Vitamins and such

Hello all,

I had a question from  someone at the gym about whether or not I had any multi-vitamins I could recommend and my answer to him was no. I have a multi-vitamin from Trader Joe's that I take ONLY if I know I ate like crap all day, but during my normal training, I do not take a multi.

My reasoning is based off of my diet. With a diet high in meat, vegetables, fruit and dairy, I get a pretty good balance of vitamins and minerals. I always wanted to try this, so I took a "sample" day of eating for myself and tracked the nutrients. I did this without an app or software, but used the the nutrition data website because I'm a glutton for punishment I guess. I put in a typical Rob day:

3 eggs ( I usually eat 4 but 3 was easier to calculate)
4 slices of bacon
A sweet potato
A fruit smoothie with a banana, blueberries, yogurt, coconut water and whey protein
A spinach salad with salmon, goat cheese and walnuts
2 tbsps of peanut butter
More whey with 8 oz. of whole milk
An 8 oz steak
12 spears of asparagus

This was incredibly "generic" as I usually eat another salad with dinner and didn't include cooking oils and spices or snacks other than the peanut butter. I just wanted to get a vague idea of what was lacking and these foods pop up in my diet a ton. Here are the results:

Vitamin A                                          792%

Vitamin C                                          131%

Vitamin D                                          63%

Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol)          50%

Vitamin K                                          930%

Thiamin                                              75%

Riboflavin                                          186%

Niacin                                                 165%

Vitamin B6                                         186%

Folate                                                 139%

Vitamin B12                                       176%

Pantothenic Acid                                88%                                                                                

Calcium                                              110%

Iron                                                    75.00%

Magnesium                                        113%

Phosphorus                                        181%

Potassium                                           115%

Sodium                                                74%

Zinc                                                     122%

Copper                                                58%

Manganese                                         141%

Selenium                                             229%

Obviously, these numbers will vary from day to day, but if you are a typical semi-primalish crossfitter like myself, you can see the holes. Here are my observations:

1. Most multis have tons of Vitamin A, which as you can see, we don't need. So immediately I don't like the idea of multi because there are studies that link too much supplemental Vitamin A with bone fractures. This is apparently due to the fact that most people are deficient in D. A and D need to be somewhat in balance.

2. My K is pretty high but there are no known toxicity issues with this.

3. Vitamins and minerals that were low on this day were:

     Vitamin D: I supplement daily with this and you should too! Vitamin D deficiency is rampant in America, especially the northeast.

     Vitamin E: Butter and olive oil contain plenty of E and would put me over 100%, and I cook only with those two and coconut oil. Supplemental E is linked to higher mortality as well. If I wanted, I could add a handful of almonds, but it's not necessary. 

     Thiamin (B1): I do eat pork which has plenty of thiamin and also a handful of macadamia nuts can help solve this as well

     Pantothenic Acid (B5): This is only low because I left out the avocado that I almost ALWAYS throw on my salads or eat as snacks. You can also get B5 from animal livers, but I don't eat that nonsense.

    Iron: I used to get a ton of this when I ate Cream of Wheat. Damn. I do eat quite a few oysters, but might want to add some cashews in for the iron.

    Sodium: I use salt and snack on pickles....covered.

    Copper: I use a copper supplement because I know I am deficient here. 

So after the experiment, it looks like this should be my daily supplement intake:

D, A handful of almonds, A handful of macadamia nuts, A handful of cashews, Copper.

I also take a Chromium supplement and Kelp tablets because these people told me to: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/

Seriously, I hate the name of their book, but it is solid. Unlike fad diet books, these people actually back up their diet with resources. I don't follow it 100 percent (Sorry I'm not going to eat tendons), but it has some good information.

So instead of just popping a mutli-vitamin, maybe you should take the time to log a day or two of your life and see just what vitamins and minerals you should be adding. I'm sure there are awesome apps out there that make all of this very simple. Good luck!

My New Program

Here is a link to my new program. I am basically using a strength program from my old coach and overall rockstar Ethan Reeve and added some interval training and CF metcons. Here is the link:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiWWbTSM84wkdEFCM1dSdmhuM3BzVFFhcGdhZDQzbHc#gid=0

Contact me if you have any questions. I will post on this blog how it goes!

Cheat Day

Hello Team,

We are nearing the end of the challenge and as most of you know, even though the challenge officially ends at the end of the week, most of you will not be measured until Monday at the earliest. So I know a few of you may be freaking out and thinking whether or not you should cheat this weekend. That maybe a binge day or two will ruin your results and harm your team. So should you cheat?

You have worked very hard for six weeks and MOST of you haven't had ONE cheat in that time. And now it's memorial day weekend. So should you be the person politely declining Grandma's homemade brownies? Hell no. You knock over Aunt Sissy and Uncle Bob to get to those brownies and you devour them before anyone knows what happened. Eat the cookies. Drink the wine. Relax and have fun.

Many people believe that calories do not matter. That it's the food that matters. That is wrong. They both matter. Quality foods, timing, and calories all matter. I am one of the biggest haters of systems that involve counting anything, but I also don't think you can sit around eating bacon and avocados all day and think that is a weight loss or a healthy diet. Remember, everything is balance. 

Even though I despise counting calories, it is sometimes important to mention them to prove a point. In this case, for the average person, you would have to consume between 3000-3500 calories OVER what you burn in a day to gain a pound of fat. An individual can burn somewhere between 1300-2000 calories a day doing absolutely nothing. Sitting on your ass. A waste of space. So now we are talking about consuming 4300-5500 calories a day to gain that pound of fat. 

So let's look at some typical cheats but in epic proportions. If you ate:

An entire box of peanut butter cheerios with whole milk: 2816 calories

An entire carton of oreos: 2400 calories

A 24 pack of bud light (cough, MALMBERG!): 2880 calories

2 PINTS of Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby (one of their most caloric flavors): 2640 calories

A entire MEAT LOVERS Pizza from Pizza Hut: 3840 calories

You get the point. You have to be one sick hedonist to rack up the calories needed to gain that pound of fat.  And remember, this is assuming you are doing nothing. The moment you start to play horseshoes with Uncle Bob or bake some bitchin brownies with grandma, you burn more calories, and in turn, up the amount needed to gain fat. 

Fat is gained over time. Extra calories in the form of 2 beers a day (cough, MALMBERG!) or a scoop of ice cream a day build up over time and make you fat. A binge here and there will not hurt. And let's be honest here. You are crossfitters. You are not going to binge. Your cheat day will be reasonable. So instead of worrying about it, just go enjoy your weekend. Then return after the weekend and get back to what I call a 90/10 diet. If you eat 3 meals a day (21 in a week), 3 of them can have reasonable cheats in them and if you eat clean the rest of the time, you will continue to see loss of bodyfat and gains at the gym. You may decide you need to spread them out or you might be like me and choose to cheat all on one day. I feel like having a cheat day instead of them separated allows for me to stay clean the whole week, train hard and then psychologically relax on my cheat day and eat whatever I want. 

For anyone looking to binge hard, Martin Berkhan at leangains has an interesting post. He seems to be pretty knowledgeable and knows quite a bit about intermittent fasting. Martin and I definitely have different ideas of the ideal physique (mostly because I could care less about being ripped and just want to perform better), but it's worth a read. If you don't have the time, his cheat day strategy goes something like this:

1. The day before a binge eat high protein/high vegetable fiber meals

2. The day of the binge either fast up to your binge or have a few small, high protein meals before

3. Binge

Here is the link for those interested. Don't bother with all of this if you cheat "normal". You can scroll down to "Cheat Day Strategies" in orange if the science bores you. http://www.leangains.com/2010/11/cheat-day-strategies-for-hedonist.html

CHECKMATE PEANUT BUTTER HATERS!

So I was going to do a blog post on sugar alcohols for Ana and I promise I will soon, but I had to take a brief detour. My wonderful paleoheads are always screaming about peanuts not being a true nut. Peanuts are a legume, much like beans and peas. And as you may or may not know, legumes are illegal to paleoheads. What are the reasons?

1. Peanuts may contain substances called aflatoxins that have shown to cause liver cancer in lab rats. 

2. Peanuts contain lectins that could pass over your gut barrier causing heart disease, and also could lead to colon cancer.

My response:

1. Peanut butter is awesome.

2. Almond and other nut butters taste like ass.

OK, let me try this:

1. Aflatoxins come from mold. They can also be found in walnuts, pistachios and pecans. Those are legal in paleo, right? Aflatoxins have more to do with poor food storage than peanuts. 

2. The peanut agglutinin (lectin) studies exist. But for every study the paleoheads find, I'll find another. Like this one: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1512792

Now if you don't want to bore yourself and read that, let's try this: 

IMPLICATIONS: It is possible that dietary lectins such as PNA, which bind to the TF antigen, promote cell proliferation and thus cancerous growth, while galactose-containing vegetable fiber would inhibit this effect by competing for binding by these lectins. 


Simple terms? The study actually does say PNA can cause cancer growth. It also states that vegetables with galactose, or better yet, high in galactose, would bind with PNA, preventing that cancer growth. Any clue what vegetable is highest in galactose? YEP. Celery. Check mate paleoheads. It turns out Nathan's favorite, "ants on a log" is super awesome after all. Who knew the celery always served a purpose other than shoveling more peanut butter into my mouth. 

And if you don't eat your peanut butter with celery? My advice? Relax.

Most paleoheads should look into this: http://www.orthorexia.com/

Our bodies are designed to fight toxins. ALL THE TIME.  And with a little help from a balanced diet consisting of plenty of vegetables, most of us can enjoy our peanut butter. Anyone else craving some PB&C?

How much protein already?

Hello Team and others!

So the food logs are starting to come in and I wanted to address a few issues.

The first is protein requirements. There are thousands of recommendations on this and for this sort of thing, I like to give a range because some people need more protein then others. Just remember, if you are looking to gain weight, you need to eat more protein than someone just trying to maintain or someone trying to lose weight.

General Range: 1.8-3.0 grams/kg of bodyweight

So for me, this would be 174-291 grams of protein a day. Some also use the 1 gram/1 pound of bodyweight measurement which would put me at 215.

Here are just a few food items to give you an idea of where to get protein:

Half breast of chicken: 27 grams
One egg: 7 grams
One slice of bacon: 3 grams
3 ounces of salmon-21 grams
3 ounces of hamburger-21 grams
3 ounces beef-23-35 grams
3 ounces veal/lamb-29 grams
3 ounces shrimp: 18 grams
One ounce of Parmesan cheese: 12 grams
One ounce blue cheese/cheddar-6 grams
One cup of milk: 8 grams
8 ounces yogurt: 8-12 grams
Whey: 24 grams

So my typical day of protein looks like this :
Breakfast: 4 eggs, 4 slices of bacon, scoop of whey in a smoothie, yogurt in smoothie (maybe 4 oz.)
Lunch: one half chicken breast at lunch, some cheese (maybe 2 oz.)
Post WOD: whey with whole milk (3 cups)
Dinner: 8 oz. of steak, cheese (maybe 2 oz.)

That puts me somewhere in the 220 range and probably more than that as I get small amounts of protein from nuts (usually peanut butter...I didn't give a crap if it's not paleo) and other sources. Yes, I eat plenty of dairy. Thanks Great great great great grandpa for crapping your brains out so I could have lactose tolerance.

I did a previous post on this site http://nutritiondata.self.com/  It is a great resource to find out nutrient profiles of foods, just don't pay attention to their recommendations for healthy food. So do a little research on one day of your log and see if you are getting enough protein. My guess is some of you are not.

A couple other points.

I'm going to pick on Nathan because his log is full of egg whites. The whites have the protein. The yolks have pretty much everything else. The yolks are full of vitamins and minerals. As for the cholesterol myth, let's just say I have seen absolutely no conclusive evidence that animal cholesterol raises human cholesterol. In one study I read, they gave eggs to men and their cholesterol went DOWN. So unless you don't like the flavor or you just hate the color yellow (which I'm pretty sure is why Nathan is not eating them), eat your yolks people.

So far, I am seeing very little, if any, fish on the logs. I know fish isn't convenient and many people don't love it, but if you are not going to eat fish, you need to look into a high quality fish oil. I don't think anyone needs the fatty fish is good for you lecture.

Finally, I notice this every time there is a challenge with my clients or the gym...you need to seek out variety. If you eat the same thing every day, not only are you not getting a balanced nutrient profile, but you are likely to kill yourself. My breakfast is usually either one of two things(eggs and smoothie or leftover dinner), but lunches and dinners are extremely varied.

Meat List!

In answer to Nate's question, here is my meat list:

Best to worst:
1. Fish and shellfish

2. Grass fed beef-the fat content in this is almost as good as fish

3. Game-venison/buffalo/etc/etc

4. White meat poultry-go free range! (if you need a reason, rent the movie FOOD INC)

5. Pastured Pork

6. Regular "store" beef

7. Regular "store" pork

Try to stay away from:

1. DELI AND PROCESSED MEATS!-there are some brands (applegate) that don't use nitrates and nitrites that are ok, but still not awesome like our team

2. Dark meat poultry-especially poultry skin (SORRY NATE!)

3. Eat very little cured meats-salamis etc etc

Just remember, cheap food is cheap for a reason. Since you will spending less money on beer and other fat people food, you can afford to buy high quality stuff. If anyone needs places to find this stuff, let me know. 

Answers to Questions-Part 1

So rather than write a lengthy FB response, here are the answers to the most recent questions. You will soon find, I can never just say yes or no.

1. Ashley asked if there was a way for her to combat soreness. DOMS or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness has been studied very little, but there is some evidence to suggest a proper warm up and yes, a cool down, might assist with it. 10 minutes of light exercise (slow jogging, walking, slow rowing) followed by plenty of static stretching of the muscles used may help. Again, some scientists argue for and against this, so try and see. And always remember that active recovery of any kind will help you, well, recover. At least better than passive recovery (sitting on your ass post wod). If you didn't try to beat DOMS before it occurred, then you want to get blood to those muscles any way possible. Once again, light exercise helps but so do saunas, hot baths, and massages. Cold therapy helps with recovery but not so much with DOMS.

2. Melissa asked if orange juice is legal. All juices are sugar bombs....natural sugar bombs. So juice is all about timing. I love the idea of drinking juice post workout as our bodies are starved for quick carbs. Other than that, if you are not looking to lose much weight, a little juice in the morning is no big deal. For anyone wanting to lose weight, cut it completely. For most people, most of the time, preferred liquids should be water, coffee and tea.

3. One note on Jake's question about almond flour. In general, I think paleo recipes are pretty dumb. They taste like dirt and are often times combined with other "natural paleo" ingredients that just make people fat. I don't care if it's paleo, agave and honey are sugars and if you put a cup in a recipe, that crap isn't training food. Learn to live without buns and pizza. And then when the challenge is over, continue to live without them 90% of the time. Then, when you cheat, eat a real pizza or a real bun.