Irony of the Day

I - Mr. eats his weight in meat every day Paleo guy - have a son that is quickly becoming a vegetarian. 

He has never had a love for the flesh, but recently has been more adverse to it..both in taste and principle. I’m incredibly supportive of this choice, but he needs to figure out where he’s going to get his protein from.

Tonight - after years of refusing it - said he would like to try tofu again…”as long as it isn’t mushy.” Luckily I was a veg head for eight years (12 to 20) and worked in several vegetarian joints. I have a few tofu tricks up my now grease stained sleeves. 

Navelgazery

Both like and (VERY) unlike last year, I’m doing a bit of a reset diet for the new year. While I mostly eat paleo as it is (let’s say 80-90% normally), things started slipping around my birthday week in California. They only got worse over Thanksgiving and Deathcember. 

For the next month, both dbg and I are doing something called a Whole30 (and Finn is doing a reduced sugar thing for the month…by his own choosing…I just need to keep reminding him of his commitment). It is more or less paleo, but with a few more restrictions. I think I’m on about the fifth day. Based on the Tumblr Whole30 tag, I should know EXACTLY what day I’m on because of how excruciating it is (in addition to lots of pics of meat, veg and eggs).  I feel like a dick, but it is super hard for me to conjure the least bit of sympathy for people that whine about doing this. Not only is it a privileged to eat this way (economically, access to food, etc.), but they are CHOOSING to do it. As the authors/creators of Whole30 say themselves: 

[This] is not hard. Don’t you dare tell us this is hard. Quitting heroin is hard. Beating cancer is hard. Drinking your coffee black. Is. Not. Hard. You won’t get any coddling, and you won’t get any sympathy for your “struggles”. YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE not to complete the program as written. It’s only thirty days, and it’s for the most important health cause on earth – the only physical body you will ever have in this lifetime.

Regardless, because we are changing/restricting the types of food we put in our system, our chemistry completely changes as a result. You read a lot about changes in sleep, focus/attention, energy and the like. The one thing you don’t see anyone posting about is how drastically this thing effects your digestive track and bowel movements (hey if Louis C.K. can talk about his leaking asshole, I can talk about poop here people). For me, the Whole30 experience is not dominated by cravings and massive plates of protein and greens, but really it’s all about my shit. I’m usually a pretty regular dude, but this thing has me on a BM roller coaster right now. I know, I know…this is way TMI, but someone needed to just say it.  It’s the proverbial elephant in the Whole30 room. Don’t you all feel better now? 

Besides the awesome pooper-coaster ride I’m on, you may be asking yourself what’s my end goal here. Unlike most people on this diet, it is not about weight loss for me. I’ve become a big fan of the reset this past year to see how they effect my athletic performance. With the Crossfit Open coming up in the beginning of March, I’m starting to train  more intensely and intentionally. I have no delusions about qualifying for regionals, but want to use it as a benchmark for future competitions. 

It’s all about the big experiment of life right? Right!

Quiet solo night at home on the deck (first one in many weeks).  I just ate 3 times this amount…actually 4 times the chicken (served with a Hendrick’s GnT of course).  After 4 days in a row of working out and skating (I jammed my ass off last night in a scrimmage…we have a bout this Saturday in Montreal), I’m looking forward to a rest tomorrow…and not eating like a big pig. Mostly I’m looking forward to going to pick up Finn early from camp tomorrow and hanging with him at our perfect little town’s 4th of July festivities (on the 3rd…go figure). 
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Quiet solo night at home on the deck (first one in many weeks).  I just ate 3 times this amount…actually 4 times the chicken (served with a Hendrick’s GnT of course).  After 4 days in a row of working out and skating (I jammed my ass off last night in a scrimmage…we have a bout this Saturday in Montreal), I’m looking forward to a rest tomorrow…and not eating like a big pig.

Mostly I’m looking forward to going to pick up Finn early from camp tomorrow and hanging with him at our perfect little town’s 4th of July festivities (on the 3rd…go figure). 

Since we are on the subject of food, Massive Health came out with some great infographics recently about our eating habits. Since starting to limit - or rather define - what I eat (as opposed to eating everything), I am unquestionably healthier.  I also like that this illustrates the health and conscientiousness similarities of a more meat-centric/low carb diet with that of vegetarian/vegan diets, rather than the usual pitting against one another. 
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Since we are on the subject of food, Massive Health came out with some great infographics recently about our eating habits. Since starting to limit - or rather define - what I eat (as opposed to eating everything), I am unquestionably healthier. 

I also like that this illustrates the health and conscientiousness similarities of a more meat-centric/low carb diet with that of vegetarian/vegan diets, rather than the usual pitting against one another. 

Source: data.massivehealth.com

Massive Health: A Tale of Two Meals: What's Really Making You Fat [Infographic]

Not to be a total asshole about all this…but I’m a geek for infographics…especially one’s that resonant so strongly for me.

massivehealth:

Breakfast’s really important to start your day right. Bacon and eggs or a bagel and cream cheese? Both tempting decisions. You opt for the less fattening option of bagel and ream cheese. But guess what? That’s what’s really making you fat.

Here are some references we used:

Click on the image for the full/readable size. I’m going to be that asshole right now.  I’m getting up on my soapbox and going to go off on an arrogant, annoying and somewhat indignant diatribe. I’ve been away from the Tumblr for a couple days.  Somehow my dash is filled with reports on sugar as a toxin, making fat kids diet, and half jokingly wishing they could lose weight by doing nothing. Unfortunately there is so much conflicting data and misinformation out there about food, it’s hard to figure out what is truly healthy anymore. While the predominate conventional wisdom is eating healthy means low-fat, veggies and healthy grains, there is a different school of thought out there -that almost completely contradicts this 30 year old construct - that is slowly being evaluated and embraced. In short, as the infographic says above: Fat doesn’t make us fat, Carbs do.    And I’ve turned into one of those guys that completely buys into the little to no carb/sugar thing.  Why? Because it works for me.  I’ve always eaten relatively healthy, but as I’ve gotten older a “building block” diet simply wasn’t working anymore. Over the past 3+ months, I’ve made this transition to not eating carbs. It was not easy; in fact certain parts were really painful - tantamount to detoxing.  On the other side, I completely get it. It gives me energy and strength. I don’t sugar crash. I don’t have crazy moods. I sleep better. I don’t snack. I’m more focused.  In other words, until you do it, you are just going to think we are just a bunch of ostentatious dickheads…and we totally are.  I was a doubter for a long time until I started doing the research. I didn’t think I could (mostly) give up certain things and still be happy (scones, maple syrup, tortilla chips, ice cream, beer, etc). I wasn’t sure once I started if I could keep up with it. I wasn’t even sure what I would eat. Now I eat well and am very happy with what I eat. I give myself some allowances every once in awhile, mostly in beer form.  I still have my favorite things (coffee, chocolate and bacon) in copious quantities.  In fact I just eat a lot of food in general…pretty much as much as I want.  It’s expensive, but I don’t eat out as much as I used to either. It is undeniably a big pain in the ass sometimes. At the same time, the impact on my health and well being are undeniable…and that is what keeps me motivated.
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Click on the image for the full/readable size.

I’m going to be that asshole right now.  I’m getting up on my soapbox and going to go off on an arrogant, annoying and somewhat indignant diatribe.

I’ve been away from the Tumblr for a couple days.  Somehow my dash is filled with reports on sugar as a toxin, making fat kids diet, and half jokingly wishing they could lose weight by doing nothing. Unfortunately there is so much conflicting data and misinformation out there about food, it’s hard to figure out what is truly healthy anymore.

While the predominate conventional wisdom is eating healthy means low-fat, veggies and healthy grains, there is a different school of thought out there -that almost completely contradicts this 30 year old construct - that is slowly being evaluated and embraced. In short, as the infographic says above: Fat doesn’t make us fat, Carbs do.   

And I’ve turned into one of those guys that completely buys into the little to no carb/sugar thing.  Why? Because it works for me.  I’ve always eaten relatively healthy, but as I’ve gotten older a “building block” diet simply wasn’t working anymore. Over the past 3+ months, I’ve made this transition to not eating carbs. It was not easy; in fact certain parts were really painful - tantamount to detoxing.  On the other side, I completely get it. It gives me energy and strength. I don’t sugar crash. I don’t have crazy moods. I sleep better. I don’t snack. I’m more focused.  In other words, until you do it, you are just going to think we are just a bunch of ostentatious dickheads…and we totally are. 

I was a doubter for a long time until I started doing the research. I didn’t think I could (mostly) give up certain things and still be happy (scones, maple syrup, tortilla chips, ice cream, beer, etc). I wasn’t sure once I started if I could keep up with it. I wasn’t even sure what I would eat.

Now I eat well and am very happy with what I eat. I give myself some allowances every once in awhile, mostly in beer form.  I still have my favorite things (coffee, chocolate and bacon) in copious quantities.  In fact I just eat a lot of food in general…pretty much as much as I want.  It’s expensive, but I don’t eat out as much as I used to either. It is undeniably a big pain in the ass sometimes. At the same time, the impact on my health and well being are undeniable…and that is what keeps me motivated.

Source: blog.massivehealth.com

An uber-boring post in bullets

(Preface: I just need to liedown for a bit and CTFO…so I’m writing to rest up for the rest of my Saturday)

Friday (after work):

  • Xfit workout - A really fun multifaceted WOD with: Wall Balls, Pull ups, Power Cleans, Thrusters, Toe to Bar, Sumo Deadlifts, Goblet Squats and Ring Dips (my least fav thing).
  • Derby friend’s b-day party out at the pub - Wasn’t out for very long, but it was fun to see a bunch of women (whose asses I’m going to kick tomorrow at practice) I skate with.

Saturday (so far):

  • Slept 9 1/2 hours - like a champ
  • Another Xfit workout with my BBF- 100 Pullups, 100 Situps, 100 Pushups, 100 Squats (body weights are my fav). My hands are meat.
  • Food shopping - for the first time in weeks because of travel. Something about buying a lot of food at once that is incredibly satisfying.  Have to do a big cook tomorow
  • Back to Xfit gym to judge 12.3 competition - amazing to watch and be part of. (Aside: Dear Lazydad…you should go to one of these, they are inspiring).

Saturday (left to go):

  • Co-running practice for the feeder derby team here in Central Vermont.
  • Running home quickly to de-ass stink myself before heading to the big city to meet up with friends for dinner.
  • Post dinner dancing to my favorite local (80’s cover) band.

Sunday:

  • Resting
  • Cooking/Cleaning (negotiable on the cleaning part)
  • Running my first derby practice - for some reason, I’m more nervous about this than skating/bouting myself.

Happy weekend y’all!

Preface: This is a total hodgepodge of a post (hence the number of tags).  Read at your own risk. Winter chose a crappy day to finally arrive here in the Northeast. Finn and I had planned to head to NYC today to spend four days relaxing at a fancy pants hotel (at least for us) with a pool and hopscotching around the city as tourists. Last night I decided it wasn’t worth the certain long and stressful - if not dangerous - drive south and pushed our mini-vacation back a day. Finn has been with his mom much of this school break.  Most of the time when he is gone, I am like Louis CK in the episode of Dogpound (As with all Louie episodes, it’s pretty brilliant).  I haven’t adopted a dog (yet), but I’ve had my moments of self-indulgent patheticness and shameful losery.   In fact, it was probably a good thing Finn was away. The end of last week was a perfect storm of life blahs: Work, family, friendships/relationships, emotional heath, physical health issues and the like. Luckily I front loaded the break with sitting in my shit (let’s just get that out of the way) and things have been pretty solid since.  I think my physical status was the trigger for becoming such a heap off poo. After several weeks of working out (xfit) again, I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that my injury is going to take a long time to heal. Coming to this reality has meant that I am not going to skate (roller derby) this spring and maybe be out for the entire bouting season.  As with most things, I’m finding silver linings in all this: I’ve (finally) been invited to run some practices with the women’s derby team here.  It might lead to coaching, but we are going to see if it’s a good fit first. I’m also going to work with their “fresh meat” rec league a couple times a month (and I get to work with one of my favorite skaters). This opportunity provides me with the ability to deepen my understanding and perspective (strategy) of the game.  Ultimately, making me a better skater when I do go back. As our new men’s league takes shape, I’m able to focus on org development and helping to create a solid foundation of sound business processes and structures. By having a well run league, we’ll be able to focus much more on being a kick ass team. I’m availing myself to work more at bouts so I can network and further my understanding of the competitive game. Additionally, I’m beginning to work with a new physical therapist next week who is also a crossfitter (and someone I knew from 20 years ago when I first moved to VT). Just in our brief interaction over the weekend (I was judging for the Crossfit Games qualifiers), she gave me several exercises to strengthen my adductors.  I also went to Pilates class that was both helpful and hysterical. One of the hardest parts of this self-involved pity party is that I’m not allowing myself to use food as comfort. Ok…I might have had a bottle off wine one night for dinner, but wine is totally Paleo…right?!  Seriously, being a fairly healthy person and having never put limits on my food intake, I never knew how much I rely on food to comfort myself when I feel like a turd. Even with those damn Girl Scout cookies in the house, I (more or less) stayed resolute. I’m not sure why this is so important to me right now.  Maybe it is the one way in which I do have control over my physical health, when the fate of my ass is out of my hands. I was talking with this (wonderful and brilliant) friend last night for a bit. She and I have this very odd connection and parallel life experiences (work, relationships, xfit, broken butts, emotional state(s), etc) that astonish us both. She too is dealing with all of life all at once - simultaneously on every level, trying to keep it all together while parts of it crumble away (which can be an opportunity to rebuild). And she said something in our conversation that resonates for me (paraphrasing): “At some point you have to stop hiding behind bad habits and face everything in real time.” Maybe this is what a midlife crisis/opportunity really is. When you face everything in real time you are not allowing bad habits to distract and mitigate the emotions; you are not manipulating the context and changing things up so you don’t have to deal; you are not hiding behind false perceptions of yourself to veil the fear of failure.  I don’t think many of us embrace this challenge. Hence the midlife crisis cliche. This shit is really hard and I have to believe, ultimately is worth it. 
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Preface: This is a total hodgepodge of a post (hence the number of tags).  Read at your own risk.

Winter chose a crappy day to finally arrive here in the Northeast. Finn and I had planned to head to NYC today to spend four days relaxing at a fancy pants hotel (at least for us) with a pool and hopscotching around the city as tourists. Last night I decided it wasn’t worth the certain long and stressful - if not dangerous - drive south and pushed our mini-vacation back a day.

Finn has been with his mom much of this school break.  Most of the time when he is gone, I am like Louis CK in the episode of Dogpound (As with all Louie episodes, it’s pretty brilliant).  I haven’t adopted a dog (yet), but I’ve had my moments of self-indulgent patheticness and shameful losery.  

In fact, it was probably a good thing Finn was away. The end of last week was a perfect storm of life blahs: Work, family, friendships/relationships, emotional heath, physical health issues and the like. Luckily I front loaded the break with sitting in my shit (let’s just get that out of the way) and things have been pretty solid since. 

I think my physical status was the trigger for becoming such a heap off poo. After several weeks of working out (xfit) again, I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that my injury is going to take a long time to heal. Coming to this reality has meant that I am not going to skate (roller derby) this spring and maybe be out for the entire bouting season.  As with most things, I’m finding silver linings in all this:

  • I’ve (finally) been invited to run some practices with the women’s derby team here.  It might lead to coaching, but we are going to see if it’s a good fit first. I’m also going to work with their “fresh meat” rec league a couple times a month (and I get to work with one of my favorite skaters). This opportunity provides me with the ability to deepen my understanding and perspective (strategy) of the game.  Ultimately, making me a better skater when I do go back.
  • As our new men’s league takes shape, I’m able to focus on org development and helping to create a solid foundation of sound business processes and structures. By having a well run league, we’ll be able to focus much more on being a kick ass team.
  • I’m availing myself to work more at bouts so I can network and further my understanding of the competitive game.

Additionally, I’m beginning to work with a new physical therapist next week who is also a crossfitter (and someone I knew from 20 years ago when I first moved to VT). Just in our brief interaction over the weekend (I was judging for the Crossfit Games qualifiers), she gave me several exercises to strengthen my adductors.  I also went to Pilates class that was both helpful and hysterical.

One of the hardest parts of this self-involved pity party is that I’m not allowing myself to use food as comfort. Ok…I might have had a bottle off wine one night for dinner, but wine is totally Paleo…right?!  Seriously, being a fairly healthy person and having never put limits on my food intake, I never knew how much I rely on food to comfort myself when I feel like a turd. Even with those damn Girl Scout cookies in the house, I (more or less) stayed resolute. I’m not sure why this is so important to me right now.  Maybe it is the one way in which I do have control over my physical health, when the fate of my ass is out of my hands.

I was talking with this (wonderful and brilliant) friend last night for a bit. She and I have this very odd connection and parallel life experiences (work, relationships, xfit, broken butts, emotional state(s), etc) that astonish us both. She too is dealing with all of life all at once - simultaneously on every level, trying to keep it all together while parts of it crumble away (which can be an opportunity to rebuild). And she said something in our conversation that resonates for me (paraphrasing): “At some point you have to stop hiding behind bad habits and face everything in real time.” Maybe this is what a midlife crisis/opportunity really is. When you face everything in real time you are not allowing bad habits to distract and mitigate the emotions; you are not manipulating the context and changing things up so you don’t have to deal; you are not hiding behind false perceptions of yourself to veil the fear of failure. 

I don’t think many of us embrace this challenge. Hence the midlife crisis cliche. This shit is really hard and I have to believe, ultimately is worth it. 

It’s finally lunch time and I’m famished

However, today I have eaten:

  • 2 Eggs over easy 
  • 4 Sausages
  • 2 cups of steamed/sauteed Kale with garlic
  • 1 Avocado
  • 1 Scotch Egg
  • 1 Pint of Greek Yogurt
  • 1 Grapefruit (in the Yogurt)
  • 1 Apple
  • 5 cups of Coffee (with coconut milk)
  • 2 quarts of Water

How in the fuck am I still hungry? I’m looking at a trough of food (chicken, pulled pork, collards/ham, sweet potatoes and some cauliflower rice and I question if it’s enough.

Believe it or not…I’m still at 183.

I tried to make a better version of some paleo-esque/p3 shit called cocoa crack.  Instead in turned into chocolate soup.  It started with coconut milk, coffee and xylitol, but somehow a few egg yokes, a stick of unsalted butter and coconut oil found their way in as well. So I whipped up the leftover egg whites and made chocolate mousse….for dinner. Seen here with a nice Pinot from Willamette Valley and my Guate kitchen rooster.
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I tried to make a better version of some paleo-esque/p3 shit called cocoa crack.  Instead in turned into chocolate soup.  It started with coconut milk, coffee and xylitol, but somehow a few egg yokes, a stick of unsalted butter and coconut oil found their way in as well.

So I whipped up the leftover egg whites and made chocolate mousse….for dinner.

Seen here with a nice Pinot from Willamette Valley and my Guate kitchen rooster.

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