Binge Eating

I went out to eat yesterday with some friends and decided to stray away from my diet. I hadn't eaten all day and was quite stressed due to a bad substitute teaching experience I had early in the day. Because of this I was ready to stuff my face with carbs and feel the rising serotonin levels in my brain. I desperately needed to feel better so I wasn't concerned about the damaging effects to my body. My blood sugar was quite high this morning so I guess my body wasn't quite used to that bolus of wheat flour and sugar I had the night before.

I'm not sure how long the damaging effects of a meal like this last in your body. It might last months, maybe even years, but I think that the worst parts of it are over in a few days and your body returns to the fat burning state you were before. If you don't feel like drawing attention to your "restricting" diet with your friends I don't think it hurts a whole lot to let go a bit. Personally, I have a problem stopping myself at a certain point when I indulge so I eat until I am completely stuffed. I had this pattern of eating when I was younger so it is pretty ingrained in me. I'll just learn how to live with it rather than fighting it.

I have a similar relationship with alcohol as I do with high carbohydrate food. I can abstain from it for a long time and not even think about it or miss it but when I have one drink I want another. The more I think about it, the more similar alcohol and sugar seem to me. They are both damaging to my body and I have some level of addiction for both of them. I can't ignore this fact.

Diet Update

I've been adding more carbs in my diet from sources like potatoes and rice. I don't consume them often, but often enough so I don't stay in a deep ketosis. Something tells me that my body needs a break from gluconeogenesis and some glucose from and outside source is like a welcome break for my metabolism. I don't think it'll harm my fat loss attempt. I seem to do fine with a bowl of rice krispies or a couple of sweet potato fries once in a while.

It was incredibly different to follow the paleo diet a la Arthur Devany. It's just not practical for me to buy that many vegetables. They're expensive and they go bad within a few days. Cream, bacon, eggs are my staples now. They are very cheap and a very rich source of calories. I never feel starved after a meal now.

Grass fed meat will be next change to my diet. I've been trying to consume less conventional super market meat but there's no good excuse not to go for grass fed if it's available. I found a family farm about twenty minutes away that sells pasture raised meat. It's more humane and way healthier so I'll make my way down with Heather to buy some meat and see how it is. It'd be nice if I could get some tallow too so I don't have to fry with butter and olive oil all the time.

The "Every Day Paleo" book by Sarah Fragoso is on the way and I should be getting in the next few days. It looks great and has an introduction to Robb Wolf so I'm looking forward to it. Looks like there's some great ideas in their to make my meals less boring.

The Archevore

I think any human on the planet would do well to adapt one of the many "Paleo Diets" out there. There are so many Paleo gurus (for lack of a better word) out there that all give great advice. Some of the big guys of the Paleo Movement are Arthur Devany, Loren Cordain, and Robb Wolf. Anybody that wants to live and eat healthy would do well to follow one of these guys' protocol. That being said, I no longer follow any of those guys' diets.

I just started reading Kurt Harris' blog a couple weeks ago and since then I have changed my diet quite a bit. I'm eating way more fat (saturated fat specifically)and am even more scrutinizing with my avoidance of plant oils like corn oil. I've never felt better in my life.

Harris calls himself an Archevore which roughly translates to "one who eats the essentials." In his opinion, the essentials for anyone are lots of animal fats with little vegetables and very little fruits. Starchy tubers, white rice and corn are allowed in small amounts as well. Doesn't sound very "Paleo" does it. Rice? Corn? The staple is the fat of the animal not the protein? It just doesn't sound right to a paleo dieter who is trying to emulate the diet of our paleolithic ancestors. But his arguments are very convincing and since stumbling across his blog I've added way more saturated fat via copious amounts of heavy cream (sounds gross but it's delicious).

Arthur Devany and Loren Cordain advocate a leaner diet composed of lean meats, vegetables and some fruit. Starchy foods are best avoided, according to them. I've had great success with following this type of diet but there was always a problem: I couldn't stay on a diet of lean protein and lots of vegetables without calorically starving myself. It's really hard to get enough calories eating this way. Also, I always had the nagging feeling that something was missing. Like I wasn't completely full.

The problem, I think, was that I wasn't eating enough fat. Specifically animal fat. Boy does it feel good to not worry about making sure my bacon is well cooked and drained. I now typically fry eggs in the bacon grease. Also, my preferred fat to cook with is now butter and not olive oil. It sounds strange but butter is healthier than olive oil. Arthur Devany be damned. I am not trimming the fat from my steak anymore and I won't throw out any egg yolks. Devany wrote in his book that you should avoid the (I'm paraphrasing here) "rush of fatty acids entering your bloodstream". I was never sure what he meant by it but I always made sure to never have too many fats in one meal so that I could avoid that "rush". I now think that that reasoning is completely bunk so bring on the bacon and sour cream!

Besides, a large amount of fat in one sitting wouldn't be nearly as damaging to your body as a rush of sugar would. This makes sense if you want to think about it from a historical perspective too. Hunter-gathers would never eat hundreds of grams of carbs in one sitting. Pasta, skittles, twinkies and bread came years later. On the other hand, a large dose of fat in one sitting was probably a relatively frequent event. Whenever they brought down some large mammal, I'm sure the first thing they would eat would be the fattiest portions of it. So, it would make sense that we are adapted to get large doses of fat (at least once in a while) but not large doses of carbohydrates.

I think Devany's blog is great and filled with just as much science and truth as Harris' blog but Harris' diet is way easier to be on and I feel great on it. Not great. Phenomenal. I no longer have to worry so much about getting vegetables in every meal (they're way over-rated) or eating too much fat (seriously, give cream a try). It's just more practical for me to be on.

Carb Phobia

I'm no longer very worried about keeping my carb intake that low anymore. It's become apparent to me that the human metabolism can handle quite a bit of carbs. More than I thought. Relatively speaking, the diet that I follow is low-carb compared to the SAD (Standard American Diet)but I no longer fear starchy foods.

Grains are still a big no in my book though. There's just too much nasty stuff in their that is bad for anyone. It's not the carbs or starch that's bad for you in grains, it's all the anti-nutrients they contain. Potatoes don't seem to be as bad when it comes to anti-nutrients so I think I'll have them once in a while. I'll probably reintroduce them when I don't want to lose anymore fat.

My Review of Vibram Five Fingers

My calves are sore as hell. I could barely get out bed and walk this morning because these damn shoes made me use muscle I haven't used since I was twelve.

These shoes are great. These Vibrams have a therapeutic value to them. If you have any kind of back, hip, or knee pain. Buy a pair of these and see what it does to you. My hip pain has not gone away completely but it is reduced. I think what's happening is my body is finally starting to really on its musculature to support my weight rather than resting on the joints. I have a habit of leaning on my right hip, as evidenced buy some x-rays my chiropractor took of me. I have less of a tendency to do this now because of my improved balance. I feel more connected to the ground and can actually grip it with my toes.

On the down side: these things look ridiculous. Be prepared for a lot of stares and pointing. And laughing. I walked around BJ's with them and there were a lot of glares at my feet. Because of this, I don't think I'll wear these all the time. I don't mind what people think but it takes a lot out of you when you get all these stares. I don't care how not self-conscious you usually are. You will feel self-conscious with these things on. But you just have to weigh that with the benefit of improved posture and walking mechanics.

A Quote From Nassim Nicholas Taleb

"Let me explain. If you consider your diet and exercise as a simple energy deficits/excesses, with a straight calorie-in, calorie-burned equation, you will fall into the trap of misspecifying the system into simple causal and mechanical links. Your food intake becomes the equivalent of filling up the tank of your new BMW. If on the other hand you look at food and exercise as activating metabolic signals, with potential metabolic cascades and nonlinearities from network effects, and with recursive links, then welcome to complexity, hence Extremistan. Both food and workout provide your body with information about stressor in the environment. As I have been saying throught, informational randomness is from Extremistan. Medicine fell into the trap of using simple thermodynamics with the same physics-envy and with the same mentality and the same tools as economists did when they looked at the economy as a web of simple links. And both are complex systems."

Social Expectations

I ordered a pair of Vibram Five Fingers a few days ago and expect them pretty soon. I'm probably more excited as I should be. I'm really becoming a dork when it comes to this fitness/nutrition thing. The most difficult part of becoming healthy is to eschew the social norms and be a little bit eccentric. If you're not a little weird, you're probably not very healthy.

But there is a point where you have to say, "OK, my health is important, but having friends is important too". Sometimes you have to compromise and give in to the social norms.

These weird slip-on hybrid sock-shoes are going to get some stares but there is no real harm done. On the other hand, if you turn down food from a person as a guest in their house, you will be perceived as being a little rude. Nobody cares that the gluten in the wheat flour is going to wreak havoc upon your gut preventing you from properly digesting your food. "It's just a freakin' cookie!", they say. "Everybody eats cookies from time to time and so should you." OK. Fair enough. I shall do away with my health concerns for the small band of time that I am a guest in your home.

With a little practice, I think you can turn down any insulin spiking, high-fructose corn syrup, sugar laden foods tactfully. But sometimes you have to just bite the bullet and eat a damn cookie.

Footwear is a different story. I don't care how unpleasant these things are to the eye. You'll just have to deal with that. I hear they stink like hell after a while, though.