This blog post is primarily about nutrition in general and beginning a low carb diet in particular. I hesitate to tread in this area because of individual variation and what appears to be a lack of definitive science about weight control and weight loss. Much of the discussion about nutrition these days has descended into dogma. Please read this post with an open mind and sense of humor. Please do not spray paint “paleo” across my house. I’m renting. My landlord would freak.
Salad with leftover steak.
Salad with leftover tilapia.
Salad with boiled egg and avocado.
I’ve been making exceptional of progress lately. A weekend swim clinic gave me the tools I need to improve my swim. A new set of running shoe insoles has eliminated my shin splint pain. Only two hurdles left: the bike and nutrition. This year I’ll be using an actual triathlon training plan from Triathlete Magazine’s Essential Week-by-Week Training Guide by Matt Fitzgerald. I’m hoping that this will boost my bike performance so much that I will for once not be last in my age group. Frankly I’d be happy to just finish in front of some of the guys on mountain bikes. Baby steps.
So onto the sticky matter of nutrition. Nutrition and weight loss are areas where I’ve had no traction whatsoever this year. So I decided to shake things up by going onto a low carb diet including trying something I heard about on the Garden Variety Triathlon podcast: bulletproof coffee, which is attributed to Dave Asprey, the bulletproof executive.
Crazy Coffee
On the surface bulletproof coffee is not that appetizing an idea. Take a cup of coffee add either two tablespoons of coconut oil or about a quarter of a stick of butter. Blend, drink, breakfast. I was explaining it to a friend. He had only one question: Why would you do that? His tone of voice was the same as it would have been if he had caught me installing an above-ground pool in my backyard by filling up a large cardboard box with water.
The whole idea is that the fat in the coconut oil or butter fills you up and you aren’t hungry for hours. Yep its the 240-calorie breakfast. The odd thing about it is that, at least for me, it works. I really wasn’t hungry for hours. Tried it all week with both coconut oil and butter. I used regular unsalted butter. I could not afford the organic grass-fed butter specified by most of the recipes. Will I continue? Maybe and I’m not even a coffee drinker.
Now that we got the weird, yet entertaining part out of the way, let’s talk about the rest of my low carb diet. Why low carb? I am becoming more and more convinced that at least for me carbohydrates are the bulk of the nutritional problem. If you’d like more information about some of the new nutrition information I’m following, let me suggest reading Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It by Gary Taubes and watching The Bitter Truth about Sugar, by Robert H. Lustig MD, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
The rest of my current diet is fairly simple. Lunch is a salad with protein, basically whatever is leftover from last night’s dinner. Dinner is protein and steamed vegetables. Snacks include cheese sticks, macadamia nuts, almonds, protein bars, as well as celery with cream cheese or almond butter. How’s it going. Well I’m two weeks in and I’ve lost about 10 pounds. I know it’s mostly water weight but I’m glad the needle on the scale is moving downward again.
I’d like to suggest changing the way you think about diet, exercise and your weight. Also let’s use this definition of diet: “The kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.” Not diet as in a temporary restriction in calories designed to get you through your next class reunion. If your current diet is working blame the diet, not yourself. There is no one right diet. Two people can have very different experiences and outcomes on the same diet. A calorie is not a calorie. Macronutrients matter. I’m cutting carbs(down to 50-100 grams/day) , increasing fats and keeping protein fairly constant. And for me right now it’s working. What will work for you? Do some research and try some new ideas and new foods. Don’t rely on willpower. Don’t make your diet a test of will. Make it a test of science. Stumble on.
Garden Variety Triathlon Podcast
http://www.gardenvarietytri.com/
Bulletproof Executive Website
http://www.bulletproofexec.com/
How to Make ‘Bulletproof Coffee’
http://well.bradrourke.com/2012/12/how-i-make-bulletproof-coffee/
Gary Taubes Website
The Bitter Truth about Sugar on youtube.com
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