30 day paleo challenge....day 4 and 5

Today is now day 5 of the paleo challenge. Last night I made a delicious paleo curry with pumpkin and grass fed minced beef which you can see on the right there.

I would say that one of the biggest differences I can see so far is the sleep thing. As I said before I am certainly getting better sleep and seem to be going deeper and deeper into slumberland. This morning I also seemed to wake up a little earlier and still be refreshed.

I attribute this mostly to the lack of caffeine I am now having. I have moved onto Chinese Tea which is a great substitute and healthy too!

Generally feeling excellent and "clean". Energy levels are constant and I was "itching" to go an exercise yesterday- a novel feeling indeed.

Exercise wise which I have not mentioned as yet has been a gradual beginning. I have been doing exercise off and on recently but the problem has been having enough energy to 1) be arsed and 2) progress and develop my fitness. So this week I have done three consecutive days of exercise so today I have been resting.

Day 1 was simply 4x hard runs for 1 minute with 2 minutes rest. Day 2 was a 1 hour hike with a heavy backpack and day 4 was skipping sprints 4x 1minute with 2 minute rest.

Thought for the day.....
Next time you are in a public place have a look around at how many people you see who are "well". By well I mean vibrant, slim and healthy looking. You will see (certainly in the UK) that there are few people who even come close to this. Indeed, it seems that especially the older folks are alive but not living, if you know what I mean

30 day paleo challenge....day 3

Last night was the first night in ages that I slept all the way through. I am normally a very light sleeper and the merest noise will awaken me. However, I slept very well last night and woke up feeling more refreshed than normal which is probably due to the effect cortisol has on me.

Normally, cortisol is high in the morning- so you want to get up and do things (like hunt, eat and survive the commute to work), and low at night so you wind down and want to sleep. However, if you have a reverse cortisol profile the opposite tends to be the case. You wake up in the morning feeling like crap (low cortisol) and at night when you want to sleep you get a"second wind" sensation (high cortisol).

I think that if my cortisol is sorting itself out, my sleep will start to get even better but lets see shall we.....

On another note I tried Salmon for the first time today for my lunch. I have had an irrational fear of fish for some time now and I just couldn't bring myself to eat it. The rather unique smell pre-cooking was what probably did it. It helps that it is filleted as it is always easier to eat something that you dont recognise as being a living creature.

Whilst in BHS (homeware shop) I got my first big craving for coffee as I walked past the cafe. The smell of coffee was overwhelming and at one point I was tempted to distract my wife with the bedding section and then make a run for it and get a cheeky espresso. However, to maintain my dignity I managed to restrain myself and leave the shop and go home and have a nice green tea (bah!)

Breakfast= Scrambled eggs and walnuts
Lunch = Salmon
Dinner = Gluten Free Sausages with broccoli and cabbage

30 day paleo challenge....day 2

Today was the first big struggle in terms of wanting coffee......... ahhh the sweet smell and taste of espresso! Certainly I have that horrible tension headache that you get from caffeine withdrawl - just between the eyebrows.

One thing I forgot to mention was that I am taking 20g of fish oil per day (as per recommended in the Robb Wolf guide). This is not a long term prescription but rather it is something to help you "heal" the inflammation until your body. However, I think I would rather drink my own urine that have to taste it so I wonder if there is something I could put in it to make it taste better?

Food wise, Breakfast left over beef curry, Lunch, Trout with salad and olive oil and Dinner was Roast chicken, parsnips, sweet potato and olive oil.

30 day paleo challenge....day 1

I have just finished reading the superb Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf and I thought I would give the 30 day paleo challenge a go.

Although I am aware of the potential benefits of doing this, I have never actually done it fully for 30 days so now is the time.

One of the most interesting points I took from the book is the issue with gluten. Apparently, "cutting down" on your gluten intake is not good enough becausee It can take up to 14 days to eliminate the effects from your system- and I certainly have been eating more frequently than this.

So....... day 1) Breakfast eggs , Lunch Mackerel with lettuce and tomatoes and dinner- curry, grass fed beef and coconut milk with cabbage and broccoli.
Feeling a bit iffy due to having no coffee (without milk or cream it just ain't the same!)

Are starches as bad as we think?

Earlier this week I spent some time with my delightful family. My Nan, who is 92 (bless her) has just come out of the hospital so I thought I would pop down and see her and give her my best wishes.

My gran has the most voracious appetite of any old lady I have ever soon. It is fairly common place to see an old dear nibbling on a piece of lettuce and being satisfied for several days. However, my Nan is the exact opposite. I recall that on once occasion we went out for a meal together as a family and for dessert we ordered the sharing platter dessert (notice the deliberate emphasis on sharing there). Once the dolce had arrived, no sooner had it been placed on the table whereupon my Nan lunged into it like a crack addict going towards their next hit. She gobbled up at least three quarters of the tasty morsel herself- The greedy BITCH!

I digress. My Nan, is as thin as a rake and has been for as long as I have known her. I do recall reading somewhere that Insulin control has been linked to longevity (a future post methinks). When I questioned her about what she ate when she was younger, there was no fruit and hardly any sugar. She did eat a lot of potatoes and some bread but never had a problem with her weight. Oh and she ate copious amounts of fat and butter. Incidentally, this was also the staple diet of my mother (bread and dripping anyone?).

Some research recently has suggested that the carbs we eat from starches may not necessarily impact people as badly as was previously thought. Certainly once a person is insulin resistant, then starches do cause a serious problem if you can no longer tolerate carbs. However, the damage may not be from starches themselves but the combination of excess sugar in the diet that gives the insulin system a damn good battering for several years and buggers up the system.

Potentially, this could mean that once you have "healed" your metabolic conditioning, you may be able to introduce starchier food without the same detrimental effects.

Coffee hell!

Hi there. Sorry I have been gone for a while, I am gonna shape up for 2010 and make sure I hit this ol'blog regularly!

Recently, I have been feeling very lethargic throughout the day at least compared to normal. Now, my diet is pretty, pretty, pretty (Larry David anyone?) good so it has been a mystery to me whats been happening. However, after reading something about Adrenal Fatigue, I decided that maybe I am an unknown sufferer.

One of the causes attributed to adrenal fatigue is excess coffee. Now, I am British and there is no people on earth who get more excited about hot beverages then us (just mention the word "tea" around any woman of a certain age in this country and see what I mean), however, I FUCKING LOVE coffee man! Not just the effect of the caffeine but the whole darn experience, the heat of the cup, the smell of it.....................Sorry back to my point. Coffee in excess can lead to adrenal fatigue, which can cause tiredness, lack of sex drive, craving of certain foods etc. And I drink 15 cups+ per day, so I am a prime candidate for this.

So today is day 5 of my caffeine free "diet". The first three days were absolute hell I have to say, with recurring severe headaches the most prominent symptom. Interestingly, I also had flu like symptoms on the second night whilst I was in bed. I checked for symptoms of caffeine withdrawl and this is a common symptom.

Anyway last night, the headaches subsided for the first time and I have to say I do feel much better and "full of beans" as my mother would say (I was often literally full of beans when I was younger-but ill save that for another day).

I will keep you posted on the long term effects of this however, I do intend to go back to drinking coffee, but purely because I want to not because I NEED to know what I mean?

Andy xx

Christmas struggles!

Yesterday was the first big Christmas meal of the season for us. The wife and I went to see my brother down the road in Manchester and a few of the relatives were there.

I am pleased to say I was very strong during the meal and had to withhold from the potatoes and the dessert (which was apple pie and did look very tempting!).

I have to say that I did feel guilty, turning away from the food. I think it was because when other people had made so much effort cooking it that it looks like a personal affront to their skills. I always find that I have to explain myself and go into extreme detail about my the consequences of eating carbohydrates (I believe I used the term diabetic coma). Not strictly true but I do feel like shit after eating this sort of thing. As usual there are always cries of "one potato wont hurt", which is indeed true but I don't see why I should feel like crap all day (and days after incidentally) just to appease my guilt!

By Christmas day itself, I will have to try my best to avoid Christmas pudding. This is my absolute FAVE thing for Christmas dinner. However, if you had to invent something that truly knocks me for six, this is it! My Kryptonite if you will. I have also noted with interest recently that the cream that is with it causes my face to go bright red, in fact I look like I have cleansed my face with poison Ivy!

Please don't be under the impression that I will not enjoy Christmas because of my abstinence! On the contrary, I will enjoy the feelings of being normal, by concentrating on meat, veg and fat (and maybe 1 chocolate :-)).

Merry Christmas!

Andy