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Monday, February 8, 2010

Five rounds for time of:
155 lbs. Thruster, 5 reps
5 muscle ups
400m run

Thanks to Roger for pointing this out to me. The video and yesterday's comments make an interesting (and salient) point: Paleo is more expensive. Think of it this way: imagine your body as a car, would you feed your BMW, your Rolls Royce or your Maserati low grade leaded? Or would you put the best gas you can afford in. So that that car will last as long as possible. In this way we pay a little more to live a lot healthier and a good bit longer. But, there is no denying that unless your buying in bulk or hunting and harvesting your own food paleo can get a little pricey. How have you worked around this?

-Paul Siegel
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Eat Your Yolks People
I still hear many folks talking about eating egg white omelets, and I want you to know you are throwing away the most nutritious part of the egg. The yolk of an egg contains half the protein available in the egg, all the vitamin D and A and other micronutrients, and over 3/4 of the calories (you are essentially throwing away 3/4 of the money you spent on those eggs). What about all the cholesterol and saturated fat you say?
Studies have showed that regular consumption of eggs (6 or more per week) does not increase risk of coronary artery disease or stroke compared with non-consumption. This study shows an actual slight decrease in risk from consuming 1 egg per day over non-consumption. The reasons for this may be varied, but one possibility is that one compound in eggs limits the absorption of cholesterol, another factor may be that data shows that dietary cholesterol intake has minimal effect on changing blood cholesterol levels and ratio (HDL:LDL). I will delve more into cholesterol and saturated fat intake in posts this week, but I hope this has convinced you to stop throwing away dietary gold.
Someone was asking about Paleo-friendly protein powders, and technically speaking no protein powder is Paleo, due to the highly processed nature of these things, but again it's a gray area. Many Paleo people still take whey protein; it's a great, cheap option. But if you are trying to avoid dairy products, you could go with either hemp protein or egg protein powder. FYI, the egg protein is pretty tough to stomach.
When it comes to cost of living Paleo, I have heard of lots of people doing it on a shoe-string budget. The important thing to remember is that many of the costly items are the ideal, you don't have to be eating grass-fed to be Paleo, you would just probably be healthier if you did. Another thing to consider is if you have any preprocessed, prepackaged foods in your pantry/fridge, then you are over-paying for those calories. No one can argue that buying bulk rice, beans, or potatoes is the cheapest source of calories, but most of us aren't doing that.
-J

13 comments:

  1. Didn't see this one coming - up 4.5 lbs from last Saturday. I've been really strict on the Paleo all week - eliminated dairy, grains, legumes, processed foods, alcohol, etc. I even stopped adding Stevia to my tea and quit chewing gum.

    Think my worst transgression last week was a grilled chicken salad at MickyDs (it had cheese and beans) with a vinaigrette dressing (it had high fructose corn syrup, sugar, etc.)

    I generally don’t eat before 11 am most days. Later on non workout days.

    Lunch is typically a large spinach salad with turkey, tomatoes, carrots, eggs, with an olive oil vinaigrette dressing. Maybe a grapefruit or bowl of strawberries.

    Dinner is a little more varied ranging from turkey burgers, salmon burgers, salmon, or steak typically with a salad or steamed broccoli. Sometimes I’ll skip the salad/veggie and just mix up a green smoothie with spinach and frozen fruit to go with a hunk of meat.

    For snacks I’ve been eating beef jerky and SunButter.

    Went to a dinner party Saturday night and was able to skip the alcohol, bread, and potatoes. Dinner was salmon and salad, so I lucked out there. Boy did I catch some grief from my friends. Although they all noticed that I had been working out and lost weight.

    Not sure what caused weight gain. I’ve dialed back the fruit a good bit. I used to eat mostly fruit until dinner, have fruit with dinner, and then snack on fruit after dinner.

    I have been eating a lot more, but it’s all been good clean food. Probably shouldn’t sit down on the couch with a jar of SunButter, I can down about a 1/2 jar without thinking about it.

    I'm guessing the weight gain is mostly water due to eating a lot of beef jerky which is very salty. So I’ll dial that back to see if that’s what caused the gain.

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  2. Well, I shamefully fell off the wagon over the weekend. I dare not list the non-Paleo food I ate. Got quite the cold after running the 5k in damp, nasty weather. There's something about being sick that makes you want massive amounts of comfort food (aka carbs). Getting back at it today.

    -Mackenzie

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  3. Wade,

    Clearly you need to add back the beer! :)

    Do you not eat breakfast??

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  4. Don't let Wade fool you - it's all muscle he added.

    mmmmm BEEEEER!!

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  5. Yeah, Wade, might want to dial back that Sunbutter consumption. It's about 700 calories per half jar.

    Kinda fell off the wagon a bit this weekend, but I'm back on. Workout today didn't go well. Think I needed to be eating more, and eating better over the weekend. More sleep would have probably helped too.

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  6. Jonathan,
    Is it possible Wade needed to gain weight?

    Workout
    225x5x3 Back Squat
    Probably a little too heavy today. Still sliding to the to the right. Focusing on pushing the floor apart to activite all those hip muscles.

    Single leg work all on left.
    3x5 RDL @95 lbs
    2x5 unweighted box squat

    Dip Work
    5 normal dips
    10 negatives
    My dip has always been shamefully weak. figured will they're out I would work on it.

    3 attempts at normal HSPU- I'm like a half inch from getting full depth.

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  7. Definitely possible, Wade, your body fat measurement was 7% right? I would imagine there is some water weight change in there, but could be your body was just looking for some more calories and started to synthesize some muscle. Do you feel heavier, or is the scale reading the only difference? Week to week scale readings can be pretty inaccurate, I've varied 8lbs one week with pretty consistent diet. I would stick with what you are doing over the next week and see what changes come.

    I sent everyone an email about a Paleo pot luck this Friday if people are free. If you didn't get the email, let me know.

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  8. Just for kicks I tried to chase down a squirrel today in the backyard - my paleo project of the day.

    I would have eaten it had I caught it.

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  9. Today's workout was gift-wrapped hell. And it wasn't even my birthday. I've never done thrusters above 100lbs and today Nate saw me messing around a 95lb bar and decided that I should add two 10lb plates to that.
    The rest as they say, was misery. My biceps and triceps were shot from cindy and despite that, I was happy I was able to get all 5 reps of thrusters in one go for 4 of the rounds without dropping the weight. I guess the hard part was cleaning the weight and once it was on my chest, knocking out 5 reps was doable.
    I managed to stay clean with the diet this weekend - it was superbowl sunday and I made sure I bought my own food (chipotle burrito bowl with chicken, salsa, lettuce and no rice & beans)and stayed far away from wings & pizza. Next step, work on my sleep.

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  10. Wade, I've lost 4 lbs in my sleep. Seriously, I weighed myself and then went to bed and in the morning I was 4 lbs lighter. You're going to be fine! Are you weighing yourself at the same time of day?

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  11. @birdie – I generally skip breakfast and sometimes lunch. I’ve tried several forms of intermittent fasting (www.EatStopEat.com and www.Fast-5.com) over the past year and have gotten used to skipping a meal or two.

    It’s amazing the mental clarity/alertness you get when your gut isn’t constantly full of food. You also free up some time that you would otherwise spend preparing, eating, and cleaning up after each meal. Your body learns to burn fat for energy and that gives you a real constant energy level.

    @Chad – wish is was all muscle. I’m pretty sure you can’t add 4.5 lbs of muscle or fat in a week, so it’s got to be water.

    @Jonathan – you can pry the jar of SunButter out of my cold dead hands ;)

    You’re correct about the weekly variation in weight. I’ll typically fluctuate 5 pounds over the course of the week. Pre Paleo, the gain was always observed on Monday after consuming a few adult beverages over the weekend and then I would see a steady drop during the course of the week. Haven’t had any of those type of beverages since the start of the challenge, but I have eaten a bunch of salty beef jerky.

    Guess I’ll have to come up with a no salt seasoning for my next batch of jerky.

    Can’t make the Paleo pot luck this Friday, I’ve got family coming to town.

    @Chris – I would have loved to seen you chasing the squirrel

    @Joanna – I always weigh first thing in the morning before I have anything to eat or drink.

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  12. I've always chalked weight fluctuations up to water because I drink a lot of it. 1 gallon of water = 8 lbs, so I would think it'd be perfectly normal to be +/- 4 lbs just due to how well/poorly hydrated you are...

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  13. Chris- LMFAO!!!!!! Thats hillarious!!!

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