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Paleo recipes: cheesecake base

March 9th, 2010 · Diet, Recipes

It was my birthday a few weeks ago and I decided to put the jar of almond milk leftovers to good use and develop a paleo cheesecake recipe. 

Since I was making up the recipe, I tried two different recipes for the base and two different recipes for the topping.  This week, I will compare the recipes for the bases.  Next week I’ll compare the two toppings. 

Dairy-free cheesecake base

Dairy-free cheesecake base

Dairy-free cheesecake base

Ingredients:
100g almond meal
200g almond butter
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp honey

Directions:

  1. Place the ingredients into a bowl and mix together thoroughly.
  2. Grease the sides of a cake tin with a 6 inch diameter and line the bottom with a piece of greaseproof paper.  If at all possible, use a tin with a loose bottom or a spring-sided tin to make it easier to turn out the cheesecake.
  3. Press the mix tightly into the cake tin and set aside for the topping.

This cheesecake base holds together very well but tastes very strongly of almonds.  I found the almond flavour too overpowering for the cheesecake topping we used but Chris really liked the base. 

It’s very much personal preference but I would recommend using this base for cheesecakes where the topping is either very plain (so that the almond base becomes the feature flavour) or where the topping flavour is very strong and will be complimented by the nutty base.

Traditional cheesecake base

Traditional cheesecake base (we turned it out too soon, so it collapsed)

Traditional cheesecake base (we turned it out too soon, so it collapsed)

Ingredients:
3 oz butter
100g almond meal
2 tsp honey

Directions:

  1. Melt the butter in a small pan over a low heat.
  2. Pour the melted butter over the almond meal, add the honey and mix together thoroughly.
  3. Grease the sides of a cake tin with a 6 inch diameter and line the bottom with a piece of greaseproof paper.  If at all possible, use a tin with a loose bottom or a spring-sided tin to make it easier to turn out the cheesecake.
  4. Press the mix tightly into the cake tin and set aside for the topping.

This cheesecake base is much more traditional and, unlike the dairy-free base, doesn’t have any particularly strong flavour making it perfect for cheesecakes with more delicate flavours.  It was certainly my preferred base.

We used this base for the baked cheesecake and made the error of turning it out too soon (it didn’t help that the tin didn’t have a loose bottom).  The base needs to be refrigerated for several hours before turning it out to stop it from crumbling.  Once we had kept it in the fridge for a day or two we found that it was holding together well on each individual slice.

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Lessons learned: low-carb diet for endurance exercise

March 8th, 2010 · Diet, Training

Two things happened over the last fortnight to get me thinking about whether it is beneficial to convert to being low-carb if you are an endurance athlete. 

The first was a question on one of my old posts from someone who wanted to know how I dealt with the problem of being glycogen starved while training in the context of having converted to a low-carb paleo diet.  The second was a high-carb v low-carb debate that I frequently have with a friend of mine who is a long-distance runner (regularly competing in marathons, half-marathons and 10km races).

My personal experience of converting

For a long time after I converted to a low-carb diet I continued to be high-carb for the purpose of my weekly long distance bike rides, because it was easier that way.  Eventually though, I decided that I couldn’t keep compromising my health.  I knew it was possible to be an endurance athlete on a low-carb diet having read various testimonies.  I’d also heard about Chris Carmichael, the professional cyclist and former coach to Lance Armstrong, who advocates a low-carb diet for athletes.

To convert, I found a period of a few weeks when I felt able to put my weekly long-ride on hold.  Instead of a long ride, I went slowly round a local 30 mile circuit in a completely fasted state before breakfast.  This taught my body to burn fat for fuel.

The first time I did it I felt horrid and ran out of energy about 10 miles from the end.  Fortunately on a bike you can change gear and spin the pedals with minimal effort – you don’t go very quickly but you can keep going enough to crawl home.  By the third or fourth week I could get round the full 30 miles and, although hungry, I had enough energy to work hard on the hill climbs.  The subsequent benefits to my long distance rides were worth the effort.

The benefits of being a low-carb endurance athlete

The key differences that I saw have been noticed by others too, such as a pig-hunter who commented on Mark Sisson’s blog.  I’ve listed below the biggest benefits to me.

  • Not needing to eat as frequently – I can now survive on a snack every 3 or 4 hours when out cycling or walking, rather than needing to put in some food every hour.
  • Not needing such large snacks – fat goes further than carbs, so I don’t need to eat as much when I do stop to eat.  A handful of nuts or a square of dark chocolate can be sufficient where I would have previously needed a whole flapjack or banana at each break.
  • Being able to keep going when I run out of food – it’s not pleasant, but if I run out of food I can keep going when I used to be left exhausted, sat by my bike at the side of the road.  I will always carry some body fat, and I can burn that fat for energy in an emergency.
Feeling the benefits of a light-weight pack

Feeling the benefits of a light-weight pack

Arguments in favour of staying high-carb as an endurance athlete

My friend, the long-distance runner, puts forward the following arguments in favour of staying high-carb which, from his perspective, are equally valid:

  • When running it is difficult to digest most foods (due to the bouncing vibrations through your stomach) whereas a sugar glucose drink can go through the system with relative ease.
  • There are psychological benefits from putting something sweet on your tongue, not just physical benefits.  My only argument against this is that these benefits have been seen even when gargling the sugary liquids, so you don’t need to ingest them to get the psychological benefits.
  • An organised run usually includes regular feed stations where they provide energy drinks and other sugary substances.  With this in mind, why go through the unpleasant conversion process when you would then have to start carrying more of your own food?

The problem with advocating low-carb endurance training

Almost all of the success stories about being a low-carb endurance athlete are just that.  Personal accounts.  Most dedicated athletes play around with changing their diet but few will write about the change unless it was successful.  So while we know that being low-carb does work for some endurance athletes we can’t extrapolate that it works for everyone.

Turning to science, there have been studies comparing low-carb and high-carb diets but when you are addressing something as fundamental as long-term diet it is difficult to do a fully controlled trial. 

If you are comparing different groups of people (eg. comparison of a non-western tribe to a standard western population) there are too many other aspects that may skew the data, such as activity levels or genetic differences.  Meanwhile, scientists have noticed that if people are asked to convert their diet to something that is perceived as “healthy” for a scientific trial, they will often make changes to other areas of life too, such as activity levels, because they feel healthy.

Make your choice to suit your preferences

My friend and I are unlikely to ever agree. 

He has strong reasons for not converting.  He doesn’t have a problem with the potential health issues from the high-carb foods that he consumes, he is concerned about trying to digest anything that isn’t in liquid form while running and he doesn’t need to worry about being able to carry his food since he is competing in races with food stations.

Personally, I am more concerned about the long-term health issues that could compromise my biggest life-goal.  I also often have to carry any food that I want to consume and, when you are carrying 6 days of food on your back in a rucksack while crossing wilderness terrain, being able to carry less food is a benefit that outweighs everything for me.  It’s also good to know that if I run out of food several hours from a food source (as happened once in the Cairngorms), I can keep going on reserve fat.

The important thing is to make your own decision based on your specific facts and circumstances and addressing the things that are of most importance to you.

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Powerlifting progress: week nine

March 7th, 2010 · Training

I am serious about wanting to qualify and compete at powerlifting.  When I started out on this series there were several key problems, such as poor hip mobility.  Having had some reasonable successes at the end of 2009, fixing the remaining problems while also driving up the strength numbers are now the priorities of the program.  

I’m recording my progress in this series: powerlifting progress.  It is serving as a journal and makes me a bit more accountable to my goals. 

This week

This was the ninth week in the program.  I’m starting to feel the need for a rest week.  The last workout of this week, I abandoned my last assistance exercise since I felt physically exhausted.  I’ve got one more week before I go on holiday so I may back off a bit for next week.

Here’s how I got on in relation to my powerlifting goals.

Squat

Action plan

  • Maintain – leg strength and ab strength
  • Develop – hip mobility and lower back strength

Progress this week

A second attempt at zerchers and I have to confess that I still dislike them.  However, I got a really good max effort out, increasing it by 5kg on last time and taking it up to body weight.  Definitely something I can be proud of.

I’ve kept quite quiet for the last few weeks about the work I’ve been doing on my ab strength.  Zerchers, dumbbell bent over rows and various other exercises in the current program all work my abs by default, but I’ve also been working on doing a five rep max of hanging knee raises.  I’ve added weight twice each week with a view to slowly working towards being able to do a bent leg raise. 

This week I completed 5kg of added weight on my hanging knee raises.  It was a momentous event (because it took me onto the next size of plate).  When I then had a play about with bent leg raises I found that I can now get my lower legs parallel with the floor.  This may not seem like something special but I’m really pleased with it.  I love watching the gymnastic moves and would love to be able to do them myself.

Bench

Action plan

  • Maintain – technique
  • Develop – lat and shoulder strength

 Progress this week

Floor press this week and my max effort improved on the previous week by a big jump, but having identified that my problem point on my bench is getting it off my chest, I struggled to get excited about the improvement to my floor press.

Of more interest to me has been the work I’ve done on my Viking presses as an assistance exercise.  Tuesday (my last upper body workout of the week) saw this move up to 32kg (for ten sets of four reps) and for the first time I really felt this working specific muscles in my upper back and shoulders.  Up to then I had felt it working my raw strength pushing it up off my chest, but I’d not felt it hitting specific muscles.  It will be interesting to see if it makes any difference to my bench press next week, though it’s hard to know how much improvement I can get from four sessions of Viking presses.

Finally, pull ups and its various variants (chin ups and narrow grip chin ups) have been really impressing me.  I’ve consistently added weight to all of them and I finally hit a weight I couldn’t complete for narrow chins this week.  It might seem odd to be pleased that I couldn’t complete a weight, but it makes me feel that I’m in a new zone of difficulty.

Deadlift

Action plan

  • Maintain – leg strength and ab strength
  • Develop – hip mobility and lower back strength

Progress this week

Deadlift clusters.  Not the horrific experience I was expecting.  Perhaps I set the weight too low, but I completed them with none of the pain of my first week of sumo clusters.  That said, it was refreshing to be able to walk after doing deadlifts without my hip flexors screaming at me.  An extended session of sumos can leave my hip flexors stretched and worked beyond the point of comfort.

Particular highlights were that my form was good and I’ve dropped the height of the bar so good news for both glute engagement and hip mobility:

  • Last time I did conventional deadlifts I had to stand the bar on a standard household brick (so raised up about 2.5 inches).  This time it was on a plate that was only an inch high. 
  • You may also recall that last time I did conventional deadlifts I had to terminate the workout because my right knee was bowing inwards.  This time I could feel it trying to do that but I’d picked a weight where I could really work my glutes to keep my knee pulled outwards. 

So good news all round.

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Great links for the weekend!

March 5th, 2010 · Links

There seem to be lots of serious bits of information to share this week but I’ve tried to get some lighter stuff in here too.

  • To kick us off, here’s a reminder from Michael Boyle that we should never stop learning if we want to progress.
  • Ageing is associated with chronic low-grade systemic inflammation, so if we address inflammation do we also deal with the problem of ageing?
  • Continuing a running theme, Claire Mysko writes about pregnancy fitness and letting your body dictate the pace.
  • Are you on a calorie-counting diet?  If so, be aware that the calorie count information provided by restaurants is almost certainly too low.
  • This week’s interview with an inspirational woman is with Mina Leslie-Wujastyk.  Who?  I can’t explain it better than the interview itself: “Mina… is perhaps the most accomplished female boulderer in the UK.”
  • A study by Pederson et al (2009) showed that recreational soccer could improve the reflex response to sudden trunk loading in women and concluded that this subsequently helps in protecting against injuries of the lower back.  Recreational soccer is full of sudden moves, including sudden loading of the upper body (e.g. turns, stops, throw-ins, headers, and shoulder tackles), so it’s unsurprising that subjecting your body to these forces regularly will cause it to quickly learn to protect itself by reflex action.  For me, the more important question, which they don’t seem to address, is whether that reflex action then carries across into daily life.
  • Richard Nikoley’s rant about skeletal people advising on good diet and nutrition had me laughing.  He does have a very worthwhile point though.  I would never take health advice from someone who looks like they’d eaten all the pies either (or even, from people who do eat all the pies)…
  • For some animal magic, take a look at goats doing amazing stunts on the rock face.  I wish I could do some of those things!
  • I really like Mike Nelson’s Extreme Human Performance site for the nuggets of information he imparts, so many thanks to Chris for putting together a top ten from Mike’s site.
  • It seems that removing wheat products from your diet (being gluten-free and pretty much along the core lines of the Paleo diet) is beneficial for animals as well as humans.
  • Finally, last weekend saw the closing ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.  The winter Olympics brings together some of the most dangerous sports in existence (not all of them, just some) and the competitors have to have real guts to take some of the risks.  In honour, NBCOlympics.com put together a slideshow early on in the Games of some of these inspirational men and women.

Have a truly wonderful weekend!

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Blog-watch: recent glute news

March 4th, 2010 · Training

It’s been a while since I last wrote about the glutes.  This all-important part of a woman’s muscle structure that is so often overlooked by women who are working on their figure and which can make the difference between a nice figure and a really amazing one.

I’ve been watching a lot of World Strongest Man re-runs recently (having conveniently given Chris some DVDs of them for his birthday – whenever possible, always give the person you live with something that you will also enjoy).  Gary Taylor, the Welsh ex-Olympic lifter who turned strongman in the 1990s and won World’s Strongest Man in 1993, has a rear-view that inspired me to revisit this important topic.

When last writing about glutes I had finally mastered glute muscle activation, crucial for progress in so many lifting exercises, but I still didn’t have an appreciably attractive figure from behind.  Since then, I’ve continued incorporating weighted glute bridges and weighted hip thrusts in my workouts as assistance exercises.

It seems to have made all the difference.  I feel my glutes working all the time now and I uncovered a rear-view that I could be proud of at the end of my last cutting cycle.  As a result I feel attractive far more often, I enjoy the feeling of my jeans being tight on my bum knowing that it’s not a layer of fat that will slowly squeeze out over the top of the waistband but the result of hard work that I can be proud of.

The work is never over, I wouldn’t want to return to the days of atrophied glutes, but I always keep my ear close to the ground for more news on things I can do to work my glutes.  So I’ve set out below links to various glute-related news I’ve seen since my last glute-related article.

  • Mike Reinhold assessed a study carried out in 2008 by Presswood et al which looked at the anatomy, dysfunction, assessment and progressive strengthening of the gluteus medius.  An article which emphasises how important good glute strength really is.
  • Following on from his assessment, Mike then found some follow-up research which used electromyographic (EMG) signal amplitude of the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles during exercises of varying difficulty to determine which exercise most effectively recruits these muscles.  Mike summarises the findings on his blog, but for more detail of the results, there is a useful powerpoint with the research paper.
  • Continuing to look at EMG work, a study by Mercer et al (2009) compared activation during forward and lateral step ups and found that activation was greatest when doing lateral step ups and specifically during the upwards phase.  It should be noted that their test group were “older” adults (mean age of 79.4) rather than younger athletes.
  • I’ve been singing the praises of Bret Contreras, otherwise known as the Glute Boy, for my introduction to the glute exercises that made all the difference to me.  If you want to get to know a bit more about him, Nate Green interviewed him for Testosterone Nation – it makes for entertaining reading.
  • Bret also wrote an incredibly long and technical article about the glutes which covers almost everything you may ever need to know about the glutes.  I first saw this article when it was published last October and I’m still trying to digest it in full.  One to keep revisiting I think.
  • Slightly off-topic, but to combine EMG and Bret Contreras, Andrew Heffernan has written about the recent EMG work that Bret has been doing to study the activation of different muscles when doing different exercises in an attempt to identify the best exercises for different muscles.

After all that glute talk I’m off to spend some more time watching reruns of Gary Taylor.  Particularly the second minute in this video of his winning performances from 1993…

Edit (5 March 2010): As a late addition to this post, I’ve just seen Bret Contreras’s recent post on “What Women Want“, highlighting the varied approach that women may need to take combining the big lifts (like squats and deadlifts) with other exercises like weighted glute bridges and hip thrusts to ensure firm and shapely glutes without huge muscular thighs to accompany them.

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Workout nutrition: protein, fat or carbohydrate?

March 3rd, 2010 · Diet, Training

Last week I wrote about the timing of workout nutrition, concluding that pre-workout nutrition is vital to athletic performance and improvements to this performance.  However, there’s also debate on the content of the nutrition.

I’ve set out below various parts of the debate so that you can reach your own conclusions.

Pre workout nutrition

A small study by Hackney et al (2009) comparing the effects of protein and carbohydrate pre workout nutrition for trained individuals carrying out resistance training.  This showed that the protein group had a more significant increase to their resting energy expenditure. 

The conclusion by the researchers was that having a protein supplement prior to weight training could be a simple and effective way to increase energy expenditure.  Therefore if you are training to improve your body composition then getting protein into your pre workout nutrition seems to be important.  Unfortunately this study seems to clearly divide protein and carbohydrate and doesn’t comment on having a mix of the two together pre workout.

Do we even need carbohydrate for our workout nutrition?

Having become quite open minded about workout nutrition after writing last week’s article, I was unsurprised to discover DiPasqual’s idea that ingesting carbohydrates straight after our workouts to “replenish the glucose stores in the muscles” is a myth.

In an article on Bodybuilding.com he summarises his argument that while exercise increases insulin sensitivity and depletes glycogen, the body increases glycogen in the body (both muscle and hypatic (liver) glycogen) as a priority after exercise.

As soon as the body increases the glycogen in the body substantially, our insulin sensitivity drops again.  However, it is advantageous to keep insulin sensitivity high for as long as possible after the workout since increased insulin sensitivity:

  • enhances amino acid uptake;
  • enhances protein synthesis;
  • increases profusion of muscles so gets more nutrition into muscles and enhanced anabolic effects from protein synthesis; and
  • alerts the body to use fatty acids as the primary fuel after exercise.

Loading up on carbohydrate straight after the workout rapidly decreases insulin sensitivity so that the fatty acid burning, enhanced protein synthesis benefits of the heightened insulin sensitivity stop. 

Think twice before having a potato post workout

Think twice before having a potato post workout

This idea is supported by a study carried out by Garcia-Roves et al (2003) which concluded that preventing the supercompensation of glycogen after exercising results in the persistence of exercise-induced increases in protein synthesis.  However, it should be noted that this study was carried out on rats (who were exercised through swimming), not resistance training humans.

Newsom et al (2009) have also noted that a carbohydrate deficit after exercising contributes to the insulin sensitising effects of exercise, though again there is an issue with relying on this study – it relates to acute aerobic exercise, not resistance training.

Protein: the alternative to post workout carbohydrate

It is clear from a study carried out by Koopman et al (2004) that protein is needed in post workout nutrition in order to stimulate muscle protein synthesis and optimise protein balance (when compared to carbohydrate only post workout nutrition).

A study carried out by Børsheim et al (2002) looked at the stimulation of net muscle protein balance when 6g of amino acids (an active part of protein) was administered 1 and 2 hours after resistance exercise.  Interestingly this showed that the protein synthesis benefits from the amino acids administered after 2 hours were even greater than those from the first dose.  So perhaps the best thing you can do after your post workout protein shake is to have some more an hour later.

Choice of protein source

It seems that, whatever you believe, we must have protein after our workout and indeed, most of us are programmed to drink down a whey protein shake or a pint of milk as soona s we get out of the gym for our post workout protein source. 

But there are a few things to be aware of with dairy proteins:

  1. Whey protein undergoes a gluconeogenic response and gets into our system very quickly so that a lot of it gets converted into glucose and hits insulin sensitivity levels.  A study carried out on diabetics using whey protein with their meals reflected the higher insulin responses they had to these supplemented meals.
  2. All proteins release insulin but Robb Wolf mentions in the Paleolithic Solution Episode 9 (about 28 mins in) that dairy proteins produce much higher levels of insulin.

So if you are trying to keep your insulin sensitivity elevated for as long as possible after a workout it may be beneficial to avoid dairy proteins as well as carbohydrates post workout.  That leaves things like lean steak and fish as optimal post workout “snacks”.

Sardines post workout?

Sardines post workout?

Summary

From the research I’ve done it seems that while protein in pre workout nutrition seems to be a given, the choice of post workout nutrition depends on your goals.

If body composition is a priority (eg figure athletes) then consider avoiding significant levels of carbohydrate and dairy in post workout meals.  This optimises the enhanced protein synthesis and fatty-acid-burning triggers caused by the increased insulin sensitivity.

If maximising the glycogen in muscles is more important (eg. powerlifter training on a very frequent basis) and body composition is not a priority then maybe continue to load up on carbohydrates as part of the post workout nutrition.  Just don’t neglect the protein.

I’d love to hear from you if you’ve seen other research that disagrees with this information – workout nutrition seems to be a minefield of contradictory studies!

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Paleo recipes: beef chilli

March 2nd, 2010 · Diet, Recipes

This is a staple meal in our house and gets eaten every week.  It was the last staple meal to be converted to a paleo recipe.  It was just too easy to make it each week with a reliable jar of sauce each week.  But it started to prey on my mind that I was consuming something that was filled with artificial flavourings, thickeners and other bad things every week.

When I found myself with some spare chillis in the house I decided it was time to try and do it myself from scratch.  How hard could it be? 

Well, the recipe below is the result of several weeks of repeated efforts to get the right combination of spices and I must thank Chris for his patience is being a guinea pig every week.  The problem was not a lack of inspiration – there are hundreds of basic chilli recipes on the internet, all revolving around the same basic mix of spices.  But none of them had that depth of zing and tang that you get in a good chilli. 

You’ll see that the recipe below is not entirely paleo, as it contains kidney beans.  We make this exception as a chilli is just not a chilli without them (for us) and kidney beans are just about passable given the amount of exercise we do.  But if you are bothered by the kidney beans then just leave them out.

Chilli

Chilli

Warning!  This makes a very hot chilli so I’ve included notes of the reductions to make to certain ingredients if you don’t like your chilli really hot.

Ingredients: (serves 3-4)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 large fresh chillis, seeded and cut finely (reduce to 1 chilli for a milder chilli dish) or 1 tsp dried chilli seeds (½ tsp for a milder chilli)
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper (any colour), roughly chopped
500g lean beef mince
½ tin red kidney beans (c. 200g), drained and rinsed
1 tin tomatoes (c. 300g)
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp cayenne (reduce to ½ tsp for a milder chilli)
3 tbsp mixed lemon and lime juices (approximately ½ lemon and ½ lime)

Directions:

  1. Heat some oil in a wok or large pan.  When the oil is hot add the garlic and fresh chilli.
  2. Once the chilli aromas are starting to release, add the onion to the pan.
  3. Once the onion is starting to go soft, add the pepper for a few minutes.
  4. Once both onion and pepper are looking soft and browned, add the mince and keep moving in the pan until the mince is thoroughly browned (you may need to add some oil just before adding the mince if the onion has used up all the oil).
  5. Reduce the heat and pour over the tin of tomatoes.  Before stirring in the tomatoes, sprinkle the spices on top of the tomato.  Once the spices are added, mix in the tomato and spice mix thoroughly (by sprinkling the spices over the tomato, the act of stirring in the tomato helps evenly distribute the spices).
  6. Add the kidney beans, and the lemon and lime juices, stir in thoroughly, reduce the heat and simmer for 5 mins.
  7. Take a small taste of the chilli.  If it is too mild for your tastes then add a little more cayenne pepper.  Similarly, if it is lacking a bit of depth and zing then add a splash more of the lemon and lime juices, but be careful not to add too much juice or that will be all you can taste!
  8. Continue simmering until you want to serve – simmering for about 10 mins in total thickens the sauce to a good consistency but if hunger gets the better of you then increase the heat for a couple of minutes to reduce the sauce faster.

We serve it on its own with broccoli and eat it with spoons, but if we have non-paleo friends to visit then we do them a small helping of brown rice on the side.

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Lessons learned: wheat withdrawal and emotional eating

March 1st, 2010 · Diet, Psychology

It’s been a tough week for my body.  It’s been abused, poisoned and wrecked. 

It’s been a tough week for my mind and emotions.  They’ve been mangled, tested to the extreme and been found wanting.

What happened

At the start of the week I ate a large, gooey piece of cake.  A friend was celebrating and I felt unable to refuse.  It’s some time since I last felt unable to turn down something I don’t eat.  I’m usually fastidious about sticking to the diet.

A while back I was inspired by an article on PaNu.  I recommend you read it if you are someone who eats an “unconventional” diet.  The summary is that if you truly believe that some foods are bad for you then don’t feel obliged to eat them when offered or make up an excuse like gluten intolerance.  Instead turn them down and be truthful with your reasons.

You may find you persuade someone else to your point of view along the way.

What is wrong with cake?

Those who are regular readers of my blog will know that I am strongly against wheat, refined sugar and some other high carb foods for three main reasons.

  1. I subscribe to the Paleolithic Diet principle that our bodies are, as a general rule, not evolved to process complex agricultural foods and eliminate or weaken the anti-nutrients in them.
  2. I believe that wheat and similar foods aggravate the gut lining, impacting on my immune system and my ability to recover from my workouts.
  3. After adapting to obtain energy from fat sources, several consecutive meals with high carb foods can move me back to sourcing energy from carbs.  For multi-day wilderness trips it’s convenient to burn my own body fat for several hours of emergency energy and beneficial to carry light-weight calorie-dense foods (eg. nuts and dark chocolate) that give me longer-term energy benefits.

Why eating “just one slice” becomes a problem

Last week I read an article about wheat withdrawal.  Dr. Davis has noticed that people who consume a lot of wheat may struggle to stop.  Like smokers they can try to stop, but often suffer from severe withdrawal symptoms which break their resolve.  Added to this, many people have noted the particularly addictive combination of sugar and fat.

Paleo cake - not so addictive

Paleo cake - not so addictive

Having consumed my slice of cake I was overcome by a desperate hunger minutes later, a desire to eat more cake.  I consoled myself that this was the expected insulin spike and that the shaking and hunger would pass with my next sensible meal.

But it continued.  Suddenly I was craving more of the same.

Someone at work brought in cake for their birthday the next day.  I haven’t helped myself to birthday cakes for over a year and I’ve never even felt the urge to eat them, but suddenly I couldn’t resist.  I could imagine the satisfaction I would get from the cake, the sensation of the sweetness on my tongue. 

Eventually I couldn’t stand it any more.  I had one piece.  Then a second.  Then a third.  Each time I found it did nothing for me and told myself it would be the last.  But my mind was convinced that the next piece would taste delicious…

Emotional eating

I was out-of-control in a downward spiral.  I knew I wouldn’t like the taste but there was a short circuit stopping my mind from participating in rational debate, instead convincing me that cakes would make me feel better.  After a few days of this I felt ashamed of my behaviour.  I didn’t dare tell Chris what was happening. 

That’s when I finally caught myself.  Going to the toilets to change on my way out of the office I grabbed a cake.  I was sat in a toilet cubicle eating the cake where nobody could see me when it hit me.  These were symptoms of emotional eating when someone feels bad and eats to feel better. 

That’s Fit have compiled a few people’s tweats on how they stop themselves from emotional eating, but do these techniques really work?

Emotions or addiction?

Emotional eating is often blamed for over-eating and obesity but after my experiences I think it is much simpler.  I have always considered myself to have strong willpower and there were no emotional issues to blame last week, yet someone watching me would have called it emotional eating.

When you have frightening cravings for the addictive wheat, sugars and fats, you eat to satisfy the cravings.  If you don’t satisfy the cravings you feel depressed, there’s no good feeling from denying yourself, so if you don’t eat you put your emotions out of balance.  If you are stressed or emotionally drained it’ll be even harder to resist the cravings.

Walk into any restaurant or motorway service station – it is almost impossible not to be forced into eating highly addictive combinations.  Wait at the checkout in the supermarket and you have to look at foodstuffs that, once you’ve tasted them, make you want more.

Can we blame people for being obese when they are faced with their addictions at every turn?  If we want to help we need to not only re-educate them about different foods but also help them to avoid seeing the foods they are addicted to.

Resolving the addiction

Personally, my first step was to acknowledge that I was starting to become addicted.  The second step was to remove myself from the problem foods – easy enough to do over a weekend since we don’t have any “bad” foods in our house and Chris did the shopping for me. 

A weekend of not seeing or eating anything that might set me off was enough to put me back in control.  As I said, my willpower is pretty strong.

Will my body recover?  Probably.  Will I do it again?  I’d like to think not, but with an enemy as wily as this, who can ever tell?

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Powerlifting progress 2010: week eight

February 28th, 2010 · Training

I am serious about wanting to qualify and compete at powerlifting.  When I started out on this series there were several key problems, such as poor hip mobility.  Having had some reasonable successes at the end of 2009, fixing the remaining problems while also driving up the strength numbers are now the priorities of the program.  

I’m recording my progress in this series: powerlifting progress.  It is serving as a journal and makes me a bit more accountable to my goals. 

This week

This was the eighth week in the program and I’ve now seen my first repeat of some of the max effort lifts in the “new” Westside-style program.  It was a mixed but rewarding experience – bearing in mind that I’m writing this the day after my back squat attempt, which went well, so I’m probably a bit gung-ho right now!

Here’s how I got on in relation to my powerlifting goals.

Squat

Action plan

  • Maintain – leg strength and ab strength
  • Develop – hip mobility and lower back strength

Progress this week

Fantastic!  I completed 58kg for a 5 rep max a fortnight ago and last night I managed a 5 rep max on 60kg.  This 2kg increase may not seem like much but the quality was up there with the best of my squatting too.  The 5 rep max last time had had a couple of dodgy reps in it when I fish-tailed about a bit.  In comparison this week I was solid, focussed and only fish-tailed a little in the very last rep while trying to get out of the hole.

From a squatting perspective this program seems to be giving me some progress.

For lower back assistance work I’ve swapped from RDLs to good mornings for a couple of weeks as well, which is a little unpleasant.  My lower back was unimpressed doing back squat max efforts, followed by glute bridges and then being subjected to good mornings as well, but I think the variety from the RDLs will give me some good development over the next few weeks.

Bench

Action plan

  • Maintain – technique
  • Develop – lat and shoulder strength

 Progress this week

Less success with the max effort bench since I only managed to increase this by a measly 1kg on last time.  However, it was an increase.  I partly attribute the difficulty to having a weekend away and therefore moving workouts about so that this max effort was done on a third consecutive workout day (the day after a lower body max effort).  Three days in a row was hard and we were both feeling the affects of the previous two workouts on our bodies.

Note for future training, avoid doing three consecutive days in the gym when following a Westside-style program!

Having established that my problem point in my bench is getting the bar off my chest, I have swapped my main assistance work to Viking presses since these really work raw power throughout the press movement.  Hopefully this will show as an improved max effort performance on my press in a fortnight.

Deadlift

Action plan

  • Maintain – leg strength and ab strength
  • Develop – hip mobility and lower back strength
Scared of the deadlift bar

Scared of the deadlift bar

Progress this week

After last week’s frustration that I was fighting to get each new kilo I was unsurprised to find that I could only get 5 reps of my ten singles out this week when I put my deadlift up another kilo.  On the plus side my form was good and I didn’t have the stiffness of the previous week.

Helpfully the problem seemed to be glute strength which I’m working on already, so I’ll just keep plugging away at it.

I’m still terrified about starting standard deadlift clusters next week.

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Great links for the weekend!

February 26th, 2010 · Links

Some interesting information this week and a few things to try – will you be tempted to try going without shampoo or soap for an extended period of time?

  • I like to wear high heels every so often, though I only do so for special occasions.  This recent article has a summary of the health issues surrounding wearing high heels, though I think their recommendation that “no woman should wear a shoe taller than 2.5 inches high for extended periods of time” misses the point a bit.  A woman with extremely big feet would find that 2.5 inches isn’t a very high heel at all whereas for me, with my tiny feet, I would be standing on my toes and logic tells me that can’t be a good thing.  It’s all about the angle your foot has to take to get the heel of your foot that high.
  • Richard Nikoley has been trying an experiment, not using shampoo or soap.  While it makes fascinating reading, I’m not convinced that I want to try it myself.  I enjoy the smells and relaxation of a long hot bath or shower too much.
  • An excellent reminder in this post of the top ten exercise mistakes that women make.  I even surprised myself by agreeing with most of them too.
  • Society is getting fatter and women are outweighing their mothers.  Do you think it’s because mother’s over-feed their daughters or is it just a continuation of the growing obesity epidemic?
  • Following on from my link the other week on how to butcher a side of beef, here’s a post from someone who is trying to live by the self-sufficiency motto and who killed and butchered their first chicken this week.
  • I meant to post this up sooner – Gubernatrix of All Round Strength Training has started up a Facebook group called the Women’s Strength Training Network.  If you are interested in all things female and strength training related then get yourself along to it and sign up!
  • This week’s animal photo is incredibly cute – check it out!
  • Last weekend was the Skeleton events at the Olympics.  The US Skeleton team went the extra mile this time by training in a wind tunnel. 
  • I’ve mentioned before how much I dislike green tea, so imagine my horror on being faced with a technical article listing out all the healthful properties of green tea and how it all works.
  • The Women’s Strength Training Guide to a Sexy and Fit Body has some brief but handy reminders on training with heavy weights.
  • I’ve done a whole post on the subject of omega 3 and 6 fatty acids.  Dr John Briffa has raised awareness of a recent study that suggests that omega-3 fats may also protect against psychotic illness.
  • Another success story of strength training and pregnancy from Cate Kelly who has found that she’s having none of the troubles that she suffered in her previous two pregnancies and she attributes this to her strength training that is continuing through pregnancy number three.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a video of a voice impressionist that really impressed me.

Enjoy the video and have a great weekend everyone!

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