The Zone/Paleolithic diet that is! Actually, I've been in the zone for a little while now (August, 2009) however, I felt the need to write some about my diet since I haven't blogged in a few months. I do not feel the need to write a whole manual, describing each of the diets because there are great search engines that exist today such as, Google; however, I will write a short summary over what each of these diets consist of.
Lets begin with the easiest first: the Paleolithic diet. In short, this diet is about food quality and consists of all food prior to the Agricultural Revolution. Eat plenty of vegetables, fruit, meat, healthy fats and refrain from sugar, grains, legumes and all processed foods. So if some person were to visit a grocery store, they would find nearly 100% of all paleolithic food items on the outside walls and 0% of those items on the inside shelves. It's a fact! Seriously, go and see for yourself. I promise this blog will still be here when you return. Anyways, I like to remind myself that if it can not run in fear of its own life, then I should probably not be eating it with the exception of fruit and veggies.
Next up: the Zone diet. This elaborate piece of work is all about food quantity, and almost any food item will measure up. No pun intended - well, maybe a little. Clinically researched and proven by Dr. Barry Sears, the Zone Diet promotes a healthy hormonal response from the food that we consume. In other words, there is now a leash on that large insulin response, which was a result of you eating a piece of bread for breakfast that would otherwise leave you hungry 1-hour later. It does not have to be a piece of bread - it could be a bagel or a twinkie - regardless if it's a carbohydrate then it will produce an insulin response, which will need to be controlled by a fat. This diet is all about these things known as blocks: 1 block of fat = 1.5g, 1 block of carb = 9g, 1 block of protein = 7g and there is an assumption that every 3 blocks of protein will consist of 1 block of fat. This is usually a good assumption - 3 blocks of protein (3x7g = 21g) and you will find that there is at least 1.5g of fat there. Go and see for yourself! Okay, so we have an understanding of blocks - what is next?
We should now consider a simple zone meal: a 3 block meal = 3 blocks of fat (4.5g), 3 blocks of carbs (27g) and 3 blocks of protein (21g). Wait a second, remember that there is 1 block of fat for every 3 blocks of protein - so reduce the amount of fat by 1.5g (3g total). Got it? Here is another example just in case: a 5 block meal = 5 blocks of fat (6.0g), 5 blocks of carbs (45g) and 5 blocks of protein (35g) - I already subtracted the 1.5g of fat for the 3 blocks of protein consumed from the total.
This is the simplest description of the Zone Diet; although, the Zone does become more complex if you want it to. I'll explain some of this shortly.
So what is next? Well I'm getting there. My point of writing all this is to explain and document my approach for what I consider to be good eating. CrossFit promotes the Zone Diet and to a lesser extent the Paleolithic Diet. However, I believe that a combination of the two diets is the best method for achieving exceptional health and assisting in overall fitness. I've been living a Zone-Paleo lifestyle since August, 2009 and I'm going to mention that I couldn't be more happy to be doing so. The results have been exceptional! Alright enough rambling.
So what does my diet look like? Well as I mentioned before I eat paleolithic foods, with the exception that all meat is grass fed and grass finished. Grain fed/finished meat has very different fatty-acid profiles from those of grass fed/finished animals; more specifically, grain fed animals have larger O-6:O3 ratios, which is not heart healthy and will likely lead you down the inflammatory disease road in the future. I apply this same logic to grains - STAY AWAY! I could easily write a small book on grains but that would easily be one wild tangent that I'll steer clear of now.
I also mentioned that I eat quantities of food in zone-like prescriptions, with the exception that I "skin-the-zone." You what, you may ask? Simply, I need more energy and I get more by reducing the carb intake by 2/3 and increasing the fat intake by 5 times the number of carb-blocks reduced. This is how you complicate the Zone Diet as I mentioned earlier, however the method works very well! I know what you are thinking: Consuming more fat is unhealthy and doing so will make you, fat!? This is a common misconception, based on old (1980's - FDA) research and is outright wrong. The intake of high glycemic-loading (insulin promoting) carbohydrates (i.e. grains and sugar) is the real culprit, but that is another story. A commercial industry's top priority is to make money and to a much smaller extent, if at all, have concern for the consumer's health.
Whew -- that was a rather long post to write! What, do you want more!? As I mentioned at the beginning, this would only be a brief description of why I choose brocolli over french fries if I have to eat at a restaurant. Okay fine, here's a little more.
http://www.thepaleodiet.com/
http://www.zonediet.com/
http://www.performancemenu.com/
http://robbwolf.com/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
http://www.cathletics.com/pm/index.php
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