Now compared to some of the sugary cereals around today, you could be forgiven for thinking that Rice bubbles were not a bad alternative. But that little puff is not a grain of rice anymore. It has been exploded from the inside out, creating a huge surface area that your stomach can easily breakdown into glucose. This stuff will spike your kids blood sugar faster than you can say ADHD. Once the children come off their sugar high, go buy some eggs and fruit for breakfast instead.
Here are the Cocoa Pops having a stab at being healthy. Even if grains WERE healthy, this label says that CP's are 53% something else besides cereal. And get your fibre from veggies people, it is possible, i promise, you won't end up with a weeks worth of faecal matter trapped inside you if you give up your morning porridge. We survived just fine before Mr Kellogg and Uncle Toby came to the rescue of our bowels.......
The Lasagnewich....... nothing like combined two processed carbohydrates together for a 1,2 punch to the pancreas.
Pretty much the most amazing thing i have ever seen. Pancakes made from macaroni and cheese, with bacon and eggs in between. I'm ashamed to admit how good that would probably taste.......
Says it all really doesn't it...........?
What foods have you seen that shouldn't exist? That make you just shake your head?
The slippery slope is very close. It is potentially under your feet at all times, just waiting for you to put a nutritional foot wrong, where it will dump you on your arse, and slip n slide you right into a week long sugar heavy binge from hell.
We all know that sugary, processed foods are bad, but damn they taste good, so it is always a concious choice not to eat this stuff. If your defenses are down, due to emotional issues, stress, hunger, or lack of better choices, it is easy for this stuff to find its way into your diet.
And then the slippery slope can make it very hard to get back on track, just like trying to walk uphill on a slip n slide, or run an escalator backwards. One bad day of eating leads to another, and another..........
But hey, s$%t happens, don't beat yourself up. Just accept that you have slipped, take a deep breath, dig a mental anchor into that slide and start again. Too many people give in to a slice of someones birthday cake at work, call themselves a loser and proceed to demolish junk food like it's their job.
But what you really have to watch out for is JUSTIFICATION.
Too many people justify nutritional cheats for some reason or other, and that is by far the fastest way to the slippery slope.
Here are some of the worst justifications.
It's Christmas.
Christmas is on December 25th last time I checked. Just the one day, not ALL of December. Somehow, people can spend 1/12 of the year eating crap food and make excuses that it is ok.
I deserve it because I worked out.
So many times at the globo gym I used to work at, I observed people walking in with a big bottle of Powerade. They'd sip the whole thing down while walking on a treadmill for 14 minutes. Nutrition fail. Or the endurance athlete who spent 3 hours drafting off the back of a peleton (exerting almost no effort) and celebrates their 'huge' bout of exercise with a tall stack of pancakes and maple syrup washed down with a hot chocolate.
It's rude to say no.
Whether at the house of your friends or family, or at work, when the unhealthy food is served up, it can be hard to turn down for fear of upsetting those who matter to you. But then where does it end? If you can't politely refuse a plate of pasta, or a slice of cake, then your only option for better health and a lean body is to never leave the house! So sack up to mum and say 'no thank you'.
Someone told me it's ok.
So you have got your meat and veggies down, you've given up on the grains and are making great progress. Then you read somewhere that some expert says potatoes are ok, and you start caning french fries like you own stock in McDonalds. It's not that you really believe what you are doin is right, it's just an easy way to justify your behaviour.
This happened to me recently. I decided to give up dairy completely for the last half of our Spring Clean Challenge at CrossFit NZ. I've never had much issue consuming dairy, but I wanted to challenge myself. Eating primal is easy, but I wanted to have to make an effort just like all of my wonderful clients were, so dropping the dairy was the logical next step. And who knows, I may just experience further health benefits.
But then a few blog posts from Marks Daily Apple and Whole 9 convinced me that ghee (clarified butter which has the problematic dairy proteins removed) might be an acceptable addition. I started cooking some of my food in it, then I'm pouring a little extra on before serving as well. Next thing you know, I'm sucking back the whey protein powder, mowing down blocks of dark chocolate, and pouring cream over my post workout fruit with utter abandon.
I justified my choice, and then I landed on the slippery slope.
In the future I plan on enjoying butter (clarified), and occasionally cream, cheese, yogurt and chocolate in my diet. But in moderation only. I do believe that less dairy is better for us. But damn it tastes good.
Right now however, I'm on a challenge. I'm not only trying to improve my health and body comp, but I'm trying to test my willpower and show solidarity with my clients. I made a promise, and although I slipped up, I'm not going to justify it.
Justification is a surefire ticket to the slippery slope.
The video above shows three nutters doing a workout called "In-N-Out Fran"
21-15-9 reps of thrusters and pullups, with an In-N-Out triple beef patty burger eaten at the start, a double before the 2nd round and a single before the last round. I feel sick just writing this........
But I think the video highlights perfectly one of the biggest myths in exercise. How many of you exercise in order to justify eating unhealthy food, or just more food in general? How many of you decide after a long run, cycle or gym workout, that you can eat what ever you want straight after?
Well I'm afraid you are misinformed. YOU CAN'T OUT TRAIN CRAPPY NUTRITION.
As you can see in CrossFit's Heirachy of Fitness, nutrition is the base upon which everything else is built.
Do you exercise every day, maybe twice a day, but still aren't losing weight? What's your nutrition like?
Trying to gain muscle, but can't shake the scrawy? Are you using functional, full body exercises like deadlifts, squats, pullups and presses? Then your nutrition needs work.
Can't seem to improve on your Fran time? Even your burger free Fran time? In fact your last attempt was SLOWER?! Then you've got to sort out your nutrition quick smart.
If we look at the In-N-Out Fran, the fastest guy took 12 minutes to finish his Fran, which will burn around 200 calories (820kJ) at the most, maybe 400 if we are really generous with the increased metabolism post intense exercise. But the calories from the burgers are about 1800 cals (or around 7500kJ), pretty much 2/3's of an average males entire daily food intake.
The guys in the vid have consumed 4-9 times more energy than they have burned. How is that going to help them achieve optimal body composition?
What do you think would happen if the In-N-Out guys did 3 or 4 more Frans to balance out the food they ate? Maybe a poor example, as the Frans would probably kill them before the junk food.....
Now the above mathematical equation was simply to make a point, no matter what kind of food you are eating, no matter how healthy, you will always consume more energy than you burn during exercise. Most of the energy in our food goes to the myriad of cellular processes happening to keep our bodies alive and functioning. Even if you just lay in bed all day, you are burning a reasonable amount of energy.
Exercising to offset your diet does not work. An intelligently designed workout will allow you to create the body you want, as long as you provide the right materials to build it with.
Those materials come from the food you eat.
After the 2010 CrossFit Games, a bunch of us really wanted to try In-N-Out after driving past outlets all week prior. Not being able to remember where any were in the maze that is Los Angeles streets, we punched In-N-Out into our faithful GPS. After 30 mins of driving, we rounded the last corner to arrive at our destination.......... Rick's In-N-Out Auto Mechanics..........
We all know that olive oil is good for us. Scientists love the Mediterranean diet, Jamie Oliver throws a good 'lug' of the stuff over everything he cooks to make it all pukka, and it's so damn expensive it's got to be healthy right?
Well yes, it is good, but it also depends how you use it.
I think there is a bit too much used for cooking. Olive oil, especially the Extra Virgin stuff, is actually quite a delicate oil due to its high percentage of unsaturated fat. When exposed to high heats, the healthy fatty acids are destroyed/oxidised. Also, because of
It's much better used cold in salads or poured over veggies and meat after cooking.
The stuff is expensive too! So don't waste something that costs so much and tastes so good just on cooking.
Lard, tallow, butter, coconut oil are much better choices for cooking with.
Remember that saturated fat is not as bad as it's made out. You need it to get all those good fat soluble vitamins like A and D, as well as testosterone for growth and muscle repair. But even if it was, lard (pork fat) and tallow/dripping (beef or lamb fat) have just under 50% saturated fat in them. Most of the other 50% is the awesome monounsaturated fat, with the balance made up of pretty good polyunsaturated fats.
This stuff is incredibly stable at the high heats used in stirfrying, barbequeing and oven roasting, will last a long time without going off, AND it makes your food taste fantastic.
Next time you cook some meat, poor the fat off into a ceramic or steel container, it will harden in the fridge and you can just spoon it out as you need it. Good butchers will have it as well, big chunks of it, all nicely packaged.
Coconut oil is pretty strong and it's pricy, but suits stirfries and curries perfectly. It's also good for making primal baking treats........
If you don't mind the dairy, use butter for cooking omelets and panfrying veggies.
Take home message is that if you are a newly converted eater of meat and veggies, sans grains, you need fat to replace the energy provided by the bread, rice and pasta you used to eat. Olive oil and nuts are the most common and easiest forms of fat to get in, but you need other fats in order to balance out your fatty acid profile.
They talk about respect for life, moral choices, the destruction wrought by modern factory farms and the environmental impact of eating meat, but as soon as they are out of sight, vegetarians like nothing more than to cook themselves up a juicy bacon sandwich with BBQ sauce.....!!
Ok, maybe not ALL vegetarians, but I tell you what, I have met enough that craved a little taste of the swine to make me suspicious of all of them.
Sorry, I'm teasing.........
If your choice to not eat meat is made due to personal convictions about eating animal flesh, no one could probably change your mind, and I fully respect your decision.
I, however, am an omnivore. The sharp teeth I have in my mouth have evolved to tear through animal flesh without difficulty, and it has long been established that this ability provided the protein, fat and energy necessary to make our brains big enough to figure out really important stuff like inventing the wheel and the iPhone.
To any vegetarians reading this, I respectfully and honestly think you will experience greater health if you include some animal protein in your diet, even if just from eggs and dairy products. Yes you Paleo purists, I said the D word, let's talk about that in another post, we are here to talk about bacon!! And I know it was me who started it, but no more teasing vegetarians either.
As far as bacon? It is kind of the poster boy for unhealthy, processed, artery clogging red meat, which is why it is so fun to eat a big stack of it in front of people who have only the conventional view of healthy eating, and watch their reaction........
Properly made bacon(naturally cured, without nitrites and other additives) is both a good source of protein and fat, both saturated and monounsaturated, along with other animal fats such as butter and cream. And because of its delicious, strong, smoky flavour, you don't actually need much to flavour food that it's added to.
Of course, you should be getting plenty of fat from fish oil, coconut, avocado, and raw nuts, etc. But animal fat, and thus bacon, is important to ensure we get an even balance of fats in our diet.
At the end of the day, you make the choice to eat meat or not. I know that this one post (especially as I was a bit cheeky to the veggies) will not persuade someone to put down the tofu and pick up a raw scotch fillet. To be honest, I'm not really even sure what this post is about!!
Let's just say I'm suggesting that when it comes to nutrition, you read, learn, keep and open mind and make an educated decision about what you want to eat. It's ultimately your body to look after.
Here's a great book from a former hardcore vegan, turned meat eater. You can read some of it at her blog.
Most nutritionists and the media are offering you advice straight out of a 1980's textbook. Advice that is making you fatter, weaker and more unhealthy.
Your genes want you to eat food the way nature and evolution have prescribed (Rx'd) for you.
Hence our name - Eat FoodRxD, and live your life to the fullest.
