I Can’t Have… 4

I woke up this morning to an email from Dustin with a link to a Definitive Guide on Grains from Mark’s Daily Apple. The last paragraph follows:

Just as I choose to steer clear of grains as a regular part of my diet, I do occasionally indulge a bit. A tiny bit. And that’s where the Primal Blueprint enters: it’s about informed, not dictated choices. That French bread at an anniversary dinner, a sample of the pasta salad at your Uncle Billy’s steak fry, the saffron rice your daughter cooks for you when you visit her first apartment – they’re thoughtful, purposeful compromises. (And they’re perhaps very worth it for reasons that have nothing to do with the food itself.) The point of the Primal Blueprint if this: When you understand the metabolic effects of eating grains, you’re empowered to make informed decisions about the role grains will have in your diet. You’re free to enjoy good health and self-selected compromises with a clear conscience and full epicurean gusto!

Again, thanks for all your support in getting the LB(A)C going. The purpose of this diet is to get a solid understanding of what you eat and the composition of that food so that you can take ownership of your health and fitness, which for most people, are major drivers for happiness.

There have been many questions, but it seems like the one I hear most is, “I can’t have…!?!?!?” Let’s start with coffee since that seems to be pretty important but you can insert your favorite food/drink. I got all the food values from the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference or from package labels. (As a recovering software engineer, one of the things we like to say is: “Features, time to market, quality, pick two.” I know this reflects a zero-sum paradigm, but, in this case, there are some biological reasons for that context.)

The conversation starts like this:
Athlete: I tried black coffee and it sucks! I like sugar in my coffee.
Saul: How much sugar are we talking about?
Athlete: More sugar than you would think is necessary… and double it.
Saul: Ok… Show me…
Athlete spoons in the “appropriate” amount of sugar
Athlete: It takes like a coffee milkshake, taste it.
I do and, indeed, it it does taste like a coffee milkshake… We spoon out the same amount of sugar into a bowl and measure 3 tablespoons of sugar. The package of TJ’s Turbinado sugar says there are 4 grams of sugar/carbs in 1 teaspoon. There are 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon, so that is 9 tsps x 4g or 36 grams of sugar/carbs in one cup of coffee. (FYI: Starbucks vente or medium Coffee Frappuccino® Blended Coffee has 48g carbs)

If you are trying to lose weight, and you are new to this way of eating, you should try to keep your carbs to below 100 g/day (This is from Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint, Robb Wolf says 75g/day and Josh G is going for 50g/day). Basically, this coffee milkshake is about 1/3 of your carbs for the day. With that information, you can make some informed decisions and work around some of the negative side effects of your coffee milkshake.

Step1: Your insulin is going to spike when you eat/drink this many carbs, make sure to eat some protein and fat with your coffee to mitigate that spike.
Step 2: Have some good fats or protein to eat around two hours after you drink your coffee. Your body will be craving carbs again, don’t perpetuate the cycle.
Step 3: You have about 50 more carbs, limit fruit appropriately (apple: 25g, orange: 12g, banana: 26g), and double down on the greens and other veggies.
Step 4: Enjoy your day as you remember that you are in control of your body.

The bottom line: Life is short. Find a way to be happy and make sure every thought, word and action moves you towards being happy. If a coffee milkshake in the morning makes you happy, let’s figure out a way to make that happen with a minimum of suffering. If losing fat and/or getting super strong makes you a little more happy than a coffee milkshake in the morning, let’s figure out a way to make that happen. While taking a hard look at our behavior(s) and our priorities and reconciling them is uncomfortable, I can’t think of a better group of people to be uncomfortable with.

Let’s Do This!

Pat’s Philly Steak: Brown an onion and crushed garlic in coconut oil. Add thinly sliced meat 5 oz of London Broil in this case) and sliced mushrooms, cook, on high, for 3 min or so. Add 1/4 head of cabbage and cook for about 5 more min or until the cabbage gets to the consistency you like. Add Avocado as necessary.
Approximate Food Values: 43 g protein, 21 g fat and 17 g carbs

Interesting Paleo reading:
Paleolithic diet is so easy, cavemen actually did it
The New Age Cavemen and the City
Smoking Candy Cigarettes