little dog lost

My First Kettlebell Sport Competition

2012-01-21T20:27:00.000-08:00

What a great day! I competed in Kettlebell Sport for the first time. Although I've trained with kettlebells, and used the movements and exercises for years, today was my first time competing.

Jason Dolby, Galya Denzel, & Me

I'm pretty happy with my results, which was 76 reps of the Long Cycle with two 16kg kettlebells.

Chicken tortilla soup

2012-01-18T23:04:00.000-08:00

Years ago, I learned to make matzo ball soup from a little book of easy soups. It was very easy, and I've since taken that simple recipe and converted it to chicken vegetable soup, chicken noodle soup, chicken pozole, and chicken tortilla soup.

Once you figure how to make this soup, just swap out the vegetables, spices, and extras to make the soup you want. Easy.

I don't eat many tortillas, so sometimes this is tortilla soup without tortillas. My kids like the tortillas, so I either fry up some strips or use some leftover tortilla chips. Tortilla soup was originally a "leftover" soup, so even chips that are a little stale are perfect for soaking in this soup.

chicken tortilla soup

Chicken tortilla soup

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

4-5 pound chicken
16 cups water
6 bay leaves
1 medium brown or white onion, peeled and quartered into wedges
2 stalks celery, cut into bite size pieces
4 carrots, cut into bite size pieces
10 allspice berries, cracked
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp cumin, ground
1 tbsp coriander, ground
4 yellow summer squash, cut into bite size pieces
1 tbsp paprika or mild, powdered chili
1 tbsp Mexican oregano

chicken & veggies

herbs & spices

Extras

tortilla chips
fried tortilla strips
red or green salsa
lime wedges
sliced avocado
sour cream
cubed cream cheese
shredded cheese
hot sauce

Directions

Rinse the chicken and place in a large pot. Cover with the water and bring it to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and skim off any foam that collects on the surface.

Return to a slow boil and add the bay leaves through the coriander. Simmer for about 45 minutes, until the chicken is falling from the bone.

Remove the chicken from the broth and allow it to cool enough to handle. Remove the skin and bones, saving them for bone broth, if you like.

Tear or cut the chicken into bite size pieces and return to the broth. Add in the yellow summer squash and simmer for another 15-20 minutes, until the squash is just tender. Remove from heat, remove the bay leaves, and stir in the oregano and paprika.

Serve with a variety of condiments at the table.

If using chips or fried tortillas, let them soak in the soup for a few minutes before eating. Top with cheese or some avocado cubes, and maybe stir in some salsa.

Enjoy!

Curried cauliflower soup

2012-01-16T21:34:00.000-08:00

My friend Ashley came up with the original version of this awesome soup, then Galya and I tweaked it based on ~~not reading the recipe fully before shopping~~ what we had in the house.

Curried cauliflower soup

This soup is even better the next day, so feel free to make it yesterday, so you can eat it today.

4 servings

Ingredients

1 large head cauliflower
1 large tart apple (like a Granny Smith)
1 clove garlic (optional, but highly recommended)
1 tbsp garam masala (aka curry powder)
1 tsp turmeric (optional, but makes for a nice color)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp ghee or unsalted butter
salt to taste

Directions

Discard the greens and leaves of the cauliflower. Roughly chop the entire cauliflower, including the core. Peel, core, and chop the apple. Peel the clove of garlic, if using.

Place the apple, garlic, and cauliflower in a soup pot, with enough water to cover. Bring to a simmer and cook for about twenty minutes, until the cauliflower is tender. Blend with an immersion blender. Alternately, you can use a regular blender, just make sure to allow it to cool for a few minutes first, then blend it in batches.

Bring the soup to a slow simmer, and stir in the garam masala, turmeric, vinegar, salt, and ghee. Allow the soup to simmer for a few minutes. If necessary, add enough water to bring the pot to eight cups of soup.

Makes four, 2 cup servings, assuming you added enough water.

Nutrition

Per 2 cup serving – 120 calories, 3.5g fat, 21g carbohydrate, 7g fiber, 5g protein

One week away from my first competition

2012-01-14T09:11:00.000-08:00

Next Saturday, I'll be competing in an IKFF Kettlebell Sport Competition in Santa Monica. It will be my first competition to even see, much less in which I participate.

Coach Jason Dolby giving me some pointers

I'm excited! I will be competing in the Long Cycle event, with two 16kg kettlebells.

For those of you who aren't kettlebell nerds, the Long Cycle event is when you do repeated kettlebell clean and jerks for ten minutes. You cannot set down the kettlebells, and the only rest is holding them overhead or "in the rack," which is the position pictured above.

If you are in the Los Angeles area next Saturday (January 21, 2012), feel free to come by and watch us all compete.

IKFF Competition
LEAF Performance Center @ Robot BJJ
2028 Stoner Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90025

I'm not sure of the competition schedule yet, but I believe they will be checking weight at 9am.

Speaking of weight, I need to be careful for the next week. I'm on the bubble of two weight classes and if I don't keep my appetite under control, I'll be competing against guys who are up to 20lbs heavier and potentially much stronger... The days of free eating are over. Until next Saturday.

Bodyweight Training – I don't think it means what you think it means

2012-01-09T06:36:00.000-08:00

"You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means." – Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

Last week, I posted about Clean Eating and it's antithesis; those who wish that "everything in moderation" is a valid argument. This week, let's look at a phrase that also sounds great, but actually means little: bodyweight training.

Bodyweight Training

The phrase "bodyweight training" brings to mind visions of body awareness, mastery of one's one physique, and some sort of fitness purity. While there is a certain awesomeness about using purely one's own weight and the Earth's gravity, there's nothing ignoble about using a dumbbell in addition to one's weight and the Earth's gravity.

If taken literally, subscribing to a "bodyweight training" plan is unnecessarily limiting. What if you can't do a pullup? What if you can't do an inverted row? You might add a resistance band, which is usually cool with the bodyweigh crowd, for some reason.

But wait, you don't even need a band, you can use a friendly helper to give you a little assistance, or just step up with a stool. Is it still "bodyweight" if you have a helper? A stool? A band?

Why are pushup handles, Swiss balls, weighted vests, and resistance bands cool for a bodyweight training plan, but you draw the line at a kettlebell or a dumbbell? Are these just technicalities or are they a slippery slope? What about a TRX or a Jungle Gym?

All good tools, but bodyweight equipment?

What about a sandbag? For that matter, a bodyweight purist should find that shoes are a fundamental problem that not even Vibram Fivefingers can solve.

If you're really strong, it can be challenging to find ways to make the exercise hard enough to do much more good. After you can do 50 pushups, is it really better to shoot for 75? What's the benefit? Sure, you can make them harder, and I like that, but if you really want to be stronger, there's not shame in using an external load, too.

If you're really weak or really overweight, it can be hard to do a pushup, but a dumbbell bench press can still be doable. Sure, there are pushups from the knees or at an incline, but while that's a fine exercise, it's hardly motivating to think you might be just doing those for the next six months vs getting stronger in the bench press. There's room for both...

Bodyweight training, like kettlebell training or crossfit, can become something of a religion. Don't let it be that for you. Choose the right training methods and tools for the job. Mix and match. Do build or use a program that mixes bodyweight exercises and calisthenics, but also adds an external load or resistance when necessary.

People who can do amazing things with the body are impressive. Balance, strength, and flexibility are cool, but sometimes people try really hard to do a bodyweight program, and leave the benefits of the other available tools behind.

Mastering your body means mastering the world around you, even if that includes an object. After all the world is full of them.

We are often told not complain about a problem unless you have a solution, so to that end, here's a "bodyweight training" workout program that use "stuff" that's not part of your body. In this case, it's a simple adjustable dumbbell set. This is a good home workout program for beginners, who rarely have access to a pullup bar OR a way to do an inverted row. Of course, you could always just buy a pullup bar, but are you already strong enough to do 10 pullups? Better buy a band, too. ;)

This adjustable dumbbell is good because it is under $40, it can be used as two light dumbbells or one heavier one, for very little extra money, you can add extra weight from local stores like Walmart. This solves the common problem of buying a pair of dumbbells that are too light and not wanting to spend the money on another pair of them (that will also soon be too light).

Minimal Equipment Workout

Warm-up (before each workout)
Joint rotations x10
Push ups plus x10
Glute bridges x10
Split stance rotation x10 times with each leg.
Wall Slides, 10
Jumping Jacks for 1 minute

Workout A

Warmup (above)

Training Circuit A

Pushups, AMRAP *
Reverse Lunges, 10 per leg
Dumbbell Two Point Row, 10 per arm
Chair Squats, 10
Standing Ys, 10
Side Planks, ALAP **
One Leg Glute Bridges, 10 per side
Bird Dogs. 10 per side

Week 1 – Do training circuit once and you’re done.
Week 2 and 3 – Rest one minute, then repeat the circuit one more time
Week 4 – Rest one minute, then repeat the circuit two more times, taking a minute in between circuits

*AMRAP – As many as possible
**ALAP – As long as possible

Remember, you need to alternate between A and B on seperate days, so skip at least a day, then move on to Workout B, below.

Workout B

Warmup (above)

Training Circuit B

Pushups (with hands elevated), AMRAP *
Split Squats, 15 per leg
Wall Slides, 15
Dumbbell Goblet Squats, 15
Front Planks, ALAP **
Two Legged Glute Bridges, 15
Standing Ys, 15
Reaching Lunges, 15 per side

Week 1 – Do training circuit once and you’re done.
Week 2 and 3 – Rest one minute, then repeat the circuit one more time
Week 4 – Rest one minute, then repeat the circuit two more times taking a minute in between circuits

*AMRAP – As many as possible
**ALAP – As long as possible

Remember, you need to alternate between A and B on seperate days, so skip at least a day, then move back to Workout A, above.

For more info on diet and some exercise descriptions, take look at the Beginners Kickstart over at JPFitness.com.

Do this program for a few weeks, adding weight to things like two legged glute bridges, chair squats, split squats, and lunges, if necessary.

Enjoy your bodyweight training!

Roland

Steel Cage Death Match – Taco vs Burrito

2012-01-05T06:13:00.000-08:00

When I went on a diet, one of the first things I did was switch from the burrito to the taco. Here's why.

The Taco

Tacos al pastor

corn tortillas are relatively small (and you can get the smaller, traditional, street taco sizes at Mexican markets)
corn tortillas have relatively low calories compared to flour tortillas
nixtamalized corn is a healthier grain choice than wheat
self limiting corn tortilla strength means self limited filling
easy to make at home
the worst taco, fillings aside= fried/hard shell taco, which still can't compare to a flour tortilla

The Burrito

1650 calories? No more food for you! One day!

flour tortillas are relatively large (even the taco sized ones)
flour tortillas for commercial burritos are immense. A 12" store tortilla has over 350 calories, and they do not approach the size of a restaurant tortilla. I estimate them to be at least 400-450 calories.
flour tortillas have relatively high calories compared to corn tortillas
beans = farts
rice = more empty calories
Mexican rice and beans are often fried, and they use "healthy" oils and proclaim "no saturated fat," which likely means canola at best, SOYBEAN OIL at worst. Seed, bean, and grain oils are dramatically unhealthy.
gluten in wheat makes for a less healthy grain than nixtamalized corn
super strong wheat flour tortilla strength means it can hold a lot of filling
it's hard to roll a good burrito at home
the worst burrito, fillings aside = chimichanga, which is a deep fried burrito, often covered with extra cheese and sauce

My real life experience?

One typical burrito, without guacamole, at Baja Fresh. ~920 calories. It's about 110 more if you ask for guacamole, which I usually did. You can add 630 calories if you ask for it Enchilado style, which is pictured above.

Three tacos, with guacamole at Baja Fresh. ~620 calories (I ask for for just one tortilla per taco, since BF makes their soft tacos with two each).

Savings: at least 300-400 calories, plus burritos come with chips, while three tacos, a la carte, do not.

Eating three tacos, even with one tortilla each, is pretty satisfying. It looks like plenty on the plate, and takes time to eat. In the end, you're full, but saved hundreds of calories and ate healthier ingredients.

With the chips, calories saved are almost infinite. Who can even count that high?

The ~~alternative~~ traditional taco experience

There are many delicious and unusual options for the taco. In Mexico, the taco comes in more than the pollo, steak, carnitas, and ground beef that you see in Americanized restaurants. If you have the chance, venture to a taco place where you can get the tacos that Mexicans eat. These are the good ones. They are typically smaller, so you can either watch your intake, or just have more of them.

They come in many flavors, including the "normal" ones, but also in exotics like tongue, head, brain, and even very specific parts of the head. I skip these, with the rare exception of lengua. The always have the normal variety of meats, but with spices and marinades you've probably never had before. If you're squeamish, go for things that have "asada," "carne," "pollo," or "carnitas" in the name. Although delicious and of interesting textures, you might pass on the lengue, cabeza, and buche, for instance... When in doubt, ask, but ask what it is.

My favorites:

Taco al pastor – marinated pork, roasted on a spit like a gyro, then carved onto your tortilla.

Taco en pibil – fruit and chili (pibil) marinated pork. Some sort of secret sauce and marinade from the Yucatan area of Mexico.

Taco de adobada – again with the marinated pork! This is almost a grilled version of the "al pastor."

Taco de lengua – a tongue taco. I like to keep one in the mix, but just one. The rest are going to be more normal tacos.

Note that a lot of these little places don't even have burritos, which are pretty much an American invention, anyway. They probably laugh at you when you order one, too.

And the winner is... the taco!

In the ongoing battle for good health and smaller waistlines, the taco clearly wins!

I think this is a chihuahua

Clean Eating – I don't think it means what you think it means

2011-12-26T07:10:00.000-08:00

"You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means." – Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

My wife doesn't appreciate the beauty and genius that is The Princess Bride, which is her loss and mine. Mine because I can't get easy laughs when I quote these guys, and hers because she probably won't appreciate it when I watch it the next million times, either. It's unlikely to grow on her. To not like this movie is inconceivable to me, but I wasn't fully convinced of her shortcoming before the wedding. I was sure she'd like it once she saw the whole thing, which may still be true, but she keeps leaving.

Like Vizzini's "inconceivable," there are many words and phrases that are casually tossed around in the diet, fitness, and nutrition world. Many have been so butchered that they've essentially become meaningless. ...or, at least the desire to get them right has waned.

I made a list of little fitness and nutrition terms and phrases that bug me, and quickly got up to about 10 phrases long, which is a little sad. I try to be a positive person, but sometimes you must vent, just a little. Sometimes the misconceptions around these terms are just honest mistakes, sometimes there's an agenda, sometimes it's a backhanded complement, and sometimes it's just bad grammar that seems to linger on. However I look at it, I am bugged, so here I go.

The first one of these terms is... Clean Eating and it's arch-nemesis "Everything in Moderation." I'm certainly not the first one to complain about these ones, but it's hard to resist starting here. I feel like it's the low hanging fruit on my list, but I'm just getting back from the Christmas break, so it's baby steps.

Clean Eating

Clean eating is a totally undefined and undefinable state. It means something different to everybody, but what it's said to indicate is a style of eating that doesn't feature poor quality foods and ingredients, there are no boxes and packages, and things like fast food are avoided like the plague – unless you can order a turkey patty and pretend that bun is whole wheat (um, don't ask, don't tell).

There's certainly more to it, but overall, the Clean Eating Specification is pretty vague in its specificity. To make matters worse, there's no one book, site, or resource to run to for the official Clean Eating program, although Tosca Roony and her Clean Eating library seem to lay claim to it (hint; they came later).

Steel cut oatmeal, fish oil, broccoli, skinless chicken breasts, and flax meal (not always in the same bowl) are the internet hallmarks of Clean Eating, as are the concepts that you simply can't be fat or get fat if you're eating clean. In fact, the internet says that eating clean when attempting to gain weight is the sure fire way to build muscle without loosing [sic] your abs. The only problem is that it's not true (I can so get fat "eating clean.").

Another big issue is that clean, itself, is not well defined. A vegan can eat clean, a low carber can eat clean, an "everything in moderation" person can eat clean, a paleo would say that only they are eating clean (some even shake their heads in sad wonder at the primal guys), and some organic, grass-fed paleos even look down upon their supermarket paleo brethren as they wallow in their conventional meat and veggie dirtiness.

The Clean Eating crowd certainly means well, and they are doing much better than most people eating a modern industrialized diet, but many live under the strange rules where you cut the fat off of your meat, only to cook the same meat in olive oil. Then, since butter is healthier than margarine, that's what you spread on your baked ~~potato~~ sweet potato. Iceberg is out, romaine is in. Why is table sugar evil, while powdered dextrose and maltodextrin are just fine as long as they are shaken into whey protein powder just before, during, or after lifting weights?

The rules go on and on, and while they aren't necessarily bad, they aren't magic, either. Trust me, just eating "clean" won't get you ripped unless you still eat fewer calories than you need. Looking for health? If you have gut issues, whole grains instead of white flour is a recipe for tummy troubles. Looking to add slabs of meat to your frame? Replacing the saturated fat from the burger patty you're not eating anymore with monounsaturated fat from olive oil or polyunsaturated fat from flaxseeds isn't helping anything.

Everything in Moderation

Don't get me wrong, I also don't take the flip side, where people actively mock those who follow a version of a Clean Eating lifestyle, because to them, it's just calories, calories, calories! ...and after all, calories are calories. If only there was an internet term for the anti-clean eating phenomenon... Oh wait, there is: My Plate! The USDA and myplate.org, does say eat what you like, but eat less of it.

problem solved.

Granted, no one is saying to eat junk all the time (not even the government), but they are saying that you can eat the junk, as long as you work them into your calories (and sometimes your macros), or maybe keep it to 10-20% of your calories for the week.

These Everything in Moderation folk are the people who figuratively shout out their epic cheat meals and free days all over Facebook, and when challenged by science or the suggestion that it might not be such a good idea, follow up with the classic mantra of "I eat ____, and I'm doing fine." What they are really saying is "not being able to eat _____ isn't fair."

Did you dad say life was fair? Life is fair, right? To be otherwise is inconceivable.

Christmas Gifts and White Elephants

2011-12-12T21:34:00.000-08:00

If you're looking for something unusual to take to a White Elephant Party or give your food loving friend, here's my list of ideas, all food related and easy to get online.

I've got 4-5 cookbooks here, followed by a few gourmet ingredients that are sure go be a surprise!

Cookbooks

I'm going to tell you about the cookbooks, first. Not one of them is a healthy eating or diet cookbook. I don't really own many of those, so it's hard to comment on them. I do own Bobby Flay's Grilling for Life, which is a good father's day gift for dads who like to grill. It is a healthy cookbook (that's good anyway) and it's got some great tasting recipes that unsuspecting guests wouldn't even recognize as healthy. I love that book.

Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

This is a great book for someone who's new to cooking or moving out on his or her own. This was my go to book for cooking any cut of meat, any vegetable, or figuring out whatever cooking technique the other books failed to fully explain.

When I moved out on my own, people gave me The Joy of Cooking, but I always referred back to this book because it's easier to use, has better explanations, and good pictures. It's available in paperback or in a ring binder version, which lets it lay flat on the counter. I like that best. I love this book.

Best Ever Three & Four Ingredient Cookbook

I don't know about "best ever," but it's good and we own it. It's actually amazing how many great dishes they do with just three or four ingredients. The dishes are simple and tasty AND simple to make.

The pictures are good, too. I like cookbooks with pretty pictures.

Jamie's 30 Minute Meals

The most common complaint that I get from people who don't cook often is "I don't have time to cook." Jamie Oliver shows you how to make 50 complete meals, in 30 minutes each. He teaches techniques and organization, which we all probably need.

The recipes are real food meals, but this is no diet food. If your gift recipient is on a diet, then beware the calorie load. It's the learning experience, more than the meals themselves.

One huge plus is that Oliver is one messy chef, and even his presentation is messy. It looks delicious, splatters and all, and makes me feel better that I'm not so good at "clean as you go."

The Flavor Bible

The Flavor Bible is not a cookbook, but it's a great book for those who cook. It's a really big book on flavors that go great together. If you know someone who loves cooking and experimenting with food, I can't recommend this enough. Just look up some of the ingredients that you have on hand and you'll get quite a list of flavors and combinations that go great with it.

I use this book almost every day, as does Galya.

Gourmet Ingredients and Foods

Some of these foods are treats, but high quality, healthy treats. All of these foods are special in their own way, and deserve a place in your own pantry in addition to going under the tree. Might as well buy multiples and treat yourself to some of these amazing foods.

Truffle salt

I'm not a truffle expert, but if you've never had them, this could be a good starting point. Truffles smell amazing on things as simple as scrambled eggs! A little truffle salt is an easy and inexpensive way to try it out.

Exotic vanilla beans

Tahitian vanilla is a great gift for someone who loves to cook. This is really a lot of vanilla beans, so hopefully the person that you give them to will share a couple. Bakers will appreciate these beans, though. Tahitian vanilla is different from the ones you typically find at the grocery store. These are fruity and heady, and you can just stand there and breathe it in...

They will last a long time if stored properly, so send them this link, or maybe one for making their own vanilla extract or vanilla rum or vanilla vodka!

Real saffron

Each half gram of this saffron was made from the stigmas of well over 75 crocus flowers, all hand picked and dried in the same day.

Saffron is very expensive, and I don't use it often. That's why I love the way this powdered saffron comes packaged. Each half gram comes in four .125g capsules, which can themselves be resealed if you don't use it all in one day. This allows the saffron to last for a long, long time and still be pretty fresh and tasty.

The best chocolate, ever

Patricia started Choco-Vivo in her kitchen, selling at Farmer's Markets in Southern California, but she just recently opened her shop in Venice, CA!

Mayan Tradition is my favorite blend. It reminds me of mole, my favorite Mexican sauce.

“Tastes like Christmas” or “…like red hots”. This is one of the most popular blends. If you think you know what spicy chili and chocolate tastes like, you haven’t tasted this. The depth of flavors from the various ingredients makes it taste like the mole of chocolate. You’ll taste that cinnamon first and then those chilies will kick-in at the end.

These are the ingredients of Mayan Tradition, and the reason this is such an amazing blend.

Cacao nibs, Unrefined Cane Sugar, California Almonds, Ceylon Cinnamon Sticks, Guajillo Chilies, Pasilla Negro Chilies, Chipotle Chilies

Other Choco-Vivo bars (they are all good!)

Cacao nibs (also from Choco-vivo)

A cacao nib is the raw ingredient for chocolate.

When "they" say dark chocolate is healthy, it's the nib that's the healthy part of it. They are not sweet yet, because no sugar has been added. They are crunchy, nutty little guys that are good on a lot of things. Nibs are great ground up and used like cocoa powder, sprinkled on ice cream, tossed into trail mix, eaten as a treat, stirred into yogurt or oatmeal, blended in smoothies and shakes, mixed into a cheesecake's nut crust.

If you're going to go with nibs, I will once again recommend Patricia at Choco-Vivo. Patricia is a passionate craftsman of chocolate. She goes to Mexico and works with her farmers, who are craftsmen themselves. This stuff is carefully harvested, fermented, and dried, resulting in an amazing little treat. I've had the Choco-Vivo nibs and compared them to the ones from "health food stores." There's no comparison; these are seriously better.

Coconut

Coconut and coconut products are a health craze these days, and for good reason – they are actually healthy. Just beware that coconut flour is so good that you will still eat a whole pan of brownies, and healthy or not, that's a lot of calories. Don't think it's a free ride because it's healthy.

It might seem like a weird gift for some, but take it to a White Elephant Gift Party and explain to who gets it how awesome it is. If you have a health conscious friend or relative, coconut is a great gift, particularly because good coconut products and raw ingredients can be hard to find, locally. Shredded coconut found in stores, for instance, is often ~~ruined~~ sweetened.

Tropical Traditions is my favorite place to get my coconut products, although they don't carry coconut milk. :(

Coconut flour

If you're going low carb, paleo, or gluten free, this stuff is a life saver. Gal makes all sorts of stuff with it. It's so good I might have to tell her to stop.

Shredded coconut (and flakes and chips)

From shreds, to flakes, to chips, you get whatever size you need. Shreds and flakes are great for baking, but the chips are good for snacking or in a trail mix, sprinkled on cereal, ice cream, made into granola, or even eaten as cereal.

Coconut oil

The Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil is the one that smells and tastes like coconut. It's amazing for cooking, and for imparting more of that great coconut flavor to your foods.

I also love their Organic Expeller-Pressed Coconut Oil, which has no flavor. I use this instead of normal cooking oils like canola oil and the other unhealthy seed, nut, and grain oils that we typically find in cupboards.

Both are amazing for frying, because you can really crank up the heat without smoking the place out.

Comments and ideas?

If you have any great ideas along these lines, please share!

Good morning

2011-12-05T06:23:00.000-08:00

My goal of slowly getting my weight back above 200lbs was reached a few weeks back, and I continued things up to 203. Time to rein it in, so last Monday I stopped eating more and started eating less. I have never been an abs guy, but I can do with shedding a little bit of fat (and the wife returns on the 11th).

The plan

train for kettlebell sport
walk more
eat less junk
eat less food
lift weights twice a week

Numbers 1, 3, 4, and 5 are good to go. Number 2 made me look at my fitbit numbers. Not good. I gotta get those up, and fast. Not that I can lose a lot of fat before 3:05pm NEXT SUNDAY, but every gram counts. I use grams because they are smaller than ounces, so I have a much better chance. Plus, Gal speaks metric, so I hope she notices a few grams, at least.

In the past, Gal and I have joked like the fitbit was a little pet, and we have a responsibility to walk the little dude. So, after I noticed that I'd let my fitbit battery die, I charged it back up and looked on fitbit dashboard. I found that my numbers this last week were pathetic. This must change, so after my kettlebell sport training yesterday, I put some stew stuff in the crockpot and hit the road to Trader Joe's (rather than eat misc stuff around the house), stupidly leaving the fitbit on the base station.

Even after the walk, my numbers were bad, since the fitbit was still on the base station. It's frustrating, but good to remember that the record of the walk isn't the walk; the walk is the walk.

The positives were walking (of course), a podcast, not eating because I was smelling the food that wasn't yet ready, and noticing my feet have improved! While walking, I looked down at my feet, which infamously have pointed out like a duck's feet. Only they weren't like duck's feet, last night! Things are better!

Here, I stopped to take a picture of my feet, standing.

both of my feet

It's not the same as walking, but this is about the same foot angle, but with slightly less movement. And, since I also stand like a duck and tend to come to a halt with feet angled out (like a duck), this is a huge step up.

Gotta go. Time to walk the fitbit before it has an accident on my floor.

You don't always have to count calories

2011-12-03T12:26:00.000-08:00

as long as you know that calories count.

One of my tools to help make people aware of calorie bombs is Chipotle Fan's Nutrition Calculator.

By clicking the options, you can see how simple choices make a meal better for your diet or better for a bulk! Try it. Put in your favorite, then start clicking to see how you can easily make it better or worse.

My dream burrito is 1080 calories, not including a beer, chips, and guac for dipping. By going with a bowl instead of tortilla, sour cream OR guacamole, and choosing rice OR corn salsa I cut my calorie load almost in half. I always remember to ask for extra veggies, and I end up satisfied and pretty full.

Even if you don't have a Chipotle near you, the concept is pretty sound for any burrito joint that can do tacos, burritos, or bowls. You might have to ask for something custom, but it's your dollar (or in the case of Chipotle, your ten).

people can lose weight by counting calories

2011-12-01T23:38:00.000-08:00

including me.

In 2003, I dropped 75lbs by counting calories, so don't tell me it doesn't work.

It's frustrating to listen to a paleo, primal, or low carb podcast or read a book on the evils of sugar or processed foods, and hear variations of "as we now know," "as we see," or "as has been proven," as a precursor to "counting calories doesn't work." It does work.

Whether they are lying, being disingenuous, or merely lazy with their speech we may never know, but what they mean to say, or should say, is that counting calories...

doesn't work for long because people get tired of it or get frustrated when progress slows
doesn't work because the math doesn't always work, and they don't know how to manipulate things to make it work
doesn't work because people might be eating the wrong things in the wrong amounts, leaving them hungry and unsatisfied
doesn't work because people fail to realize that those formulas are estimates or starting points, and not exact

...and so they eventually stop counting calories, stop dieting, and become a statistic that's improperly used to show that counting calories doesn't work.

In the end, counting calories does work if you keep counting them and realize that all the formulas and values are estimates and starting points. Work with them, be willing to adjust them, and they can work for you, as my 75 pound weight loss shows.

Do I think counting calories is the best way to go about weight loss and keep it off? No, but not because it doesn't work, but because it tends to be unsustainable. I no longer count calories, except out of periodic and rare curiosity. For years, it was fun and comforting, but after a while, it got old, so I moved on.

Eventually, you should consider weening yourself off of counting calories before you flip out and give up. You've already developed the good habit of healthy levels of eating and exercise, so never stop, just find a way to do it that doesn't make you want to quit.

One of my favorite sayings is "always know your next plan before quitting this one." If you're getting restless with any diet, that's the best time to start reading your next nutrition book or to start asking questions. In the meantime, keep on keeping on.

Are you getting tired of counting? Are you afraid to start dieting because counting calories is such a pain in the ass? Do you feel like all diets are doomed to fail? Let me know what's on your mind.

Christmas is all around us

2011-11-27T14:25:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone enjoys the Christmas season. I do.

I really like Christmas movies, but I typically dislike Christmas music. One of my favorite Christmas movies for adults is Love Actually, which contains my favorite Christmas song. It's a parody, which I hate, but it's a parody only because it's so over the top and "serious" in the movie. If it existed in the real world, it would be lame, yet here it is, the opposite of lame.

It's a similar phenomenon to Spinal Tap. Once I was driving with a friend and on our local rock station, a Tap song came on. "This song is so &%$@! stupid!," he said. I had to explain the Spinal Tap concept, after which he calmed down, but still failed to appreciate it without having seen the movie. The next song came on, and a few minutes into it he was shaking his head in disgust once again. "I don't think I want to see this movie." I quickly changed the station, but there was really nothing I could say to this song's defense; it had been Blue Oyster Cult.

Back to Christmas... Here's the low quality, too quiet version of Billy Mack's music video. Seen here and there throughout the movie.

If you want hi-quality music, try this one.

Here's the "making of" segment..., which I can't embed.

I think I'll watch it again, tonight.

If you haven't seen it. I recommend it. It's only $7.99 on Amazon, so toss it in alongside your other holiday purchases and bump yourself up to that $25 for Super Saver Shipping. You'll probably watch it every year.

The Gallery of Unusual Fruit #7 - The Thanksgiving Edition

2011-11-24T01:05:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Don't look at me like that, this is Greg's picture...

Emotional breakdowns on The Biggest Loser

2011-11-22T22:29:00.000-08:00

Oh. My. God. These people are cry babies!

I had to fast forward through this...

This is the first season I've ever watched in it's entirety, since the training and diet plans are so bad that they make me want to cry, and I'm not even on the show!

Why are these guys crying so much?

In my humble opinion, these breakdowns aren't really about how hard it is to lose weight. They aren't about a growling stomach. They cry, yell, scream, and fight because losing weight is more than a struggle against too many calories, salty snacks, and late night ice cream – it's a battle with a long time pattern of giving into temptation against your own best judgment.

One might get chubby by accident, but a journey to obesity is a long term commitment. It doesn't just happen without knowing it's going on. You might not have the will to stop it, and each time you don't stop it by giving into overeating, a little part of you silently, subconsciously, and secretly cries.

Anna's crying for a totally different reason

Now that the goal to get back to a healthy weight is within sight, you're still tempted. Do you know better now or do you just have the strength and willpower now? It's a question you pose to yourself every time. Each time you push back that desire to do it wrong, you face yourself. It's a battle that gets easier to win, but along the way, each battle is still just that, and it hurts. Facing yourself hurts.

Why is it such a struggle? Why isn't it easy, especially now that you have some real success under your, now smaller, belt? Does part of you fear your own success? Are you afraid that, at the end of the journey, you won't find what you're looking for?

I might be touchy-feely, but I'm still pretty logical and, like most men, I have the ability to pretend not to have feelings. I figured out my own fat loss fears and silently addressed them, but I don't know how, just that I did, then pushed it down again.

I wish I could take credit for everything I say that's brilliant, but my wife deserves a lot of the credit for my successes. My wife is more hippie-voodoo, so when I ask her about this stuff, she suggests using visualization techniques. Then, probably stuff like yoga, incense, and herbs, but I don't really know because once she starts talking I just look at her all dreamy and the world melts away. She's so pretty.

Anyhow, once I managed to write this all down before succumbing.

Visualize your success

Visualize your future. Not just what you'll look like. Sure, put that picture on the fridge, but don't stop there.
How will you feel when done? Think about it. You need to know.
Use all of your "senses." Not just how you'll look. How will you physically feel? Sound? How will you emotionally feel? All of it. Paint a visual picture. Imagine the story and your own scenes.
When you're there, how exciting will that be?
Do it now, and on a regular basis.
Do not wait until you the fear rises to the surface. Find it before it finds you.

You will succeed at this, so look ahead. Sneak a peak. Take a good look and remember it. Feel those feelings, regularly.

I suppose it's okay to cry, but eventually they will be happy tears, because you will be overjoyed by your own success.

Visualize that!

tomato paste is a fine vegetable, and really adds some flavor to pizza!

2011-11-19T23:33:00.000-08:00

I eat it almost every day. You know what it is? It's cooked tomatoes.

When you exaggerate the news for a headline, you lose credibility.

No one ruled that "pizza is a vegetable," and if they had it would have been years ago. The ruling was that TOMATO PASTE could STILL be considered a vegetable. Still.

not a pizza

By the way, two tablespoons of tomato paste contains 28 calories, or the equivalent of a cup of cherry tomatoes, one large tomato, or two roma tomatoes . This is probably more vegetables than most kids eat at dinner.

Yes, the ruling does benefit the pizza industry, because their product does contain vegetable, according to the ruling. I do not want my kids relying on pizza (which even my kids say is crappy pizza) for lunch, but try to get hold of yourselves. You're [collectively] in a frenzy.

If you want to do something about it, 1st get the facts, not the headlines. Have you ever tried to do anything with the government and not had the right form, missed a checkbox, or stood in the wrong line at the DMV? You start over. At the end of the line...

Do you think Congress is going to hear your crap about pizza being a vegetable? They know it's not. And because you're just wrong and ill informed, they will ignore you.

They also don't care that a tomato is a fruit, so stop bringing that up Mr. Clever. So is an eggplant! Try making a pie out of one of those for Thanksgiving!

You obviously don't know what to do about the state of school lunches, the USDA, Congress, and that stupid myplate, and neither do I.

Jamie Oliver, the mussed up hair chef from the UK seems to have some ideas that, while not perfect, are better than our government's. He seems to have a head of steam, too. Let's start with him. Check out Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and see what you can do to help. Start by signing the online petition, like our own American celebrity Kim Kardashian has!

It's not limited to celebrities, either. Look, Nathan from Kansas is with us, as is Jessica from North Carolina! Way to go Nathan and Jess! We're with you. We're with you.

Pumpkin seeds – spiced three ways

2011-11-18T18:54:00.000-08:00

I've had a lot of pumpkin these past few months, and therefore a lot of pumpkin seeds. On top of pumpkins , there have been a number of spaghetti squash, plus a couple of acorn squash and one butternut. Suddenly you have lots of "pumpkin" seeds. Seed size aside, a pumpkin is still just a winter squash. Seeds is seeds in my house.

My recipe for pumpkin seeds is not revolutionary, just simple. The best part about it is that it allows you to easily make a variety of flavors as easily as you would normally make a big tray of the simple and salty ones.

Clockwise from left; smokey, salty, & mole

Pumpkin seeds – spiced three ways

First, scrape the seeds from one or more pumpkins or squash. A big pumpkin will generally yield about a cup or more of seeds, but often those small pie or sugar pumpkins can hold more than that. Most small squash have smaller seeds, but lots of them. Feel free to mix and match, too. You can collect and dry them over a week or more, then roast them when you have enough.

Directions

Scoop the seeds from the pumpkins or squash. Separate the seeds from the strings and pumpkin flesh by putting it all in a big bowl of water and rubbing things between your hands, dislodging the seeds from the miscellaneous. Strain it all and drain it all in a colander for a while. Spread the seeds to dry on clean dish towels and place it in a warm area, preferably with warm, moving air. The top of my refrigerator works great for me. Stir and turn them a couple of times a day for best results and less sticking. When they are dry, it's time to roast them.

Dry roasting sounds good, but it's going to mean the spices don't stick, so just give up on that idea right now. It's not as tasty, but you can dry roast salted seeds by soaking them in brine, drying them out, then dry roasting them, but that's all the instruction you'll get from me on that.

Before the roasting happens, we have to get the seasonings ready. Ready?

You'll need three bowls large enough to stir your seeds and some spices without making a mess. Cereal bowls work well, and they will appreciate the company now that you no longer eat cereal! haha! I kid... sorta.

In a perfect world, just use three jars with lids, which you can use to shake the seeds and spices instead of stirring. Less cleanup, too, since you'll use them to store the seeds.

Each of the following spice mixtures is to season about 1/2 cup of seeds, so adjust accordingly depending on how much you've got.

I'm listing the spice mixtures first because you need to have them ground and already in the jars or bowls before you've roasted the seeds. So get the three mixtures ready now, then get to roasting.

some of the spices used today

Salty

I don't know about your kids, but most kids are boring when it comes to pumpkin seeds and only like the ones that are seasoned by salt only. I can add "exciting" variety by using more or less salt, coarse salt, fine salt, Himalayan salt, sea salt, and butter, sometimes, instead of coconut oil, but aside from that, pretty basic stuff.

Even though my own kids tell me to make all the seeds with just salt, I do not. First, who's in charge here? Second, they won't eat them all anyway. They just think they will. So nod your head, and wait a minute. They'll put their earbuds back in and go away, and you just do what you will.

Ingredients

1/2 cup (ish) roasted pumpkin seeds (directions to follow)
1 tsp plain or sea salt OR about 2 tsp coarser salts like Himalayan salt

Directions

Put the spices and seeds in a bowl or jar and set aside until you've roasted the seeds.

Smokey

I like spicy. I grew up mild, but at around 20 years, I was suddenly thrust into the world of chili cookoffs and hot salsas via my old boss, Mike. Mike cooked chili that burned. Because of Mike, I'm a chili fan, a chili purist, and I also enjoy really spicy foods. My family, however, not so much. That does mean that I get to keep my bottles of devil sauce to myself, yet rarely get to make foods that are spicy in and of themselves.

Today, I made mine smokey but not too spicy, using smoked paprika, which is hotter than the sweet paprika, and tastes deliciously like a milder chipotle chili.

Ingredients

1/2 cup (ish) roasted pumpkin seeds (directions to follow)
1 tsp spicy powdered chili (smoked paprika, powdered chipotle, New Mexico, etc.)
1 tsp plain or sea salt OR about 2 tsp coarser salts like Himalayan salt

Directions

Put the spices and seeds in a bowl or jar and set aside until you've roasted the seeds.

Mole

Yeah, I think I know you. You like the sensual touch. A bit of spice in your food, balanced out by something sweet maybe. A bite of ginger in your cheesecake rather than a drizzle of overly sweet topping. You can be lured in by a promise of mouth feel, a tingle on the tongue, or that flush of temperature that mysteriously comes from some ingredient in the dish or from somewhere deep within yourself; we don't always know.

You are the reason I make mole sauce from scratch, put luscious mango slices along side cheesecake, and use foods like crème fraiche instead of whipped cream. For you.

You don't need to know what mole (pronounced 'molay') is, but just know that it's a Mexican sauce that's typically made of chocolate, spices, and fruity ancho chilis. It can be sweet, spicy, savory, or all of these at once. It looks and tastes beautiful on anything and everything. While it's a decadent and sensual little sauce most of the time, as a spice on your pumpkin seeds, it warms the mouth and leaves your lips tingling from the spice on your fingertips, all the while almost satisfying that inner desire for chocolate, and encouraging bite after bite.

Ingredients

1/2 cup (ish) roasted pumpkin seeds (directions to follow)
1 tsp powdered ancho chili (or California chili or sweet paprika, if ancho isn't available)
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1-2 pinches of powdered cinnamon
1 tsp plain or sea salt OR about 2 tsp coarser salts like Himalayan salt

Directions

Put the spices and seeds in a bowl or jar and set aside until you've roasted the seeds.

Pan roasting the seeds

1/2 to 2 cups of pumpkin/squash seeds
1 to 2 tbsp butter, ghee, or coconut oil

In a large skillet, heat the fat over medium high heat. Be especially careful of the butter, because it can brown if too hot. When in doubt, do with lower heat and roast longer.

Add the seeds and stir to evenly coat with the melted fat. Stir and shake periodically, until the seeds are puffed up a bit and have browned spots throughout. Cool one, periodically, and try it. It should be crisp, hollow, and tasty. That's called "done."

Final steps

Divide the seeds into three portions. One at a time, mix the seeds and the spices by stirring in the bowls or putting the lids on the jars and shaking well. After shaking, remove the lids and allow the seeds to fully cool before covering them again.

The seeds keep well for days, covered tightly in their jars.

Tea, but with what?

2011-11-16T17:04:00.000-08:00

For this damned cold, tea with honey has been the suggested "remedy," but I don't know. I'm okay with honey, but I don't have any. What's the point of keeping it around? I don't plan to buy it just for this cold, either. I do have some sugar. It's the evil white sugar, though.

Honey vs sugar is a common point of discussion and debate, both for those looking to lose weight and those looking to be healthier. People switch from sugar to honey, but what's the real value of the switch? Should you switch? Let's look at the two...

Honey: contains anti-oxidents, vitamins, and minerals not found in sugar. Made by bees, which are hardworking little guys.

Table Sugar: the main made scurge to our wastelines, teeth, and declining health as a society. The root of all evil and is to be avoided.

Honey: 64 calories of sugar per tablespoon. Those little packets at Starbucks have 43 calories. How much do you put in your tea?

Table Sugar: A tablespoon is 45 calories of sugar. Do you really put a whole tablespoon in your tea? That's three teaspoons for those of you who didn't grow up in a kitchen.

Honey: Honey has a distinctive taste. You can even get exotic honey with more distinctive taste.

Table Sugar: Table sugar pretty much tastes like sugar. It's just sweet.

Honey: There are those who believe that raw honey from local bees (bees which aren't from America, btw) can help with allergies. I call ~~placebo~~ bs on this, but I don't have allergies.

Table Sugar: Seemingly no redeeming qualities except that it bakes well (but only because it's what we are used to).

Honey: Expensive. Will you ration it?

Table Sugar: Inexpensive. Will you throw caution to the wind?

Honey: Honey is paleo/primal. This is laughable just because it's just not a good argument. Ancient man smoked all sorts of things, ate bugs, sometimes ate poisonous things in rituals. That it's been around for a long time is a pointer or clue, it's not the decision maker. Ancient man didn't have honey every day, and when he found a big stash and feasted, he probably felt like crap, too.

Table Sugar: Neolithic food. That it's relatively new to us is a pointer or clue, it's not the decision maker. Broccoli has only been here for a few thousand years, for instance.

What's the bottom line?

1. Use the sweetener that you will use in the greatest moderation. In the above examples, for me, sugar is the clear choice for my tea, since I use a teaspoon of sugar, but a packet of honey. What would you use?

2. Many sweeteners have a distinctive taste, and this can either allow you to use less OR prompt you to use more. Brown sugar and honey are flavoring agents in addition to sweeteners, how will that effect your oatmeal and your dose of sugar? I would use fewer calories of brown sugar or honey, because there's a taste in there.

3. Is having it around an issue? In your pantry:

Sugars tend to come in large bags, so you'll have a lot of it around. Problem?
Brown sugar gets old and hard, so will you hurry up and use it?
Honey crystallizes, so will you try to use it before that happens?

4. Fancy sugars are just fancy sugars. Taste aside, they are sugar calories. Don't go thinking coconut sugar, raw sugar, or turbinado sugars are better for you, they aren't. Like honey, they are just different.

5. Agave is one of the most processed sugars of all. It's a trick. Agave nectar sounds natural, but it's no more natural than high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

6. HFCS is no more a problem than sugar, but it's everywhere. HFCS has been fingered as an obesity cause because obese people and type 2 diabetics tend to have so much of it, but if it wasn't there, they'd have the equivalent amount of table sugar in that soda (the soda would just cost 5 cents more, probably). Remember, that SUGAR and the amount of it that "we" eat is the problem, not one particular type.

7. Some "sugars" have more fructose or more glucose than others. In the amounts you should be eating them, this is insignificant, but just be careful not to fall for the hype. Honey and agave, for instance are higher in fructose, which you are told is awesome. But, more fructose isn't awesome, especially if you are already heavy, obese, metabolically challenged, or have type 2 diabetes. Again, in the amounts you should be having sugar, don't sweat the fructose levels of a tablespoon of "sugar."

8, Don't rely on your sweetener for vitamins and minerals. There's hardly anything in there. You're kidding yourself if that's a decision point. Eat more vegetables or take a vitamin, if that's your concern.

So?

So, after all that, should you switch? Or should you even worry about it?

What did I have with my tea? Half and half. I don't really like my tea sweet.

Roland is sick

2011-11-15T00:19:00.000-08:00

Just a cold. Nothing serious.

I'm tired, but wide awake.

Watching Spinal Tap and then back to bed. Too bad my alarm clock only goes to 10

The Tap classic; Stonehenge

Some early Tap, circa 1967. The year I was born.

Good night

In-N-Out, 'Primal' Style vs Protein Style

2011-11-07T12:24:00.000-08:00

Primal eating isn't just about ditching the grains, but also minimizing the unhealthy fats, like soybean oil.

At In-N-Out Burger, ask for Protein-Style, but with catsup and mustard instead of spread; fewer calories, less crap, better health.

While you're at it, go for extra tomatoes and throw on some pickles!

Enjoy!

An Amazon ordering tip (duh)

2011-11-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

If you order a bunch of stuff from Amazon, but one item is a pre-order (Lou Schuler's next NROL), and you go for the Super Saver Shipping, nothing ships 'til it can ALL ship. Duh... Like in May!

Thanks, Amazon, for shipping it anyway when I asked where my stuff was. They were nice, and did the free shipping just for me, so it pays to ask nicely, especially when it turns out to be your own stupid fault. :)

Anyway, I got home to find all this, and just in time for the weekend! ...as soon as I FIND time, that is! Super busy, so hasta!

Roland

Tomato Persimmon Chopped Salad

2011-11-03T21:59:00.000-07:00

"Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad." - Brian O'Driscoll

Fruit salad?

There are some foods that walk a fine line between fruit and vegetable. The tomato is one. Let's just acknowledge a few things here. All fruits are vegetable(s), because they are the fruits (or seed bearing portions) of plants, which... wait for it... are. vegetable. Remember the animal, vegetable, and mineral thing from when you were a kid?

The bottom line is that if it's sweet, treat it as a fruit, and if it's not, treat it as a vegetable. If it's starchy, it can still be either one (plantains are fruits and turnips are vegetables, for instance). From a dietary standpoint, try to treat starchy foods like you would a potato and don't count them as your serving of vegetables.

Most fruits and veggies are clearly used as one or the other, although a hard green mango or papaya is pretty good eaten as a vegetable, while the sweet ripe ones are eaten as the fruits that they are. Likewise, the fuyu persimmon in this recipe can be either one. However you slice it (or eat it), this is your invitation to relax on pigeonholing your produce.

Please understand that this salad must use a fuyu persimmon, which is a non-astringent variety, even when firm. Other non-astringent persimmons do exist, but use of most other hard persimmons will likely ruin your salad unless you really know what you're doing. Do you?

Not a tomato

Tomato & Persimmon Chopped Salad

1 medium tomato (the fruit that always starts fight about "fruit or veggie")
1 hard fuyu persmimon (a fruit)
2 Persian cucumbers (a fruit used as a vegetable)
1 red bell pepper (a fruit used as a vegetable OR a spice)
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (the oil of a fruit)
1 green onion (a vegetable sprout)
salt (a mineral)
2 oz goat cheese (an optional animal product)

Chop all of the fruits into similar sized pieces and put it in a large bowl. Mince the green onion and add it to the salad. Salt the salad and toss well. Let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes to an hour. Stir in the olive oil and toss before serving.

If you like, you can crumble some goat cheese over each bowl as you serve the salad. Now that's good stuff!

I think after eating this simple vegetable salad made mostly of fruits, I'm ready to try some more adventurous fruits in my salads. The farmer's market is tomorrow, so I'll see what I find!

Upcoming IKFF Competition

2011-11-01T23:15:00.000-07:00

The One Hour Long Cycle is now behind me, and I'm happy to report that I managed 464 reps with one 20kg kettlebell. This is about 130 more than last year!

Needless to say, I'm happy to have finished the hour without setting the weight down, and with most of the skin still on my hands. Nice!

I now move on to train for my first Kettlebell Sport Competition!

On January 21, 2012, my friend Luke is hosting this event at his gym, LEAF Performance Center, in Santa Monica.

For those not in the know, these competitions aren't an hour, but they are still ten long minutes. Ten minutes straight. Ten minutes, and for guys, it's with two kettlebells. That is really a long time in weight lifting minutes.

I hope to compete with two 24kg kettlebells, which are the green guys pictured above. Official kettlebells are color coded, so green is 24kgs.

My event is going to be the Long Cycle, which Troy and Luke demonstrate, below.

I'm sure Troy is awesome, but since all of their kettlebells are "LEAF" green, and we assume they aren't all 24kgs, we have no idea what he's using to demonstrate. 8s or 12s, I think. Go Troy! I'll see you on January 21st!

Related links

IKFF
IKFF Ranks/Rules (PDF)
Competition Registration and Info

My wife thinks I'm awesome! My mom probably does, too.

But, low fat milk is probably the healthiest thing on your kid's cafeteria tray!

2011-10-30T10:46:00.000-07:00

"Make sure to eat your greens with a meal containing fat, so that you can absorb the calcium."

"Dress you salad with olive oil so that you can absorb the calcium in the greens."

This is common, and sound, advice amongst the "healthy" eating, "clean" eating, paleos, and primal eaters, but when it comes to dairy, and in particular in regards to school lunches and the USDA's myplate recommendations, we get a different message.

"Low fat dairy doesn't have the fat necessary to absorb the calcium, so don't drink it."

Ok... But the fat in the meal suddenly doesn't count when it's about milk? And really, how much fat does it take?

I understand that school lunches (because of the USDA) are bad, but low fat milk, unfortunately, is probably the healthiest item left on the menu. Let's work with it while we still have it.

School lunches do not ~~often~~ include greens cooked in fat.
School lunches may serve salad, but my kids are not reporting them to be green salads dressed in olive oil. When there is a salad, It seems to be iceberg and/or romaine, and ranch dressing. You can argue the benefits of romaine over iceberg, but anyone who relies on one cup of romaine for their nutrition hasn't thought this thing through.
School lunches are one meal a day. You still have at least two opportunities, per day, to feed them good food, so I'm sure they aren't calcium deficient from this one carton at school.
Even low fat milk is a better source of protein than extruded chicken nuggets or pizza.

I do think school lunches, snacks, and vending machine policies suck. I think the decisions to provide low fat, chocolate, and skim milk at schools is based on crappy "science" and food politics, but the plain milk is the least of our worries when we still have low fat floury pizza, bean burritos, chicken nuggets, soybean and corn oils, and other truly unhealthy foods as mainstays of school lunches. Compared to these foods, low fat milk is a winner.

For more about improving school foods and making the milk our kids do get better, keep up with Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, and sign the petition. Milk, particularly low fat milk, is not perfect, but if we wait for perfect, we wait forever.

Win some grass feed beef!

2011-10-28T05:08:00.000-07:00

You just have another day or so to enter the contest, and hopefully win a huge box of grass fed steaks!

The Marx Foods Grass-Fed Steak Sampler

four 6oz Grass-Fed Filet Mignons

four 12oz Grass-Fed NY Strip Steaks

four 10oz Grass-Fed Ribeye Steaks

Head over to Marx Foods and let them know your favorite kind of steak, even if it's not in the sampler. You have through Sunday, October 30th to make your comment and enter the contest.

What's so special about grass-fed beef? It's delicious, and because it's fed on grass rather than corn and other grains, it tastes the way steaks tasted when your grandfather was grilling them. The fat is healthier, too. You know those fish oil capsules that you pop? Well, omega-3 fats are in this steak, so you can pop less.

Get over to Marx Foods, and after you're done commenting (and crossing your fingers for the big win), check out all the other amazing things that they have on the site. You just can't find this stuff at your local stores; antelope, elk, venison, and even more. Here are the links to Marx Foods Meats & Poultry.

Remember to subscribe to their blog and get updates on all the great recipes that they create, like this Provencal-Style Antelope Stew, just posted today!

Nine years...

2011-10-27T00:09:00.000-07:00

Today is October 27, 2011, and it's been nine years since I hit my "healthy weight" on the BMI scale.

Of course, we know that BMI means little to an individual person, but it's often a goal on a chart in a doctor's office. BMI readings make doctors stop giving you crap when you're on the right spot on their charts.

Nine years of "healthy weight" means about nine and half years of dieting, exercise, good eating, and healthy cooking. It's been a long time since this stopped being work, now it's life, and just what I do.

In nine and a half years I've gone from a couch potato to a healthy dad, from the guy who was always picked last to a personal trainer, nutrition coach, and even a part time "athlete."

Jason, Nazo, John, and me at last weekend's kettlebell charity event

I'm really more the "weekend warrior" than a true athlete, but I do okay! In case it's not obvious, I'm in the blue shirt, next to three real athletes – and my friends – from the Orange Kettlebell Club.

In nine and a half years, I've learned a lot, through reading, research, asking, and just plain trial and error. Recently I did a presentation at Lisa Wolfe's Miracle Fitness, where I shared a lot of what I learned, talking about the habits and behaviors of fat loss. I started off with some drama, just to make the rest of the talk go easier, of course!

95% of dieters regain the lost weight?

Please notice the question mark.

I talked about this 95% statistic that's tossed around so lightly. "95% of dieters fail to keep the weight off" it's said. That's the typical statement. 95%. That's depressing, isn't it? Well, it shouldn't be, not to you.

First, who makes up that 95%? All sorts of people, but mostly, it was people without a real plan. It was people given diets and sent on their way. We don't know the plan, and whether it was a good one. We don't know what type of support that they got, either from friends, family, a formal support group, or their personal trainer or nutrition coach. We don't know how badly they wanted to lose weight and keep it off. We can just assume...

What I tell my clients, friends, and family is this: The fact that you have a plan, desire, and support puts you in a totally different group. When you have these things, you may be in that mere 5%, but once you are in that group, your chances of success are much larger than 5%. Much.

Plan – Over almost ten years of "dieting," I've tried so many diets, and not all of them worked for me. But, rather than just stop dieting, I changed my plan. I've changed diets and plans many times, but never without knowing my next step. In nearly ten years, I've never been off of my overall plan.

Desire – I remember one day the desire sort of kicked in or turned on. I resolved to lose weight and keep it off. I looked at what frustrated me in the past and addressed it. By and large, my issue had been that I was trying to lose weight to get ~~girls~~ happy. Instead, I resolved to be happy first, and lose weight ~~to look good~~ for the health benefits. I have strong feelings about getting yourself happy to lose fat, but that's not for today... it deserves it's own blog post.

Support – I've had plenty of support, from personal trainers and nutrition coaches, from my coworkers, family, and friends, and from my friends online at JPFitness. I told everyone that I was losing weight, and those who supported me and my goals are still good friends to this day. Sure, there were naysayers, but rather than let them drag me down, I just realized that they have their own issues, and hope that they will get better one day. I focused on the positive people; a good network of support and a public resolve to lose weight was key.

Flip the statistic

Speaking of focusing on the positive, with what I know now about long term fat loss and maintenance, I would say that when you have these things in order, you've flipped the statistic. You might be in the 5% overall, but once you're in there and resolved to stay there, your chances of success are more like 95%.

Think about it. If you want it, and are willing to make it happen, what's going to stand in your way of fat loss success? Only giving up, really. So don't give up.

95% chance of success?

I think so.

95%

Make it happen. Do it.

Lutfiye biyaldi

2011-10-26T05:44:00.000-07:00

This is inspired by Imam Biyaldi, which is a dish my ex-girlfriend taught me to make, years ago. The name Imam Biyaldi means "the Imam fainted" in Turkish, but there are versions all over the Mediterranean, the Middle East, the Balkans, and the Internet. There are as many stories as there are versions of this dish, but the gist of it is that in ancient days, an Imam's new wife made for him a dish of eggplant, tomatoes and other vegetables, fragrant spices, and tons of olive oil. It was so good that he fainted.

I've made the original version many times, and I can see, smell, and taste the attraction, although I have never fainted, having always made it myself, of course.

For this version, I left the eggplant at the farmer's market and used pumpkin, instead. I still have 10 pounds of pumpkin to eat my way through, after all.

It's amazing how the spices are so perfect for the pumpkin, and I didn't really need to change much from my ex's Imam Biyaldi recipe; cinnamon and cumin are the perfect spices here. Oh, don't skimp on the olive oil. I say 4 tbsp, but it is even better with a couple more. I know you, and you won't do it, though. ;)

Enjoy!

Lutfiye Biyaldi

Makes 4 side servings (meatball, optional)

Ingredients

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
3 cups raw pumpkin or squash, cubed

1 medium white or yellow onion, chopped

1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 tbsp cumin seeds, whole

1 clove garlic, minced

6-8 roma tomatoes or 3-4 large tomatoes, chopped

1/4 tsp cinnamon, ground
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water

Directions

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and add 1 tbsp olive oil. Saute the cubes of pumpkin until they are browned on all sides. Remove from heat and put the pumpkin in a large heavy bottomed pot or dutch oven.

Add another tbsp of oil to the skillet. Saute the onion and bell pepper until the onion is lightly browned and translucent. Place the onion and peppers into the pot with the pumpkin.

Add another tbsp of oil to the skillet and cook the cumin seeds until fragrant. Add the garlic and stir, allowing it to cook for about 1 minute. Do not let it burn. Quickly stir in the chopped tomatoes and lower the heat to low. Combine well to stop the cooking process of the garlic and then scrape the mixture into the pot.

Stir in the cinnamon, pepper, salt, and water. Bring to a simmer, cover, and allow to cook for 30-45 minutes, until the squash is very tender and almost falling apart.

Serve with meatballs and maybe some feta cheese, if desired.

Enjoy!

I dedicate my latest twist on Imam Biyaldi, which I've named Lutfiye Biyaldi, to my ex-girlfriend. ...who's now my wife, Galya. What or who is Lutfiye? A famed princess turned spy, a strong and sleek warrior, and a woman who's beauty was enough to start wars. When she faints, look out.

I can't afford to start losing weight

2011-10-24T05:30:00.000-07:00

I hear (or read) these all the time; "It's too expensive to eat right," and "the gym costs too much."

Valid objections, excuses, or merely misconceptions? I see don't people making excuses, but they are falling prey to popular misconceptions about diet and exercise. As a result, they never start.

Two objections, but three tips to follow. It's a trifecta, meaning that they all come together to work together.

1. "It's too expensive to eat right."

Is it also too expensive to eat less food?

Yes, I would prefer that you eat right, but fewer Oreos can only help. You can start eating less cereal. At lunch, a McDouble and a side salad costs less than a Big Mac combination. By the way, do you know that when McDonald's opened, a single burger and a little bag of what we think of as "kid's fries" was customers ate? What if you ate that instead of your usual? How much less does that cost?

Is there a better way? Eating healthier can make losing weight easier, quicker, and more painless, but in the meantime, you know what do.

I can also save you some money in the long run. Getting sick can be expensive. If you work for yourself, missing work can be very expensive.

What about clothes? Buying new clothes because you outgrew the last ones can be expensive. Bigger clothes, themselves, are expensive, too. Have you noticed that clothes at Target and Walmart go up a few bucks once you get into XXL? We're not talking a big clothes style or section, but the very same polo shirt costs more for the bigguns.

2. "The gym costs too much."

Maybe. But, why do you have to workout in the gym? What do most of the people in gyms do? Cardio and resistance training, neither of which actually requires a gym! And, by the way, losing weight requires neither.

Let's start with cardio. The misconception is that cardio burns fat, but the reality is that living life burns fat just as well if you don't eat too much food. Cardio does burn more calories than just sitting around, so it can help, but, if you're eating too much or finishing your cardio with Gatorade, forget it. Zero. Fat. Burned.

Resistance training, whether it's weights or those fancy machines with all the pads and cables, doesn't really burn fat directly, but it does tell your body what to do with your fat and your muscles when it's time. A good resistance training plan tells your body to preferentially burn fat when you're dieting and when you do have a meal, it tells your body to put on some muscle and retain that bone density. All good stuff.

My wife and I wrote a program that almost anyone can use to get going with their training – The Beginner's Kickstart Training Program. Check it out for a good workout that won't require a gym membership.

Of course, even that "Kickstart" may be too much for some, especially in the beginning. Don't let that stop you. Drop me a line or post in the comments and we'll chat. The bottom line is that gym costs should not hold you back from getting healthier and losing weight. There are many good ways...

3. "You have no journal."

This is my objection, not yours. I don't care what you call it; a log, a journal, a workout diary, or a food and exercise tracker, just have one. Keeping track of food and activity lets you go back and make adjustments later.

Studies show that people who keep a journal of their diet and exercise habits are far more likely to succeed. A log or journal can be simple or complex, paper or electronic, but have one, and greatly improve your chances of success.

Starting right now, write all this stuff down at the top of page one:

today's date
your weight
any measurements
your current clothing sizes
any health notes
any goals

Then, underneath that, start writing stuff down.

Date -- Every day you start fresh. Every day is a new opportunity to make it happen.
Food – Write down everything you eat. Everything. You don't need calories or grams of fat, but just the list of foods, the times you ate them, and how much you ate.
Activity– When you exercise or move around, write that down, too. All of it.

Journal every day.

You might be surprised to note that many people begin to lose weight merely by using a food and activity journal. When you write it down, there's no more mindless eating, you tend to make better choices. You also might move around a bit more. These things are often enough to get you going in the right direction, and don't cost a thing.

Chili con carne with grilled pumpkin

2011-10-23T00:38:00.000-07:00

After posting this recipe the other day, a more "primal-eating" pal of mine asked me about the grilled pumpkin that I had mentioned in the recipe. It seems the interest in the new Primal Blueprint book is stirring up questions about what are some good vegetables to eat on a primal or paleo diet. Hint; pumpkin is cool. ;)

I hate to keep pushing it, but you still have time to get a great book, the free bonuses, and help get Mark's healthy eating message into the mainstream. Getting on the New York Times Bestseller List makes it more likely to make the news, get doctors talking about it, and more people healthy and fit. I really believe in this message, and if can bring to discussion to the mainstream, so much the better. It's under $14, and if you purchase it before midnight, Monday October 24th, you can help out, get healthy, AND get free stuff.

And now, back to the recipe...

The other day, I pretty much glossed over the pumpkin near the end of the recipe, but pumpkin (or winter squash) is actually my own go-to starch for chili in the fall and winter.

Here's the pumpkin that I'm currently eating my way through...

21 pounds of pumpkin

21 pounds... That's a lot of pumpkin. I've already eaten almost half of it, my freezer is now stocked with a huge bag of fresh cubed pumpkin, and my fridge is filled with 11 cups of pumpkin puree for soups and whatever. That's a lot of pumpkin...

I got this big dude at Trader Joe's ($5.99). It's one of those Fairy Tale Pumpkins that have been populare for Halloween the last few years. When I went to Bulgaria last summer, these guys were all over the place. ...as food. Who knew? ;)

This wedge alone weighed 5lbs

This is a pretty cost effective squash, even if I can't eat it all. At the grocery store, a tiny one pound sliver of that yellow banana squash is two or three dollars! A tiny whole butternut squash is three to five dollars! A sugar pumpkin or pie pumpkin is anywhere from $3 to $6, depending on whether they think you are going to eat it or use it as decor. Go big or and go home (and start cutting)!

Please note that some of my recipe info is duplicated from Sunday's, but there's a definite lack of beanage today. Chili doesn't have to have beans to be chili. In fact, enter a chili cookoff and you'll find they usually have a strict, no bean policy for judging. Like cookoff chilis, my chilis tend to be merely chili con carne, or chili with meat. ...and each of us in the family will do with it what we will, whether it's adding squash, pumpkin, eggplant, summer squash, or just eating it as is with some stuff on the side.

Braised chili con carne with grilled pumpkin

The meat is simply braised - either in your slow cooker, a dutch oven, or heavy bottomed pot. It uses thinly sliced meat that shortens the cooking time and leaves it extra tender. It looks good arranged on the plate, too.

The sauce is a simple chili puree, it would normally be stirred into the chili, but drizzled on top, it looks great!

As to the serving size and the amount of pumpkin, please note that I usually eat a large serving of pumpkin (over a pound) at a sitting. A pound (peeled and weighed before cooking) has only about 120 calories and 30g of carbohydrate, so it's not a lot of calories, but it is a lot of food. Feel free to tone it down. I suggest four pounds for serving 6-8 people, but go up or down, depending on appetites.

Makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients

Pumpkin
4 lbs raw, peeled pumpkin

2 tbsp bacon fat, coconut oil, or olive oil
salt to taste

Chili
2 pounds boneless cross rib roast
1/4 lb salt pork or bacon, chopped
1 tbsp bacon fat, olive oil, or coconut oil
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
water to cover meat
1 tbsp cumin, ground
2 tbsp paprika

Chili puree
6-9 chili japones
2 chili guajillo
6 chili california
salt to taste
water

Directions

Chili con carne

Slice the meat into two long pieces, then across into thin slices. If your chunk of meat doesn't fit this shape, just go for it. Thin, manageable slices are the key (see picture, below).

Brown the salt pork or bacon in a large skillet, dutch oven, or heavy bottomed pot. Remove to a bowl or your slow cooker.

In small batches, lightly brown the beef, removing the browned slices to the bowl or slow cooker.

Add the oil to the pan, then the onions, cooking until translucent and lightly browned. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant. If cooking in the pot or dutch oven, immediately add water so that the garlic doesn't burn, otherwise remove the onion mixture to the slow cooker. Pour in just enough water to cover the meat.

Sprinkle with cumin and paprika and lightly stir. Cover and simmer for 1-3 hours, until just tender.

Meanwhile, make the chili puree.

Chili puree

Tear or cut the woody stems from the chili and shake any loose seeds out. A few won't hurt (they will be strained out later). Place in a covered pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and allow them to simmer for 20 minutes, then let them cool.

Blend the cooled chilis in a blender, and pour them into a strainer over a large bowl.

Using a spoon or spatula, stir and push the mash around until the puree is in the bowl and all you have is thick fiberous mash and seeds left in the strainer.

Salt the puree to taste.

Pumpkin

Slice the peeled pumpkin into long slices (pictured at the top of the page).

Heat the fat or oil in a non-stick pan and add the pumpkin slices. Cook over medium high heat until the pumpkin is tender, but not falling apart. I think it took 5-8 minutes per side.

Arrange the slices on the top half of the plate, leaving room for the chili in the center, and any other vegetables along the bottom.

Arrange slices of chili con carne down the center of a plate. Serve with some simple sauteed, grilled, or steamed vegetables, like zucchini or grilled bell peppers, or maybe a chopped salad.

chili con carne, with pumpkin slices and chopped salad

Drizzle the chili puree over the meat before serving.

Enjoy!

Remember, you have only a couple of days left to pickup the Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation AND get these freebies.

1. Free ebook – “Primal Living in the REAL World”: A 130-page eBook where 100s of Primal enthusiasts share their challenges, solutions and practical tips for how they get – and stay – Primal.

2. Free audio interview – "21-Day Total Body Transformation" Audio Q&A: Download a 60 minute podcast in which Mark discusses the 8 Key Concepts that everyone needs to know to go Primal.

3. $10 Gift Certificate to PrimalBlueprint.com: Spend it like cash and order whatever you want, perhaps a cookbook to go with the 21-Day Transformation book?

Update on The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation

2011-10-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

Hunter Gatherer, by artist Banksy

Update on The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation

The book is really high ranked on Amazon.com, so tons of people are buying it!

If you're going to buy it, PLEASE buy it before midnight, Monday, October 24th.

First, you can help put this book on the New York Times Bestseller List.

I'm pretty tired of seeing diet books that are absolute crap on that list. These are often filled with the same dietary advice that's seen our obesity rates soar. These diets are often hung up on the same bad advice that we're getting from the government. Do any of us think that the USDA gives good advice these days?

This book is about whole foods, healthy eating practices, and reasonable exercise and fitness plans and deserves more media attention and a place on your bookshelf.

Second, you get freebies (below).

I missed a few of the bonuses that you can get if you order, and only mentioned the free ebook.

So, if you order your book(s) online (via the American Amazon.com) or at your local American bookstore before midnight Monday, Oct. 24. you can get the following:

Order 1 Copy and You Get:

1. Access to the exclusive, password-protected ebook – “Primal Living in the REAL World”: In this 130-page eBook, hundreds of Primal enthusiasts share their challenges, solutions and practical tips for how they get – and stay – Primal. It’s like having the advice of 300 coaches. In it you’ll read hundreds of answers to these and numerous other questions: What is the first thing a person should do to kick start their Primal life? What do you think is the most important thing one should understand as they attempt to go Primal? What was the biggest hurdle you experienced when going Primal and how did you overcome it? And of course, the most important one, What do you usually eat for breakfast?

2. Access to the exclusive, password-protected audio interview – “21-Day Total Body Transformation”: Download a 60 minute, free-wheeling Q&A podcast in which I discuss the 8 Key Concepts that everyone needs to know to go Primal. Among many other topics covered, I explain why your body prefers burning fat over carbohydrates and how you can use this knowledge to become a fat-burning beast instead of a sugar burner. Also, I riff on why grains are totally unnecessary and why 80 percent of your body composition is determined by how you eat.

3. $10 Gift Certificate to PrimalBlueprint.com: Spend it like cash and order whatever you want, perhaps a cookbook to go with the 21-Day Transformation book? This means for a net 5 bucks you can grab a copy of my new book today. (The coupon code is good for any single product at PrimalBlueprint.com and expires on 11/30/11.)

If you purchase 1-2 copies email or forward your receipt to 1book@primalblueprint.com

If you're going to purchase 3 or more copies, you also get an audio copy of the original, Primal Blueprint, which is a great book! If you're leading the charge for a group and picking up 8 or more, the bonuses get even better!

I was able to flip through the book last night, and it looks awesome! It was a lot better looking than I'd hoped. Clear and full of pretty pictures, with a great 21 day actual plan and journal in the back! This is a great tool!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the book and what it can do for you and your body!

Top 10 extruded foods

2011-10-19T17:16:00.000-07:00

Partially based upon these foods, I can support the idea that it's not the "Standard American Diet" that's the issue, but the Modern Industrial Diet. I know SAD sounds cooler than MID, but what can you do?

From Ohio State's "Extruded Foods: Cheese or Cocoa Puffs"

Upon discharge through the die, the hot, plastic extrudate expands rapidly with loss of moisture and heat because of sudden decrease in pressure. After expansion cooling, and drying, the extruded product develops a rigid structure and maintains a porous texture.

Advantages of food extrusion are versatility, high productivity, low cost, product shapes, high product quality, energy efficiency, production of new foods, and no effluents or waste.

<sarcasm> This is what I look for in my food. </sarcasm>

So, in no particular order, I present...

chicken nuggets
chicken patties, crispy or spicy and crispy

But is it free range extrudate?

Like grandma used to make

cheese puffs
cocoa puffs

Fiber One
pasta

Froot Loops
kibbles (and bits?)
Play-Doh

churros
Slim Jims

I cannot say that extruded foods are bad merely because they are extruded; I can extrude my own sausage at home, and the wife even extruded some cream cheese as part of our wedding reception appetizers. But that's about it...

Extruded food class... DISMISSED!

21 Days to better health and a better body

2011-10-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

Note: I don't usually sell you on stuff, but I really believe in this guy and his books. What I've learned by following this "primal lifestyle" has truly changed my life for the better. Please read this, and consider changing your life for the better. It's not hard to do if you want it.

21 days...

Do you have mysterious ailments, migranes, weird twitches, blood sugar "issues," some sort of "syndrome," embarrassing gurgles in your "tummy," cholesterol issues, poop problems, or eyes that water even when you're not watching The Notebook?

Are you overweight? Do you want to lose fat, be stronger, leaner, have muscles that are more toned. ...maybe even get long and lean? Come on, you know you do. Admit it.

Have you tried to diet before? Counting calories? Weighing food? Points? Calories are delicious, but what does a macro taste like, anyway?

Have you been considering eating healthier. Maybe more like our own ancestors ate? ...back in the days of yore? This could be the perfect book for you, at the perfect time!

I'm not going to say that this book is a cure all, a blessing, or magic. Far be it. It's not. But, the modern diet and lifestyle is not doing any of us any favors. This book doesn't ask you to live like your ancestors, just to learn from them.

The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation

I've long been a fan of Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint, which is one of the most reasonable, logical and well laid out plans for good health and, of course, fat loss. I've been eating "primally" for years now, and I continue to healthy and fit, not to mention toned, long, and lean! Easily, I might add.

In case you've never seen my "before" pics, take a gander!

At the beach in '03. I'm the one with the sweaty shirt

My friend Chris and me (w/the big ears) in Portland, July '11

Living "primally" has not only allowed me to keep my weight off, but also to put on pounds of muscle without gaining all that fat back. I'm leaner now at 200lbs than when I was 165, after losing weight by jogging, eating low fat, and counting calories!

Is it a paleo diet? Sort of, but don't let that scare you. A huge part of the success of Mark's Primal Blueprint is the delicious food and his 80/20 guidelines that still let you eat your favorites sometimes.

You've heard of an 80/20 rule before, right? 80% of the money is earned by only 20% of the people? Things like that. In this case, it's eat right 80% of the time, and relax a bit for the other 20%.

That's a relief, isn't it? Is 80% all that hard? No, in school 80% was like a B. As your dad probably told you "you just phoned it in." That was school, but here, good job! It's not all or nothing, this is real life, not the end of your life. It's living in the real world, not ~~school~~ prison. With the Primal Blueprint, you are striving to be the best you can be (or at least better than you are now!).

The book

The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation: A step-by-step, gene reprogramming action plan

About the book – I will paraphrase, which means I toned down the rhetoric (a bit), from the book's description:

"The 21-Day Total Body Transformation is a practical, action-oriented guide for how to eat, exercise and live Primally – a step-by-step, “cut to the chase” resource to make a smooth and quick transition into a Primal lifestyle. In it Mark tells you exactly what to do every day for 21 days to take control of your health for the rest of your life.

8 Key Concepts, 5 Action Items, and a lively 21-Day Challenge of daily endeavors in the areas of Diet, Exercise, and Lifestyle – with corresponding journal exercises. If you can spare an hour a day for just 21 days, you might just transform your life with this guidebook.

If you are new to the Paleo Primal scene, this book is one-stop shopping for all you need to know to enjoy the most life-altering benefits of living Primally within 21 days."

But Roland, I'll never finish the book, and I can feel myself giving up even as I read this blog post

Not. So. Fast...

That's happened to me, too. In fact, I'm looking at a recent popular diet book, right now, that's 250+ pages. You don't get to "start" getting better until about page 210. That's when it tells you what to do. If you're like I was, that book was getting covered up with old fast food wrappers on the floor of my car long before I got to page 50, much less 210!

I asked Mark Sisson about just this issue (I didn't mention the fast food wrappers, so shhhh...)

Mark,

Does the book help someone start on the day they get the book? Many books have to be at least mostly read before you know how to get going. Is there a “quick start” section that lets them get going NOW and then continue reading?

and Mark responded...

Roland,

The point of this book is to get someone started right away. There is indeed a “quick start” section and all the tools to begin going Primal the day you receive the book. Thanks!

A guide book, not a text book

The 21-Day Total Body Transformation is a practical, action-oriented guide for how to eat, exercise and live "Primally" – a step-by-step, “cut to the chase” resource to make a smooth and quick transition into a more ancestral or Primal lifestyle. In it Mark tells you exactly what to do every day for 21 days to take control of your health for the rest of your life; 8 Key Concepts, 5 Action Items, and a lively 21-Day Challenge of daily endeavors in the areas of Diet, Exercise, and Lifestyle – with corresponding journal exercises (for you emos).

If you can spare an hour a day for just 21 days, you might just transform your life with this guidebook.

But wait, there's more!

Free Gift! Yes, all gifts are free, but this is "gift with purchase." If you purchase the paperback version of The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation by Monday, October 24th you can get a free 130 page ebook of tips and tricks, motivation and inspiration, and how-tos from hundreds of people who've already gone through Mark's plan. Email your Amazon shipping confirmation to 1book@primalblueprint.com and receive your "thank you" ebook in your inbox. So, in addition to the 21 day book itself, you'll have hundreds of "coaches" to guide you through!

BTW, if you also buy The Notebook in the same order, I think you'll get Free Super Saver Shipping from Amazon! Now that is a sweet deal!

...and in conclusion.

If you have any questions, please ask in the comments or shoot me an email.

Before I let you go, I want to address a few concerns that I hear over and over again. Let my commentary, below, put your mind at rest...

I don't like to be hungry AND without my precious bread

Who does like to be hungry? You may have heard of a paleo-style diet before, which basically means that most of the time you have to eat a steak or some chicken, or a beef patty instead of a burger, and have vegetables instead of fries. I know it sounds like it sucks, but it's actually pretty cool. Did I say you have to eat a tiny little serving? No! It's not like you're going to be hungry, as that's not the goal. Plus, if you're hungry later, you can have another burger, later, just go bunless. It's your health here, and it's only 21 days to see how you do?

Paleo with cheese, please.

Yes, unlike many paleo books or plans, "Primal" allows dairy, as long as you're not having dairy issues. Yes, I can pass on the bun, but passing on the cheese is tougher. One cheeseburger, please, hold the bun.

This is not "all or nothing"

A paleo diet can feel restrictive on paper, and googling it will turn up paleo advocates that tell you to be perfect or don't play at all. That's not this. This is The Primal Blueprint! Remember the 80/20 rule that I told you about?

Be awesome. Be Primal.

It's Primal!

Doesn't it just sound awesome?

Primal. Is. Awesome.

Again, if you have any questions, please ask in the comments or shoot me an email and I'll try to help you out!

Marx Foods Random Blogger Contest - Slow braised chili con carne

2011-10-16T23:20:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to be playing in the latest Marx Foods blogging/cooking contest!

A few weeks ago, I got my package of random items in the mail; coconut sugar, cannellini beans, black trumpet mushrooms, guajillo chilis, and chilis japones. To accept the challenge, you pick at least two of the ingredients, add your own, and create!

I decided to make chili, put put a different spin on it. I like my chili one way (with veggies), my son likes it his (with beans), and my daughter likes it hers (with hominy). So, my chili is merely chili con carne, or chili with meat. ...and each of us will do with it what we will.

The meat is simply braised - either in your slow cooker, a dutch oven, or heavy bottomed pot. It uses thinly sliced meat that shortens the cooking time and leaves it extra tender. It looks good arranged on the plate, too.

The sauce is a simple chili puree, it would normally be stirred into the chili, but drizzled on top, it looks great!

Slow braised chili con carne

Serves 6-8 people

Ingredients

Cannellini beans

1 lb cannellini beans
1/2 tsp baking soda
water
1 tsp salt
water

Chili
2 pounds boneless cross rib roast
1/4 lb salt pork or bacon, chopped
1 tbsp bacon fat, olive oil, or coconut oil
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
water to cover meat
1 tbsp cumin, ground
2 tbsp paprika

Chili puree

6-9 chili japones
2 chili guajillo
6 chili california
salt to taste
water

Directions

Beans

Soak the cannellini beans overnight in water and baking soda. Drain and rinse.

Put the beans in a covered pot and cover with water. Bring to a low simmer and stir in the salt. Simmer for 1-3 hours until just tender. Don't overcook, so check periodically and remove from heat when done.

Chili con carne

Slice the meat into two long pieces, then across into thin slices.

Brown the salt pork or bacon in a large skillet, dutch oven, or heavy bottomed pot. Remove to a bowl or your slow cooker.

In small batches, lightly brown the beef, removing the browned slices to the bowl or slow cooker.

Add the oil to the pan, then the onions, cooking until translucent and lightly browned. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant. If cooking in the pot or dutch oven, immediately add water so that the garlic doesn't burn, otherwise remove the onion mixture to the slow cooker. Pour in just enough water to cover the meat.

Sprinkle with cumin and paprika and lightly stir. Cover and simmer for 1-3 hours, until just tender.

Meanwhile, make the chili puree.

Chili puree

Tear or cut the woody stems from the chili and shake any loose seeds out. Place in a covered pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and allow them to simmer for 20 minutes, then let them cool.

Blend the cooled chilis in a blender, and pour them into a strainer over a large bowl.

Using a spoon or spatula, stir and push the mash around until the puree is in the bowl and all you have is mash left in the strainer.

Salt the puree to taste.

Arrange slices of chili con carne down the center of a plate. Use a slotted spoon to add the beans alongside the meat. Serve with some simple sauteed or steamed vegetables, like the summer squash pictured at the top, or maybe some grilled pumpkin and chopped salad.

Drizzle the chili puree over the meat before serving.

I hope you enjoy my simple twist on chili con carne!

Training update, one week out

2011-10-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

One Hour Long Cycle

I'm nervous about next Saturday because my hands are hurting.

It was my own fault. I didn't follow my #1 rule of training.

Training is preparation for the event, not an event in and of itself.

Of course, there's also rule #2.

Don't get hurt in training and suffer in the event.

I was working on completing 40 minutes straight, and between the sweat on my hands and bad form, I ended up tearing the skin on my pinky finger. Even weeks later, it hasn't recovered. To compensate for this, my form has changed, and that's caused calluses to form in bad places. What can you do?

My 2011 OHLC Goal of using my new 24kg kettlebell has been ditched, and I'm going with last year's weight of 20kg. Last year I did 6 reps per minute until I just couldn't keep it up (50 something minutes in). I dropped down to 4rpm, then "sprinted" at the end. I lost count, but again, what can you do? I think it was about 340 reps.

I'll be happy to finish again, this year. I plan to finish. I will finish.

Since last week, I've dropped all kettlebell work with "drops," so that means Cleans, Snatches, and actual Long Cycle have to wait until after next Saturday's event. I will continue to do my conditioning work, including complexes of swings and jerks for very long durations (50 minutes, earlier this week), but I can't risk the hands this close to the 22nd. Roland is sad.

The bulk

On a positive note, I've finally reached 200lbs again. I will continue to eat up for another week or two, then decide whether to maintain a while, or lean out just a bit. I have put on a little fat, but really not much.

I dragged out my rusty dumbbell so I don't have to rely on the gym for a while. I can concentrate on what I need to do right now, and regroup on a new program after next weekend.

The Garage Trifecta Circuit

One Arm Dumbbell Floor Press, one 75lb, 3x5 - each side
Pullups, 3x5 - fingertip on beam, chest to the beam
KB Front Squats, two 24kg, 3x5

My chalk trail from the Waiter's Walks

Indoor/Outdoor Circuit

KB RDLs, two 24kg, 3x20
KB Waiter's Walk, one 24kg, 3 walks of 50meters - each side
TRX Rows, 11, 10, 9
KB Pushups, 20, 18, 15 - nothing special about the kettlebell part, but pushups on the handles give you a deeper bottom position and more stretch

Done!

...and in conclusion

The past few months, I've been trying to train hard. I don't train too much, but when I do, I try to be smart and really put my all into it.

Hold your monitor up to a mirror to read my shirt

I'm stronger, bigger, and leaner than I have been in years. I now have to learn to pull back before getting hurt. I hate learning...

Roland is happy.

Shopping the perimeter is no longer enough

2011-10-14T06:02:00.000-07:00

For years, we've been advised to shop the outside areas of the supermarket, for that is where you will find the produce, meat, and dairy. No longer.

My local stores have remodeled. We must now zig-zag in and out of the dangerous "center of the store" to get what we need; the produce is in the center, meat at the back, dairy in a center aisle near the salty snacks, beer and wine are found chillin' on the outskirts (right next to the pharmacy in fact), the cheese isn't even with the rest of the dairy, but placed near the deli meats and olive bar, which are uncomfortably close to the cake (mmm... cake). It's not enough that they've pushed you into the interior, but they arranged the layout to force you to march through nutritional minefields to get at the healthy and natural foods that you came to the store to buy.

Have they adapted over time to overcome our new tendency to avoid their inner aisles and their high profit (and high calorie/low nutrition) foods? Are our stores evolving, or is it the intelligent design of the Marketing Department up at HQ? Someone's in charge up there, cuz this doesn't just happen!

...and they are not alone... Farmer's Markets have the image of healthy and fresh foods, but this is not all that they sell.

In addition to the fruits, vegetables, and fresh local meat and seafood, they also have corn oil based tamales, shortening flavored pie and pastries, popcorn popped in soybean oil, plus all sorts of juices, candies, and bottled things mislabeled as healthy because they use things like agave, honey, or even fructose syrup!

Making these "foods" is not enough; it's as if they use huge invisible fans to push their scents toward the "safe" areas of the market. Damn them. If only they sold gas masks, too.

Finally, the term "health food store" is now almost meaningless. While you can find healthier ingredients at Sprouts, Trader Joe's, Fresh & Easy, and Whole Foods, do not make the mistake of thinking that cookies and cereal are find because they are organic or sweetened with rice syrup. If it comes in a box or bag, it's most likely bad for you.

In the end, you can no longer rely on the old advice, which was "shop the perimeter of the supermarket." You now have to think for yourself.

When possible, shop for raw ingredients, not processed foods. Instead of thinking if a food is merely bad for you, also consider if that food is actually good for you. Food is your fuel, so fuel your body with food that's good quality and healthy, not fuel that makes you lethargic, sick, or overweight.

"Food is fuel. Continue the march" -- Captain Dale Dye, USMC

Catching up

2011-10-12T07:42:00.000-07:00

on sleep!

I've been feeling tired and sluggish, lately. My urge (wish) is that it was too much training and not enough food, but when I look at my volume and intensity, plus the amount of dishes that I'm washing, I think not.

The harsh reality is that I was not sleeping enough.

At least I'm not alone!

That's harder to fix, even though it's the simple one. Most of us don't want to go to bed early. There are movies or tv to watch, facebook, girls on Skype that are 6,000 miles away in a timezone that's ten hours ahead, or that genius screenplay that your working on. ;)

When we do go to bed early, do we get up earlier to watch the DVR, check facebook, or work on that genius screenplay? Bad. That's not the fix.

Naps? When you're undersleeping at night, a nap's not going to fix that shit. It just helps you survive the day.

Having now spent the last 4-5 nights sleeping the right amounts, I'm feeling good again, despite the training volume. Yesterday, I was far more productive, even with less time awake. Amazing.

You should try it. What if you're so much more productive with less time awake that you actually get more accomplished? It will probably be better quality, too.

There's tons on the net about sleep, but if you're trying to lose fat, here's some info that shows that in addition to feeling better all around, more sleep will get you to your fat loss results faster and easier.

All About Sleep

Have a good day (and a good night's sleep)!

Training update, October 2011

2011-10-03T23:36:00.000-07:00

Just a few weeks out from the One Hour Long Cycle and my hands are a little tired. A little bit shredded and a little bit too callused. Ouch.

This weekend, I have to hit 50 minutes straight, which I'm not exactly looking forward to. My hands aren't yet up to snuff from the last long training session. I've had to tape them up to hold down some blistered skin.

While my hands heal, I'm concentrating on pressing and squatting, pushups and pullups. I still get my swings in but even those hurt a bit more than I'd like.

My latest goals have been to gain muscle without too much fat, get ready for the OHLC, then look ahead to competing in the Long Cycle with two 24s on January 21st (I aim to hit 37 reps in ten minutes).

I haven't been pleased... I feel fatter than I'd like, although I'm close to my goal of 200lbs, but I've been 198 for almost two months. I need to eat more and get this done. Also, I'm anxious to do more double kettlebell work, but my hands are thrashed from my sweaty mistake in last week's One Hour training. Finally, I'm tired from training too much in general, but not enough in the areas where I want.

I need ~~better~~ clearer goals.

There are positives, however.

I just pressed a 24kg for ten good reps, then followed that up with two more sets of 10. I'm getting stronger and need to buy a 32.

I just did 20 good front squats with a 24kg, too. It took shoes with a heel. With bare feet or Chucks, I can do 15 and my back tires first.

Pride has held me back from using weightlifting shoes, despite the fact that many KB Sport competitors use them. But they use them to get into a good Kettlebell Sport rack position, which I don't need help with. I have the opposite problem and I feel like I'll topple over with heels when I'm in that position. But, I suppose I'll give them a shot, and competitions or not, I can work them into my regular training, too. I'll just have to make sure to do plenty of squats without them; all the goblet squats have helped my squat to get better, even though it's not perfect.

One consolation is that some Oly shoes look awesome.

I really like these, which I saw at last year's One Hour Long Cycle. I hope that dude is there again, so I can ask him about his shoes...

Miracle Fitness Chopped Vegetable Salad

2011-09-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came out the Miracle Fitness on Sunday to learn about diet, nutrition, posture, relaxation, stretching, and more. I had a great time presenting and meeting you all!

Heather asked me to share my recipe, so here it is! I'll ask Gal to post her awesome quinoa salad ASAP!

Miracle Fitness Chopped Vegetable Salad

4 servings

Ingredients

4 medium ripe tomatoes or a pint of cherry tomatoes

salt to taste

4 Persian cucumbers or 2 peeled American cucumbers

1 large colorful or green bell pepper or a few sweet peppers from your local farmer's market or specialty market
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (not the garnish kind you grew up pushing to the side of your plate)
2 oz crumbled feta cheese
more salt to taste, if needed

Directions

Chop the tomatoes, put them into a large salad bowl, and salt them.

Chop the cucumbers. If they are the American kind, then you might want to peel them, first. Add them to the tomatoes.

Seed and chop the peppers and add them to the bowl.

The salad can be left out at room temperature and it will get more juicy after 30 minutes to an hour. When ready to serve, stir in the chopped parsley and crumbled feta cheese.

Taste and add extra salt, if necessary.

Serve and enjoy!

Roland

PS - I make these salads a lot, so take a look here and here!

Nutrition and Stress Relief Workshop

2011-09-23T19:36:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to be joining up with my Meal Survivor cohorts to put on a nutrition, mobility, stress relief, and cooking "clinic" up at Miracle Fitness this Sunday!

Nutrition and Stress Relief Workshop

stresssssssss!

Personally, I find my time under the kettlebells to be a great stress reliever, but I was told to shut up and teach people about nutrition! I'll put some in the trunk, just in case...

If you happen to live in the LA or OC area, do it!

chili con carne, daube style

2011-09-17T05:14:00.000-07:00

Twenty years ago, I bought this beautiful book, A Glorious Harvest, because of the pictures. I still refer back to this book on a regular basis, because of its focus on the way our modern day ancestors ate. Whole foods in classic form. I very rarely make recipes directly from the cookbooks that I buy and own, but I'm a firm believer in reading many and learning from each. I love this book for it's beauty and purity.

One recipe that I did make regularly was Daube of Beef (page 136). A daube is a slowly simmered stew of beef with wine, spices, and an immense flavor. From this simple recipe, I learned the art of cooking meat slowly and concentrating flavors. It's also a simple dish, only made complex by what you add to it at the table. To me, daube of beef is a pure dish.

Now, onto the chili con carne, or carne con chile as is more like it – I'm sort of a chili purist. I do like chili with beans, and even turkey chili. As a kid, Chili Spaghetti was a Bob's Big Boy favorite. But, when I make chili, I like to make a purist chili.

Traditional Red Chili is defined by the International Chili Society as any kind of meat or combination of meats, cooked with red chili peppers, various spices and other ingredients, with the exception of beans and pasta, which are strictly forbidden.

Pure. There. It's been said.

Let's bring this all together, combining these two pure concepts. I'll still call it chili, since the term daube is too much of a stretch for this dish, but I feel the daube's roots in my chili's simplicity, slow cooked tenderness, and thick sauce unadulterated by anything like flour or corn starch. This chili is as pure as pure can be.

Carne con chile

Serves 4

Ingredients

3 oz various dried chiles (like aji amarillo, mulato, guajillo, California, etc.)
2 cups water
1.6 lbs boneless blade or chuck roast
1 tbsp bacon fat or good lard (don't buy store bought lard just for me, it's nasty, and olive oil also works)
1 medium onion
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp cumin, ground
1 tsp cinnamon, ground
1 tsp salt
4 bay leaves
additional water or deglazing liquid to just cover
cheese (optional)
sour cream (optional)
avocado (optional)

Directions

Using scissors and kitchen gloves, cut the stems and clean seeds from the chiles. Place the chiles in a saucepan with the water. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Allow the chiles to cool for a few minutes, then blend well in a covered blender. Strain the mixture through a colander, coarse strainer, or foodmill, discarding the residue. If using a strainer with a fine mesh, you may have to stir and rub with the back of a spoon until all the purée is pushed through, leaving any seeds and tough skins behind.

Slice the beef across the grain into slices or disks that are about 2-3 inches by 2-3 inches. I hate to say "bite size," because the beef will shrink and break apart as it cooks, so don't worry about these being too big. Don't worry that some of it ends up being too small, either; it will still be amazing.

Chop the ends off the onions, then half them cross-wise and then quarter them so they will fall into "petals" when you cook them. This makes them a complementary size to the beef slices.

Mince the garlic and have it ready.

In small batches, brown the beef in a heavy pan using the fat, lard, or olive oil, then remove to a slow cooker or heavy pot with a tight fitting lid.

Add the onions to the pan and brown them until they are translucent. Add the garlic and ground cumin and keep stirring for 30 seconds until very fragrant. Quickly transfer the mixutre to the pot with the meat. The quickly part is so the garlic doesn't burn.

Add the chile purée, cinnamon, bay leaves, and salt to the pot and stir to coat.

If you like, you can deglaze the pan with some water, but taste the liquid to make sure it isn't bitter or burnt tasting. If it's good, then you can use it as additional liquid to cover the beef for simmering. If it tastes bad, throw it out and just add water to the pot until the beef is just covered by liquid.

If using a slow cooker, set it to a lower cooking temperature and let it go for most of the day. I think mine was on low for 8 hours. Every cut of beef is different, so your mileage may vary on the cooking time.

If using the oven, make sure it's tightly covered, and set the over to 300°. Cook for 2.5 to 3 hours until things are tender and most of the liquid has thickened up.

Since the oven is going to be on for so long, why not take this time to also do some slow roasted tomatoes, root vegetables, or vegetable chips?

Serve garnished with some cheese, sour cream, or avocado, plus a generous helping of vegetables.

girl

2011-09-15T05:40:00.000-07:00

On or about today, several years ago, I hit "send" on an email that would change my life forever; a day I now jokingly refer to as our emailaversary.

I've written before about the long distances, time zones, and desperately long periods apart evoking feelings of the days of ocean travel, world exploration, and military service. The mere decision (if you dare to minimize it so) to choose and pursue a partner who lives so out of one's reach brings about questions that perhaps only some of the legendary figures of our history and literature could well answer; Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde, Danny and Sandy...

Our wonderful wedding earlier this year, and most recently, a government issued "Welcome to America" form letter has made our world smaller than even Lufthansa and Skype had before. Throughout these months and years, no matter how much my heart ached, I was never happier, and would not have traded that ache for the world.

Despite the non-applicable verses after this first, this song's tone brought me right back to how I felt so many times over the past few years. Unless you write it yourself, not song can truly sum up your feelings, so I just go with the emotions. I love this song.

Girl

Is there anybody going to listen to my story
All about the girl who came to stay?
She's the kind of girl you want so much
It makes you sorry
Still, you don't regret a single day
Ah girl
Girl

The pained voice in the song ends – and trust me, I will hit 'replay' over and over again – but thank God, I also get to go home to my wife; to the love of my life.

and the chile contest begins

2011-09-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

I slaved over a hot grill to perfect my mole mango shrimp skewers! ...for YOU!

Check out my recipe, below, then head over to Marx Foods and vote!

Mole grilled shrimp skewers

2011-09-11T09:58:00.000-07:00

Update: The voting has started over at Marx Foods, so please remember to go and vote after you fall in love with this dish! Click here! Do it!

Thanks,

Roland

This week has been a chili filled week, thanks to Marx Foods and their dried chiles. Marx Foods is having another blogging/recipe challenge, and I asked to play! They sent me a dried chile sampler, and I'm a happy boy. The card enclosed in the package said something along the lines of "excited to see what the two of you create!" Well, it seems that Bulgaria is not a dried chile culture, despite the fact that the chile (aka, "the pepper") might as well be the national food of the country. They seem to be "all about the pepper" over there, so I was a little surprised when Gal looked at the box of dried chiles and asked "and what are we supposed to do with these?"

"I got it covered," I said. "First, you make a purée."

I didn't really say that purée part, but it really is the first thing to do. The chile purée is almost a universal thing when it comes to chiles, because you can use it for so much. This week, I used the purée for a slow cooked, thick and tender chili con carne, this most awesome shrimp dish, a little chili sauce for my shredded beef, and as a flavor boost to some ad hoc tortilla soup. Plus, Gal used it for making some freakin' amazing chocolate! God, I love ~~chile!~~ her! Some of those recipes are going to appear down the road, but in the meantime, please enjoy today's dish as you eat it.

Mole grilled shrimp skewers

Makes 4 skewers, serving 2

Ingredients

1 aji amarillo chile*
2 mulato chiles*
4 puya chiles*
1 cup water
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp cumin, ground
1/2 oz dark chocolate (I used chocovivo's 85% because it's the best, but slum it if you have to).
1/8 tsp salt
2/3 lb large shrimp
1 large colorful bell pepper or 3-6 small mini-bells
1 ripe, but firm, mango
8-12 fresh basil leaves, plus extra for garnishing and finishing
2 cobs of corn
1 tbsp olive oil

* Substitute about 2 oz of any combination of dried chiles, hot or mild, depending on your preferences. The combination of aji amarillo, mulato, and puya makes a mild and fruity sauce, but please experiment.

Directions

If using bamboo skewers, you should soak them in water for at least 30 minutes to an hour, prior to assembling the shrimp skewers. This helps keep the skewers from burning.

Using scissors and kitchen gloves, cut the stems and clean seeds from the chiles. Place the chiles in a saucepan with the water. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Allow the chiles to cool for a few minutes, then blend well in a covered blender. Strain the mixture through a colander, coarse strainer, or foodmill, discarding the residue. If using a strainer with a fine mesh, you may have to stir and rub with the back of a spoon until all the purée is pushed through, leaving any seeds and tough skins behind.

Rinse and wipe the saucepan clean, then heat it over medium high heat. Add the butter and ground cumin and stir until fragrant, browned, and bubbly. Carefully add the chile purée to the butter and fry until it's hot, bubbly, and well combined. Lower the heat to low, and stir in the chocolate and salt. Keep stirring so that nothing burns. Congratulations, your sauce is now called "mole" (it's pronounced "molay")! Now, remove the pan from heat, but keep the mole in the pan for a later step.

To prepare the skewers, peel and devein the shrimp, peel and cut the mango into chunks, wash the basil and tear 8-12 whole leaves off of the stems, and seed and cut the peppers into bite sized pieces.

Alternate the shrimp, mango, peppers, and basil leaves on the skewers until you have four equally good looking skewers. Brush or drizzle them with the olive oil.

Shuck and clean the silk from the cobs of corn. Brush or drizzle the cobs with olive oil.

Preheat a grill to very high heat (about ten minutes). Place corn cobs and shrimp skewers on the hot grill. Grill shrimp skewers for about 4 minutes per side, until the shrimp have turned nice and pink.

Grill the corn until it is hot and slightly charred in places (they may even pop a little bit!), turning periodically.

Place the corn and shrimp skewers on a platter or plate. Salt the skewers and corn cobs to taste.

Reheat the mole over medium heat until it's warm and flows well enough to pour. Drizzle the warm mole over the shrimp skewers. Serve any extra sauce on the side.

If you like, chop or snip some extra basil to sprinkle over the food.

In keeping with the chile & chocolate theme, why not have some of these for dessert?

first you make a purée

2011-09-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

It might be a cliche to joke that every cajun, creole, or southern recipe begins with "first you make a roux," but that's what my mom said. She's from down south, so who am I to doubt her? ...and she's my mom.

I always think of this when I'm making foods with dried chilis, because for the most part, you have to purée them to use them.

I recently received a box of dried chile samples from Marx Foods...

...and one of the first things I did was make a purée.

This is more of an ingredient recipe than a food, itself. Chile purée is good to have handy for making chili, mole, enchilada sauce, or for adding to pozole or menudo. If you like that stuff, double, triple, quadruple, quintuple, etc. –up to infinity – the recipe and save some for the future.

chile purée

Makes about 2 cups

2-3oz of selected dried chiles (in this case, 2 aji amarillos, 4 mulatos, and 6-8 puyas)
2 cups water

Using dishwasher safe scissors and rubber gloves, cut open the chiles and remove the stems and seeds. Place the chiles in a saucepan and cover with the water. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Allow the chiles and water to cool for a few minutes, then blend well in a covered blender. Strain through a colander, coarse strainer, or foodmill, discarding the residue. If using a strainer with a fine mesh, you may have to stir and rub with the back of a spoon until all the purée is pushed through. If it's particularly thick, you can even drizzle some more water over the mash, but keep in mind that you may have to cook the purée again to reduce it to the desired thickness.

If making ahead, like I just did, place it in a covered dish or jar and refrigerate until ready to use.

Note: If you just made a really large batch, you can freeze it into ice cubes and store in zipper bags, or freeze it in small jars or containers.

today's lunch? contest remnants

2011-09-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

Gal and I love to cook, create, and enter all sorts of contests, so we often have plenty to eat. ...eventually. It's tough to wait until Gal finishes up the pictures, so I'm happy to have a little bit of slop (meaning this stuff didn't fit in the picturesque little bowl) to dish up as my lunch in the meantime.

Because it's highly unlikely that you entered the same contest as us, and made the same dish, I am happy to sorta give you the 'what we did" to get the above salad.

Reverse Engineered Remnant Salad

Serves 2

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved lengthwise
2 tbsp cup peperoncini strips
2 tbsp roasted bell pepper strips
1 tbsp green onion, finely chopped
dash salt
1/2 eggplant, sliced into 8 circles
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
6 oz crumbled feta cheese, divided
1 Persian cucumber, cut lengthwise and then across into wedges
1 tbsp Italian parsley, chopped
10 pitted calamata olives

Directions

Place the bell pepper strips, peperoncini, chopped green onions, and halved cherry tomatoes
in a salad bowl. Sprinkle with the salt and stir to coat. Set aside for 10-15 minutes, and then transfer the mixture to a colander and drain over the bowl, saving the juice.

Go back in time to last night, and make enough eggplant circles so that you have 6-8 leftover slices, today. ...or, if that takes too much time, make some fresh eggplant today. Do this by heating a non-stick skillet over medium high heat, then add 1 tbsp olive oil. Cook the eggplant circles until they are browned and golden on both sides. Set aside on paper towels to cool.

While all this is going on... Place half the crumbled feta cheese and the remaining olive oil in a separate small bowl or measuring cup and stir well to combine. The cheese should start to get creamy. If it's too thick, mix in enough of the reserved juice to thin to the consistency of thick salad dressing.

Stir the tomato mixture, dressing, cucumber, parsley, olives, and remaining cheese together.

Lay the slices of eggplant on a plate, and spoon the salad mixture over the top. As you can see, I garnished with romaine, but that's up to you. OMG, you can almost not taste the no meat! This stuff is amazing.

For best results, serve this as an appetizer to the foods that we can't show you yet because they are going to be submitted and win us millions of dollars.

Gal just finished with the camera, so off to eat (more)!

I'm paleo for ethical reasons

2011-09-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

What are some of my reasons?

over-consumption of corn, soy, and wheat is making us sick
overproduction of corn, soy, legumes, wheat and other grains is destroying our soil
the govt encouragement of and subsidies to farmers who grow corn, soy, and wheat is hurting farmers who produce all the other, healthier stuff (fruit, vegetables, grass fed and pastured meat, dairy, eggs, fish, fowl)
all those poor animals killed while harvesting plants

Be more ethical, today:

when possible, buy free range, organic food, produced by farmers who humanely treat animals, vegetables, and fruits
minimize/avoid wheat and soy foods
minimize/avoid high fructose corn syrup
eat corn in moderation (if at all)
minimize/avoid seed oils (cottonseed, canola, sunflower, etc.)
minimize/avoid soybean oil
minimize/avoid corn oil
minimize/avoid "vegetable" oil

A side effect may just be an improvement in your health, too!

The effect of training on diet

2011-08-22T08:37:00.000-07:00

I have no scientific basis for this. There's no "true fact" here. Observational, possibly correlation, possibly excuses...

I've been hitting the kettlebell training pretty hard. Not for strength, but for time. The One Hour Long Cycle is coming up, and I must be prepared!

Saturday, I made it up to 30 minutes of Clean and Jerk with the 24kg kettlebell. Then I "collapsed" on the floor of my garage...

Sunday, I took a break from the kettlebells to do some standup paddling around Dana Point Harbor with Galya.

We hit up the Hummingbird House Cafe, which is a Bulgarian (masquerading as Greek) restaurant. I was starving, and I get a lot of food there.

kufte

shopska salad

bob s lutenitsa (salad with huge beans)

I was full, but after another hour, I had to eat more food. A banana at Trader Joe's, then at home, curry, then too many of these sweet potato desserts that Gal is testing out, much of my daughter's ice cream, a can of tuna, an apple, some nuts, some cheese, and some misc stuff that's too much to remember.

I chalk it down to training hard, and this morning I feel fine, but if you find yourself eating out of control or merely with ongoing ridiculous hunger levels, look to your activity levels, not necessarily your diet.

Eat to support your activity, but make sure your activity levels don't undermine your eating, too.

One hour long cycle '11

2011-08-18T18:24:00.000-07:00

October 22nd, 2011, my friend Jason Dolby is holding the 2nd annual One Hour Long Cycle, this time to raise money for the Japanese relief effort.

The whole world is keenly aware of the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and the ongoing nuclear tragedy that continues to this day. We feel for them all, but for Jason and Orange Kettlebell Club, it's personal; Mutual friend and OKC founder Nazo is from Japan and was there in Tokyo even as it all started. Thankfully she is safe, but the people of Japan, including the family and friends of Nazo, my good friend Aya, and many more are still there and living amidst this ongoing disaster. Won't you help us help them? Please follow the link to join me in the event or just to donate.

Thanks!

Now, please excuse me while I change the tone a bit...

One Hour Long Cycle 2011

This marathon kettlebell lifting event was brutal last year. I remember it well. One hour of straight kettlebell lifting, without putting the kettlebell down. Last year I used a 20 kilogram kettlebell, and it kicked my butt. I lost track of my reps in my attempt to finish the hour (I did finish), but it was somewhere around 340-350 reps.

Last year, we raised a good deal of money and broke a ton of records.

Jason did an hour straight with TWO 20kg kettlebells. One hour without setting them down and unable to switch hands back and forth like the rest of us could. Amazing.

All in all, there were over 20 of us lifting for an hour, and we all proudly finished!

This year, my plan starts with bumping my kettlebell up to a more manly 24kg. That's almost 53 pounds to those of us who don't speak metric!

I've been training with my 24kg kettlebell for the past week and a half, and I'm prepared to commit to this weight. I'm practicing maintaining six reps per minute, and I'll have to see how this goes. So far, so good!

As of this morning, I have three serious training sessions under my belt, up to 20 minutes of the 1 handed kettlebell clean and jerk (aka One Arm Long Cycle) with a 24kg kettlebell, and a seemingly doable 6 reps per minute... I'm in! What about you?

On packaged food nutrition... trust, but verify

2011-08-17T08:49:00.000-07:00

I stopped in at the local Mediterranean market for some produce and lunch, yesterday. While I was there, I picked up a few jars of Bulgarian "relish;" lutenitza and guvetch. I'd never tried guvetch, which is an eggplant, tomato, misc veggie, and pepper relish, slow cooked forever, with sunflower oil. I'm not a fan of sunflower oil, but since the jar has 5 servings and only 1g of fat per, this isn't a huge problem when eaten in moderation. It looked pretty good!

At home, I pull the jar out and Gal snatches it up. "Back in Bulgaria, this stuff is made with soooo much oil."

"Not this one," I said, "Only 5g in the jar." I point to the nutrition label.

She opens it up and dips a spoon inside, scooping up an easy teaspoon of oil and looks at me, smugly.

"This is more than 5g right here, and this is just the stuff floating on top..." she states. She makes a little hole in the super thick relish, and we watch yellowish oil flow quickly into to the hole. This stuff has tablespoons of sunflower oil...

I will continue to eat my foreign foods, but it's good to keep in mind that not all manufacturers are careful and accurate. Treat is like you would a trip to a restaurant, eat it (like most foods) in moderation, and learn to spot the signs that make it too good to be true.

The Gallery of Unusual Fruit #6

2011-08-15T01:09:00.000-07:00

mmm...

My top ten gluten free foods

2011-08-12T05:29:00.000-07:00

At lunch the other day, after the sideways glance at my bunless burger and french fry plate, I was asked a few questions about whether I was avoiding gluten, carbs, or just bread. Seems my friend was looking into the gf thing, but found it too complicated finding items that were gluten free.

"Hey, Roland, Do you have a good list of gluten free foods?" he asked.

"Why yes, yes I do!" I responded.

Roland's Top 10 Gluten Free Foods

Meat
Fish and shellfish
Eggs
Poultry
Vegetables
Fruit
Cheese
Plain yogurt
Herbs and spices
Fats and oils

GF foods, numbers 1, 2, 5, 9, & 10

Please note, that if the food has an ingredient list, in and of itself, you will need to do your reading and your research. Some things, like sausages, sauces, and dressings, may contain wheat based ingredients. Even soy sauce can contain wheat, just so you know... Stick to simple, raw ingredients, and your reading time is shortened and you get to eat that much quicker!

Why just ten items? Because, while things like rice and beans are gluten free, I think healthy diets should be centered around the above items, not grains and legumes. Avoiding gluten is just at the top of my list of the most important changes you can make to your diet. To quote David St. Hubbins, "or so I have said."

What's Barney's Starbucks name?

2011-08-11T06:19:00.000-07:00

Wollen?

2011-08-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

The Gallery of Unusual Fruit #5

2011-08-05T05:31:00.000-07:00

it's some sort of eggplant

I forgot about the kettlebell...

2011-08-02T23:27:00.000-07:00

and my hands paid the price!

In my recent quest for strength and size (up to 198, as of this morning), I toned down the kettlebelling and toned up the barbells. I won't tell you that you can't get big on a diet of kettlebells, but I have been having fun with a high frequency, low(ish) volume barbell and corrective exercise routine, courtesy of Dan John and Galina Ivanova [Denzel].

Back to the kettlebells...

I don't own a 32kg kettlebell, so it was fun to push myself on some near max reps up at Chris's EFL this weekend! When Chris and I last met up to lift I was unable to get a 32kg overhead without a serious jerk, much less a push press or a simple press! I am happy to report that I'm now able to press the 32 with both the right and the left (that's each, not using both hands...) AND be able to clean and jerk the heavy round metal dude five times in a row for three sets of five!

I then took advantage of a 28kg, which I also don't own, but should. I did plenty of swings, cleans, and jerks while I had the access!

That being said, I did have to cut the workout short for fear of a torn callus. I was craving longer workouts with the kettlebells, but having torn them before and been down for over a week, I wisely stopped short of ripping things open. I was able to finish up with sets of swings. Even those were painful, but not the kind of painful that rips the skin off your hands.

New prescription: weekly kettlebell cleans or snatches, just to keep the hands ready to work. If I can work in even more kettlebell work, better still.

32kgs, far left, in red...

American salad

2011-07-18T06:52:00.000-07:00

This was twenty years ago, so why I thought of this now is a mystery.

I was visiting some friends from Denmark, and dinner time was getting close. I saw a bowl of cooked and chilled tiny little salad shrimp; always an unusual sight outside of a Denny's. I looked for the bottle of Thousand Island, but there was none to be seen.

"What are you making?" I asked.

"You'll see," he teased.

I watched as some tomato was diced. Soon, a bowl of chilled white rice was pulled from the fridge, along with a jar of mayonnaise. ...and the layering began.

They looked at me expectantly.

"What?" I asked.

"It's American Salad!"

"Really?"

"We thought since you're coming, you'd probably enjoy some American Salad again!" They continued to spoon the stuff into it's three layers: white rice, shrimp and mayo, and tomatoes. Again?

I ate it, of course, but it's pretty close to an Addams Family combination of ingredients, and certainly not what I would call "American Salad." We scraped the bowl clean. They, likely nostalgic as they ate the American Salad that they loved back in Denmark, and I, now marveling in this newly discovered combination of textures and flavors!

If there was an American Salad–which there isn't–it should be the Cobb Salad. That's a salad to be proud of! On the tongue in cheek end, I'd say an American Salad could be iceberg, shredded red cabbage and carrots, topped with a couple of cherry tomatoes and Ranch dressing. Just because all those ingredients can come from a bag, box, and bottle in the fridge.

I'm sure every country or culture has foods that aren't theirs; they either don't exist as a dish or simply aren't called by that name. German Chocolate Cake and Black Forest Cake in Germany, Chop Suey and fortune cookies in China, etc. I'm sure the list goes on.

Summer salad

2011-07-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

Mark Sisson's got his BAS (Big Ass Salad), which is awesome for those people who love greens, but I'm not one of them; I'm just not a huge fan of greens. If they are there, I'll eat them, but that's about the size of it.

What to do when you think a BAS is a good strategy for getting in your veggies on a hot summer day? How much volume of non-leafy-greens can one eat? Not a lot. However, because of the crisp, crunchiness of the superior-to-greens-veggies, a BAS without them can be surprisingly small, and still feel big.

Another thing I love about salads of nothing but raw veggies is that they don't really need a dressing. If you want it, do it, but otherwise enjoy the flavor of the fresh juices, brought to the forefront by a little salt!

Summer salad

Note that you can use any combination and ratio of veggies in this salad and still have a winner, This is just what I had handy.

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 thin skinned cucumbers, like Persian, Armenian, or pickling cucumbers
1 cup cherry tomatoes or 1 cup chopped ripe tomatoes
1 cup chopped sweet peppers, like colorful bell peppers or something more exotic if you can find it
juice of 1/2 of a lime
salt to taste
2 tbsp olive oil (optional)

Directions

Chop all the vegetables, and sprinkle with salt. The salt will help to break the cell structure of the veggies, releasing the juices. Stir in the lime juice and olive oil (if using).

If you can wait, allow it to sit at room temperature for a while before eating.

Enjoy!

cheesecake in a jar

2011-07-07T23:06:00.000-07:00

The other day, Gal made pie in a jar, so I decided to make my own little treats; cheesecake in a jar. I love to make single serving desserts, as people (I) tend to be more satisfied with a good looking but small dessert, rather than just one slice of a larger one. Plus, it's hard to go back for more if there's just enough.

Why make cheesecake in jar?

single servings
a finite ending without the temptation of going for another slice
less cleanup
cute
pie in a jar is all the rage and cheesecake is quite pie-esq

What does my cheesecake have going for it?

all natural
high fat
minimal added sugar
mostly healthy ingredients
gluten free
quasi-paleo, semi-primal, uber-vegetarian, and 100% clean damn eating!

Cheesecake in a jar

Makes 4 cheesecakes in jars

Ingredients

2 8oz packages of cream cheese, room temperature
4 tbsp honey
2 eggs
1 inch vanilla bean (scraped) or 1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp butter or coconut oil
8 tbsp sliced, slivered, or chopped almonds
4 8oz or 16oz wide mouth jars
1 cup sour cream (optional)
1-2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (optional)
2-3 cardamom pods worth of seeds (even more optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°

In a large mixing bowl or mixer, cream the cream cheese and honey together. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Beat by hand or with a mixer until it is relatively lump free. Some lumps are fine. Who's going to know?

Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Add the butter or coconut oil and the almonds. Toast the almonds, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and distribute the nuts on the bottom of each of the four jars.

Using a small measuring cup or scoop, distribute the cheese mixture evenly into the four jars. Wipe the jar rims clean of any batter using a paper towel.

Bake the cheesecakes for approximately 30 minutes (a toothpick or knife should come out clean).

The cheesecakes will puff up dramatically. Allow them this one chance to show their pride...

Remove them from the oven and set aside. Eventually, they will settle down. Let them.

You can use cold sour cream and/or blueberries for a simple little topping. The cold sour cream is easy. Stir it up until smooth and spoon it into the jars.

If using the blueberries, heat them in a saucepan until they start to burst. If desired, grind the cardamom seeds and stir them into the blueberries.

After the cheesecakes have settled, you can spoon the berries into the jars, whether their is sour cream in their or not.

Enjoy!

Where could I have gone wrong?

they came out a little brown looking
the blueberries look like olives
despite only 1 tbsp of honey per jar, someone – who shall remain nameless – said they were a little too sweet
it could use more crust, which is allowed, but "ups" the calories. ...and as we know, calories are delicious, fattening, and addicting
if the jars were taller, there would have been more room for toppings like strawberries, bananas, kiwis, and more!

Next time! Because there's always a next time!

A weekend in Portland...

2011-06-28T18:31:00.002-07:00

Deschutes Brewery Gluten-free Beer

At the end of July, Galya and I are heading up to Portland to attend and talk diet and nutrition at Chris Bathke's Elemental Fitness Clinic. The event is going to be held at Chris's new gym, Elemental Fitness Lab, which looks like an amazing place! I can't wait to see it, train in it, and feel the pangs of leaving it.

It should be a great weekend, starting off with the EFL Grand Opening on Friday night, the Clinic on Saturday, all sandwiched by Oregon's Brewers Festival! I think I need to be gluten free all the way from now til then, just in case one slips by me!

I'm looking forward to this like nobody's business...

Review of Dan John's FREE Coyote Point KB Club PDF

2011-06-15T05:21:00.000-07:00

Not just free, but super-free!

What's the difference between free and super-free? Super free is actually free.

It's sad that we have elaborate on the word "free," but these days, "free" comes with hair. Free with purchase isn't really free, and it's certainly not super-free. Super-free is not one of the many bonuses (or is it boni?) you get with your $79 fat loss program purchase to bring the perceived value to over $1012. Free gift... redundant. A gift is free or it's not a gift.

This is a super-free gift, or a super-gift even. This is super-free because it's just there for the taking. Dan [virtually] says "here," take it. So take it. Free of charge. Super free and no charge!

Review of Dan John's Coyote Point KB Club super-free pdf

I love Dan John. I'll let you decide which kind of love, but you should love him, too. When I started to write this review, I originally wrote "when I first met Dan John," but it turns out that I've only met Dan once. It seems like more. I feel like it must have been more. Weird.

Dan's a great and knowledgeable guy, and has taught me a ton in just that one meeting, plus his articles, books, and videos, and finally via some very generous-with-his-time phone conversations. Thanks, Dan!

Coyote Point KB Club is more than just a book or article, it's a club. Up in the Bay Area, there's a park, apparently, called Coyote Point. The story is in the book, but the gist is it's a weekly gathering of like minded people, getting together to train.

From the introduction...

The coyote Point Kettlebell Club represents the finest mix of humanity ever gathered! Or, perhaps, it represents a great group of people who get together once a week to work out, train and enjoy delicious food together. It is a community of people that have bonded by shared interests, ideally the perfection of the human physique, but, more likely, the excellent sandwiches.

In a similar vein, my friends Chris, Aya, Scott, Shabnam, Pete, Tony, Galya, and I regularly took up space at Santa Monica's Yahoo! Park every Tuesday night at 8pm. Often joined by guests, passersby, and friends flying in on short business trips, we religiously played around at this little park each week. We dragged our kettlebells, battling ropes, sandbells, rings, dogs, a powerwheel, and a trx from many, many miles just to train as a group for an hour or two each week.

It was awesome, and we all got closer, learned a lot, and got in better shape.

Santa Monica's Yahoo! Park

Last year, my good friend Chris Bathke picked up and left for Portland, OR. His good reason was to start up the most awesome and beautiful gym you can imagine at Elemental Fitness Lab, but still, he left... At about the same time, I moved from Torrance to Rancho Santa Margarita, and the result was more gym time and no more group training.

The Coyote Point KB Club is a good, if painful, reminder of many things:

Training outdoors is more valuable than it could possible look on paper
Training with a group is more valuable than it could possible sound
Unless you're training for something very specific, your training doesn't have to be so rigid that you can't get out there and have fun
It's time to get another group together

What I liked

super-free
thought starter
smart programming
it balances mobility, stretching, strength, power, and the kind of endurance that I like (e.g., not running)
it's specific enough to follow and get in some great training
it's vague enough to allow you do whatever you need to do, instead
a great learning tool
it encourages you to find, join, or even make your own club

What I don't like

The word "kettlebell" or "kb" in the title could make a non-comprehender think you need kettlebells to get out there and train, but you can use anything; dumbbells, sandbags, rocks, logs, kettlebells, trx, rings, trees, chinup bars, monkey bars, hills, etc.
every week that I don't do something to start my own group is another week that I feel like I missed out, which I did

On Dan John's web site, danjohn.net, Dan's got a ton of free stuff, including the PDF I'm writing about today: Coyote Point KB Club. After you're impressed with this thing, go check out the other freebies in the right column, not to mention the articles. Finally, go buy Dan's books, like Never Let Go, and products. It's all good stuff, as you'll see by all the great reviews over at JPFitness.

This review is OVER, but check this out when you have some time.

In this Fitcast video, Kevin captured Dan John at the LA Strength and Nutrition Seminar a few years back. You can see me learning to "squat," plus Chris Bathke from Elemental Fitness Lab, and John Berardi of Precision Nutrition. Fun stuff from the past!

As part of a balanced breakfast...

2011-06-05T13:16:00.000-07:00

My version of a balanced breakfast includes this coconut cereal, plus a couple of eggs on the side. ...maybe some bacon or sausage. I'll eat my veggies at lunch time, thank you.

This grain free version of cereal looks a lot like corn flakes, but tastes wonderfully coconuty and chews up nicely. It's very satisfying and filling.

Coconut "cereal & milk"

serves 1 or 2

Ingredients

1 oz (about 1 cup) Tropical Traditions coconut chips *
1/2 cup strawberries

coconut milk, coconut cream, milk, half & half, cream, etc.

Stevia (optional)

Directions

In a dry pan, toast the coconut chips over medium high heat. Keep shaking and stirring so the chips brown, but don't burn. Transfer the chips to a bowl or bowls to cool a bit.

Wash, stem, and slice the strawberries.

If your "milk" is too thick, you can dilute it a bit.

If using stevia, stir it into the milk and stir. Stevia tends to leave little super sweet pockets of sweetness, so mix well.

Top your cereal with the strawberries, then pour in the "milk."

Eat.

* shredded coconut works, too. It's just not as satisfying to eat.

Coconut Chips

You may find the chips from other sources, but Tropical Traditions makes really good ones, for a very reasonable price. They are just dried coconut, and nothing else.

A shameful claim to fame

2011-05-26T18:03:00.000-07:00

I don't know many people who actually believe that American cheese is actually good cheese. For the most part, it does qualify as cheese. ...mostly. ...barely.

The worst part is that it's not a high quality cheese. It's hardly pure, and it's claim to fame is being bland and pleasantly melty. Kids love it and most of us welcome it on our cheeseburgers, by default.

Hence the next problem... The cheeseburger.

My wife (fresh of the boat from Bulgaria) pointed out that you can get a cheeseburger virtually everywhere; it's not only the default food for when the rest of a menu sucks, it's also there for a picky eater at your favorite fish restaurant, and even standing by at the Chinese place for the xeno-food-o-phobe that you convinced to come with you while you ate General Tso's. ...and each and every burger, fancy burger joint aside, is covered with a melted slice of American cheese, in all it's ~~shame~~ splendor.

As an ingredient, rather than a food in and of itself, American cheese is even more ubiquitous than the all-American cheeseburger on which it rests, melting, on the lunch table burger of so many Americans, each and every day.

America is a proud country, but we really need to rethink the things that we allow carry our proud name. German chocolate cake is delicious. Greek salad is good stuff. But American cheese... is it even cheese? Not always, but often.

What if people drop the American "cheese" from their burgers? Does that make the burger less American?

If so what do we have left? Without cheese, what is a cheeseburger? A hamburger. Where's Hamburg? Germany. The Germans already have that cake, so screw them!

Here's McDonald's American Cheese

Pasteurized Process American Cheese:

Milk, water, milkfat, cheese culture, sodium citrate, salt, citric acid, sorbic acid (preservative), sodium phosphate, artificial color, lactic acid, acetic acid, enzymes, soy lecithin (added for slice separation).

At least it's not McDonald's "Natural" Swiss Cheese (yes, "natural" is their choice of words, not mine).

Natural Swiss Cheese:

Swiss cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), powdered cellulose and potato starch (prevent caking), natamycin (natural mold inhibitor).

Natural? Powdered cellulose? Do you know what that is?

In the olden days, American cheese was cheese, and was a blend of colby, jack, and or cheddar, but no more. Now, American cheese is produced as American cheese OR worse, manufactured as a processed cheese food, which is primarily yellow vegetable oil instead of a dairy product. If it has to be labeled "food," shouldn't that give you pause?

I hesitate to tell you to opt for another cheese, because American cheese should live on, to return in strength and stand proud again amongst the cheese blends!

It needs a relaunch.

How can we get our cheese to be cheese, once again?

Fat loss mondays - loose [sic] the fat!

2011-05-18T07:34:00.000-07:00

I used to be fat, and now I'm not.

It's been at least seven years now. Things are pretty easy these days. Stable. Some call it homeostasis, which in my body's case is the ability (or tendency) to maintain a stable and relatively constant condition. In my case, that condition is maintaining 185 pounds.

I have to admit that I often feel like I push the boundaries of this stable and relatively constant condition, yet the scale itself, rarely moves. It's possible that a weekend of too much ice cream is a common area of opportunity for me ...for example. Yet on Monday, I tend to find the scale reading 185 pounds.

I do not take this lightly, though! I cannot afford to. We all hear stories of weight creeping back up over time, and I choose not to be fat ever again. It will not happen quickly, overnight, and not slowly over time. It just won't happen.

For years, I've tended to eat a little free and easy on the weekends; I have the kids, we wing things more, eating out where they want to eat, the previously mentioned ice cream, and the general lack of routine that I tend to follow when I'm working and controlling all my meals. Come Sunday night, I'm usually ready to nip this dietary freedom in the bud! Um, but I'll start "tomorrow..."

Fat loss Monday

Monday has become my day of redemption for the dietary sins of the weekend, but more than that, it sets the stage for how my week is going to go. Over the years, I've decided to make it more than just weighing myself again and resolving to eat right until next week. I have a plan and a routine -- I wake up early, take a walk, listen to a fitness related podcast, all while drinking some coffee. This burns some calories and burns some fat, all while giving me time to reflect on what I want out of the week. It starts me off in a good mood, too, which is a good enough reason as any.

Once I'm back, I get ready for work, don't eat breakfast, and head out. Instead of food now, I do an Intermittent Fast until lunch or longer.

That's the gist of it, but for those who want more detail, here it is, possibly not in the most obvious order.

You gotta loose it to lose it!

Wake up early -- early enough to not have to rush the walk. Early enough to make a cup of coffee, brush my teeth, get dressed, and get out the door. I do this all before I look at my computer, too.

Do not eat -- I've been fasting all night, so now is not the time to wreck THAT! I want to draw from whatever I've got in "my stores" that's ready and raring to go. First a.m., with a slow walk goin' on, that's fat!

Coffee, black -- a little jolt of caffeine and almost zero calories. I know a lot of people make fun of the fasted cardio thing, because they say it's trivial. I agree.

Yohimbine -- I have a bottle from way back when. I'll use it up and not buy more. But if it's here, might as well, right? Trivial, once again.

You gotta loose it to lose it. It is all trivial. But, the idea behind this triviality is to loose the fat (e.g., release said fat from said fat cell so it can be burned as energy). Fat burned as energy = lost fat.

Trivial, yes, but I'm not trying to lose a pound of fat in the walk, much less per week. I'm going to walk anyway, so why not slant things in the right direction? Caffeine helps "stuff" come out of the fat cells, easier. Then you can burn off said "stuff" doing your super low intensity stop and smell the roses cardio (walking). I don't have a reference for all this, by the way, but roses do smell good.

BTW, tea works, too. It's the caffeine that's the key, if there's a key at all. Better safe than sorry so take a cup of something with you.

Oh, skip the cream, milk, sugar, and even the zero calorie sweeteners for this one. Remember, we are dealing with the trivial here, and there is a chance that the mere taste of sweetness spikes insulin, shutting off fat loss, even trivially, when you're trying to burn that trivial amount of body fat by doing fasted cardio. That sentence is a mouthful! Anyhow, there's really no doubt that zero cal sweeteners make me hungry, so there's that, too. I don't want to be hungry.

Take a walk -- one hour long, the speed is not important. Time it, so you're not late for work. Walk 30 minutes, then walk back. Figure it out. Making the time is more important than the walk itself. If you are rushed, you defeat the purpose. You will come back stressed and tense, and those things encourage bad eating habits, not good ones.

When you get out there early, you see things that are gone later on. One day I saw a faery ring, some squirrels and bunnies, and a field of African daisies go from closed to open as the sun hit them. I also saw about a million other people walking, and almost all of them said "hi" or did that nod thing. (Hi right back, buddy!)

Fitness Podcast -- If you don't listen to fitness podcasts, here's a chance to try some out. I can't recommend TheFitcast highly enough. The chemistry between the hosts is great. They are funny, knowledgeable, and they obviously like each other a lot. It's like morning drive time radio, but fitness related.

Podcasts suggestions, fitness and otherwise

TheFitcast -- A nice mix of fitness, nutrition, training, and plenty of off topic stuff. At first, you'll wonder why that have to talk about Kevin's dog (Marty) instead of about lifting weights or nutrition, but soon you'll wonder how Marty is doing when they don't mention him. Kevin Larrabee, Leigh Peele, and Jonathon Fass know their stuff, but they have also had virtually every respected name in fitness, plus my friend Lou Schuler, on the show multiple times.
Inside Out Weight Loss -- A little hippie voodoo mental podcast that's pretty motivational. Just because you know what to do with diet and exercise doesn't mean you really want to stick with your plan. Find of why or why not, and learn to get back on track and stay there. Renee seems cool.
Spilled Milk -- More cooking than healthy, I must admit. I have a crush on Molly's voice, so if anyone knows her or her husband, I'd love to get a good seat in her pizza restaurant next time I'm in Seattle. Although I don't eat pizza, I just might eat pizza. Maybe...
Iron Radio -- Good solid info on strength sports and the nutrition to support it. Lonnie Lowery, Rob Fortney, and Phil Stevens give sound, rational, and reasonable advice on all things relating to strong and big.
Mike Robertson -- An interview podcast from a strength coach's perspective. Mike interviews the big names in sports training. Good stuff if you want to train athletes or are an athlete, yourself.
Livin' La Vida Low Carb Show -- Jimmy Moore is a big figure in the low carb community, and he interviews people with a wide variety of perspectives, not just the low carbers. He often has people on who debunk (or attempt to debunk) the conventional wisdom (saturated fat = death, etc.).
Leigh Peele -- Leigh is a straight shooter when it comes to fat loss and shaping your body. Short and sweet (her podcast, at least. I'm not sure she exists. There is a possibility of a Max Headroom situation here).
The Paleo Solution -- Robb Wolf and Greg Everett take the paleo approach, but you might be surprised how sensible these guys are in these podcasts, whether you are a paleo or not. There's a lot of regular (non-paleo) common sense, too. If you've ever done TNT, Adam's Diet, or John Berardi's Metabolism Advantage or JB's 7 Habits you'll see more similarities than differences.

Up early to take a walk, listening to a fitness related podcast, all while drinking some good coffee and setting the mood for my week. It's a short fast, a micro-detox, and a mini-resolution, all wrapped up in Monday. It puts me in the mood to succeed for the week, and I do it whether I'm making up for Sunday or just keeping on track after a very good weekend, dietarily speaking.

A little fat loss
A little motivation
A little peace
A little learning

If I'm right about any one of the above, it's all worth it. The rest is cake. (mmm... cake...)

I, for one

2011-05-16T08:16:00.000-07:00

welcome our grain producing overlords

un-thought out thoughts

2011-05-04T06:11:00.000-07:00

1. Gluten-free boxed cookies really are just as ~~good~~ bad tasting as gluteny boxed cookies!

2. If you say "My husband is from _____," people assume the said husband is still around. Don't be surprised when someone says "tell your husband hello," because we don't know he's dead.

3. How did the transition from good cookies to boxed cookies come about? 100 years ago, a Chips Ahoy would have been laughed out of the house. How is it that they are acceptable?

Looks can be deceiving... This cookie more than just sucks

4. If you work at Starbucks and hear "A tall decaf with room for milk, please," think about it before you ask "a decaf what?" Decaf coffee.

5. This is disgusting.

...and what is YOUR Starbucks name?

2011-04-30T14:46:00.000-07:00

My own Starbucks name is more like a list of names, but it's the price you pay for having an easily distinguishable name like Roland.

Galya (aka "Gal," or G - A - L as she spelled it for the dude) has caught on to the benefits of using a short and sweet name at Starbucks, but it doesn't always work...

does it, "Dan?"

I told Dan it would be cool to make a Starbucks Name Generator, but I find that it's already done.

Starbucks Name Generator

My name is Upman. What's YOUR Starbucks name?

...and it begins

2011-04-25T11:27:00.000-07:00

A weekend of food, bread, and beer and I'm ready to get things back into right again. I didn't eat all that much more than I usually do, but it was more of the stuff that I don't usually eat.

On Friday, I was 183lbs and today I'm 185.5. Not bad for a holiday weekend of bread and beer. I'm not a low carber, but I'm sure I'm on the low end of normal, since I do eat fruit and yogurt daily, corn tortillas and pozole every couple of weeks, and have a beer here and there.

Last night's Guinness was my "cheers" to top off and end my wonderful weekend with the family. Today begins a week of asceticism.

asceticism; the way I see it

No grains – easy, since I don't eat them much anyway. I typically reserve what few grains I do have for beer or tacos, but these are low level foods
Limited dairy – half and half in my joe, and one meal with cheese per day
No fruit – it's a gateway food
No yogurt – It's not filling, and just makes me want more yogurt, fruit, or sweets
Veggies – yes
There will be meat – oh my yes
Avocados – Thanks to my sister's tree, there are plenty to eat right now
Coffee – black and/or with half and half
No alcohol – No beer, of course, but also no booze or wine for the week
Sleep – I will try to go to be earlier than usual, which isn't really much of a commitment
Intermittent Fasting – I almost never eat breakfast, so that part is normal. On some non-training days, I will go longer, but I'm not the 24 hour fasting type. My only issue I have with IF is forgetting to eat enough in the hours prior to training. I can train empty first thing, but training empty after a full day leads to bad training.
Training – Gal and I appear to be going back to the gym this week, so two days of that and two days of kettlebells and ab rollouts in the little apt gym
Mobility – It continues
Walking – Yes, please
Running – Gal suggested it. I plan to string her along...

By the way, I don't think I've ever used the term "ascetism" before yesterday, when I tried and failed to pronounce it after Gal said it over beers. I said "aesthetic" and got an eye roll for it.

Coincidently, and speaking of asceticism, this morning, my RSS reader found yesterday's blog post by fellow blogger John Durant, regarding his recent monk/monastery/fasting/adventure – Fasting with the Trappists: An adventure in asceticism. It's a good read AND also works well with my philosophy on dieting hard, which is to imagine myself in the place of some sort of monk; feel the hunger.

How to make easy homemade kimchi and five fried eggs for lunch, in no time at all

2011-04-13T09:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I had easy homemade kimchi and five fried eggs for lunch, in no time at all.

You say... "Roland, how can I have easy homemade kimchi and five fried eggs for lunch, in no time at all?"

easy homemade kimchi with five fried eggs

Easy.

First, get some homemade kimchi. Now, fry up the five eggs and put them on the plate with your homemade kimchi. Let the eggs cool a little bit, but not too long, and eat it for lunch.

Easy.

Homemade kimchi and five fried eggs

Serves 2*

Ingredients

2 cups homemade kimchi, divided

1 lbs nitrate or nitrite free – I can't remember which is which – bacon

10 free range omega-3 eggs, divided

Fresh ground Himalayan salt

Directions

Set the homemade kimchi aside until later.

Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium high heat. When bacon fat** has fully rendered out, spoon out one tbsp bacon fat and add it to your non-stick or well seasoned cast-iron skillet. Discard the bacon and the remaining fat.

Heat your skillet and tablespoon of bacon fat over medium high heat. Add your ten cracked omega-3 free range eggs and cook to desired level of "done." Put the eggs, divided, onto two plates.

Add half of the kimchi to each plate and serve, salting with the Himalayan salt.

See? Easy.

* Note: the recipe is for five eggs in each serving, not in total.***

** If desired, the bacon fat can be prepared in advance.

*** Recipe can be scaled to use fewer eggs, if desired. The use of more than five eggs is not recommended unless you are hungrier.

Dear friends...

2011-04-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

It used to feel so strange to say that, but you are my friends, even the many who I've never actually met. Even five years ago, it was a little awkward to tell your family or a local friend about a friend who's only relationship with you is online. I'm sure many of you reading this are right there with me.

I've met many of you over the years at airport layovers, hotel lobby bars, and even at the local gym down the street from your hotel. Amazingly, things go smoothly from minute one. I once picked up my friend Jim on the way to train at Yahoo! Park in Santa Monica. I drove into the hotel circle, Jim hopped in, we hit the park with a group of friends and continued to hit it off for the rest of the day, despite never having even spoken to one another before!

These times of forums, Facebook, blogs, and Skype are powerful for bringing us together, but it's still even better when you have the chance to meet face to face. ...and opportunity is coming!

I know many of you from the fitness and nutrition discussions at JPFitness.com, so it should come as no big surprise when I suggest that you, like me, try VERY hard to attend this year's Fitness Summit! This is something like the 8th or 9th annual get-together, and promises to be the best yet. I've been to three of them, and each one has been a blast, in addition to the learning experience.

Whether you are a fitness guru or fanatic or just interested in being healthier while you live your real life, this is the long weekend event to attend. This will prove to be a great time of friends getting together to learn, eat, play, and get to know each other even better. As great as knowing each of you online is, I would absolutely love to know you all in person, too!

Please come!

The web site almost speaks for itself, but feel free to ask me via email (rdenzel@gmail.com) or Facebook (facebook.com/rolanddenzel) or on the JPFitness Forum or even it's own Facebook page, where you can get a good feel for how these things go!

I hope to see you all there!

Roland

Cranberry braised beef

2011-04-08T23:09:00.000-07:00

Cranberry braised beef

I love the combination of cranberries and juniper berries with braised meat. A little fresh sage would be be a good optional touch if you have some. Sometimes I like sage, and sometimes I don't.

Serves 3-4 people

Ingredients

1 tbsp peppercorns, cracked
1 tbsp juniper berries, cracked
1/2 cup cranberries, fresh or frozen
1 cup bell pepper (about 1 or 2 peppers), chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 1/2 lbs flank steak (or another chunk of beef)
2 cups beef or vegetable broth
1 tsp sea salt
5 bay leaves
extra water

Directions

Brown the meat on all sides and transfer to your slow cooker. Pile all the veggies, cranberries (still frozen is fine), herbs, and spices around it, add the broth and enough water to almost cover the beef.

Cook the beef according to your slow cooker's directions. For me and my slow cooker, it was "low" for the whole day, and I came home from work to ready-to-eat beef!

Have no slow cooker? Simmer on low, covered for a couple of hours, making sure it doesn't dry up and start to burn. The slow cooker isn't magic, just easy.

I think I served most of this fork tender beef with some sort of chopped vegetable salad, but I saved the broth and some of the meat for soup the next day.

Leftover Beef Soup

There's no magic to this soup, either. I chopped up some summer squash, the meat, and brought the broth to a simmer.

Serves 1

Ingredients

Yesterday's beef
Yesterday's broth
Misc summer squash from crisper, chopped

Directions

Bring it all to a simmer and let it go until the squash is tender.

Eat.

the old music

2011-04-07T18:21:00.000-07:00

On our honeymoon at the Hacienda Hot Springs Inn, I was thrilled to find boxes and boxes of old albums and a nice little turntable ~~to spin them on~~ on which to spin them.

Gal often jokes that my favorite music is by people who are dead. I'll leave that alone, because they aren't even mostly dead.

Much of my favorite music is old, I'll give her that.

But we found some of Gal's favorites there in the old records, too.

An interesting thing about vinyl records that many people might not know or remember, but they are only about 20 minutes per side, and they don't flip themselves. ...or repeat endlessly. They just stop.

There's no "background music" when you have a turntable and a box of albums. You are engaged in every song, from the selecting the platter, dropping the needle, to flipping it over.

Scratches, clicks, and hisses are part of the fun; you can hear them when you transfer your vinyl to CDs. But, there's no substitute for the experience of digging through boxes of albums and putting them through their paces.

Baked eggs & peppers

2011-04-03T10:23:00.000-07:00

In some ways, it's hard to call this a recipe. Although I'll jot down what I did to make these little guys, know that you can use anything you have handy. Baked eggs is a concept, not a recipe.

I used Pinnacle Ceramic's non-stick 6oz ramekins for this recipe. I have about 12 of them in red and white. They are pretty and very easy to clean.

Baked eggs & peppers

This recipe makes one 6oz ramekin worth, so make 1, 2, or 3 (or 4, etc.) per person. Although it's per ramekin, feel free to make all the veggies for all the ramekins in just one skillet, then distribute amongst the various ramekins.

Ingredients

1-2 awesome eggs (these were a mix of Trader Joe's and eggs from some local chickens)
butter, lard, olive oil, or bacon fat for greasing and sauteing
.25 cup chopped green or white onion
.25 cup chopped green and/or colored bell pepper

Directions

Preheat the over to 350°.

Grease up the ramekins with your chosen fat and place them on a cookie sheet or baking pan for ease of handling.

Heat a skillet over medium high heat, add a bit of fat and swirl to coat the pan. Add the veggies and sautee them until they are soft, but not limp. About five minutes should do it.

Distribute the veggies into the greased ramekins and top each with one or two eggs. You can break the yolk or leave them whole. It's your choice.

Here, you can see the fat greasing the ramekins

Put the tray(s) of ramekins in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes. If you like the yolk soft, then check them early for doneness. Be aware that baked yolks often look uncooked, even when fully hard. You might need to touch one to see if it's done.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool until you and your diners can handle the hot ramekins. I like to serve them directly from the ramekin, but you can also scoop them out onto a plate or bowl.

I've included some alternate versions, below.

Baked eggs & summer squash

Instead of the peppers, use .25 cup of yellow summer squash, zucchini, crookneck squash, and/or those flying saucer things.

Baked eggs & some fresh vegetables

Instead of the peppers, use .25 cup of the freshest ______. This option is often the most delicious because of the fresh produce! Mmmm....

Baked eggs with veggies and cheese

Top the ramekins with some cheese. Here, it's a Mexican cotija, which isn't particularly melty, but pretty flavorful.

Mexican v american coke

2011-04-02T09:46:00.000-07:00

There is so much to say about Mexican versus American Cokes, but in the end the nutritional value of either one is the least interesting.

Mexican Coke – Carbonated water, sugar, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavors, caffeine.

American Coke – Carbonated water, high-fructose corn syrup, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavors, caffeine.

At 12oz, each has 39g of sugar. Whether you believe that HFCS is worse for you than sugar or not, the most important thing is that it's 39g of sugar. Even those who trivialize the percentage differences of glucose vs fructose, should know that 39g of any sugar is bad, and at the most inflated fructose numbers, you still only get 1-2g more fructose with HFCS than table sugar. Neither is a health food.

Why is it less expensive? It's imported!

Pepsi made a big deal out of it's Pepsi Throwback, but is Mexican Coke Coke's answer to the people who want natural sugar? Until recently, Mexican Coke was found only in Mexican restaurants, taco stands, and taco trucks. ...and BevMo. Now, it's all over the place. These pics are from a 7-11 or AM/PM, I think. I saw some in the grocery store the other day, too.

hiking rsm

2011-03-29T22:25:00.000-07:00

Alwyn Cosgrove is mean

2011-03-29T00:07:00.001-07:00

and so is my wife. So is Gray Cook. Mean, all of them.

On Facebook, last week, Alwyn posted a quote by Gray Cook – "You can't put fitness on top of dysfunction."

Rehab sucks

No one really likes to hear this crap, but it's very good advice. It's advice that I've heard a million times, but never listened to for longer than a week or so. I would start getting things in order, but stop. Why?

rehab sucks
it's not fun stuff
it stands in the way of the fun stuff you want to do
it's hard
it takes time
it's boring
it makes you weak
it can be exhausting

Most people will immediately agree with most of the above bullets, but the last two may surprise people. When you begin a serious rehab/prehab program, your central nervous system (cns) can be fried after a few seemingly simple and easy exercises. What we don't think about is the effort it takes to get a muscle to work in a way that it's not comfortable working. It's hard work in the brain, and all that cns work is draining on your strength and energy. The first few actual training sessions – post rehab exercises masquerading as a warmup – can be very frustrating. (I got pissed and quit once...)

Look at those bullets and tell me that you won't want to quit. That you won't want to ignore what you know is good advice.

The biggest problem with ignoring such advice is not that you delay getting better, but you can actually make things worse. This has happened to me. It's not irreparable, but it's time lost.

The past two years, I started doing less in the gym and more at home. Kettlebell sport replaced my intervals and cardio; a good thing. A good thing, yes, but the sport whose aspects I love for fitness has taken my dysfunction(s) to the next level.

I've never been the anterior pelvic tilt type. I'd been straight and even. One of my few areas of "normal." I had been. Had.

So, Galya comes back after months away to find me worse than ever. I had followed her advice to give up the dangerous squatting that my lack of good hips presented me. No squats. Although I followed her advice about what not to do, I also ignored her advice about what to do. That would be all the prescribed stretching, mobility, and exercises to strengthen the [not very interesting] weak muscles. I didn't really do that stuff.

Enter the kettlebell [sport]

I'm actually a believer that most people would benefit from what Kettlebell Sport has to offer. 10 minute sets of cardio, escalating in intensity, pace, and weight over time. A hip dominant, glute and hamstring sport that also provides a relatively safe overhead lift in the kettlebell jerks and snatch. Shoulders, hips, glutes, hamstrings, rotator cuff, and core work, all rolled into an activity that pushes your heart rate up and burns a ton of calories. I like it; the exercise and the challenge.

Dysfunction on top of dysfunction

Unfortunately... I have crappy hips, tight lats, and poor thoracic mobility. It seems that in order to get in a "good" rack position I have to go so far into posterior pelvic tilt that the Keep On Truckin' guys would be envious.

As if that wasn't enough, I have poor overhead mobility, and I (apparently) compensate in the lumbar spine, with a dramatic arch that's just not good. I've piled dysfunction on top of dysfunction, leading to poor posture and a vicious circle of problem causing problem causing problem.

It's been about two months with Galya's hands on training, rehab, and therapy, and I'm getting better fast. In fact, that she is here to point out where things are better is keeping me going. Although I have to get over the fact that I've wasted two years of getting better, and actually made things worse, it's good to know that things are coming together. Her story of one day being better than ever really does help.

I see and feel the benefit (to me) of having a good trainer for the first time.

Alwyn Cosgrove is nice

and so is my wife. So is Gray Cook. Nice, all of them.

Alwyn Cosgrove is not mean. He's nice. It's not the kind of nice you want to hear, because it's a hard nice to live. But, take the advice now, not later. It won't make it easy for you, but it will be easier now than it will be two years from now.

Kumquats!

2011-03-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

it's never long enough

2011-03-21T06:07:00.000-07:00

It's been a whirlwind week, full of fun, family, friends, love, wedding, and marriage. Somewhere, there are a million thoughts I want to put down, a million feelings I want to share, and a million pictures yet to be found.

One day. One day... well one day will never fully happen, because this life gives us so much new joy each day that taking the time to list it all can never allow us to catch up. That's really my one area of sadness here; that there's something that I need to get out that I'll miss or simply gloss over.

My new wife of one week and two days (Married just March 12th, 2011) is a joy to me, and I spend more time laughing and trading ideas with her than any friend before. As a result, my list of blog ideas runs longer and longer, waiting and aching for a day when I can finally use them all. I just hope that my cryptic notes are still understandable when I get back to them.

In addition to all that "stuff,: I've had requests. Requests which seem simple, but still take some work. These things are coming:

my carnitas recipe (for the carnitas served at the wedding reception)
my cheesecake recipe (the top two tiers of which were delicious...)
wedding pictures (must remember my external harddrive today!)

In addition, Galya and I stayed at an amazing little desert inn/bed and breakfast that was just beautiful, serene, and relaxing.

Full review of Hacienda Hot Springs Inn to follow (probably), but you can see a bit of it at Gal's place.

Off to work!

The bare necessities

2011-03-15T11:32:00.000-07:00

For a long time, I've been trying to think of a good name to call my own style of eating. I eat pretty close to what many consider the Paleo Diet, but I find that term to be a turn off to many. I cringe so much when I say it, that I no longer say it to the newbie. Even many paleo diet proponents suggest that the way to get more people to follow it is to rename it. I agree, but what name?

Listening to a podcast the other day, the term "Real Food Diet" was presented. Despite the accuracy and emotional feelings that a follower of said diet must feel, it's really an insult to someone sitting across the table to proclaim your diet to be "real," as it implies that theirs is not.

"Whole Food Diet" could mean anything, because aren't oatmeal, honey, wheat, and quinoa whole foods? A baguette is merely wheat, yeast, water, and salt. That's a whole food to many people. Make the wheat whole grain wheat and it's now "whole" to another group of people. Using sea salt and making the water artisan helps to bring in a whole new group of whole food aficionados.

"Artisan" water. ;)

I've toyed around with the term "Ancestral," but I'm not sold yet. While looking back to the way our ancestors ate does point us in the right direction, it leaves so much wiggle room to mix and match inappropriately. It's not just what they ate, but how much of "what." How the "what" was prepared. How often they had access to the "what."

I can't just tell someone I eat like your ancestors, because I don't. I might eat the ingredient types that they ate, but for them it was the time, place, culture, work habits, spending money, and more that drove food choices and opportunities.

So, what's a good term?

I posed this question to Galya, and she almost instantly suggested the word "bare" to me.

"Take a food and distill it down to it's bare elements. That's the part of the food you really need."

"Take your diet and focus on those foods that are the bare elements or provide the greatest nutritional benefit."

In the end, my own diet is focused on meat and vegetables, with as few "extras" as possible. We don't need those things, and just because they exist doesn't mean we should to eat them. As your mother probably told you, life isn't fair.

I do eat some grains here and there, but grains tend to stand in the way of being able to eat more vegetables and meat, which are more satisfying and closer to required eating.

"If you want to think of the opposite of a bare food, it's a fun food," Galya added.

Fun foods seem to provide those feelings of happiness and nostalgia that tend to make us want to eat more and more of them. Chocolate, cake, ice cream, and other sweets provide little nutritional benefit compared to their bare counterparts or some of their basic ingredients.

Even a fun food made up of bare ingredients can be problematic, since it propels us toward eating for fun, rather than for nutrition. I love these foods, but they need to be a rare spot in my diet, or I'll overeat them.

Meat and veggies are the bare necessities, followed closely by fruits, nuts, potatoes and squash. Grains and sugars are treats to me, and I save them special occasions. They must be delicious and rare, or I'll just have more meat.

Does the word "bare" give my friend across the table enough to go on? No, but I hope it give him something to think about. The days are numbered for the term "paleo," one way or another. What will take it's place?

The Six Million Stotinki Man

2011-03-10T23:47:00.000-08:00

I finally got my program, after a month or so of prying (literally, in a sense) to get it down on paper.

The benefit of having a ~~girlfriend~~ fiancée who knows stuff is that I get all the help I need to get my body in order. I wish it was in order again, but the reality is that I've never actually been in order.

I'm pretty messed up, it seems; stiff and immobile, and it goes way back to my childhood. I grew up as a toe walker, just like my uncle and grandfather did, and I while we all three broke the habit, we never ever got our shit (or hips) in order. Doctors stuck me in Forrest Gump-esq leg braces that stretched my calves, but did little to keep my stride in stride, so over time I reverted and the calves returned to their old ways.

As I understand it, all my stuff is connected somehow, so my tight calves, introverted hips, and toe walking may either be the cause OR the result of themselves and not necessarily of each other. ...or something. (She's so pretty when she explains all this, though).

The Six Million Dollar Moustache

Whatever the pretty lady from Bulgaria is saying, we don't always know, but what we do know is that I'm being rebuilt, like the Six Million Dollar Man, only in Bulgarian currency. The exchange rate is very mysterious, but when I asked if I'd be worth Six Million whatever you call thems in the end, I was told something in the affirmative, like "six million statinki."

It's been a month of hands on help from my Eastern European Personal Trainer/Massage Therapist/Chef/Author, and I'm already feeling better. I'm more mobile and have fewer aches and pains. I can't wait to see how things have changed after another month.

Six Million Stotinki program

Daily Stuff (abridged)

roll foot or get massage, 2-3 minutes each side
high step calf stretch, 1-2 minute each side
glute bridge, 2x12-15
side plank, 2x1-1.5 minute per side

This is to be done daily, but that's not all there is. I also have a whole lotta mobility and activation to do before any training, depending on the training. It's all good, and like the NROL4A warmup and mobility, it goes a long way to getting me lifting better, rather than annoying me with stuff that seems and feels meaningless. In addition, I think Galya's done a good job of keeping it interesting and helping me out.

In a month, I hope to have the perfect mustache, better working body parts, fewer bionics, and slightly less sasquatch stank than Steve Austin had.

Talk to you later!

making chocolate dipped strawberries

2011-03-04T20:51:00.000-08:00

the aftermath!

Roasted eggplant & tomato salad

2011-02-28T17:41:00.000-08:00

"Make ~~everything~~ [salads] as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein

In the six months since I got back from Bulgaria, I've really gone to town on the chopped vegetable salads. As I showed you back in August, the Bulgarian salad is a pretty simple thing; there few dressings in Bulgaria, so it's oil and vinegar, maybe some lemon, or often just the vegetable juices themselves that dress the salads. Fine by me.

I ate every salad I could while there, and found that they were always different, even when they were comfortably similar. Once back, I re-enacted my trip by making and eating the most common combinations of salad vegetables. But, as summer waned and good "salad" produce was harder to find, I veered off track, forging my own trail, making substitutes when possible, until I was finally taking huge liberties with the Bulgarian salad, because... Well, because I'm American!

Throughout the past six months, I've made summer salads, fruit salads, roasted veggie salads, and combinations of all these. Almost every one has been the best salad so far! I have to admit that someone, somewhere has most assuredly made my salad combinations before, so I ~~can't~~ won't claim to be original.

The other night, we had these and were out of that, so it was creativity time. Tiny eggplants were roasted, without their specific usage in mind, then this salad formed from what coalesced on the kitchen counter, as ingredients were pulled from crisper, oven, and pantry.

Roasted eggplant & tomato salad

Ingredients

8 tiny eggplants
1/2 pint of cherry tomatoes
1 green onion
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste

Directions

Roast the eggplants in a 400° oven for 20-30 minutes. The little eggplants should be soft enough to start sinking into themselves. Set aside so that they cool enough to handle.

Meanwhile, slice the cherry tomatoes into halves, saving all the juices for the salad. Chop the green onion into tiny circles and toss with the tomatoes. When the eggplants are cool enough to touch, pull or cut the stems off.

Roughly chop the eggplants, then stir them into the tomatoes. Add the olive oil, salt to taste, and stir again.

For best results, allow the salad to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes, then stir again and serve.

This salad might seem small, and it is. I tend to make one or two little salads (or one and a some cooked vegetables) using the ingredients on hand to make each salad simple and unique, rather than force things into one bigger salad that's complicated and so overwhelming that the tastes get lost in the ~~shuffle~~ tossing.

Engagement at Starbucks

2011-02-24T11:11:00.000-08:00

As you may already know, Galya and I were recently engaged, but most of you don't know the way in which it happened. To say it occurred at Starbucks would make many people cringe, so please bear with me.

You see, it was several years ago, at a Starbucks in Little Rock, Arkansas, where I fell in love. I looked across our little table, where we went to spend a mere thirty minutes talking, and eventually realized that over two hours had passed. In retrospect, I barely know what was said, but I know that I thought and dreamed of what "could never be."

All those years ago, knowing that this girl lived on the other side of the world, I felt doomed to love, but never have her. Like an ancient and classic tragedy, pulled into modern day times.

What force could draw a beautiful, brilliant, and amazing girl to want to pick up her life and move it to a foreign land? We know that only love can do that, but the time of a trip is never enough time, except in a fairy tale or Ethan Hawke movie, and so we both went home.

Three years had passed since that first time in that first Starbucks, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I hold a special place in my heart for this coffee house – Starbucks – and I hoped that Galya would to.

It was Galya's first day back in the United States, and I had carefully planned out what to say and how to say it, and I knew it would be easy. I live within walking distance of a very bright, happy, and open Starbucks, so we walked over to Antonio Plaza for coffee.

As prepared as I thought I was, on the way out of Starbucks, I still hadn't built up the nerve to ask. As we stepped outside and the door closed, I took a deep breath and ask her to sit back down.

I must have been very nervous, because she asked if she'd done something wrong. I shook my head "no" and have virtually no idea how I said what I said to her. I know I told her how much she means to me, how much I love her, how fondly I recall our time in Starbucks so many months ago, and how much I cherish those first moments alone together.

Sitting in the warm California sun, in front of Starbucks, surrounded by people, but somehow alone, I told her how much I loved her and how much I wanted to spend my life with her. I asked her to marry me and held out the ring. She said yes.

I guess this Starbucks is now "our" Starbucks

pan seared lambchops and scallops, all rosemaried up...

2011-02-22T06:22:00.000-08:00

They actually do have real food at the supermarket

Everyone will tell you to get to know your farmers market vendors and to make pals with the guy at the butcher shop; it helps to get the better stuff than the people who just show up to shop, you know? But, do you make friends with the meat cutter at the supermarket? What about the produce guy? You should!

It's not every day that the farmers's market is even open, and it's not always close by. My nearest true butcher shop is 20 minutes away, assuming good traffic. When I need food tonight, I still turn to the supermarket down the street.

Ralphs isn't top of the line specialty food by any stretch of the imagination, but they have enough good stuff that I'm usually good to go. In fact, like many supermarkets, they get a few small portions of lamb, wild caught salmon, and grass fed whatever to keep those people happy, but not enough to have to toss them out every few days when the regular Joe's don't buy them in time. One benefit of stopping in every day or so is catching these food treats before they are gone, and as a bonus, they are sometimes marked down to move them before they go past "that date." Because I'm friendly with the guys at the store, they point out the good stuff and often let me know what's particularly good or a good deal.

Enter tonight's find of lamb chops and scallops.

Neither the lamb chops or the scallops could have been a complete meal for two (.73lbs of bone in meat? 9 scallops?). No wonder they were the last packages of each, marked down 50%, with many days of "sell by" date left on the label! Score for me. Add some fresh rosemary, green onion, and a cast iron skillet and we are good for dinner!

Lamb chops and scallops with rosemary

Ingredients

2 lamb chops
9 scallops (one of them is for testing for doneness)
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 green onion, chopped
1-2 tbsp red wine (optional)
black pepper to taste
sea salt to taste

Directions

If possible, salt the lamb chops and allow them to rest for 30 minutes to an hour before cooking. You can add more salt at the table, so don't go crazy. It really helps them to retain some moisture if you allow the salt to do it's duty, but sometimes you have to eat NOW.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat and add the chops! Sprinkle the top of the chops with a bit of the rosemary and allow things to sizzle. Resist the urge to keep turning them, as most steaks, burgers, and chops will fare better with just one episode of turnage. With medium high heat, things go quickly, so three minutes per side should be about right for medium-rare chops.

At three minutes, flip the chops and sprinkle more rosemary on the cooked side, along with a good portion of the green onions and some fresh ground pepper. Allow to cook three minutes for side two. Galya likes her chops cooked longer, so I removed mine (it was the larger one, but shhhh...) and put it on a plate to rest.

With one or more chops out of the pan, you have space for the scallops. Put the scallops in the hot pan and allow them to sizzle. Add the remaining rosemary, green onions, and a sprinkling of sea salt and stir or shake the pan. Scallops cook quickly, so you only need to sear them one or two minutes per side.

When they are done, you have the option of adding a splash or two of red wine to deglaze the pan and giving the scallops one more quick stir! If there's enough liquid, consider drizzling it over the chops, too!

Always let your chops rest for five minutes before cutting into them, for the sake of their juiciness and your enjoyment. That should also make the scallops slightly less than scalding, so win win.

Serve with more salt and pepper, and the wine that you stole one or two tablespoons from, if desired.

For a side dish, go for a simple salad, because life is already complicated enough. Here's ours...

...details coming soon on this delicious salad, but in the meantime just chop some fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, more green onions, a colorful bell pepper, add salt, pepper, stir and let it sit for ten to twenty minutes, then eat it.

Enjoy!

Final note on the store

If you're not a stickler -- requiring free range apples or triple distilled hydroponic sausage at every meal -- stop by the neighborhood grocery store or supermarket regularly, chat with the guys behind the counters, just enough to not annoy them and be one of "those guys," then move along. Eventually, you might score a 12lb ham for $3 because "We got so many more than we'll EVER sell!" Or at the very least have the in on what's good and what's a good deal that day.