Grilled pineapple is wicked good. We got a grill pan so we can almost simulate the grill when it's crappy out, or when I don't feel like doing the coal dance. It works great for veggies.
Since I bought that natural hog we eat pork chops fairly regularly, those are great with a sweet glaze like pineapple, regular apple, or my personal favorite: Maple syrup. Trust me.
I'm from Vermont, you can't take maple syrup out of my diet or I'll die. I don't mean that garbage corn syrup that's served all over the country, I mean real maple syrup. It has no equal! If you look carefully at syrup containers in restaurants like Waffle House, Ihop, Bob Evans, Dennys... any number of places that serve breakfast, you'll find that the word "maple" never actually appears. It's all corn.
It doesn't even taste like maple, it's just a sweetener! For me, calling it maple syrup is along the same lines as blasphemy. I shudder at the thought.
I found myself in a breakfast joint in Virginia a few years back. I had bacon and an omelet with some toast (wheat toast, which I'd ordered thinking it was healthier...) and I asked for syrup. The lady looked at me like I'd just fallen off the wall.
Her: "Why?"
Me: "Whaddya mean why?"
Her: "You didn't get pancakes."
Me: "I know."
Her: "So what's the syrup for?"
Me: "Everything."
Her: "I've been working here for fifteen years and I ain't never seen nothin' like that."
I think I blew her fragile mind. I put it on everything. Toast, eggs, bacon, french fries, ice cream, peanut butter sandwiches... and of course it's an excellent glaze for pork ribs/chops/steaks/tenderloin/etc.
TSN
Because you are craving carbohydrates to fuel your life, Zach. For optimum kick-ass-ness the rule of thumb is 10g of carbs for every kg body weight (or more) per day to truly be fueled for any active lifestyle (because all people fall under the category of one type of athlete or another: mental, parenthood, sport, I hope you get the point). So that means that you require ~1180 g of carb per day for a 260 lb person (no matter how tall or fit or overweight), believe it or not.
ReplyDeleteThe Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR = body weight in lbs * 10) is the rough daily caloric need of a person's body to just be (this excludes caloric needs to digest food, be active, do things, think). So at ~260 lbs, you need AT LEAST 2600 calories per day. Think about it, if you reattached the 30+ lbs that you have loss and tried to go run or just do your everyday activities, you would notice the burden of the weight. Well, overweight people are some of the greatest athletes out there. Those people have additional burden 24/7 verses a lean long distance runner who runs only ~10 hours per week.
Before you gawk at this philosophy just realize:
1) I bet you have very rarely, if ever, even consumed half of 1180 g of carbohydrates in one day. And if you have (or haven't), most of those carbs were likely from soda pop and bleached wheat products (and syrup). [note: of course, you should be getting your carbohydrates (and protein and fat) from whole plant foods.]
2) Now you can perhaps realize that you have ALWAYS been on a low carb diet. And with all the "changes" you think you have made (with paleo diet), you are actually pretty much in the same predicament you have always been in with your macronutrient ratios. Albert Einstein stated something to the effect that doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results is the definition of insanity.
3) The vast majority of professional athletes consume >60% of their calories as carbohydrates (<30% fat and <30% protein). If you want to contest this (minus perhaps the obese professional athletes, like linemen in football), then provide me with one or more names of athletes and proof (like an article). In return, I will provide you with two (I could provide much more but I am not going to do that much work) for every one you list and the ones I list will be higher ranked or more respected than your example. And if I cannot provide a better athlete than yours, I will show you the downfalls of the athlete you name (because if you starve yourself of the glucose then you have to use stimulates/performance enhancing drugs to be competitive).
4) You should realize that you are an athlete. You carry excess bodyweight, you drive a lot (concentration takes fuel; or stimulates like coffee or "energy drinks" when you are starved of glucose), you are a father and a husband, and you want to exercise. Why make your life more difficult by starving your body of the one true source of fuel, glucose?
5) You should realize that you crave and consume stimulates like coffee and energy drinks and fiberless treats like syrup because you starve yourself of whole food carbohydrates day in and day out...
6) Just in case it is needed, please realize that I have been where you are with your diet (and excessive weight issue), by and large. However, you have never even done 1 day of the way I currently eat in your ~11,800 days of existence.
Well, alright. I have to answer that with a series of statements. Here they are.
ReplyDeleteBased on what I write in this blog, there isn't enough information for anyone to assess my precise eating habits enough to make a qualified diagnosis of my predicament. I don't have an excessive weight issue. I may not qualify to pose for a Greek statue, but I'm in relatively good shape and I'm not upset about how I look/feel.
I eat a well rounded diet and I don't crave and consume stimulants like coffee because I starve myself of anything. I'm addicted to caffeine, which is a drug. I also drink too much whiskey, not because I'm starved of carbs but because alcohol is an addictive drug and because I'm addicted to it too.
I don't know anything about athletes. I don't watch/follow/care about/know about/think about or play sports at all. I couldn't even name three teams if you name a sport. I play the guitar, and considering the lifestyle of famous guitar players, my diet is probably pretty good by comparison.
My macronutrient ratios aren't perfect, but they are certainly far better than they were before I started looking at the paleo diet. I can say that with conviction because before I started paying attention and caring I would eat boxed oven pizzas and eat popsicles constantly. Even in the shower. Not the pizzas, the popsicles.
Paleo served to get me paying attention, not as a food-bible for me to live by. The mindless poisoning that millions of Americans are guilty of repeating is why I started this blog... I just want to facilitate helping to open people's eyes to the amount of garbage they consume. I understand that paleo is not perfect, and I understand that people (including me) aren't going to start counting every element in everything they eat because people (including me) aren't obsessed with it and would rather spend their time thinking about other stuff.
I have done the no carb/low carb thing. It was an effective short term weight loss idea and it worked and I don't regret it. I don't drink pop/soda/coke/lemonade/fruit punch or eat processed table syrup and I am very conservative with even real maple syrup despite the fact that I love it ever since my own eyes were opened. My example of the restaurant took place five years ago.
My family and I are including more healthy food in our diets than ever before, and cutting out huge amounts of junk. We're not perfect, but if that's not a step in the right direction, I don't know what is. Give me a break man.