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The Primal Diet

As a firefighter and personal trainer I hear about paleo diet and crossfit almost every day. While I am always listening about the two with respect and interest I don't really agree entirely with either systems. But some of my close friends and people I respect have gone hardcore paleo so I started to look into it. So I read up on Rob Wolff the supposed crossfit paleo guru. Funny enough what I found from his stuff floating around the internet is that he is a pretty smart dude and he doesn't like crossfit at all!? Interesting. Either no one in the crossfit world knows this or they are way more accepting then I thought.

Anyway since this is a food for thought entry I will stay on topic and off crossfit. As I mentioned in my earlier blog I have really noticed since becoming a dad and working considerably more hours then what I did in my early 20's that my body needs a little more supervision and a little less play time. Higher cortisol levels are certainly a suspect.

If you didn't read my first attempt at a 'fad diet', the you should check out my blogs
http://utcsc.blogspot.ca/2012/02/new-thoughts-about-food-that-are-food.html
http://utcsc.blogspot.ca/2012/04/complete-failure-food-for-thought-part.html

When I was poking around the paleo topic online I came across the Primal Diet at Marks Daily Apple.
The idea of eating as close to what our ancestral genetics are evolved around seems very logical to me. Mark describes why we should go Primal by saying "Our ancestors evolved over millions of years under certain environmental conditions. These conditions (the foods they ate, the amount of sun they got, the sort of movement that was required of them to survive, etc.) shaped their genome. While the world has changed in innumerable ways in the last 10,000 years (for better and worse), the human genome has changed very little and thus only thrives under similar conditions. Simply put, if you want a good future you better listen to the past."

Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/welcome-to-marks-daily-apple/#ixzz1yAU2G3fq

So I read all the free information online and downloaded the free ebooks about 3 weeks ago and started on my adventure with the Primal Diet. 

So far I have noticed.....

Some cool things about the Primal Diet are: 

1. Unlike the Paleo diet you eat a lot of full flavored foods as the diet allows for high fat content
2. The meals are very basic as they really are just meat and veggies most of the time
3. I felt less bloated and inflamed right away
4. There is a real whole wellness approach to the Primal System which I liked

Some tough things about the PD are:

1. People seem to be almost offended when you don't eat grains (my wife is still my biggest obstacle)
2. If you have a sweet tooth its a hard transition
3. Expect your grocery bill and the amount of trips to the grocery store to increase

Right now I am starting into my fourth week and I have had some bad weekends between bachelor parties and family get togethers. But I don't feel like when I was doing the calorie counting diet that slip ups make a huge difference. I will continue my experiment and get back to you soon!

Any body else out there doing the Primal Diet thing?

Metabolic Conditioning Circuits to try at home.

(Light Day) 

Warm Up

Heres the work out

20-15-10-5 Drop Set

KB Swings

KB Sumo Deadlifts

Sandbag or DB Push Press

Rope Slams (or use Medicine Ball)

Sandbag or DB Back Lunge

Jacks

Rest as needed between rounds

The Primal Playground

Those who know me well understand I'm a bit of an over thinker. That front part of my brain is generally a little to overactive. Add lack of sleep, a couple of spats with the wife and some caffeine and I'm pretty much on full mental overdrive. But really who in our modern day lives with instant information Internet access, fast food, complete bombardment of media advertisement isn't? It makes we feel as if we are spinning way to fast in a mind blender of sorts.

To me there is something self/mind liberating about working out. When I mean working out I do not mean a light cardio session on an elliptical. I mean a battle! I'm throwing heavy stuff around, jumping in the air, sprinting, climbing, pulling heavy things up from the earth and slamming them down again. Its about bringing out that primal part of myself and pitting it against gravity and it feels cathartic. All of a sudden those little things I had been obsessing about mean very little in the big picture.

Being physical is a major part of our genetic heritage. Are ancestors would have had to go through a "work out" everyday just to survive. That is a missing part of most of our lives and for me it is a hole that needs to be filled or I loose myself in it.

If you dont already have one I strongly recommend you find your primal playground.

Complete Failure: Food for thought Part 2

So if you follow our blog posts you may have read my blog about a little experiment I did personally in response to some interesting research I read from Precision Nutrition and an experiment done by a food scientist in the states that got a lot of coverage. If not you can check it out here

http://utcsc.blogspot.ca/2012/02/new-thoughts-about-food-that-are-food.html

If you want a quick overview I wanted to see what would happen if I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, skipping meals if I wanted and just keeping my caloric intake where I needed to loose weight.

Initially I found some benefit. I got a better sense of how a lower calorie day felt and enjoyed taking the mental stress of myself about having to eat at specific times.

After about 3-4 weeks I found that the days I ate bad foods it was really hard not to over eat my calories. I also felt really swollen and tired on heavy crap food days which made it hard to work out. Initially I didn't mind plugging in my calories but I started to find when I got behind on it I would stress out about it which obviously brought the fun factor down.

I'm not trying to say that I have learned some new cutting edge information here. I have always been a firm believer in the huge benefit of eating a diet full of whole food vegetation and lean meats, while minimizing high carbohydrate processed foods and additives.

What I simply want to share with everyone is that from my personal experience just focusing on calories is a very ineffective way to achieve weight loss especially when it comes to the mental and emotional difficulties with diet change.

What should I try next?

The new eat whatever the f@#! you want diet.

As a trainer I get asked about food alot but I don't really like talking to clients and friends about nutrition, simply because I'm not really an expert about anything to do with the topic. I know the basics to get me by and I definitely read up on the topic on a regular basis. How ever, I have been rolling around some ideas lately that I thought would be interesting.

I want to share a little revelation I had after reading two very important articles.

ARTICLE ONE: Was about a food nutritionist that did a study (on himself) to prove that when it came to weight loss it really didn't matter what you ate or when but simply how many calories a day. I already wrote a blog about this one if you didn't read about it take some time to catch up at http://utcsc.blogspot.com/2010/12/twinkie-diet-just-in-time-for-christmas.html
The coles notes on this one is simply he ate junk food but kept his calories in check and lost weight.

ARTICLE TWO: This article was renowned author on nutrition Dr. Berardi of Precision Nutrition. It was a very large article explaining his research on fasting. You can read an overview about it at http://www.precisionnutrition.com/all-about-intermittent-fasting TJ's short take away notes about this is that going periods without food isn't really a big problem for weight loss and health as long as your calorie calorie consumption is on target.

These two articles together got me really thinking about food. I have always struggled with a lot of guilt around what I eat and when I eat it. The main people I like to take advice from in the fitness world have been saying that the only way to be successful is to eat 5-6 small meals a day and try to make them full of fresh fruits and vegetables and lean meat, trying to avoid anything else. This is really hard for me owning a business, being a dad and having a full time job as a firefighter. Plus I really enjoy eating the comfort food I was brought up on.

So lately I have been using a calorie counter that I downloaded to my phone from http://www.fatsecret.com/ and I am in the first couple of weeks of recording my calorie consumption every day without stressing to much about what I am eating and when.

A few things I have noticed from my personal experiment so far

1. When I record what I eat it really takes the guilt level down about my eating habits and it really doesn't take much time to do
2. It is really easy to go way over my daily caloric goal especially when I have a big dinner or eat comfort food
3. If I need to eat to make me feel full without having a lot of calories green vegetables seems to be the only thing that helps
4. I love not feeling required to eat at a particular time and that I can eat fun foods as long as I plan for them
5. I'm a lot hungrier when I don't take a fiber supplement

I would say after noticing these things about a calorie aware diet it seems to me that the reason that eating more regular meals with lean meat and vegetables works for weight loss is because it is a lot harder to go over in your calories per day. Plus your body has to work harder and burn more calories to metabolise a clean diet. I know that this seems like common sense to you but it is important to me because this latest research allows you to explore the possibility of having some easy food and not worrying about skipping a meal or two as long as your caloric numbers equal out over the week.

I still try to eat healthy but I don't stress out when I don't. To date I have lost three pounds, my goal is 10 pounds in total.  We will wait & count and see how it goes.

To be continued......

We Got Your Back!

I annoy myself with how often I tell everyone to "maintain a neutral spine!"
In deadlifts especially, but in any major lifts (in the gym or elsewhere - i.e. snow shovelling season!), neutral spine is key. It's become my catchphrase, and here's why:

-        lower back muscles (pars lumborum) can protect against anterior shear

-          no tension in interspinous ligament, therefore no ligament induced anterior shear

-          ligaments in general are not under tension since ligaments unstrained

-          not likely to herniate a disc because hernation associated with full flexion

-          the spine can handle compressive loads better when in neutral position.

In layman's terms:

Activating back muscles in a neutral spine means that you are protecting yourself against back injuries and herniations. You are also able to lift a greater load. Therefore neutral spine = avoid injury and lift more.
Seems simple, and it is, as long as you make a conscious effort to activate the lower back muscles each time you are lifting.  Practise this each time you perform a lift - whether it is something small at home, like a box, or something heavy at the gym, like a deadlift.

"Practise makes perfect and it also makes permanent."

If you consciously activate these muscles everytime you perform a lift it will eventually become an unconscious effort; your lifting technique will benefit, you won't become injured- and you won't hear me nagging you.

UTC uses a functional movement screen for many of our athletes. One of the tests (squatting with a dowel raised above the head) is used to assess bilateral and symmetical mobility of the ankles, knees, hips and shoulders. It is a great determinant of functional defecits that could lead to injury.  When you perform this complex movement pattern we are looking for a specific kinetic pattern - dorsiflexion of the ankle, hip hinge, extension through the thoracic spine and proper positioning of the arms. If the arms are falling forward - this could indicate that someone has weak extensors in their upper back. When functional deficits are identified - it is much easier to prescribe exercises to increase the strength of these areas, and prevent injury and focus on what matters at UTC - strength and conditioning 

If you want a demonstration, or any additional advice ask one of us next time you are in!

Written by: Alli Cain, B.A.Kin, C.K.