Growing Costs: The Value of Food

I'm going grass-fed. I promised.

My freezer is nearly empty of conventional meats. A pound or two of bacon remains. And some organic ground beef from Costco, which is New Zealand grassfed mixed with American organic grainfed. After that's gone, I'm all in.

I've found a vendor of quality, local, grassfed meats just one town over. They sell beef tenderloin for around $20/lb, but I'll be ordering the ground beef, stew beef, and mixed cuts of pork that average $5.50/lb.

I may have to close my eyes while entering my credit card number. I will try very hard not to think about conventional prices of $1.98 for ground round or pork shoulder at $1.79 or whole roaster chickens under $3.00 on sale.

This, after all, is simply how much food ought to cost. Unsubsidized, allowed to mature at a natural rate without being poisoned by a grain diet that would kill them in months despite heavy antibiotic loads, if they didn't go to the slaughterhouse first, livestock is not cheap to raise.

In fact, given the dinner I enjoyed last night, $5.50/lb for local, grassfed beef looks downright reasonable. Yesterday evening, I cooked up two, broiled lamb chops with mint pesto and side of sauteed summer squash and onions with thyme.

Simple, right?

Sure, if you picked it all up from the grocery. But I didn't. Those chops came from lambs born here at In the Night Farm. I grew the herbs and onion. The squash came from a co-worker's garden.

Cheap, right?

Hardly. Not even if you picked it all up from the grocery. Which I didn't.

Those chops came from lambs born here at In the Night Farm, remember? They were grass (actually, mostly hay) fed, which meant they took their time maturing to slaughtering size. Quite aside from the daily labor of caring for livestock, the monetary cost can't be ignored. Care to have a look?

Quality alfalfa/grass mix hay runs $125 a ton around here. That's about $0.0625 per pound. A sheep eats 5 pounds a day, for a daily feed cost of $.32. The sheep in question was 450 days old when slaughtered, and therefore consumed $144.00 worth of hay.

Well. That's not too bad!

But wait. I also had to feed my breeding stock -- one ewe and one ram. I'll only add in the price of one parent, since the lamb I'm calculating was a twin.

So, $144 in lamb feed plus $144 for its mama's feed (and that's assuming I didn't have to feed mama during gestation, which of course isn't true), for a total of $288 in feed.

Now, add butchering costs. I paid $207 for both lambs, so let's call it $103.50 for one.

$288 in feed plus $103.50 butchering = $391.50 for one lamb.

How much meat is in a lamb? About 40 pounds.

$391.50 / 40 pounds = $9.79 / pound.

Oh, my.

Is it worth it? To eat a healthy animal? A healthful animal? An animal I raised from birth, cared for daily through winter's snow and summer's blaze? An animal that, well-nourished, can provide real nourishment in return?

An animal that gave its life for mine?

$9.79 per pound.

That's value.
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You might also like
A Tale of Oregon Elk: On Food and Gratitude
Practically Impossible: The Challenge of Sustainable Living
The Organic Pocketbook: A Struggle Survived

Tuesday Tallies

My occasional answer to the frequently asked questions, "What do you eat?" and "How do you work out?"

Saturday's Food as Fuel

Breakfast: Two eggs over easy with avocado, cottage cheese, and primal chili.

Lunch: Moroccan chicken. Half an apple with almond butter.

Dinner: Bunless hamburger with smoked gouda, sauteed mushrooms and onions, and fresh garden salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Half an ounce of 99% chocolate and coconut cream.

Saturday's Workout: Long day on the farm. 11+ hours of "moving slowly," with occasional lifting of heavy things. Horse training, riding, chores, gardening...
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Sunday's Food as Fuel

Breakfast: Moroccan chicken over jicama and carrot "rice."

Lunch: Three eggs scrambled with onion, jalipeno, and spinach, topped with avocado and hot sauce.

Dinner: Harvati rolled in deli roast beef. Salad with sugar snap peas, strawberries, apple, walnuts, and olive oil-cinnamon vinegar dressing.

Sunday's Workout: Even longer day on the farm. All the above, plus rototilling.
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Monday's Food as Fuel

Breakfast: Intermittent fast totaling 16 hours.

Lunch: Spinach and garden lettuce salad with canned wild salmon, avocado, olives, sundried tomatoes, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Dinner: Primal hamburger casserole. Roasted carrots and zucchini. 1 oz. 99% chocolate.

Monday's Workout: 4x rotation of barbell lunges, weighted HLRs, pullups, deadlifts, and weighted bench situps. Evening walk with Wyrsa the staghound.
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Tuesday's Food as Fuel

Breakfast: Three eggs scrambled with onion, jalipeno, and spinach, topped with avocado and hot sauce. Strawberries and blueberries blended with coconut milk.

Lunch: Spinach salad with canned wild salmon, avocado, roasted carrots and zucchini, and olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Dinner: A handful of Primal Energy Mix, and maybe a tin of sardines.

Tuesday's Workout: Rest day. Concealed carry class tonight!

Bloody Marvelous

I just received the results of my first-ever blood panel.

Normally, I avoid conventional medicine (aside from emergency care, which is a whole other -- and much more impressive! -- ballgame) like the plague that it (mostly) is.

But, when Central District Health brought a $22 cholesterol screening and fasting blood glucose test clinic to my office, I couldn't pass up the chance for some cheap numbers. My inner geek demands regular feedings, after all, and I was dying to know whether this high fat, moderate protein, fairly low carb diet was killing me.

I've been primal (closer to paleo, actually) for a good 7 months now. Unfortunately, I don't have "before" blood work. A comparison would be fascinating, particularly as I'd been mostly vegan for the previous three years.

Anyway, here are the numbers as they came off the report. Interpretation to follow.

Fasting blood glucose: 84 mg/dL (Optimal is 60-100. Higher puts you in the pre-diabetes or diabetes category.)

Total cholesterol: 216 mg/dL (Optimal is under 200. Or so says conventional wisdom. Wait for it...)

Triglycerides: 38 mg/dL (Optimal is 30-150.)

HDL: 101 mg/dL (Optimal is 40 or more. This is the "good" cholesterol.)

LDL: 107 mg/dL (Optimal is under 100. According to conventional wisdom.)

I know enough about cholesterol to be unconcerned about these numbers, but for all the gory details, I pulled up this fantastic post, written by a knowledgeable member of the MDA forum. "Griff" has actually reversed full-fledged, type II diabetes with diet alone, and he knows his stuff.

As Griff explains clearly and thoroughly, total cholesterol is much less important than the ratios between the numbers, and LDL cholesterol numbers from a simple test like this are inaccurate in anyone with triglycerides below 100 mg/dL.

Let's start with that second point. LDL is typically calculated using the Friedwald formula, but it is well known that the formula only works properly, mathematically speaking, if trigs are higher than 100 mg/dL. Therefore, because my trigs only came in at 38, I know that the 107 listed for my calculated LDL is inaccurate.

Fortunately, there is a different and more accurate formula available. According to the Iranian calculation (detailed in Griff's post, if you're curious), my LDL is actually only 71.7 -- well within the optimal range of 100 or fewer mg/dL. So there.

Now, let's talk about ratios. There are three that count. Here are mine and what they mean:

Total:HDL = 216:101 = 2.1 (Ideal for women is 4.4 or lower. This indicates that my LDL cholesterol is predominantly Pattern A, or "large fluffy," which is neutral rather than dangerous.)

Trigs:HDL = 38:101 = .37 (Ideal is 2 or lower. This indicates low risk of heart disease, as well as low free insulin, which is a good thing.)

LDL:HDL = 71.7:101 = .7 (Ideal is 4.3 or below. Even using the inaccurate, Friedwald formula, my ratio is still stellar at 1. This indicates that I have very little carotid plaque.)

So. It looks like I'm not going to keel over from coronary heart disease anytime soon.

Pass the bacon n' barbell, please.
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For details of what I've been eating these past 7 months, check out the posts labeled Tuesday Tallies. You'll see that they've changed some over time (mostly in a carb-lowering direction), but the central principles have remained intact.
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PSA: If you have bloodwork results of your own handy, please, PLEASE do yourself a favor and run the ratios on them. Your numbers can be low enough to satisfy your doctor, yet your ratios could put you in the danger zone. Conversely, you may have been prescribed statins (and all their nasty side effects) when your ratios are actually quite safe. See the MDA post linked above for easy instructions on how to do the math.

For further reading, there are lots of links in the post. See also Protein Power by the Drs. Eades.

Coconut Fried Plantains

Here's an easy, 100% primal dessert I've been serving lately as part of my commitment to reintroduce a reasonable quantity of carbohydrate to my diet. (More on that in an upcoming post.) A whole, medium plantain contains about 60 grams of carbs, but just a quarter of a fruit fried up in healthful coconut makes a remarkably satisfying, barely-sweet end to a meal.

The medium-chain fatty acids and monoglycerides in coconut oil are widely credited with health benefits ranging from enhanced longevity to fat loss to anti-viral impact to the elimination of candida.

Tropical Traditions is a good source of quality coconut oil. Get on their e-mailing list for a steady stream of notifications about excellent deals on their products.


Coconut Fried Plantains

1 medium plantain, peeled and cut lengthwise, then width-wise into quarters
1/2 cup unsweetened, dessicated coconut
2 Tbs coconut oil
1 cup coconut cream
Dash of cinnamon

Melt coconut oil in the bottom of a glass bread pan. Roll each plantain quarter in the oil, then in the dessicated coconut to coat generously. Return plantain quarters to pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until coconut is well toasted. Serve each plantain quarter on a small plate with 1/4 cup coconut cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Serves 4.

The Anatomy of a Cheat

Y'all know by now that I'm not much of a cheater.

I like my primal straight up, thanks. I'll have a bit of dairy, but that's it. No sneaks from the office candy bowl. No toast with my eggs. No rice with stir fry or tortillas with fajitas or Pepsi on the sly. I'm too in love with my leanness, strength, and energy to risk it over a mouthful of sweet or starchy poison.

And yet, once in a blue moon, I do plan a major cheat. I hate that term, by the way, because it implies that the "cheater" is committing a mortal sin or losing control, rather than making an informed choice to eat something he or she normally avoids.

There's no real harm in a very-occasional , non-primal indulgence. (Assuming you're not still working to fix a broken metabolism, in which case more caution is advisable.)

And so, as I do about three times per year, I brought home a take-and-bake pizza (half Hawaiian, half pepperoni) and a small carton of Moose Tracks. I enjoyed several slices of pizza and a bowl of ice cream, and felt, as I knew I would, like complete crap.

The ice cream in particular made me feel like I'd swallowed a bucketful of steak knives. It also exacerbated the mild sore throat with which I'd been contending all afternoon. It was tasty, though!

I drank lots of water to combat the carb-induced water retention and went to bed smiling at myself, knowing that I was experiencing exactly what I was supposed to.

The next morning, I woke up looking reasonably lean -- about normal, but slightly puffy and less visibly cut in the abs. I had some leftover pizza for breakfast, in response to which my stomach made its displeasure known. A bit more ice cream reintroduced the sore throat and mucousy sinuses, which had resolved overnight. Note to self: Do not plan cheats for days your immune system is already working overtime.

Then, I went about my day, ignoring the lactose-, lectin-, and gluten-induced discomfort that persisted for hours. Unable to train horses or do farm work due to abysmal weather (horizontal sleet, anyone?), I drove to town and poked about in the thrift stores, where I scored a 5.5' x 3' wall mirror for my home gym.

Anyway. While I was in town, I bought (primal) groceries. I wandered around Home Depot, plotting future projects. I took my time. And I didn't get hungry.

I came home. Lifted heavy for almost an hour. Set a personal best on back squats. Wrapped up in an Aussie duster and fed the livestock in a driving rainstorm. Warmed up with a mug of spearmint tea. Didn't get hungry.

By 8:00, I still hadn't eaten and reckoned there wasnt' any need to. I went to bed looking lean and feeling strong (if still a bit queasy) and pleasantly satisfied with my body's apparent ability to make the best of a nasty shock.

As I understand it, a primal-adapted body, that is, one that is insulin-sensitive and accustomed to accessing fat for fuel, can endure -- and even benefit from -- an occasional influx of carbs. Yes, yes, such influx should typically be free of gluten and added sugar. Believe me, I know.

Faced with a rush of starch and sugar, my liver arranged neat chains of glycogen molecules to be harvested at will for the satisfaction of the parts of my brain and other tissues that prefer glucose as fuel. Excess glycogen was shuttled away to my muscle cells, where insulin rang the doorbell so my sensitive insulin receptors could admit as much fuel as possible. When my liver and muscle glycogen stores were both full, all extra energy was stored in my fat cells for later use.

Thanks to my fat-adapted metabolism -- the product of months of low-carb, adequate-protein, high-fat eating -- all that stored fuel was ready and waiting to meet energy needs long after my stomach emptied. Those bolstered fat cells emptied right back out.

And, as an added bonus, I enjoyed a reboot in leptin sensitivity, which resulted in visibly-improved leanness within 48 hours post-cheat. (Basically, leptin is a hormone that encourages the burning of stored bodyfat.) Under normal circumstances, I achieve this without the nasty side effects of grain and sugar-laden dairy by consuming a bi-weekly boost of primal carbs such as sweet potatoes, winter squash, fruit, or plantains.

And oh, those side effects are nasty indeed. Three days and two 16+ hour intermittent fasts passed before I felt completely normal again. It doesn't matter whether you fall off the wagon or jump off by choice -- the ground is just as hard!

I'm glad to be back on the straight and narrow for the foreseeable future. After all, the primal straight and narrow is a pretty satisfying place:

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See this fascinating thread on the MDA forum for additional detail on how the body handles carbohydrate, as well as a variety of other topics.

Halfway House: Acceptable Recipes for Partly-Primal Living?

My roommate is overweight.

Okay, obese.

Last week, he informed me that he has gained 24 pounds in the past 6 months – and that was from a starting point of at least 20 pounds over his ideal weight. He’s ready to get rid of it.

But there’s a catch: He’s not ready to get rid of his favorite foods – which, like most of our favorites, are those addictive, sugary, bready carbs.

He’s watched the primal lifestyle work its magic on me, but going primal seems like too big a change. "Isn’t there some kind of compromise?" he asked.

I told him I’d give it some thought.

Indeed, something I’ve wondered about for a long time is whether a person does more harm or good by switching from the Standard American Diet (SAD) to a partly primal diet.

On one hand, Mark Sisson and others promote the so-called 80/20 rule; that is, 80% compliance with 20% flexibility for what some people call “cheats” and others call “staying sane.” There’s plenty of anecdote out there indicating that people do indeed experience significant improvements in health and body composition while enjoying a lot of breathing room in a generally primal(ish) eating plan.

But then there’s the other side. In their excellent book Protein Power, the Drs. Eades point out that the consumption of carbohydrate with other macronutrients (protein and fat), actually causes a greater insulin spike than the consumption of carbohydrate alone. If that is true, we have to ask ourselves whether I’d be doing my roomie a disservice by recommending that he increase fat and protein unless he is willing to let go of the carbs. After all, I’d hate to encourage further insulin resistance and fat storage by encouraging the consumption of high-fat AND high-carb meals that will raise blood sugar, necessitating an insulin release that promptly shuttles energy from both the carbs and the fat straight into those expanding fat cells without passing Go or collecting $200.

So what’s the answer?

Perhaps it is most practical to go back to the anecdotal evidence. A friend of mine recently cut back on grains and sugars – didn’t even remove them entirely! – and saw an impressive drop in blood pressure over the course of just a few weeks. Ironman recalls how, when he first started exploring primal, he cut out pasta and bread (but not all grains) and dropped ten pounds in two weeks – ten pounds, mind you, that had hovered around his middle despite years of extensive endurance athletics. The stories are varied and countless, but almost all indicate reasonable (and sometimes impressive) results from partial compliance.

So. If my roomie wants to consider 80/20, how might that look? I can think of a few options:

1. Calculate by number of meals. Say we figure on 3 meals per day, 7 days per week. That’s 21 meals per week. 20% of that equals 4.2 meals. So, he could eat 17 primal meals and 4 whatever-he-wants meals every week. Sounds reasonable. But, it doesn’t figure in impromptu passes by the office candy bowl, the temptation of ice cream with a late-night movie, that afternoon Mountain Dew habit…all of which cut pretty deeply into that 20%, leaving little wiggle room for actual meals.

2. Calculate by number of calories. My roomie is a pretty big guy, but not very active. For the sake of argument, let’s give him 2,200 calories per day. (Yes, I know it’s not all about calories, but about the hormonal impact of foods on energy usage. More on that later.) 2,200 calories per day x 7 days per week = 15,400 calories per week. 20% works out to 3,080 calories. That equals one Domino's pizza and a few bottles of soda. No more wiggle for the rest of the week. Of course, there’s the option of spreading it out a bit more, say over a few servings of pasta, a couple bowls of raisin bran, a some chocolate chip cookie dough, and a package of Jiffy cornbread mix. Livable? Depends who you are.

(Incidentally, for those who comprise their 20% of borderline primal goodies instead of SAD selections, 3,080 calories equals roughly four sweet potatoes, two bars of 85% chocolate, 6 ounces of aged Gouda, and a nightly glass of pinot noir.)

3. Forget the calculations. Of course, my roomie could choose to scrap the math altogether and shoot for 80% compliance without counting or tracking. For most people, this method will be the easiest to stomach – but I fear it will also be the least effective, mostly because people don’t usually have a good sense of how small 20% really is when you crowd it with big-ticket items like French fries and Milk Duds. Perhaps he could minimize the damage by trying for 100% on weekdays and complete freedom on weekends. More than a few bodybuilders and such swear by that kind of program.

…which leads me to a point that was called out during a recent discussion on the reader forums at Mark’s Daily Apple:

Fat + carbs + full glycogen stores = triglyceride factory (poor health and fat gain).

Fat + carbs + empty glycogen stores = glycogen storage (good health and potential for fat loss).

Duh. That’s pretty basic, but it’s easy to forget when we start thinking all about diet (which is, after all, the larger part of the leanness and health equation) and none about physical activity. If my roomie will drain his muscle and liver glycogen stores with, say, a couple heavy-lifting and a couple HIIT sessions per week, he’ll see much faster progress despite 20+% non-compliance on the nutrition side.

(But let’s not fall back on the old calories-in, calories-out theory of fat loss! Read this entertaining post by Tom Naughton for a more accurate accounting of what matters in terms of calorie intake and expenditure.)

Here’s another, important thought that came out of the forum discussion on being partly primal: It depends what part you choose. Pouring heavy cream on your Froot Loops because “fat is good!” won’t help you. Choosing to ditch sugar (even while holding onto grains, for now) will reap results. For many people – and I suspect my roomie is among them – the baby-steps approach will prove more manageable than the cold-turkey method I prefer. Every step away from the SAD will get you further down the right road.

There’s more than one way to skin a sabre tooth tiger.

Making Tracks

I am a nerd.

I carry books everywhere, complete with "to research further" lists for bookmarks. I set aside Trivial Pursuit cards as reminders to look up more information after the game. I use spreadsheets for everything from calculating my annual hay order to plotting my endurance horses' conditioning schedules...for the whole year.

So, no one will be surprised to learn that I like to track my food intake.

One of the beautiful things about primal (or un-weighed/unmeasured paleo) eating is that, in the vast majority of cases, there's no need to chart every bite of food that goes down the hatch. Most of us can simply commit to eating only certain types of foods, paying reasonable attention to quantities of particularly calorie-dense choices like nuts, and forget the tedium of counting carbs and calories and all the rest.

But as I said, I'm a nerd. Obsessive, some would say. I actually enjoy plugging my meals into Fitday or My Fitness Pal, tweaking selections and quantities to get just the right macronutrient balance day after day, maintaining accuracy down to the last almond. I like poring over the resultant charts and graphs, noting trends in the data, comparing my intake and performance and looking for ways to improve.

That all sounds useful, right? And it is. To a point.

After which it becomes unproductive.

Or even destructive.

You see, my problem with a paint-by-numbers approach to eating is that I begin planning meals around the necessity of filling in particular categories:

Let's see...I'll need more fat tomorrow...better add an avocado to my breakfast salad. Oops! That bumped my carbs too high. Okay, so I'll nix the carrot from the roasted mixed veggies at dinner. What about protein? Hmm, looking good, but a touch on the high side. Better cut that leftover pork roast down from six ounces to four...but then I'll get hungry. I have room for more fat, though, so how about I add a shot of coconut milk? Yes, that's better...but it inched the carbs back up a shade...

Not a good way to practice listening to one's own body. Not a good way to live on the least-best quantites.

Ah, what's this? I have another 200 calories available. Dark chocolate sounds lovely, now that I mention it...

Certainly not a good way to let intermittent fasting happen -- which is exactly what did happen the day after I decided to suppress my inner nerd and resume eating by feel: I ate dinner at 7:30 p.m. Went to bed. Woke up, fed the horses, drove to the office, hurried to a meeting, drank some coffee, felt energetic and bright, carried on working right up until 12:30, when I broke my 17-hour fast with a bowl of leftover red-hot chicken, vegetable, and coconut curry.

Cool.

Anyway.

I quit tracking because I realized that I was using the practice to control my intake rather than to learn from it -- and as a result, the intake was controlling me. Yes, it was fun and interesting, but it was neither productive nor beneficial.

I don't mean to say that tracking has no place in primal living, at least for the nerds among us. I found it useful when I first went primal because I needed to learn the carb content of the foods I eat most often. Fine. It became useful again when I got curious about the macronutrient rations to which eating "by feel" had led me. Fine.

Tracking lost its usefulness when it told me what to eat, rather than me telling it what I ate. The time had come to let it go.

Will I ever track again? Sure. When I have a good reason to. But when I've learned what I need to know, I'll make tracks for the "log out" button posthaste.

Now, y'all better be prepared to remind me I said that.

Tuesday Tallies

The answer to "what do you eat?" and a couple bonus recipes. Enjoy!

Monday's Food as Fuel:

Breakfast: Spinach salad with 6 oz canned wild salmon, a Granny Smith apple, 1/2 cup fresh cranberries, 1/4 cup chopped walnuts and pecans, and olive oil & lemon juice dressing.

Lunch: Two hardboiled eggs and a can of kippered herring.

Dinner: Mexican Chicken and Cauliflower Soup

Mexican Chicken and Cauliflower Soup

1 medium onion, diced
1 pasilla, diced
1 jalipeno, seeded & minced
2 cloves garlic
2 Tbs cumin
2 cans chicken broth
1 chicken breast, cooked and diced
1 cup fresh cauliflower, grated (try it -- it's like rice!)
1 can diced green chilis
1/3 cup black olives, sliced
1/2 cup heavy cream
shredded cheddar cheese for topping

Saute onion, pasilla, jalipeno, and garlic in butter for several minutes, until onions turn yellow. Add cumin and saute 1 minute more. Add broth, chicken, cauliflower, green chilis, and olives. Simmer about 15 minutes. Add cream and stir until hot but not boiling. Serve topped with cheddar. Serves 3.

Monday's Workout: 300 air squats, 100 pushups, and 150 situps for time (21 minutes even). Tougher than it sounds!


Tuesday's Food as Fuel

Exactly the same as Monday, except for lunch, which consisted of a quick Primal Egg and Bacon Salad

Primal Egg and Bacon Salad
2 hardboiled eggs, chopped
2 strips bacon, crumbled
3 green olives, chopped
1 tsp yellow mustard
1 Tbs plain, full-fat yogurt

Combine ingredients and serve. Serves 1.

Tuesday's Workout: 5x rotation of heavy lunges, deadlifts, pull-ups, and renegade rows

Totals for both days, once I added in a few tablespoons of coconut milk consumed with peppermint tea and a couple tablespoons of almond butter for dessert, came in around 2,060 calories, 65g carbs, 135g fat, and 110g protein. Perfect.

From Sky to Skillet: Ironman Takes Primal to a New Level

Ironman has been showing me up on the primal front, lately -- and he doesn't even claim to be primal! (He has been experimenting with grain elimination, however, with positive results including decreased "hunger crashes.")

Yes, while I've been sitting in my office shuffling papers, Ironman has been traversing Idaho's wild hillsides with a rifle in one hand and eyes peeled for game birds.

Last week, he managed to bag not one, not two, but four sage grouse. These large-chicken-sized birds live on sagebrush leaves and insects, and Ironman's fellow hunters warned him that they make lousy eating. Not one to waste a kill, Ironman decided to try it anyway.

After putting the grouse meat through two, long brine soaks (he changd the saltwater out halfway through), Ironman dusted the meat with seasoned flour and panfried it in butter with plenty of garlic and capers. It was incredible! Not gamey at all, the grouse featured beautifully in a meal that also included herb-sauteed vegetables, spinach salad, and an appetizer of fresh, grilled trout.

Yes, we were pretty happy with ourselves. Can you tell?

A few days later, he brought in a chukar. Native to Eurasia and first introduced to North America in the late 1800's, these wily little gamebirds yield small but tasty breasts. Here's one:

We fried him up in butter -- the chukar, not Ironman! -- along with fresh sage leaves (culinary sage, that is, not sagebrush), which turn delightfully crisp when removed from the pan. He was delicious.

Hmm. I think I can deal with being outdone once in a while. ;)

Tuesday Tallies

Welcome to Tuesday Tallies!

Below are day-in-the life samples of the primal lifestyle. They're not intended to be exemplary for everyone -- just honest snapshots of what's working (or not) for one Idaho farmgirl.

This week, I've been considering whether I'm eating too much protein. I'm certainly taking in more than the commonly-recommended 1 gram per pound of lean bodyweight, but thus far, I've come across no evidence that this is dangerous or undesirable.

I'll tell you this: I've certainly built muscle mass since going primal! This despite the fact that I've eased off on my workout schedule slightly in favor of additional sleep. Just more evidence that being flegan wasn't best for bodybuilding...

Feel free to share your own tallies or recipes in the comments. We could all use a few, fresh ideas!

Thursday's Food as Fuel:

Grapes.
Spaghetti squash with coconut milk and cashews. (This is a fantastic oatmeal substitute for those who like a hot, slightly-sweet breakfast.)
Greek salad with chicken and spinach. Jicama strips and guacamole.
Banana with almond butter.
Veggie and sausage omelet cooked in butter.

2,438 calories, 132g carbs, 184g fat, 97g protein

Thursday's Workout:

6x 100-yard hill sprints
Thrusters (squat & overhead press with light weight) and pull-ups
3.5 mile dog walk
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Friday's Food as Fuel:

Grapes.
Spinach salad with canned salmon, avocado, and almonds.
Hard boiled eggs (2).
Curried chicken salad with broccoli, carrots, grapes, and walnuts.
Coconut Mahi-Mahi with Tomato-Avocado Salad.
Apple with almond butter.

2,276 calories, 135g carbs, 142g fat, 136g protein

Friday's Workout:

6x rotation of heavy squats, incline push-ups, and overhead presses
3x rotation of Tabata hops and pull-ups
10 mile equine endurance conditioning ride
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Sunday's Food as Fuel:

Peach with coconut milk.
Vegetable and sausage frittata.
Bigos (Polish hunter's stew with poetry to match).
Mixed nuts and coconut flakes.
Spinach salad with avocado and olives.
Coconut milk and dark chocolate.

2,301 calories, 105g carbs, 159g fat, 125 g protein

Sunday's Workout:

Rest day, but very active with horse training, housework, and farm chores.
2.5 mile dog walk.

Fat Guacamole Devils

Confession: I'm still adjusting to the concept of intentionally and preferentially adding fat to my diet. It's just so contrary to everything I've ever been taught! But, it makes sense when you consider how your body processes food:

Dietary fat does not raise blood sugar (which the body recognizes as toxic in excess), so there is no need for the body to generate an insulin rush whereby to hustle said blood sugar into its cells, where it is stored as body fat. That's what carbohydrates do. Fat, on the other hand, triggers the release of a different hormone -- one that indicates satiety to the brain, so you stop eating and your body can happily process its safe, non-insulin-spiking fuel. (This process is explained beautifully in a brief video of the Drs. Eades, provided by Fathead.)

So, eating fat not only notifies the brain that you're full, instead of setting you up for an insulin crash and resultant hunger even though your fat cells are freshly stocked with fuel, as carbohydrates do, but it provides a fuel that your body can safely burn for hours to come. Dietary fat is not stored as body fat! Plus, it tastes good!

This quick, easy, high fat, low carb, moderate protein snack is one of my new favorites. Check out the recipe, which I was honored to have featured at my favorite primal blog, Mark's Daily Apple.

Packing Primal: Meal Planning Hits the Trail

I find primal meal planning extraordinary simply at home, but as with any diet that diverges significantly from the Standard American Diet, it can be hard to maintain on the road. This weekend, I'm headed into the wilderness to compete in the Old Selam Endurance Ride -- an equestrian challenge for which I want to be well-nourished on a familiar diet.

The good news is that I'm doing the meal planning, so I have full control over what I'll consume. However, there are a few complicating factors:

• No refrigeration. Instead, I'll have an ice chest with limited space.
• Little prep time. I've been to enough endurance races to know that cooking becomes a low priority in the heat of competition. I'll have a camp stove, but little interest in making a big production of it. I have a horse to care for!
  
• Others' needs. My significant other, who can outrun, outswim, and outcycle me any day of the week and shall henceforth be known as Ironman, is all for eating clean. However, as an endurance athlete, he goes for more carbs than I do, and he doesn't eliminate grains. Our meals should accommodate both diets, which gets tricky when you can't take the entire refrigerator and pantry along.
• Energy requirements. This is an athletic competition. I'll need extra, non-grain, low-glycemic-index carbs to pull it off, but I want to remain focused on dietary fats for the bulk of my fuel. It's a matter of striking the right balance!
  

Here's the solution I've come up with. Hopefully, it'll be useful next time you find yourself in a similar situation...and if you have any brilliant suggestions for me, please share in the comments!

Saturday's Lunch on the Road -- Turkey and avocado wraps (in romaine leaves for me, and in tortillas for Ironman). Jicama, apple, and grape salad with lemon-mint dressing.

Saturday's Dinner in Ridecamp -- Stifado (pre-made and reheated). Spinach salad with mixed raw vegetables and peach viniagrette. Larabars. Cabernet and dark chocolate (hey, we're here to have fun!)

Sunday's Breakfast Pre-Race -- Banana with almond butter. Cold Hay Day Hash (Pre-made. Ironman will have time to reheat his and cook eggs on the stove, if he wishes, but I'll need to get saddled up for an 8:00 a.m. start time.)

Sunday's Lunch Mid-Race -- Southwest chicken salad with olives, crudites and dip, hard boiled eggs, and plums. (I'll be eating this during the mandatory hold, during which most of my time will be spent caring for my horse instead of preparing food, though Ironman's help will make this a lot easier.)

Sunday's Dinner Post-Race -- Beef enchiladas (filling pre-made) with avocado and olives (in tortillas for Ironman, in a bowl for me). Coleslaw made with carrots, apples, raisins, and cinnamon. Celebratory (or possibly conciliatory) whiskey and dark chocolate.

Monday's Breakfast in Ridecamp -- Apple with almond butter. Hard boiled eggs. Larabars. (Basically, whatever is handy as we pack up for an early departure.)

Snacks -- Primal Energy Mix, Larabars, and kippered herring to our hearts' content. And, okay, beer.

Ride on!

Primal Energy Mix

Many primals consume a lot of nuts, and for good reason. They're simple, energy-dense, and full of healthful fats. Trail mix is a popular snacking recommendation -- but you have to be careful with commercial mixes.

Most commercial trail mixes are made with roasted nuts, whose fats are damaged, and contain added salt or sugar. It can also be hard to find mixes without pusedo-chocolate or other candy pieces, which naturally jack up carb/sugar intake and tend to spur cravings that can result in excessive consumption of otherwise-healthful nuts. Fortunately, it's easy to make your own mix from quality ingredients.

I concocted this Primal Energy Mix specifically for use during extended physical exertion, such as when participating in equestrian endurance racing or long conditioning rides. For snacking on regular days, I make a similar mix without the dried fruit, which adds more carbs than I need for sitting in front of a computer all afternoon.


Primal Energy Mix

2 parts raw almonds
2 parts raw walnuts
1 part raw cashews
1 part coconut flakes, unsweetened
1 part dried fruit, unsweetened and unsulfered (I like figs and home-dried apricots.)

Combine in a large bowl or zip-top storage bag. Store, airtight, in a cool and dark location to protect those precious fats!

Intersection: NightLife Goes Primal

Fleganism.

Goodness. Three years of eating a "flexible vegan" diet are now under the bridge.

I enjoyed them. Being flegan expanded my culinary skills and leaned my body. The prodigious consumption of fresh produce virtually eliminated my seasonal allergies and longstanding arthritis pain in my bunions. I felt virtuous and strong.

Until I tried to get stronger.

Last March, a good friend got me started on bodybuilding. No, not the steroid-laced hoax whose ultimate goal is the perfect(ly grotesque) photo of a musclebound body that can't perform real work.

I'm talking about real bodybuilding. Pushing, pulling, and lifting bodyweight and iron. Building functional strength that can drive a fence post, buck hay, run for miles, and ride an endurance horse as effortlessly through mile 45 as at the starting line.

For several months, all went well. I ate my usual flegan meals based on whole grains, legumes, and plenty of vegetables. My push-up count climbed. My sprint times fell. By June, I could see the beginnings of six-pack abs...but I could also feel the strain.

Slower recovery times, cottony muscles that performed hard workouts in the morning but wanted to nap by afternoon, and reduced sleep quality all had me looking for answers. I knew nutrition was almost certainly a major factor, but wasn't I already offering my cells a glorious buffet of healthful, whole foods? What was going wrong?

Intuition, research, and discourse with my bodybuilding friend led me to one of the more obvious solutions: protein. Even the most protein-rich vegan foods, many of which are highly-processed soy products, don't hold a candle to animal products.

I stopped selling my chickens' eggs and started eating them. Two a day. It helped. I kept reading, scouring the library and internet for ideas supported by published, independent, peer-reviewed research rather than the industry-financed, politically-motivated stuff of conventional wisdom.
Patterns emerged. Startling patterns that warred with my existing nutritional construct. Patterns backed by research. Patterns I couldn't ignore. Protein, it transpired, was the tip of the iceberg.

Here's what I learned:

• Whole grains are bad for you. Legumes aren't much better.
• Carbohydrate reduction -- not calorie reduction -- is the key to fat loss and good health.
• Large quantities of natural dietary fats, including saturated fats, are beneficial.
• Animal products are important for thriving health.

Scores of articles, chapters, blog posts, and research papers passed under my review as I evaluated these ideas. Meanwhile, I added a daily serving of fish to my diet....and felt better. I took the huge step of eliminating all grains and legumes....and felt much better. Reluctantly, I reintroduced more meats while maintaining my usual, high rate of vegetable consumption...and felt better still.

But what did I eat? How does a person who has relied for calories predominantly on grains and legumes survive without them? By replacing them with natural, healthful fats and proteins, that's how.

My daily diet shifted from this "flegan" menu:

Pre-workout: Green drink (smoothie made with bananas, pear, grapes, kale, and flaxseed)
Breakfast: More green drink and oatmeal with walnuts, dried fruit, and unsweetened soy milk
Lunch: Spinach salad with chickpeas, mixed raw vegetables, and olive oil vinaigrette
Snack: Natural peanut butter
Dinner: Barley pilaf with artichoke hearts

2,287 calories, 314 grams carbs, 100 grams fat, 74 grams protein

...to this "primal" menu:

Pre-workout: Banana with almond butter
Breakfast: Spinach salad with tuna, olives, sunflower seeds, mixed raw vegetables, and olive oil vinaigrette
Lunch: Hot vegetable curry topped with 2 hard boiled eggs
Snack: Walnuts
Dinner: Gazpacho with avocado and grilled chicken, mango, and jicama salad
Dessert: Blueberries with coconut milk

2,271 calories, 135 grams carbs, 147 grams fat, 137 grams protein

Same number of calories. Half the carbs. One and a half times the fats. Twice the protein. All the produce!

Since that shift, I've played around with the carbohydrates a bit and found that I do best on slightly more than your typical "primal" maintainance level, given my penchant for extreme(ish) fitness and extensive physical activity. I've leaned out, chiseled that six-pack, built and cut some serious muscle in my limbs and back, and banished the bloating and low-energy that had plagued my flegan self.

So. So long, fleganism. I loved ya, but it's time to move on.

Needless to say, this shift from "ideal eating" (according to conventional wisdom and the vegan crowd) has caused quite a stir among my acquaintances, particularly those who shared a vegetarian bent. Several people have expressed downright alarm. Many have asked the same questions I did, questions no doubt raised by this post:

What on earth is wrong with whole grains and legumes?
Are you sure fat is healthful?
Animal products? Seriously?
So, you're doing Atkins now? (Nope!)
What does "primal" mean?

I don't claim to have all the answers -- but I do have some, along with a lot of logic and research to back up my own, anecdotal experience. Instead of trying to regurgitate all of it here, allow me to refer those who are interested to a few resources, just for starters:

Mark's Daily Apple (Primal nutrition and fitness)
Fitness Spotlight (Low-carb nutrition and fitness)
The Vegetarian Myth (book review by Dr. Michael Eades)
Cholesterol and Health (Fat and cholesterol research)
Food Renegade (Real food & related politics. Home of Fight Back Fridays!)
Good Calories, Bad Calories (Book regarding the science of low-carb eating by Gary Taubes)

Note: Most of the above links will take you to main pages; be sure to click around and read the sites more deeply. I'll link directly to articles on particular topics in future posts.

And so, my friends, NightLife turns down the primal path. Shall we see where it leads?
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