Five Things To Consider Before Changing Your Diet

Based on my recent experiment with fasting and my current experiment with the primal blueprint, I’ve come up with a few guidelines for myself.  These are things you should consider before changing the way you eat.  I think anyone considering a new diet or eating plan should answer these questions before they make a decision.

Understanding

Do you know what the heck this new eating plan means?  I’m serious here folks.  All too often I hear of people trying out new foods and new ways of eating without really understanding what they’re doing.  I’m not saying that you need to understand all the little details of nutrition.  I’m saying, do you even understand what this diet means?  Do you know what foods fit into the Mediterranean diet?  Do you understand what are good sources of fat?  Do you know what’s a good source of protein if you’re going vegetarian?  When you say vegetarian, do you mean you’ll eat eggs, dairy or fish?  If you’re going on a low carb diet, what meats are you going to eat and what plants are you going to exclude?  You can’t just say “I’m going to follow such and such diet” without understanding what that diet means.

Long Term

Can you sustain this change long term?  If the answer is no, then don’t bother.  Temporary changes lead to temporary results.  If you’re looking for permanent changes then you should find an eating plan that you can maintain for the rest of your life.  Also remember that making small changes is easier than big.  So if you have a brand new eating plan you want to adopt, you may want to make gradual changes, adopting new habits one at a time without trying for the big bang approach.

For example, I’m still struggling with caffeine but I’m making great progress with lowering my intake of processed sugars and carbs.  So while I may want to adhere to the Primal Blueprint 100%, I’m going to focus on lowering sugars first and then wrestle with my caffeine habit.  One things at a time…

Social Circle

Does this eating plan fit in with your social activity?  Interestingly enough, the main stumbling block to most of my eating plan experiments has been my social life.  Friends want to go out and they’d like to get something to eat.  Very frequently that means going to restaurants which do not serve foods which fall into my eating plan.  So my choices are either to not go out or to not eat while those around me do.  Neither choice is sustainable in the long term.

Fasting for me was almost impossible since many of my social activities revolve around eating.

Price

Can you wallet keep up with your new foods?  If you switched to all organics without finding a cheaper market than Whole Foods, you’re in trouble.  The average meal at Whole Foods will cost you three to four times the average meal at a generic supermarket.  So make sure you find a cheap source of food or make other adjustments to compensate.

This was a big problem for me with going organic until I discovered the farmer’s market and cooking at home.

Choices

Does your new cuisine offer enough choices that you won’t get bored?  If the only thing you’re ever going to eat for the rest of your life is eggs, that’s not a very good plan.  Trust me, eating the same thing over and over gets boring really fast.  Make sure that you have enough options before you start your new eating plan, not after.

I had some issues initially with the Primal Blueprint over this problem since I couldn’t figure out interesting things to eat that didn’t involve a lot of processed sugars and carbs.  Eventually, I resolved this, but it would have been easier had I planned better earlier.

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Hope these rules help you out in whatever new eating plan you embark on.

The Basic Equation of Life

I often get questions along the lines of “will this make me thin?” or “what do you think of this diet?” which make me believe that most folks don’t understand the basic mechanisms of our body.  So I decided to devote today’s post to a review of the underlying equation of life and weight.  Here it is folks, the theory of relativity for weight loss.

Calories In - Calories Out = Change In Weight.

If calories in are higher than calories out, you get a positive change in weight (you gain weight).  If calories in are lower than calories out, you get a negative change in weight (you lose weight).  That’s it, the basic equation.

A Bit More Detail

To understand how various things work, I’m going to expand the equation a bit into the following:

(Calories In * Digestive Efficiency) - (Metabolic Calories Out + Activity Calories Out) = Change in weight.

What does all this mean?

Calories In - This is an easy one.  Calories in are what you consume.  Eat a 300 calories candy bar and you’ve consumed 300 calories in.

Digestive Efficiency - Not exactly a scientific term but a good one nonetheless.  This basically represents how many calories your body actually derives from those calories in.  For example, some people are unable to digest certain foods.  So they may consume 100 calories worth of that food but their bodies don’t really get the full 100 calories worth.  For anyone thinking this is a good thing, spend some time with people who are lactose intolerant, they’ll set you straight.

Metabolic Calories Out - Your body uses a certain amount of calories per day just to stay alive.  Basic living activities such as breathing, pumping blood and maintaining temperature all require calories.  This is what goes under Metabolic Calories Out.

Activity Calorie Out - These are the calories you use on activities other than basic bodily functions.  For example, walking, running, lifting weights, dancing, hiking, having sex.  All of these activities require energy and that energy expenditure falls under activity calorie out.

So What?

So, now that we have our equation and our terms, what does this all mean?  Well, the basic lesson here is that anytime someone tells you about something that could help you lose weight, you want to make sure you understand how it’s going to affect your body.  That’s why it’s important to know this equation.

For Example:

Exercise - Well, that’s an easy one.  We exercise which means we increase Activity Calories Out.

Eat More Vegetables - This one is a little less obvious.  Vegetables are relatively low in calories.  So if we eat the same volume of food but make more of that volume vegetables, we’ll eat less calories overall.  That means less Calories In.  Note that “eat more vegetables” isn’t really the secret.  It’s “Eat Vegetables Instead Of Other Food With More Calories”.  If you ate everything you did today and then just added vegetables, you’d actually gain weight since you increased Calories In.  That’s the power of this little formula.  Once you understand, you can make sense of a lot of these diet and health tips.

Eat More Frequent Meals - Why?  Well, the theory is that our bodies spend calories more freely when they get food frequently.  Our bodies will behave like people who get 10 dollars every day instead of 300 dollars at the end of the month and they’ll be more willing to spend that 10 dollars right now.  Note that this only affects metabolic calories out.  That is, by eating more frequent but smaller meals, our Metabolic Calories Out increase.

Calorie Restrictive Diets - These are the diets that tell you to cut down your calories in drastically.  Sounds simple enough, lower calories in and you lose weight, right?  Maybe, but what other parts of the equation could these diets affect?  Well, as our bodies receive less calories, they also try to spend less calories.  Bodies do this by lowering the amount of calories spent on basic life sustaining activities.  For example, stay on a calorie restricted diet long enough and your body will shut off things like reproductive systems.  It will also start cannibalizing calorie rich tissue like muscles.  In other words, your body will compensate for the drastic decrease in Calories In by reducing Metabolic Calories Out.

Bad Ideas

As a general rule, there are a few bad things you can do:

Changes in digestive efficiency - This includes taking laxatives, forcing yourself to throw up and so on.  Most of these fall into the realm of eating disorders and if you’re doing them, please seek help.  As someone who’s struggled with healthy eating for many years, I can understand your pain, but this isn’t the way to solve the problem.

Artificial changes in your metabolic calories out - This includes things like smoking, most diet pills and other stimulants.  Sure, they cause you to burn more calories but at what cost?  Most of these things put a tremendous burden on your body and can cause many other health issues.

Drastic changes in calories in - Things like 500 calorie a day diets or week long fasts.  These aren’t healthy for you and, in the long run, they are not conducive to weight loss.  You’re just going to ruin your body by doing these.

Luckily, there are some good things you can focus on:

Increase in activity calories out - This is easy.  Move more.  Go out.  Walk, exercise, dance, swim.  Whatever it is, just keep moving.

Natural increases in metabolic calories out - This includes things like eating more frequent meals, lowering the thermostat at home (forcing your body to spend a few more calories on the proper temperature), building muscles (muscle tissue uses up a lot of calories) and so on.  There are a variety of ways in which you can tell your body “speed it up!” that are natural and good for you.

Gradual and healthy changes in calories in - For example, removing sodas and coffee from the menu.  Your body won’t notice the removal of most liquid calories so you can do this without sending your body into panic mode.  Also, doing things like replacing high calorie foods with low calorie foods like vegetables is good.  Your body will get the same volume of food but less calories overall.  That means your body still believes it’s getting a good amount of food and so it won’t start enacting emergency measures.

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Just remember that basic equation and try to figure out how various behaviors fit within it.  It will make you a smarter and more educated consumer of health activities.

Also, this was a VERY short and unscientific primer about the human metabolism.  People should educate themselves about their bodies in more detail than this.  It’s just as important as learning about your mortgage rate or how your car works.  In fact, it’s probably a lot more important than either one of those.  If you’re interested, I highly recommend YOU: The Owner’s Manual, Updated and Expanded Edition: An Insider’s Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger

Meat, Good or Bad?

I’ve seen a number of articles floating around in the last few weeks either describing meat as the answer to all of life’s problems or calling it an unmitigated health disaster.  The Nutrition Research Center had this article about what goes into non organic meat, Mark’s Daily Apple had this article asking if red meat is unhealthy (Mark’s answer was HELL NO!), Nutrition Research Center fires back with red meat is still a deadly choice and so on and so forth.  This echoes a long time argument about the benefits of eating more or less meat along with the benefits of a vegetarian diet over a more meat inclusive one.  Let’s answer these questions one at a time.

Is Meat Unhealthy? The answer is a definite NO.  Meat is not unhealthy and is in fact a normal part of a human diet.  Your body requires protein and meat is a very good way of getting it.

Is Red Meat Unhealthy? Not necessarily.  It’s a higher in fat than a lot of other meats but that’s not really a bad thing.  Just like protein, your body needs fat to survive and red meat is a good source for fat.

So Meat Is Healthy? Depends on the type and quantity of meat you eat.  Most people eat too much meat.  Even worse, they eat too much crappy meat of the sort you find at McDonald’s or most supermarkets.  That’s bad for your health, bad for your wallet and bad for the environment.

Bad For The Environment? Yes, factory farming of meat causes a giant mess when it comes to pollution.  It also depends on factory farming of corn which is an environmental mess all of its own.

So Which Meat Should I Eat? I would recommend finding a local provider of organic, free range beef or chicken.  You can find most of these at a supermarket, but if you really want the high quality stuff I would recommend going to the farmers market.  My local farmers market has a stall offering a variety of organic meats plus sausages made from game meats like venison and rabbit.  All of these choices are great for you and great for the environment.  You could also look on sites like Eat Wild where you can find local farms with grass fed meats.  Again, good for you, good for the environment and good for the local economy!  Or just make friends with your local hunter.

What About Sea Food? Sea food is another good choice.  Check out the the Monterey Aquarium site for the types of seafood to buy and when.  Again, you could make friends with your local fisherman or grab a pole and go fishing for your meals.  Hard to argue with fresh, healthy food that’s essentially free.  Plus, you get to spend some time in the great outdoors.

How Much Meat Is Too Much? Hard to answer that without knowing more about you.  In general though, the habit of eating meat with every single meal of the day is too much.  Try to limit yourself to just one serving of meat per day at most.  Trust me, it’s not that hard.

Is A Vegetarian Diet Healthy? It can be.  However, I can easily call myself a vegetarian by living on nothing more than Oreo cookies and coke, and that would definitely be UNhealthy.  Being vegetarian is not in and of itself a healthy thing.  However, on average, vegetarians do tend to be healthier.  Some people argue that’s because the sort of folks who tend to be vegetarian also tend to pay more attention to what they eat.  That could be.   Either way, a vegetarian lifestyle can be a very healthy one, but you still need to take note of what you’re eating.

Should Vegetarians Go Organic Too? Sure.  Just like factory processed meats are bad for you, so are factory processed veggie meals.  The closer you can get your food to the way mother nature intended it to be, the better you’ll be.

Can A Vegetarian Diet Be Unhealthy? Sure, see the above note on oreos and coke.  Also, vegetarians can end up with some nutritional deficiencies if they’re not careful just like meat eaters can end up overweight and obese if they don’t pay attention.  Again, it all comes down to paying attention to what you eat.

Which Diet Do You Follow? I am mostly (95%) vegetarian.  I eat meat once or twice a week at most, and I try to only eat quality, organic meats rather than the factory processed crap you find at most restaurants.

Do You Get Enough Protein That Way? More than enough.  Most people eat too much protein just as they eat too much carbs.  In fact, most people just eat too much of everything.  I get plenty of protein through my rare meat entrees, dairy, eggs and a variety of vegetables.  Here are my personal rules for eating healthy.

Conclusion

So to sum things up, meat is neither healthy nor unhealthy and the same applies to being a vegetarian.  As with all things, it comes down to the details.  Eat in moderation, get your food in as close to a natural state as possible and pay attention to what you eat.  Follow those rules and you’ll be fine.

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Yes, even bacon can be healthy but THIS can never be healthy…

Fitness Homework For This Weekend

Pick one of these five things and do it this weekend IN ADDITION to your normal fitness routine.  That is, these items are not replacements for something you already do.

30 Minute Walk

Grab your dog, your kids, your partner or your friends and go for a 30 minute walk.  You don’t have to hike in the hills, just take a left out your front door and keep walking for at least 30 minutes.

10 Minute Workout

Put on some gym clothes or just take off your work clothes and do some exercises.  You can do this in one ten minute stretch or two five minute breaks.  Maybe you could do this as you wake up on Saturday and Sunday.  Whatever the time, make sure to get as complete a workout as possible.  That means combining multiple exercises like lunges, squats, push ups, crunches and so on.

Replace One Meal With a Salad

Just one meal is all I ask.  Maybe instead of your Sunday brunch, Saturday breakfast or Friday night snacking.  Check out this Sausage Salad post if you want some ideas for really tasty salads.

Snack On Fruits and Vegetables For One Day

Pick one day, either Saturday or Sunday.  During that day eat no snacks other than fruits and vegetables.  That means no cookies, chocolates, chips, crackers or any other item that is not a fresh fruit or vegetable.  Note that I said FRESH.  That means dried fruits, fruit juices, veggie smoothies and so on do not count.  And no, this item should not be used as an excuse to eat more snacks.  Do not increase your daily intake of snacks, just replace them with fruits or, preferably, vegetables.

Try An Active Hobby

Go to the park and toss the frisbee around.  Go to the pool and swim for a bit.  Go to the local school and kick a soccer ball.  Whatever it is, try one physically active hobby and see if you like it.

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Remember, none of these items will matter if you don’t make them into a habit.  All I’m trying to get you to do is try something new and see if you like it.  If you don’t, oh well.  If you do, why not do it again next weekend and the one after that and the one after that…

Recipe - Sausage Salad

Today’s post is one of my favorite quick meals to prepare.  It’s fast, tasty and very nutritious.

Needed Ingredients

• 1 tomato
• 1 cucumber
• 1/4 onion
• 1 cup of fresh spinach leaves
• 1 cup of mushrooms
• 1/4 avocado
• 1 red pepper
• 2 sausages
• a bit of olive oil

Note, the ingredients matter.  If you want good flavor, you’re going to invest in fresh, organic produce and non crappy sausages.  I usually buy venison or rabbit sausages at the farmers market but you can find decent stuff at the supermarket too.  Just don’t go with some crappy factory produced sausage filled with god knows what.  Even with the extra cost of good ingredients, this is still cheaper than eating dinner in a restaurant by the way.

Preparation

Chop up all the vegetables except the onions and mushroom into very little pieces.  By little I mean no bigger than 1/4 or 1/3 of an inch (or 1cm for you metric folks).  Pour them into a bowl.  Now chop up the onions and mushrooms into similarly small pieces and pour into another bowl.  When you’re done crying from chopping the onion (which usually takes me about 10 minutes), chop up the sausage into small piece and toss into a frying pan with a bit of olive oil.  Start cooking it and, about 4 to 5 minutes it’s done, toss in the chopped onion and mushrooms.  Continue cooking for a few minutes, making sure to stir everything well.  When the sausage is cooked, pour everything out into your other vegetable bowl, mix well and serve.

Notes

• You do NOT need dressing for this.  Believe me, the sausage, onions and other vegetables have enough flavor without you drowning them in ranch sauce.
• You do NOT need a side of french fries, mashed potatoes, rice or any other silly calorie laden dish with this meal.  It’s perfect just on its own.
• Glass of wine is fine, I’m told by my local butcher than reds go well with this meat, but really, there’s nothing better to drink than water!
• You may want to adjust the quantity of meat to vegetables to suit your own tastes.  This ratio works well for me since it’s one of the few meat dishes that I eat.  However, 10 sausages to 1 tomato is probably not a good ratio.

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Anyone have their own favorite quick and healthy recipes?