The Warrior-Paleo-Primal Diets

I have been learning to eat well! I have been a junk food eater my entire life. I ran so I could eat and I thought I could eat whatever I liked. Ice cream, cookies, cereals, and anything else I liked I dumped in my mouth. I counted on running it all off. I realized a few years back that this was not going to work as I got older. I tried a few types of diets, had some success a few years back, but kept returning to the junk food. I learned a few healthy things along the way, but nothing really stuck. During the winter I read The Warrior Diet and had some success eating less throughout the day and more at night and following the health guidelines, but I soon returned to my bad habits. Then I started reading more about the The Paleo Diet which is also similar to The Primal Blueprint . I am still learning how to eat correctly and am enjoying healthy foods in new ways.

Basically I am eating fruits, nuts, and vegetables during the day. I am also learning to make awesome salads. For dinner I am learning to eat good meats and salmon along with another big salad full of all sorts of fruits and veggies. I am steering clear of processed foods, dairy, and grains (as well as breads). For the past three weeks I have noticed the lack of desire to eat junk foods. I have indulged a little here or there but it does not satisfy me as it did before. I do not feel hungry during the day (cravings are gone) and I feel ready to run at a moments notice. I don't get that heavy sleepy feeling after eating.

I have also noticed that I am losing weight. I have lost about 10 pounds in about three weeks. Today I weighed in a at just a few pounds more then I was a couple of years ago (my lightest weight in years) when I started to have some good races.

I have a lot to learn still about good nutrition and what works best for me, but I feel real good about the type of eating I am doing now. I will still like ice cream and cookies, but a bowl a week and a cookie or two a week is so much less that what I used to eat in one day alone!

I don't seem to be at a loss of energy for running either. I ran 8 miles on Wednesday (fastest time since last fall), and on the same loop the next day ran less than a minute slower. Today I went out in the heat and did 11 miles. I am putting the Feldenkrais lessons to work and feeling looser and stronger as I run. I can't get that full body balance for more that a few strides, but I think it will take a long time to undue the multiple imbalances that are so ingrained in my muscle memories.

I have a lot of work to do, but things are going in the right direction for a change.

And then I was looking at the Cigna 5K results and fellow 50 year old Mike Merra pops an 18:05 time and Cathy Merra blasts an 18:49. That's two people in the same family and the same age as me that are way ahead of where I am. Those are great results. Heck, I am no longer even the fastest person on my street, Karen Long ran an 18:55 at the same race. There were quite a few other fast times from teammates and friends. It is good to see people running so well.

My ribs are still sore when turning and getting up or lying down, however I stopped taking pain medicine and I only get an occasional jolt in the rib when running and that is a lot better than what I was told would happen just last week.

I Am Not Missing the Eating of Ice Cream!

Day two on The Warrior Diet was terrific. I have no sugar cravings and only limited times when I feel hungry during the day. I like feeling good throughout the whole day. I enjoy the tastes of the healthy food I eat at dinner. Tomorrow we will see how this diet translates when I am at school. I am just bringing in water, cashews, sunflower seeds, a bit of cheese, an orange, and an apple. I will see if that gets me through the day. Now listen to me, previously the only food I enjoyed talking about was ice-cream.

Today I tried running on the treadmill. My hamstring is still sore and tight. I only did 2 miles slowly. I am looking at it as a good sign. I have my hip flexor feeling so good and loose that I think it changed my stride a bit (hopefully for the better)and that stressed the way I use the hamstring. Either that or I am just getting old and falling apart in new ways! I guess it is better to think positively though!

I did some more Z-Health drills today along with some work using kettlebells. I ordered a DVD from Sara Cheatham at Red Star Athletics and just recieved it yesterday. She is a top rated kettlebell instructor and Z-Health coach. If you want a DVD to get you started in kettlebells as well as Z-Health joint mobility this is a good one to get. I have learned a lot just going through the instructions to improve my kettlebell form. She offers good tips as well as top notch instruction. I was particularly interested in getting another perspective on doing the Z-Health drills. I did learn some good tips and different ways to do these movement drills and I am more clear on how to target the joints on several of the movements. Of coure there are more drills on the official Z-Health DVD's, but it is good to get a different perspective and to pick up hints on how to better perform the drills. By the way, there are warm up and warm down joint mobility drills.

Starting The Warrior Diet

I was hoping to do a snowshoe race today, but my left hamstring has been bothering me all week. I went to do an indoor track workout on Tuesday night and I couldn't run beyond 200 yards without it tightening up. I was busy with school work (report cards) and other things so I haven't worked on the hamstrings like I should. I decided it was safer not to race and probably won't run the Freeze Your Buns 5K tomorrow. I did start something exciting today and it was sort of like a competition.

I had been reading about The Warrior Diet online. Last night I bought the book. It was written by Ori Hofmekler. This morning on a lark I decided to make a drastic shift in the way I look at food and meals. I wasn't sure what would happen and I wasn't fully committed to doing the diet, but I gave it a shot and it made for a very interesting day.

I know I need tons of work on my eating and haven't found a way to get off the foods I like to eat that are not good for me. The past year I have felt the effects of food on my body as well as the cravings and habits that keep me eating the same way. I love sweets, chocolate, and ice cream. I have been eating less of these things the past few years but as I eat less I still am not eating well. I generally find myself eating and craving food throughout the day and then I never feel good after eating it. I do miss the days when I could eat whatever I wanted to eat, but those days are long gone and I need a better and easier nutrition plan that fuels my body and muscles and doesn't just keep me full throughout the day.

So I started The Warrior Diet. Basically you undereat most of the day and then at night you overeat. There is a lot of reasoning behind this strategy, but basically you are eating less during the day to stay alert and active and then at night you sit back and enjoy your food. It is supposed to change the way your body deals with food and help you get stronger, leaner, and more alert. You also are to eat low on the food chain. So you eat fruit, vegetables, and nuts during the day and eat healthy food at night.

I started the day with a full glass of water, something I have been doing for a month now. I have found I like the taste of water in the morning. I didn't eat anything for a few hours and then I ate an orange. I lost the craving for my normal bowl of cereal and felt fine all morning. By the time lunch time had passed I was still feeling pretty good. I had another orange and a few cashews. I was feeling better than normal for this point of the day. I liked how I felt and decided to commit a bit more. I went to Trader Joe's and got some supplies. I had a small amount of cashews and a couple of strawberries and did some light kettlebell work. At dinner I had a salad with some whole pea pods and some seedling things I had bought earlier. Sarah had made a nice steak and broccoli meal from the Precision Nutrition book. I noticed it smelled and tasted better and I was enjoying the eating. I finished with some rice. For desert we heated frozen blueberries and a bit of honey on the stove and then put it over plain yogurt. It was very good. I enjoyed my food more than normal and feel great. I have enjoyed the day of controlled fasting and eating immensely.

What you have to realize is that I ate no cookies, ice cream, diet soda, or other bad things that I usually eat daily. Who knows if the plan will work for me or not. If not I learned and tried some things I never did before. I have never had just a piece of fruit for breakfast in my life. I love cereal too much. It worked though. I ate more oranges in one day then I ever have. I had three. I ate uncooked broccoli for the first time. I had plain yogurt (I did put stuff on it) for the first time. I felt great all day and had feeling (sort of edgy) in my belly but I never really had hunger pangs. I am going to keep at it. Sarah was so interested in what I was doing she says she will start doing the same thing tomorrow. I don't know how it will fit with running once I get back heavy into it. Hopefully when I figure out what to eat before a workout I will be fine.

All in all it was a very fun day today. I am making such a huge paradigm shift in the way I eat that I am curious and hopeful that I will see good results. It seems simple enough for me. I would love to lose those cravings throughout the day and learn to eat healthier foods throughout the day.