Ok.....
I looked into that Paleo stuff a little, but I'm confused. I get the whole natural food things, but damn I've read some crazy restrictions. Why are peanuts so bad... *must avoid* Green beans? I would have figured crazy old cavemen would have encounter those and eaten them at some point.
Maybe you wrote or linked this, but I remember reading about how your familys history could have something to do with how your body reacts to some foods. Example: *Rule: avoid rice* Though, if you are Chinese/Japanese, they've eaten rice so damn long that their genetics have possibly adapted? Maybe its all the fish they eat, I don't know.
The binge drinking and following hungover compulsive eating has got to stop at some point. When I drink, I DRINK. The last month I have been chronicling everything I've put into my body. Some Friday/Saturday's i've put up to 200 oz of bud light a night. Ridiculous. Still managed to LOSE a minimal amount of weight, even though I was trying to just maintain it. Which leads me to believe I've been losing more muscle than fat.
Do you plan stuff out before doing it, or are you one of those people who can just keep a routine without actively thinking about it? I've noticed in myself that I when I plan to do something, I can do it and get in a routine... then maybe a wrench gets thrown in there and I totally screw EVERYTHING up for as long as a week or 2. On a long enough timeline, everything just evens out... 2-3 weeks of doing everything right and a week of ignoring everything is just like a step forward and a step backwards.
Ehhhh, I can't wait for baseball season to start so we can type meaninglessly about how bad our 3rd basemen are, or how our second basemen is on pace for 3 homeruns in July.
5 comments:
- Often, it's easier to simplify things and issue proclamations than put out all the information -- all the details can be too much to absord. I don't want to confuse you too bad here, but I'll lay a whole lot of info down on you. Let me know if anything needs clarifying.
Re: peanuts, green beans, and other legumes. I love peanut butter and damned if I can make myself not eat it. Almond butter would probably be better, but it costs an arm and a leg. I wouldn't worry about legumes like peas and green beans either -- these are small things -- they may not be ideal, but, if they're the worst thing in your diet, you could do a lot worse. I fucking hate green beans, though, so I'm happy to avoid them.
Grains and dairy are the big things to see how you tolerate them. Grains don't like me. I've got family with serious gluten allergies and all that fun shit, and while it doesn't bother me to that degree, I don't feel good with them, so I avoid them. I don't have digestion issues with dairy. My skin seems a bit clearer without it in my diet, but it's one of those things I refuse to give up.
It can be really helpful to dial your diet in really strictly for several weeks (cut out something like dairy for at least 3 weeks), and then add one item back in at a time and see how you deal with it.
The paleo diet is just a good, easy guideline that gives people a system to order their eating.
It's something I'd advise someone to follow strictly for a while until they really understand it, and then customize it with what works for them.
Eat meat, green vegetables, some fruit, nuts, little starch, and no sugar is essentially the perfect diet easily explained, but Paleo can help by providing some additional structure.
Getting all stressed out over whether that serving of peas is going to hurt you is certainly worse for you than actually eating them.
The big thing about Paleo is the elimination of grains and dairy and the emphasis on meat and vegetables.
It essentially forces people to go on a higher-protein, lower-carb diet, which is good for a lot of people, and much better than the typical Western diet.
But here's the thing. Honestly, tying in to your second point, a lot of people can tolerate higher carbs. There's something to be said for the Asian tolerance for rice. At the same time, they do indeed eat a lot of fish, and not eating too much fucking food (carb, fat, whatever) is more important than food sources.
Except that I really would emphasize avoiding processed, man-made shit like margarine and glorious, tasty Hostess cupcakes.
With drinking, I'm not sure what to tell you. You can try and minimize the damage with nasty shit like diet soda and rum or vodka and soda water (which I actually really like -- I don't like tonic water much and I do like bubbles), but, if you're gonna binge on it, and you want results, you might have to cut it out almost entirely. It can be a difficult thing to work around -- not impossible, though.
Lyle McDonald (bodyrecomposition.com) is one of the premier diet people out there. He's a bit of a dick and hates on everything but his own stuff, but he's also pretty fucking brilliant. He has particularly great advice on losing weight while sparing muscle. A lot of his training stuff if of a body builder bent, which isn't my thing, but the good ones (him) definitely know what they're talking about on getting lean and holding on to muscle.
Essentially, shoot for a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight while maintaining a slight caloric deficit.
Lifting heavy would be good, too.
On training plans, I know exactly what I'm going to do every day I go in the gym. I have 5-6 exercises that I focus on, and then I allow myself one fun extra thing (which just depends on my mood), if I have the energy for it.
It's my recommendation for everyone, but lifting weights is what everyone needs. I think everyone should own Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength. It's the best book for a beginner training and, shit, life.
Fuck, gotta run to a meeting now. Maybe more later. Hit me up with any more questions you've got.
Regarding what I do, my basic setup is:
A
Back Squat - 3 sets of 5 reps
Bench Press - 3 sets of 5 reps
Power Cleans - 5 sets of 3 reps, or work up to a heavy single
B
Back Squat - 3 sets of 5 reps
Overhead Press - 3 sets of 5 reps
Deadlift - 1 set of 5 reps
Done 3 days a week. Currently Tues., Thurs., Sat. Increase the weight on each exercise each session. So, one week I bench and clean twice, the next week I press and dead twice (my deadlift is getting heavy enough that I'm not going to be able to do it twice a week for much longer, that shit wears me out).
Each day, I do a brief (5 minutes) warmup on an exercise bike when it feels necessary. A bit of dynamic stretching. After, if I have energy like I said, I'll do one set of something fun. I worked up to a heavy single push press the other day. I'm thinking of working in barbell rows later this week. Since, I'm going to deadlift tonight, I probably won't do anything extra. Then I try and finish with ab stuff (L-sit, hanging leg raises, or over head squats -- I don't like most situp variations, and my gym doesn't have a roman chair or glute-ham raise), and I'll sneak in arm stuff on occasion, but that makes me feel dirty.
I do quite a bit of pullup work throughout the week because mine suck. Once I can bang out 3 sets of 15 dead hangs, I'll start working them weighted as a main exercise a couple times a week. Right now, doing a few each time I walk under my pullup bar is letting me progress without cutting into my other gains too much.
The next time I stall and can't add weight to my squat, I'm going to start working in front squats on the middle day of each 3 day training week because they're easier to recover from. The next time my deadlift stalls I'll start alternating it with rack pulls and haltings or snatch grip deads.
I think about this stuff a lot. But that's because I love doing it. The big thing is finding out what you like doing, and it makes it a lot easier to stick to it. A good gym environment also helps.
Also, an angrier take on the modern American diet and government recommendations thereof.
http://www.againfaster.com/articles/disturbing-counsel.html
Damn thats quite a bit of info. Thanks alot.
Heres a few things im going to adopt.
-Make shorter term goals so I don't fall into some routine that I'll blow off every few weeks. (Strive for a month stretch of good habits, something like that)
-Take out more grains of the diet.
-Moar protein
We'll see how that goes for a while.
I just read a little snippet about the upcoming Astros season on Disastros, and it felt like being punched in the stomach.
We're gonna be epic-fucking-terrible.
Russ Ortiz, Mike Hampton? Aaron Boone?!!! He's still alive?
Ugh. I can't look at that shit. At least we've got kids in the farm system to look forward to... No wait... Our farm system is wretched, too. Awesome.
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