Paleo Dan

Notes: Have to replace the lat pulldowns with mixed grip pullups as I’ve maxed the weight on the pulldown station.

First of all, I like the title of Vin’s post so much that I just used it for my post… but that’s OK, because my post is just a link back to his!

Great all around post that you should read, but this line says a lot on its own:

If you condensed all of human history into a single year, we’d only have been eating grains since yesterday and processed vegetable oils since 10 minutes ago.

via Hey Fat Head, You’ve Been Fed a Load of Bologna!

Note: I started these posts before I started reading Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. I’ve never been overly concerned by cholesterol numbers, but I care even less now. I will, however, continue to track my numbers. Mainly so people will be able to see what eating a high fat (50-65%) diet will do to these numbers. By the way, one of my favorite cheat snacks is one serving (4 sqaures) of a Lindt 90% cocoa “Supreme Dark” chocolate with two tablespoons of coconut oil. That is a 470 kcal snack that is 48g (85%) fat (37g of that is saturated), 14g (11%) carbs, and 5g (4%) protein. Side note, I love coconut oil. I put it on everything.

Note: Prior to my blood test in May, I had not been eating well or working out. In fact, I had been sick off and on (more on than off) since November ‘08. I’ve been paleo-esque for about a month now and trying to hold to a stricter paleo diet going forward from here. We’ll see what the numbers show…

Note 10/7/09: Supposedly C-reactive protein (CRP) is also an indicator of heart disease… at least that’s what my doctor thinks. I’ve got to wonder though. If my total cholesterol was 262 mg/dL which the AHA says is “high risk”, that must mean my risk of heart disease was elevated. If that’s the case, shouldn’t my CRP have been elevated? Oh well, I’ll track it anyway just for the fun of it. If fat, especially saturated fat, is bad, then my cholesterol should go up which should start hurting my heart and cause my CRP to elevate. We shall see.

Back to work after a scheduled week long break. This workout was tough and I had a hard time finishing the Rotational lunges… not because of the weight so much as my cardiovascular conditioning… I was sucking wind hard there at the end. I also threw on some intervals after the strength workout. If I recall, in NROL, they call that Afterburn… week 1 of which is 3 rounds of 1 minute hard, 2 minutes easy… add on the 5 minutes each of warmup and cooldown, that’s 19 minutes. Today was on the treadmill; Wednesday I might get on a bike or the Concept2… we shall see.

Meat Crust + Toppings = Meatza. Yummy!

My wife and I used to do this often when we were doing Atkins. I think that maybe it’s time to do it again… though, perhaps with less cheese. As I recall, it was typically just a beef crust, but I really like the idea of pork… oh, and maybe some turkey! Or, some chicken! Oh the possibilities… the yummy, yummy possibilities.

The Healthy Cooking Coach's Meatza

We’ll have to share pictures the next time we make it…

I don’t really like shoes. I mean, until recently, I didn’t hate them, but I’d just wear them to work and then take them off as soon as I got home. If I was heading out somewhere other than work, I’d slip on my flip flops or sandals. Around the house, though, I was usually barefoot.

Then a few years ago, I moved back to the beach and started working from home. Now about the only time I would wear shoes were when I was running, working out, or going out somewhere that flip flops just didn’t seem appropriate.

Then I read Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run. I haven’t worn shoes since. I still spend as much time as possible completely barefoot, but when I must put something on my feet, I wear my gorilla shoes.

That’s what my friends call my black Vibram FiveFingers KSOs. I love my KSOs. (My wife hates them, but that’s just because she hasn’t gotten her own pair to try out.) Sure, I get a lot of stares when I wear them out in public, but I don’t care… they are comfortable!

Like I said, most of the time I’m barefoot, so I usually just wear my KSOs when I head to the gym or out for a run. When we head out to run errands or out to dinner, I’ll alternate between my KSOs and my flip flops.

Today, I ran a 5K race wearing my KSOs. Tomorrow I’ll find something else to do wearing my KSOs. Later in the week, I’m going to wear my KSOs as I get all touristy in our nations capital. I might just have to take some pictures of the places I go and the things I do wearing my KSOs.

The last 5K I ran was the Pam Edwards Memorial Scholarship Run at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens back in July of 2008. I finished last in my age group with a (chip) time of 37:42. I recall that I had to do quite a bit of walking intermixed with the running.

In fact, I’ve run a handleful of 5Ks over the past three or four years and I’ve never been able to find and hold a pace that let me run an entire race from start to finish. For a few of those races, I was considerably lighter than I am now. And in one of those races, I even finished in the top three of my age group and won a gift card to a local running store!

Well, today I ran the inaugural All Access 5K at the Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheater. I finished today’s race with a (chip) time of 36:02 (my watch showed a time of around 35:40 from line to line). I am definitely pleased to see an improvement in my finishing time, but what I am thrilled about is the fact that I was able to run from start to finish with no walk breaks… aside for a few seconds at the midpoint water station. Admittedly, I was running at a very slow pace of 11:28 per mile, but I’m still happy with it.

As for the race itself, things were very well run before and after and I had a great time.The course was mostly flat with less than a mile worth of climbing… the mostly flat parts–out in the parking lots–were my favorite parts. Before and after the race, there was plenty of water, bagels and bananas available. After the race they brought out the good stuff in the form of free beer… or, 32 ounces of it, at least. I liked that part too.

Almost forgot! I did the whole 5K in my Vibram FiveFingers KSOs. I had a couple of people stop me to talk about them–one of whom was very interested–but, mostly people just stared… at a 275 pound dude running a race in what amounts to unpadded foot gloves. I just smiled at those folks. I had briefly toyed with the idea of going full barefoot, but after getting started I’m glad that I did not… too much gravel out in the parking lot… my feet are tougher these days, but not quite ready for gravel.

How about some pictures. These are from my iPhone, but they turned out better than most of my iPhone photos…

Here we are before the start, just chilling in the empty amphitheater.

Here we are after the race with the rewards of finishing.

According to various calculators I’ve found, given my height and body frame size, my goal weight is in the 142 to 187 pound range. This would put my BMI in the 19 to 25 range. Honestly, though, and based upon past experience, I think that if I weighed that little, I’d be much too thin.

While stumbling the Health/Fitness category, I happened upon a page called Body-Mass Index, Waist-to Height Ratio and More…. In addition to providing my current BMI and waste-to-height ratio, the “more” that was provided included what are called the “Willoughby Athlete Weight and Waist”. These values are calculated from tables based upon “extensive anthropometrics measurements on highly-conditioned (male) athletes.” As my ultimate long-term goal is to become as fit and conditioned as possible, I like the idea of aiming for the Willoughby Athlete values.

Here are my numbers:

via http://home.fuse.net/clymer/bmi/

I have to say… a 34 inch waste at 208 pounds sounds great! And I think that the paleo diet and New Rules of Lifting strength program both will help me reach my goals.

PS: That’s an old waist measurement from about 31 days and 10 pounds ago.

A couple of days ago I posted about the paleo cookbook Paleolicious from Erica Saint Clair. Buy a copy, it’s for some good causes…

Today on Twitter, she linked to a video about Fight Gone Bad IV. Check it out:

Fight Gone Bad IV – Do It Right Now from Sportsgrants on Vimeo.