One Man and Paleo (Day 2)

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Onto day 2. What I ate yesterday was pretty much the same I ate on day one. I added a few more nuts and I ate an extra 6 oz of chicken but all in all it was the same.

One thing I’m noticing is that this diet is calorically deficient. What I mean by that is it isn’t a convenient diet. When we did the vegan diet I could walk in just about anywhere, including fast food and/or convenience stores, and get something small to eat. With this diet you can’t do that. I was driving back from an appointment and was feeling a little hungrier than normal so I stopped to get gas. Went inside and there was almost nothing I could eat. I ended up with a small bag of nuts. But other than that, nada. With this diet you’ve got to plan. You need to have your food with you.

Stay hungry andsee youtomorrow.

Mike Babbitt, M.F.A, M.A., CSCS

USA Triathlon Level 1 Coach, Master Trainer

Mike is a Master Level trainer at Empower Personal Training. He has a unique approach to fitness that combines his scientific foundation of research and applied exercise physiology with his artistic experience as a professional stage actor. For more information about Empower Personal Training please call (919) 401-8024

One Man and Paleo (Day 1)

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All right. Yesterday was the start of the paleo experience.

Here’s what I ate throughout the day:

2 boiled egss

1 apple

2 nectarine

6 oz chicken

6 oz london broil

2 oz cashews

2 tomatoes

1 red pepper

1 chili pepper

1 habenero

1/2 onion

1 avocado

All meat was hormone free and free ranged.

It all tasted great and I mixed it into various different concoctions of food to be spread over about 4 meals. I drank a ton of water and had 1 coke zero. This is my big weakness now, I’ve got a fairly strong addiction to coke zero. I decided at the beginning of the week with the changes I was already making I was not going to try and tackle this. I’ll save it for another week.

By the end of the day I was a bit hungry, that sort of hunger that sits in the back of your mind, but not overwhelmingly hungry. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that this is probably going to be a constant feeling with this nutrition plan, but hey, that’s cool. We should always be slightly hungry anyway. Part of our nations big problem is always eating to be completely full. That would rarely happen in the world of paleo man. And when it did, it was most likely from a fresh kill.

Stay tuned for tomorrow.

Mike Babbitt, M.F.A, M.A., CSCS

USA Triathlon Level 1 Coach, Master Trainer

Mike is a Master Level trainer at Empower Personal Training. He has a unique approach to fitness that combines his scientific foundation of research and applied exercise physiology with his artistic experience as a professional stage actor. For more information about Empower Personal Training please call (919) 401-8024

One Man and Paleo (Day 0)

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So if you haven’t heard, this week Empower Personal Training is doing a week long nutrition challenge using the Paleo Diet. The gist of the diet is that if you can pick it and eat it raw or kill it it’s fair game (pun intended). So, no legumes (that includes peanuts), no processed foods, no processed carbs like bread (you’re welcome to eat all the uncooked grain you want but I’m not sure your stomach will like that.) Dairy should be keep to a minimum and you can sprinkle in some nuts. But mostly it’s lean meats, raw fruits and vegetables (cooking the meat is good but try to keep most of the veggies raw.)

I’m doing the challenge because I’m hoping it’ll jump start a nutrition/fitness program for me that has been lacking due to injuries for the last two years (yeah, believe me, it’s not been fun.) I’m still in the injured category but things are starting to come aroundand as the winter hits the tendency is to become more sedentary. I’m betting that this kickstarts some good stuff for me and sends me into the winter months ready.

I’ll be blogging every day this week to talk about how it’s going. Each day I’ll describe what and how much I ate plus how it may be effecting me physically and/or emotionally (goodbye to bread is going to make me grumpy.)

Stay tuned for all the fun.

Mike

Mike Babbitt, M.F.A, M.A., CSCS

USA Triathlon Level 1 Coach, Master Trainer

Mike is a Master Level trainer at Empower Personal Training. He has a unique approach to fitness that combines his scientific foundation of research and applied exercise physiology with his artistic experience as a professional stage actor. For more information about Empower Personal Training please call (919) 401-8024

Two Interesting Nutrition Reads

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Check out this article: Link

It doesn’t seem like long ago when all the dieting craze centered around eating a low-fat diet. From a caloric standpoint it makes sense as fat has nine calories per gram while protein and carbohydrates only have four. People would munch on fat-free snacks like knock-off brand Lucky Charms marshmallows and Snack Wells cookies (“They’re fat-free so they must be good for me!”).

Thankfully common knowledge seems to be changing its tone lately to include fat in diets due to its unique health benefits and effects. The above article does a great job explaining which oils are better than others to consume as well as the background rationale.

Here’s one on fresh meat versus processed meat: Link

A quote from the article “Countless scientific studies have concluded that eating red meat is bad for you. But in those studies, researchers routinely fail to differentiate between processed junk meat versus free-range, grass-fed organic beef which isn’t processed with chemicals. And in doing so, they cast a dark shadow of doubt over all red meat when the reality is that there is a huge difference in the health impacts of fresh meat versus processed factory-made meat.”

It seems obvious to distinguish between eating a few Ball Park hot dogs versus a lean steak from a happy and locally grown cow but I suspect many of us believe that meat is meat, regardless of the source. The author concludes that just because someone follows a vegan diet doesn’t necessarily mean they are healthier than a meat-eater. Our nutritionist warned us about this before our vegan challenge week (link to the blog recap) and cautioned us to stay away from “junk vegan” foods such as white, refined grains, popcorn, chips, and cookies.

Fortunately most of the staff seemed to stay away from that stuff and stuck with healthier whole grains, vegetables, and fruit. Look for us to try a Paleolithic diet (Wikipedia page link) challenge in September where we’ll only eat free-range, grass-fed organic meat, seafood, fruit, vegetables, nuts, and roots.

Paul Piracci, BS CSCS

Paul brings a background of athletics and education to the Empower team. He believes that wellness should be viewed as a blended lifestyle that balances nutrition, a healthy mind, and fitness which incorporates fun recreational activities. For more information about Empower Personal Training please call (919) 401-8024.

Now on to the 21 Day Detox

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Congratulations to this determined group for completing the Vegan Challenge Week! I’m hoping that you all learned a little something about alternative diets and your ability to function well on such diets. Since you made it a full seven days without animal products you can probably tell if you would ever be able to or even want to take on such a challenge again.

If you are up for it, you might consider taking on the 21 Day Cleanse offered at Empower. The first ten days of the cleanse consist of a vegan diet so you already know what to expect. This cleanse is all about blasting the body with nutrients in order to correct any biochemical misfirings which often lead to pesky symptoms such as less than optimal sleep, aches and pains and digestive discomfort, to name a few. This is not a deprivation regimen or anything that encourages extreme dietary behaviors. Here you follow a simple diet of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and lean sources of protein and further support the body with a nutritional shake and two supplements which help the liver ìresetî your body’s chemistry.

We introduced the cleanse last fall and participants have had great success. Weight loss is what most folks are looking for and I must admit that this happens rather incidentally. Although everyone does lose weight, the more exciting cleanse results are the increases in stamina, better blood sugar control, better quality of sleep, less cravings and the absence of aches and pains. So take the challenge to the next level and really feel your body awaken to the effects of optimal nutrition. All it takes is 21 days!

Find out more HERE