The Great Experiment Of ’10

“For every complicated problem there is a solution that is simple, direct, understandable and wrong.” – H.L. Mencken

When I first started this blog, its initial thrust was intended to chronicle my attempts at incorporating a Paleo/hunter-gatherer/primal way of eating into my lifestyle.  Of course, within the first four entries, I found that topic far too limiting for a verbose, pretentious writer-type like myself, so I veered off into another domain that I will come back to soon enough.

But in the interest of nutrition-related ramblings, I want to take this opportunity to look back at the time when I went in the complete opposite direction of Paleo.  Like the Paleo way of eating, it came at a time when I was desperately in need of answers that conventional nutrition simply couldn’t answer.  Like Paleo, when I started it, I was convinced it was the way to be – not for anyone else, but for myself.  And like Paleo, within a few weeks, I was looking at its limitations, and how it could be modified to fit me – in terms of nutrition, flavor, and instincts.

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In our Senior Exerscise Physiology class, we spent time learning lab techniques that we might use in work-related settings.  One technique was blood analysis for several markers – glucose, lactate, and lipids.  My glucose numbers were perfectly fine (92 mg/dl, if you must know).  I honestly don’t remember my lactate numbers; they weren’t that important to me at the time, likely because I hadn’t had the importance of blood lactate drilled into my head the way I had with blood sugar or blood lipids.

Then came the moment of reckoning:  the LDL/HDL numbers.

Total cholesterol:  221

LDL: 144

HDL:  46

Total/HDL Ratio:  4.7

Triglycerides:  155

There are several ways to interpret my data, but the most important markers of good heart health are the Total:HDL ratio (4.5 or lower), and triglycerides (150 or lower).   So as you can see, I was a little on the high side, but as my professors told me, nothing to get hung about.  (Yes, Paul McCartney taught my Senior Ex. Phys. class, so what?)

Unfortunately, I’m not wired that way.  I decided I wanted to root out the cause of these high numbers.  And KILL IT.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, I grew up in a Hindu household, so the idea of meat being bad for our well-being (physical and spiritual) has been with me since jump.  Add that to years and years of “low fat, high grains” nutritional indoctrination that we have all been subjected to ever since Ancel Keys and the United States government decided that 7 out of 22 was enough, and I was ready to take a protracted break from animals.  I had cut dairy out of my diet almost entirely about a year prior (I’ll post about that in the future), and many athletes/trainers/coaches I admired had gone the plant-based route.  All of this culminated in one moment, as I walked up to my professor and said,

“I think I’m going vegan.”

(Somewhere, I can hear Robb Wolf crying right now…)

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For 10 weeks, no animal product passed through my lips.  And believe me when I say, I read every label and checked every mysterious ingredient I found.  Protein?  That came via lots of beans, lentils, quinoa, seitan, and TVP.  Grains were as much a staple of my diet as before, and of course, fruits and vegetables were emphasized more than ever.  I introduced superfoods like hemp seeds, chia seeds, maca, cacao, and goji berries.  I immersed myself in research about plant-based athletes; to this day, I maintain that “Thrive” by Brendan Brazier is one of the best books written about food and athletic performance.

That’s the good.  Here’s the bad:  I consumed a lot of junk.  Processed foods were in greater abundance than perhaps ever before.  I downed vegan pastries and ice cream on Sundays (and sometimes on Wednesdays, and Fridays…).  Frozen burritos, fake cheeses, and a lot of processed soy and wheat gluten were regular fixtures in my fridge and freezer.

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At the end of the 10 weeks, what did I have?  Well, I had a pretty compelling case (through research and anecdotal evidence) that people could go veg or vegan and still get all the nutrients they needed to survive – and excel.  I had a great research synthesis project for which I received an “A”.  And I had these results in my bloodwork:

Total cholesterol:  197

LDL: 123

HDL:  42

Total/HDL Ratio:  4.7

Triglycerides:  148

Staggering drop in LDL, yeah.  But the drop in HDL meant that my overall ratio didn’t improve a bit.  Triglycerides barely cleared the 150 cutoff line.  But bloodwork can vary from day to day, and these numbers really don’t tell the entire story.  Here’s a few other numbers to consider:

Prior to 10-week protocol: 176 lbs., 15.1% bodyfat (as measured with an Omron Full Body Sensor Body Fat and Body Composition Monitor)

After protocol:  188 lbs., 17.8% bodyfat

OUCH.

What’s more, my intolerances to certain foods only intensified.  Bananas could cause me to fall to the floor, doubled over in pain.  And considering I used them regularly in my morning plant-based protein drinks, this was a problem.  Almonds could do the same – while the pain wasn’t as intense, it usually lasted longer.  It felt like the worst case of cramps one could imagine.

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So, was this a negative experience?  No.  I don’t think such a thing exists as long as we allow ourselves to glean something from it.

I learned a lot about what a balanced diet really entailed.  I learned about levels of  bioavailability (basically the body’s ability to metabolize the nutrients from a particular food).  I learned how to properly examine the foods I ate for the quality of their ingredients.  I learned how to listen to my body and recognize what were just temporary cravings (rice-milk ice cream sandwiches? A necessity?  Please.), and what was a real signal of deficiency (I cannot tell you how satisfying the first bite of chicken was at the end of the whole experiment; I forgot that such levels of satiety could exist).

But the biggest takeaway was the concept of experimentation.  10 weeks seemed an interminable amount of time when I was in the middle of the protocol.  In retrospect, it’s the wink of a young girl’s eye. (First Paul, now Bruce, is there anyone I won’t steal from?!?)  You can’t be afraid to try things for a short term.  Either they work, they’re inconclusive, or they don’t work at all.  And if you’re really lucky, you stumble upon something that can really enhance your life.  And the lives of people around you.

Adjust Your Attitude

“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, and most fools do.” – Benjamin Franklin

“Want to achieve glory? Stop telling me your sad little story.” – Sean Stephenson

I’m almost hesitant to talk too much about the latest challenge I am taking on, because in the first three attempts at starting it (Monday thru Wednesday; today is Thursday), I failed.  And it didn’t take much to fail. In fact, the people who organized this challenge warn potential challenge acceptors that they will not be able to make it the 21 days – not on their first shot, at least.

But screw it.  Let’s dive in at the deep end.  (For a change…)

I recently had the opportunity to consult with a well-known strength and conditioning coach – a man whose values, methods, and lifestyle are very much what I aspire to.  I was generally frustrated by the “rest of the world” imploring me to slow down, not be so over-the-top with my need to find new challenges related to my nutrition and training.  His words?  “If you listen to the rest of the world, you’ll end up like the rest of the world – average and miserable.  Never listen to the rest of the world.”

Yet that’s exactly what I spent a few days doing.  I actively listened to the conversations people had.  I paid extra detailed attention to the conversations I had with others – and with myself.  I examined hand gestures, eye contact, body language, tonality, and whatever other physical cues people exhibit.

And you know what I noticed?  Man, we bitch and moan. A LOT.

I’m as guilty of this as anyone.

I spent ten minutes the other day complaining to someone about running into an old acquaintance.  And why? I don’t dislike this person.  They weren’t mean, rude, bigoted, or in any way disrespectful – in fact, far from it.  They were asking me about my future plans and expressing admiration for them, offering me good wishes.  The only unpardonable sin this person committed was delaying me from running a rather menial task by about 15 minutes.  And I was complaining about this?

Fuckin’ WHY?!?

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Upon returning home, I visited the Facebook page for Life University – the school where I will be spending about 4 years of my life starting in January.  They threw an interesting link on their page that day, with an open-ended challenge to anyone who read it:

Can You Go 21 Days Without Complaining?

Sure, it sounded idealistic and Pollyanna-ish.  But then I took some quick inventory.  I thought about how much I complain – to others, and to myself, and about myself.  I run an internal monologue where I complain about how misunderstood I am, how disrespected I am, how I have to fight uphill to be right in a sea of wrong.

Look, I still think that the way I train and eat and challenge myself is the right thing for me.  I still fight to do what’s right for everyone I train, and for the friends and family who ask for my help.  That courage in my convictions, and in my path, will never cease.  But it occurred to me – couldn’t my time and energy be better focused towards those goals if I just shut up every now and then?

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A Complaint-Free World is a non-profit group that looks to help people make positive changes in their lives by starting at the mouth.  “Talk about what you DO want and not what you DON’T want.”  So what do they define as complaining?

To “Complain” is defined as “to express pain, grief, or discontent.”

It’s an interesting definition.  But it’s incomplete where I’m concerned. In chatting with a friend last night, I termed it more like this:

“It applies to complaining, criticizing, or gossiping – without offering a possible solution.”

So I’m not sure what to call this challenge.  Cut The Complaining?  Beat The Bitching?  If you’ve got a better one, please send it my way.  But whatever you call it, here’s the pledge:

• I will uphold the challenge outlined by Rev. Will Bowen of A Complaint-Free World.
• I will stop being a fool (at least in the eyes of Ben Franklin)
• I will stop using my “sad little story” as a launching pad to garner sympathy and make myself appear correct (By the way, if you aren’t reading anything by Sean Stephenson, you need to start)

Sugar, grain, dairy, wheat, booze, and even caffeine. I chased them out of my life.  I reduced my dependence on them.  Now, when they return, they are no longer unwelcome energy-drains, but invited guests.  The idea is to exile complaining and negativity just the same – and hopefully never invite it back.

The case against Paleo

One month into the Paleo way of eating, I can undoubtedly see and feel the changes in myself.  I spring out of bed faster, experience less pain, haven’t had any allergy flare-ups (which, for me, is a big deal – big enough that I will dedicate an entire post to it soon), have seen significant reduction in body fat while preserving muscle mass, sleep better, and generally don’t see any drops in energy.

So all is right with the world.  At least it should be.

I didn’t grow up in a purely vegetarian household.  But I did grow up with a vegetarian mother and a father who rarely ate meat.  Both of my parents grew up Hindu in India.  If you know anything about Hinduism, you know we aren’t supposed to eat cow.  For many Hindus, that extends to not eating any animal flesh at all.  Eggs OK, milk OK, and that’s it.  I remember when my grandparents came to visit when I was 8 – we’d order pizza, and my cousins and I would have to hide in the basement eating the one pie with pepperoni on it, so that my grandparents wouldn’t have to be confronted with the fact that their heathenistic grandkids – gasp! – ATE ANIMALS.

As a regular yoga practitioner (and at one time, and maybe again soon, a yoga teacher in training), the issue of eating meat is something I have had to confront again.  B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the most respected yoga teachers and leaders of the last 100 years, wrote in his landmark book Light On Yoga: “Whether or not to be a vegetarian is a purely personal matter as each person is influenced by the tradition and habits of the country in which he was born and bred. But, in course of time, the practicioner of yoga has to adopt a vegetarian diet, in order to attain one-pointed attention and spiritual evolution.”

I take that to mean that if i ever want to effectively teach any of the many wonderful aspects of yoga, I have to give up meat.  I’m sure it would also buy me extra karma points with the various deities whom I worship (and make my mom happier) if I phased out the regular consumption of meat.  Ahh, wonderful, tasty, satiating, energizing meat.  Buffalo burgers, wild Atlantic salmon, roasted chicken with the oils just a drippin’ off…

wait, where was I?  Oh yeah -whether or not the animals ate grass or grain, were raised in a disease-ridden henhouse or on palatial estates of green, matters not a whit – bottom line is, it’s animal, and it’s wrong.  Though I don’t practice and observe every sacrament and holiday of the Hindu faith, it’s not exactly easy to reject the one thing the faith asks of its followers.  No commandments for us to follow, no elaborate rules.  Just make peace with the universe by not killing unnecessarily – for example, for the selfish pleasures of the palate.

So what’s a Paleo practitioner to do?  Well, in a previous life, I went to the opposite end of the spectrum by going vegan.  I’ll detail that experiment next time.  Hopefully, I can relay to you the tug-of-war that I have to answer to on a recurrent basis – what’s right vs. what’s good.

The Warrior-Paleo Way Of Eating

I can’t remember the first time I heard the whole “eat small meals throughout the day to keep your metabolism firing” prescription.  It was probably from Men’s Health magazine, or a trainer at the first box gym where I started working out, or a well-meaning friend.  And it sounded perfectly reasonable.  So for many years, I used a variant of that style of eating, no matter what the goal.  You should have seen the size of my grocery runs – twice a week, four or five shopping bags full of meat, vegetables, pasta, potatoes, fruit, milk, nuts, etc.  On the mornings where I had to be at work at 5 a.m., I would wake up by 3 to ensure I had enough time to make 4 or 5 egg-white omelettes, inhale them with an apple, and prepare a cooler full of protein shakes, cottage cheese, chicken, salmon, and whatever else I may want that day.

In some instances, it worked.  I added about 16 pounds of mass in about three months back in 2008 using a similar protocol.  Then there were other instances where it fell flat on its face.  In particular, every time I wanted to get that last layer of fat off my midsection, I hit a wall.  And in those cases, I was even more careful to make sure I was consuming something every three hours, right on the number.  The meals were smaller, but the pounds weren’t a movin’.

And then two books came into my life that got me to re-think the whole process.  The first was Eat Stop Eat by nutritionist and powerlifter Brad Pilon.  It offered a scientifically firm rationale for the idea of intermittently fasting to lose fat.  My first experiment with it helped me drop 7 pounds in one month in February 2009.  However, I found some of its hands-off, no-firm-rules aesthetic to be a little too lenient for me.  In my experience, that leniency leads to bad foods making their return.

The second book was The Warrior Diet.  Written by Ori Hofmekler, this book isn’t nearly as rich in biochemical processes as was Eat Stop Eat.  But the principles of intermittent fasting were still prevalent, with a few twists and tweaks.  The main idea is, eat one big meal at night, graze throughout the day, and that’s it.

So, how do I do it currently?

I fuse the two ideas together.  My intake is primarily Paleo-type foods (heavy on the meat, the fat, the plants, and little else) on a Warrior-type schedule.  It allows for daily satiety, which is important psychologically and physiologically.  But it also allows my body to not have to process food all day long. If you weren’t aware, the act of breaking down food is taxing for the body.  Giving the body 16 hours a day to not have to go through this process allows for greater enzyme replenishment and organ detoxification.  Not to mention the fact that it saves money and fits into my lifestyle much better than stopping what I’m doing every 150 minutes to make sure there’s a decent source of protein nearby.

So far, the results are encouraging, though the plan will need some tweaks.  As the weeks go by, I’ll detail those specific tweaks, and the results the program yields. 

 

I suck at blogging. So I’m starting another blog.

“Anything worth being good at, is worth being bad at, until you get good”- Jonathan Sprinkles

I like to write in a journal. I have a litle Moleskine journal that sits by my bed.  I’m pretty good about getting stuff down in there on a regular basis.  It’s mostly a leftover habit from the days when I wanted to be a journalist/song-writer/poet/novelist – basically, a modern-day Patti Smith.  Write every day.  Even if it’s crap, drop your standards and write.

So I get the whole discipline just fine, thankyouverymuch.  But when it comes to blogging… for some reason, though I’ve tried starting a blog a couple of times, I never could maintain the discipline.  It was like journaling for the entire world to read (even if most of the world will never read it).  It felt a trifle self-indulgent.  And the fact that I never had a really good reason to start one probably contributed to me just discarding them.  Their remains are sitting around somewhere.  It’s not worth your trouble.

So what’s different this time?   Paleo, that’s what.

This blog will be used by me as a means of sharing my foray into the whole hunter-gatherer, Paleo, or “primal” way of eating that is slowly gathering momentum in the health and fitness world.  (Note – these three terms shouldn’t be used so interchangably; they’re very different.  But they’ve also got some major commonalities.  Plus I just like the way “PranaPrimal” sounds…)

I sometimes have trouble reconciling my decision to eat this way, as it seemingly goes against everything my upbringing stands for, and much of what my insights into Yoga stand for.  I chose the name “PranaPrimal” to demonstrate that ying-and-yang that goes on within me.

Along the way, I’ll share workouts, program design ideas, recipes, research, rants, and pretty much whatever else I feel like.  Let me leave you for now with this:

“prana”: n vital energy as articulated in the spiritual and healing systems of India. Similar to the Chinese qi, the Japanese ki, and the Greek pneuma.  (as defined by Mosby’s Dictionary of Complementary and Alternative Medicine)

Paleo Diet – “The Paleo Diet mimics the types of foods every single person on the planet ate prior to the Agricultural Revolution (a mere 500 generations ago). These foods (fresh fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and seafood) are high in the beneficial nutrients (soluble fiber, antioxidant vitamins, phytochemicals, omega-3 and monounsaturated fats, and low-glycemic carbohydrates) that promote good health and are low in the foods and nutrients (refined sugars and grains, saturated and trans fats, salt, high-glycemic carbohydrates, and processed foods) that frequently may cause weight gain, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and numerous other health problems.” (taken from the FAQ at www.thepaleodiet.com)

Smash those together, and we’re off.