I met with my nutritionist, Bob, for a bad breakfast. I try to eat well in front of him, but we were at Kleifeld’s in Willoughby and to me that means ham and cheese omelet, home fries, and a double order of rye toast. He had a cup of coffee because he was doing an intermittent fast (no eating for 14-18 hours before an exercise bout). He went into a lengthy explanation about intermittent fasting and its benefits, including HGH (human growth hormone) stimulation and its effects on weight loss and muscle gain and I’ll talk more about that later. Anyway, I ate poorly, but with gusto.
We’d talked about health and fitness for over an hour after I’d eaten, which was about enough time for me to have digested some of my breakfast. I drove to the park and decided to push the Survival Workout by including lower body sets. I managed 22 different stations before I was through, including some wind sprints, picnic table hopping and karaoke’s. It was a great workout and I was completely spent.
Later that day, I received an email from Bob leading me to an article on the Paleo Diet. I read the article and replied to him saying that, again, I thought the article was missing the point of eating Paleo. There are many benefits to eating Paleo (lean meats, fruits and vegetables) as our ancestors did before we began to farm and keep animals for food. I’ve seen the argument that the ‘Cave Man’ may have eaten lean meats and foods he could gather, which was fantastic for combating the typical self-inflicted diseases of the 21st century, but how come they died so young? Of course, there are many reasons for this that don’t really matter if you’re eating Paleo for the reason I’m eating Paleo. I do it to keep my glycemic index down and to lose body fat. Foods high in sugar raise the glycemic index (a number from 0 to 100 indicating a food’s propensity to raise insulin levels after consumption with higher being greater reaction) leading to an increased insulin reaction, higher storage of calories as fat, and shorter periods before you’re hungry again. I don’t worry so much about living longer, though the Paleo Diet would likely help me do that, but living fitter and more active. The diet, in conjunction with my Survival Workout, helps me to increase muscle mass, which is the key to the weight loss, since it helps to raise my metabolism.
I’ll keep beating this drum for as long as I’m writing and preaching about fitness and exercise, I suppose. I know the benefits...intellectually and first hand...and feel compelled and inspired to continue spreading the faith. And as I’m writing this, I’m thinking about how horrible I’ve been lately about my diet. I’m going to give this intermittent fasting them a go...so you’ll be hearing more about it soon.
Survival Workout: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100-150.
Calories burned: 600.
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