An Epic Walk

[dannno]

No, I'm not saying that he is not fit, but by that definition I would say that there is a possibility (and he would agree) that there are some joints in his body that lack range of motion, some aches and pains that he wished he didn't have. Fitness is a daily pursuit, not a physique. And, you are correct. Some people who would be otherwise deemed obese could be fit.
I am a physical therapist, and it is from that perspective that you will hear my points. http://www.mobilitywod.com/ is Kelly Starrett, DPT. I would say that he has done to a degree what I am trying to do with this walk. We can inspire people to get back to moving, to remove pain by becoming mobile. Movement is the Key to Life; the more we move, the more alive we are. Stagnation leads to pain, leads to dysfunction. When we restore normal motion, pain goes away. That's all I'm saying, and that's all I'm trying to promote with this endeavor.

Actually I'm guessing Mark doesn't have those problems at all unless he suffered a traumatic injury because his diet avoids systemic inflammation and he is a former triathlete and ironman competitor and obviously still maintains his physical fitness.

You should do some voluntary studies with your PT patients. A lot of doctors push their patients away from red meat and onto grains. If you have a patient who enjoys their red meat, why not talk to them about increasing their veggie intake and switch to grass fed/pastured/wild meats and wild seafood, grass fed butter, cooking veggies in coconut oil and avoiding grains/carbs? It could help reduce their inflammation, increase muscle mass and aid in their recovery. I imagine over time the correlation would become obvious.

 

[Meiun]

Good point... and to a degree, when asked I do. But with specialization in health care what it is today you have to be very careful about the advice you give as it could land you in hot water with a nutritionist or dietician, even if you are correct. "That's not your scope of practice!!!!" bleh. One of the reasons I'm leaving the field and going prevention side.

 

[dannno]

Good point... and to a degree, when asked I do. But with specialization in health care what it is today you have to be very careful about the advice you give as it could land you in hot water with a nutritionist or dietician, even if you are correct. "That's not your scope of practice!!!!" bleh. One of the reasons I'm leaving the field and going prevention side.

Yes our medical system is flawed like that.

 

[Eagles' Wings]

@ jllundqu

How is the Perfect Health diet different from Paleo? I may get this book, the website is terrific. My biggest concern is the insulin released when eating carbs every couple of hours. Tell me more about the fun you experience. Thank you.

 

[Acala]

In my opinion, and I think the science is solid, the two most important enemies of good health in the western world are chronic stress and chronic inflammation. Any program of fitness that does not adress both is less than optimal. The paleo/primal lifestyle addresses chronic inflammation very well. In fact, if I had to characterize the primal/paleo diet in one word, it would be "anti-inflammatory."

I won't derail the thread with my opinions on chronic stress.

 

[Acala]

When you said this:

for those who pursue fitness it just doesn't balance out.

I understood you to be saying that it is not possible to be fit on a paleo/primal diet. I believe that under virtually ANY definition of fitness that is clearly false. And in my personal case, the exact opposite has been true.

However, it MIGHT be the case (but too early to tell as not enough people have tried it) that it is not possible to compete at the highest levels in endurance sports like marathon and ultra-marathon running without burning carbs. You certainly CAN be a distance runner burning fat, but you might not be able to run in the olympics unless you are shoveling sugar down your pie hole the whole time. While elite endurance athletes certainly are VERY fit by at least one measure, it is questionable that such a practice is healthy in the long term. Endurance running produces a cortisol bath for hours. That supresses immune function and is catabolic (which is why the upper bodies of most endurance runners look like refugees.) Heart damage in endurance athletes is not uncommon (see Caballo Blanco for recent anecdotal evidence). For more anecdotal evidence, there is a serious ultra-marathon runner here in my office. He is lean, of course, even though he is constantly gobbling the carbs. But the interesting thing is that he has a constant runny nose, indicating an over-heated histamine response and chronic inflammation. Not a good thing.

 

[Eagles' Wings]

In my opinion, and I think the science is solid, the two most important enemies of good health in the western world are chronic stress and chronic inflammation. Any program of fitness that does not adress both is less than optimal. The paleo/primal lifestyle addresses chronic inflammation very well. In fact, if I had to characterize the primal/paleo diet in one word, it would be "anti-inflammatory."

I won't derail the thread with my opinions on chronic stress.

Hi Acala, Would you mind telling me what you eat in a day? Do you avoid sugar of any kind even those in sweet potatoes, ketchup, peas, fruit? I've been a big fan of Bee Wilder at www.healingnaturallybybee.com

and there is no sugar whatsoever. I have not gone to this extent, but think I may consider it. Thank you.

 

[Meiun]

Wow, great information there Acala, and I agree with you on both points of chronic inflammation and chronic stress.

When referring to my original statement of "doesn't balance out", what I meant was that over the course of time most people tend to move away from diet plans in general. What I have found to be true in my life, and I would suspect that many in the industry especially, is that we take the good points from each of these new discoveries about the human experience, wrap it all up into a qualified contingent of information that we then use to self-select how we will respond to each scenario.

From a personal perspective, having given paleo a fair amount of time (5 months of daily fitness pursuits along with the diet while at Ellsworth AFB) to instruct my body in good food choices I came away from the experience feeling depleted. But I also came away with a valuable lesson in food choice. So, what I do now is I use complex sugars to start my day (fruits), then water water water... I can't over-state how important water is to our daily functions. 62% of us in the US live in a constant state of dehydration (which leads to much of the inflammation you hear about). Then, I do use simple sugars to keep me going as a work out heavily for anywhere from 2 to 5 hours a day. I am for the most part paleo through the rest of the day, but as I said, I do love a dinner role with my barbeque

 

[Acala]

Hi Acala, Would you mind telling me what you eat in a day? Do you avoid sugar of any kind even those in sweet potatoes, ketchup, peas, fruit? I've been a big fan of Bee Wilder at www.healingnaturallybybee.com

and there is no sugar whatsoever. I have not gone to this extent, but think I may consider it. Thank you.

Happy to. Let's take today for example.

Breakfast: Garlic, onions, green pepper, spinach, chard, and spices cooked in coconut oil and left over drippings from frying beef patties last night then three free-range eggs scrambled in. Served with half of a wild-caught salmon steak. Water to drink. Followed by a couple tablespoons of fresh water melon. All of the vegetables and fruit (except the garlic) organic and most locally grown.

And a cup of coffee with about a tablespoon of grass fed butter whipped into it.

Lunch will be a large salad containing broccoli and broccoli sprouts, carrots, celery, green pepper, seaweed, kale, chard, lettuce, and spinach. This will often have anchovies, salmon, or home-made pickles as well, but not today. Olive oil and apple-cider vinegar for dressing. Followed by a couple patties of local grass-fed beef, a handful of sugar-snap peas, and a piece of watermelon. Followed by another cup of coffee with butter. Yum.

Dinner will be unusual tonight because I have a meeting at dinner time. They will provide pizza, which I don't eat, so I have packed a light dinner to go. The light dinner consists of a carrot, a handful of sugar-snap peas, some dried beef, and any watermeloon left over from lunch. When I get home after the meeting I will probably have a small bowl of the beef stew I made last night, which in addition to beef contains onions, tomatos, squash, tomatillo, and amaranth.

The reason so much watermelon is because I belong to a local Community Supported Agriculture group and a big watermelon was part of the share last week. Because I limit my fruit intake, a watermelon lasts a long time.

Other things that might appear from time to time are very dark chocolate, bacon, sausage, a variety of other vegetables, and berries (in moderation).

No grain, no vegetable oils other than coconut, olive, and palm, no legumes (other than the peas), no added sugar.

A variety of supplements including ginger, turmeric, and vitamin d3.

That's it in a nutshell.

edit: It is possible to make your own fermented ketchup that is good, but I have not and I won't eat the commercial stuff because of the additives. Tubers are okay in moderation if you aren't trying to lose weight. Sweet potatoes would be preferred because of the added nutrients. Dried peas no, fresh green peas occasionally. Fruit in strict moderation. Fruit tends to be high in fructose which, among other things, interferes with the leptin satiation mechanism and tends to lead to over-eating. A little fruit after a meal of LOTS of vegetables and healthy fats is fine.

 

[dannno]

Wow, great information there Acala, and I agree with you on both points of chronic inflammation and chronic stress.

When referring to my original statement of "doesn't balance out", what I meant was that over the course of time most people tend to move away from diet plans in general. What I have found to be true in my life, and I would suspect that many in the industry especially, is that we take the good points from each of these new discoveries about the human experience, wrap it all up into a qualified contingent of information that we then use to self-select how we will respond to each scenario.

From a personal perspective, having given paleo a fair amount of time (5 months of daily fitness pursuits along with the diet while at Ellsworth AFB) to instruct my body in good food choices I came away from the experience feeling depleted. But I also came away with a valuable lesson in food choice. So, what I do now is I use complex sugars to start my day (fruits), then water water water... I can't over-state how important water is to our daily functions. 62% of us in the US live in a constant state of dehydration (which leads to much of the inflammation you hear about). Then, I do use simple sugars to keep me going as a work out heavily for anywhere from 2 to 5 hours a day. I am for the most part paleo through the rest of the day, but as I said, I do love a dinner role with my barbeque

You had access to grass fed (finished) and pastured animals, wild game and wild seafood at an airforce base?

 

[Eagles' Wings]

Happy to. Let's take today for example.

Breakfast: Garlic, onions, green pepper, spinach, chard, and spices cooked in coconut oil and left over drippings from frying beef patties last night then three free-range eggs scrambled in. Served with half of a wild-caught salmon steak. Water to drink. Followed by a couple tablespoons of fresh water melon. All of the vegetables and fruit (except the garlic) organic and most locally grown.

And a cup of coffee with about a tablespoon of grass fed butter whipped into it.

Lunch will be a large salad containing broccoli and broccoli sprouts, carrots, celery, green pepper, seaweed, kale, chard, lettuce, and spinach. This will often have anchovies, salmon, or home-made pickles as well, but not today. Olive oil and apple-cider vinegar for dressing. Followed by a couple patties of local grass-fed beef, a handful of sugar-snap peas, and a piece of watermelon. Followed by another cup of coffee with butter. Yum.

Dinner will be unusual tonight because I have a meeting at dinner time. They will provide pizza, which I don't eat, so I have packed a light dinner to go. The light dinner consists of a carrot, a handful of sugar-snap peas, some dried beef, and any watermeloon left over from lunch. When I get home after the meeting I will probably have a small bowl of the beef stew I made last night, which in addition to beef contains onions, tomatos, squash, tomatillo, and amaranth.

The reason so much watermelon is because I belong to a local Community Supported Agriculture group and a big watermelon was part of the share last week. Because I limit my fruit intake, a watermelon lasts a long time.

Other things that might appear from time to time are very dark chocolate, bacon, sausage, a variety of other vegetables, and berries (in moderation).

No grain, no vegetable oils other than coconut, olive, and palm, no legumes (other than the peas), no added sugar.

A variety of supplements including ginger, turmeric, and vitamin d3.

That's it in a nutshell.

edit: It is possible to make your own fermented ketchup that is good, but I have not and I won't eat the commercial stuff because of the additives. Tubers are okay in moderation if you aren't trying to lose weight. Sweet potatoes would be preferred because of the added nutrients. Dried peas no, fresh green peas occasionally. Fruit in strict moderation. Fruit tends to be high in fructose which, among other things, interferes with the leptin satiation mechanism and tends to lead to over-eating. A little fruit after a meal of LOTS of vegetables and healthy fats is fine.

This is fantastic and exactly how I want to eat. Would you mind a pm to help me tweek a couple of things?

 

[Acala]

This is fantastic and exactly how I want to eat. Would you mind a pm to help me tweek a couple of things?

I would be very happy to help in any way I can.

 

[Meiun]

You had access to grass fed (finished) and pastured animals, wild game and wild seafood at an airforce base?

not on base, but that's in Rapid City, SD... Look up the culture there. That's where I learned about paleo. there are a couple of EXCEPTIONAL restaurants there that serve a paleo diet. Umm... can't recall the name exactly, Something Thyme was the one we ate lunch at every day, wow... yum! Miss that place

Oh, and I was contracted there, I was not enlisted or in the service myself. (just to clarify)

 

[Austrian Econ Disciple]

Different strokes for different folks. Coming from a bodybuilding background our requirements are a lot different than other folks. What Mark wrote in that article at a physiological level is right - carbs are converted into glucose and then into glycogen. I didn't get to finish the entire article, but depending on your fitness level and type of fitness activities you engage in, your needs will be vastly different. Carbs aren't 'bad' for you, in fact they're essential to flood your muscles with protein and EAA's after intense workouts, as well as providing cost-effective energy - they're not all equal either. Carbs like basmati rice and sweet potatoes that have low GI are much better than white rice and bread that have high GI.

Anyways, the point is, that healthy fats are needed especially for hormone production (ideally at least .5G / lb for men), and protein is essential for muscle hypertrophy and retention as well as can be converted to carbs if needed. You actually do not need to eat any carbs to survive, but that would be hideously expensive and you'd probably get sick of it eventually. There's nothing wrong with having 30% of your macros come from low GI carbs like basmati rice, sweet potatoes, peanut butter etc.