Cleansing your body does not require fancy pills or supplements nor does it take some extensive amount of time. By implementing simple dietary changes you can help your body release the chemicals, toxins and fat that has built up in your tissue over time. If you suffer from acne, fatigue, irritability or fogginess then your body may be telling you its time to be detoxified. There are simple changes you can make in your daily diet to cleanse and keep clean your body. Following a 14 day cleanse diet is a perfect way to jump start the cleansing process.
Many people tend to skip breakfast. Coffee is not breakfast. A doughnut is not breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. People who eat breakfast have been able to fight off hunger longer into the afternoon and also are more common to have success loosing weight. To detox your body, eat only fruits until noon each day.
Blueberries, raspberries, cranberries and strawberries are packed with antioxidants which fight off free radicals that are in your body. Free radicals are wreaking havoc on your insides and corroding your arteries and other body tissues. Fruits also have natural sugars that curb your sweet cravings without subjecting your body to sugar highs and lows. The fiber in fruits will fight off hunger as well. Eating fruit also promote healthy energy. In order to get the best effect with the 14 day cleanse diet you also need to eliminate caffeine. Instead, reach for an all natural herbal coffee or tea that is caffeine free. Remember how energy was unlimited as a child? That was before we started bogging our bodies down with the junk we eat and drink. Herbal beverages will give you the natural energy boost you desire and help your body rebuild its natural energy source.
For lunch and dinner you need to start eating smarter. You can still enjoy all the foods you love, but changing what you eat will help detoxify your body. While eating steak and potatoes is a normal part of many families meal plan, it also leaves you feeling weighed down. The reason for this is that two separate enzymes are needed to break down carbohydrates and starches. During digestion the two enzymes partially neutralize each other making digestion less effective. It is far more ideal to eat salad with a steak.
Dark leafy greens release nutrients that help flush your system of waste that is built up. During this 14-day cleanse diet it is also vital to drink lots of water. Non-flavored, filtered, all natural tap water. Although it may not seem appealing, water is the purest substance to put in your body to help it detoxify. By following these two easy steps you can detoxify your body in as little as two weeks. Keeping these healthy dietary changes as part of your lifestyle will result in an increase in energy, weight loss, improvements in skin, hair and nails and increased mental clarity.
When I’m not writing kick-butt boot camp workouts and nutrition programs, I try to answer as many questions as I can. I want to share some from this week. (The answers are my actual replies, so please forgive all the grammar errors!)
Q: Quinoa, grain? I just read it is in the same family as spinach.
A: Yeah mang, it’s related to Spinach and Chard. Even though it’s not a grain, it’s still very carb-intensive and has proteins in it that act a lot like gluten.
I use it two ways:
a) As a fuel source for paleo-minded endurance athletes. Having… a tupperware of quinoa in your panniers isn’t as stylish as a power bar, but it’s a whole hell of a lot better for you.
b) As a “bridge food” for people adjusting to paleo-style eating. See, most people who want to cut out grains and processed foods severely under-eat. They don’t increase their meat and veggie intake enough to replace the calories from grains and dairy. So when they’ve cut out a thousand Calories they get hungry and tired and fall off the paleo wagon.
Adding some quinoa, lentils, or tubers in to the mix helps keep calories in satisfaction levels while eaters learn to adjust their intake of other foods to compensate for the lack of carbs.
But I recommend minimizing quinoa and going for veggies as soon as possible.
Q: Question right now is breakfast? That is when I’ve eaten whole wheat toast …. and coffee.
A: For breakfast I recommend eggs as a starting point. They are paleolithic foods, plus have plenty of fat and protein.
Studies have found that eggs for breakfast lead to greater weight loss than eating the same calories in oatmeal. And another study found women who eat eggs for breakfast have less body fat than women who don’t, even if they eat the same calories.
Eggs are a “base” like salad, you can add anything you want! I personally use eggs to mix in a whole lot of vegetables, starting my day with veggies keeps me on track the rest of the day.
Q: right now i’m trying to work up to running 5 miles at a go, because i found a pretty good training program for runners who are at that level. any advice on how to increase my stamina?
A: I always promote the idea of diminishing rest interval training.
Basically, you set your goal time and figure out how fast you need to run to do it. Say you have a goal of 9 minutes a mile (about a 2 hour half marathon). You make all of your training runs at 9 minutes per mile or FASTER. So, 4:30 half mile, walk 2 min, 4:30 half mile, walk 2 min. Next time you do the workout, you do 4:30 half mile, walk 75 sec, 4:30 half mile, walk 75 sec, etc.
That way you are never training your body to run below your goal pace, and you don’t get the overuse injuries (knees, ankles, back) that you get when slogging along with bad form.
Also, read “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall. It made ME want to start running. Good motivation.
Q: what are your thoughts on the Paleo diet providing enough fuel for an active athlete to improve performance?
A: The problem most people have when switching to a paleo-style diet is that they dramatically cut calories because they don’t replace the grains, dairy, soy, etc with more meat, veggies and nuts.
It depends on the type of athlete what paleo diet to put them on. Strength and power do great on a straight paleo (no tubers, lentils, etc). There is an initial loss of strength and power the first 4-6 weeks, then it ramps back up to normal levels over the next month. From then on there is greater progress because they can use all of the nutrients for training and recovery, not for fighting off inflammation and allergies from the diet.
Hard-core endurance athletes are doing something that cave-dudes wouldn’t have done: going maximally for brutally long distances. So in their case I follow the paleo-diet base, with the addition of some higher carb as-much-paleo-as-possible foods: sweet potatoes, yams, some lentils, some quinoa. And a little more fruit.
Even with the extra “paleoish” carbs, there is an initial drop in endurance and speed, followed by a ramp up to normal levels, then better increases once the inflammation, allergens, extra weight, blah blah blah are removed.
The biggest thing I tell my athlete clients who switch to paleo is to make sure calories stay the same or even INCREASE, otherwise they’ll feel fatigued and start breaking down.
Q: What is your take on the Vibram 5 finger shoes…?
A: I think the Vibram 5 Fingers are just about the best thing ever!
You know my back got jacked up in a car accident, these are the only shoes that I can wear that don’t leave me crippled at the end of the day.
My clients who wear them swear by them. Cuts down on knee, back, and hip pain. (But when you first switch to them, be prepared for searing pain below the knees as your calves, shins, and feet muscles are forced to work) Actually, with all the beach volleyball you might have conditioned them already
Ok, that’s it for today! If you have any questions, the fastest and easiest way to get them answered is to post them as a comment on my facebook wall. Here’s a link:
(Warning: The email below contains profanity and tells the truth about what happens when you chow down on soy. If either of these offends you, visit this website instead: Cute Things Falling Asleep)
Here are two new quotes I ran across just this week:
“The soybean itself is a notably inauspicious staple food; it contains a whole assortment of “antinutrients” – compounds that actually block the body’s absorbtion of vitamins and minerals, interfere with the hormonal system, and prevent the body from breaking down the proteins in soy itself.” – Michael Pollan, “In Defense Of Food”
“Confidence that soy products are safe is clearly based more on belief than hard data” – FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research
The Take-Home Message for today is: Stop eating soy!!
“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but instead will interest his patients in the care of the human fram, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.” – Thomas Edison
Paleo eating and primal living are Big Topics in the health and fitness world. What does it mean to “go Primal”?
Basically, it means eating the foods your body way designed to eat and living the way your body was designed to live, with the purpose of fitness and health in general, and often weight loss in particular.
Heading up the Primal movement is a cool guy named Mark Sisson:
Primal (for the sake of brevity I’m going to drop the /paleo today ) living allows your genes to express themselves in certain ways. What do I mean?
Simple example: I have a tattoo on my forearm. Think of that as a certain gene. Maybe the gene for Type 2 Diabetes.
Whether I wear long sleeves or not determines if my tattoo will show, that the gene will be expressed.
In this example my sleeves represent my lifestyle. If I exercise, eat lots of fruits, vegetables, and meats, and stay away from booze, grains, and sugars, the diabetes gene won’t have a chance to be expressed. It’s like wearing long sleeves.
If I skip the gym and eat whatever I want, it’s like rolling up my sleeves and letting the diabetes gene be expressed – my lifestyle determined I would get diabetes.
The gene was there the whole time, what determines if the gene goes into action or not is your lifestyle.
As Mark says: You Have To Fit Your Genes To Fit Into Your Genes.
To have the kind of lifestyle that allows your “skinny genes” and healthy genes to be used, you can follow simple Primal guidelines. Here are Mark’s 10 Primal Laws…
1. Eat Lots Of Plants And Animals
I believe nutrition is the single biggest thing you can do to lose weight and get awesome health. And the two biggest things you can do to improve your nutrition are to eat more vegetables and to eat more animal protein.
You should aim to have some complete protein in every meal, as well as a bunch of veggies.
2. Avoid Poisonous Things
This one is a doozy! No one goes around drinking drain cleaner, but we put things into our bodies that are almost as bad.
Even if you’re just interested in weight loss and don’t give a damn about your health, poison foods will still completely reverse your progress.
See, if you’re eating foods that your body has to fight (ex: grains), it won’t be able to absorb the good nutrients from your meats and vegetables PLUS it won’t let you lose any fat.
You know how an infected cut swells up? The swelling helps fight all the funk from the infection.
As soon as you ditch grains, soy, sugar, and alcohol, all the bloating in your body starts going away. Why the bloat?
Basically, your body was swelling to help it fight off foreign invaders.
Getting rid of poison foods will make sure all the effort you put into diet and exercise won’t go to waste.
3. Move Frequently At A Slow Pace
Another tricky one. Back in paleolithic days, humans had to walk all over the place.
We didn’t run, we WALKED. If we ran around and burned all our energy, we’d be screwed if we didn’t find food right away.
Almost no one goes for leisurely walks or hikes any more. We have to turn it into an exercise challenge. Whoever has the highest heart rate wins.
Walking does all sorts of good things for your body. Yes, it burns some calories, but that’s not why to do it.
Walking gets you outside, walking is relaxing, walking through the forest can actually help fight cancer, walking just plain feels good.
My advice: Go for a walk outside a few times a week, on the weekends get up in the hills and go for a fun hike with family and friends.
4. Lift Heavy Things
“Lifting heavy things” doesn’t mean hitting the weight room 3 hours a day to try and look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Part of Primal living was moving rocks, climbing trees, dragging dead deer, lunging down to pick berries, pulling a travois, and all sorts of other full-body movements.
Dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, sandbags, tires, and my favorite – your won bodyweight – are all things you can use for resistance training.
5. Sprint Once In A While
Sprinting doesn’t mean lacing on some old New Balance Joggers and heading down to the track, it just refers to moving very fast (for your level).
Interval Training on a bike, treadmill, or rowing machine works great.
So does rocking out a fast set or bodyweight exercises.
So does jumping rope.
Moving quickly is very Primal – imagine a bear was chasing you and if you didn’t make it to a tree you’d die. No one moves with that kind of intensity any more.
6. Get Adequate Sleep
Getting enough sleep is a HUGE piece of the weight loss equation.
If you don’t sleep your body will start craving simple sugars, completely screwing up your eating plan.
No rest means you won’t recover from your workouts, instead of building a healthy body you’ll just be digging yourself into a hole.
No sleep means you won’t be able to bring any energy to your workouts. It SUCKS trying to do fast bike sprints when you didn’t sleep the night before. You go so slowly you wonder why you’re even doing them at all.
Some simple things you can do to sleep better are: no TV or computer an hour before bed (the light from the monitor interferes with sleep hormones), no booze or caffeine in the evening, get exercise during the day, get sunshine as early as possible, and eat lots of meat and veggies.
7. Play
So many people drop the ball on this one.
No one ever goes out and has fun anymore.
I love going to the beach and tossing a football around with friends, wrestling with my cousins’ kids, climbing trees, shooting hoops with my dad, and just enjoying life and movement.
The biggest mistake I see people making with play is this: They play to get in shape, they don’t get in shape to play.
Weekend Warriors go out and play flag football without building up their leg strength, shoulder health, and agility, and they get hurt.
Go out and play to have fun, as you get in better shape you’ll be able to totally dominate more intense games.
8. Get Adequate Sunlight
Did you know getting more sunshine will reduce cholesterol levels? It’s true! Your body uses cholesterol as part of the vitamin D making process. It’s one reason why your cholesterol levels test higher in the winter than in the summer.
Vitamin D prevents a lot of diseases and is essential for healthy teeth, bones, nails, eyesight, and the absorption of other vitamins and minerals.
Going out and getting burned is a Bad Idea. 20 or 30 minutes of sunshine a day (maybe during your walk!) will help you keep your vitamin D tank topped off.
(Oh yeah, smaller daily doses of sun have been shown to actually PREVENT skin cancer!).
9. Avoid Stupid Mistakes
“Hey! I’m going to make my New Year’s Resolution to run a marathon! Tomorrow I’ll go out and see how far I can run!” <- Stupid Mistake
“Exercise sucks! I’d rather be fat!” <- Stupid Mistake
“But I don’t liiiiiiiiiiike vegetables!” <- Stupid Mistake
“I worked out so I deserve this treat!” <- Stupid Mistake
Back in paleo days, stupid mistakes could kill you fast. “I’m going to poke that tiger with a stick!” <- Stupid Mistake
Stupid mistakes can still kill you fast (“Screw the seatbelt!”), but most of the stupid mistakes we make are smaller ones: Skipping breakfast, ditching workouts, going to bed without brushing your teeth.
As a guy who makes more stupid mistakes than anyone else (“Watch me jump off that roof!”), I can tell you that the fewer dumb mistakes you make, the better your life is going to be.
10. Use Your Brain
Our Primal ancestors had to learn or die. They had to observe what was going on around them and constantly solve problems.
Most of what we do now isn’t life or death, and we don’t have to track down our own meat anymore, but I’m always amazed at how people let themselves stagnate.
They never try anything new. They never learn anything new. I have no idea why.
It’s been shown that doing sudoku or word puzzles can help prevent dementia (I play games on Luminosity.com when my brain is feeling sluggish).
I figure that you can get even more bang for your mental buck by doing “body sudoku” – exercise puzzles that challenge your brain to learn something new while kicking your health and fat loss into overdrive.
An example would be the Spiral Squat – something totally out of the box for 99.9% of gym-goers, yet a great exercise and mental stimulant:
Just remember Rule Nine: Avoid Stupid Mistakes when you’re learning new exercises. If you can’t get off the toilet without straining, don’t try a rock-bottom twisting squat, ok?
Conclusion
To put these Ten Primal Laws into your daily routine, here’s a painless method: Pick one Law a week and get on it. Or even one Law every 2 weeks.
Make each one a habit before you add the next.
Pretty soon you’ll be wearing your Skinny Genes :p
I write a lot about looking sexy and feeling good, but today I want to talk about what happens INSIDE your body when you follow a few simple nutrition guidelines.
Triglycerides are fatty acids in your bloodstream.
The higher your triglyceride levels, the more risk you have for heart disease, diabetes, and strokes.
When I tell people to eat more fat and protein, and cut out grains, they FREAK.
Conventional Wisdom says that the way to reduce triglycerides is to eat more crap like oatmeal, whole wheat bread, and other grain products.
But it turns out that eating grains (even WHOLE GRAINS) will actually RAISE your triglyceride levels.
Yes, really.
Now, a triglyceride level above 500 mg/dL is classified as high risk.
Today’s case study had a triglyceride level of 3100mg/dL.
More than SIX TIMES the high risk level.
And in only 3 weeks he dropped from 3100mg/dL to 202mg/dL.
Dr. Davis didn’t prescribe any medications or insane hormonal therapies.
The patient reduced his triglycerides to 1100 mg/dl in ten days by…. taking 3600 milligrams of fish oil per day and eliminating wheat, cornstarch, and sugars.
No statins, no fibrates, just cheap, easy fish oil capsules and cutting out sugar and wheat.
I think that’s super-cool. No messing around with poorly understood drugs, no dangerous side effects, just natural fish oil.
As Dr. Davis says on his blog: “No question: Omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil are the best tool available for reduction of triglycerides. The effect is dose-dependent, i.e., the more you take, the greater the triglyceride reduction“
But the story gets even better: After another 10 days of fish oil and cutting out a few foods, the patient’s triglycerides dropped to… 202 mg/dl!!
That’s a 93.5% reduction in triglycerides in less than 3 weeks – with no drugs.
202 mg/dl is still high, but if he sticks to the program I’d be willing to bet he gets it down to safe levels – despite having a genetic predisposition to high triglycerides.
If you want to raise your metabolism and at the same time lower your risk of cardiovascular disease, here are a few simple things to do:
- Stop eating grains: Get rid of wheat, corn, oats, and rice. For extra bonus points, get rid of all soy. Think that leaves nothing to eat? Here’s a short video tour of my grain-free kitchen:
- Start taking fish oil. One capsule a day doesn’t cut it. I recommend one gram per fifteen pounds of bodyweight as a bare minimum. (ex: Weigh 150 pounds? 10 grams of fish oil, minimum.) More is better.
(A warning about fish oil: If you go from taking none to taking a handful every day, you might experience stomach pain and watery gray poop. Start off with 1 capsule each at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and increase one capsule every few days. This eases your system into it, with no weird gray doody)
– Cut out sugar and fake sugar. Sugar will raise your triglyceride levels, and some studies have found that even fake sugars such as Splenda, Equal, and Nutrisweet can raise triglycerides as much as the real thing.
Bottom line: Don’t listen to the BS about cutting out fat or going on drugs as a cure for high triglycerides. You can fix your health with a few simple changes.
If we stranded a bunch of people on two islands and fed one group nothing but protein and fat and the other group nothing but carbohydrates, what would happen if we looked at them a year later?
The fat and protein-only eaters would be lean, healthy, and energetic.
The carbohydrate-only group would be dead.
There’s no such thing as an essential carbohydrate.
But since most people I’ve talked to FREAK OUT when I tell them they don’t need carbs, today I want to give you a list of 7 awesome things that happen when you LOWER your carbohydrate intake.
Reason To Cut The Carbs #1: Lower Triglycerides
This is freakin’ HUGE! Cutting down carbohydrates has an immediate effect on your triglyceride levels.
Low-carb diets can show you a triglyceride drop of several hundred milligrams in a week! (Much, much faster than with prescription drugs, without all the nasty side-effects)
People with familial hypertriglyceridemia can have triglyceride levels in the thousands of milligrams per deciliter, and cutting out carbs will get them to normal levels in less than a month. Seriously.
(What’s funny is that the common treatment for familial hypertriglyceridemia is to cut out fats. This can lower triglyceride levels a little bit, but nowhere near as much or as fast as cutting out carbs)
Bottom line: Lower carbs = lower triglycerides = lower risk of stroke and heart disease
Reason To Cut The Carbs #2: Lowered Small LDL
Carbohydrates increase small LDL. Lowering carbs decreases small LDL.
Again, lowered carbs reduces risk of heart disease, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, and all sorts of nasty stuff.
Cut carbs, live better and longer
Reason To Cut The Carbs #3: Increased HDL
HDL is the good cholesterol. I like to think of it as a blood vessel “scrubber”, keeping the your veins and arteries clear of buildup.
I used to think that cutting down carbs lowered HDL, but only a little. It turns out that the truth is more complex:
HDL levels go down a bit for two months, and then steadily rise for years.
If you continue to follow a low-carb diet, expect a substantial raise in your HDL levels
Reason To Cut The Carbs #4: Lower Blood Pressure
High blood pressure SUCKS.
You can’t get blood flow to your genitals. The medications that keep you alive make you nauseous and weak. You’re constantly worried about a stroke or heart attack.
Lots of my clients are able to go off of blood pressure medication after 4-8 weeks of exercise and a low-carb diet (ONLY if your doctor tells you it’s ok!!)
The biggest changes in blood pressure are seen over a long period, much like HDL levels. You can really lower high blood pressure in only a few weeks, but it can take 1-2 years for it to stabilize and be a part of you.
Reason To Cut The Carbs #5: Lower Blood Sugar
Diabetes is nasty. I have diabetic friends and I get so sad when someone gets a cut and it won’t heal, or their eyes keep getting worse, or any of the thousand other things that afflict someone with diabetes.
No matter how you measure blood sugar, cutting out carbs will help get rid of sugar swings. No more crashes in between meals, and no more deadly highs after meals.
As an added bonus, reducing carbs can help reverse diabetes!
Reason To Cut The Carbs #6: Lower Inflammation
You’ve heard of inflammation in ads for ridiculous statin drugs. These ads talk about lowering c-reactive proteins, a marker of inflammation.
You probably already know the punchline: Cutting down carbs will lower inflammation more than statins, without all the gnarly side effects.
Why lower inflammation? Well, almost all modern diseases are diseases of inflammation. Obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, and even depression are a result of systemic inflammation.
Reason To Cut The Carbs #7: Less Body Fat!
It’s true! Cut carbs, lose weight. Tah-dah!
Going on a very low-carb diet (only carbohydrates are from vegetables) strips fat off your body incredibly fast.
There are all sorts of reasons why (and I’m covering them all soon!), but here’s one of my favorites: Carbohydrates raise blood sugar (see reason #5 above) -> Your body releases insulin to store the sugar in your muscles and liver, or else converts it to fat -> Fat burning is impossible in the presence of insulin.
So if you’re on a fat loss plan and are consuming anything that raises insulin levels (carbohydrates and dairy, mainly), it will be IMPOSSIBLE for you to burn fat. Darn.
Now, take a second and look at the bolded reasons above. Notice anything?
It corresponds with the diseases that are most commonly treated with powerful drugs: High triglycerides, Low HDL, High LDL, Diabetes, Systemic Inflammation, and Blood Pressure.
Isn’t is cool that you can do MORE for your health by making a simple change in what you eat than if you have to take a bunch of pills that keep you alive but make you sick in the process? I think so.
Stay tuned for more rockin’ info on carbohydrates!
One of the fastest ways to sabotage your body transformation can be summed up in 3 words: “I Deserve It.”
I have a friend, an older guy, who walks to the coffee shop each morning to “earn” his cinnamon roll and latte.
Now, he’s a smart, successful, cool businessman. He should know that walking 8 blocks isn’t enough to “earn” 800 Calories of junk. But the walk gives him a ready excuse to give in to his bad habits, so he persists in chowing down.
And his weight – slowly and insidiously – keeps creeping up.
If you’re reading this blog, you’re not like the majority of people who just eat whatever they feel like whenever they feel like it. You’re motivated and determined to eat better, you just slip up sometimes.
Today I’m going to tell you about the 4 main ways you can depart from your diet plan.
The first is what I used to call a CHEAT MEAL.
This is usually full of sugary starchy treats. Yum!
Cheat meals can be unplanned – you just get a craving and give in. This is a true cheat meal.
The big problem with cheat meals is that people think that since they slipped off plan that the day (week, month) is ruined and just go ahead eating crap 24/7 until an arbitrary “start again” date. Example: “I had waffles and donuts for breakfast today (Saturday) so I’ll just start again on Monday.”
This mindset absolutely KILLS your fat loss! Think about it like this: If your car gets a flat tire, what do you do? Change it and get on down the road. If you slip up on your plan, fix it the next meal and get on down the road.
But continuing to eat junk is like stabbing the other 3 tires on your ride and then wondering why you never get anywhere.
If you cheat at lunch, eat your healthy snack and dinner just like you’d planned. Get on with it.
Planned cheat meals are great. They keep you walking the line Johnny Cash-style. You have mad cravings for cherry pie, you look at your calender and see that Saturday night is a planned cheat and you decide you can wait another two days for your pie.
So many people feel guilty about these planned cheats though. They think “I eat great all week. I pay $600 a month for personal training. Why would I have a bad meal?”
Because of this I’ve re-named planned cheat meals. They are now REWARD MEALS. You reward yourself for following your meal plan and kicking ass in the gym all week.
Unlike my friend walking to the coffee shop, you truly earned your piece of pie.
The second type of dietary departure is LOADING.
I use this a lot in my carbohydrate-cycling plans. A loading day you eat things that aren’t usually a part of your diet with the the goal of refilling muscle glycogen (sugar stored in muscles).
But instead of junk sugars and starches, loading days have “clean foods.” Fruit, sweet potatoes, squash, etc.
Occasional PLANNED loading days can accelerate fat loss and help you regulate fat loss and health hormones.
The third dietary departure is REFEEDING.
Re-feed days you follow you normal dieting guidelines (ex: 45%fat, 35%pro, 20%carb) and don’t digress from your approved food list – you just ramp everything up a bit.
So if your diet calls for 2300 Calories, a re-feed day you might eat 2800 Calories instead – all composed of the foods you’re normally eating.
The fourth dietary departure isn’t common knowledge.
I call it a DISPLACEMENT meal.
What’s a displacement meal? Simple, it’s a form of a planned reward meal where you still eat exactly what your plan calls for, PLUS whatever cheat foods you want.
An example would be a dinner where you have your 4 cups of spinach with 7oz of spinach and drizzled with olive oil. You eat the salad plus a few drinks and a piece of rich chocolate cake for dessert.
I like displacing cheat meals like this because we’re less likely to go completely bonkers on the reward foods if we’re eating the good stuff too.
Now for… WHY reward meals, loads, and re-feeds are part of a rapid fat loss plan:
1. Keeping Leptin Levels Up.
There are two main side effects to restricting calories: metabolic slowdown and rebound binging.
Lowered calories slows your release of leptin, a hormone that tells your body it is being well-fed and to keep up your metabolism.
With less leptin, your body thinks its starving and lowers metabolism and increases hunger. When leptin drops, your body overpowers your willpower and you eat like crazy, even if every bit of your conscious mind is fighting it. Truly, “the enemy within.”
Planned food increases PREVENT leptin from dropping, so the metabolic slowdown and hunger attacks don’t happen. This isn’t so important in the first few weeks of dieting, but after you’ve lost a good amount of fat, planned overeating is necessary to keep leptin levels up.
2. Refilling Glycogen.
Sugar stored in muscles is called glycogen. This is what fuels hardcore bootcamp workouts.
When glycogen stores are low, you won’t be able to train like an animal. (note: There are supplements that allow super-hard training even on low calorie diets, they’re a big part of Ripped Plan 2.0)
Training while on a diet has two main purposes: burning calories and keeping – or building – lean muscle. If you can’t bring energy to your training, it’s hard to do either. That’s why it’s a good idea to plan a re-loading day into your rapid fat loss plan – you’ll be able to keep training at the top level.
3. Mental Vacation.
Ask anyone who has gone through a body transformation: The toughest part of dieting isn’t the diet, it’s knowing you won’t be able to give in to cravings until you’re done. Planned meals give you a “mental vacation” from feeling deprived.
Lots of people quit dieting in the first week because they don’t think they can stand giving up their favorite comfort foods for such a long time.
Having a planned break allows you to keep your sanity until your diet ends.
But this is where it gets tricky… reward meals give you a mental vacation, but they can also increase the intensity of cravings. (Especially grain-based foods, which activate the same addiction centers in your brain as heroin!)
If you can break through the wall and see how great you look and feel your cravings will subside. When you constantly remind yourself how good “cheat” foods taste, you’ll have to keep fighting crave attacks.
So if you can cowboy up and close your mental door until your next planned break, reward meals will definitely help. If you can’t close that mental door you’ll make your life miserable thinking about milkshakes, pasta, and cookies.
I always think the best of people, and believe they can do it with the right plan and guidance.
Which Type Is Best For My Plan?
Cheats/rewards, loads, re-feeds, and displacements all work to keep leptin levels high.
Loads are best for re-filling glycogen stores. (Cheats can also do this, but fake sugars – ala corn syrup – don’t refill glycogen, they just store as fat)
When it comes to the mental part, everyone has a different trigger. I loves me a greasy cheesebuger, onion rings, and booze. Some people would kill for sweets and pastries. Others live and die for breads and pastas.
This mental divergence means we will all have different foods for reward meals.
Ideally, the worst cravings we have would be for fruits. But since that isn’t the case just remember that the cleaner you eat on your reward meals, the easier it will be on your body.
A final caveat: I mentioned it earlier, but it bears repeating – if reward meals cause you to go ahead and blow a whole week out of your diet, stay away from them. It’s like potato chips, if you eat one, you eat the whole bag. Would have been better just to skip that first chip.
Final Thought
I hope you can see now that you don’t really need cheat/reward meals – you can rock a fat loss plan with the right loading and re-feeding schedule.
Your body has absolutely NO PHYSICAL NEED to eat junk, it is purely psychological.
In January I’m putting together a coaching group for Wold Fitness Ripped Plan 2.0. I’ll give you the exact plan you need to lose as much fat as you want – faster than you thought possible.
First notice will go to my newsletter subscribers, so if you haven’t signed up yet, enter your email in the box on the top right of this page.
Now, I usually recommend stuffing your breakfast with vegetables because it’s a great way to get in a few extra servings (Here’s the Hyper Veggie Breakfast Scramble), but sometimes the though of another plate of eggs and spinach at 4 in the morning is too much to handle.
Since I grew up surrounded by apple orchards, they seemed like the perfect fruit to experiment with next. And what’s the best apple dish? …. Apple Pie!
Early versions included chopping and toasting almonds to make a “crust” for the apple/egg mix. But they didn’t taste right and it took an extra ten minutes to chop and toast the nuts. (Minutes matter when you’re making breakfast!)
After 3 or 4 attempts I landed on an apple and egg breakfast dish that not only tastes so good you’ll want to skip the fork and use your hands, it also makes your house smell like Christmas-time when the cinnamon apples are cooking in coconut oil!
Here’s what I use:
Organic Gala Apple
6 Omega-3 eggs
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
Cinnamon!
You might cut down on the number of eggs, or use a different kind of apple. Most of the fun in paleo-style cooking is finding out what you like best.
Ok, chop up the apple and dash some cinnamon over the top. (I like the taste of cinnamon, it is also anti-estrogenic and helps improve insulin sensitivity – two VERY good things for your body)
Next heat the coconut oil in a pan over medium-high heat:
Once the coconut oil has coated the pan, throw in the cinnamon-covered chopped apples and let them cook. I usually figure on 5 minutes for them to cook through.
While the apples are cooking, whisk together the eggs, coconut milk, and some cinnamon:
Pour the cinnamon-coconut-egg mix into the pan:
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: Keep everything moving. You don’t want the eggs browning to the bottom of the pan. Just keep sliding your spatula around making sure nothing is in one place long enough to stick:
Once the eggs have cooked through, you’re ready to eat! I like to enjoy mine with a mug of green tea and a cool exercise book:
That’s it! Fast, easy, and delicious!
Stay tuned for more cool paleo recipes, I found a website that has bear, yak, and turtle meat. Can’t wait to try it!
(Check out the link at the bottom of this post to see how you can get 28% off your bootcamp membership!)
All right, when I first say this recipe in The Paleo Solution I thought gross!
But it hovered in the back of my mind, like the smell of my wrestling shoes in the back seat of my car.
(Ok, bad analogy)
One of the things I’m doing right now is trying 3 new paleo recipes a week, and I figured it was time for an experiment.
“Peach and pecan scramble,” I said, “let’s do this thing.”
First, I doubled all of the ingredients, if you want yours smaller, cut them in half.
Paleo Peach And Pecan Scramble Ingredients:
2 tsp coconut oil (recipe called for olive oil, but I respect the ‘nut)
1 peach, diced (peaches at the store looked sketchy, so I bought canned peaches in JUICE, not SYRUP, and rinsed them off)
4 tbsp chopped pecans
4 eggs (omega-3 or local wild if you can find them)
2 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Step One: Dice The Peach and Pecans
In the book it says to heat the oil first, but I like to have my ingredients ready or else I end up with a smoky pan.
Chop ‘em up good and set them aside.
Step Two: Heat The Oil
Heat the oil in a pan set to medium heat.
If you’re using coconut oil, it will turn liquid in about 30 seconds. If you go with olive oil, swish it around until it coats the bottom of the pan.
Step Three: Soften Peaches And Pecans
Dump the fruit and nuts (you are what you eat!) into the oil and stir them around until the peaches are softened.
It took about 3 minutes.
Step Four: Whisk Eggs, Applesauce, And Cinnamon
Whisk them up good while you stir-fry the peaches.
And try to get TreeTop brand applesauce, it’s from Selah, WA where I used to coach wrestling.
Step Five: Cook It Up!
Pour the eggy mix over the peaches and pecans.
Keep moving everything around and cook until the eggs are done. It took about five minutes.
Step Six: EAT!
I sprinkled a little more cinnamon over the top before I went to town.
Taste Test Sez:
It was pretty darn scrumptious, but a little too sweet for me all on its own. I think it would be perfect with a few strips of uncured bacon and a cup of coffee. Try it and let me know what you think!
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As a hardcore exercise guy, it always surprises people that I focus so much on organic farming and grass-fed meats.
It just seems a little bit much “free love and peace, man” for an iron swinger.
But the brutal reality is that you can NEVER be healthier than the food that you eat.
If you eat food from poisoned soil, you’re getting the poisons.
If your food eats crap, it doesn’t matter how healthy you want to be, you can’t escape the crap.
Check out this great article called: You Are What Your Animals Eat
In my investigation into pasture-based farming, I’ve stumbled upon an alarming state of affairs: few animal scientists see any link between animal feed and human food. “Feed animals anything you want,” say the experts, “and it makes no difference to their meat, milk, or eggs.” Because of this mindset, our animals are being fed just about anything that enhances the bottom line, including chicken feathers, sawdust, chicken manure, stale pizza dough, potato chips, and candy bars.
Here’s a glaring example. A 1996 study explored the desirability of feeding stale chewing gum to cattle.(1) Amazingly, the gum was still in its aluminum foil wrappers. Wonder of wonders, the experts concluded that bubblegum diet was a net benefit—at least for the producers. I quote: “Results of both experiments suggest that [gum and packaging material] may be fed to safely replace up to 30% of corn-alfalfa hay diets for growing steers with advantages in improving dry matter intake and digestibility.” In other words, feed a steer a diet that is 30 percent bubblegum and aluminum foil wrappers, and it will be a more efficient eater. With a nod to public safety, the researchers did check to see how much aluminum was deposited in the various organs of the cattle. Not to worry. The aluminum content was “within normal expected ranges.” As always, there was no mention of the nutritional content of the resulting meat.
When I first read the bubblegum studies, I assumed that no one would actually feed bubblegum to their animals, despite the “positive outcome” of the research.. Then a professor of animal science drove me by a Beechnut gum factory in upstate New York where dairy farmers bought truckloads of bubble gum to feed to their cows.
The view from the other side of the fence is just as sobering. Most experts in human nutrition are equally blind to the feed/food connection. To them, beef is beef, eggs are eggs, and milk is milk. Thus, when the USDA says “eat less red meat,” the edict applies to all red meat, whether it’s a fatty steak from a grainfed cow, or a lean steak from a grassfed cow with its invisible bounty of omega-3s, vitamin E, beta-carotene, and CLA.
I’ve spent the past four years trying to forge the missing link between animal and human nutrition. It’s been tough going, especially when it comes to pasture-raised animals because virtually all the studies focus on feedlot animals. To fill in the gap, I’ve searched through yellowing journals published before the advent of factory farming, pieced together small studies financed by farmers, and combed through the research from Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand—parts of the world where animals are still kept home on the range.
Finding the amount of vitamin E in grassfed meat has been one of my biggest challenges. I began tthe search when I learned that grass has 20 times more vitamin E than corn or soy. Given the magnitude of this difference, I reasoned that meat from grassfed animals must have an extra helping of vitamin E.
At long last, I located one American study that broached the subject. The impetus for the study came from disgruntled Japanese buyers who complained that American beef spoiled more quickly than Australian free-range beef. Knowing that vitamin E helped prolong shelf life, the American researchers investigated the amount of vitamin E in the two types of meat. Lo and behold, they discovered that the meat from grassfed cattle had three to four times more vitamin E than feedlot beef, thanks to all that vitamin E-rich grass.
Now, what did the researchers do with this finding? True to form, they began studying how much synthetic vitamin E to add to synthetic feedlot diets. I doubt that it even occurred to them to investigate pasture-based ranching.
Why this lack of interest in the natural model? Much of our animal research is funded by commercial interests—specifically the grain, chemical, pharmaceutical, farm equipment, and meat-packing companies. Together, these vertically integrated behemoths have a multi-billion dollar stake in perpetuating factory farming. The USDA, meanwhile, aids and abets the feedlot industry by focusing virtually all of its efforts—and our tax dollars!—on tweaking the system. For example, the USDA Meat and Animal Research Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, is more willing to spend $100,000 researching how quickly feedlot manure seeps into the water table than to spend a similar amount of money investigating pasture-based ranching, the holistic model that keeps the contamination from happening in the first place.
What will it take to draw more scientific attention to pasture-based ranching? Pressure from an enlightened public. And what will it take to enlighten the public? The national media.
I have a fantasy how this might happen. First, a prominent media source such as “60 minutes” or The New York Times will decide to spotlight pasture-based farming. Building on this ground-breaking work, an award-winning TV producer will create a documentary that deepens the discussion. The program will conclude—as it must—-that raising animals on pasture is better for consumers, the animals, the environment, and small farmers. Before long, dozens of news shows, newspapers, and magazines will follow suit.
As the momentum builds, grassfarming will become the talk of the town. Serving organic meat won’t win points in Los Angeles anymore unless it’s grassfed as well. Meanwhile, Ted Turner will stop sending all of his bison to feedlots to be fattened like cattle, and by 2005, his “Turner Reserve Grassfed Bison” will be the thing to serve at celebrity gatherings. Propelled by this groundswell of interest, private and government institutions will finally devote more time, money and energy to exploring pasture-based farming.
Will grassfarming ever become the darling of the media? Only time will tell. But even if the media misses the boat, the good news about grassfarming will keep spreading on the grassroots level, one satisfied customer at a time!
About The Author
Jo Robinson is a New York Times bestselling writer. She is the author or coauthor of 11 nationally published books including Pasture Perfect, which is a comprehensive overview of the benefits of choosing products from pasture-raised animals, and The Omega Diet (with Dr. Artemis Simopoulos) that describes an omega-3 enriched Mediterranean diet that may be the healthiest eating program of all. To order her books or learn more about grassfed products, visit http://eatwild.com.
Reference:
1) Wolf, B. W., L. L. Berger, et al. (1996). “Effects of feeding a return chewing gum/packaging material mixture on performance and carcass characteristics of feedlot cattle.” J Anim Sci 74(11): 2559-65.
” by Christopher McDougall. It made ME want to start running. Good motivation.
by Lierre Keith.
, one of the most highlighted books on my shelves.
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