New Tradition: Healthy Meals with Friends - Part 2

My friends and I held our second healthy dinner on Sunday. We all seemed to be on the same page when it came to veggies because we ended up with two dishes of each veggie: broccoli, carrots, and Brussels sprouts. There was steamed broccoli and Brussels sprouts, roasted broccoli and carrots, sweet and spicy roasted carrot fries, and a shredded Brussels sprouts salad. So it was three veggies, two-ways, and it was delicious.

The meat entrée was Chicken Coconut Curry based on Tyler Florence’s recipe, and dessert consisted of fresh fruit with whipped coconut cream. Here's how you can make the whipped cream...

Whipped (Coconut) Cream

1 can coconut milk – chill for a few hours first and DO NOT SHAKE THE CAN

1.5 tsp vanilla
1 Tbls raw honey

Pinch of cinnamon (optional)

1. Open the unshaken can of coconut milk and scoop out the top solidified portion of the coconut cream. If you shake the can, you won’t have the thick coconut cream that you’re looking for. Or if you want to be super crafty, open the can from the bottom and pour the liquid into a storage container, then scrape out the cream. The liquid/milk can be used for smoothies.
2. Combine the vanilla, honey, cinnamon, and coconut cream in a stand mixer or bowl. Mix/whisk well (3-5 minutes), until you get the fluffy whipped cream consistency. This may take longer, especially if you’re hand-whisking.

I was a little off my game this past week due to the ridiculous BBQ cold/flu I came down with at the Rodeo Cook-off. Quite a few people on my team came down with something. I ended up staying home and in bed (or on the couch when I couldn't stand my bed anymore) for most of the week. It was a very pathetic week.

Elimination Diet

The elimination diet is a experiment you can perform on your own to figure out what food intolerances you may or may not have. Here's how it works...

1. Jot down all of the health issues you currently have - skin blemishes/breakouts, gas/bloating, constipation, diarrhea, headaches, mental fog, lethargy, mood, allergies, systemic inflammation, itching, nausea, joint pain, etc. I'd recommend keeping a food diary for a few days before you begin the elimination diet - it can give you a few clues as to what foods are your problem foods.

2. Now remove all of the foods that are commonly associated with food intolerances for 21 days. These include:

• Milk
• Wheat/Gluten
• Eggs
• Soy
• Dairy
• Alcohol
• Caffeine - you might want to ween yourself off of this one before going cold turkey
• Nuts - optional

Important things to remember - make sure you use alternate foods to supply the nutrients that you would normally get from the foods that you're avoiding. You will need to be careful about eating out or eating pre-made foods, and it would probably be best to steer clear of all pre-packaged food. When eating at a restaurant, you will need to be that annoying person who grills the server about how everything is made. Even better, call in advance and ask before you get there, or check online. As an example, one thing to watch for that you may not be able to tell from the menu is whether the dish contains soy - soy is in a lot of different products, and some restaurants cook with soybean oil.

3. Keep a food diary. Track how you feel throughout the day - energy, mood, digestion, mental functioning - especially after each meal. For a sample template, here's a simple one.

4. Then add foods back in one at a time. Pick one item and eat it twice in one day. See how your body reacts for the next 48 hours. If you don't have any negative reactions, eat it again. If you still don't have any bad reactions, then add a second food from the list. If you do have a negative reaction, remove that food from your diet because you have a food intolerance. Keep tracking your reactions in your food diary.

Background

A food intolerance is an adverse side effect to a food, drink, or food component. A food allergy, on the other hand, is an adverse immune response. Certain proteins are not broken down during digestion and are then tagged by the Immunoglobulin E (IgE). This tag tricks the immune system into thinking that the tagged protein is a foreign invader, and is thus swarmed by white blood cells. Say hello to your allergic reaction.

Please note that a food intolerance is very different from a food allergy, though some of the symptoms may be the same. An elimination diet, or at least the portion where you add foods back in, should not be undertaken by someone who knows or suspects that they have a food allergy. 

Why am I doing this?

Two reasons...

Number One: This past weekend was the 2015 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Cook-off. Basically it's a 3-day party revolving around excellent food. It was a great weekend, full of energetic and welcoming friends (man, do I love hanging out with a huge group of huggers!). My team got 3rd place in ribs and 11th place overall, so there was a lot of celebrating to do, intermingled with working the serving line and working as a bartender. After a weekend of indulging in whatever I wanted, I desperately need a detox.

Number Two: I'm tired of feeling bloated, suffering from headaches and stomachaches, and having knee pain. Systemic inflammation can be an underlying cause of many issues with the body, so I want to make sure that I can exclude food intolerance as a possible cause of any of my ailments.

Look for my follow-up post in just over a month once I figure out what my results are!

12 Tips for Better Sleep

It's that Lent time of year again. Though I’m not very religious myself, I usually give something up for lent. This year, I’m instituting a No Screens in Bed rule. This isn't to say I’m not going to have a few nights of staying up too late watching cute puppy videos on youtube, but if I do, I won’t be in bed when I do it. And having to get out of my warm comfy bed to watch a youtube video is going to be a real deterrent for me.

But it works! The first time I did this on a weeknight, I managed to turn my typical 5-6 hours of sleep into 8 hours and 15 minutes of sleep.

In today’s society, many of us have problems with “turning off.” With all of the advances in technology that allows us immediate access to practically all of the information and entertainment you could want, we tend to have a constant stream of stimulation. We’re over stressing our brains.

Sleep is critical. Studies have shown that lack of sleep can have significant impact on your health. Some medical conditions related to sleep include: diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, immune function, and the common cold.

“people who averaged less than seven hours of sleep a night were about three times more likely to develop cold symptoms than study volunteers who got eight or more hours of sleep when exposed to the cold-causing rhinovirus.” - Cohen S, et al. Sleep Habits and Susceptibility to the Common Cold, Arch of Intern Med. 2009 Jan 12; 169 (1):62-67.

Not only is your physical health impacted, but also your mental health. Lack of sleep can increase stress, anxiety, sadness/depression, and mental exhaustion. In turn, your emotional and mental state can impact your ability to fall asleep and sleep soundly. (http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/need-sleep/whats-in-it-for-you)

Over the years, my dad and I have discussed sleep issues extensively. Here’s a compiled list of things you can do to improve your sleep and decrease the time required to fall asleep.

1. Use your bed only for sleep or sexy time (not that I do that, Dad!). This means no reading in bed, watching TV in bed, checking your phone in bed, eating in bed, etc. Your bed should be solely dedicated to sleep, otherwise you condition yourself to expect mental stimulation while in bed.
2. Make your bedroom your sleep sanctuary. Some options include: installing blackout curtains and soundproofing windows (or using an eye mask and ear plugs if those don’t drive you crazy), painting the walls a soothing color, getting newer/softer sheets, or even buying a more comfortable mattress. If you’re a neat freak and maybe have some obsessive-compulsive tendencies, make sure you always keep your room clean, so that you’re not stressing about a mess. Make your bed every day. My grandmother always told my father that he’d sleep better in a crisply made bed, and he told me the same thing growing up. Maybe it was the power of suggestion, but it makes a difference. I get a sense of joy from the neatness of freshly turned-down sheets and curling up with smoothed sheets around me.
3. Don’t eat a large meal within two hours of bed. Eating a small snack that’s low in fat, like an apple, will be digested relatively quickly - usually within an hour. If you eat a large meal, your body will still be digesting when you’re trying to fall asleep. Also, if you’re prone to heartburn or gastrointestinal reflux, lying down while food is in your stomach makes reflux more likely. (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/ask-a-health-expert/is-it-true-i-shouldnt-eat-one-hour-before-bed/article550198/)
4. Create and follow a standard sleep schedule. Sorry, to break it to all you partiers out there, but this means no staying up into the wee hours of the night on the weekends and sleeping away half of the day. If you wake up at 6 a.m. during the week, you should wake up at 6 a.m. on the weekends, too. Not only is this useful for getting enough sleep on a daily basis, but also it’s beneficial if you’re prone to headaches - changing your sleep schedule can cause a migraine. This may be particularly bad for those of you in your 20s who haven’t quite reached the age where you’ve realized your body can’t keep up with your wild partying all the time. Another important fact to note is that you can’t “make up” all that lost sleep. Sure, if you slept badly last night, you could go to bed a bit earlier tonight to “make up” for a couple hours of lost sleep, but if you lose 2 hours a night during the work week, you can’t make up those 10 hours on the weekend. You’ll never get that sleep back.
5. Don’t take naps (unless you’re sick). This goes along with number 4. Taking a nap late in the afternoon can really mess with your sleep at night, because you most likely won’t be tired when it’s time for you to go to bed.
6. Establish an evening routine. What I mean is every night as you get ready for bed, you follow the same routine. 30 minutes before bed, I change into my PJs, wash my face (+ maybe do a face mask), brush my teeth, turn on my bedside lamp and turn off the overhead light, and then do my physical therapy stretches.
7. Avoid alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, etc. I know a lot of people have said that some alcohol at night helps them fall asleep, but alcohol can prevent you from sleeping soundly. I know for me that I can pass out pretty quickly, but I tend to be fully away by 5 or 6 am the next morning, even if I only went to sleep a few hours before.
8. Don’t exercise right before bed. Yes, you should be exercising regularly, but doing it right before bed perks stimulates the body to secrete cortisol (stress hormone) and can keep you from falling asleep.
9. Don’t stay in bed if you can’t fall asleep. If you find yourself laying in bed and feeling wide awake and frustrated about not falling asleep, do 10 minutes of meditation, deep-breathing, etc. If that doesn’t help, get out of bed and read a book for 20 minutes, or go drink some warm milk. What it comes down to is that you shouldn’t just lay in bed thinking “Ugh. I’m still awake. Why can’t I fall asleep? It’s 11:23 p.m. I have to be up at 6:00 a.m. If I fall asleep right now, I’ll only be getting 6 hours and 37 minutes of sleep. I’m going to be so tired tomorrow.”
10. Don’t stress about getting a set number of hours of sleep each night. Everyone is different and you need to find the length of sleep that leaves you feeling energized, not exhausted, the next day. One of the suggestions for a Paleo/Primal lifestyle is switching to life without an alarm clock; this is a good way to figure out how much sleep you need is to let yourself sleep until you wake up. You will have to go to bed earlier in order to make sure you wake up for work on time. Keep a sleep diary by tracking how long you sleep and how you feel periodically the next day: how do you feel when you There are a few sleep tracking apps that you can use to figure out how long you sleep each night. I use the Sleep Cycle App for Apple.
11. Steer clear of blue light at night. Blue light, similar to the type of light on your phone, tablet or computer, is associated with sunlight or daytime hours. Studies have shown that being exposed to short-wave light at night suppressed melatonin by ~50% (http://www.pnas.org/content/112/4/1232.full.pdf+html). So looking at your electronic device at night can actually make it more difficult for you to fall asleep and reach deep REM sleep. Reddish light on the other hand does not significantly affect melatonin levels. Programs such as f.lux for your PC or Twilight for your Android can be installed to mimic natural light. The program uses your location to determine the times of sunrise and sunset. When the sun sets, the screen becomes more red; when the sun rises, the reddish tint fades away to the normal screen coloring. Unfortunately, Apple devices aren’t as easy to change the screen coloring. Instead, you can try using orange-tinted safety goggles. Or you can just read a book by candle/firelight. Whatever works for you.
12. Make sleep a priority. Too often we stay awake just a bit longer to finish reading a book or watching a movie or TV episode. Recognize the importance of your sleep and stop making excuses. Good luck and sweet dreams...

New Tradition: Healthy Meals with Friends

I've implemented a new tradition with my friends. Once a month, we’re going to gather at someone’s place and cook a healthy dinner. Each person brings the ingredients for one dish which gets shared with the rest of the group. Leftovers can get taken home by all and serve as at least one lunch for everyone that week. For this first one, my roommate and I got all of the leftovers because we went to see a movie after dinner and we didn't want to let the food sit unrefrigerated in the car. Of course then my roommate went out of town for work, so really I kept all of the leftovers… works for me. I got at least four meals out of the leftovers, and still had another three meals portioned out that I didn't eat - I need SOME variety in my life.

I have the most dietary restrictions of the group, so everyone caters to me… just kidding, but not really. We've also got one girl who doesn't eat any meat except for chicken and another who doesn't have gluten or added sugars (she’s practically paleo), so our meal plan is roughly:

• 1 chicken-based entree (i.e., stir-fry, chicken tikka masala, etc.)
• 2 vegetable-based dishes (i.e., ratatouille, roasted asparagus, sweet potato, tomato basil soup, etc.)
• side salad
• fruit for dessert

February 15th was the first night we did this and we had three people attend. I’d say 3-4 is a good number if all of the chefs need to prep and cook their dishes. More people probably would have led to some collisions

My roommate made a Spicy Sweet Potato Soup, with roughly the following ingredients. She tweaked this recipe to suit my needs and her dislike of chicken broth/stock.

3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 tablespoon ghee

1 onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, sliced

4 cups water or chicken stock

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger root, or 2 tsp ginger powder

1/4 cup smooth almond butter

2 tsp lime juice

1 tsp salt

If you divide this soup into 8 servings, each serving is 106 kcal, 14 g carbs, 5 g fat, 3 g protein, 5 g sugar, 3 g fiber, 168 mg sodium, 260 mg potassium, 165% vitamin A, 18% vitamin C, 5% calcium, 5% iron.

My other friend made a spicy veggie stir-fry, and I whipped up NomNomPaleo’s Braised Chicken with Artichokes and Pearl Onions.

We scarfed down our dinner before I thought to take a photo of the nicely plated meals, so here’s a shot of one of the portioned meals I had throughout the week.

What happened to me?

My family's delicious dinner this past Christmas. This about sums up my eating habits recently: potato sausage, potato bread (can you get more carbs than that?), Swedish meatballs. But I didn't go completely wrong - there's still salmon and broccoli!

What happened to me? That's a question I've been asking myself a lot lately. For the past 8 months I've thrown Paleo out the window. I said goodbye to Paleo and welcomed back bread, cheese, and baked goodies with open arms. I became re-addicted to bread and grains. I grew up as a bread, starch, and cheese sort of gal. If you had asked me as a kid what my favorite food was, I probably would have said either bread or mashed potatoes. Even now, I can tell you my favorite types of bread, because of course I've ranked them - naan, pita, ciabatta, and sourdough are the top four, but I could got on…

These past 8 months have brought that love/addiction/obsession back to the surface. A majority of meals consisted of pita bread or naan with cheese. I have favorite types of cheeses, too, in case you were wondering: gjetost (Norwegian brown goat cheese), brie, white cheddar, havarti, and gouda are just the top five. Part of the reason why I started eating non-Paleo again was because of some health-related issues that started at the beginning of last summer. I was exhausted all of the time and could barely scrape up the energy to cook Paleo meals. When I did cook, I was never in the mood for it - I've wasted a LOT of Paleo-friendly meals over the last few months. So I turned to pre-made meals from Whole Foods or easy-to-snack-on items, like bread and cheese, or vast quantities of chocolate.

Turns out, I was deficient in Vitamin B12. This vitamin is necessary for normal functioning of your nervous system and cell metabolism. It can cause tiredness, weakness, dizziness, numbness or tingling in your fingers and toes, nerve damage (sometimes permanent), GI issues, mood changes, irritability, memory loss, and disorientation. Vitamin B12 deficiency is usually the result of an absorptivity issue. Other causes include insufficient consumption of B12 (such as if you're a vegetarian or a vegan), intestinal conditions (Crohn's disease, celiac, or parasites), or immune disorders (Graves' disease or lupus). You obtain vitamin B12 through your diet - it is not something that your body produces on it's own. Sources of B12 include: meat, poultry, shellfish, eggs, and dairy products.

Not only was I deficient in Vitamin B12 at that time, but also I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism is when your thyroid is under-active. Some of the symptoms include fatigue, weight gain, muscle weakness, joint pain/stiffness, depression, impaired memory, dry skin, increased sensitivity to cold, hoarseness, and peripheral neuropathy (numbness and tingling in your fingers and toes), among others.

I was diagnosed with both of these issues after going to a neurologist complaining of numbness and tingling in my fingers. The numbness was particularly bad when I was working out, and sometimes made me a little worried about lifting weights, because I had a hard time maintaining my grip. While this was going on, I was also struggling with waking up exhausted (despite 9 hours of sleep) and had to resort to chugging down caffeine to attempt to stay awake at work. The caffeine just made me simultaneously hyper and tired, and I still couldn't focus. I felt like I was in a constant fog, just struggling to make it through the day. Some days just fighting through work for the first 30 minutes of the day seemed like more than I could bear. I stopped being active because I was tired and I compensated feeling tired with eating more. I stopped cooking for myself because it took more effort than I had to give.

My doctor decided to run some blood tests… and that led to the addition of a few more pills to my daily regimen in order to get my thyroid and B12 levels back in check. I started feeling more energetic again, but couldn't quite get back into Paleo. In a way, I felt betrayed by the Paleo diet. For me, the biggest benefit of going Paleo, was NOT being sick and NOT having to go to the doctor all of the time. And that benefit was slipping away. Here I was, uncommonly tired, gaining weight, and back to visiting the doctor every month. Despite eating meat or animal protein at practically every meal, I was deficient in B12. Despite following the Paleo lifestyle of getting enough sleep, eating clean, lifting heavy things, and moving around more, my body was failing me.

Fortunately, the supplements started to help. After a couple weeks, I started feeling energetic again, but by this time, I was re-addicted to grains and sugar, and though I would tell myself I really needed to get back to eating healthy, I didn't want to give up my addictions. The motivation to eat clean just fell away. I continued to give Paleo the finger.

I was feeling pretty good for a little while, but things started to hurt again. Being the overachiever that I am, I ignored the pain and continued to push myself at the gym and at soccer. I started wearing a knee brace again and ibuprofen became a frequent companion. Then something happened that I've never experienced while working out... my muscles wouldn't completely respond. I tried to use a medium box for step ups at the gym, and I couldn't get my foot up high enough. My quad muscles had obviously started to fire, but seemed to stop half-way. It felt like my body wasn't listening to me. From there, I continued to fall apart. My lifts got harder, and my body began hurting more and more. Around the same time, I started having severe neck pain, which led to physical therapy for my neck, and my exercise was reduced to walking. My migraines came back, and my constant daily headaches returned.

Suffice it to say, I've been falling apart for a while now. And it's time that I try to take charge of my life again.

To start, I'm working my way back to Paleo. I'm beginning with gluten-free, and moving on from there. I'm going to try to break my re-addiction to sugar and grains. And I’m trying to be more active again, which at this point includes swimming, biking, physical therapy (on my knee this time), and walking. And every little bit helps, right?

As I mentioned, I was still cooking some Paleo dishes. And here's one of the desserts I made.

Bacon-wrapped Dates

2 strips bacon

8 dates

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Cut the strips of bacon into quarters, and wrap each piece around a date. Stick with a toothpick to keep the bacon wrapped around the date.
3. Place on a baking sheet and transfer to the hot oven. Cook for 15-20 minutes.

30 Days of Yoga - Success

Well folks, I made it to 31 yoga classes in the last 31 days. Yeah, the challenge was only for 30 days, but why not make it a full month instead of just 30 days? Plus it turned out that the yoga studio I decided to go to had scheduled a 30 day challenge as well. Perfect timing/coincidence if you ask me. They had a chart on the wall where we got to track our attendance with gold stars. I guess those elementary school years of getting gold stars next to your name for being good stuck with me. And being the overachiever that I was, I got a lot of gold stars. Most of this past month I attended class at 6 a.m. throughout the week and then a mid-day or afternoon class on the weekend. As I had mentioned, the morning class I attended was called Wake Up and Salute the Sun. It's what I would refer to as slow flow, as intense as you'd like to make it. We had a core group of 5-6 of us that showed up on a daily basis. I could tell who was there when I first arrived just by their cars. One of the women drove a orange sedan, whereas the guy who had excellent and super consistent Ujjayi breath drove a silver SUV with a yoga studio sticker on the bottom left corner of the back windshield. Anyways, we bonded over waking up so early every morning and started to feel like the non-regulars were intruders. Our class doubled in size on the Thursday and Friday before Memorial Day weekend because everyone was trying to get their gold stars. When class dropped back down to its regular size, we kept talking about how we were so surprised when there was that many people that early in the morning. It's always nice to feel like you're a part of something, and that's one of the things I enjoyed about my 30 Days of Yoga.

Another good thing about this challenge was my mood. As I mentioned in my Paleo f(x) Recap, one of the big topics was stress and how to manage it. Stress is something that all of us experience and how we handle that stress makes all the difference. Daily yoga definitely helped me with my stress management. Not only did spending at least an hour every day trying to clear my mind and focus only on breathing (while struggling to balance) give me some peace of mind, but I also found myself making time to be calm and relaxed. I took more walks. I read a book. I went to the library for some quiet time to focus. I spent more time with my friends one-on-one, and I called some of my old friends to catch up on life. I felt happy more often and one of my coworkers even commented on how I was smiling more frequently. I don't know whether this was a result of just the yoga or the fact that I was making time every day to be physically active and get a good sweat on. I made physical activity a priority and I want to continue to do so. That may mean that I'm not quite as social with friends as I might like to be, but I can notice the difference between my health and mood now and what it was a month ago.

I do have to admit that not everything improved; my flexibility was one of those things. I swear that some of my muscles feel tighter now than they did a month ago. My hamstrings and calf muscles in particular feel like they got shortened somehow. And my previously very open hip flexors now feel sore and achey often. I don't know how that all happened, but I think that part of it was pushing my body harder that I've pushed it in a while. It may also be that my form improved thanks to daily practice. My instructor said that my form got better over the weeks, and she attributed my recently developed knee twinge to my improved hip placement in Warrior 1, and there's the fact that I'm a woman... with hips... and these yoga poses were originally designed for men, who don't have hips that put extra strain on the knee joints. The solution was easy though, I just modify the pose a bit so that my heels don't quite line up, and voila, no twinge. 

So all things considered, would I do it again? Definitely. Did you make it through the 30 days? How do you feel? Are you ready for another 30-day challenge? Good, because I'm doing a Whole 30 starting June 1st. So let's jump from one challenge to the next. Let's do it!

Fed Up with Sugar Addiction

This past Friday night I went to see the documentary Fed Up with my Paleo friends. It wasn't very well advertised, but in the Paleo world, we tend to stay abreast of these types of movies, books, or news articles. Basically this movie called into question the validity of the diet and exercise dogma that we've learned: eat less + exercise more = weight loss. It makes logical sense, right? If calorie expenditure is greater than calorie consumption, then you're in a calorie deficit and you should lose weight. However, that doesn't always seem to work for us, does it? Fed Up proposes that all calories are not created equal. In particular, the documentary highlights sugar consumption, and the way that the food industries have fought against any reports or guidelines that try to restrict sugar consumption. The way your body reacts to processed sugar is not the same as how it reacts to natural sugar. There's more details that I could give about the movie, but why don't you go see it for yourself? I'll tell you my reaction to it though...

I think the biggest emotion that the documentary evoked was anger. Anger at the way the world works. Anger at the way food industries advertise to children. And anger at the vast slew of so-called "healthy" foods that doesn't seem to help people be healthy. I mean, how do you make low-fat or no-fat foods taste good when you remove the fat? Sugar... salt. We watch our sodium intake, don't we? Why shouldn't we watch our sugar intake? And have you noticed that nutrition labels never give your a percentage of recommended daily intake for sugar? Most everything else on the label shows a percentage... why not sugar?

I also felt extremely sad... to the point that I cried. No joke. There were silent tears rolling down my face while I watched stories of multiple young children who were struggling with weight. Children that tried the whole exercise more and watch your calories route, and sadly had no luck. One boy weighed over 200 pounds and had to have bariatric surgery (weight loss surgery) at age 14. 14! Those stories were very tough to watch, because I know that those children aren't the only ones suffering with obesity in the United States, or in the world. Adults and children alike are facing issues with weight, ranging from heart disease to diabetes.

Overall, I wanted to come home and throw out every single sugary food that could be found in my house and force everyone I know to watch the documentary. While I didn't force anyone to watch the movie, I am choosing to participate in the Fed Up challenge, which consists of giving up all added or processed sugars for 10 days. Considering I've done the 21 Day Sugar Detox, 10 days should be easy. Though it's concerning how many chocolate cravings I've had lately, so we'll see what happens for the next week and a half.

Want some more information? Check out this infographic. It's scary the amount of sugar we consume...

30 Days of Yoga - Day 11 and Getting Outside

If you've liked me on Facebook, you've seen a few posts over the last 11 days about how I've been enjoying daily yoga. I've attended 12 yoga classes in the past 11 days (I doubled up on Monday). I feel as though my mood has improved drastically; I've found myself smiling and dancing about and just generally feeling peaceful when I'm alone. I don't know if I can attribute this solely to yoga though. I've been trying to spend more time outside in the sun by going for walks or jogs. My doctor recently told me that I'm vitamin D deficient, something that's been happening with greater frequency to everyone these days thanks to long work hours, and even more at-home time in front of computer screens, so I've been trying to get outside as often as possible. This means that instead of heading home and plopping down in front of my computer or tablet to watch a TV show, I'll cook, or go for a walk, or read a book, or clean my room - things that will make me feel calm and relaxed. In general, I've been trying to be more active, watch less TV, and make plans with friends that don't just revolve around food or alcohol.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've heard more and more people I know express feelings of discontent about being in constant contact with people. In today's world of cell phones, tablets, laptops, and an endless supply of messaging apps, it's hard to take time alone to just relax and sit quietly. During my freshman year of college, I took an English class that was really a philosophy class with some writing assignments thrown in. We had to write a paper on space and how technology interacts with space. Basically, what I wrote was that while cell phones and computers make it easier for us to stay close with friends and family that live far away, it also creates distance between people who live near each other. What do I mean? Well, think back to your last social outing or the last time you had someone over to your place. How many people were on their phones? Texting? Tweeting? Checking Facebook? Probably quite a few. I know that I'm guilty of it myself. Why do we feel the need to post on Facebook that we're having fun with a friend? Instead I think we all need to just be in the moment: enjoy time with friends and be fully invested in that friend/moment. I hate it when I'm talking to someone and they keep checking their phone waiting for a response from a different conversation. Hello!?!? I'm right here, in your face... talk to ME! Not that electronic box glued to your hand. That's one thing that yoga touches on: fully being in the moment. Appreciating the time that you have and focusing on yourself. I think all of this technology has caused people to lose their communication skills. I sometimes find myself feeling awkward when someone gives me their full attention. To have someone fully listening to you and being invested in your conversation is a very personal and intimate feeling; it makes you feel special and important. And instead of allowing ourselves to be a part of these types of interactions, we post on Facebook, and only feel special if someone likes or comments on your status.

So for this past week, I gave up some of my vices: TV, chocolate, Facebook messaging, and alcohol. I think the hardest one was chocolate. Not really because I was craving the sweetness, but mainly because eating chocolate at work gives me a reason to get up from my desk and walk over to raid my co-worker's stash of candies, and look at something other than my computer screen for a little while. Also, instead of using my personal Facebook account, I've tried communicating directly with friends, like phone conversations. Sure, sometimes it's inconvenient times to talk on the phone, like maybe during work hours or when you're at dinner with that special someone, but I get more joy with a phone conversation than I do with a texting conversation. For instance, while I walked back from yoga yesterday morning, I called one of my Atlanta friends and had a 20ish-minute conversation catching up with him. I was happy, talking excitedly, and bouncing around, all while gesturing wildly to myself and all of the random people that drove past me on the road. We could have had the same conversation via texts, but it would have just been my thumbs tapping away at the phone, it would have taken a lot longer to get all of words across, and I wouldn't have had the same satisfaction nor would I have been able to convey emotions or my happiness as easily. 

I urge you to try changing your routine a bit this week. Turn off the cell phone. Go for a walk instead of watching your favorite TV show. Or even better, go for a walk with a friend. Let me know how it goes!

30 Days of Yoga - Day 1

Day One of 30DoY (30 Days of Yoga) is a go! After snoozing my 5:30 a.m. alarm for 10 minutes, I made the last minute decision to go to a 6 am "Wake Up and Salute the Sun" yoga class. Luckily, the yoga studio is only 5 minutes from my home, so I had enough time to roll out of bed, throw on my yoga clothes, grab my yoga mat, and stroll into the studio. It was calming, yet made me sweat... just a little. I guess I'm used to my Krav Maga Flex class which consists of super-intense yoga/boot camp, where we may start out with rolling partner push-ups, move to partner stretches (your partner literally sits on you to help you stretch more), next to splits, and then on to inversions (this past week we worked on hand stands). So a hour-long class of upward/downward dog, sun salutations, warrior 1 & 2, forward folds, and boats isn't all that challenging. But I will say that while Flex is humorously too intense for most of us, the morning class is a great way to start the day with a peaceful and calm attitude. Now I just need to figure out how to turn off my brain and focus on my "practice." And how to maintain that calm throughout the workday. It's only day one though. Let's see how I progress over the month.

How did your first day go?

30 Days of Yoga

On May 1st I'm starting 30 days of yoga. Why? you ask. Well, I've been attending a yoga class at my Krav Maga studio for the last few months. It's only once a week, but I love going. I more regularly attend Flex than I do the actual Krav Maga classes. I guess I just haven't been in the mood to hit people lately. Anywho, I'm super stoked about starting a month of yoga. I want to get more flexible, and yoga is a nice joint-friendly, surprisingly tough workout. When I did yoga last summer, I swear I ended every class soaked in sweat. And let me tell you, maintaining an inverted pose while your hands keep sliding away from your center of balance is not an easy task.

So I'm doing 30 days of yoga. Are you with me? Email me and let me know! Let's do this!

Update (30APR2014): If you're looking for free online yoga videos to do from the comfort of your own home, there are a bunch of website that offer free videos, such as doyogawithme.com or myfreeyoga.com.

Paleo f(x) Recap

This past weekend was Paleo f(x). For those of you who are unaware of this event, it’s basically a giant Paleo reunion. All of the big names in the Paleo blogosphere were there giving presentations, sitting on panels, and being friendly with all of their fans. I sat in on sessions featuring Mark Sission of Mark’s Daily Apple, Robb Wolf of The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet, Diane Sanfilippo of the 21 Day Sugar Detox, Darryl Edwards of Paleo Fitness and The Fitness Explorer, Juli Bauer of PaleOMG, Jim Laird of J&M Strength and Conditioning, just to name a few. There were sooo many awesome speakers there, that I really can't list them all.

I attended the conference as a volunteer, meaning that I saved the ~$300 premiere ticket, granting me access to all of the presentation stages, but had to work throughout the weekend. I was on the dinner prep staff as well as a timekeeper. It meant that I had to leave the conference a bit early on Friday and Saturday to set up for the dinner, but as someone who likes to be behind the scenes, I quite enjoyed it.

It seems that the latest trend in Paleo seems to be the focus on stress. My favorite session was called Hacking Stress and focused on biohacks to identify when you're under stress and what to do to relieve it. It's funny, right? To think that you have to use something else to figure out that you're stressed is so indicative of the fact that we're all under too much pressure these days. It's expected that we're all superheros and can handle everything all at once. Sadly it's true. I was using a sleep app, called Sleep Cycle, for a while to track how well I was sleeping, if I was tossing and turning, or waking up, etc. Before you start the recording app, it asks you to identify a few things about your day, did you exercise, drink coffee, drink tea, eat late, and/or have a stressful day? Last fall, after months of using the app and while my work load got heavier and heavier, my usual stress load was so high, that "stressful" became my new norm. I no longer labeled my day as "stressful;" it had to be extraordinarily stressful for me to tick that box. I think it's a terrible trend, that is affecting more and more people that I meet.

Anyways, some of the panelists said that when you're stressed, you just know; that you can feel it in your body, mind, bowels, and spirit. Others suggested heart rate variability as a way of determining when you're stressed if you've tuned out the signs because you've been under stress for so long. Alternatively, you can have your doctor run blood work, immunologic testing, etc. One thing that they all agreed on is that you have to take time for yourself to recover. And make time for sleep, and make sleep easier by using earplugs, eye masks, and orange glasses before bed to block out blue light (click here for some reading on that). A lot of them also suggested that you go outside and just be in nature.

Another interesting presentation I went to was "Maximizing Nutrient Density" by Terry Wahls, who developed a food diet that focused on getting a certain profile of macronutrients to attempt to slow the onset of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. She ended up reversing some of the effects of her disease, and managed to improve her health such that she no longer requires the assistance of a wheelchair to get around. Incredible, or what? One of the interesting facts that she mentioned in her presentation was that in order to meet the nutrient intake of the modern-day hunter-gatherers (the Kitavans and the Inuit), someone following the typical US diet would have to consume 27,000 kcal to meet the nutrient profile, and someone following the Paleo diet would have to consume 14,000 kcal. Why you ask? Because the mineral content of the soil in which our food is grown has decreased by up to 85%. We've stopped rotating crops, and instead used pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizer. Unfortunate.

So now that I've written an essay for you, here's some photos from the weekend:

Juli Bauer doing a cooking demonstration.

From left: Sean Croxton, Carol Salva, and Mark Sisson

Friday night dinner

Friday night dinner at Springdale Farms in Austin, TX

US Healthcare: In Crisis or Chaos?
From left: Dr. Grayson Wheatley, Charles Mayfield, Darryl Edwards, Dr. Richard Maurer, and Robb Wolf

My Dinner Tribe! What a team!

Darryl Edwards and I

Flipping around the fireman's carry

And you wanna know what else is great? A fireman's carry is totally normal. We all just chuckle and say, oh, that's Darryl. We're used to our world of Paleo folks doing random things like lifting people in the air or setting up a slackline outside of the conference hall. We like lifting heavy things, playing, and running around in our Vibrams, which are totally cool to wear with a suit (yeah, there was someone wearing that at the conference).

Paleo f(x)

Well, folks. It's here. Today's the day that Paleoites and soon to become Paleoites descend upon Austin, TX to attend one of the biggest gatherings of ancestral health advocates. My day will be full of sessions presented by the biggest names in Paleo: Mark Sission, Robb Wolf, Melissa and Dallas Hartwig, Keith and Michelle Norris (the masterminds behind the event), Juli Bauer, and Michelle Tam, just to name a few. Can't make it to Austin? No worries! Two of the presentation stages will be live-streamed (http://www.paleofx.com/on-demand) throughout the weekend. Prepare yourselves for awesomeness!

I'll be volunteering this weekend, so I can't guarantee you'll hear much from me over the next few days. I'm on dinner duty until 11 the next two nights, so I'll be passing out pretty quickly after then so that I can enjoy all of tomorrow's presentations. And with that, I have to run. Paleo f(x), here I come!

BMI is BS

My company hosted a health fair on Monday. Various different insurance companies, eye doctors, dental providers, etc. came to one of our offices to tell us about how great their services are. I'm sure they're all great, but that's not why I'm telling you about this health fair. I'm sharing this not-so-juicy tidbit because of the comparison of Body Mass Index (BMI) against body fat percentage. BMI is calculated based on your height and weight. Your body fact percentage can be measured with the use of a Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) - something like this. The long and short of it is that an electrical current is sent through your body via two conductors. The resistance of this circuit provides an indication of the amount of fat between the conductors. Fat is a poor conductor of electricity, whereas muscle is a good conductor due to the water and electrolytes found in the muscles. Okay, so you've got some of the theory now. And if you've used one of the hand-held or scale BIA monitors, you've seen your % body fat. What does this mean? Well, there's different standards, but here's the breakdown I received at the health fair.

Though I don't really want to share this value, I will... just to make a point. My percent body fat was 30.7%, which is within the healthy range. However, my BMI is 29.2, which is on the overweight/leaning toward obese side.

My conversation with the woman who gave me the BIA test went a bit like this:

Health Professional: Oh, 30.7% - that's good. You're healthy. Oh, but your BMI is 29.2, that's right at the edge of the critical range. You really need to watch that. You should make sure you're staying active.

Me: Well, I exercise 30-90 minutes almost every day, and I watch my food intake and follow clean eating guidelines. What else should I be doing?

Health Professional: Oh, um, just keep doing what you're doing. Once you hit 30 years old, your metabolism starts to decrease.

Me: Oh, thanks. So I'm great as I am, even though you told me I'm almost obese? (Okay. So, I didn't actually say that, but I thought it. There were probably some mean names thrown in there, too.)

Seriously though... I'd really like to know how I'm considered healthy with one standard, yet border-line obese with another. I feel healthy. I can handle 90 minutes of moderate to intense exercise on a fairly regular basis, and I seem to be able to move around just fine, minus some joint pain. Hey. I'm not perfect. I still have weight I think I should lose to reduce said joint pain. So I'm going with the decision that BMI is BS!

Still not convinced? I decided to play around with the numbers to see how the healthy range of each scale measured up to each other (at least for my fat-free body mass). The table below is what I calculated for my body. I've highlighted the cells in green that fall within the "healthy" range for each method.

Body fat percentage and BMI are completely exclusive of each other for me. To be considered healthy according to my BMI, I'd need to become a professional athlete... or completely starve myself, like seriously stop eating period, maybe throw in a daily laxative for good measure, and stop moving altogether. I obviously can't keep working or strengthening my muscles, because I would need to lose muscle mass to get to the low end of the BMI scale. I should also point out that essential fat for women is 10-13% (for men it's 2-5%), so if you take that into consideration, my 10-13% body fat range corresponds to 22.5-23.3 BMI. This leaves me with the BMI range of 23.4 to 24.9, that could maybe be achievable without completely disregarding the % body fat... that is if I were an athlete.

Anyways, I get really up-in-arms about this because I've had doctors fret about my BMI and tell me that I should aim for a weight that is unattainable for my body type/composition. I had a doctor in the past tell me that I could stop losing weight once I hit a weight that corresponded to roughly a BMI of 20. Hello 0% body fat, good-bye curves, but more importantly, good-bye health, energy, and exercise. I feel very grateful that my dad is an exercise physiologist and physical activity epidemiologist. Who knows how different I would have been if I blindly attempted such ridiculous weight-loss goals. I'd probably be constantly depressed and food-obsessed. I'd be constantly thinking about food and how hungry I am because I'd be practically starving myself, yet I'd be depressed because I would never be able to reach these goals.

In summary... I'm choosing to ignore BMI from here on out. Instead I will listen to my body and use my eyes to assess how I think I look. I may supplement this with sporadic body fat percentage measurements if I feel like it. BMI is BS! Thanks for listening.

Note: Please remember that the numbers I provided here apply to me and my body. If you're truly serious about weight loss and your percent body fat, I suggest talking to a health professional and/or a nutritionist. While the BIAs that you can buy on Amazon or at fitness stores can give you an estimate of your body fat, it is not the most accurate method of measurement out there. For example, underwater weighing (hydrostatic weighing) measures the displacement of water volume when your body is submerged in water and measures the change in weight. This method is more accurate than the hand-held monitor. Just so you know...

Whole 30 - Day 32

My fingers are burning. The cuticles and the skin beneath my fingernails are burning. And even worse... the open blisters from last weekend's regatta. Seriously... OMG! It's not stopping... Why? Because I was cutting jalapenos. And apparently I didn't do a good job washing my hands. Sigh. I'm not sure how to make it stop. It's been burning for the last hour at least. Oh well. I guess something's bound to happen when you cook frequently. The other week my mom said that she used coconut oil to combat the burning. It doesn't seem to work for me. Tragic!

Yesterday I went to a Krav Maga class and Metamorphosis class. The Meta class is basically a boot camp/CrossFit/kettle bell class. Yesterday's class consisted of 1 minute of each exercise, with 15 seconds in between. Two rounds. I kind of wanted to die. I had to actively think about breathing to make sure I kept sucking in oxygen. And I was sweating like crazy. It was a great workout. Here's the list of the exercises:

1. Toe taps
2. Straight Punches
3. Knees/Kicks (with the punching bag)
4. Ground-and-pounds
5. Push-ups
6. Burpees
7. Jump Squats
8. Battle rope/high knees
9. Kettlebell Swings

And then I had an hour of Krav Maga. Good recovery meal is leftover sweet potato and ground beef. Great way to get some carbs and protein in for post-workout recovery.

Whole 30 - Day 27

Lots of photos tonight. There's nothing I'd like more than to go straight to bed, but I'm taking a few minutes to share my day with you. I cheated again today. I had gluten-free beer. Two days in a row of cheating? Yeah... I thought about saying no, but I decided to drink it. Let me explain why...

After falling asleep around 11 last night, I woke up a few times throughout the night because my hotel room got really cold. The first time was around 1 a.m., and I got up to turn down the air. The second time was about 4 a.m., but I just burrowed under the covers more. Then I woke up at 5 a.m. and burrowed further. My alarm finally went off at 5:45, but I didn't roll out of bed until 6, after my second alarm went off. I had laid out everything last night, so it didn't take me long to head to the front desk to check out at 6:30 a.m. and then grab some of the eggs at their free breakfast. I'm pretty sure everyone at breakfast that early was there for the regatta (registration started at 6:30).

Anyways, I drove the quarter-mile to the boathouse and we started setting up camp for the day. After a brief course/safety session, we starting getting on the water for the first races. My races were at 8:30, 9:30, and 10:30, though everything kind of fell behind, so I spent probably 90% of my time from 7:50 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. on the water. I rowed 18,000 m today. When you're not racing, you're helping your other teammates with their boats or their oars so that they can launch their boats from the docks. Or you're scarfing down some sort of sustenance in between guzzling water. Once our races were done, we all celebrated with a beer or two (just one gluten-free beer for me), before de-rigging all of our boats for transport back to our boathouse. (We remove the riggers which hold our oars in place so that we can fit all of our boats on one trailer and so that the trailer can be towed without smacking into cars on either side.) Once everything was loaded, all of our garbage collected, and our tent and chairs stowed in our cars, we made the 4.5-hour drive back to our boathouse for unloading and rigging the boats, storing our oars, pushing the trailer back into the back of our boathouse, hanging the slings, and carrying the boats to their proper racks in the boathouse.

This all finished around 9 p.m. I made a quick stop at Whole Foods to grab some food for dinner, but by the time I got home around 9:45, I wasn't hungry anymore. I dragged myself to my room, showered, and started this post. Sigh... I'm too tired to be hungry, but apparently not tired enough to skip out on this.

So with all of the rowing, carrying boats up hills, and general weight-lifting as we overhead press our boats onto the trailers or to avoid hitting things, I decided I deserved a beer... in a social setting. Granted, it probably wasn't the smartest decision from a dehydration standpoint, but I don't feel guilty about it. All I feel right now is tired and sore and a little sunburned.

So to wrap this up, here are some photos from today. I only took photos after I had finished my races, and I don't have any of me actually racing... maybe someone else took some...

Yve and I after our races

Mixed Masters Quad

Watching as boats are brought down to the dock

One of the women in my quad today is on crutches, but she stilled rowed in two races = Dedication!

The row of boats (haha, get it?)

Beaker came to watch

Relaxing/collapsing after our races

And enjoying a gluten-free beer. Judge away.