Weird Science

This Tuesday marks four weeks of my Paleo/LCHF/Keto "diet".  I'm going to fondly refer to it heretofore as my Primal Instinct Lifestyle of Eating. Or PILE.

Here's whats happened so far.

I've lost about 7 pounds.  1.5 inches around my waist and 1 inch around my hips.  1 inch around my thigh- gone!

Two weeks ago, I was subjected to a workout with my running coach on a high school track.  She had us doing ladders.  Last week, on Monday, we did 15x200m at better than 5k pace.  In the past, workouts like these KILLED me.  Usually, somewhere in the middle, my muscles ache and my brain rebels and my body backs off.  I was surprised when, in the middle of the first workout I mentioned, I did a whole-body mental check and realized I was fine.  I was better than fine, in fact.  I was hot, because LOUISIANAINJULY=HELL but really, my legs had plenty left.  My chest heaved with the effort I was putting forth but I could feel energy circulating in my body and propelling me forward.

 The second workout- 15 reps- I honestly felt like I was getting slower with each rep.  Every time I finished one, I half expected to feel the protest from my body I've felt before.  That feeling that one more step, one more rep will be too much.  It never came.  And I impressed myself when I examined my Garmin and found that all of my reps were similar- every 200 was run in around 50 seconds.  For those of you who don't know, 200 meters is half the track.  One full lap is a quarter mile.  So 15 sets of 50-second 200s amounts to about 1.9 miles ran at about a 7:30 pace.  Which may be just another day at the track for some athletes, but that's really good for me.  My rest laps did get longer, but GOOD LAWD, it was hot out there.

So what does this have to do with PILE?

I've been doing the research, and reading all the pros and cons of being a meat-and-fat eater.

I really have come to realize that I can't subscribe to any one notion on what works and what doesn't except for that our bodies and metabolisms and propensity for change are all VASTLY DIFFERENT.  You're a vegan athlete?  Awesome.  You want to build a macro plan that fits your goals? Cool.  You want to drink your nutrition and workout to videos? Fantastic.  You're built to burn fat and you're possibly allergic to carbs... well, okay!

If I have learned anything the last three weeks it is that I have always done a pretty good job of being in touch with my body and what it's telling me.  What I have not been good at is giving it what it is asking for.  In the last three weeks, I have had some times of tiredness and fatigue- remarkably noted only after nights that I drank wine.  Supposed to not be a big deal on PILE to have some red vino, but I did notice a difference.  Does that mean I'll quit indulging?  Hell to the no.  I'm happy to understand how it affects me.  On days I kept a 75% or more fat with 20% protein and 5% or less of carbs mix, I have felt more awake, focused and capable than ever.

I realize the body needs carbs to function in some capacity for endurance activity. The benefit I can see for what I have done the last few weeks is that I can incorporate good quality carbs when I actually will need them. But the body doesn't need sugar in its most diabolical forms- sports drinks and preservatives and complicated breads.

I keep going back to McDougal's account of the Cretan adventures where mere mortals lived off of only the things available around them from farm animals and game and fish.  They were healthy, agile and capable of great feats of endurance.  Knowing what I know now about how my body doesn't like me at all if I deprive it of meat, that I have a natural aversion to vegetables and a natural love of all things fatty and nutty, I have to surmise that maybe a person's ancestry and where they come from has a large part to play in what kind of diet will work for them.  I think it goes beyond the three body types and is really linked to who we are, primally.  I'm not a scientist, or a dietician, or elite athlete.  But I think I'm on to something.

Mixed Messages

A girl can lose her mind trying to figure out the best way to pair training with diet for the most favorable outcome possible.  I hope that, if you have an opinion on the subject, that you share it. Because in this arena, I am truly interested in personal experiences.

I have tried the vegetarian way.  I'm not good at that though, because... BACON. But really, the couple of times in my life that I have tried to follow plant-based raw regimens, I have experienced some of the worst side-effects in my life, even after what should be the initial shock-your-system detox or whatever.  It seems that when I rely on plant based protein, I feel hungry all the time, I feel like I am going to black out when I stand up or bend down to pick something up, and in general I just feel weak.

Conversely, as my diet over the last few years has improved considerably but included mostly protein, I started to worry as I also experienced fatigue that I wasn't including enough good-source carbs.  I notice very easily when I am lacking protein- I get shaky and feel headachy and irritable.  It only seemed like carbs came in to play the longer my runs got-  I started drinking BCAA and eating more bananas but began to think that I wasn't eating enough carbs for the amount of running I was doing.

It seems there are plenty of people who function highly as athlete and never eat anything with a face. I don't have any political or ecological reasons for being interested in vegatarianism- I believe that animals are on the food chain and we are at the top, and God meant it that way. Sorry.  Just makes more sense to me.  And, BACON.

So years ago I subscribed to the Maffetone Method, it made sense- for a long time now I've been pretty processed-sugar-free.  I hadn't really thought much more about this philosophy until I read Natural Born Heroes by Christopher McDougal. I actually remembered why I eat the way I do and had an a-ha moment when I realized that the heart rate training my coach is doing with me originated here too.  Maffetone's research says that we react poorly to carbs, which is the same science behind Atkins, Paleo and Bulletproof coffee.  Interestingly, McDougal recounts in his book, in between scenes about the greatest wartime kidnapping shenanigans to ever take place, how he met with not only Maffetone, and tried the method himself, but he also caught up with Dr. Timothy Noakes.   Noakes wrote the running bible back in the 80's that seemed to fuel the big-corporation intervention of sugary electrolyte drinks into the endurance sports, touting carbs as the magic ingredient all athletes couldn't live without.  But he changed his tune, and now supports Banting which is pretty much protein and fat rich, low carb living.

So, what's a girl to do?

I may be the textbook study on this.  Flashback about three years ago.  I got really good at high protein, good fat, low carb.  Then I moved. (Cortisol levels through the roof maybe?). I felt tired, lethargic almost.  I blamed my new environment on my lack of energy. I drank more than I had been, and ate more fried food (bad fat?). I had a year of adjustment.  During the adjustment, I crash dieted, because that's my default mode when I feel like life is controlling me instead of me, it.

Now I am here.  Clear headed, and with a running coach.  I got back on track with my diet with Amanda, who put me on macro tracking and refilled what had previously been an empty furnace- if metabolism is akin to a fire stove oven, then all I had left four months ago were ashes and absolutely no fuel and definitely no fire. I trusted her advice and began to feel stronger, more energetic, alive and able.  We gave the furnace something burn, and now it's time to relight the fire. Now, I am just looking for the optimal fuel for my life to keep that fire burning as long and as hot as possible.

I have decided to try Maffetone's 14 day test, starting Tuesday, July 5.  It isn't about dieting, it's about finding out how different foods affect my performance.  After all, I am obsessed with the idea of finding out what my brain and body's version of Elite is.  Wish me luck!