Better Is Better

Low-Carb Breakfast Dilemma

I have the disadvantage of a slight egg intolerance. I can sneak a few in from time to time, but more than that and things turn bad quickly…

Unfortunately, it seems that pretty much every low carb breakfast option on the planet involves a generous helping of eggs in one form or another. So what’s a guy to do when he wants to break fast on something that doesn’t contain a high load of carbohydrates?

Well, one of the simplest answers — and the one that I most often use — is to eat whatever you had for supper last night. But for some reason, here in the West people aren’t too keen on that.

So here’s a quick concoction that I quite enjoy for breakfast.

Organic deli meat “wraps”

Take a few slices of organic deli meat like roast beef or turkey (the organic part is important — you want to avoid the nitrites / nitrates in conventional deli meat like the plague). Slice some English cucumber in long thin slices. Throw some cucumber and some alfalfa sprouts in each slice of deli meat and roll it up into a “wrap.” If you don’t mind a few extra calories and carbs, throw in a sprinkle of organic cashews in there before you wrap ‘em up.

That’s all for today. I’ll cover the whole nitrate / nitrite thing in a future Fit Foodie. It’s one of those hidden evils that most people don’t know about.

Fit Foodie Fifteen-Minute Fish Soup — Low Carb Lunch...

Carbs, in and of themselves, are not evil. But the way you use them — and which ones you choose to consume — will have a huge impact on your efforts to stay healthy and get lean.

And as you’ll know if you’re a client of the Bodyweight Blueprint For Fat Loss, our friend Joel Marion has even built an entire nutritional plan and program around the idea of strategically manipulating carbs for fat loss.

The problem is, we live in a carb dominant society. All the affordable, easy and tasty snacks are carb laden — and usually with the worst kind of carbs to boot. So if you want great low carb meals and snacks that are both affordable and quick, you’ll have to learn to make them yourself.

But that’s what being a Fit Foodie is all about…

The recipe below was done off the cuff. It tasted great! And it’s a perfect dish for your Low Carb days on Joel’s Cheat To Lose plan.

Fit Foodie Fifteen Minute Fish Soup…

Being a good Maritimer (person from the East coast of Canada), I enjoy my seafood. But up until recently, that was only true if someone else prepared it for me. You see, I never really learned to do a great job cooking the stuff.

That’s why every time I go “down home” I coax my mom into making me an enormous lobster feed (she requires very little coaxing). Preparing lobster is such a seemingly simple thing. I really don’t know why my mother can make it taste so much better!

Anyhow, I’ve been experimenting and have come up with a few seafood dishes that I enjoy making and that have turned out very tasty. And I even made one up out of thin air the other day…

I was grocery shopping with my daughter and noticed a sale on fresh halibut. I’m not generally a big fan of white fish, but decided to give it a try and grabbed some. On the way home I started daydreaming about what I could do with it to make a nice lunch for me and my daughter.

Fit Foodie Fifteen-Minute Fish Soup

Here’s what I came up with. The whole thing took between 15-20 minutes.

In a skillet, briefly sauté the following over medium heat. You want these to just start to soften and brown, maybe 2-3 minutes.

1 medium onion, diced
1 green onion, finely sliced
Half a package of mushrooms, finely chopped

To that, add a splash of red wine and a splash of balsamic vinegar and blanche your veggies for another minute or so. Then throw in a large glass full of filtered water (enough to cover your fish once you add it). Season to taste with Celtic sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

Place your fish in the liquid and bring it to a simmer. Cover your skillet and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes depending on the thickness of your fish.

Break your fish into chunks. This should be quite easy. Serve into your bowls and top with a small pat of organic pastured butter. If you like a bit of spice — I like a lot myself — sprinkle some dried red pepper flakes to finish.

Enjoy!

How To Avoid Going Crazy — And Other Benefits of Drinking Coffee

I got a very cool surprise in the mail this week. My buddy Chris, Toronto trainer and genius behind Fit & Busy Dads, shipped me a bag of gourmet organic espresso beans from his favorite coffee haunt.

One of the things I love about my job is getting to travel around the world and meet cool people like Chris. He took me to his coffee joint the last time I was in Toronto. It was an experience to be savored. And it was also an exercise in good health and continued sanity.

Coffee gets a pretty bum rap from conventional wisdom. It’s blamed for all sorts of evils. But most of the charges are pure malarky. Not only that, coffee is increasingly being identified as a downright healthy beverage.

Keep Your Wits About You

To get the ball rolling, consider the fact that regular coffee consumption may help us avoid dementia as we age (Eskelinen MH, et al.). That sounds good to me! And on a more anecdotal note, coffee can just plain make you happy. Enjoying a great cup of coffee with friends is a good way to wind down. And ditching stress through enjoyable activities is a sure way to encourage a long and healthy life.

I Take My Coffee To Heart

Coffee has also been credited with heart healthy benefits in a string of recent studies. Regular consumption of decaf has been associated with better blood flow (S Buscemi, et al.). Drinking 1-3 cups of regular coffee per day was shown to reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 24%. (Andersen LF, et al.)

Don’t Skimp On Your Cuppa Joe

If you want to reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, don’t be stingy with your coffee consumption. One study showed that at least 6 or more cups of coffee a day reduced the risk in men by 20%. (Lopez-Garcia E, et al.)

Geez, even I don’t drink that much… It’s a bit easier for the ladies to make their quota. Women peaked out at 4-5 cups per day and a reduced risk of 24%.

A Stroke Of Luck

Guess I luck out again. It appears my love of coffee may even reduce my risk of stroke. When it comes to the most common type of stroke, cerebral infarction, “Compared to men drinking less than 2 cups of coffee a day, men drinking 8 or more cups of coffee a day were at a 23 per cent reduced risk of cerebral infarction.” (Larsson SC, et al.)

A Tonic For The Maladies Of Civilization

The SAD (Standard American Diet) and the accompanying low levels of physical activity prevalent in our society are bad news. They form the perfect storm for the creation of a host of metabolic disorders which eventually lead to diabetes.

Obviously, taking care of the cause should be our number one priority. But it seems coffee can even help keep us out of the metabolic madness to which our habits predispose us.  Six or seven cups a day could reduce risk of diabetes by as much as 35%. (Odegaard AO, et al.)

What's In The Other 98%

So what’s up with coffee. How is it that caffein is the new elixir of life. Well, you may not know that only 2% of coffee is comprised of caffein. And it may be the stuff that makes up the other 98% that’s so good for us.

For instance, it’s thought that the magnesium content of coffee may be responsible for some of it’s protective effects from diabetes.

Coffee is also chock full ‘o antioxidants. And the best news is, the roasting process — the very thing that makes coffee so delightful — actually increases the antioxidant effectiveness of these plant phenols!

Take It With A Grain Of Salt

No, I don’t mean your coffee. And if you want my opinion, take your coffee black, no sugar. That’s the only way to truly appreciate it’s wonders. But I do have a few words of caution…

Coffee is absolutely addictive and must be treated with the due respect that any such substance deserves.

Conventionally grown coffee is also one of the most sprayed crops on the planet, so endeavor to go organic as often as possible, especially if you consume large quantities.

But other than that, if you enjoy coffee — and if you don’t then you haven’t really given it a real chance — then by all means go ahead and enjoy your cuppa Joe.

So what's YOUR take? Do you like coffee? Do you believe coffee is bad for you? Can it be healthy, or do addicts like me just like to rationalize our love of the black nectar? Let us know your thoughts in the comments...

7 Things To Avoid In Your Halloween Chocolate

Time for another Fit Foodie Friday…

If you’re a Foodie like me, you like food too much to deny life’s great pleasures. And chocolate is definitely one of those things that most of us Foodies will never be able to abandon.

But when it comes to your health, there’s GOOD chocolate and there’s BAD chocolate. Personally, I enjoy the taste and texture of the good stuff more than the bad.

Enjoying organic dark chocolate can actually be quite beneficial to your health — in moderation of course. Did you know it's even a great source of antioxidants?

Chocolate is made from the beans of the cacao tree, Theobroma Cacao Plant. Cacao is full of flavanoids that are commonly known for their antioxidant activity. A small bar of dark chocolate can contain as many flavonoids as six apples, four and a half cups of tea, or two glasses of red wine. (Fat Burning Kitchen)

Mike Geary, author of Fat Burning Kitchen, lists seven more health benefits of this sinfully delicious treat in his most excellent treatise on healthy eatin'.

But to balance them out, there are also 7 dastardly sins which you must avoid if you want to make the best choice for you and your kids this Halloween.

• Trans fat -- An artery-clogging type of fat that forms when vegetable oils are hardened into margarine or shortening.
• High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) -- Contains no enzymes, vitamins or minerals, and leeches micronutrients from your body. Raises your blood sugar levels beyond acceptability, and leads to insulin resistance and weight gain. It really is a metabolic poison and, in many ways, acts identical to alcohol with chronic exposure when eaten in high amounts.
• Artificial sweeteners -- Never allow anything "artificial" in your chocolate.
• Soy proteins -- Unfermented soy can cause digestive distress and a weakened immune system.
• Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) -- An excitotoxin, which over-excites your cells to the point of damage or total destruction. Can potentially cause brain damage and other disabilities to varying degrees.
• Preservatives and stabilizers -- Avoid anything artificial and look for only organic ingredients.
• Milk or milk byproducts -- Could impact how well you absorb the healthy antioxidants in the chocolate.

(These 7 deadly chocolate sins are from Dr Mercola’s newsletter)

Milk chocolate is generally a source of most or all of the above no-no's. These aren’t easy things to avoid. Your standard Halloween fare is resplendent in these ingredients.

Making the right choice will make Halloween more difficult and expensive. But if you care about your health and the health of your family, isn't it worth it? Don't be tricked by your treats...

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More Fit Foodie Friday...

Butter Me Up…

What’s THE Most Evil “Health” Food?

Butter Me Up…

Time for another edition of FitFoodie Friday…

Last week we talked about the evils of margarine. This week is devoted to the original that it was modeled after — butter!

But not just any butter. After all, how’d you like to smear a nice pat of pus, injected hormones, chemicals and insecticides onto your toast? Thought not…

But that’s just what you’re getting when you use the run-of-the-mill grocery store butter. Remember your mom or your grandma telling you that you are what you eat? Well, the same holds true for cows.

Did you know that over 50% of the antibiotics produced in the US go into animal feed? Do you wonder why? It’s because the animals are kept in such retched conditions that they need to pump them with antibiotics to keep them alive.

Guess what else many of them are getting pumped with… Bovine Growth Hormone. We’re lucky here in Canada that it has been banned, but in many countries it’s still used. And it increases the rate of udder infection by 50-70%, which means more need for antibiotics.

But it also means pus gets into your dairy products! There’s actually an “allowable limit” of pus in commercial dairy… (yuk!)
 
Then there’s the actual food that the animals are eating. Conventional farming has no qualms about using feed that’s been sprayed by countless chemicals and insecticides. And just as with humans, all that lovely stuff is secreted through the cow’s milk.

And they aren’t eating their natural diet of grasses either. They’re being stuffed with grains and other things they would never it if they were left to their own devices. This means that the fatty acid profile of both the animals and the milk is terribly skewed towards the inflamatory omega-6s and away from the healthy omega-3s and Conjugated Linoleic Acid.

OK, so all that probably turned you off dairy — including butter — right? That’d be a shame, since what I’ve just described isn’t REAL butter in it’s natural state. It’s something akin to butter that we’ve gone and modified through our treatment of the animals.

The real thing is a wonder of nature full of myriad benefits. Plus, it tastes great. Have you ever tasted conventional butter side-by-side with organic butter from grass-fed cows? You’ll be amazed.

My new favorite book on nutrition, The Fat Burning Kitchen, rattles off almost a full page of benefits derived from butter. Here are a few of the highlights…

• Butter is rich in the most easily absorbable form of Vitamin A necessary for thyroid and adrenal health, both of which are essential to fat burning and energy
• Contains anti-oxidants that protect against free radical damage
• Is a great source of Vitamins E and K
• Butter contains conjugated linoleic acid, which is a potent fat burner, anti-cancer agent, muscle builder, and immunity booster
• Vitamin D found in butter is essential to absorption of calcium, the immune system and overall well being

(excerpt from The Fat Burning Kitchen)

So I hope I’ve buttered you up sufficiently to put butter back on the menu. But make sure it’s organic and preferably grass fed. (and we’ll talk about pasteurization some other time…)

What are your favorite uses for butter? Do you use butter at all? If not, will you?

What’s THE Most Evil “Health” Food?

This is the first in a series called FitFoodie Friday. We’ll be exploring a myriad of topics as they relate to food and fitness. And I’m sure you’ll find a healthy and delicious recipe here from time to time...

I recently spent time with relatives. Great people trying to make good choices for their family. So I was shocked when they reached for the margarine.

If you’re not shocked, we’ve got a problem. You should be...

Margarine is one of the biggest mistakes — turned into one of the greatest lies — in our modern history of food and medicine.

A handful of misguided scientists and doctors convinced the world that saturated fat was evil and that we’d all be better off eating man made super-processed fats like margarine and Crisco.

Not only were they wrong, they actually made the situation they were trying to fix — heart disease — worse. These fake fats are made from highly inflammatory vegetable oils like soy, canola and corn.

And if that weren’t bad enough, they need to be highly processed to make them stable and palatable. And that means things like hydrogenation, which is as good as turning it into a trans fat…

So what about cholesterol? Turns out it ain’t so bad after all. In fact, the only time it really causes much trouble is when you create inflammation with things like excess carbs and inflammatory oils!

Even if you DON’T care about your health — which would be crazy — and are only concerned about how you look, margarine will contribute to your weight gain and even give you wrinkles! Those trans fats mess you up right down to the cellular level, changing the make-up of your cell membranes.

Once they’re jammed up with trans fats, they no longer work the way they are supposed to. So nutrients and energy that SHOULD be shuttled into lean tissues is turned away. And guess where it all ends up — fat cells...

So ditch the margarine and eat the real thing: butter. It tastes so much better too! But get the organic pastured stuff, not the crap that’s readily available. I’ll tell you why in the next edition of FitFoodie Friday.

In the meantime, if you want even more detailed information on this topic and many other important questions relating to your health and physique, you really should check out an eBook I recently discovered called Fat Burning Kitchen.

I was surprised and delighted to discover this little gem of a book a few weeks back. If you’re like me and care about what goes in your mouth and how it affects you, this is a great resource. I’m pretty picky about this kind of thing and I can honestly say that I agree with 99% of what the author, Mike Geary, has to say.

Click this link to check out Fat Burning Kitchen.

Check back next week for another edition of FitFoodie Friday. We'll explore the health benefits of good old butter!

Cheers,
Adam  

Super Availability

 

There’s just TOO MUCH FOOD available.

I’m on my way back from the big Circular Strength Training® Certification event in Bellingham, WA. I’ve decided to fast on the voyage home. It’s just the easiest way to avoid eating a bunch of junk.

I’m one of those people that can easily plunge down slippery slopes. Give me one piece of somewhat junky food, and the next thing you know I’m eating an espresso brownie from Starbucks.

It was my buddy Brad Pilon, author of Eat Stop Eat, who first gave me the idea to fast while traveling. And I’ve had good success with it on many occasions. For me, it just seems easier to turn off the valve completely than to try regulating the flow of crappy travel food.

But the problem is the sheer volume of tasty, but empty, food that’s all around me. I’m not particularly hungry. But the lemon cranberry scone over in the Starbucks display is weighing on my will power with the heft of a Bruiser Clubbell®.

So I’m thinking, no wonder we’re having so much trouble maintaining the kind of health and physique that we’d like and we deserve! We were never meant to have so much abundance. This Super Availability of sheer calories is completely counter to the bodies that our evolution has provided us with.

So the next time you bow down to “just one” espresso brownie (and you will–so will I) just give a moments thought to how long it would take you to gather that many calories if you were dumped into the wild. Assuming you had the skills to do it, how much energy would you expend to gather that much “food energy”?

It’s an interesting experiment...

Gazpacho - A Healthy Summer Meal

Gazpacho is a raw vegetable "soup" that's great for hot summer days. It originates in the hot climes of Spain and Portugal. Generally, the star ingredient is tomatoes. And traditional recipes also included stale bread, but we'll skip that for our purposes. You can put all kinds of fresh veggies in a gazpacho. The sky is the limit really.

The one I threw together tonight was a concoction of what we had in the fridge and what was available in the garden. My daughter and I went out with a bowl and pair of scissors and just started smelling and tasting different herbs to figure out what we wanted in our soup.

Here's a list of what we came up with.

From the garden:

• Basil
• Lemon thyme
• Parsley

From the fridge:

• 3 large tomatoes
• 1 red pepper
• 1/2 small red onion
• 1/4 English cucumber
• wedge of lemon

From the cupboard:

• 1/2 clove garlic
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• Celtic sea salt
• fresh ground black pepper
• a touch of stevia

Once you decide what you want in your gazpacho, the rest is pretty easy. Roughly chop your veggies and herbs (except the cukes - put them aside). Then throw them all in the food processor with a couple good glugs of olive oil, a few splashes of balsamic vinegar, a pinch or two of sea salt, a few turns from the pepper grinder, the juice from your lemon wedge and your touch of stevia. Keep a few sprigs of parsley aside for garnish.

Let the processor go until the gazpacho takes on a smooth soupy consistency. Then you can give it a taste and season to your liking with sea salt and pepper. Once you get it how you want it, take it off the food processor base, cover it, and put it in the fridge for anywhere from a half hour to a couple hours.

When you are about ready to serve, finely dice your cucumber. Take your gazpacho out of the fridge and give it a quick whiz. Pour it into bowls and garnish with a sprig of parsley and a handful of your finely diced cucumber.

Enjoy!

If you've experimented with your own gazpacho recipes, I'd love to hear what you've come up with. I've heard avocado is also a great addition. Let me know in the comments.

Delicious spur of the moment sautéd scallops

Sometimes the best recipes are impromptu creations. Yesterday I found myself with a nice bag of frozen scallops, but without a plan. I looked around at what we had at hand and came up with what turned out to be a delicious dish.

If you want to make a great whole food, healthy and delicious meal quickly, give this one a try. Below is for one person (guy with a healthy appetite). You can adjust the portions up or down depending on your needs. You don't really have to be exact with any of it.

• 200 grams small scallops (I got a bag of frozen)
• 1 cup green beans (fresh or frozen)
• 1 tsp organic butter
• 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• Splash of good quality balsamic vinegar
• 1 ripe organic tomato
• 1 tbs homemade pesto (optional - recipe in future post)

Grab your steamer and put the green beans on to steam. Keep checking them until a fork passes through them, but with resistance. You don't want soggy beans.

While the beans are cooking, pat the scallops dry with some paper towel or a clean dish towel. Heat a frying pan over high heat and then add your butter and olive oil. Throw in your scallops and sauté them until they turn from translucent to opaque.

Quickly dice your tomato in large chunks while the scallops cook.

Put the scallops aside while leaving juices and oils in the pan. Put the pan back on the heat and throw in your diced tomato. Sauté until they start to soften. This won't take long. Add your balsamic vinegar and continue to cook over high heat until the sauce thickens.

Take your pan off the heat. Add your scallops back in along with your green beans. Toss everything together and add Celtic sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Serve it up in a pasta dish and voila...

Bon appetit!

Vegetarian - To be or not to be...

Most of you who've been around for a while will know that I'm about as far from the vegetarian mindset as you can get. I firmly believe that we're at our best when thriving off a diet based on quality organic animal products and on tons of fresh veggies. I think that is how we evolved as humans, and if we want to ensure optimal expression of our genes we should try to follow those evolutionary patterns in the way we eat and move.

But I don't live in a cave and I gladly accept that others will want to follow different paths towards wellness according to their own values. In fact, in interacting with this community I've discovered that many of you have indeed chosen the vegan or vegetarian lifestyle.

That's cool. But as a coach I also worry about helping you optimize whatever lifestyle you choose in order to bring you the greatest level of health, vitality and also performance. So I've had my eye on various "veggie" resources for a while now, trying to find something that I can put my weight behind.

To be honest, I was getting a bit discouraged about finding someone who "gets it." But recently I stumbled across a vegetarian nutrition and fitness expert by the name of Kardena Pauza. I haven't been able to do a full review of her stuff-it won't be done for a couple weeks still-but I did get a bit of an inside scoop and like what I see so far.

However, if you are a vegetarian (or if you are thinking of going that route) I'd really like your help. Kardena is offering free 7 day meal plans this week – it's part of her promotional efforts for her upcoming product – and I'd like you to review them for me.

There's a plan for men and a plan for women. Try them out and post your impressions here. I'd especially like to know about the "qualitative" experience. I'm fine with most of what I see as far as the technical aspects of the plans, but I'm hoping for you to tell me what it's like to actually live the plan.

I usually like to test stuff out on myself. But this time I'm just not willing to give up my carnivorous ways...!

http://tinyurl.com/veggiemeals <= Get the mean plans here

Don't forget to come back in a week and post your thoughts!

Cheers,
Adam