Four Out of Five Muscles Agree: Meat Good

Just got a funny text from my good friend Susanna - a wonderful woman who shares my love of nutrition and healthy, holistic living...

For a long time now she's been on a mostly raw, almost vegan diet and very happy with it. But when I visited her earlier this year and heard about her exciting Krav Maga classes, I asked her how she was getting through such a strenuous thing on kale salad and a handful of nuts.

I had her tell me what she usually ate on any given day and there was so little protein - I'd have passed out doing all that on an occasional egg and some walnuts. I told her she might want to add in some protein powder somewhere - something - give her body some amino acids to rebuild those tired muscles. She eventually did and I'm sure it helped.

I recently embarked upon my own experiment with vegetarianism and while I started out well and felt wonderful - at first - it didn't last. After about 6-8 weeks, I was constantly hungry, tired most of the time and felt like all my muscles were turning to fat. My mid-section seemed flabby and the bloating - jebus christmas, the bloating. It never went away.

Maybe over time my body might have adjusted, but I think it was really a matter of my body not being happy on a no-meat plan. It just doesn't work for me. Especially not when I'm running and lifting. A bowl of kale, beans and quinoa just isn't going to cut it. For someone else maybe, but not for me.

... So, the funny text... After two hours meeting with her new nutritionist, Susanna texts me, "You might want to start eating that burger again!" I told her I already had and was feeling *much* better as a result.

The thing I was always concerned about while on my vegetarian vacation was if I was getting the right amounts of amino acids, in the right proportions. While it might be true that you don't have to combine your legumes with your grains at the same time, what *is* critical is to get all the essential amino acids and in the right amounts every single day.

From the research I've done, if you don't get them in the right amounts and you're low on one or another, it can impede the process of building muscle. All have to be present in the right proportions for optimal functioning.

I need to keep digging to see if this information is even available, but no food labels tell you which amino acids they contain and in what amounts. There's no way to easily know how much cous cous (or rice, or pasta) equates to the amount of amino acids & their proportions, or how many cups of beans/legumes you need to make up the balance. Just going by the grams of protein isn't enough information.

All along, I listened to my body. It finally told me "You need to roast a damn chicken and roast it now." So I did. And it was fugging delicious. There are other days when my body tells me "You need a damn burger full of B vitamins and iron and you need it now." And I oblige.

The trick is to make sure I'm not eating a burger anytime soon before I run, for obvious reasons. On running days, I eat like I always have - vegetarian throughout the day, then the run, then the MEAT.

As I've always believed, no one plan or diet can work for all people. You have to listen closely to your own body and give it what it needs. And everything in moderation. Now I really want a burger.

Hello World! I'm Baaaaack!

Actually, I never left. Not entirely... It's just that being a full-time student robs you of all that is leisurely in life - sleeping, eating properly, watching Bravo teevee, blogging...

I really have missed you, blog, and blog lurkers. I love you so...

School is out for the summer (cue song) and instead of taking classes I decided to sleep, get me summa that good ol' teevee, revisit this here blog and eat foods other than Power Bars and trail mix.

Speaking of food... I just became a vegetarian. The meat/bacon/baconmeat lover of all-time hasn't touched meat in almost two weeks now - 13 days, to be precise.

Why? Mostly because I read this book - Born to Run. Along with being a huge inspiration for running, it talks about nutrition and animal protein. Specifically how animal protein kicks cancer cells into gear. I don't have cancer (that I'm aware of), but I am at the age where cancer can begin.

So, that, combined with a 10-month Power Bar program (plus a few too many In & Out burgers), made me think about ditching meat and including a lot more vegetables & fiber into the plan. And so far, so good.

I definitely feel lighter - like things are firing a lot more efficiently - and even if I eat a ginormous bowl of salad with beans & cous cous, I don't feel like I'm 5 months pregnant with a medicine ball.

The trick is to watch the salt & fat... Been retraining my palate to go without, using onion & garlic powders and just teensy drizzles of olive oil, but mostly lemon juice - and it's amazing how much better the food tastes.

David is frightened, of course, because greens don't grow in Michigan (where he's from), or so he tells me, but I think he'll be OK. He eats lettuce sometimes. Capers too, even. He spies my plate with a wary eye, but I see a hint of curiosity there too.

My mother is confused, but supportive. She listened to me talk about my new lifestyle and then helpfully offered up a cheeseburger taco salad recipe. I love that about her. (I don't eat cow dairy - haven't in years.)

We'll see how it goes - I'm sure it'll be easy during the summer. I bet it'll be challenging when school starts and the weather gets dreary. I think I ate meat at every meal when we lived in The Great Grey North - couldn't get enough. But that could just be the usual effect Canada has on people.

I know there's a ton of veggie cookbooks out there - I'll be shopping for them soon - but for now I'm adapting the stuff I usually like to cook and I have to say, it's pretty darn tasty. I'll fire up another old blog - the Nootsmaak Cooksmaak - and start posting recipes there. Happy Eating y'all!

Can't Eat Home Again

Had a lovely visit at the parents' house a couple of weeks ago, but next time I'll have to bring along a travel pantry of steel cut oats, Organic Frog greens powder, ground flax seed, brown rice protein powder and a truck load of vegetables.

Once was, we were not allowed to eat white bread, sugared cereals or anything that wasn't healthy. Hated that dry, crumbly bread back then, but now whole wheat/mulitgrain is the only bread we keep in the house.

Nowadays, Mom loves the buttermilk white bread, mass market cereals with carcinogenic BHT preservatives and even pork rinds - a lovely birthday gift from a friend. Thoughtful friend, eh?

We had ribs for dinner a couple of nights & one night Dad made delicious BBQ corn. Our last night in town, we had amazing salmon and a great salad. Certainly not a bad menu, but some of us need a little more fiber in our lives. Consistent like.

Other than the salad, I don't think I saw a single vegetable. (Corn is a grain - wah wah!) On top of that, Mom made a decadent "coke cake" - a chocolate cake made with cola and frosted with an entire box of powdered sugar. Just one piece can cause diabetes.

Dad made his amazing lemon pancakes & sausage one morning which lasted me all day, but for lunch, Mom offered homemade potato onion soup. It smelled wonderful, but after the pancakes & sausage, I wasn't hungry! If I had been, what I needed was some sort of high-fiber colon blow buffet.

There was fruit - peaches, bananas, melon & berries. I found instant oatmeal in the pantry and had that with fresh fruit for breakfast. I also found the Costco mixed nuts - that was handy - and the dry scrub growing behind the house really packs a fiber whallop.

I don't know how they do it. They're in excellent health, enjoying cocktails every evening at 5pm, wine or beer with delicious low-fiber dinners followed by Box O Sugar cake and coffee. I would be in rehab with life-threatening intestinal blockage. They really are the stronger generation, in so many ways. Time to take my Metamucil.

Day 2: Sugar-Caffeine-Booze-Free

And feeling great. Just avoiding simple sugars & booze for a full day helped drop a pound of water weight - that's impressive. It's amazing how your body bloats up when that shit is in your system.

Speaking of shit in the system, one friend of mine is trying to go vegan for the first two weeks of the year. Like my detox, she's doing it to see how she might feel after a couple of weeks.

I feel for her, since she's a dedicated athlete and will need plenty of high-grade protein to help her body recover from her workouts.

It sounds healthy in theory, but it's not natural. Our physiology is designed to use animal products. What they're not designed for is all the shit in our food supply, literally and otherwise.

One theory about going vegan/vegetarian is that it will somehow help save the environment. It's a noble thought, but I don't buy it.

That problem is way too big to be solved by going vegan. At any rate, I'm not about to stop eating good quality animal products thinking that will help save the environment. It's also not going to help my health.

The funny thing is, I've heard of some vegans eating at Taco Bell. They buy "food" from the largest fast food company that sells the shit found at KFC and Pizza Hut, among others. Ironic, no?

Anywho, to each his own, right? I need to go slaughter some bunnies now.

Mid-Life Diet

Is it just me, or have other people upon reaching their early 40s had to eliminate foods from their diet due to intolerance, allergy or other reasons? Is this normal?

I swear, the list of what I can eat or drink gets shorter every day. It's down to meat or eggs, starch and water. And bananas. And cookies, thank god.

It all started with the headaches. My head is totally broken.

With so many years of experience, you get to know your headaches - the average low-level annoyers, the sinus-related killers, the full-on migraines and others that are unique, brought on only in certain instances.

I've discovered over the years that BHT gives me a particular, skull-crushing head cleaver. It's brought on by any food containing this preservative - a suspected cancer-causing agent, I might add.

All mass-market cereals use BHT. Your Post, Kelloggs and General Mills-type fare - all your favorites, though plain ol' Cheerios is poison-free. It was a sad day when I had to remove Golden Grahams and Honeycomb from my shopping list.

Another BHT source - Potato Buds and other brands of instant potatoes or packaged dry foods. Caint have none of 'em.

MGS is another headache. It's in almost everything that's processed - soups, chips, crackers, sauces, some stocks - anything that tastes better than it should likely has MSG in it, and a lot of restaurants are using it again, though most of them won't offer that info unsolicited. Ask.

Then there's dairy. All cow products give me horrific headaches, a particular type that also comes with big dark circles under my eyes and a bloated face. Super attractive.

Nothing makes it go away. Well, a glass of fizzing codeine dampens it a little, but it hangs on for almost 24 hours every time. Doesn't matter if it's raw, organic, homogenized, pasteurized or has live active cultures. If it comes from a cow - no dice. So far, goat cheese seems to be OK.

Next on the list, and this one really makes me sad - so sad - chocolate and cocoa. Just in the last year or so these kids started making trouble in my head. My favorite Bensdorp Cocoa and Callebaut chocolate chips [sniff]... no more. Even small amounts are too much. Tragic.

Just about any liquor aged in a barrel makes a fine headache, though good red wine usually doesn't. White wine will almost every time and some champagnes and sometimes beer. Silver tequila on the rocks seems to be OK, but no reposado, no anejo, and no mixer/sugar.

Then there's raw veggies or too much fiber in any one dish. Whoa, Betty, that is an unpleasant experience the next day. I used to love carrot and celery sticks. Now, my lower GI says NO to that. That was an uncomfortable discovery to say the least.

What does that leave me? Steak, potatoes & eggs and Don Julio Silver, the breakfast of champions.

Mmm... Steamed Vegetables

On these cold, damp winter days, I can't think of any food group I want less to do with than vegetables.

I was just reading a recipe that included steamed vegetables and the idea of sitting down to a plate of that made me wince.

Maybe if those veggies were then pureed and added to a hearty base of potato leek soup, or perhaps folded gently into a cheesy, creamy macaroni casserole-type dish, or maybe thrown out into the yard for the squirrels.

The other day I stumbled upon a rather satisfying new breakfast concoction that's perfect for this time of year.

We had some leftover smashed potatoes to which I'd had the foresight to add the "fairy dust of food" - chopped bacon (sorry vegans). Now, we all know that eggs and potatoes are great together - but even better: eggs, potatoes and BACON.

So into the skillet goes a little butter, then the leftover smashed, bacony-good potatoes. Let those warm up and if you like, get a little color, but don't stir them - just move them around gently - keep them "clumpy." Once the potatoes are heated through, throw in your scrambled eggs and cook just until almost done - don't dry 'em out.

Season to taste and enjoy. Research proves that this recipe works well with any leftover potatoes.