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Week Three Challenge is About Keeping Your Schedule

By admin • January 24, 2014 Blogroll

Week Three Challenge starts Sunday — But first, I want to know who is still drinking their water? How are you feeling with your new sleep practice? If any of these practices are working for you — keep them!

Remember, the last day you have to get your 7 hours of sleep for this challenge is Saturday night/Sunday Morning. You will have to have slept 7 hours before going to bed Sunday night, but Monday is up to you!

Your next Weekly Challenge:

Create a training schedule for yourself for the whole week, Monday through Sunday, post it in the Facebook group by Monday at midnight, and stick to it 100%. Here are the rules:

You may plan for contingencies in your schedule, but you must be specific – e.g. Work out with 930am class OR 6:30pm class
You must put your workouts AND your active recovery sessions into your training schedule
You must fulfill on the plan 100% in order to be eligible for the points on Monday.
Plan your workouts, and stick to your plan.

We know your life changes from day to day. By the time this weekly challenge is over you must have completed the number of workouts and number of active rest days that you put in your schedule, even if things get rearranged. For example, if my schedule looks like this:

Monday – Workout at 6A at Highbar

Tuesday – Workout at 6A at Highbar

Wednesday -Active recovery at 7:00p

Thursday – Workout at 6A at Highbar

Friday – Workout at 6A at Highbar

Saturday – Work out at 9am at Highbar

Sunday – Active recovery at 4:00pm

I must complete 5 workouts and 2 active recovery days before Sunday ends. The order may change, but the plan must stay in tact.

If your training schedule is not posted in the group by midnight on Monday you will not be eligible for the points — NO EXCEPTIONS. If you are not sure if it is there, make sure to double check. No reason will be accepted as an exception including your post for some odd reason didn’t get posted!

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You Are Fat

By admin • January 23, 2014 Blogroll

And that’s not a bad thing. It’s just a good thing to know. Why? Because it is a clue to what we should be eating to be healthy! Lots of people now know that eating some fat is a good thing and that while you could cut all fat out of your diet, it would be a really bad idea. What may still be controversial to a lot of people is the kind of fats that we should be eating. You’re about to read something that may challenge your belief about good vs. bad fats. This one’s a little long, so get ready.

For the majority of human history nearly all fats came from animals. Period. Some groups had access to seasonal nuts, but for the majority, eating fat meant eating animal fat. So let’s start with that animal fat is what got us here. Something else you may not know is that the composition of fat in the human body is mostly saturated and mono-unsaturated fat. Only about 4% of the human body is made up of poly-unsaturated fat. Let’s create the hypothesis that if you are made up of a certain kind of fat, you should consume that type of fat to support the continued maintenance of those tissues. Another unfortunate fact is that most poly-unsaturated fats made from vegetable sources are rancid. They become rancid when heated, and commercial vegetable oils are heated to be processed. That means they are rancid off the shelf. The important thing about rancidity is the presence of free radicals, molecules that attack cell membranes and red blood cells. This is why cold-pressed olive oil is so valuable.

GoodVSBad Fats When choosing which fats to consume or cook in, you want to consider that there are good fats that you may not be using or are still a little afraid of. There are lots of good reasons to eat saturated fats:

Your heart will love you back. Saturated fat reduces the presence of lipoprotein (a) (pronounced lipoprotein “little a”), a substance strongly associated with cardiovascular health risk. There is currently no medication to lower it.
Bone up! Saturated fat is required for calcium to be incorporated into bones. Look around and wonder about the levels of osteoporosis in the current dietary environment and consider the fats that people are told most to eat.
Don’t end up as foie gras. It helps the liver clear fat stores, helping reduce middle-of-the-body fat stores. It also helps protect the liver from toxic substances like alcohol and medication. Poly-unsaturated fat does not.
Healthy lungs! The entire surface of your lungs is coated with a substance called surfectant, which is made entirely of saturated fatty acids. No saturated fat, faulty surfectanct. Faulty surfectanct can lead to airspace collapse.
More brains (the zombie’s will love you)! Your brain is made up entirely of cholesterol and fat. The majority of the fatty acids are saturated. Skimp on the raw materials and you skimp on the final product.
Nature’s wireless. Your nerve signalling is dependent on saturated fats — especially those in coconut oil, butter, lard, and palm oil. Without them, your brain can’t effectively tell your body what to do.
Invincibility! Loss of saturated fatty acids in white blood cells hampers their ability to recognize threats like viruses and bacteria.

So what should you eat?

Butter from pastured animals
Lard from foraging pigs
Coconut oil
Cold-pressed olive oil
Free range duck or goose fat or beef tallow

What shouldn’t you eat?

Commercially produced poly-unsaturated fats (corn, soy, canola oil, margarine)
Saturated or mono-unsaturated fats from industrially-raised animals (that means butter, lard, egg yolks, milk, farmed fish)

One of the primary reasons to avoid the “shouldn’ts” is the ratio of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3. This isn’t something that we covered in this blog, but I will cover in a future blog post. Suffice it to say, omega-6 is not bad, but it is only not bad when it is in proper balance with omega-3. For the most part, our industrialized diet is very high in omega-6 fatty acid, the primary reason we supplement so heavily with omega-3. A ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 that doesn’t promote ill health is 4-to-1 or lower. Our diet can have ratios as high as 40-to-1, a recipe for metabolic disaster.

Thanks to Dr. Michael Eades for the section above on saturated fat. Originally posted on June 6, 2009 on the blog of The Four Hour Workweek.

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Gluten Free Doesn’t Mean Consequence Free

By admin • January 22, 2014 Blogroll

Some time ago, a craze overtook America. It was the “fat free” craze. Dietary fat was discovered to be the evil enemy of good health and was to be avoided at all costs. Well people really liked the products that contained fat, so soon there was a whole slew of new fat free products in the stores — cookies, cakes, breads, you name it. If they wanted you to buy it, they told you it was “fat free.” Heck, there were bottles of water that touted being fat free.

Problem? Everyone started believing that if it was fat free, they could eat as much of it as they wanted! It doesn’t matter that it’s cake — it’s fat free! There are some people who realized the absurdity of this, but many people didn’t (and still don’t). Well, the ship has sailed on “fat free” and who knows if or when it’ll come back. Fat was the first major alimentary enemy that we had, and people don’t just forget about original sin too easily.

Now we are in a new era. There is a new enemy, and his name is gluten. I want to start with this: I am not saying that gluten is not a problem. Many people have terrible allergies to gluten and there is plenty of evidence to suggest it does some pretty nasty things to your insides even if you don’t experience it as acutely as an allergy. I am saying that gluten has begun to join fat among the ranks of “if it’s gluten free, I can eat as much of it as I want!” If you easily picked up on the flaw in the fat argument, this one shouldn’t be a brain teaser.

People! Just because someone eliminated one ingredient from your brownie that is unhealthy or toxic doesn’t mean that you can have as much brownie as you want with no consequences!!

Please be careful of anything that gives you the impression that you can eat all you want with no consequence. Yes, it may be gluten free, but chances are those baked goods are made up of so many nuts it’ll make your head spin. If you are hacking the challenge with Paleo cookies, breads, and cakes, I salute you! Just keep in mind the results that you want and eat accordingly. If you need something sweet, gluten free can be a great way to go. But gluten free doesn’t mean consequence free.

Eat, live, thrive. Keep it in balance.

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5 Tips to Culinary Success

By admin • January 21, 2014 Blogroll

Thanks for your patience yesterday when the website was down. If you did miss logging your points , go ahead and do it today and in the comments area just put the date!

From seeing the pics on our Facebook page, lots of us are trying new recipes and really finding joy in learning to prepare meals to meet the requirements of the challenge. But if you are feeling overwhelmed by food during the Challenge Or, maybe worse, feeling bored.

Here are five tips to jump-start your culinary success.

spaghetti pizza pie

1. Focus on what you can have. When someone says, “Don’t eat gluten,” the first thing you think about eating is bread or pasta. Instead, create a system to help you focus on what you can have. Create a page with five columns. Label them Protein (this one includes meats, eggs, nuts, and seeds, plus beans if you’re eating them), Veggies, Fruits, Fats, and Cuisine. Now, in each of those columns, make a list of specific items you know you like or have wanted to try. When you feel stuck for meals, go back to the list, and ask yourself (or ask Google), “How do I combine chicken and broccoli to make Paleo (or Paleo-ish) Thai food?” Of course, you still have to read ingredients on sauces to find ones that are legit for the Challenge, but the list should help keep you focusing on what is available to you.

2. Get the best quality of the food you can have. When you aren’t drowning your vegetables in dairy or smothering your meat in sugary sauce, quality matters more.

You do pay more for quality, but you are saving money by not buying wine and brie and, well, Cheetos during the challenge, right?

3. Use appropriate kitchen tools. Pull out that slow cooker gathering dust in your cabinet, and put it to good use. Before you leave for work, add 2-3 pounds of meat (roasts work well); chopped onion plus other mild veggies; a cup of broth, coconut milk, or tomato sauce; whatever spices make sense; and salt to your slow cooker. (For the best flavor, sear the meat in two tablespoons of fat on medium-high heat on each side for four minutes before adding it to the slow cooker, but that’s not essential.) Don’t fill the slow cooker more than 2/3 full. Turn it on low. When you get home eight to ten hours later, you should have amazingly tender meat and a delicious sauce. Your vegetables will be really soft, but they, too, should taste good. Dinner’s on! It’s like being your own housewife.

4. Spice liberally. People complain about creating boring, bland meals because they are afraid of spices. The world’s best cuisines—Indian, Thai, Italian, etc.—create lots of flavor by the volume and variety of spices they use. With the exception of hot peppers, if you smell the spices as you cook and think about what will taste good, it’s unlikely you’re going to add spices to your food that will make it inedible. More likely, you’re going to add spices and discover a world of amazing flavors. Here’s a basic guide to which spices to use when. If individual spices scare you, get a few good spice blends to use. Penzeys Spices is a great place to find spices. Try their Fox Point seasoning, which has no dairy (and is Challenge compliant) but gives a rich, savory flavor somehow reminiscent of dairy. Oh, and salt makes a world of difference, too. A general rule of thumb is to use about a teaspoon of salt per pound of raw meat. Salt doesn’t just make food salty; it also elevates our ability to taste the other flavors in a meal.

5. Prepare for leftovers. The whole “If you fail to prepare, you’re preparing to fail” axiom is certainly true in this Challenge. To make sure that you have meals easily available when you’re exhausted or sick, I recommend that you create homemade tv dinners well before you need them. When you make a meal, make more than you need. But don’t just stick those leftovers in the fridge to rot. Instead, divide them out into single-serving, meal-size portions, put them in Tupperware, and stick on reusable labels with the title of what you ate. (You can get erasable labels at The Container Store, among other places.) Then freeze the containers until you want the food, up to several months.

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Sleep Is Awesome

By admin • January 20, 2014 Blogroll

Today is the day you log your Weekly Challenge Points. If you were able to do it all week – give yourself two points and keep drinking your water even though the challenge has ended!

What is this Cheat Meal?

It's My Cheat Meal Image Now, let’s talk about that cheat meal that is part of the program this week. You can choose to have a cheat meal – one meal during the week where you aren’t restricted by the challenge rules. You can still claim your three points for that day –and go on your merry way. I want you to do a few things for me though before you have it —

Think about what you are going to do. Be Present in the moment and ask yourself is it worth it?
Enjoy it once you decide it’s the ticket. Don’t be bogged down by guilt or regret. Life is about enjoying the moments!
Notice how you feel after – may be right away or the next day. I am talking about the physical aspects and the mental. Are you feeling bloated, heavy, or sluggish? Do you lack focus and concentration? Are you seeing that infamous “wheat belly”? I want you to take note of the effects sugar, gluten and whatever else you partake in has on you. It’s not to teach you to never eat it – it’s to help you recognize how it affects you, so you can be aware and make decisions based on knowledge.

The Sleep Challenge Has Begun

Why am I asking you to get some sleep? As you can see from the awesome graphic above (thank you Julien Smith), not getting enough sleep has drawbacks that go way beyond feeling sleepy or spending too much at Starbucks. From increased weight to risk of disease and early death, not getting enough sleep has deeper implications than lack of productivity or mood swings. Most people do not sleep enough. Unless you are one of the few “short sleepers” out there (people who actually, truly only need 5-6 hours of sleep per night), an optimal night’s sleep is somewhere in the range of 7-9 hours.

Some of the ways that you can help to ensure deeper and better sleep is to follow some simple recommendations of sleep specialists and get your sleep “hygiene” in order:

“This bed is just right.” Keep your room and bed comfortable and inviting — cool, with enough blankets to stay warm.
Do I need to spell it out? Make the bed off-limits to anything other then bed-sanctioned activities — you know what these are. There are only 2, sleep is one, and the other doesn’t primarily involve TV or a book.
Lights out! Make your room as dark as humanly possible. Heavy drapes, no light from digital clocks, sleep masks. Whatever it takes to eliminate all light from the room — primarily blue light (the light from your computer screen is blue).
Soundproof your sleep. Anything that produces white noise (fan, air purifier, white noise machine) will help to drown out ambient sounds that could wake you.

Actions to take:

Have a sleep routine — bedtime at the same time every night. Train your system that it is winding down.
Get sunlight during the day, and make sure to exercise — just not right before bed, especially strenuous exercise within a few hours of bed.
Avoid spicy foods or caffeine within several hours of bed. Same goes for alcohol or nicotine — they may feel like they help you fall asleep, but the quality of your sleep will be poor.
Only take naps if you are not getting a full night’s sleep — otherwise they may make falling asleep harder.

If you have trouble falling asleep, some of the recommendations from a sleep study done found that 4 simple rules helped insomniacs (yes, they were all senior citizens, but you can give it a try too) improve their sleep patterns: 1) Stay in bed less (sleep time + 30 minutes, but no less than 6 hours), 2) get up at the same time each day, 3) do not go to bed unless you are tired, and 4) do not stay in bed if you can’t fall asleep.

All other things being equal, better sleep, better life; more sleep, more life. Who would really want to argue with it? Now, many people find it difficult with the demands of family and work actually to get that much sleep. Just think, however, how many things you have taken on in this challenge that were “impossible” up until now. All major changes take place in increments, so don’t feel like you have to master this tomorrow, but being open to that there actually is a solution for you will have you on the lookout for it. If there is no answer, you’ll never find it.

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So what should you eat?

What shouldn’t you eat?

What is this Cheat Meal?

The Sleep Challenge Has Begun

Actions to take:

Hey – don’t stop drinking water just because that challenge is over. Water has a ton of benefits and hopefully you are fully in the habit of drinking it throughout your day!

Latest Posts

Helpful Resources

Log Your Points

Real Food Wellness Challenge on Facebook!