Tag Archives: Food

Crossfit Santa Clara’s paleo challenge results

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So as I have talked about in the past, I’m a fan of the paleo diet.  I’ve had good weight loss results in the past, so when my gym, Crossfit Santa Clara announced that they were doing a Paleo Challenge to start the new year, it was a no brainer to participate.  We had well over 30 people from the gym updating Google docs spreadsheets with their daily meals, keeping track of everything they ate.  In order for this to feel like a true “challenge,” everyone selected from different “levels of paleo” to abide by.  The highest level, 10, called for the removal of all nuts and salt in addition to all other non-paleo foods.

In order to facilitate proper measurement of our success of failure, most of the challenge participants underwent hydrostatic body fat testing at Fitness Wave.  This was done over two dates in December and early January for our “pre-paleo” measurements, and then again on February 15th, 45 days after starting the challenge, for our “post-paleo” measurements.  16 of the participants were kind enough to forward me their results. (Note: If anyone else wants to send me their results, I will gladly update this post with their data included.)

Overall Results

The results of the group were really impressive.  Of the population, all but one participant lost weight, and all sixteen lost body fat!

 

  • Greatest Loss of Body Fat: 11%
  • Median Loss of Body Fat: 3.7%
  • Greatest weight loss: 29 pounds
  • Median weight loss 8.1 pounds

Most of the participants that submitted results selected paleo level six or above.  Here is a scatter plot showing the amount of body fat loss by paleo level.

Beyond the numbers, we also asked everyone if they had reached their goals that they set for themselves at the beginning of the challenge. 69% of the population said that they had met their individual goals during the 45 days of paleo.  We also asked how people felt during the 45 days of paleo.  The biggest concern people normally have is that they will be tired or lack energy due to the lack of grains and sugars.  However, 88% of the people said they felt good or great while eating paleo.

Personal Results

I was also happy with my own personal results.  At my initial weigh-in, I was 187 pounds and 19.6% body fat.  At the end of the challenge, I was down to 182 and 14.9% body fat.  Losing 4.7% of body fat equates to a 24% reduction on body fat.  I was happy with this result, but definitely still driven to get closer to 10%.

I’ve decided to take a little break from paleo over the next few weeks, but will probably start again in April.  I’ve noticed that I seem to get the best results when I alternate thru cycles.  For instance, I did well on 30 days of paleo in October, then plateaued on a not-so-strict diet in November and December, then got good results again in January/February.  I think the strategy of one month on, two off is a good system of moderation that will continue to improve my body composition while not emotionally stressing out from constantly being on a strict diet.  That said, I do think Paleo is something that is easily sustainable so long as most meals are prepared at home.  Eating out for paleo is not difficult, but it doesn’t allow for much variety.

Lastly, if anyone is interested in learning more about the Paleo diet, there is a link below to Robb Wolf’s book on Amazon.




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The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet (Hardcover)

By (author) Robb Wolf
List Price:$24.95 USD
New From:$13.39 In Stock
Used from:$13.27 In Stock

Community Supported Agriculture: How to find & join a CSA

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From Amber Karnes:

Community & Economy. CSAs help the local farmers in several ways. Since CSA subscriptions are generally marketed in January/February, the farmers get to spend their time in the fields during the growing season, instead of trying to generate business or sitting at a farmers market. The payment early in the season also helps them fund the crops that year – from seeds to improvements to the soil to new equipment.

Paleo diet – 30 day review

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So it is now November, which means my 30 days of the paleo diet have passed and I am pleased to be able to share my findings with you.  As I did with the 14 day progress report, here is a chart showing my daily weights(blue line) and 7-day average weights(red line) going back to this summer before I started crossfit and then when I started paleo (October 1).

 

 

Paleo diet 30 day progress

Paleo diet 30 day progress

  • The Good

As you can see, my weight continues to decline, and because of all of the exercise that I am getting from crossfit and some other things I’m doing, my strength and conditioning are at arguably the best of my life.  While I still weigh about 6 pounds more than I did last May when I got married, I would say that I am in better condition and health now than I was then.

I still continue to feel much better in the mornings when it comes to my knees and joints.  I am hungry much less often during the day, and enjoy being able to eat lunch when I want to or when I need to based on my work schedule, and not based on when my stomach pains begin at around 11 a.m.

This all led me to do things like I did this past weekend.

  • The Bad

It was definitely difficult to eat paleo when traveling.  Airports are not designed for cavemen to eat, so it’s best to be prepared and bring food.  Unfortunately, the paleo kits that I ordered hasn’t arrived before I went to L.A., so I had to make due with what I could forage for myself.  To make matters worse, I was traveling on business, and a lot of the meals were pre-arranged for a group of a few hundred people.  Luckily this means there was lots of food, but most of it I had to pick thru and fight off temptations to the best of my ability.  My saving grace was breakfast.  You can always count on a large portion of eggs, sausage and bacon on group breakfasts.

Then there was going out to a restaurant that your friend recommends.  When you go to a place like Animal and see what their menu offers, it’s hard not to cheat at least a little bit.  Overall I think I did alright at that meal.

  • The Ugly

The best part is there is no ugly.  I won’t lie, this past weekend my wife Stacy and I went out to a Mexican restaurant and got nachos and burritos.  And I treated myself to an ice cream sandwich.  But on Monday it was back to business. Eggs for breakfast, oops another burrito for lunch, and steak for dinner.  So it looks like I need to make sure to rope in those burritos.

  • What’s next

I’ve focused a lot on weight loss and conditioning since I started crossfit this summer, and since starting paleo things have really kicked into high gear.  I think that I want to shift gears a little bit and concentrate on strength for a while.  With winter coming, it’s probably a good idea anyway.  So I am going to continue with a modified paleo diet including dairy.    Over the past month I have been replacing milk with either almond milk or coconut milk.  I enjoy both of these, so they may remain in my diet to an extent, but I will be re-introducing milk to my diet, and probably a casein shake before bed as well.  I haven’t decided yet if I am going to jump back into the world of post-workout whey protein shakes or not.  I may evaluate that on a day by day basis.

I am however going to continue to keep corn and other grains out of my diet as much as I can.

The key for Stacy and I has been RECIPES! I tend to cook by just throwing ingredients together and seeing what works.  Stacy is the opposite, she wants a recipe to follow.  The more variety we can get from finding new paleo recipes the better.  That’s why we ordered this paleo recipe book.  There are also lots of great sites on the web like primal-palate.com, and others.  Please post links to comments for us to share!

 

A night out in L.A. – Animal

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This past Thursday night I was fortunate enough to get to eat dinner (second dinner actually) at Animal. As I posted before, I was going to be in Los Angeles for a few days for work, and I basically only had one night to go out and do anything. My original plan was to play cards with a friend, but they fell through, so I went to plan B. When in doubt, I ask my buddy Jamie where to eat. He’s been a chef at a number of great restaurants, but most recently Toro and Coppa in Boston.

I texted Jamie in the afternoon and the conversation looked something like this:
I knew that if I were going to eat somewhere that I would remember, I had to listen to Jamie’s advice. I found Animal’s website and seemed to recall reading about the place before, but not remembering any of the details. I realized there was no shot at getting a table, but figured it would be worth it to try and get a seat at the bar. I gave a call over just to make sure there was a chance, and the hostess made it seem like there would be people leaving the bar as we were arriving. My co-worker Maria decided to join me, so we hopped in a cab from Downtown over to West Hollywood and away we were.

Animal opened up in 2008, and has been getting a lot of attention from the press for the two chefs, Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook.  Both of them went to the culinary school in Fort Lauderdale where Jamie also went.  Somebody better figure out what they are teaching down there, because it seems more great chefs are coming from there than they are the CIA.

As you can see from the text conversation, while in the cab to Animal, Jamie recommended a dish that would be our first of the evening. When we arrived the hostess told me just what she had said on the phone, the party on the left should be finishing any minute, and there was no waiting list, so our names went right to the top. She offered us some drinks while we waited in the patio area. Animal only serves beer and wine, and since I was trying to stay at least remotely paleo, I opted out and we split a bottle of Pellegrino.

I don’t recall exactly how long we had to wait, but we didn’t finish the bottle of water, so it couldn’t have been that long. We got good seats at the left end of the bar, and began contemplating the menu. I figured I had to get the Pig ear, after all it was both recommended and also paleo. I was also intrigued by the rabbit legs and the poutine, even though the latter is not remotely paleo, it just seemed like one of those menu items that you can only get at one place, so you take advantage of the opportunity. Maria was most interested in the raviolis and the foie gras. Both of us shared in interested in the grilled octopus and chorizo.

After discussing our selections with the bartender, we made a few revisions based on her suggestions and explanations of the size of certain dishes. Since we were going to do some sharing, and a few of the dishes we wanted were on the larger size, we decided to opt for some smaller ones to balance things out.

The final order was: Pig ear, grilled octopus with chorizo, foie gras with maple sausage gravy, ricotta raviolis, and crispy rabbit legs.  As much as I wanted the oxtail poutine, it just seemed to be too much food for the two of us.

The pace of the meal was perfect. The food arrived in a 2-1-2 fashion. Click on the links or mouseover the cameras to see pictures of all of the dishes. Our first two dishes were the pig ear and the octopus.

The fried egg was probably the most perfect friend egg I had ever seen.  And with no fear, I gently split the yoke, and dove in with a fork full of egg and ear.  It was just like the breakfasts you dream about with perfect crispy bacon and eggs.  Only this bacon didn’t come from the pig’s belly, it came from it’s ear.

The grilled octopus was also really well done and the pairing with the chorizo worked perfectly.  There was just the right blend of sweet and spicy between the sausage and the chowchow.

Next up came the foie gras, and this is also where my paleo diet took a detour from it’s happy path it had been on, towards a darker, sweeter place.  Not the foie gras isn’t paleo, but the maple sausage gravy and biscuit were just too sweet to be kosher.  I tried to avoid the biscuit, but in the end I enjoyed the dish completely all ingredients included.

The last round of (scheduled) food was the rabbit legs and raviolis.  Now I could have dug in and demolished these raviolis, but I knew I would regret it in the morning.  So instead I respectfully ate one very delicious ravioli, and relished in how good the brown butter sauce and the ricotta tasted, and then moved on to enjoy the rabbit.  The bartender said the breading on the rabbit was panko, but it was different than I had in the past.  It was similar, but something about it was even lighter and crispier than I was expecting.  The flavor on the rabbit was really lovely.  I enjoyed bites both with and without the aioli.  The heirloom tomatoes were obviously fresh and very flavorful.

It was at this point in the meal that I made one of the best or worst decisions of the meal, depending on what stand point you are coming from.  I decided to order dessert.  Now as you can see in the menu, there were four options to choose from, but the pie of the day was sold out.  It was a white nectarine pie that the bartender said is one of the chef’s favorites and one of their local farms just happened to have a few nectarines so they made a single pie.  Without a doubt the most unique choice would have been the bacon chocolate crunch bar, but for some reason I didn’t choose it.  I could have even probably made a very poor argument that it was the closest paleo dessert.  But I decided to get the tres leches because of the bartender’s recommendation.  Once I got past the consequences this choice had on my diet/life, I decided to just enjoy it.

I can easily say this was one of the most surprising desserts I have ever eaten.  I was amazed at how good it tasted in my mouth.  The consistency was soft, spongy and everything you want in a cake.  The icing/frosting/white stuff on top, was the perfect amount of sweet, and the dulce at the bottom was sweet enough to take you over the edge if you wanted it.  Technically Maria and I shared this dessert, but I probably ate over 90% of it.  I just couldn’t get over how great it tasted, and despite having just had a large dinner, I wasn’t feeling overly full, so I crushed it.

If I lived in L.A., I would probably try and eat at Animal on the regular.  Especially since they change up their menu daily, I’d love to see the variety that comes out of this kitchen.  The meal wasn’t too pricey.  The bill for the two of us came to $120, but remember we didn’t have anything to drink besides a bottle of Pellegrino.  Keep that in mind, if you are dining there and planning on ordering beer or wine.  I didn’t even take a look at the wine list so I can’t give any insights on it, but I’d probably wager they have a good mix of affordable and expensive bottles that pair well with their food.

So that’s it.  4 stars, 5 out of 5, whatever grading scale you want to use, this place is awesome.  If you want to see all of the photos, I created a Flickr set here http://www.flickr.com/photos/perfectmike/sets/72157625225373746/