Rest Day & Thoughts on Diet
by ZombieFit on Oct.13, 2010, under Misc.
Today is a rest day, so if you missed a WOD look back in our archives and pick something challenging.
Some thoughts on Diet. As a lot of you know, I am currently recovering from ACL surgery in June. I’m doing well, but the down-time (and plain old laziness) caused me to gain about 15 lbs. Because of that I’m cleaning up my diet and turning up the intensity on my workouts (I can actually do some decent met cons now). I’ve been eating a modified Paleo Diet for the past couple of months, and by modified, I mean all the grains and carbs I could stomach. As a direct result of this I weighed in at 188 on Monday (which is when I started the diet).
Starting to eat right again has come at an interesting time as I recently just had a battery of blood tests done for a yearly physical. My goal is to stay strict Paleo with at most one or two cheat meals a week (I need my Guinness on the weekends) for at least 30 days before going back to the doc and getting another blood panel performed. I will then post any change in results on this site.
I will be trying to blog my experiences here, but I may get too caught up in work and/or ZombieFit so don’t hate me if the updates are front-heavy. Of course, if anyone has any questions, feel free to shoot me an email.
Some interesting nutrition links:
Benefits of Fish Oil by Mark Sisson
Is Saturated Fat Bad by Mark Sisson
One of the best things about Paleo style diets is how they make intermittent fasting simple and easy. “Caloric restriction and intermittent fasting may “turn on” certain genes that repair specific tissues that would not otherwise be repaired in times of surplus.”
Because you are taking refined carbs out of your diet and regulating your insulin response there is no rapid drop in blood sugar that creates hunger. As Robb Wolf said:
How much of the difficulty people face on either caloric restriction or intermittent fasting is due to the relatively high amounts of refined carbohydrate and the consequent effects this may have on insulin signaling. In Good Calories, Bad Calories Taubes mentions a study in which the individuals were feed up to 10,000kcals per day, far beyond their caloric needs, yet they remained ravenously hungry. Taubes mentions other studies in which individuals are maintained on low carb, calorie restricted diets with virtually no hunger.
So, my goals for this change in diet is going to be the following:
1. Eliminate all refined carbs and sugar.
2. Increase fish oil intake.
3. Begin intermittent fasting.
Day 3 of Paleo
So I’m on day three and I feel pretty good. I lost 2.5lbs already, but that is water weight. (1 gram of carbohydrate can hold up to 4 grams of water, so when starting a low-carb diet you can see a massive loss of weight in the first couple of weeks). I’m expecting a little bit of a down period in the next couple of days as my body switches into ketosis.
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First off Rich I’d like to say the WoDs on this website are awesome.
I actually use them a couple times a week lol.
I have a question about this diet though. What sources do you use for a guideline in the paleo? I was thinking about using marksdailyapple.com ‘s Primal Blueprint paleo diet but I’m interested in the opinion on what other people follow too.
Thanks for the compliment! We really appreciate the feedback.
As far as the sources that I rely on for paleo, its a pretty mixed bag. I first learned about it throught he CrossFit community, so I’m heavily influenced by Robb Wolf (just got his book in the mail yesterday!) and Cordain. I’m starting to move a little towards Mark Sisson and his Primal Blueprint in that I’ve found an absolutely strict adherence to paleo isn’t really sustainable for me. I like Mark Sisson’s 80/20 rule and I use his website quite a bit for my own personal edification.
Other websites I really like are:
PaNu
Paleo Hacks
Whole9
The thing about paleo is that it isn’t a “diet” in the modern definition. It is a lifestyle change. There are also numerous different takes on it. Some advocates say that saturated fat is fine, whereas Cordain says that only lean protein should be eaten. So see what works best for you.
One thing I do suggest though is that, at least once, you go 30 days STRICT paleo. No cheats. I did this in February and the experience was amazing. After the 30 days you can ramp it down a bit to make it more sustainable.
Hope this helps! Thanks again for the comment.