Paleo Lessons - Updated 7/6/14

Review
     Recently I made the switch back to a Paleo-based diet, which you can read about here.  Over the past two weeks or so I've found that a Paleo-inspired diet is my favorite of any diet I've tried in the past several years.  This is, at least in part, due to the flexibility of how a Paleo-type diet can be practiced while still retaining core principles.  This post will serve as a catalog of my observations and notes, lessons learned, and tweaks made that might be helpful to others.  I'll keep updating this post as long as I have something valuable to add on the topic.

6/30/14

• Blueprint.  Paleo-type eating is best viewed as a "blueprint" rather than a "diet."  The "Paleo Diet" isn't perfect, but a layer of common sense, such as that found in an earlier post on keeping things simple, can get you pretty far.  Paleo-ish eating habits are a good starting point to then mold to your preferences and needs.
• Less Is More.  I'd say that over the past few weeks I've been eating about 60 - 80% Paleo, and that number is on the rise.  I started slowly only limiting certain foods and then gradually cutting them out.  However, I'll take my progress where I can get it.  Eating healthy (whatever that means to you) 6 days per week (or ~85% of the time) is certainly better than 50% or less.  I'm also going through some other major lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking and refraining from caffeine consumption.  At any rate, I think I'm off to a good start.
• Calorie Consumption.  In the early stages of this experiment I kept a mental tally of about how many calories I was eating per day.  Naturally, this is not the same every day.  My initial estimate (used only to generate my first grocery list) was about 1800 calories / day.  That is probably more of a baseline estimate for me and my actual consumption is somewhere between 2000 and 2200 calories / day.  Interestingly enough these are about the same figures I get from assorted online MBR calculators for my height, weight, age, sedentary lifestyle but regular physical activity.
• Daily Planning.  In the past I've talked about mobile apps and various tracking tools and checklists to aid in regulating what you eat.  I've found that I don't really need to do that now.  My grocery list provides a "get started" or "close enough" point.  From there I know that on any given day I'll eat about four meals per day consisting of vegetables, a fat source, and a protein source (about 1:1 fatty:lean cuts).  In addition to that I'll eat one serving of fruit and a heap of starchy vegetables.

7/3/14

• Big Breakfast.  Some people recommend this, but it doesn't work well for me.  I tend to feel bloated now and hungry later in the day.  What works best for me is just some eggs or bacon and then an early lunch.
  
• Eating Out.  Much to my delight this isn't very difficult.  Most menus these day have "low carb" will do in a pinch.  If nothing else, default to a burger without the bun and vegetables instead of fries.  I was really inspired one evening when I used eating out as an excuse to get a burger (bun, fries, and all) while 3 / 7 people at our table stuck to their guns and ordered A) a salad with only vinegar and oil, B) some sort of grilled / baked chicken and C) an entire plate of broccoli for each of them. 
  
• Travel.  Similarly, I haven't found too much trouble traveling either.  A lot of common hiking / climbing / trail food staples are pretty paleo-friendly.  For example, trail mix (without peanuts), tuna packets / cans, nuts, dried / fresh fruit, etc...  Regardless of what you think of the corporation, the increasing number of interstate-side Walmarts have also made it pretty easy to drop in and get a few groceries rather than defaulting to a chain fast food restaurant.

7/6/14

• Butter.  My last Paleo post rattled off several articles to debunk the diet-heart hypothesis.  However, heart disease does run in my family.  There is a compromise to be had though.  I don't really miss dairy, and butter was never my fancy anyway.  Ghee or clarified butter is a little bit different situation, but I'll apply the same principles.  It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to substitute the butter for more olive oil (which is generally considered to be healthy among both paleoists and diet-hearters) either as a dressing (olive oil / extra virgin olive oil) or cooking (extra light virgin olive oil).
• Cheating.  

• The thought of a McD's Dollar Menu buffet doesn't really appeal to me anymore, nor does a a half-gallon of ice cream (well, maybe a little).  Recently I was offered free beer and pizza; tan offer I obliged.  After a modest two beers and two slices of pizza I felt like a latex-glove-balloon, bloated with my head and arms sticking straight out.  It was terrible.  I've also found that trying to just eat more healthy food doesn't always work as well as planned, which is why a strategically planned cheat day / meal (ex: Saturday [night]) works as damage control, a planned fracture point.  One also needs to consider the potential guilt (not to mention physical discomfort) after a week of clean eating and then ingesting a ton of garbage.  Critics of cheat days often state that you're only "feeding the (sugar) addiction."  However, if that explicitly true then you should eliminate all sources of sugar -- fruits, vegetables, and starchy roots included -- which, in my experience, has been extremely ineffective unsustainable for (at least my) athletic endeavors.  One potential option is to "cheat" on more Pale-friendly options (such as dark chocolate or white rice or some the recipes here).  For the time being though, I'll apply my fondness of the 4 Hour Body method (1 cheat day / week, 1/2tsp cinnamon before, 8oz grapefruit juice after, and 90 seconds of exercise between cheat meals) and report back on how that works out.

Another Look at the Paleo Diet

There's a lot of buzz around Paleo-type diets these days, particularly among the Crossfit crowd.  I've tried Paleo before, but I've been doing a lot of re-investigating over the past week and I'm finding out a lot of interesting things.  My previous diet post wasn't posted that long ago, but it left me feeling really unsatisfied.  On paper it seemed like a logical plan and while it was flexible, it was ultimately very imbalanced which made it difficult to adhere to.  Perhaps I was the subject of too much boredom and didn't give my last plan a good solid try, but for whatever reason I'm pretty excited about and proud of all the digging around I've done this time around.  Besides, there's nothing like a month long lay-off to brood over new training and nutritional strategies.
      I plead the case of a modest recreational athlete in moderate-good physical condition.  I consider my time valuable and as such am always looking to improve my performance.  More often than not that is through nutrition.  Aside from obvious strength-to-weight ratio benefits, proper nutrition is paramount in recovery which is most certainly the limiting factor in performance improvement by way of training.
     I tried the Paleo diet around the turn of the new year and that lasted for about a month.  I made the common misconception that Paleo is synonymous with a low-carb; it is not.  So that's why that got left behind.  However, I've stumbled across some interesting information that is sparking quite a bit of interest for me.

Paleo 2.0

     There are a lot of interesting points in that (linked) article that are worth talking about.  But here are some the ones that were most salient to me.  Some of theses points are in contrast to the still oft touted 70's Paleo 1.0 ideology and therefore thought provoking.

• About the only things "the experts" have can come to a consensus on is that we should eat less processed food.
• Fad diets have run the gamut from raw food only, vegetable only, meat only, raw meat, low carb, high carb, etc...
• Most of the food we ate throughout history are not available to us now (either in type or quantity)
• There is no one specific diet consumed by the entire succeeding species of humans
• Our bodies are very good at adaptation and can / have thrived in a variety of different settings and conditions with drastically different eating habits.
• "'Paleo' no longer refers to any particular diet eaten at any particular time, but in the sense of 'old.' traditional neolithic, paleolithic, and modern foods that we know are healthy or are similar nutritionally or metabolically to what archaic diets might have been like.." - "emulating" rather than replicating.
• More on this later, but there is a growing body of supporters who assert that as we come to be more and more skeptical of fads, that we should not abandon sound medical advice in the hope of retaining a certain pedagogy of eating.
• Avoid wheat (specifically gluten):  potatoes, sweet potatoes, root vegetables may be considered "grey area foods", but they are certainly better options than bread, crackers, cookies, and pasta.  I can probably hand this without too much problem, however, I may include rice as it technically grows and provides some grain benefits (see sub-bullet above).
• Avoid fructose ("low-fat" stuff and fruit [especially concentrated juice]):  Fructose, the sugar in fruit, is apparently digested differently than glucose and is, in combination with wheat, among the top disease instigators throughout "nutritional transitions."  Typically I don't eat much fruit anyway, but it is probably far lesser evil than whatever your sweet tooth has you craving.
• Avoid Linoleic Acid (part of the Omega 6 fatty acid family):  Stop eating temperate vegetable oils (corn, soy, canola, falx, etc...) and limit or exclude nuts.  Robb Wolf's Paleo Quick Start Guide suggests that 1 - 2 oz of nuts per day should still be fine.

More on Paleo 2.0

     This is another article from a different source that has a lot valuable information as well and expands on some of the above principles.

• Dairy may be okay without gluten.  First, though, the article recommends removing both and then adding dairy back after the body has "detoxed" from gluten.  Preferably "dairy" is limited to hard cheese, (real) butter, ghee, and not so keen on other pasteurized options.  This shouldn't be a problem for me as I don't eat much dairy, though I do like it.
• Avoid nightshade vegetables:  Apparently eggplants, bell peppers, tomatoes, and unskinned potatoes can all cause disease issues.  This sucks because tomatoes and bell peppers are two of my favorite vegetables.  I may have to let this one go in the hope that the benefits of well washed produce outweighs the potential negatives.  Other produce warnings can be found (here) courtesy of PBS.
• Avoid Legumes (peanuts, beans, lentils):  This is another seemingly controversial point.  While both cases for and against seem to have legitimacy, its probably best to take a different approach:  start with the best available (though imperfect), most strict Paleo plan, and then experiment with adding different things in to find out what works best for you.

My Adjustments and Thoughts:

• I hate to bring up calories, but its still important and foundational to weight loss / gain.  It certainly is not that be-all-end-all,b ut there is a lot of merit to it.  Eating "the right foods", or even cutting back / out the bad ones, can go an awfully long way; but so does common sense.  This is where your your personal history, experimentation, and adaptation come into play.  Not everyone requires the same amount of fuel and too much "good" food is still "too much" food.
• Fruit probably isn't necessary.  If you're ancestors were European, they probably weren't eating too much fruit in February (thanks Tim Ferriss).  Fructose (the sugar in fruit) isn't exactly Plaeo friendly anyway (reference).  However, thinking on a continuum, rather than black and white, an apple is probably a better choice than whatever you sweet tooth is actually craving.
• Adherence:  There's a ton of good information here (Robb Wolf podcast ft. Tim Ferriss).  I'm certainly not one of the grains are the devil types that you may find in hard-line Paleo circles.  Although being grain free (Paleo being old / pre-agricultural revolution) is one of the main tenets of the Paleo diet, I prefer to fall back on the staple of if it doesn't grow, don't eat it.  This seems to make a lot more sense to me.  Rice... okay, pasta and bread... how can I grow a garden of noodles?  Dairy... unless its butter or you're milking you're own cow / goat, probably not.  Nevertheless, a good starting point is to cut it out for a while and then re-introduce it.  Similarly, this is why a lot of people fail at their New Year's resolutions of weight loss; there are too many behavioral changes demanded at once.
• Moderation.  I've written quite a bit about cheating, and so have others (link).  The bottom line is this, take your progress where you can get it.  This may come in a variety of flavors.
• Eating "healthy" 6 days of the week is better than one or two.
• Eating 80-90% "pure paleo" and allowing room for some favorite non-paleo foods (whole grains, etc...) is far better than the way most Americans eat.
• There may be plenty to complain about with legumes and grains, but not nearly as much as McDonald's and Pop-Tarts.
• Is the point getting through?  I've also had a recent thought though that planning a "cheat meal", just one indulgence, or any number of occurrences may be doomed from the start.  While I do think its a good idea to give yourself a break or a "treat" now and then, regular intervals of stimulation lead to stimulus adaptation.  Basically, what used to be enough won't eventually satisfy.  Here is a good article on the myth of a balanced diet and portion control.  A more appropriate plan of action might be to see how long you can go without eating any junk food, if you have to, eat some non-paleo but still generally healthy foods; or better yet a willing indulgence of "paleo-safe" foods (similar ideas are discussed here).  And only on the very rare and irregular occasion make the conscious and intentional decision to eat something you know is unhealthy but absolutely delicious (don't deny it, they're made to taste good so we eat more and make the manufacturer more money!).
•  After doing some more investigating I found myself liking the plain and simple look and feel of what is listed on the climbstrong website (I've discussed this before).  Pretty much the nifty little pyramid is quite convenient for both grocery shopping (via the method above) and daily consumption.  I was also reminded of another previous method and that is the "Diet Solution" by Scivation.  Yes, yes, I know it is a bodybuilding website and the designers are bodybuilders, but that doesn't mean they don't have something valuable to share.  Particularly, Scivation gives pretty simple template for "meal creation":  select protein source, if lean add fat source, add vegetables, post-workout carbs.  What's good about this combination is that it will allow me to eat as much as I deem necessary on any given day so long as the food meets some certain criteria. 
• Apparently there is still a lot of hubub floating around about saturated fat and cholesterol, but there is more and more information being produced that runs counter to the idiom of 30 years ago that consumed cholesterol increases cholesterol in the blood.  It may, but not nearly to the degree that once though. (see here, here, here, and here).  
• Some Other Good Resources:
• Paleo Approved Carbs
• On Beans and Nuts
• Good Resources on Macronutrients and Processed Foods
• "Debunking" (but supporting) Paleo
• Tim Ferriss and Robb Wolf discuss a few things (particular note on beans / lentils)
• Rice
• Cost.  A lot of people, myself included, have used the excuse that eating healthy is "too expensive" at some point or another.  It does seem absurd that a dozen cheese burgers cost a nickel and an meager salad costs $8 (thanks Jim Gaffigan).  Many counter that point by boasting their grocery bill as an "investment on their health."  The above complaint is just as illogical as "exercise takes too much time. (many many trainers have proven the contrary)"  My last grocery bill for ~2 weeks was $76.94.  That's less than $6 / day.  Granted, I did have  a couple things at home prior and may eat out once or twice over that span, but you get the idea.  Take your progress where you can get it.  Maybe you're budget doesn't allow for steak and salmon every night, you can still do pretty good with chicken and ground beef (preferably grass fed / farm raised, but even if not...).  

Pilot Testing:

• Unknown to anyone reading this, I actually began my "paleo reboot" almost a week ago and this post has been amassing itself ever since.  I was planning on weeding the garbage out of my cabinets while I "ease into" and polish the details of this post.  
• 6/18:  Eating "generally" healthy, but still included some dairy, peanuts, and grains.
• 6/20:  Removed dairy and peanuts, still some minor seed oil use.
• 6/21:  Planned cheat meal turned into cheat DAY, leading to the above section on cheating.
• 6/23:  With empty cabinets and an empty fridge I headed to the grocery store.
• Updates to come...

Vertical and Horizontal Warriors: Rock Climbing and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

This post has laying in wait for quite a while now.  As I mature as a rock climber and still retain a heartfelt connection to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu I become increasingly mesmerized and awe-stricken by the similarities between the two.  Initially there is an obvious overlap of physical demands but also a seemingly subliminal shared ontology.  The physical components of the two sports make either one a great supplemental or cross-training activity for the other.  However, as I reach what I'd call the "blue belt" level of climbing I realize how I've only just begun to tap into the richness of experience that both activities elicit when one is becomes involved beyond the "beginner" (say... < 2 years) level of each sport.

Physical Comparison
     Lets start simple, with the physical comparison.  Perhaps the most obvious commonality is grip strength.  Elbow-down strength is crucial in both sports.  Pick your poison; a hangboard or pullups from your gi draped over the pullup bar to practice your cross-collar choke.  Climbing demands more of the tendons and fingers and thus climbing-grip probably has more benefits to BJJ than the other way around.  But moving on... Balance and flexibility are also extremely important in both sports.  You don't have to watch too many YouTube videos to realize that you're body can get contorted into some pretty funky positions either at the crag or on the mats.  There are also a couple siblings to that point.  Body positioning and awareness and core strength.  Flexibility suffers a loss of practicality when it cannot be functionally applied.  It is much less a matter of being able to touch your toes than it is knowing when to shift your weight this way or that way.  One expression that I really like is "There is no 'core'.  The body is one piece, treat it that way."  Here's a nice video illustration.  Regardless of the words we use, sending hard projects and high-level grappling highlight the impracticality and functional waste of isolated or aesthetic muscle mass.  Furthermore, relative strength, or strength-to-weight ratio, is also important.
     Moving on from there, both climbing and jiu jitsu require similar use of oxygen systems.  That is, interval-type efforts.  This similarity is weaker than some of the others, there is validity to it.  A hard boulder problem will probably take less than one minute to complete, but the intensity is cranked way up.  There are many a sparring and competition rounds where a grappler may find that the round alternates between an all out flurry (be that a controlled and intentional effort or not) and long minutes of regaining your composure.

Mental Comparison
     Beyond the physical components, there lies the technical and mental aspects.  I would say that jiu jitsu is probably more generally physically demanding than rock climbing, but climbing is more technical by nature.  HOWEVER, there is a place for both.  At the extreme end of each sport (the extremely poor physical condition and the elites, the one-percenters) general strength can be very beneficial to one's performance.  In BOTH sports well honed technique and keen tactical decisions will take you miles further and faster than general non-sport-specific strength.  It's always worth a good chuckle when a jerk of a meat-head rudely and pompously asserts his hypothetical "mad skillz" only to be completely shut down and flee minutes later only to try and resuscitate his wounded (and now put in perspective) ego.  This is as true on the mats as it is on the rock.
     Another mental aspect of both sports is that, by far, the greatest rival you will ever face in either will be yourself.  Your stiffest competition and staunchest limitation will be proportional to your fear, your ego, and willingness to learn.  All of this is evidenced by the fact that it takes a very long time (more than a lifetime) to "master" either of these sports.  I can't help but be a little skeptic of the 5 year black belts (in any martial art).  I suppose I'm a bit jaded and my ethical standards are different than others' though.  I'd say the 10,000 hour rule is A) a pretty liberal aggressive estimate and B) only counts as hours of actual movements, not chillin' and shootn' the breeze with your bros and broettes.  Similarly, there are plenty of people who are 50+ and easily outclass many practitioners of their sport.

"Spiritual" Comparison
If you're still reading, hopefully you're getting the idea so far.  Both rock climbing and jiu jitsu will, eventually, challenge and change the way you thing about and interact in the world.  Credit there, and to the title of this post, goes to Arno Ilgner's The Rock Warrior's Way.  While it has been at least a year since my last good roll and several years since I was regularly training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, it was, and still is, a large part of my life with a lot of resonance that still finds a way to play out in my life.  Climbing is my things, for now, and I love both sports and hope to continue them (both, though perhaps not at the same time) for many years to come.  I realize that when I finally get back on the mats I'll need to get reoriented, re-learn, and remember a lot of things.  However, this is the final and most beautiful point of this comparison or brethren warriors.  Once you've settled into your dirt-bag lifestyle or local gym you majestically, slowly, and surely begin to realize that both rock climbing and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu are far more than a prescription of methods, moves, and techniques.  They are "art", no, more than that.  They are a philosophy of movement, a way of being, a challenge of interaction, the "physical manifestation of your character."source