Break-fast

A pretty heavy breakfast, coming off a small 14 hour fast:
2 Pastured Eggs(supposedly 660mg omega-3's per egg)
2 Small local grass-fed ground beef patties-seasoned with shallot, black pepper, and garlic powder
1 Slice deli low-sodium Muenster
1 Medium sweet potato, french-fried(but oven roasted)
1/2 cup Sauerkraut, on the side


All were cooked in/with coconut oil except the sauerkraut.


Another reason sweet potatoes are my favorite food.

Paleolympic Lifts, Run-a-mocs

Recently, much of my focus is on functional exercise. Stability, natural movement, stress relief, and a guilty obsession with some less-functional upper body lifts. I'm loving olympic style lifts, i.e. cleans, clean jerks, deck snatches, overhead squats and presses. I thought this morning when I was doing some power cleans(taken from the deck, full stand at end) about the ridiculousness of some exercises I use, and how they might fit into my whole Paleo-scheme. So I associated some exercises I do with functional movement that could be seen as an ancestral essential. Some of these are a stretch, but it's useful to examine practicality every once in awhile

-Clean and jerks: hoisting a hunted animal up over head to a ledge, hoisting rocks up to a ledge to build something
-Cleans: Lifting and holding an animal onto a roasting spit
-Barbell Row: General lifting, building, setting traps, improved strength for climbing(maybe my ancestors were mountainous?)
-Pullups: climbing, jumping in trees quickly to avoid predators
-Planks/Plank Rows: General help for heavy lifting, balance, stability, hip mobility, spine protection.


Runamocs
Ordered yesterday, got the 5mm trail sole. Booyah


Rainy days and Reading
Currently reading the protein debate outside on the porch, watching the rain. Good read, the next read is the full China Study being torn apart. And in between all this, I'm still finishing The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Ruminants, Evolution, Gut Flora

I'm currently reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Early on he talks about ruminants, specifically cows, and their abilities to digest grass and in turn build lean muscle out of it. This is due to the four-compartment stomach that most ruminants contain. A good comparison of human stomach and a ruminant's is here. This comparison got me thinking of the evolutionary paths humans have taken versus ruminants, and how completely botched they are today.

This article about posture evolution outlines the stomachs of humans as well as other informative tidbits about alignment and whatnot. Click on "The Gut," it speaks of how the human digestive system is much shorter than that of our primate ancestors, which, according to Richard Wrangham, is due to the process of cooking. Because cooking breaks down the food we eat, we have evolved to have a smaller intestinal system, which in turn means less bacteria, gut flora, etc. By "less" I, in no way, mean a small amount. Robb Wolf does a good job describing the relevance of gut flora, and it's importance in largely Paleo diet--especially those heavy in vegetables, plant fibers, and other non-digestibles that rely on the gut flora to be broken down and utilized.

My question is: where will evolution take us in the next 10,000 years? Will the intestinal system become more compact, with less gut flora? With processed foods(read the top processed foods responsible for high-sodium intake) taking over our diet, will we need this gut flora any more? Will we even eat plants with polysaccharides that need to be digested?



Don't be afraid of your flora. Mucous membranes are a scary place, but infection is the only scary thing about our natural microbial system. Get to know your flora, become associated with fermented foods.

most FF contain lacto-bacillus (Acidophilus) and promote good intestinal bacteria populations + very high in enzymes + reported to be pre-digested (by bacteria), hence easier for your digestion

That's all for now. I'm thinking the next post will be more in depth on gut flora, and/or BCAA's and a fasted protocol.

Back at it

After a brief hiatus, after an even briefer period of posting on this blog, I've decided to come back and trying to frequently update. Inspiration thanks to Free the Animal. Lot of interesting stuff right now in the Paleo, barefoot, and vegan communities.

There's been a lot of controversy over The China Study as of late. Much to the dismay of the vegetarian and vegan community, many studies have discredited the Campbell's findings. Exclusion of outlying data....to strengthen a hypothesis....who would do such a thing? Ancel Keys ring a bell? (Thanks for making dietary fat so taboo). Anyways, a small county inside China who threw a wrench in the gears of Campbell's "comprehensive" study.

A man of particular mention in fat-fact-finding would be Uffe Ravnskov, check him out as well as interesting research over at Hyperlipid


On the barefoot front, one I'm extremely interested in right now, some exciting new shoes have been released. Meet the SoftStar Runamoc, a minimalist running moccasin made by a company whose prime retail is baby footwear.
After reluctance to believe their worth--currently $87 USD + shipping, I decided to do research on the quality. Donald over at Running and Rambling did a comprehensive testing process for SoftStar, being able to beat to shit every prototype of their new running moccasin that they could throw his way, critiquing all along the way leading up to his ultimate belief that they have created a winner. I'll be ordering a pair soon, unless SoftStar wants a loyal campus representative at the University of Tennessee.

Workout 5/31/10

Happy Memorial Day. Gym was closed, so I figured this would be as good excuse as any to do some sprint work, calisthenics, and core.

The workout:

• 3 Mile run, brisk, barefoot
• 10 minutes of interval sprints, with box jumps throughout.
• P90x Ab Ripper X workout(15 minutes)

For being disappointed that the gym was closed upon arrival, this was an incredible improv. workout.

Now some coffee, and a meal in about an hour or so.

Meal 1:

3 Slices Bacon

4 Cage-free Eggs, fried over medium

1 Avocado

1 Grapefruit

Inspiration, 2:27 :

Workout and Meals 5/27/10

Fitness:

45 minute Back workout, 8 AM:

4 Supersets, ascending weight, of

• 4 x 10,8,6,5 medium grip T-bar row/3 x 8 close grip lever row
• 4 x 8 close grip cable row/ 3 x 6 Machine lever lat pulldown
• 3 x 10,8,8 wide grip cable row/ 3 x 8 wide grip cable lat pulldown
• 4 x 6 underhand, wide T-bar row/ 4 x 5 explosive pullups (no kip)

Then, finished off with a 1.5 mile barefoot run. Pool was closed.

Playlist:

From Ashes Rise - Concrete and Steel, Silence

Three 6 Mafia - Most Known Unknown

Meal 1 (10:30 AM):

1 Scoop Whey protein, mixed in water

Juice of 1 lemon, mixed with water

Ground Beef Lettuce Wrap:

8 oz Grass-fed Ground Beef

1 Large Roasted Red Bell Pepper, in brine, chopped

3 cloves Garlic, minced

1 tsp. ground Black Pepper

1 tsp. low sodium, Cajun Seasoning

3 Large Lettuce Leaves

Meal 2 (2 PM):

2 Strips uncured Bacon

4 Free-range Eggs, fried in bacon grease

1 Avocado

1 Grapefruit

2 cups Coffee, black

Snack (9 PM):

1 can Tuna with 0.5 oz chimmichurri and Cholula Hot Sauce

1 Navel Orange

2 oz Parmesan Cheese, Argentinean.

Meal 3 (10:30 PM)

3 cups Baby Spinach

5 oz. leftover Grass-fed from the lettuce wraps

1 tbsp. "natural" (unfortunately, still has soybean oil as primary fat source) Ranch dressing

Bedtime (1 AM)

1 scoop O.N. whey protein, in water

2 Tbsp. Peanut Butter