REDEFINING WHY!

Hi Everyone,

Bear with me on this one. This is my over-tired (due to new baby care) attempt at soul searching & sincere self-examination. There is a lot more to the story, but I’m trying to stay on point with main things that have either directly or indirectly affected my body composition over the years.

I was always a lean & athletic guy. Growing up in a farming area, we ate pretty well (farm fresh side of beef, pig & chickens in the deep freeze, free range chicken eggs, fresh dairy, etc...) and throughout high school I did competitive Rowing, Karate, Kick boxing, Volleyball and of course all the pick up games of roller hockey, ice hockey, street hockey, football and soccer that my cousin & I could arrange! I pretty much trained all year long for rowing (dryland training) including tons of running, ergometers & weights (light circuits & heavy weights also). Therefore, I was doing a huge volume of work at this point in my life. I was 145 lbs until my senior year in high school and when I left for University I was 155 lbs.

This trend continued to University where I found competitive coed cheerleading (awesome sport for those of you who don’t know about it) & I practiced Japanese Jiu Jitsu & Capoeira. Of course, I learned some weight training from more senior guys on the Cheerleading team & started banging on those. Hitting the heavier weights, I bulked up to 175 lbs and remained here for the next decade and a half.

By the time I went to Montreal for my professional degree, I was still around 170 lbs and with some dietary manipulation & body weight training courtesy of Matt Furey (combat conditioning), I leaned down to 8% body fat. Then I started hitting the weights again, and seeing as how I was studying Human Nutrition & Dietetics I started experimenting with different strategies to add mass, as I had always been a “hard gainer”. Unfortunately, the techniques mostly involved eating higher carbohydrate, lower fat diet as a backbone, and using protein & mass gain shakes and things after my heavy weight workouts, so all of that combined with being over 30 years old at that time all lead me to increase my weight up to about 185 lbs and of course my body fat went up as well (to around 17%).

When I got into my Masters degree in Montreal, I was able to workout with and join the Cheerleading squad there, however, the team was mostly women & there were only 2 of us dudes (actually as I write that I realize, it wasn’t all that bad ;-) . It was great fun & actually with my heavier frame (190 lbs at this point) I was able to do some more advanced stunting that had escaped me at 175 lbs. My tumbling suffered a lot though. At one point at 175 lbs, I was able to do a roundoff, back handspring, back tuck fairly routinely and the same sequence with a back layout in place of the tuck with a bit more effort. However, at 190 lbs, this was much more difficult to do. I essentially, had to relearn the moves at my new heavier weight. In the end, I was able to do standing back handspring, back tucks routinely, but it did take a fair amount of effort and I’m sure my technique was sucking quite profoundly.

Next, my funding ran out for my Masters and I returned home to find work as a Registered Dietitian. I was able to find a one year mat leave for the first year, and of course had to live at home. During this time, I was able to get down to 180 lbs by participating in the Body for life challenge. I also started working in Hamilton at an Obesity clinic one day per week.

At the conclusion of that one year contract, I obtained a permanent position as a Registered Dietitian in Hamilton at a Mental Health Facility, and am still there now. In addition to completing my Masters, I was able to propose and initiate a PhD through my same University supervisor located at this hospital, but unfortunately, due to changes in drug purchasing contracts (move to generics) the funding was pulled by the drug company that had originally committed, and so I am pursuing my PhD in a topic similar but more complex & advanced of my Masters.

I should mention that during all of the above times my free time got less and less as my responsibilities increased. Additionally, I realize now in retrospect that my WHY for pretty much the bulk of my physical activity/working out thing was actually extrinsic, all about the ladies (attracting my dream girl), so to speak. I was a young guy & I loved women & wanted to meet as many as possible so I could finally meet the one.

When I started my permanent position as an RD in Hamilton, I met my (to be) wife at my orientation. We connected at a deep level immediately & she was the sexiest, most intelligent, kindest women I had ever met in my life (still is actually)! I proposed a little over 1 year after we met & we were married one year later. Interestingly, we found our dream home in a beautiful location, the unfortunate part was that it was a 1 hour drive from work. I commuted 2 hours/ day x 5 days / week for 5 years and during this time my weight skyrocketed to 225 lbs with obviously a huge shift in my body comp to fat mass (around 25%) with a waist circumference of 39.5” :-(. We were blessed as well with our first daughter during this time, and since, we’ve been blessed again. The massive increase in my body weight (& fatness) was obviously due to my decreased physical activity. Interestingly, I was actually working out pretty hard regularly for 2.5 years of our 5 with the 1 hour commute including rediscovering Japanese Jiu Jitsu (until our first daughter was born, then sleep went bye bye) but my weight still remained at best around 210 lbs. Honestly, I knew that my commute was killing me. Thankfully, my health was fine, no issues of note, but I knew that I was on the roadway to Diaobesity! My wife and I decided to move closer to work (decreased commute=more family time) & her family (greater support for our kids & connectedness with their cousins). We were expecting our second child while we listed our home (with countless open houses) & while we were searching for our new home. It was challenging & time consuming since we lived about an hour from where we were searching & we were both working full time. Additionally, I had to prepare for my PhD oral comprehensive exam right after we were slated to move into our new home. Additionally, we planned for a significant renovation on our new home once we moved in & had to start purchasing items & reviewing options after work in the months leading up to the move. Bottom line, we were living fast & hard, with very little time to dedicate to exercise/fitness. The only saving grace was that we walked daily together each evening as a family. Of course, this became harder as the Canadian Winter set in. 

Now, all things considered, my experiences started to make me question all the strategies I had learned & had been taught in school. I started to hit the research & I mean individual blogs, books, etc… Then I verified what I was seeing by perusing various scientific studies using similar principles. Shockingly, at least to me, I started to discover that most of the info that I was finding on “unreliable” (at least we’d been told in school) sites were actually validated by clinical research, and that we had never been taught any of these principles. This was my discovery of the Paleo/Primal/low carb lifestyle. This fascinated me, and it definitely made logical sense. Unlike, fad diets though that can often make some logical sense on the surface, this seemed to have no downside. It baffled me why we never learned anything about this during my clinical nutrition classes & also why not one of my colleagues seemed to even know what I was talking about when I mentioned it to them. Anyway, I plowed through all the podcasts (Robb Wolf first, then Jimmy Moore, Abel James, Mark Sisson etc…) & blogs (Mark Sisson, Robb Wolf, etc…) & then books including but not limited to The Paleo Solution, The Primal Blueprint, The Paleo Diet, The Paleo Answer, and The New Evolution Diet. Not to mention countless Paleo/Primal guides. 

Anyway, we are now living closer to work (20 min drive each way), the initial renovations are done, we had our second daughter & she is now about 6 weeks old and I have about 4 more months off from my PhD (paternity leave). This year, I even started attending 2 cross fit classes per week at a local box, but that was put on hold when our second daughter was born (less sleep & more to do around our new home). At this point, my wife & daughters’ happiness are far more important to me than my body composition. And then, suddenly, all at once, I realize why I’m not chomping at the bit to get back into the gym/workout/exercise whatever you want to call it. This had always been my way throughout my graduate degree, what the heck gives? 

All of this is basically a cliff/coles notes (depending on where you are from) version of my weight & body comp history as it pertains to significant life events. Interestingly, there’s a critical message hidden throughout the story. Did you figure it out? It’s painfully obvious, once you see it.

At every point in my life when I was working out super hard & absolutely committed I had a compelling WHY, to attract the woman of my dreams! So once I found her, married her & we started having children, that WHY was achieved and no longer drove me. I became more focused on surviving our new hectic schedule including a then 2 hour commute, helping care for my wife & our child, as well as maintaining my job, business, studies & our home. Now that the commute has been reduced, that’s one less thing, but with a newborn in the house & a 2 year old, my WHY shifts to include helping with the care of the entire expanded family & maintaining and doing some smaller renovations to our new home. I think about working out, my wife and I discuss how to fit everything in, and at long last my wife’s agreed to come aboard the S.S. Paleo/Primal and eventually we will convert our 2 year old as well. Our hope is that once we introduce solids to our second daughter she won’t even know what a grain product is. So, in that way I was able to integrate my primary WHY for caring for my family to include a healthy diet that will help me lean out. However, the exercise thing bothers me, because I know I’m not a lazy person. So why am I not leaping back to the gym to whip myself back in shape? The short answer is that in my current life with the new set of circumstances (married to the woman of my dreams, 2 beautiful children, working full time, pursuing PhD, Blogging & starting online business), I have not taken the time to update/re-define my WHY.

I mean, think about it. At this point, I haven’t returned to working out yet, because in my mind right now, I want to spend my time with my wife & daughters, building my online business & of course (feel I have to) work since we’re currently limited to only my income. So what I need to do is layout my new WHY given my new set of life circumstances. I think it’s key to remember that a WHY that drove us phenomenally for decades might be completely powerless once circumstances change (i.e. Pursuing the woman of my dreams & then me finding her & marrying her). But as Tony Robbins says in his audio programs, I have been caught up living day to day and forgot to design my life (I’m paraphrasing, but you get the gist).

Anyway, the take away message is that for any change, lifestyle or otherwise, we need to have a clearly defined WHY, or we are doomed to not achieve our goal!

I will redefine my WHY related to exercise in my life & post it next week to show the process that I used, in case anyone wants to do it also. If you are in a similar boat, I suggest you do this too!

Together, as a community, there’s nothing that we can’t overcome!

Have a great weekend!

Dan T

Pratical Application - My Food Processing Spectrum

My research on choosing the best foods for best results for fat burning & best performance is based on a solid Paleo/Primal research foundation!  With respect to food processing, this translates to our bodies not having the ability to deal with many of the food processing techniques very well.  In some cases food processing increases availability of energy from foods but in many cases our bodies don't recognize the chemical compounds added to foods and often have effects on our bodies that are not good.  However, all of this can often be confusing for some people and put others off completely, therefore, I'm taking a crack at it from a different angle here.

Consider for a moment if everyone limited their exposure to processed foods.  I have discussed this in a previous blog post, which was more theoretical and less practical.  I've gotten a lot of questions about how to apply this and I've come up with my Food Processing Spectrum (below).  This provides a practical tool that people can use to guide them to create the least processed meal options available.

Think of food a spectrum of processing and choose the least processed foods that you can.  I'm not a raw food purist or anything, but be sure to eat more foods that are less processed over those that are more processed.  In fact, for 60 days just omit all foods from the processed side of the spectrum and see how that works for you.

You want to make sure that most of the foods you eat come for the least processed end of the spectrum.  Things that will "process foods" include:

a) Cooking: Bring foods to their safe (bacteria killing) temperatures, but try to avoid overcooking them.  Charring of meats (for example) leads to formation of heterocyclic amines (HCA) that have been shown to be highly carcinogenic compounds.

b) Pasteurization: This is essentially heating to very high temp. Most beverages that were once alive in North America (i.e. Dairy & Fruits beverages) are pasteurized to prevent bacterial growth.  This denatures enzymes that are normally present in the fresh foods. It is currently illegal to sell unpasteurized dairy products in North America.  Putting fruits & vegetables in a blender, however, creates a living smoothie with the entire enzyme profile intact. Canned foods (i.e. fruits and veg) are often pasteurized to prevent bacterial growth, but in doing so many of the plant-derived enzymatic benefits are lost.

c) Blending: Breaks up solids and even cells (depending on your blender).  It can liquefy many of the components and therefore creates a drinkable meal option.  Be VERY careful with smoothies as it's always better to eat your calories vs. drink them!  Depending on the composition of the smoothie, these can be very high in available carbohydrates and therefore cause huge spikes in insulin, therefore stopping fat burning & leading to fat storage!

d) Milling: This is pretty much exactly the same as Blending but with solids (i.e. all grains).  This is used to create flours and much of the original content is removed then added back. However, one of the biggest issues with this process is that it is all done by machine today and the particle size that results from machine milling is so fine that it can penetrate the gut wall and cause overt irritation or at least increase inflammatory response. There is also evidence that some of the naturally occurring irritants in grains (i.e. Lectins, etc...) that are not removed in usual production are causing increased inflammatory responses.  Either way, grains seem to be a bad choice!

d) Freezing: This process cools the food in order to significantly slow down the molecules and enzymes that lead to spoiling.  They are not stopped, but are severely slowed.  The major drawback with freezing some items (i.e. fruits) is that the fluid in the cells freezes and when they are thawed this intra-cellular liquid expands and bursts the plant tissues therefore making things mushy!  Freezing does NOT kill enzymes and is a great second choice to fresh for most people.

e) Chemical additives, preservatives & artificial ingredients: These are the most encountered and least recognized food processing techniques in existence today.  If you eat anything in a package at all, you are consuming these chemical ingredients.  Many are designed to extend shelf-life, decrease cost of production for the food company, and many also have the added benefit of stimulating appetite in consumers can lead to food addiction or over-consumption. Regardless, none of these ingredients are used with your health in mind.  Therefore, we NEED to avoid them as much as possible.

f) Fermentation: This technique is a more natural processing technique. It allows bacteria & enzymes that occur naturally in the foods to work to start breaking down the food into components (example is Eskimos that buried meat & consumed it fermented).  Obviously, this is not without some risk for foodborne illness, but when done properly it can be an awesome way to increase the nutritional value of many food items.

Obviously, there is a lot more to this story, but this seems like a good start.

Be sure to choose the least processed foods that you can on a regular basis.  Try this for 60 days and see how you look, feel & perform!

Live to support your “healthy genes” as much as possible

 Hi Everyone.  I wanted to quickly take my first crack at evolutionary biological view of epigenetics. Sounds complicated but really it's quite simple.  I want to talk about behaviors that we can all practice on a regular basis in order to get our fat-burning genes to express more than our fat-storing ones.
 
Key Mechanism for Lifestyle Effects

1)      Fat Storage/Usage

a.       Lower carbohydrate intake minimizes fat storage due to decreased insulin.

b.      2 bouts of exercise / week alter DNA methylation (expression) in adipose tissue favoring fat burning and decreased fat storage – adaptation to exercise.

c.       Important to not overload yourself with high sugar post workout nutrition.

d.      Adequate sleep during dark hours helps to increase melatonin production, which subsequently increases prolactin, growth hormone and along with adequate Vitamin D levels produces adequate sex hormones.

Overall effect is to shift from fat storage to fat burning preferentially through altering gene expression.

      2) Seasonal Light/Dark Cycles

a.       Longer days in summer/ longer nights (darkness) in winter – we need to stick to this pattern as much as possible.

b.      Constant exposure to long daylight hours and decrease quality & duration of sleep à Overweight/Obesity & Type 2 Diabetes – due to body’s adaptations preparing for hibernation that never comes.

c.       Red lenses have been shown to help allow the brain to produce melatonin even in artificial light conditions (i.e. after 8/9 pm use red lenses to allow your brain to start producing melatonin).

d.      Our skin has photoreceptors all over it so if you are trying to sleep with lights on in your room, your sleep will not be deep enough.

Overall effect is to allow the body to regenerate deeply & to optimize hormonal levels. 

3)      Seasonal Availability of Foods

          a.  Summer months have greatest availability of carbohydrate rich foods (i.e. starch veg & fruits) – this would be the time when we could gather the most carb foods, so this is when we start to stock pile these nutrients.

b.      Winter months have almost no availability of carbohydrate rich foods – Ketogenic diet? We would have literally gone for months with no fruits or vegetable matter and most likely hibernated – feeding off body fat stores.

c.       If we consume high carb intakes, and even more refined vs. fruits & vegetables, then we end up confusing signals in our body & we continue to stock pile extra nutrients for a famine that never comes.  Our bodies literally prepare for hibernation, which manifests as obesity + type 2 diabetes.

Overall effect is that we keep our intake pattern optimized to our performance level and never trigger the body into expecting hibernation and we might even make the body believe that we have hibernated at times.

4)      Muscle mass preservation/building:

a.       We evolved to move – therefore use it or lose it!

b.      Consuming adequate protein (1 g/ lb of ideal body weight) will help us maintain our muscle tissue over the long haul.

c.       As part of activity at least twice/week LIFT HEAVY THINGS – engage your muscles by lifting weight (body weight, weights, resistance bands, etc…).

d.      Additionally, once every 7-10 days move as fast as you can using short burst high intensity work (i.e. sprints) – this will help to retain & build muscle mass.

e.      REPLENISH muscle glycogen by planning a good sized carbohydrate reefed post workout (within about 4 hours of your workout).  These carbohydrates should be mostly safe starches like Yams, Sweet Potatoes, Potatoes, Squash, Yucca Root, etc…

Overall effect is that we maintain and even build muscle mass, which can reprogram our gene expression to be more effective at fat burning & less effective at fat storage, resulting in a leaner you for life!

RECAP:

  1)      Avoid sugar & refined carbohydrates especially if you are trying to lose fat.

  2)      Get adequate sleep in a pitch black room; alter the length according to the seasonal day lengths as much as possible.

  3)      Consume your carbohydrates from unrefined sources primarily and consume more during the summer months and much less in the winter months. Your largest intake of complex carbohydrates should be taken in post workout to optimize performance.

  4)      Consume at least 1 g protein/ lbs of ideal body weight.

  5)      Be active daily – low intensity stuff mostly, with two workouts/week of resistance training (weights, body weight, etc…) and one workout/ 7-10 days of moving as fast as you can (i.e. sprinting).

Citations:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100322212624AAScCNV

http://www.menshealth.co.uk/cm/menshealthuk/images/BX/500-Urban-Gym-fat-loss-Exercise-01072011.jpg

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