The Edge Revolution

Continuing Thoughts (often rambling)

While there is not a current Revolution running I will continue to update this blog (or just plain ol' update it, it's been a while!) with thoughts and news on what's running trough my head in the world of health and fitness.  If you have any comments or questions please feel free to give me a shout!

Welcome to the Revolution!

So begins our fourth year of the Revolution!  If this is your first go around welcome and if this is a repeat performance welcome back.  I am looking forward to working with you throughout the next eight weeks and beyond.  It is my hope that I can help you achieve results you have not been able to acheive on your own and that what you learn can help you for the rest of your life.  Let's get to it!

Watch your Nutrition 101 DVD, now!  After you have finished get a big box and go through the refridgerator, cabinets, and shelves.  Remove any foods that are not going to help you get the results you want and bring them to your local shelter/kitchen.  We all lack the willpower necessary to walk away from that slice of cake, bag of chips, or bottle of soda that seems to be calling to each time you see them.  Get 'em out!

Register here or here for a online food log.  Use it for the next few weeks to figure out just what the heck is going into your body.  If you have one you like better, great.  Use it.  If in the future you have a food question I will be happy to answer it if I can look at a log to give me some additional information on what is going on (or more accurately, in).

Take the challenges seriously.  Eat nothing from a box for two days.  If you survive (and you will) continue the challenge.  Consume no more than 100 grams of carbohydrate.  How do you know how many grams you are consuming?  That's what the food log is for!

Carve out the time to attend a Nutrition 101.  Bring an open mind and questions.

Move!  Somehow, someway, move your body.  It helps in many ways and you'll feel great.  If you don't feel great you went too hard.  Bring your exercise questions to Nutrition 101 as well.

Good luck and I'll see you at Nutrition 101! 

What was it?

What was it for you?  Was it looking in the mirror and wondering what the heck happened?  Was it running after your little one and wondering why you were breathing so hard?  Was it putting on some clothing that you hadn't worn in a while and realizing it wasn't going to zip or button up?  Maybe it was that you just didn't feel that well most of the time.

Whatever the reason we all have had that (or those) moment(s).  For some it shocks them into immediate action while others require a bit of rumination.  Now four weeks into this Revolution my question is, "how are you doing?"

What changes have you made?  What are the results?  How do you look, feel and perform?  Unless you are a very slow starter (and it's possible you are) something should have started happening by now.  If nothing has happened you need to sit down and determine what you need to change to start getting a result.  Typical, I am going to ask you to look at your food intake.

This is your contest and you can eat anyway you'd like.  I know that many of you dismiss paleo without much thought and I realize that there is not a lot I can say that is going to change your mind.  No worries, eat the best you can and be satisfied with your choice.  If you are seeing change and you are happy with that change carry on!  Take it as far as you can and ride that wave until you hit a plateau.  Keep in mind though that once you are at a true plateau you will need to make changes.  What is your next step?

If you are stuck already or haven't seen what you thought you would see I offer this advice.  Eat nothing but meat and vegetables for four days and check out the results.  I mean nothing but meat and vegetables during that time.  I have made this suggestion many times to much success.  It seems to work and work well.  Give it a shot and report your findings.  I need all the ammo I can get!

I'd also like you to sit and put yourself back at the answer to my question, "what was it?"  Try to feel how you felt and use it to keep moving forward.  Four weeks has passed quickly and we need more fuel to get us through the next four.  Be honest in your evaluation of how the first four has gone, and do your best to finish stronger than you started.  Get yourself through the next two weeks and you are into the home stretch.  Get yourself through the next two weeks and the last two will fly.  And always remember what it was for you. 

Sleep!

It led my top 3 reasons why folks have a tough time losing fat and while you can debate its order of importance you can not debate its importance.  While the reviews for this book are all over the place I do consider it a fantastic resource for gaining further understanding why sleep is so important.  I would put it on my list of books you must read and I wouldn't put it there if I thought it was even questionable.

As with everything we discuss during the Revolution do your best.  If 9 1/2 hours of sleep in a perfectly dark room is not going to happen for you is 8 hours manageable?  As with any other change it is not going to happen without a concerted effort.  This is one aspect of life that a lot folks find tough to change.  I will again emphasize how important it is for not only aiding in your fat loss efforts but improving the quality of your life and health.  Pencil in your sleep time along with your workout time as you plan your week and do your best to stick to it.  Do your best.

Top Three

Based on the most popular questions I receive here are my observations on the top three reasons why some folks have a tough time losing fat.

1. Lack of sleep which helps raise (directly or indirectly) the hormones that make it tougher to use stored fat for energy and the depression of the good ones that would help.  For the best reference I know on the subject read this.  Stop watching other people live their lives (late night TV and web surfing) and take the step that will allow you to live the best life you can!
2. Use of liquids or dairy for protein.  This includes all of the protein powders and any dairy products.  Both will do a great job of increasing insulin levels and pretty darn quickly for that matter.  Use protein powders only if you must but if you have an option eat whole, real, solid food!
3. Chronic underfeeding.  Missing a meal here and there is not going to kill you but a pattern of continuous underfeeding is not the way to go.  Also known as the typical “diet”.  It almost always follows the pattern of:  starve yourself for 10 to 14 days, lose your “willpower” and binge for a few days, wonder why you gained all of your weight back plus some more.  This is not the way to go.  Eat vegetables and meat, some nuts and seeds (maybe), some fruit, little starch and no sugar to satiety.  Give it 30 days and then assess.  I would bet you see some pretty solid results that are sustainable so keep doing what you did and continue to thrive.

 Take a moment to look at your food intake and sleep habits to determine if any of these (or all three!) are holding you back.  Eat foods that are good for you and keep moving! 

 

Put it down!

Protein powders that is!  I continue to receive some great questions everyday from Revolution participants.  Keep 'em coming and allow us to help you as much as we can during your eight weeks.

A common question this week has been about the use of protein powders and shakes for pre- and post workout meals.  The answer is very simple:  If you are trying to lose weight you do not need pre-workout protein supplementation or post workout shakes.  Don't use them.  If your goal is to lose weight than let the guiding principal be the .7 grams of protein per lb. per day and get that from unprocessed food as much as possible.  Do not eat immediately following your workout but wait 45 to 60 minutes and then consume a normal, mixed meal of real food.

If you are lean and workout at a high intensity than the rules are different for you.  Go ahead and consume some protein and carbohydrate immediately following your workout and enjoy!

Buuuuuutttttt, if you are not lean and trying to lose weight put down the protein powder!

Great Question!

From the mailbag, a great question from a Revolutionary:

Greg, when I've mentioned to friends that I am doing the Paleo diet, they have replied "oh, you're doing Atkins." Can you give me a few of the differences between the two diets? Thanks - Glenda

My answer:

Glenda,

It's a answer that more than likely no one is going to want to hang around and listen to but here you go.

Atkins is low carb.  Paleo is carbohydrate agnostic.  The more active you are the more carbohydrate you can consume.  Dr. Atkins wasn't too far off to be honest.  In eating paleo you are never encouraged to limit carbohydrate, just EXCESSIVE carbohydrate.  Most folks simply do not understand the basic biochemistry and I don't expect them to.  When discussing this you are often trying to overcome years of someone being told what constitutes "proper" nutrition and unfortunately for us it is flat out wrong.  I have long ago given up trying to have these discussions with people as most really aren't interested in a discussion but simply to hear themselves speak.

I guess my answer would be a firm, "no, I'm not doing Atkins.  I am eating food that is good for me in quantities that support optimal health and activity!"  You will get a befuddled look in response but you would be telling the truth.  Unfortunately they won't be likely to listen until they have their first heart attack or are diagnosed with a pre-diabetic condition or full blown Type 2 diabetes, if then.

The best answer I have found is to live my certain life of style and continue to push forward while most of my peers slowly decay and fall apart.  While they are downing cholesterol, blood pressure, erectile dysfunction, triglyceride, and other medications to slow the slide I am improving my health and quality of life.  I am sorry to be so blunt but this is simply the way it is.

Anyone who would argue against a diet that is based on vegetables, animal protein, and healthy fat just doesn't get it and that's OK.  The paleo "movement" is growing not because it is "easy" to do but because you can not argue with the results.  I prefer to spend my time and energy working with people who are open to the idea and not trying to convert those who won't.  Feel confident in your choice and keep track of all that is improving.  You will be a living, breathing testimonial to those around you and often the people you care about most see it and start to come around.  In my opinion you yourself become the best answer to the question!

I hope all is well, you are feeling great and please keep me posted!

“Try it for 30 days.  If you are not happy with the way you look, feel, and perform then go back to the way you were eating before.”

 I have heard this repeated many times by Robb Wolf on his excellent podcast The Paleo Solution.  Robb is the author of the book by the same name and I recommend it highly.  His statement kept running through my mind driving home last week from another information meeting for this Revolution session.

 You may have sat in one yourself and remember me talking about doing the same thing over and over yet expecting a different result.  "And that is the definition of.....?" I ask.

"INSANITY!" comes the resounding answer.

Everyone laughs, turns to their neighbor, gives them a knowing elbow to the side and we go on.  Most acknowledge they have been following this methodology in an attempt to get results without seeing changes in a long time or they are even moving backward.  A change must be made, and it must be made soon!

The reason Robb's statement ran through my mind is because following the last two information sessions I have had interesting conversations with a few people following the meeting in which they question the nutrition portion of the Revolution.  I'll be honest these conversations tend to drive me nuts.  Not that there are questions, I expect and welcome those.  It is that there are arguments made against it.

Most of you have figured out one thing, and that is how to go about getting results incorrectly.  When presented with an alternative view it is fine to question the methodology but please listen to the answer(s).  It is a methodology proven both scientifically and practically.  What you are doing right now does not work.  Try this for 30 days and if you do not look, feel and perform better than you did before stop doing it.  I am willing to bet that if you put effort into this for 30 days you will be very pleased with the result.  That would put you in good company with about 1200 others who may have been thinking the same way you are at the start of this.

By the way, only 7 weeks left!

 

For the finisher!

"What do I do now?"

My favorite end of Revolution question!  Actually it is my least favorite end of Revolution question.  The short answer?  Keep going.  The long answer?  Well it's a long answer.

What do you do with the information that can save your life?  That may be a bit dramatic but in essence is true.  Changing the way you eat and exercise will have considerable effects on your personal health and quality of life.  The answer is there and has been proven again and again.  What remains is what we do with that information.  Not knowing is one thing, knowing and not taking action is another.

If you have gotten results over the last eight weeks I would encourage (actually I would beg) you to keep doing what you are doing.  Continue doing what you have been doing until you no longer getting results at which point you will have to make some changes.  This paragraph might have set the world's record for using the word doing by the way.

If you haven't gotten results than you need to make your changes right now.  Right now!  Start eating vegetables and meat, some nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar.  Don't look back and enjoy the results of your hard work.  Sometimes it takes a bit longer to put it together but I am confident each of you can do it.  For some of you your life depends on it.  

One piece at a time

Overwhelmed.

A few of you have written to me about feeling this way after Nutrition 101.  I hear ya', I throw a lot of stuff at you in a very short period of time and because it runs so contrary to what most have heard in the past some of you are dizzy and don't even know where to begin.  Try here.  Mr. Wolf has written it as well as I ever would so it makes sense to refer to his site.  Again I will recommend that you read his book as that will help make sense of this as well.  A big reason for recommending this book as well as others is that you are able to slow it down, reread and wrap your mind around some of these concepts.  

In my experience the participants that take some time to read and research further on paleo nutrition tend to get better results than those that do not.  Spend a bit of time poking around the sites I list on the Nutrition 101 reference list or pick up one of the books listed.  If you have questions please feel free to shoot me a email and let's see how far you can go in eight weeks!