primal

4 days I stood fast. Like a rock I withstood the surge of carbs in the form of bread, potatoes and pasta. It started slow - with local specialities I didn't want to miss. I figured "What's the damage when I'm moving and burning it everyday anyway?" So in generous vacation mood I gave the healthy nutrition a holiday. Day after day the sugar gradually krept back into my brain, giving me an outright "sugar flash" just due to my month long absence. It wasn't long before the sugar devil was standing on my shoulder whispering into my ear: If I was already high on sugar, why not make an exception or two in the field of grains and alcoholic drinks?

The first exception(s) can give you a cold turkey flash - like carbs just running around in your brain and bouncing you off the walls. Like Hammy, from "Over the hedge" on caffeine. Since I was on vacation the downsides (like the lack of concentration and day-tiredness) did not make such a great impact at first. And the more exceptions I made, the more willing I was to kick the good habits some more... I'm not the person to go "a little out of bounds"... I seem easily tempted to go way overboard...

After 10+ days of "exceptions" I feel rotten. A walking zombie, dead-tired, not able to concentrate longer than 1-2 mins. My stomach likes to alternate between being bloated and starving hungry and seems to have lost the ability to judge when "it's full".

My hair and skin looks the part and I have managed to gain back everything and more of what came off over 4-5 months time. Damn.

How do the "normal" people zombie through life like this? It's awful! This is not what our body was made for and what it's capable of! It's like running a Ferrari on a kiddie go-kart track - way below it's potential.

Do I need any more proof for the value of this nutrition? No. So from today on - as you are my witness - I'm back on full primal mode. No more grains for me. The sugar devil can stick his temptations somewhere else, I'm not having any of it.

Making your own Salsa is very, very easy. Here is the recipe for a red salsa. If you get not so ripe tomatoes and like coriander you will get a green Salsa, like I did. I marked my alteration to the original recipe in brackets.

Recipe from Mark's Daily Apple:

Ingredients:
2 large, red ripe tomatoes, peeled and seeded
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
1 anaheim green chili, seeded and cut into thirds (I took Peperoncinis, small red chilis)
3 green onions, skinned and coarsely chopped
4 oz can of chopped green chilies (I took Peperoncinis, small red chilis)
1 to 3 whole jalapenos, seeded (this gives the salsa heat, so you’ll want to adjust the number of jalapenos to your own taste!) (I had to take pickled Jalepeños, because we can't buy fresh ones here)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp lime juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

To peel the tomatoes, char lightly under a broiler until peel blisters. Remove from heat and remove the peel, pull out the core, cut tomatoes in half vertically and remove seeds. (You can also boil them 1-2min and then peel them) In a food processor, coarsely chop the garlic, cilantro, green onions and jalapeños. Add all remaining ingredients and process with brief pulses until you reach the desired texture (some like a chunky salsa, others like more of a smooth sauce – make your decision based on what you intend to use the salsa for) Then add salt and pepper to taste and adjust any other ingredients to meet desired taste. Pour into a serving bowl and store in the refrigerator for one hour to chill and allow flavors to mingle.

Yields: 4 servings 

For jerky you need to get a lean piece of meat. Anything works: beef, pork, poultry, exotics... I went for a piece of pork for my first attempt.

Drop the meat into the freezer so that it can harden up slightly, this makes slicing easier. The sides should be hardened while it's not yet frozen solid.

Trim the visible fat and cut into slices.

For the marinating I would try this from the original recipe: "Instead of letting the meat “soak” overnight in a plastic bag, you can
boil your marinade mix and drop in your meat strips for a minute or
two."

Here's a guideline for the marinade to adapt to your own taste. I added my changes in brackets:

For a 2-lb cut:

¼ cup low sodium soy sauce

2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp. liquid smoke    (+ 1/2 Tbsp)

3 minced or crushed garlic cloves

2 ½ tsp. onion powder

2 tsp. hot chili powder  (I used ground chili flakes instead)

½-1 tsp. each of salt and black pepper

(1 Tbsp. Teryiaki)

Then take care not to heat your oven over 50°C (150°F) - I tried that and got some very crunchy meat...

Spread out on a rack and slide a pan underneath (you can fill that with stripes too!) - don't omit the pan underneath unless you love cleaning your oven! Let it sit for 6-8hrs, turn half-way through.

Drop the result in Ziploc bags. Will store 2-3 months in the fridge. - YUM!

Here's the original recipe: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-make-your-own-jerky/

I'm excited to share with you my newest obsession: the Vibram FiveFingers barefoot-shoes. "Barefoot shoes" doesn't make any sense to you? Well, let's say you decided to free your toes and walk around barefoot more often... (like our ancestors did) - your shoe-spoilt feet would make you tippie-toe over several surfaces like gravel and vunerable to all the junk that lies around. The FiveFingers gives you a protection for your soles without inhibiting your feet to move as freely as they were designed to. But why should you go barefoot in the first place?

Look what shoes do to your feet:

The feet look like the form of the shoes! With toes smashed together. Compare this to feet that never have seen shoes:

Makes you think! Furthermore: Running barefoot leads to less injuries. It is beneficial. And it can even make those old injuries go away. And it is fun! (Read more on MarksDailyApple)

In the last days while I waited for the Vibrams to be delivered I have been adapting to barefooting - tossing my shoes whenever possible. Walking small distances barefoot and gradually increasing. The soreness I felt proves that there were many muscles in my feet that were unused! Also you need to re-learn the correct walking - drilling that heel into the ground is something we learned from the cushioned shoes - but it is unnatural and puts exessive stress on feet, knees and your lower back!

With all that done I took my Vibrams out for shopping yesterday. And today I ran the first sprints outside in them. Gotta like the feel of the ground!

As you get used to the Vibrams the running feels more natural, more connected to the earth and a tiny bit more powerful (or it was just the fun I was having) then in running shoes - I can only recommend to ditch your shoes every once in a while!

The Vibrams are good for many other sports like hiking, kayaking, sailing, surfing and climbing to name a few. I'm planning to wear them to most of the leisure activities, just to leverage all those business shoe days...

Naturally, if you'd like to wear socks you need to get toe socks. Like gloves, in toe socks there's a space for every toe. You can also wear toe socks in your regular shoes, just to feel a bit more toe-y.

Swiss can order their shoes here or here. US barefooters look here. Or go to good old Amazon (wherever you live).

After first reading about the paleonthologic nutrition in January and starting to eat more and more by it, an important time frame has come to an end. The 30 days of August I have eaten strictly primal due to a challenge posed by MarksDailyApple.com. My experiences with it were nothing short from spectacular. High boosts in energy, more prolonged energy, less hunger-spurrs and cravings. A healthier, fitter feeling all around. I was amazed how my week of vacation in Les Arcs went - riding and running around all day with no carbs in form of pasta, rice, potatoes or bread going into my system: I did not bonk one single time - or come close to it. I rode all day on salad and fruits. Sometimes it was hard to resist the omnipresent desserts and sugar sins - but a 80/20 approach (eat primal 80% of the time) is far easier to maintain than I thought.

So, what will I do now that the 30 days are over? Go back to "normal"? - N.O.  W.A.Y.! I believe very strongly that each and every one of us has the power to change to the better. And the power lies in oneself only. So in this way the end is the beginning of something new for me. The end of the 30 days is a start to a new life. I want to stick to it, and I even want to go deeper into the subject - since I clearly see all the health benefits it brings to me.

...is a week's worth of Primal food.

Since I started the 30 day challenge I stuck to the plan pretty well. The first week can be counted as success. I did use all of my exceptions (two a week). One went down for a piece of Engadiner Nusstorte - my very favorite, the second one was some dark chocolate yesterday - after excercise but a bit too long after. Not bad all in all.

The toughest was the sleep. I managed to average 7.9hrs instead of the 8h I was aiming for. Hope I'll catch some more sleep this week.

But the energy is already pointing up and the bathroom scale needle is drifting slightly to the left. The only thing not so primal were my bike rides. ;-)  Saturday was a 3h ride - 2h thereof in pouring rain. I definetely had enough of the rainy summer (we had only 6 rain-free days in the last 5 weeks!).

Luckily the weather got better and yesterday's trip to the Bachtel was a blast. I haven't been there the last time. I'll take a camera next time around.

(Oh, did the picture look familiar to you? check out the originals here:

No, I'm not eating my helmet... I don't think it taste's that good!)

I've been eating paleo since January 2009 but it's an on/off kind of thing. I enjoy the benefits it clearly brings and the quality it adds to my life (more energy, a feeling of well-being, no afternoon tiredness, lean body mass, more strength... to name a few) but I find it hard to keep it straight in company. I feel I would have to justify my eating habits. But that's it: from now on I do what feels good for myself. Mark's Daily Apple has posed a 30 day challenge - and I'm taking it. Here are my goals for the next 30 days:

- stick to the primal eating plan except for two meals a week or 1h before/after a strenous exercise.
- incorporate at least 2 strength sessions a week.
- increase leg strength by 10kg at 20 reps.
- get an average of 8h of sleep.
- drop 2kg of weight.
- avoid stress.

After that it's only another 26 days to the one mid-distance race I want to do this year: the Iron Bike. I'll see how I do, it would be nice to keep it up for those 26 days as well, but I'll take it step by step.

Alright. I got a clean eating record today but I need to get to bed now to reach the sleep goal.