It’s Five Finger Friday!!!

Posted on October 14, 2011 by paleopassage

The response to my poll about whether readers thought Vibram Five Fingers were fun and funky, or a fashion faux pas came out overwhelmingly on the side of fun and funky.  As a result, I have decided to inflict Five Finger Friday on my loyal readers, and my family and co-workers.

This week I decided to go with the FABULOUS pink Mary Janes.  They are a good gateway Five Finger shoe.  As you can see, they are very subtle.  It’s hard to detect that they are Vibram Five Fingers at first glance.

The Airedale Terrierists, Queen Barktifah and Muffie Stuffie Sucker, appear to REALLY like the pink Mary Janes.  Perhaps it’s because they are made from kangaroo leather.  I think I need to clear out an upper cubby in my shoe tree…

I have to tell you, these are very comfortable.  The only thing better is no shoes at all.

I’d love to feature some of my loyal readers rocking their Five Fingers along with me.  If you would like to be featured in an upcoming Five Finger Friday post, email me a photo of you rocking your VFFs at paleopassage@gmail.com

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Paleo Fitness Program

Posted on October 13, 2011 by paleopassage

Being active is an integral part of the Paleo lifestyle.  I have been an active person for most of my life.  My educational background is in Exercise Science.  Because of that, I have opinions on what constitutes an appropriate exercise program.  The Ancestral Health proponents suggest incorporating activities similar to those our hunter-gatherer forebears did into our daily lives.  The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet, The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy (Primal Blueprint Series), Everyday Paleo
and The New Evolution Diet: What Our Paleolithic Ancestors Can Teach Us about Weight Loss, Fitness, and Aging all make similar recommendations regarding exercise.  These are:

  • Move around a lot: Perform activities such as walking, hiking, cycling, swimming or “easy cardio” for 2-5 hours per week.  These should be done at 55-75%  of your maximal heart rate
  • Build strength: Work out 2 times a week for 15-30 minutes, focusing on functional body movements like squats, lunges, pulling, pushing.  Body weight calisthenics are an effective way to do this.
  • Sprint or do interval training:  One to two times a week engage in an activity such as sprinting or interval training for 20-30 minutes

These recommendations are somewhat different from the program I had been following.  I had been doing interval training 3 times a week for 40 minutes, minimal sporadic strength training, and cardio work at 80-85% of my maximal heart rate three times a week for 40-60 minutes at a time.

The Paleo fitness guidelines warn against chronic cardio (Basically what I had been doing) because it can elevate cortisol levels.

I decided to jump into the Paleo lifestyle 100%, so I adjusted my workout schedule to meet the guidelines outlined above.  So far the results have been good.  I feel like I am maintaining my cardiac fitness.  My strength is increasing.  I’m actually performing better during my intervals after dropping to only twice a week.

Changing up my cardio workouts has been good for me mentally as well as physically.  I started hiking in our local state park for an hour on the two nights I would normally go to spin class.  Hiking is my primary method of stress reduction.  I’ll be back in the spin class (working at 55-75% of my HR max) when it gets too dark or wet to hike after work.

The Airedale Terrierists also enjoy hiking.

If you would like additional information on the topic of Paleo/Primal Fitness, Mark Sisson has a free download,  The Primal Blueprint Fitness eBook, which is available at his website.

Coming tomorrow:  It’s Five Finger Friday!

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Paleo Recipe: Farmer’s Market Pico de Gallo

Posted on October 12, 2011 by paleopassage

Every weekend during tomato season I make a batch of Pico de Gallo from the tomatoes I foraged that week from the Farmer’s Market (I would use the tomatoes from TMOTH’s garden, but he had a bad year with tomatoes).  I prefer to use heirloom tomatoes.  Their flavor is indescribably delicious.   One of my favorite farms that I purchase tomatoes and onions from is The Patch, which is located in Sonoma.  They have a stand every week at my local Farmer’s Market.

Ingredients:

  • 1 ½ cups seeded and diced tomatoes
  • ¼ cup diced onion
  • ½-1 diced jalapeno pepper
  • 2 TBS chopped garlic
  • 2 TBS chopped cilantro
  • Juice of 2 limes

Here are the ingredients for today’s batch.

I use the food processor to chop all the ingredients except for the tomatoes.  I have experimented with using the food processor to chop the tomatoes.  The end result is mushy tomatoes.  The finished Pico de Gallo tastes fine, but does not have an attractive presentation.

Place all the ingredients in a storage container.

 

Squeeze the juice of two limes into the container, and then mix the ingredients evenly.

I love to top my breakfast omelets with Farmer’s Market Pico de Gallo.  It helps increase my breakfast veggies.  Now that the weather has turned cooler, I probably only have a few more weeks to enjoy this treat.

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Vibram Five Fingers: Fun and Funky or Fashion Faux Pas?

Posted on October 11, 2011 by paleopassage

Last year, while I was recovering from the overuse injury to my right foot, I did a lot of reading on Barefoot Running.  As a result, I was exposed to the related topic of minimalist shoes.  I may at some point do a post on Barefoot Running and my foray into it.  However, this post is all about the shoes.

I spend a lot of time barefoot.  My feet prefer to be barefoot.  The only time I wear shoes is when they are required, either by law, convention or practicality (e.g. rocky hiking trails).  On those occasions when I do have to wear shoes, I prefer that they make a statement.  I love my shoes, and have a large and varied collection.  Still, I kick them off at the first opportunity.  My feet are so much happier without shoes.  At work, every time I get up from my desk I have to put my shoes back on.

I have for months resisted the idea of getting a pair of the Vibram Five Fingers minimalist shoe.  Basically, I thought they looked completely dorky.  Lately though, they are kind of growing on me.  Perhaps it’s the insidious, subliminal message of seeing Mark Sisson rocking them in the photo montage in the header at Mark’s Daily Apple Apparently resistance IS futile, and I am about to be assimilated.

Whatever the reason is, I have started lusting after this pair:

The color is perfect to blend with my basic wardrobe colors.  The style, not so much.  My current style is classic, with an occasional, funky twist or accessory.  My shoes are often the focal point of my attire.  If I were to throw on a pair of those mauve VFFs, the shoe would definitely be a focal point.

And what about these pink Mary Janes?  Aren’t they FABULOUS?

There are minimal shoes that I could purchase that would pass for conventional shoes.  They would be almost as comfortable as being barefoot.  The thing is, most of those options look like ugly conventional shoes.  If I wore them, it would just look like I had unfortunate taste in shoes.

I think I am attracted to the VFFs because they are funky and playful, which is a quality I strive to hit with my shoes.  It would be a very tongue in cheek statement, my own little joke.  It’s the same sort of statement I used to make as a teen at camp with my socks.

I suspect if I started wearing the VFFs every day my co-workers would believe that I had finally gone over the cliff into total insanity (I’m sure they already think that I am on the precipice some days).  But what if I rocked them only once a week?  What if I established Five Fingers Friday?  Would it be fun and funky, or a fashion faux pas?

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So What is the Paleo Lifestyle?

Posted on October 10, 2011 by paleopassage

Some of you may be wondering what the Paleo Lifestyle is.  This post will provide a brief overview along with references in case you would like to do some more in-depth reading on this topic.  There are many resources available on the Internet which cover this topic very eloquently and in great detail.  I see no need to reinvent the wheel.  The scope of this blog is to cover my experience transitioning into the Paleo Lifestyle.  From time to time I’ll post about topics that interest me with links to more in-depth material.

The Paleo movement is a subset of the Ancestral Health movement.  The Ancestral Health Movement is an interdisciplinary movement of scientists, healthcare professionals and ordinary people who focus on the human niche in ecology.  A part of this focus is to look at what behaviors allowed them to succeed and thrive.  What did they eat?  How did they behave?  What health problems did they have?

Modern day hunter-gatherer societies are used as a paradigm of how early man lived.  One of the key findings is that the members of hunter-gatherer societies are generally very healthy UNTIL the introduction of processed foods like wheat and sugar.

Two of the main proponents of the Ancestral Diet and Life style are  Robb Wolf , author of The Paleo Solution:  The Original Human Diet and Mark Sisson, author of The Primal Blueprint.  Robb Wolf and Mark Sisson both have a summary of their paleo/primal concepts on their website’s.  This is Robb’s and this is Mark’s.  Their recommendations are very similar.

There is no single Paleo or Primal diet that states specifically what people should eat.  Paleo/Primal nutrition is a template.  General guidelines regarding foods to eat, as well as the percentage of each of the macronutrients (fat, protein and carbohydrates) that should comprise the diet are given.  The food guidelines are based on what people typically ate prior to the introduction of agriculture.

Each individual needs to find the sweet spot in the template that works best for their own individual biochemistry.  For example, TMOTH needs to eat a higher percentage of carbs than I do.  We both can eat within the Paleo template, but our diets are not exactly the same.

If you don’t want to do in-depth reading on this topic, here are some general guidelines for eating Paleo.  Diane Sanfilippo at Balanced Bites gave a nice summary on her October 4th podcast:

  • Eat whole foods
  • Avoid gluten containing foods and grains
  • Avoid seed oils
  • Avoid non-gluten grains
  • Avoid chemical sweeteners
  • Avoid sugar
  • Avoid legumes
  • Avoid dairy

I had a comment asking whether a Paleo diet could be adapted to vegetarian eating.  This is actually a big topic.  I’ll do a post in the next week or two linking to some resources on the topic for those who are interested.

Stay tuned for posts on some of the other components in the Paleo lifestyle: Exercise, sleep & play.

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Progress Report: Where I Lay it on the Line

Posted on October 9, 2011 by paleopassage

This post is the first in a series of monthly progress reports.  This is where I let it all hang out for the whole wide Internets to see.   This is where I show where I started, and where I am.

Before we get to the gritty details, I’d like to give you a brief backstage view of the making of this post.

When I am heavier than I like, I hide from the camera.  As a result, there are not a lot of before pictures to choose from.  TMOTH (The Man of the House) tries to shelter me from any existing fat, unflattering pictures by not sending them to me or showing them anywhere.  He’s a good man who understands what I need (well, most of the time).  That’s one reason why I keep him around.

When I decided that I needed to do a monthly progress report for my loyal readers (all 5 of you),  I asked TMOTH for some pictures from before I started losing weight.  Somehow that translated in his male brain to any recent picture in which I look fat and gruesome.  I tried to explain to him nicely that we were going to take pictures of my current flab and batwings especially for the post.  I only wanted pictures from BEFORE I started to lose weight.  I did restrain myself, and the beautiful stainless steel frying pan from Sur La Table that TMOTH gave me for my birthday is still undamaged.

Well, I guess I have procrastinated long enough.  It’s time to reveal my before and now photos.  You might want to avert your head if you are sensitive, or ask any impressionable young people to leave the room.

This first picture was taken  July 5, 2011.  I weighed 150 pounds and had a 31-inch waist (that’s the only body part I could bear to measure.  The adorable young man who I am sitting with is my grandson.

Here are current shots taken from the front, back and side.  There’s been some improvement, but there’s room for more.

Here are my current stats:

Weight                   136           -14
Breast                      38
Chest (Bra band)   30
Waist                        29          -2
Umbilicus                35.5
Hip                            36.5
Upper Arm               11
Thigh                          19
Calf                              14

I started out in July eating an Atkins-style low carb diet.  I lost 6 lbs. doing that.  On August 15,  I started my 30 Day Paleo Challenge.   At the end of the challenge I continued with following the Paleo lifestyle.  I have lost 8 pounds since then.

I’ll provide those brave (or perhaps foolhardy) souls who are interested in my progress an update on the second Sunday of each month.

Coming Up on Monday:  What is the Paleo Lifestyle?

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Food Fail

Posted on October 8, 2011 by paleopassage

Tuesday of this week I had my first instance of an adverse reaction to eating too much of something.  Up until this point I had been eating clean Paleo for 6 weeks.

Almonds and dark chocolate with 70%+ cacao are both acceptable foods to eat on the Paleo diet.  The key is that these are treat foods, to be eaten in moderation.

Last Friday at the supermarket, I was tempted by a checkstand display of Organic Almonds coated in 75% cacao and lightly dusted with organic cinnamon and a touch of organic, fair-trade sugar.

Don’t they look yummy?

I read the back of the package, and there didn’t appear to be any noxious ingredients.  Once I got back to the office, I shook about 10 or 11 almonds out of the bag and ate them.  They were very delicious.

I left the bag at the office over the weekend.  I did think longingly of them several times, but was able  get over it and move on.

Monday morning, although I wasn’t hungry, I shook out 10-11 almonds and ate them.  Tuesday morning when I came in, I did the same thing.  However, this time I was unable to get those delicious little beauties out of my mind.  At 3:00, I pulled them out and had another handful.  Somehow, that wasn’t enough.  I wasn’t really hungry, but I really wanted those yummy almonds. I had several more handfuls between 3:00 and 3:30.

By 4:30 I had a pounding headache and was having hot flashes.  The last time I had a hot flash was in July, about a week after I started eating low carb.

I started drinking a lot of water, and went for a hike after work at 5:00.  That seemed to help.  The headache disappeared after dinner.

I wish I had a glucometer so I could have tested my blood sugar after eating the almonds.  I have resisted the urge to give myself over to complete nerdiness and test my blood sugars after eating different things.  In this instance, I am quite curious about what the findings would have been.

I will not be purchasing those yummy almonds again.  The sugar content is high enough to set off my cravings and upset my blood sugar balance.  This article explains why foods can be addictive as well as which foods are most addictive: Can Food be as Addictive as a Drug?

I think the almonds qualified in three categories:  fat, sugar and chocolate…  Live and learn

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Paleo Thai Curry Recipe

Posted on October 7, 2011 by paleopassage

On Friday night I like to cook something that uses up all the produce in the refrigerator.  We go to the Farmer’s Market to forage for food on Saturday morning, and I like to make room for the fresh goodies that we will be buying.

Here’s what I pulled out to work with last week:

I decided to make a Thai Curry because I had plenty of cans of coconut milk in the pantry and a partial container of Mae Ploy Green Curry Paste in the fridge.  This curry paste is from Thailand and adds a very authentic flavor to homemade curries.

I buy this at our local independent grocer.  An Asian family owns it, and they stock many authentic products for Asian cooking.  Mae Ploy Green Curry Paste can also be purchased at Amazon.

I decided to cook the Spaghetti Squash in the pressure cooker.   It cooked with one cup of water for 15 minutes.  If you don’t have a pressure cooker, the squash can be cooked in the oven or microwave.  After cooking it, I shredded it and served the curry on top.

To make the curry, chop all the ingredients.  I made a double batch because TMOTH and I were joined by teens this weekend.  I used a pound of meat (Pork Chops from pastured heirloom breed pigs) and one pound of assorted vegetables.  Here’s everything all prepped and ready to go.

Paleo Thai Curry:

Ingredients:

½ cup chopped white onion

3 cloves chopped garlic

1 TBS Chopped Ginger Root

4 cups Canned Coconut Milk

1 cup Water

1 LB. Meat chopped in bite size pieces

1 LB. Vegetables chopped in bite size pieces

  1. Sauté ½ chopped onion, 3 cloves of chopped garlic and 1 Tablespoon of chopped ginger in oil (I used coconut oil) until the onion is soft.
  2. Add 4 ounces of Mae Ploy Green Curry Paste and two cups of coconut milk.  Stir until well blended.
  3. Add two more cups of coconut milk and heat until boiling.
  4. Add meat and continue cooking
  5. When meat is cooked, add the vegetables and one cup water.
  6. Cook until the vegetables soften

Serve over shredded Spaghetti Squash.

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My Path to Paleo: Choosing my Route

Posted on October 6, 2011 by paleopassage

I had to examine myself very thoroughly to find the right path personally.
Fritz Sauckel

Many years ago I followed the Atkins low carb plan and had good success with it.  The science behind the diet made sense to me.  The problem I had with the Atkins diet was that low carb treat foods were allowed.  Most of these foods were highly processed and ultimately unsatisfying to me.

This summer, when I began my journey to health I looked at low carb as an option again.  I decided to do a real food low carb approach, avoiding low carb candy, syrups, and artificial sweeteners.  I did continue to eat “healthy” whole grain low carb tortillas.

One of the first things I did was find a low carb forum to hang out on.  I ended up on The Livin’ La Vida Low Carb Forum  On the forum, I learned about Gary Taubes and his book, Why We get Fat and What to Do About It  I found the book fascinating.  It piqued my interest and I began to read everything I could find on Nutrition and Metabolism.  If this is a topic you are interested in, here’s the web site for the Nutrition and Metabolism Society

I also heard about Jimmy Moore’s podcast. The Livin’ La Vida Low Carb Show .  This podcast has an array of guests in the low carb, Paleo, nutrition and fitness areas.  It’s very professionally done.  Listening to some of the guests focused my interest on the Paleo Solution and Primal Blueprint .

Both of these books discuss the growing Ancestral Health movement.  They prescribe a method of health optimization by changing dietary and lifestyle habits to approximate those of our hunter/gatherer forebears.  The two suggested programs are very similar, and I felt they had a lot of merit.

On August 15th, I began the 30 Day Paleo Challenge.  I have been steadily losing weight, and looking and feeling better.   I don’t generally tell people I am eating Paleo.  It’s not a diet that is well understood by many.  It goes against the conventional wisdom (CW) of eating low-fat, with lot’s of “healthy” whole grains.  The CW didn’t work for me, and clearly it’s not working for a lot of Americans.  If I get asked about the dietary changes I have made, I tell people that I am trying to eat locally grown meats and produce, and avoiding processed foods.  There’s not a lot in that description that people can pick apart and argue with.

I am very curious to see how far I can go with improving my body composition and my health by following this lifestyle.  I’ve seen a lot of good results for men, and younger women.  I’ve not seen many  for women in my 50-something age group.  I’m sure they are out there, but I have not located them yet.  My life is busy and my research time is limited.  For now, I’ll be conducting my n=1 study of the effects of the Paleo lifestyle on this post-menopausal woman..

Coming Tomorrow:  My recipe for Paleo Thai Curry

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My Path to Paleo: Reaching the Crossroad

Posted on October 5, 2011 by paleopassage

I don’t know what my path is yet. I’m just walking on it.
Olivia Newton John

The path that led me to explore the Paleo lifestyle had many twists and turns.    I come from pioneer stock.  My ancestors successfully made the trek out west.  They were hardy, active people.  I appreciate that I have inherited these traits from them.  Unfortunately, part of their legacy is the ability to hold onto every calorie I ingest until every bit of energy has been wrung from it.  This is a good survival adaptation for a pioneer, but not so advantageous for a 50-something woman with a desk job.

I have struggled with weight issues for most of my adult life.  My weight has ranged from 115 pounds (This is my pre-pregnancy weight, that ever elusive target that I hope to reach again someday.  So what if my last baby is 27 years old?) to 170 pounds.  I am a short, small-boned person.  At 170 pounds, I am obese.

In December 2007 I found myself once again at 170 pounds.  I was wearing a size 16, and every indication was that I was only going to go up from there.  I decided that it was time to apply my exercise physiology and health education to my own life.  I embarked on an exercise program and a low-fat, high carb diet.  I was fairly successful with this, and by August 2008 I weighed 130 pounds and was wearing a size 6 (Of course, with vanity sizing, a size 6 in 2008 is not the same as a size 6 when I was in high school.  I had a pair of size 9 jean shorts from high school that fit me perfectly when I was wearing the current version of a size 6).

I maintained this weight until January 2010 by following the same diet and exercise plan as I used to lose weight.  I was constantly hungry, and needed to eat every 2 hours in order to keep up my blood sugar.  I wasn’t losing any more weight, but I wasn’t gaining any more either.  I was not entirely satisfied with my body composition at 130 lbs.  I still was carrying a lot of fat in my belly (and I had a bit of the batwing thing going on with my arms).

In 2010, I decided to take on a new challenge.  I signed up to run a marathon in October 2010.  TMOTH (The Man of the House) and I began to train together.  As TMOTH got into the training, his body composition changed and he got leaner.  He needed to eat a bit more food, but it became impossible for him to retain fat anywhere.  I was hoping that I would have a similar result, but it was not to be.  I became increasingly ravenous.  If I kept my food levels at the pre-training level, my blood sugar crashed.  I started eating more.  I didn’t gain any weight, but my weight and my body composition stayed exactly the same as they were before the training.  In October we successfully completed the marathon.  You can see in this picture of me crossing the finish line that even though I trained rigorously and was able to run 26 miles, I was still carrying extra body fat.

In the weeks following the marathon, a perfect storm hit.  I sustained an overuse injury to my right foot and was no longer able to run (now my preferred exercise).  I persisted in trying to run and kept exacerbating the injury.  As the holidays approached I started using holiday foods to get the boosted mood that I had been getting from running.  I told myself that I’d just enjoy all the special foods until the holidays were over, and then I’d go back to the low fat food.

January came and went.  Instead of holiday foods, I was enjoying chips and Reese’s Peanut Butter cups.  I did shift over to doing exercise other than running, but I was not as consistent without the training goal I had in 2010.

My weight started creeping up, and finally in late June 2011, I reached 150 pounds.  My weight was the same as TMOTH’s weight.  This was the dash of cold water in the face that I needed.  I prefer to weigh less than my man.  It’s a personal preference of mine.  Fortunately TMOTH is not a large person, or I could have been much larger before I came to my senses.

Another thing that started happening in May/June 2011 was that I noticed that I was having some adverse reactions to eating high carb foods.  An hour after I ate a lot of carbs, I had a huge crash in blood sugar.  I found myself falling asleep in the middle of the day (at my desk at work, on the couch reading, drowsy while driving, etc.).  If I ate something, I’d perk up, but an hour later, I’d crash.

At this point I started researching nutrition and metabolism to determine the approach I wanted to take to deal with my issues.

Coming tomorrow:  My Path to Paleo:  Choosing my Route

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