What’s for dinner if you don’t eat sugars or grains?

Every once in a while I get asked what I eat. The first thing that pops into everyone’s mind is that I eat bacon, or some other meat. Or they say, your diet is just that Atkins’s thing. Or they say, “Oh … You’re doing that paleo thing.” No. I’m not doing Atkins and I’m not doing a paleolithic diet (aka, paleo). I’m eating no sugars and no grains.

So tonight for dinner I had shrimp scampi, creamed kale and cauliflower au gratin. I know what you want … You want the recipe. So here they are:

Shrimp Scampi

• 1lb fresh wild caught shrimp, shell and devein
• 1/4 stick grass fed butter, melted
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425. Put all of the ingredients in a shallow baking dish. Mix all of the ingredients together. Spread out the shrimp so they form a single layer. Bake at 425 for approximately 10 minutes or until the shrimp are pink (do not overcook or they will be tough).

Creamed Kale

• 2lbs kale, stalks removed
• 1/4 cup grass fed butter
• 1 cup grass fed heavy cream
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Steam the kale. Once cooled cut into 1/2 inch wide ribbons. In a large sauté pan over medium heat, melt the butter and add the kale and the cream. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cream has reduced and thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Cauliflower Au Gratin

• Florets from one extra-large head of cauliflower, sliced
• 1/2 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (use real raw milk cheese)
• 1/2 stick grass fed butter, melted
• 1 cup grass fed heavy cream
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425. Put a little butter in a large gratin dish or other shallow baking dish. Steam cauliflower slices until crisp-tender (My steamer has a quick steam setting). Allow to drain and cool. Mix all of the ingredients, but the cauliflower together in a bowl. Once mixed, add in the cauliflower and stir until all of the cauliflower is coated. Pour the mix in a baking dish and bake at 425 for approximately 25-30 minutes or until the cheese forms a crisp layer over the top.

Daddy’s got a new pair of shoes …

Yesterday I broke out another pair of my shoes to break in for running.  And I got to thinking about what I do in order to get my shoes ready to take those first few runs in.  We all know that you just can’t jump into a brand new pair of shoes and go out and run a half marathon.  At least I know that I can’t.  I could, but then I’d have more blisters than I would be able to handle and wouldn’t be able to run for a very long time.  So I figured that I would write out how I break in my new shoes …

The first thing that I do when I take my shoes out of the box is that I loosen up the laces before I put them on.  I don’t like tight laces and that will only lead to pain on the top of my foot.  What I do then is that I wear the shoes, as normal walking shoes, for about a week.  That’s right.  I wear them every where I go, and I even wear them to work.  Granted, I’m probably the only one who will get dressed up for work and end up wearing running shoes, but that’s what I do.

After I wear them for a week, I’m ready to go out for a run.  Not a long run, but a short run.  When I say a short run, I mean something that’s an hour or less.  I’ve found that by getting in a run like that, that I’m able to see if there are any hot spots in my shoes.  By hot spots I mean areas in which the shoe rubs my feet in a way that I might get blisters.  If I don’t have those spots, then I’m ready for a longer run.

So after one week of walking in the shoes, then the second week of doing short runs, I’m ready for a long run.  So on that third week I take the shoes out for a long run of at least an hour and a half.  Once I complete that run, then my shoes are ready.

Pretty simple process, but this is what I have found that works for me.

Low Carb, Moderate Protein and High Fat #NSNG Training

I wanted to give a quick update on the training and also tell you of some success stories of people who are doing the #NSNG, low carb, moderate protein and high fat lifestyle.  First the success stories.

One person, Jason, is trying to drop a weight class for a Taekwondo tournament.   He started on the #NSNG lifestyle about 2 weeks ago and has dropped 8 pounds.  We did have to tweak his diet a little since he was getting hungry, but we did it with a high fat snack and/or a high fat mid-day coffee.  The other person is Jess.  She was about 12 pounds from reaching her goal weight.  She has already lost a lot of weight, but had those few pounds that she just couldn’t get rid of.  Well, after two weeks she lost that weight and has reached her goal weight.  The third person is Wendy.  What’s interesting is that she has had stomach issues and has had a full colectomy and an ileal-j pouch.  So this diet has not only worked to help her drop a few pounds, but like the other people it’s also helped with digestion issues.  I think that most people would be surprised just how much this lifestyle really helps with digestion and with inflammation.

Anyway … Back onto my training.  I’ve been fat adapted since. I’d say, the end of February or beginning of March.  I’ve been working really hard building my Zone 2, aka Maffetone Base (MAF), so that I could become better fat adapted at my exercise and then hopefully be able to jump into a build phase so that I can be ready to do a race in July.  I do run a lot, but I only race a couple of times a year since I want to spend a lot of time building my aerobic base.

I’ve started my build using the Intermediate Advanced Half Marathon Training Plan.

I started today at week 5.  Why week 5?  Well, I’ve been working on building my aerobic base and the first few weeks are usually dedicated to that.  Plus, starting at week 5 works for me since the race is in July at Bryce Canyon and I have another race in Seattle in June.  Also, my training always starts out with a warm-up and a cool down.  For example, the required exercise for today was 70 min in Z2 and then two 6 minute intervals at Z4 with a 1 min rest in between.  I did that, but I did a 15 minute warm-up in Z1 and Z2. And after the exercise, I did a 15 minute cool down in Z1 and Z2.

Also, my zones are all based on my MAF zone.  My Zone 2 is 120-130 (180-age), Zone 3 is 130-140.  And Zone 4 is 140-150.

As far as the NSNG, low carb diet goes, I was able to do my run this morning fasted using only my existing fat stores.  I needed no nutrition whatsoever for the entire run.  I will however, start bringing water with me since the heat and humidity is getting tough.

More later and if you have any questions, please ask.  And yes … I’m in ketosis!!

No Sugar and No Grain Snacks – #NSNG

Over the past few months, I’ve been helping people with the no sugar no grain, #NSNG, movement.  This is nothing that I have started, but it is a movement that was started by Vinnie Tortorich.  What’s really cool is that he started eating this way because he wants to prevent his cancer from coming back, but in the process he stumbled on a lifestyle that is also healthy, gives you plenty of energy, will help you lose weight, and you’re not hungry.

If you want to know more about Vinnie, I recommend that you listen to his podcast at http://www.vinnietortorich.com.  You should listen from the very beginning, but if you want to find out specifics about the diet, then listen to all of the episode that have Andrea Anders as a guest.  In those podcast Vinnie really goes into detail on the specifics of his diet.

Anyway, one of the questions that have come up lately has been what kind of snack to eat.  I will admit that once in a while I get hungry in between my meals, and sometimes a snack is the perfect thing to hold me over until I get ready to eat my meal.  What’s cool is that I typically eat breakfast around 6am, and won’t eat again until 2 or 3, because I’m not hungry.  But there are times that I want a snack … So what do I have?

Here are some of the snacks that I have:

1. Raw almonds
2. Avocado (I pull out the pit, pour some olive oil in it, and sprinkle some sea salt on it)
3. Full fat Greek yogurt with some berries
4. Blended frozen berries (1 cup of strawberries) and 1/2 cup of heavy cream
5. Coffee with 2 or 3 tablespoons of heavy cream
6. Raw milk cheeses (cow, goat, etc)
7. A couple tablespoons of almond butter with a stalk of celery
8. A couple tablespoons of good olive oil (yes, I drink olive oil)

Those are the snacks that I have, but I’m sure there are a lot of others you can have.  In fact, a friend of mine that has recently started eating #NSNG said this is what he has as a snack.  He says that he mixes some Greek yogurt, raw almond butter, blueberries, cinnamon and coconut oil together for a snack.  That is a rocking snack and one that I have to try myself since it has a lot of good fats.

Give it a shot … Go #NSNG.  Try it for two weeks, and see how you feel.  You won’t regret it …

Fat Adapted Food Log – No Sugar No Grains #NSNG

I’ve been working with a few people as to what to eat during a day.  To be honest it varies by taste and by what foods you like.  But you need to keep the carbs under 50 grams a day (10% or less of your daily percentage), and you need to keep your protein at 15-20% and then your fat between 70-75% of your daily intake.  For me, this means that I eat around 2400 calories a day.  I don’t necessarily keep track of calories, since I eat when I’m hungry, but I do like to keep track of the grams and the percentages that I eat per day.

I do use an app to help me out with this, and that app is myfitnesspal.  It’s a really good app, and one that I’ve been able to “adjust” to help me keep within my personal goals.  I can set my carbs to 10%, protein to 15% and then fat to 75%.

So … what do I eat?  Here’s a sample of my daily menu.

Breakfast: 3 whole eggs (pasture raised), + 2 egg yolks (pasture raised), 1 tbsp grass fed butter, and a mix or organic veggies (spinach, onion, green pepper, mushrooms)

Snack: 2 tbsp olive oil or 24 raw almonds

Lunch: 6oz of grass fed beef or roasted wild caught fish, mixed green salad (1/2 avocado and 10 cherry tomatoes) with homemade salad dressing (1tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp Dijon mustard)

Dinner: 6oz of grass fed beef or wild caught fish, grilled or sauteed veggies (creamed kale, grilled squash, sauteed spinach, etc).  I make sure that I have one portion of protein and then two portions of veggies.

Snack: 1/2 cup of heavy cream and 1 cup of frozen berries (blended)

So that’s an example of my daily diet.  It does vary day to day, but overall it’s pretty much the same.  I eat lots of veggies, and I eat some protein.  I make sure that I have plenty of fat throughout my day.  And this is what works for me ..

RnR Portland #NSNG Report

I’ve been following the no sugar and no grains #NSNG lifestyle as described by Vinnie Tortorich in his podcast “America’s Angriest Trainer.”  I started the second week of February, and I found that I needed to play around with the percentages to find my optimum level.  I found that I need 10% of my daily calories from carbohydrates, 22% of my daily calories from protein, and 68% of my daily calories from fat.  For me, this is based on a 2400 calories a day.  I keep this the same whether I train on that day or not.  I also keep this the same on my race days.

Speaking of race days, I ran RnR Portland 1/2 marathon on 19th of May.  I’m fully fat adapted, so this is what I had pre-race as my meal:

Large cup of coffee with 4 tbsp of heavy cream and a veggie egg yolk omelet (3 whole eggs + 2 egg yolks and veggies)

This provided more than enough fuel for the entire 1/2 marathon.  I managed to run the entire race in heart rate Zone 2 and Zone 3 (120-140 bpm).  Granted, some of the hills were steep and I had to walk up them, but this was a good solid race.  I didn’t have my fastest time, aka PR, but I did have my fastest time as a #NSNG athlete.  All I had on the course was water at the hydration stations, and water at the finish line.

My post-race meal was a cobb omelet (3 whole eggs, 2 egg yolks, bacon, tomatoes, avocado, chicken, blue cheese) and a spring mix salad with 1tbps of olive oil.  Again, this was plenty of food.  In fact, I had to force myself to eat since I wasn’t hungry from the race.

After the race, I walked on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  I started back into my regular Intermediate Half Marathon Training.  Yesterday I did 15 minute warm-up in Zone 1 and Zone 2 (110-130 bpm), then 60 minutes in Zone 3 (130-140 bpm), and finished with a 15 minute cool-down in Zone 1 and Zone 2 (110-130 bpm).

Very Low Carb / High Fat / Moderate Protein Diet for Endurance Athletes and Maffetone Training

I know that it’s been a while since I have written, but I wanted to provide an update on my change in diet as well as the progress that I have made while doing my Maffetone base build.

First, I started no sugar and no grains (#NSNG) the second week of February.  For the most part, I’ve been very strict and have been able to keep my cravings at bay.  I have, however, put a little life into living and had 4 days in which I did consume excessive carbs. Unfortunately on those days and for a couple of days after, I felt terrible and it took me a while to recover.  Anyway, even though I didn’t eat any sugar or any grains, I still was not able to hit dietary ketosis.

What is dietary ketosis you ask?  A ketogenic diet is high-fat, moderate protein, low carbohydrate diet.  The diet forces the body to burn fats as a fuel rather than carbohydrate.  Normally, the carbohydrates contained in food are converted into glucose, which is then transported around the body and is particularly important in fueling brain function. However, if there is very little carbohydrate in the diet, the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies.  The ketone bodies pass into the brain and replace glucose as an energy source.

In a nutshell, I’m trying to make my body fat adapted.  Why you may ask?  Well, the body can only store about 2000 calories of glycogen.  If your body burns glycogen stores as a primary source of fuel and you are doing endurance sports, such a half marathons, marathons, ultras, triathlons, etc. then you constantly need to refill those stores.  A lot of people do that by eating products such as GU.  Unfortunately, for a lot of people these products cause a lot of GI issues.  I for one am one of those … Products like that cause my stomach to feel upset. So I decided to take advantage of a fuel source that I have plenty of in my body.  Which is fat!

Even though I managed to eliminate sugars and grains in my diet, I was still consuming too many carbs.  I would have a snack at night of 2 cups of frozen cherries blended with 1 cup of heavy cream.  That alone is 44 grams of carbs!!  And I wanted to keep my carbs low?  That’s not the way to do it.  I still have that as a snack at night, but I’ve cut it in half.  I’m also trying to keep my carbs to right around 50 grams total.  So if I’m running high for a day, then I just cut out my snack.

So my diet is around 2400 calories a day, and the breakdown is as follows:  50 grams of carbs, 200 grams of fat, and 100 grams of protein.  These “round” numbers make it much easier for me to track.  I do use myfitnesspal as the app to track what I eat.  I do wish that it had the ability to put in specific numbers instead of percentage that are in increments of 5% points.  But I was able to get pretty close, and then just look at the specific numbers to see where I sit on a daily basis.

So far, I’ve been able to, since I started eating #NSNG, to complete 4 half marathons and 1 10K.  I’ve managed to do these using only water as hydration and nothing else.  Granted my times have not been fast but that is because I’m working on building my aerobic base by focusing on using the Maffetone method.

I really started focusing hard on the Maffetone method after reading the book “The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing”.  I did my initial MAF test (16 March), and my range was 15:47 – 17:43 per mile by keeping my heart rate in the range of 120 – 130.  Your range is determined by 180 – age = max HR.  The range is 10 beats below that number to that number.  My second MAF test (18 April) resulted in the following ranges: 13:08 – 13:45.  So we are talking that I was able to knock about 2:30 off my initial tests in about 4 weeks.  I do have another one that I will do next weekend, and I will make sure that I post those times.  But as you can see, it works.  I’m building my aerobic base and I’m becoming more efficient.  So this just proves that you can become more efficient and faster as you get older.

I’m getting ready to start an 8 week build for a race in July because I want to see how far I’ve been able to come since my knee surgery about 18 months ago.  So I will begin working in other HR zones, and will also add in some intervals.  I’m looking forward to this, and then after the race in July I will jump back into the Maffetone phase for another 8 weeks.  Then I will start another 8 week build for one more race before the end of the year.

Now, I can see you are scratching your head … But aren’t you doing more races?  Yes, I’m doing a lot of races, but I only have two races a year that I consider my “A” race.  Other than that, all the rest of my races are training races.  I don’t care about the time.  I’m out there to have fun, socialize and meet new people.  It’s hard to do when you’re as competitive as I am, but I know that I need to go slow in order to get fast.  So I’m OK with it.

If you have any questions about my diet or my training, please leave me a comment and I will address your questions in a future blog.