MY KETTLEBELL, OLYMPIC LIFTING & PALEO JOURNEY

Finally after getting tired of carrying the extra gut around all day, I decided to do something about it. I have always been on and off some form of weight training so the choice of exercise program came naturally to me. But instead of the conventional gym exercises I choose to do some form of ballistic training using Kettlebells and Olympic lifting. Diet was based around conventional (pseudo) Paleo ingredients like meat, seafood, some dairy, nuts, beans, lentils, veggies and fruits.  I call it pseudo-Paleo because some of the ingredients like dairy, lentils and peanuts are not allowed in Paleo. My diet basically avoids all simple starches and almost all grains but allows the complex carbs from fruits and vegetables. Basically, a solid program of simple nutritional commonsense and ass busting workouts and no calorie restriction.  I call it the KOP (Kettlebells, Olympic lifting and Paleo) routine! Lets see where I get in 30 days. The journey begins….

Day 1: Jun 19’th (Sunday)

The first week is always the toughest in such a diet regimen. Basically getting your body off the insulin dependence is tough, but it gets used to the low insulin levels in a week or so. I had fruits, lentils, vegetables, quinoa, peanuts and milk. Since I am not counting calories (does that even work?) I am not sure of the number of calories I consumed but I wasn’t hungry after any meal, so enough calories but no exercise on day 1. Starting body weight 205 lbs.

Day 2: Jun 20'th (Monday)
After the morning fruit and protein shake, the day started with kettlebell swings, one hand snatches and one handed swings with a 26lb kettlebell. sounds light but 12 minutes of throwing them around had me panting for breath. By the end of the day I was starting to miss the carbs and felt like my energy level was sinking. That's quite normal as the body sees the withdrawal effects of simple starches and carbs. This should be gone by the end of the week and the energy levels will be back to normal again. Morning snack of banana and protein shake, post workout almonds (handful) another shake and an apple. Lunch was half a papaya and a handful of peanuts. Mid-afternoon snack of pistachios and coffee and dinner of quinoa, chicken and veggies. Plenty of calories throughout the day. Day 2 over and tomorrow is another day...

Day 3: Jun 21'st (Tuesday)
Feeling under the gun a little when I woke up. Decided to do some Olympic lifts in the morning. Same old morning snack of a banana and a protein shake and post workout apple and another shake. Lunch of salmon and quinoa. So far the day is going OK no cravings just some lack of energy. mid afternoon snack of marinated chicken and veggies and dinner of two butter pan-friend pancakes made of a few different lentils with peanut chutney. Workout was Olympic cleans. few sets of single rep max.

Day 4: Jun 22'nd (Wednesday)
Today was a light workout day. Just some kettlebell presses. Morning snack of apple and protein shake. Post workout was 3 eggs and butter omelet. Papaya with nuts for lunch. Mid after noon snack of coffee and cheese cubes with grapes and green apple slices and dinner of two butter pan-friend pancakes made of a few different lentils with peanut chutney. Overall I feel the energy level still low especially in the mid afternoon but its improving. Another day gone...:)

Day 5: June 23'rd (Thursday)
Today was a much better day in terms of energy level. I finally feel like I am weaning off the insulin dependance as I didn't miss the usual carbs and my energy level was high throughout the day even though I had a tough workout. I did Olympic snatches, Kettlebell renegade rows and kettlebell military presses. I had the usual fruit and protein shake in the morning. Three egg butter omelet post workout. Lunch of apple and nuts. mid-afternoon snack of pistachios and half an apple and coffee. Dinner of quinoa, lentils and veggies and a bed time glass of buttermilk.

Day 6: June 24'th (Friday)
Again a good day in terms of energy levels. Started off the morning with some squats and kettlebell swings. The same morning snack followed by 3 egg butter omelet and quinoa and veggies post workout. light lunch of and apple and few almonds. Mid afternoon snack of a protein shake and dinner of quinoa and pinto beans soup. Now there is no missing the simple carbs and the energy levels are great! Lets see what the weekend brings! With the parties and some eating out it will be tough to stick to my diet but lets see....

Day 7 and 8 (Sat and Sunday)
Two days of much needed rest. Pretty much the same diet routine in the morning minus the two protein drinks. Banana and nuts for breakfast, Bacon, eggs and quinoa for lunch. And I am proud to say I was able to resist all the goodies at a party like samosas, biryaani and daal makhni and just stick to salad and palak paneer (spinach and cottage cheese)...woohoo. That wasn't all, come Sunday there was pudding, kachoris, pooris and other delicacies made at home for another party and yet again I was able to resist the yummy food and stick to my quinoa, chicken, salmon, veggies and eggs. I would be lying if I said I wasn't tempted with all the good food around me all weekend, but it paid off keeping myself in check. I ended the week at a body weight of 202 lbs. That's 3 pounds off in the first week! Since my routine is pretty much going to be the same as week 1, I'll only update once a week going forward. Now on to week 2...

Week 2
Week 2 was just like week 1 only easier with the diet. I am must say I am getting addicted to kettlebells as I didn't do any Olympic lifting and not even my favorite squats. Did the kettlebell variations of Olympic snatches and cleans and jerks. In terms of diet ate a lot more fruits especially mangoes and watermelons (I know its high in sugar but they are the best in summer:)). Ended the week at a weight of 199 lbs. So that's another 3 lbs off. Finally broke under the 200 lb mark after a long time. Will post next week if something changes otherwise I'll post my progress after a month on this diet. Wish me luck...

Week 5
Have been on this program for 5 weeks now and having lost 11 lbs I am more gung ho than ever! Continuing the same diet regimen and believe it or not there is no more cravings for any kind of simple carb.  Got my first pair of professional competition kettlebells (44lbs) and love doing snatch and cleans with them. Built my 150lb sand bag from scratch and love doing shoulder cleans with it. Will continue this program till I achieve my ideal body weight around 180lbs. I am expecting that in the next two months I should be there. Will post and update after 2 months.

FROM PYRAMID TO PLATE: THE NEW USDA FOOD GUIDE

It’s no longer a pyramid! Yes, the new dietary guidelines that came out last week from USDA look more intuitive as they are arranged like a real plate. It’s called MyPlate! I consider it a big step forward for guiding people towards making healthy eating choices. The biggest difference between the old ‘pyramid’ and the new ‘plate’ is that while the old pyramid weighed heavily towards grains, making no distinction between whole and refined grains, the new plate places more importance on fruits and vegetables and recommends half the grain servings come from whole grains. It recommends filling half the plate with fruits and vegetables and the other half with grains and proteins. It recommends getting bulk of your protein from beans, nuts, soy products and lean cut meats and seafood. Instead of dessert it has a side serving of diary to meet the calcium requirements but it recommends that the diary be either non-fat or the low-fat kind. Calcium fortified soy milk is also considered part of the dairy group. 

So where did fat go? Although not obvious if you read into the food groups it does account for fat intake and further makes the distinction between vegetable oils and solid (saturated) fats. While it makes the recommendation to eat a certain amount of oils it lumps all solid fats and sugars into what it calls the ‘empty calories' group. This group, according to USDA, adds calories without any nutritional value.

So what’s my take on MyPlate? I think it’s a step in the right direction towards giving people healthier eating recommendations and should help curb the obesity epidemic to some extent. What I like best about MyPlate is the heavy bias on fruits and vegetables which I think is crucial to a healthy diet. And while they make a recommendation for eating more of healthy oils (poly-unsaturated and mono-unsaturated fats), what I don’t like about MyPlate is that there is no explicit recommendation on what percentage of the daily calorie requirement should come from fat. Moreover I don’t quite agree with lumping saturated fats like butter and coconut oil with simple sugars as empty calories.