Welcome to my first B-log!

Hello, and welcome!  Let's start with the most important fact that my pages will focus on-
WE GOTTA EAT!
Most of the folks who will view this already understand the importance of proper "Food Intake" and how it affects perfomance in both exercise and daily living.  My aim is to provide some insight into various nutritional views, hopefully giving some sense in how you, whoever you may be, create your personal diet.  Second fact -
I LOVE GOOD FOOD!
When you see me use the term diet, I am talking about a whole nutritional outlook, not a "Fad" (ie., the Grapefruit diet, or the Cabbage soup diet).  While the fads may work for a short period of time, they really won't be sustainable for a Life Change; besides, have you ever smelled anyone who has been on the cabbage/garlic diet for more that a week?  I tried it about fifteen years ago, and I was RIPE!  I almost changed my name to "Kim-Chee". 

So, let's get rolling on our journey through Food intake, taste and hopefully elightenment on foods that work for you.  My blogs will primarily focus on outlooks related to CROSSFIT TRAINING and active lifestyles, BUT this is a WORK IN PROGRESS and I am sure there will be an evolution of sorts.

I WELCOME YOUR FEEDBACK, ENJOY THE PAGE, LET'S GET IT ON!

CrossFit Seven Cities, based in Portsmouth, VA is about to do a "Paleo Challenge" for its members.  The Paleo diet seems to provide the best results for cross-fitters; however there are other dietary methods which have seemed to work for advanced fitness people.  We will look at those at a later time.

Basically, if you google the Paleo Diet, you will find a PLETHORA of info - many of the recipe pages have varying degrees of acceptability with "Forbidden" items so I found it interesting in determining what my Paleo Path would be.  I think we need to get to the BASIC tenets of PALEO EATING, so I provided some links and exerpts of what I found.  After this I'll be starting us on our journey:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic_diet
First popularized in the mid 1970s by gastroenterologist Walter L. Voegtlin, this nutritional concept has been promoted and adapted by a number of authors and researchers in several books and academic journals. A common theme in evolutionary medicine, Paleolithic nutrition is based on the premise that modern humans are genetically adapted to the diet of their Paleolithic ancestors and that human genetics have scarcely changed since the dawn of agriculture, and therefore that an ideal diet for human health and well-being is one that resembles this ancestral diet. Proponents of this diet argue that modern human populations subsisting on traditional diets allegedly similar to those of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers are largely free of diseases of affluence,^[11][12] and that two small prospective studies of the Paleolithic diet in humans have shown some positive health outcomes.  Supporters point to several potentially therapeutic nutritional characteristics of allegedly preagricultural diets.

http://paleodiet.com/
This link provides MANY LINKS to various books, recipes and Theories regarding the paleo Diet.  Hours and Hours of research material here

http://www.earth360.com/diet_paleodiet_balzer.html
This is an excerpt from Dr. Ben Balzer, quoted from "Bill's Excellent Blog"

The essentials of the Paleolithic Diet are:

Eat none of the following:

· Grains- including bread, pasta, noodles

· Beans- including string beans, kidney beans, lentils, peanuts, snow-peas and peas

· Potatoes

· Dairy products

· Sugar

· Salt

Eat the following:

· Meat, chicken and fish

· Eggs

· Fruit

· Vegetables (especially root vegetables, but definitely not including potatoes or sweet potatoes)

· Nuts, eg. walnuts, brazil nuts, macadamia, almond. Do not eat peanuts (a bean) or cashews (a family of their own)

· Berries- strawberries, blueberries, raspberries etc.

Try to increase your intake of:

· Root vegetables- carrots, turnips, parsnips, rutabagas, Swedes

· Organ meats- liver and kidneys (I accept that many people find these unpalatable and won’t eat them)

Expect some minor tuning problems- don’t worry, you can deal with them:

· It will take some time for your body to adjust to the changes after all these years. There is a huge surge in your vitamin intake. There is a huge decrease in your toxin intake.

· Start with breakfast for few days, as this is the easiest place to start as most people eat it at home, and it tends to be the least Paleolithic meal of the standard 3. For weight loss you will eventually need to reduce your carbohydrate intake, but ignore this initially as most people have high carb intakes and this can continue for the first few days that you are on this diet. If you reduce too quickly then you may fell unwell. Then move on to lunch or dinner for a few days and then to all 3 meals. If you work, you will often find it easier to take your lunch to work.

· Keep reading more about the diet- and read it again. Remember, there are many dietary myths that will need to be unlearned. Particularly, please read the section on fats several times. Knowledge on fats has exploded over the last decade and there is a realization in mainstream nutrition that omega 3 fats are critical to good health. It is very important to ensure that you have an adequate intake of these. The low fat diet craze of the 90’s was well intentioned but many people "threw out the baby with the bath-water"- most people reduced omega 3 fat intake as well as other fats, and sometimes even increased omega 6 fats. There is now a realization that the low fat diet theory of the 90’s doesn’t often work (it has about a 6% success rate like most other diets) and that the vast majority of the Western population need to increase their omega 3 intake and decrease their omega 6 intake. Even if you don’t end up on a Paleolithic Diet, you will benefit from a better appreciation of fats.

All I've got to say is YAY FATS!!!

The CF7C Paleo Challenge starts June first, and I have shopping list I would like to provide you if you happen to need one; it is in .pdf format and I can't seem to post it on this page - If you would like it send me an email to clanestes61@gmail.com .

Thanks for visiting my page, I think this will be fun...