My Eating Plan

Whoops. I was looking back over my eating log and realized i made a mistake in my math. Under the Zone Diet guidelines my daily calories should be 1500, not 2000. Oh well, chalk up a few days to extreme overeating.

I figured i would try to detail my eating plan for those that are interested. As far as the big picture goes i try to eat natural, unprocessed foods as much as possible. So for me that means no sugar, crackers, cookies, milk, bread, white rice, and most other foods that you find in the store. I try to stick to meat and eggs, veggies and some fruit, and healthy fats. All the simple carbs and sugar that make up the average american diet spike your insulin and blood sugar. Do that for a long period of time and neglect exercise and you are headed towards type II diabetes. Regular milk like you find in the store is overly processed and devoid of most nutrients. If i could get raw milk straight from a cows udder i would drink that. By sticking to protiens and healthy fats you will have more energy, as your blood sugar and insulin level won’t be surging up and down.

What i am doing is usually called “Zone-Paleo”. I figured my daily calories based on the Zone diet formula, which is a caloric restrictive diet. The idea is to get enough to support muscle mass and athletic performance but not enough to support fat. With the normal Zone diet any food source is wide open, as long as you stick to the Zone ratio of Protiens-Carbs-Fats. Zone Paleo is caloric restriction, but usually ends up lowering the carb amounts and upping the fat. That is due to the fact that fat is the main source of fuel, not carbs since they don’t get many.

My daily caloric level and carbohydrate content are still where i am experimenting. Between Brazillian Juijitsu, Crossfit, and other activities i wonder if i am getting enough calories. If i feel hungry during the day i will eat, though i try to stick with good choices. I’m not perfect though, as you’ll see by the root beer float and iced chai on my food log. Plus all the good microbrewed beer around here.

Most grappling and a large part of the Crossfit workouts are glycotic in nature. That means they rely on glycogen for energy, which comes from carbohydrates, to the best of my knowledge. Longer, less intense efforts like marathon running rely on the aerobic system, which is fueled by fat, and short, intense bursts of energy like power lifting, olympic lifting, or 100m sprinting rely on the ATP energy system. So i wonder how Paleo i can get, when i need some carbs for my activities of choice. But i know there are some Crossfit monsters out there that eat totally Paleo, and Scott Hagnas seems to perform very well on a Paleo diet. Maybe i have not just worked hard enough on switching my body over to burning fat for fuel.

Anton