On occasion, our position that Paleo-ified junk food is still junk food has made us unpopular.  However, we know from experience that one of the fastest ways to negate the potential benefits of your Whole30 experience is to try to shove your old, unhealthy diet into a shiny new Paleo mold.  And when it comes to the psychological hold certain foods have over us, the whole (pancake) is far more than just the sum of the parts (ingredients).

Today, we’ll share our thoughts on why Paleo pancakes, pizza, cookies and ice cream are not everyday food, and why you shouldn’t try to recreate junk food with “approved” ingredients during your Whole30.   (If you’ve attended one of our Foundations of Nutrition workshops in the last year and a half, you’ve already heard this particular pitch.)  It really comes down to just one thing – sex.

Pizza Porn

Let’s take Paleo pizza as one example.  Generally made with an almond flour crust and lacking any sort of cheese, this is one way bread and dairy-avoiding folk can enjoy the concept without the bellyache.  But here’s the issue.  Have you had Paleo pizza?  Yeah, that’s what we thought. Some recipes are pretty good, but it doesn’t exactly taste like the pizza you knew and loved.  Case in point…

We want you to think about the best pizza you’ve ever had in your whole life.  Picture the crust, light and crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside.  Imagine heaps of cheese, just waiting to be stretched and gathered in as you take your first bite. Imagine the smell of it, the feel of a warm slice in your hand, that first. Amazing. Bite.

Now, compare the two.

That Paleo pizza may be pretty good, but be honest – it in no way compares to the best pizza you’ve ever had.  And herein lies the problem.  To use an analogy we can all (probably) understand, the Paleo-ification of poor food choices is a little bit like having sex with your pants on.

SWYPO

See, given the constructs of your Whole30 program, you’re stuck with Paleo pizza.  There’s no gluten-laden crust, there’s no sugary tomato sauce, and there’s certainly no fresh mozzarella.  And during your Whole30, eating Paleo pizza is just like having sex with your pants on.  It’s good… but it’s not that good.  You can tell yourself it’s okay, it’s still pretty good, you’re totally satisfied… but that’s kind of a lie.  Because you know exactly how good pants-less sex feels.

And if you continue your Whole30 program eating Paleo pizza, Paleo ice cream and Paleo pancakes, well… all it makes you think about is how less-than-stellar this version is, and how delicious the other version would be.  Just like… well, you know.

The problem is, if you continue to have sex with your pants on, it’s inevitable that at some point you’re gonna want to take your pants off.  And during your Whole30, that spells trouble.

Create A New You

Do you really want to spend the entirety of your Whole30 obsessed with all the stuff you can’t have, and eating the same foods you’ve been eating all along?  We sure don’t!  If you come out of your program with the same habits, patterns and food choices you had when you started, what are your chances for long-term, life-changing success?  After all, those very same habits, patterns and food choices are what got you into trouble in the first place!

Now, does this mean you can’t substitute a poor food choice with a healthier option?  Of course not.  To help you critically evaluate whether you’re attempting to engage in SWYPO, ask yourself this question.  Am I trying to exactly duplicate or recreate the poor food choice with “approved” ingredients, or am I merely looking for a healthier, more nutritious substitution for that food?

In the case of Paleo desserts, it’s a straight swap – you’re desperately trying to duplicate the sweet treats you know and love in a way that’s still technically Paleo.  But if you’re looking for a sandwich substitute, and you decide to use a lettuce leaf or a coconut Pure Wrap, well, that’s a different story. Spaghetti squash for pasta, a portobello mushroom cap for a burger bun or egg and spinach “muffins” for traditional muffins are all examples of perfectly healthy and appropriate substitutions during your Whole30.  (Another tip:  If you’re subbing something unhealthy with vegetables or high-quality meat, that’s almost certainly a thumbs-up.)

In addition, context matters.  For example, the amazing fried chicken in Paleo Comfort Foods is a perfectly appropriate (and delicious) dinner choice while on your Whole30. However, if you’re coming off a wicked addiction to KFC, perhaps Jules & Charles’ creation isn’t the best choice for you during your program.  Make sense?  So think critically about whether the food choices you are making during your Whoel30 fit the spirit and intention of the program, not just the technicality of the rules.

Abstinence.  It’s Only 30 Days.

So… no sex with your pants on during the Whole30.  Learn what to serve the kids on Friday night instead of Paleo pizza.  Boost your nutrition by eating a fresh veggie scramble with eggs for breakfast instead of Paleo pancakes.  And during your Whole30, don’t fool yourself into thinking that those Paleo brownies are holistically healthier for you than the Duncan Hines brownies you used to eat.

Use the Whole30 to change your habits, change your patterns, break unhealthy cravings and create a new, healthy relationship with food.  You won’t be sorry, as those new habits and patterns will stay with you for the rest of your life.  And when your Whole30 is over and you feel like kicking your heels up, use our Guide to Nutritional Off-Roading to help you decide when to choose a Paleo-ified option, and when to eat the real deal.  Because at that point in the game, pants are optional.

“We’re starting a new series here today, where we spend a little time with some couples who aren’t just talking the talk but are walking the walk when it comes to eating this way. All of these folks have had a great impact on our lives, so we thought it only fitting to ask them some questions and share with all of you how they make this paleo lifestyle work for them as a couple”

You can read our fun interview here on the Paleo Comfort Foods blog.

(And you can read more about Julie and Charles – and their fabulous shipping-from-Amazon-as-we-speak cookbook Paleo Comfort Foods – on our web site in our recent interview.)  Thanks to Julie and Charles for the fun interview!

In yoga, there are two kinds of positions.  The first requires strength to hold the pose.  The second requires you to soften and yield.

I suck at softening.

I approach my yoga the same way I approach my deadlifting – with the same Type A, stubborn, controlling personality that suits me oh-so-perfectly to someplace like Gym Jones.  And for some poses, that works beautifully. Standing splits against the wall?  I don’t look like that girl, but I can tough out the hold with the best of them.  Full side plank?  Nothing but good, old-fashioned midline stability.  Handstands?  Please – I’ve done so many, it’s practically cheating.  But move me into something where I have to soften – the shoulders, the spine, the face (yes, I’m often told to soften my face) and it all falls apart.

I have no one to blame but myself.

After six years of doing nothing but measure, count, chart progress and mark improvements, I don’t know how to soften.  I don’t know how to relax, I cannot “yield” (whatever that means), and I most certainly cannot refrain from trying to kick your ass at yoga.  My instructor told me last week to close my eyes when I practice.  This was after she caught me looking around, seeing the old guy next to me had his leg higher than mine, grunt (yes, I believe I actually grunted) and forcibly yank my toes up juuuust a smidge higher than his.  And then I fell over.  (But still, I believe I won that round.)

Measuring, counting, charting and improving are all good things when it comes to fitness.  I firmly believe you need the structure of a planned program, the discipline of a log book, and the stats to prove you’ve pushed yourself and exceeded your own expectations.  Without those things, fitness progress comes slowly and is often unrecognizable.  But for the love of Shiva, I need a break once in a while, if only for my own mental sanity.

I’ve been a perfectionist my whole life.  In school, a minus sign next to the “A” on my report card grade was cause for much hand-wringing and dismay.  (That was second grade.) In my past career, I stayed longer and worked harder than anyone else – and was promoted faster than anyone else in the history of the company.  In the last six years of CrossFit, kettlebells and Gym Jones, my logs were meticulous (I love a good Excel spreadsheet) – cross-referenced and notated within an inch of their life.  And the gold stars I gave myself for a new PR were a huge part of what kept me motivated.

I have none of this in yoga.

There are no grades, no promotions, no logs or tracking of progress – and gold stars are explicitly forbidden.  It’s just me and my mat and a constant struggle to soften.  Nobody cares if my leg is straight, nobody cares if I bent just a smidge lower today than yesterday, and nobody cares how my shoulder muscles look in Warrior 2.   Just me.  I’m the only one who cares.  And because of this, I am constantly challenged in my practice, too often manhandling myself into a position, stepping outside of the moment to worry about my progress, and refusing to yield.

I do yoga for fun.  Mostly, I go to calm my constantly tense body and ever-racing brain.  I go because my cortisol levels told me I should, and because I’m a calmer, happier, saner version of myself after 90 minutes of moving in flow.  It’s more therapy than exercise, although I’m surprised at what good exercise it is.

And despite some intrinsic urge to make my time there more “practical”, I’m not trying to improve my deadlift or squat through yoga (although that wouldn’t surprise me at all).  My practice is supposed to be a break from myself – from counting, measuring, charting and most of all, judging. So this morning, I will do my best to soften, yield, relax and let the pose dictate where my body ends up.  To be safe, though, I’ll probably close my eyes.

Namaste.

While it may seem obvious to those of you who have been without cable for a few years now, we’re here to present the rest of you Kill Your TV participants with 174,203 (almost) things you can do with your life instead of watching TV. (We’re also giving you links to products we like in our newly opened Amazon store, to help get you started.) Take back those hours this month and do something productive, fun, enriching or restorative. Like what? Glad you asked.

Improve Your Training Performance

• Stretch
• Perform self-myofascial release
• Go for a recovery walk/bike/swim/paddle/row
• Read training-related books or articles
• Do some skill work
• Practice yoga
• Update your training logs
• Get a massage
• Take an ice bath
• Connect with your trainer or fellow gym-goers
• Lay out your short-term and long-term training goals
• Get acupuncture

Improve Your Sleep

• Go to bed earlier
• Read a book
• Take a hot bath
• Have sex
• Develop a pre-bed routine
• Prepare clothes/food/work for the morning
• Buy and install black-out curtains
• Read Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar and Survival
• Read Dallas’ sleep article in Performance Menu

Improve Your Nutrition

• Prep and cook food for the week
• Try a new recipe
• Visit a local farm or market
• Clean out your pantry
• Take a cooking class
• Prepare a new vegetable
• Read a cookbook
• Make a weekly meal plan
• Find a new nutrition book
• Sign up for a CSA
• Host a dinner party

Improve Your Family Time

• Call or visit a family member
• Play a board game or cards
• Read a book together
• Go outside and play
• Cook dinner together
• Help your kids with their homework
• Take a family walk after dinner
• Plan a family trip or vacation
• Have a date night with your significant other
• Work on a puzzle
• Do a craft project
• Write a letter or send a card
• Organize family photos
• Plan a party or an event

Improve Your Household

• Train your dog
• Finish that project that’s been half done for 6 months
• Clean something
• Organize something
• Start a garden
• Mow the lawn
• Plant a tree or flowers
• Have a yard sale
• Start a compost pile
• Wash your car
• Send stuff to Goodwill
• Get your oil changed
• Do laundry
• Go through stacks of papers and mail

Improve Your Fun and Play

• Pick up a new sport
• Go rock climbing
• Learn to swim
• Go for a bike ride
• Have a picnic
• Play with a slackline
• Play boccee
• Play ball with your kids
• Climb a tree
• Have a block party
• Throw a frisbee
• Go for a hike
• Nap in the grass
• Go to a local baseball game
• Shoot some baskets

Improve YOU

• Take an adult education class
• Get a pedicure
• Plan your dream house
• Go to church
• Volunteer
• Learn to knit
• Write something
• Take an art class
• Browse your local bookstore
• Get involved with your neighborhood
• Get involved in local politics
• Finish your will
• Join a book club
• Meet with a financial advisor
• Organize your business receipts
• Take yourself out for dinner
• Go to the dentist
• Test drive a car you can’t afford

What Will YOU Do?

Okay, so we don’t quite have 174,203 things… but this is a darn good start. And we bet you can come up with even more ideas to fill those TV-watching hours. So what will you do instead of watching television during the month of May? Submit your best ideas to comments.

Pantry plenty

For my entire life, my mother has hoarded food. Not like the “hoarders” on TV, for sure, but as long as I can remember, she has stored food in the house like she was expecting an imminent extended famine.  (If the characters in The Road had stumbled onto her place, they could have lived there for years.) In all fairness, my parents always worked hard to provide healthy food, including loads of fresh and preserved vegetables and fruit, usually from our own garden and orchard.  My mum froze green beans and sweet corn, canned peaches and tomatoes, dried apples and plums, and stored carrots and potatoes in the cellar. We were vegetarian, and ate lots of nutrient-dense veggies and fruit, along with vegetarian protein sources like “gluten patties.” (Yes, really. Blech.)  She also kept huge amounts of dry goods (i.e. non-perishables) in the pantry; most of those un-foods were some sort of concentrated carbohydrate source, like grains or legumes.

My mother has always been very active: hiking, skiing, and traveling to awesome places like Peru, Nepal, and Tanzania. She has never been seriously overweight, but like so many folks these days, she was aware that she’d probably be healthier overall if she were a few pounds lighter. But shoot, losing ten pounds is hard when almost everything you eat turns to sugar in your body (and insulin jams those calories into long-term storage).  And changing the way you eat is even harder when you’ve got enough carbohydrates in your pantry to sustain you for years.

Nobody listens to their kid

I gave up being vegetarian over 10 years ago, and my own diet has continued to evolve. The more I learned about nutrition, the more I wanted to learn – and to share with people I loved. For years now, I’ve been sharing my nutritional views with my Mum, but it mostly fell on deaf ears. After all, what self-respecting parent actually takes advice from their own kid?  Nonetheless, with my constant support (barrage? hounding?), she started to make some small changes to her dietary habits. She ate fewer sugary desserts, relied less on cereal and bread, cut out vegetable oils, and reduced her dairy intake. Last fall, I sent her an early copy of Robb Wolf’s book, The Paleo Solution, and she called me the day after she received it. “That Robb is a really, really smart guy”, she says to me. “Yes, Mother, he is.” Sometimes, it just takes some third-party validation to get your point across.

I spent the next few months reviewing and reiterating Robb’s recommendations with her, and could tell I was gaining some ground. For the first time in 35 years, she started eating a little meat, eased up on the grains, and ditched dairy altogether. On January 1^st, in a giant step forward, my mother (and sister) took on the Whole30.

For my entire life, my Mum has lived on mostly carbs, since the same “healthy” principles that had her reduce her meat intake (to zero) also sang the praises of whole grains and legumes as “necessary” carbohydrates. If you’ve read Robb’s book or been to one of our Foundations of Nutrition workshops, you know that you can live on mostly carbs the way a cow could live on grain – you’d survive for a while, not be very healthy, and get nice and fat. (Well, my Mum never got fat, but she did complain of those stubborn “last ten pounds”, and she wasn’t feeling as awesome as she wanted to.)  Part of my advice to her in preparation for her Whole30 was to clean out her pantry and get rid of the junk – the cookies, chocolate, and other unsavory characters in the pantry. But my Mum is pragmatic and frugal, and throwing things away, even if they’re overtly harmful, is simply not what she does. So… I didn’t have much hope that she’d actually clean out the pantry.

Cue the hamsters

Here’s where the rodent theme comes in. I like to learn about scientific stuff, and have been reading a lot about the hormonal regulation of food intake via hormones like leptin and ghrelin and neuropeptides like NPY. Our bodies have complex regulatory mechanisms that help us maintain enough stored energy (in the form of body fat) to get us through lean times, but not so much that it slows us down and makes us sick.  Ghrelin and NPY play roles in our appetites, stimulating hunger.  Leptin, a potent satiety hormone, plays a major role in helping us stop eating when we’ve eaten enough, or when have enough energy stored as body fat.  Except if we continually eat food that distorts the messages our body is trying to send to our brain, then we’re always hungry, we don’t stop eating and, in part, because of our food choices, we simply accumulate more and more body fat. (Been to the Food Court recently?)

Dense (animal) protein sources and some dietary fats stimulate leptin (satiety) and suppress ghrelin (appetite), telling you that you’re full and no longer need to keep eating, but a high-carb meal elevates ghrelin (above baseline) in a few hours, making you more likely to overeat the whole-wheat pasta or brown rice at your next meal.  Which means you store those excess carbohydrate as body fat, and do it all over again a few hours later.  A vicious cycle, right?

Rodents like hamsters are often chosen for these kinds of studies, since their behavior with food directly reflects the underlying mechanisms of intake regulation: an “appetitive phase” (seeking food), and a “consummatory phase” (eating food). Ghrelin and NPY, which play roles in the appetitive phase, tend to cause animals – and humans – to eat more. In hamsters, a rise in ghrelin (like that observed several hours after us humans eat a high carbohydrate meal) causes increased foraging for food, and subsequent eating and/or hoarding. If the hamsters are fat, they eat a little less but still hoard lots of food. If they have been recently food-deprived, they eat more. It seems that their “energy flux” determines how much food they will eat or hoard.

Here’s a profound sentence from a recent paper I read (about hamsters): “That is, neuropeptides might trigger food-seeking behavior and, if the food is readily present requiring little or no effort, then the consummatory phase would proceed automatically.” Got it? Regulatory hormones like ghrelin drive you to seek food, but if it’s right there (in the pantry) and requires no effort, you may just eat it… “automatically”.

Cue my mother

Back to my mother. Her historical reliance on dietary carbohydrate and complete lack of dense animal protein sources (and enough healthy fats) left her with the constant urge to “seek” food.  She was smart enough – and had enough self-restraint – not to automatically overeat… so instead, she hoarded food.  Like the hamsters, her hormonal response to the food she was eating (constantly elevated ghrelin and NPY and suppressed leptin) was literally compelling her to store food, because her dietary choices were telling her body to get ready for the coming famine.

Fast forward to last night. My mother’s Whole30 is officially over, and I asked her how things were going. She said it was hard to eat meat at first, but that she’s tried some new recipes and is really enjoying some of them. She said that she’s feeling “cleaner”, that she has much more energy, and that she doesn’t crave sugar anymore. She said that she’s not hungry all the time like she used to be. And… she says that she has lost those 10 stubborn pounds.  But then, the real kicker: “For the last few weeks, I’ve gone into the pantry every couple days, and thrown a bunch of stuff away. I’m never going to eat that junk, so I don’t want it in my house. I’ve gotten rid of a LOT of stuff. And I’m going to keep going.” I told her I was proud of her.

What I didn’t tell her is that now that she’s getting enough dense protein and healthy fat, leptin is doing its job of satiating her (hence her lack of nonstop hunger and vicious sugar cravings). And since what she’s eating isn’t all becoming sugar in her body, her ghrelin levels aren’t unnaturally high before each meal. With lower ghrelin levels and a brain that can actually hear leptin’s satiety message, she, like an active, well-fed rodent, no longer feels compelled to hoard (or overeat) food.

I could have told her that last bit, but I didn’t. I just didn’t want to make her feel like a hamster.

Dallas and his Mum in Mexico, Christmas 2010.

Author’s Note:  I realize that there is no actual, scientific basis for these comparisons or conclusions.  I just thought it was interesting… and kinda funny.

Best,

Dallas & Melissa Hartwig

February 11, 2011

We’re taking some of our own advice and spending the next two weeks on vacation in Mexico.  We’re in a tiny little town about an hour north of Puerta Vallarta, where there isn’t much tourism… but the beach (and locals) are fabulous.  We’re eating amazing food, napping in the sunshine and taking in the local sights – like this Christmas parade down Main Street in De Lo Marcos.  We managed to jump in on the action just long enough to snap a photo with the main attractions, and figured this would be the perfect virtual Christmas card.

So Merry Christmas and happy, healthy holidays to you and your families, from Dallas & Melissa.

The original Healthy/F-Off scale was published on Urban Gets Diesel (Melissa’s old blog) in October 2008.  Since then,  the post has been one of the most linked and referenced articles on her site.  (For those wishing to revisit the original version, please take note, the “F-bomb” was in full effect back then.)

Due to relentless pressure and public outcry (mostly from our friend and Whole30 expert Lauren Guibert), and because our priorities have changed dramatically in the last two years, we’ve decided to release an updated Healthy F/Off Scale… with a fun little twist.

Our new Healthy/F-Off Scale

The Scale is designed to measure foods based on both their “Healthy” properties, and the degree to which you will tell people to “F-Off” when deciding whether or not to eat these foods. Foods that we agree have irrefutable health benefits are the highest on the Healthy scale.  While we may not love these foods, they are so undeniably healthy that their F-Off potential is minimal. As an example: We know that fish oil is very Healthy.  We may not love taking fish oil, but as it is so high on the Healthy scale, we will not tell you to F-Off when you suggest we take it.  Therefore, we take fish oil regularly.)

Foods that we know are not so healthy, but that we think are tasty enough to be justified on occasion are lower on the Healthy scale, but higher on the F-Off scale, so they fall somewhere in the middle.  As an example, despite all the arguments against legumes, we will occasionally tell you to F-Off and eat a little hummus. These instances are not common, but they do occur.

Foods that we know should be eliminated from our diets completely because they are nowhere near Healthy, but which we have determined are mandatory to our enjoyable existence, are at the bottom of the Healthy scale, but EXTREMELY high on the F-Off scale. These foods, in the past, include iced coffees and Grey Goose dirty martinis.  (As you can see from the current version, some of our tastes have indeed changed.)

What’s on YOUR Healthy/F-Off scale?

And now, for the fun little twist.  Here is your opportunity to create your very own personalized Healthy/F-Off scale for your web site or blog.  Just follow these easy steps.

• Download our blank Healthy/F-Off template.
• Using some sort of image editing software like Microsoft Paint or Photoshop, fill in your own food(s) at each of the three points.
• Save the file as a new image, and share it with the world.
• Don’t know how to use the software you’ve got?  Go low-tech!  Print the chart, fill it in by hand, take a photo, and go!

Make sure you share your own Healthy/F-Off scale with us!  Post your version (or share your link) on our Facebook page and see what other people think are F-Off worthy.

More Whole9 Good Stuff…

Whole30 Contest    Whole9 Shirts      Success Guide

Introducing the Whole9 “Winter 2010″ t-shirt collection, available now on Spreadshirt and just in time for Christmas. Use the code “GIFTS2010″ at check-out and receive free shipping on orders $30 or more. Visit the Whole9 Spreadshirt store to see the full designs, front and back.

“Question Authority”

Get your counter-culture on and question authority… food authority, that is. Men’s and women’s designs in three colors.

“Food Evangelist”

Spread the Whole9 Good Food Word in this formal tee. Men’s and women’s designs, white only (of course).

“In the Kitchen”

Ladies, show the world you know your place…preferably while pulling heavy deadlifts. Women’s Bella longer length tank, in white.

Today, we’ve bumped our normal Steal This Meal feature (see yesterday’s post for this week’s offering) to wish Dallas a very happy birthday.  Normally he hates it when I say nice things about him in public, but what’s a birthday without a little embarrassment?

Dallas has been celebrating in style, hitting a snatch balance PR in the middle of his Catalyst Athletics strength cycle yesterday afternoon.  Not one, but TWO successful attempts at his heaviest snatch balance ever!  What better present could you ask for?   (Well… maybe a new NYC Endurance t-shirt, since he’s just about worn his out?)  Nevertheless, we’ll be painting the town red in Minnesota this weekend as we draw out his birthday into a weekend long celebratory extravaganza (with a few nutrition workshops thrown in for good measure).

Please join me in wishing Dallas happy birthday today!