From Chinese Wood to Ayurvedic heat...

Here I go again....

Summer comes and goes and my carbs were virtually nonexistent. So the autumn time was a moment of reassessment for my diet and with an Ayurvedic doctor, was beginning to think she'd be the answer. I hated the fact that she was telling me to slowly revert back to grains. I didn't want to! But my palate fought me, and before long I was exercising my right to a slice of sprouted grain bread, even to the point where I'm concerned that I can't get enough due to taking this supplement called GX Assist, with six different essential oils and caprylic acid, all designed to heal the intestines and digestion. So basically I've been working on my digestion since the fall. Doc put me on this long pepper, ginger and fennel blend, and we happily discussed herbs, oils and possibly the over potency of the oils at a time when she thought I should treat the system gently. Here I am thinking that my system needs a more aggressive cleansing, due to the previous low carb abuse I must have somehow done to it. I simply think that I let my induction go on too long, and suffered the low carb flu and mood/energy swings, finally finding "normal" again.

But did I? Doc suggested that low carbing is just an extreme thing to do, and for years I would agree. But I think that the diet industry now takes on what the bodybuilding community has done for years: carb cycling. However, food pundits such as Dave Asprey, Dave from PaleoHacks and PaleoPeople in general still feel pretty well attuned to a no grain, no dairy lifestyle. Some say it is the only way. I say give me enough fat to smile and everyone will be okay.

But I wasn't agreeing with the influx of grains. While it didn't change my weight drastically, I do remember a noticeable amount of brain fog leaving. How do you know you aren't functioning at optimal levels when you simply aren't that? It's like telling a person who isn't smart, to see that he or she isn't. Can they really see that? So once I felt clarity, it was an education, an awakening that I wanted again.

Even though there were these great therapeutic advantages with the different Ayurvedic massages she offered and the herb therapy she wanted me to sign onto, I'm still interested but have since tried a few other supplements to my benefit. I was thinking that since I work for doTERRA I should try their digestive aids, as they are fully formulated by doctors, chemists and botanists as a team working together, using the best technology and highest data measurement methods. The only problem is that I'm doing something I fully disagree with, right alongside the digestive protocol, and that is the consumption of deli processed meats. Somewhere in my head I thought they were easy and cheap, and that is exactly why I'm eating them. I have these momentary lapses in sanity....

Let's just try one...more...thing...

...before I do something crazy, like take something special, for fat loss. It's the taboo subject in a clean eater's mind, that gets frustrated after a long stretch of attempts that leads to the chaotic desperation within...it slowly creeps up and takes over your brain, then you start to wonder what your goals are and why...

What's so wrong with wanting to be leaner, fitter and lower in body weight? Why am I a bit concerned at what people think of me? Why has my yoga button, though pushed, not seem to be working properly? I'm really wanting maximum advantage in this game, and trying just one more method, one more food, one more exercise, one more supplement, more restriction...until the balance is lost, and now time will be spent crawling back to the cherry spot where fat loss was the norm.

Now I'm questioning my thyroid because of not even incremental weight loss, fatigue and exhaustion, although I could have caused my endocrine system a lot of stress by heavy dieting. People just say to go to bed at night. 

Overeating while supplementing for fat loss

You start this awesome new way of organizing your food, and you begin making fabulous progress on your fat loss goals. You're exercising hard, you're looking great, and even though you began with some great strides, you feel a touch fatigued because you're in a caloric deficit.

You start to satisfy the extra fat burn with calories after some time. It's easy to do, especially if you aren't being neurotic about food intake. So very slowly you begin sneaking in way more calories than you expect, because your food volume seems exactly the same.

That's where most of us get lost in an eating plan. We start to see the advances and then we want more. We supplement until we can no longer tell which supplement is doing what. This vexes our chances to be the epitome of all we wish to become, which is fitter.

We must at this point, become comfortable with discomfort...with what a mild deficit feels like, and understand that there is no change without struggle. Ask any fitness competitor or bodybuilder, how they feel on a regular day of restrictions, and how great they feel on their typical "cheat meal." It's the difference between staying on diet and completely blowing it. Here is a nice moment to consider that success lies somewhere between the extremes, though it still might be uncomfortable. I know. I've experienced it.

The Annoying part of dieting.

Ugh!! So many annoying points to make about dieting!! Yes I'm plenty done with the dang thing. But really, when it comes down to it, I'm more annoyed with my thought process when it comes to the extra fats I want when I take my carbs low. Truth is, maybe my carbs were too low for too long. I have been warned against it in studies and continuing research on low carb and primal eating plans.

But the extra fat is customary to a diet with carbohydrate restrictions. Something has to give, and the truth is that everything so far, seems to still boil down to calorie totals, to a large degree. Calories are still the measurement upon which we determine our food wonderland of choices. 

We can choose low to no starch, green and watery vegetables, but we have to make strong choices with them. For example, if we choose to mash parsnips, which come in at 24 carbs per cup and have a naturally sweet taste that stifles sugar cravings, then we have to monitor our butter and cream usage and let me tell you how much cream and butter I want to use! Parsnips satisfy like a potato, but with less calories and starch.

So I'm annoyed because I love fats and I want to intensely indulge in them if I can't eat too many carbs. Anyway I gave up and made the most satisfying mashed sweet potatoes. It tastes like pie, it's so amazing! Now I have to make sure I eat lighter meats like chicken and fish, something I've naturally migrated to, as I increase my healthy carb sources.

Maybe I'll divulge my fat grams and carb totals in this next post.

My bio hacking, is bio lacking.

On this fine day, I make the realization that my summer of very low, watery green vegetables acting as my carbohydrate intake, has ended. As the season changes, it clearly dictates my return to a simpler time: carbohydrate intake. No this does not refer to the standard American fare. Not even a little bit… It relates to much of the opposite. While the summer has turned me into a gratefully carbohydrate clean body, there is still the trouble of living in the world, and being constantly inundated by peoples carbohydrate dreams.

Upon starting school this season, I realized how many moments I dealt with a ridiculous food regimen that didn't go too well last year. Once breakfast in the classroom started, I was daily faced with carbohydrate-laden meals that asked me if I wanted to have coffee cake more days than I care to remember. Then they started serving these energy bars with sesame and sunflower seeds, cranberries, wheat flour and made with honey. It was so sweet that it was barely edible, and yet, I was first in line some days, to eat this thing. 

Anyway, those days are long gone, and I am happy to have seen those days disappear...meanwhile I've made the jump to meals with high amounts of seasoned vegetables...and it is the best thing I think I've ever done.

Meanwhile I can't fool myself into believing that a cauliflower is a potato. Having said that, if you want a potato, have a potato. In fact, you may find you need it just then. But most people do not know how to monitor their consumption, or control their portions, on food that simply tastes good to them. 

The bio "lack" comes in when I know that my body is feeling unwelcomingly tired, and I need more nutrient intake. This is where I need to know where my next food cue is coming from...because the answer may be in my needing to up those carbs, in vegetable form of course, but from starchy vegetables. That still doesn't mean that the flour tortilla you had around your sausage egg and cheese burrito was acceptable for your cheap meal.

Holiday Parties Gotta Get Primal.

Holiday parties in the middle of summer, over an open flame in the barbeque pit, make for excellent primal fodder. Think of all the times of the year when you don't want to increase the internal temperature of your home and you just want to relax with the mesquite in your "grill," pound on the ground with rocks and grunt a bit for your meal...anyway I digress. Labor Day is coming. Seems like a wonderful time to fire up the grill and get the food cooking.

Let's go over some delicious and very nutritious primal ideas for your summer palate. Then let's look ahead to fall, where spooky goblins, pumpkins, turkeys and santas try to bring you every sugared delight imaginable. Makes me think of the sweet and delicious Turkish Delight Edward and Peter would delectably describe in the Chronicles of Narnia. But again, a second digression...

Body Wrestling#3: Supplementation sometimes changes things.

Hi.

I meant to write this blog a long time ago, but my life decided to get a little bit busier than it had originally been. NO lazy summer this year. This has so far been the summer of planning and making money, building my professional skill sets to an all-time high, waking up my ability to understand my world a bit better. I had better be the smartest lady on the planet!

Speaking of smart, let's chat for a bit about supplementation in a dieting biome. I personally find it to be excessively useful, to actually give my body what it needs to optimize the pipes. What could be better than eating this beautifully clean food and giving it an extra log for the flames, than to throw a terrific, fat burning, metabolically high revving supplement on top? Here, let me tell you what I am taking, in addition to my protein and vegetable lifestyle this summer.

My top favorite supplements have so far proven to give me physical advancement on the journey of balance. I'll give the list and then give a breakdown of what I know to be most important to understand about the supplement.

L-Glutamine: This amino acid is the fix-it amino, essential for rebuilding, protecting and strengthening joints, tissues, and improves gut health. It helps the body to repair and recover faster from tough workouts and any past traumatic injury the body has undergone. It's also good for focus, very important for those with an ADHD approach to life, if you know what I'm saying. When you have too much mental activity going on, this one can help. I take 1500 mg per dose, and I don't think about sugar, really at all much anymore. Thank goodness.

BCAA and basic aminos: I've recently just started taking BCAAs in powder form, and let me tell you, it is not delicious by any stretch...but it seems to be integral to muscle recovery and strength boosting. It also helps to prevent fatigue, increase concentration, and prevent loss of muscle mass through catabolism. I take 5000 mgs of powder before and after exercise, with at least a tablespoon of lemon juice, to help it go down.

Beta Alanine: This is a nonessential amino acid produced naturally in the body and works alongside carnosine to allow the muscles to work longer before fatiguing. But you'll want more when you take this supplement and you start to feel the tingly effects of muscle power. For me, it has tremendously improved my strength and endurance gains. When I take correctly, meaning 3200 mgs before and after exercise, it produces a powerful fat burning, leaning out effect. Studies aren't convinced of beta alanine's effectiveness, though they do show beta alanine being most effective when athletes are performing interval-intense activities. Anyway, I feel different when I take them, versus when I don't, versus when I use the ones produced by Labrada Systems, which I so far deem as the best. Meanwhile, beta alanine can be naturally found in meat, fish and poultry. That's one reason I enjoy having some protein before hitting the weight room.

African Mango Seed: African mango is being touted and heralded for weight loss in the fact that it reduces cravings, reduces appetite, stabilizes blood sugar levels, fills up the tummy with a fibrous substance, moves food through faster, assists with metabolic and insulin resistance mechanisms. Other than that, it's a pretty mango from a faraway land...I also notice that in the carb transfer supplement I sometimes take, it is pretty good at keeping me from feeling like eating more carbs, though the white bean may also help with this function, and especially in carb sparing, where all the carbs are not absorbed by the body. That's cool, because I stopped eating the most offensive carbs, though this supplement worked tremendously for me. But then, when I started using this next supplement, I used it instead of the African mango, because the two just seemed too strong together....

Forskohli: I just recently found this Ayurvedic herb this summer. Eastern medicine has much appeal to me, and I think it resonates with the body more readily, especially when you attune yourself to the theory and philosophy. Once you begin using herbs in synergy, they seem to give a much more pleasing effect in the body, with the results you want. With this herb, it is said to break down adipose fatty tissue and prevent fat from forming. It mildly stimulates metabolic processes because of a diterpinoid called forskolin, found in the herb. Since terpine usually denotes a type of oily substance in the herb that promotes an action such as enhanced metabolic activity, and a hydrocarbon usually plays out in being the active component of fossil fuel, one could say that the herb puts one into a hyperstate of fat burning activity. Anyway, I don't feel compelled to use the two together, forskohlii and African mango. 'Nuff said.

CLA: Conjugated linoleic acid is a fatty acid component found primarily in meat and eggs, and some dairy. It always inspires my metabolism to kick up, while acting as a bit of a fat blocker. It supports lean mass and promotes healthy weight loss. It is also said to promote exercise recovery. It may even explain why people lose weight and fat in particular, when increasing our proteins. And when you escape calories and potential allergy inducing substances such as grain products and starchy vegetables, something else CLA can assist with, I'm thinking it's a good thing.

MCT oil: This thermogenic, immune-boosting oil has me buckling at the knees. Although MCTs can only be extracted in a laboratory, putting them together into a bottle and pouring them into your bullets or on a hot skillet for cooking is exceptional and ideal for calorie wasting, higher energy, better mental clarity and performance, and fat loss. Much of the MCT oil is not even used by the body! It sounds to me, magical indeed.