So my New Year's Resolution this January was to blog more, but so far this has not happened, (Obviously, since I haven't had time to post anything since October...)
My job moved to downtown Seattle after the 1st of the year, so I have been adjusting to my new commute. The good thing about it is that I must now walk 3+ miles a day and it is part of my weekday schedule (whether I want it to be or not) since I must walk that far to get to and from work. My bus stops are about .8 miles from home, and from work, so there is a significant amount of walking involved. Also, I am practicing HIIT as I often must either sprint for my bus because it has just arrived and I am half a block away yet, or knowing that I am running late, sprint between lights to get there on time...(I'm sure I look ridiculous, but am comforted by the fact that this is a primal exercise, and 10,000 years ago if I was fleeing from a bear or charging beast I might look equally ridiculous, but it would save my life...) :)
The bad thing about my commute is that I am basically losing 2 hours a day now that I had before, and apparently that was the time I managed to blog before, and it is gone now... I guess I have to make a choice. Go to the gym daily, or spend a little more time writing. Writing is one of my favorite things to do, but I also love my gym. I'm sure in the next few weeks, I will come up with a schedule that allows me both. For now, I am experimenting with doing workouts only two days a week (Thursdays and Sundays) and focusing on the "slow burn" method of lifting so that (hopefully) I get the greatest benefit with the least amount of effort. This should give me a bit more time during the week and I can blog on a more consistent schedule.
Part of the reason I have not blogged for some time is that I received a comment on one of my posts that annoyed me, and also made me think. Another reason was that I wasn't sure how the work with my doctor was going, and didn't know how much I wanted to share about that. This has been a very reflective time for me. As some of you may remember, I started seeing a Paleo-friendly doctor in August. She is a weight loss specialist, and has been working with me to figure out why I am having such a hard time losing weight. This is what we have learned so far:
1. I need at least 60 grams of protein per day and do better on about 115-125, but stop losing weight at around 180 grams.
2. I can eat up to about 25 grams of carbohydrate and continue to lose weight. At 25-50 grams I can maintain my weight. At 50+ I gain weight.
3. I do better with fewer calories. If I eat no less than 1200, but no more than 1600 I can lose weight. If I eat between 1600-2000 I can maintain, and if I eat more than 2000 I gain weight.
4. I do best with my fat around 50-60 percent of my diet.
5. I lose weight more consistently when I eat beef, duck and lamb than when I eat chicken, shrimp and pork.
6. I lose more weight when I only drink alcohol once or twice a week, and limit it to no more than two 4-5 ounce glasses of wine.
7. I lose more weight if I include natural probiotics in my carbohydrate count. (I have been eating 1/4 cup of sauerkraut or 4 ounces of kombucha several times a week since October.)
8. My strength increases more if I work out less. I have been able to increase my lifting weight over the last three weeks in pretty much every muscle group which I credit to working out fewer times. If I lift weights 3+ times per week, or more I end up feeling crappy and not doing well--probably because of the low carbohydrate levels I need in order to lose weight. I have adjusted pretty well to the walking without any detrimental effects. I can walk way faster now than when I started January 3rd.
9. Whey protein works for me. I have been relying on whey protein shakes for a good amount of my daily protein. The drinks I consume are for convenience only, and not part of the Paleo diet, but they are working for me, so I currently am keeping them--when I get closer to my weight goal, I will experiment with whole foods that offer the same protein/carb/fat levels. These whey protein shakes were suggested by my doctor as an easy way of upping my protein without raising my carb or fat levels. They are also chock full of vitamins and minerals, that are not present in extremely low fat/low carb natural protein sources. While it would certainly be possible to come up with a weighed and measured natural foods diet that might work, it would be time-consuming and I do not have that time right now.
10. Intermittent fasting works really well for me. I do not eat breakfast, but do have a cup of coffee with pastured cream every morning before work. I have about 10 macadamia nuts which I take with my vitamins, followed by a whey-based protein drink around 2pm (or as early as 12pm if I get hungry). After my walk home, I have another whey-based protein drink (around 5pm). Dinner follows and is the bulk of my calories between 6-7pm.
11. Drinking lots of water and consuming bone broth helps me stay full and feel good. (I also have not been sick since I started this plan in August).
I have lost 20 pounds since August 12th as of this morning. This is a loss of 0.83 pounds per week over the course of 173 days. I appear to lose about 1.5 pounds per week when nothing interferes with my schedule, like holidays, conferences, hormonal fluctuations...
So, now that my update is out of the way, here is the comment that I found annoying:
"It's *not* enough to get rid of the bad stuff, you also need to add the good stuff in!
You need to eat stocks every day, such as chicken or beef stock. You can make it with the giblets, feet, and neck of chicken. If you use beef soup bones, eat the marrow too.
You need to eat some lacto fermented vegetables everyday.
You need t o limit nuts and soak them in water overnight when you do eat them.
If you're worried about eggs, eat the yolks and discard the whites.
You need to cook each meal with plenty of tallow, lard, or poultry fat, three tablespoons for each person for the meat, and more fat to cook the vegetables (or cook them in stock)
It's nor enough to simply eliminate stuff.
Also, looking at your bnlog, you eat very little meat. You eat a huge amount of vegetables compared with a tiny amount of meat. You should flip that so you eat a huge amount of meat with a small amount of vegetables." --Lifestream
I find it annoying when people comment on blog posts in an attempt to show a blogger what they "should" be doing, or point out what they feel a blogger is doing wrong. I have been following a paleo or primal-style diet since 2004. I subscribe to over 60 blogs and 10 different podcasts on the paleo/primal topic and am very well informed. I do not need anyone to point out what I "need" to be doing. The paleo/primal "diet" is not a religion--if you do not subscribe to part of it, that is just fine. Every step that you take in the direction of a whole foods, ancestral lifestyle is a step in the right direction. My experience, and in fact, my "diet" and lifestyle are my own, just as yours is your own.
A more appropriate way to suggest that someone *might* need to adjust certain items in their diet is to ask them if they include these things first. I am sure that I am not the only blogger out there that forgets to mention details of some of the things that they eat regularly, or have not updated previous posts to include things that have become a more frequent part of their diet. Just for the record, (though I apparently have not blogged about it much), I grew up making and drinking bone broth regularly and have continued the habit my entire life, and I have eaten natural probiotics (lacto-fermented veggies) very regularly as well. As a result of this comment, and some reading I have done in the past year, I have made a particular attempt to include it even more every week.
However, I take issue with the way this comment was worded. This is not a religion. I do not NEED to do anything every day. People who do not do the afore-mentioned things might benefit from including them in their diets. (Anyone interested should read Diane Sanfilippo's book, btw, she has excellent info). But not everyone "needs" or is going to take the advice above. I agree that it is most likely a good idea, but I also live in the real world, and sometimes I go a few weeks or even a month without eating my probiotics, or without having a cup of bone broth, I am sure that it is likely that our hunter-gatherer ancestors also sometimes went weeks without these things, so lighten up.
Also I have no idea where Lifestream got the idea that I eat very little meat. Most of the pictures I have posted and the amounts I have mentioned were at the very least 75 grams of protein worth of meat per day. On average, that would be about 3 eggs, two strips of bacon for breakfast, 4 ounces of ground beef on a salad at lunch, and 4 ounces of beef steak at dinner. If you look at any of the meals I have taken pictures of you can clearly see that I am not eating "a huge amount of vegetables compared with a tiny amount of meat." I was also liberally using fat. In fact, while doing my ketogenic experimentation earlier I started out by eating around 65-70% of my diet in fat. All natural animal fat and some coconut fat--I have been cutting out chicken fat and chicken even lately because I seem to do better with red meats. I do use duck fat though, (yum!)
And the eggs comment? I can only assume that that is supposed to help me with my autoimmune protocol. I do point out in my "what I eat" section that I am no longer following the autoimmune protocol. After several months, I quit, as it was not helping with my LS and I saw no need to cut out nutritious foods if it wasn't helping. When I started the autoimmune protocol, the best advice was to avoid eggs entirely for a time. I think since then there has been some debate regarding eggs, and the newest info I can find is that you can eat the yolks if you avoid the whites, although that is not entirely agreed upon by everyone. The advice I was following was this from Robb Wolf.
So, while I do love comments, and appreciate anyone taking the time to try to help me, and I probably should just say "thank you" and be polite about it, I am annoyed. This type of comment is why the internet can be so fraking annoying in general at times. If I choose to create a blog, post on it, and put myself out there, I understand that people are going to make comments and I am not going to likely agree with everything they say, but I come from a creative background. Criticism, and how to give it was ingrained in me from the very beginning of my education. Many blog critics are not well versed in how to give effective criticism. Always start with something positive, such as, "I like what you've done here, but..." or "you seem to have a good grasp of the basic ideas here, but..." then add your comment. If you start straight out with the criticism, you will merely foster resentment and a defensive attitude in your target.
All that being said, I think part of this comment is due to the fact that I read a lot and I do not always share with you, my dear readers what exactly I am doing, so I will endeavor to improve. I know that even comments like Lifestream's are born from a desire to help others and the wish to share knowledge.
So a quick rundown of things that I may not have mentioned previously or have changed, etc.
What I eat:
Whey protein shakes. (Not Paleo, but working for my needs at this time (2/2013)--if I start to struggle with my goals, I may take them out.)
Dairy. Not everyone needs to cut dairy entirely out of their diet. Pastured cream and butter as well as some pastured cheeses may be fine. Raw is better than pasteurized. I currently only eat very low carb dairy, no yogurt, no milk.
Meat. Lots of it, all kinds, lean if I cannot get a pastured source--I am currently (2/2013) tending to focus more on red meats at the moment rather than chicken and pork.
Vegetables. Lots of leafy greens and low-carb veggies. Not everyone needs to eat only low-carb vegetables, but if I want to lose fat, I need to limit my carbs to 20 grams or less. Everyone is different in what works for them. If you are overweight or metabolically resistant you may find that focusing on non-starchy carbs will be a better choice for you as well, and limiting your carbs may be necessary if you want to lose fat.
Probiotics. Lacto-fermented vegetables and kombucha. I eat/drink these weekly (not daily).
Bone broth. A great way to fill up the cracks with a relatively low calorie and nutritious food. I recommend making bone broth whenever you have bones to use, or if you are feeling tired and under the weather. I make it once or twice a month, and drink it whenever I feel like it.
Fat. Lots of it. Currently I am eating about 50% of my calories in fat. A more traditional hunter-gatherer range would be about 30-40, but I will keep doing what I am doing while it works. I eat pastured butter, coconut oil, use the fat from the animals I eat, and also purchase pastured duck fat to use when possible. I also use olive oil on salads and macadamia nut oil to cook with occasionally.
Nuts. Currently I am eating macadamia nuts as an afternoon snack. They are roasted and salted and extremely delicious. I am very picky about my nuts and do not eat very many (less than 1 ounce per day), but sometimes use a variety to cook with...one of my current favorite spice mixtures is dukkah.
Alcohol. Yes, please! I have 1 or 2 drinks per week but limit myself to dry wine and an occasional dry gin martini.
Avocado. A great source of fat, avocados are relatively high in carbs for me right now (I am not allowed to subtract out fiber) I have cut out avocado for now, although I do periodically sneak it in here and there.
Eggs. I eat eggs regularly, although with my current IF schedule I only consume them about 1 or 2 times a week.
Nightshade vegetables. I am currently avoiding these, although I do eat tomatoes occasionally (maybe once a week, or once every two weeks).
Organ meats. An important part of a balanced diet. I eat liver, kidney, tongue, heart and gizzard at least once a week from a variety of animals.
That is all I can think of for now, I'm sure I have left things out, but like life, what I eat is an ongoing project...
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