was responsible for providing all of the food for the event. I pondered over it for quite a while because, if I could help it, I didn't want it to have to be my "cheat night". I don't think I did too bad. Here is what I served:

Sweet and Sour Meatballs - frozen meatballs cooked in a Crock Pot with one jar chili sauce and one small jar sugar-free grape jelly.

Garlic Chicken thin-crust pizza from Papa Murphy's Take and Bake

Broccoli, Raisin, Almond Salad

Fresh Fruit - strawberries, grapes, canteloupe and bananas

Chicken Salad prepared with sour cream, pecans and tarragon (Kroger Deli), served with Rice Thins

Sour Cream Blueberry Almond Banana Muffins (CFFTW Cookbook)

Paleo Brownies - from earlier post

My guests raved over the food! A few asked questions about whether we eat this way all the time. No one seemed to miss the bread. Amazing! Obviously, not everything was "Paleo" or "Zone" but overall it was much healthier than the average party fare. Try it at your next get-together and let us know how it goes!

Posted by: Michele Deaton

Making Changes

Thursday, September 08, 2011

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will." ~Vince Lombardi

Have you been reading this blog and soaking up all the good information, but maybe aren't quite sure what to do with it? If you are adopting the Paleo Diet, here is a great article by Adam Farrah of PracticalPaleolithic.com you will appreciate. You can click this link to be directed to his website.

http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/

Don’t limit yourself to Paleo-only resources

Here are 5 non-Paleo resources to get you started:

• Recipes on WholeFoods.com - Sure, maybe half of these recipes aren’t Paleo, but A LOT of them can either be made Paleo with a few changes or are almost there already. If you spent some time on this site once in a while you’d definitely have a ton of ideas to work with. You can browse by categories like Beef, Dairy Free, Wheat Free,Portable, Poultry and Vegetables. Remember, a category like “Vegetables” or “Vegetarian” doesn’t need to be a main course. You can use a vegetarian “meal” as a side for your beef, chicken or fish. Yeah, the vegetarians might get mad, but they’re too skinny to do much about it 
• Spend a day at the book store – If you spent some time in the cookbook section of a big book store like Borders or Barnes and Noble you’d find a ton of great cookbooks.Buy a couple and resolve to try one recipe a week. If you really like beef or chicken, get a book devoted to one of them. Out of an entire book devoted to meat or poultry, a lot of recipes will either be Paleo or can be made Paleo pretty easily.
• Recipe books on amazon.com – Same thing here. And you can get really niche on a site like amazon. There are over 2,785 cookbooks on amazon today for “meat, poultry and seafood.”
• Check out Food Network and foodtv.com – Again, there’s plenty of non-Paleo stuff here, but there’s also plenty that IS Paleo or can be made so. Guys like Bobby Flay do TONS of grilling and spicy stuff that is either straight-up Paleo or is Paleo when you drop the side dishes. Flay’s show “Boy Meets Grill” is a good one to check out.
• Don’t forget the Vegetarians – Believe it or not, I have a bunch of vegetarian cookbooks. Like I said above, a lot of vegetarian recipes make great side dishes for a big old hunk of meat 

Paleo can actually be a pretty easy way to eat. Once you get a handle on what’s excluded from the diet you can use a HUGE variety of “regular” recipe resources to find Paleo recipes and ideas for Paleo dishes. If you make cooking and food a little “hobby” for yourself you might even find that you enjoy it!

Posted by: Michele Deaton

The Joys of Coconut

Saturday, September 03, 2011

Sitting here eating my Paleo cereal with coconut milk this morning, and I think it is once again time to put out some good info on coconut. This was originally posted on 8/24/10. Until recently I haven't been a huge fan of coconut. I've always liked the flavor but not really the texture. I find that the unsweetened flaked coconut is actually better than the stuff that's coated in sugar.

Click me!

Try coconut milk on "cereal" using this recipe passed to me by Shannon Kellum. Just put a couple of tablespoons of each ingredient into a bowl and top with coconut milk.

Sliced Almonds, Pecan Pieces, unsweetened flaked Coconut, Sunflower Kernels, Pumpkin Seeds, Dried Cranberries and Raisins (less of these), fresh strawberries or blueberries. I also drizzle a little Agave over all. Yummy!

Posted by: Michele Deaton

Omega 6 Fats and a Recipe

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Marilyn passed along a really yummy looking recipe today for Paleo Brownies. I can't wait to try it! But first I wanted to do a little research on walnuts and Omega-6 fats. This recipe calls for 16 oz. of walnuts, processed into a butter. Here is what I found out.

It is generally best to limit Omega-6 fatty acid intake due to it's pro-inflammatory response. Even if the Omega-6 fat in nuts is bad, the positives of the nut seem to weigh more heavily. Whole nut intake seems to reduce markers of systemic inflammation, and inflammation is linked with a wide range of ailments and afflictions (obesity, insulin resistance, heart disease, excess cortisol, etc.).

Omega-6 Content Various Nuts (1/4 cup)

Walnuts – 9.5 g

Almonds – 4.36 g

Cashews – 2.6 g

Macadamias – 0.5 g

Brazil nuts – 7.2 g

Hazelnuts – 2.7 g

Pistachio – 4.1 g

Pine nuts – 11.6 g

Pecans – 5.8 g

Overanalyzing your food intake is a good way to stress yourself out and make every little dietary choice an internal struggle. Avoid falling into this trap. Be vigilant of your food choices, but pick your battles wisely. Making sure you ask the waiter to cook your omelet in butter rather than vegetable oil is worth the trouble; stressing over the Omega-6 content of the twenty walnuts in front of you is decidedly not. - Marks Daily Apple 3/15/11

So here is the recipe:

Paleo Brownies

• 16 oz of walnuts
• 1 egg
• 1 cup honey
• 1/2 cup baking cocoa
• 1 tbs pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 oz unsweetened dark chocolate chopped

1 – 2 tbs coconut oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325.  Grease a 8 x 8 baking dish with coconut oil.
2. Pulse walnuts in food processor until smooth and creamy.
3. In a large bowl, beat an egg.  Add in the nut butter and vanilla and honey and stir to combine.
4. Add in cocoa powder, salt and baking soda.  Stir in chopped chocolate.
5. Pour batter into greased baking dish.
6. Bake at 325 for 30-35 minutes.  It will puff up in oven and settle when it cools.  To check doneness, insert a toothpick or knife in the center.  It should come out clean.
7. Cool for 15 minutes and then cut and eat.

http://www.paleomama.com/ Check out the recipe notes here.

Posted by: Michele Deaton

Cheating On Your Diet To Increase Fat Loss

Friday, August 26, 2011

So many people hit plateaus. The fat will not go anywhere, and your measurements and scale weight at the same. Cheating once or twice a week, will actually help with moving beyond that plateau. 

A fluke? Wishful thinking?  Nope... it is actually based in medical science. It has to do with Neuroendocrinology.

We talk about insulin, we talk about testosterone, we talk about estrogen, but have we every talked about LEPTIN? 

Named after leptos, the Greek term for "thin," leptin is a hormone released by your fat cells. Although it has a number of functions, one of leptin's main roles is to let your brain know how fat you are.  It actually controls your metabolism. Leptin is produced by fat tissue and is secreted into the bloodstream where it travels to the brain and other tissues. Leptin causes fat loss and decreased appetite. It also plays a very important role in calorie intake and calorie burning. 

The bottomline is that by mastering Leptin hormone in your body you will be mastering your body weight. Why?

Leptin causes you to burn stored fat; most fad diets, or unrealistic dieting robs the body of both fat and muscle. When you diet, your body compensates for reduced calorie and fat intake by lowering your energy and metabolism. Leptin can actually enhance your energy and metabolism. What does this mean, well what it means is best diet and exercise plan in the world will not work unless the Leptin levels are correct. 

Leptin levels are related to a number of things, including insulin, your caloric intake, and your current level of bodyfat. Think of it as one of the big fat-loss decision makers. Generally speaking, the leaner you are, the lower your baseline levels of leptin are. Under normal conditions, though, leptin is plentiful. However, while your calorie intake is at sub-maintenance levels, and particularly if you're on a low-carb diet, which lowers your levels of circulating insulin, leptin levels drop. 

Decreased leptin levels cause a number of other regulatory changes, namely decreased thyroid output and metabolic rate and increased catabolic hormone activity and appetite. In an attempt to become more efficient, your body will try to slow down to make that lowered caloric intake its new maintenance intake. That is, it'll try to do the same amount of work with less energy. And unfortunately, this usually means having to continuously lower calories to maintain your progress, which inevitably makes it very hard to hold on to all your hard-earned muscle. However, periodic days of high calorie and carbohydrate intake may help with this. 


Remember our bodies want to adapt. That is a good thing and a not-so-good thing when trying to lose body fat. So how do we increase levels of leptin enough to kick start the fat loss again. (exercise is still required here people) 

Researchers have identified a system that 'senses' nutrient flux (flux = what's going in versus what's going out) through both fat and muscle cells.  This affects a lot of process. When dieting, more calories are leaving the fat cell than are going in (negative flux). This nutrient sensing system  'senses' this and affects many processes, one of which is leptin production (decreasing leptin production).  So leptin drops.  When overfeeding, more calories are entering the fat cells than are leaving (positive flux). The system 'senses' this and  affects many processes, one of which is leptin production (increasing leptin production).  So leptin increases.  Hence the need for cyclical dieting: when dieting, leptin drops and your body fights back.  

What is cyclical dieting... well to make a long story short. A cheat day. Now I do not mean go nuts with the KFC, I mean, eat more carbs, protein and fat, don't worry. Meaning try 4 days of dieting per week.  Meaning consume 500 -800 Calories less than your Maintainance Level, and then have 2 days at the maintainance level, and one day with maybe an extra 500 calories above your maintainance level.  Keep working out, drink plenty of water... try this for a couple of weeks, and see if this works, remember change it up each day.  Mix it up. 

Your plateau will start to vanish.   

Eat people.... it is what gives us the energy to live.

http://caloriecount.about.com/cheating-diet-increase-fat-loss-ft7139

Posted by: Michele Deaton

How to Eat Healthy Dining Out

Saturday, August 20, 2011

The Primal Blueprint Guide to Dining Out

Primal living in a decidedly modern world is mostly awesome, but there are difficult moments we’ve all faced. Things like having to explain the jar of coconut oil and greasy spoI know I've posted about dining out before, but I just ran across a really great article from Mark's Daily Apple. It's pretty long, but I've posted most of it anyway so it's easier for you to read.on we keep at our office desks, or facing the strange looks we get when doinglunges down the street, pull-ups on tree branches, box jumps on park benches, and overhead presses with our pre-adolescent children – those little moments where you and everyone around you suddenly realize that maybe you’re just slightly different from the “norm.” A bit off, as it were. Of course, we often pride ourselves on our individualism, on our constant skepticism of Conventional Wisdom (especially diet- and fitness-related). If I wasn’t different (or at least willing to consider alternative viewpoints), I might never have questioned the bread-and-ice-cream-fueled chronic cardio way of life that was killing me. If you guys weren’t inherent skeptics, you probably never would have found your way to my blog. 

So we see that embracing our weirdness is what makes all this possible. You might even say that we have a healthy appreciation for going off the beaten path (actually, the path enjoyed quite a bit of traffic for hundreds of thousands of years, but it’s only recently that it was largely abandoned and the brush allowed to flourish and cover it all up; luckily, we’re armed with razor sharp machetes and dusty old maps).

Sometimes, though, we’re forced to stay on the trail. Sometimes, social obligation requires us to eat at less than appetizing locales. Maybe it’s hitting the local happy hour with co-workers on a Friday or going out to eat at a chain restaurant with family from out of town – whatever the occasion, when we’re stuck in an unfamiliar or unpalatable culinary situation, there are ways to mitigate the potential damage and still remain relatively Primal. Almost any restaurant will have something for you to eat, even if it wasn’t raised in pasture or cooked in healthy fats. Just because the food isn’t ideal doesn’t mean you should order the Awesome Blossom, a large Coke, and a burger and fries. There are alternatives.

1. Avoid eating out. I’m kinda kidding, but it goes without saying that eating out at chain restaurants on a regular basis probably isn’t a good idea.
2. Lobby for restaurant-picking powers. If you’re deigning to eat out, the least your companions can do is let you pick the place. Pro-tip: don’t use the word “deign” when trying to pick the restaurant.
3. Don’t eat. Treat this as an Intermittent Fasting day. If you need visualization, imagine Grok happening across a rotting, stinking carcass. Doesn’t sound so different from most restaurant fare to me.
4. Be a super modern forager. Scan the menu for anything that might work. If you’re eating Mexican, get the fajitas and lose the rice, beans, and tortillas while upping the veggies, meat, and guacamole.
5. Make special requests. Yep, you’re gonna have to “be that guy” who customizes his order so much that the final product is completely unrecognizable from the original. Expect eye rolls and audible sighs, but those are a small price to pay for eating right. You can always claim gluten-intolerance or various food allergies if you want to avoid the hassle; they can’t ignore you then.
6. Remember the 80/20 principle. Think of this as your “20.” As long as you’ve been eating and exercising right consistently, one random meal isn’t going to throw you off. Besides, you’ll probably wake up regretting it and will be even more strict with the food and the workouts.
7. Make substitutions. All restaurants have vegetables. Most of them will be happy to swap out the starchy foods like rice, bread, or potatoes for steamed or grilled veggies.
8. Get stuff on the side. For sauces and dressings of indeterminate origin, ask for them on the side. That way you can control their distribution rather than letting the cook slather your food with it.

Some restaurants are more amenable than others. Fast food burger joints, for example, will usually give you the meat surrounded by lettuce instead of bun, and you can always skip the fries. A Brazilian churrascaria, with its heaping platters of meat, sausage, and salad, is perhaps the most Primal restaurant of all – you won’t have any trouble at one of these. But at a pasta house, unless you can convince the waiter to replace the noodles with vegetables, you might have trouble finding something to eat.

Click here for the entire article and  what to choose when eating at a chain restaurant:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-eat-healthy-dining-out/

The Final Word

Eating out at normal restaurants can be done, and it can be done without sacrificing your progress or ruining your health. Even if you don’t opt for the pseudo-Primal fare at these places and instead just eat whatever you want, don’t beat yourself up over it. After all, an important part of the Primal Blueprint is enjoying life – and eating, drinking, and generally being merry with friends and family is what it’s all about regardless of the food and drink in question.

As for the actual damage to your body from a single chain restaurant meal, it was just a one-time thing (80/20!), and your body can totally handle it. Just remember: the guilt and stress from agonizing over a small lapse in judgment will be more harmful than what you actually ate, so lighten up!

Posted by: Michele Deaton

Scary Food Facts

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

This information is from an article in Men's Health June 27, 2011.

1. Nutritious food costs 10 times more than junk food. 
University of Washington researchers calculated the cost discrepancy between healthy food and junk foods and found that 2,000 calories of junk food rings up at a measly $3.52 a day. Yet for 2,000 calories of nutritious grub, the researchers plunked down $36. To add insult to fiscal injury, out of every dollar you spend on food, only 19 cents goes toward the stuff you eat. The other 81 cents goes toward marketing, manufacturing, and packaging. Think about that the next time your grocery bill jumps into the triple digits.

2. Grocers don’t have to tell you where your produce comes from.
With meat, supermarkets must tell you the country of origin, but produce laws aren't as strict. Consider this: In a recent E. coli outbreak, German bean sprouts were implicated as the source of the bacteria, but that didn’t prevent thousands of people from being infected. Many of those people were Americans, and they were clueless as to where their sprouts came from.

3. Fruits and vegetables are losing their nutrients.                                                                                According to the USDA, the fruits and vegetables we eat today may contain significantly fewer nutrients than those our grandparents ate. Researchers looked at 43 produce items and discovered drops in protein(6 percent), calcium (16 percent), iron (15 percent), riboflavin(38 percent), and vitamin C (20 percent). The only way to counter this trend: Eat more of them. 

4. Calorie counts on nutrition labels aren’t accurate.
Researchers at Tufts University recently analyzed 269 food items from 42 national sit-down and fast-food restaurant chains, and they found that nearly 20 percent of samples contained 100 or more calories than reported by the restaurants. Think about it like this: If every meal you eat has 100 more calories than you need, you’ll gain more than 30 pounds this year. 

5. Chicken today contains 266 percent more fat than it did 40 years ago. 
What’s more, today’s chicken also has 33 percent less protein, according to a study from the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition at London Metropolitan University. The problem is modern farming practices. Cramped environments and unnatural diets produce birds that have the same weight problems as the humans who eat them.

6. Milk contains hormones that may cause cancer.
In 1970, a typical dairy cow could produce about 10,000 pounds of milk per year. Today, that same cow produces roughly 20,000 pounds. So did cows change? Nope. It’s their feed that’s different. Today’s cows are routinely fed a hormone called recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST. Studies have linked rBST to a multitude of cancers, including those of the prostate, breast, and colon. Milk from rBST-treated cows is ubiquitous in America’s supermarkets, but fortunately some of the biggest players are getting wise. Stores like Whole Foods, Wal-Mart, and Kroger now carry only rBST-free dairy. 

7. Conventional supermarket peaches can be coated with as many as nine different pesticides.
Because peaches are prone to bruising, blemishing, and insect takeover, they’re routinely soaked in chemicals in the weeks before being shipped off to the supermarket. That’s why the Environmental Working Group rates peaches among the dirtiest conventional fruits in America. Also on that list: apples, celery, strawberries, and spinach. As a general rule, unless the produce has a thick, impermeable skin, assume it’s soaked in pesticides. Now wash it with water and mild soap before you eat it. 

8. You’re probably eating trans fat without knowing it.
Slack FDA regulations allow food processors to claim zero trans fats even if the food contains 0.49 grams. To be clear, that’s 0.49 grams per serving. That means by the time you finish, say, an entire bag of Cheetos, you might be ingesting nearly 5 grams of trans fat. Sure, the bag says “0 GRAMS TRANS FAT” right on the front, but if you look at the ingredient statement, you’ll see partially hydrogenated oil, the primary source of trans fat.

9. The number of daily calories available to each American has increased by 500 over the past 40 years. 
USDA data shows that the food industry supplies 2,700 calories to every man, woman, and child in America. In 1970, that number was 2,200. That increase translates into 52 extra pounds of fat per person, per year.

MAKE GREAT FOOD AT HOME! USDA scientists found that people eat 500 more calories on the days they consume fast foods compared with days they don't. 

Posted by: Michele Deaton

Wheatgrass

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Have you ever had a shot of wheatgrass juice? Many juice bars sell this green liquid as a detox supplement. Someone recently asked me about the benefits of wheatgrass, so I did a little research. Here is what I found on Wikipedia.

Claims about the health benefits of wheatgrass range from providing supplemental nutrition to having unique curative properties. It provides chlorophyll, amino acids, minerals, vitamins, and enzymes. Proponents of wheatgrass make many claims for its health properties, ranging from promotion of general well-being to cancer prevention and heavy metal detoxification. These claims have not been satisfactorily substantiated in the scientific literature, although there is some evidence in support of the beneficial effects of chlorophyll in the human diet. It has been argued that wheatgrass helps blood flow, digestion and general detoxification of the body. These claims have not been reliably substantiated. 

In one pilot study, breast cancer patients who drank wheatgrass juice daily showed a decreased need for blood- and bone marrow-building medications during chemotherapy, without diminishing the effects of the therapy. And according to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, there may be a need for further study of wheatgrass therapy for ulcerative collitis.

Another common claim for wheatgrass is that it promotes detoxification. The limited data in support of that claim applies to most green vegetables. Wheatgrass is also thought to be superior to other vegetables in its content of Vitamin B₁₂, a vital nutrient. Contrary to popular belief, B₁₂ is not contained within wheat grass or any vegetable, rather it is a byproduct of the microorganisms living on plants. If plants are washed prior to consumption the water soluble B₁₂ will be removed making most plants unreliable sources of B_12.

So, while there does not appear to be any harm in consuming wheatgrass, it may not be worth the price tag at the local juice bar. From what I hear, it tastes pretty "earthy" so enjoy!

Posted by Michele Deaton