Basic 4 Food Groups

When I was growing up we didn't have the pyramid thingy, we had the four basic food groups. All in all a much better way of eating. No food group was elevated over the other, Breads and cereals were on equal footing with meats, fruits/vegetables, and dairy. Fats were not demonized, and far fewer people were obese. Coincidence? I think not. Now thanks to the USDA and the carb is good and fat is bad mentality, Obesity rates are going up, especiallt among the young. In a recent post in LivingLaVidaLowCarb I read about kids being sent to fat camp and being allowed all sorts of fat free crap. What these kids really need is some meat and eggs and cheese and nuts. The body only has two choices with carbs, burn them or store them. Period. Even so I have to give the USDA credit for doing their job well. Their job of course is promoting the interest of industrial agri-business. Proctecting the interest of the consumer is not what they do, do not kid your self about this. So these fat kidsin this fat camp, are exactly what the USDA wants, Consumers of the American agriciulture and food processing business. The reason LC could never last in the mainstream, is that there was no money on whole foods. Meat, fruit and vegetables require no processing. Wow, this is getting bloggy. The bottom line is eat real food. Protien and fat make us stay full longer. Carbs with out protein and fat just cause a vicious cirlce of hunger and eating more carbs. Like the basic four food groups, eat some of each at your next meal and be happy.

Summer Time Living is Easy

The heat of summer and the heat of the grill, two things that make low carbing easy. Simple food on the grill is some of our favorites in the Dill household. Fish, chicken, Steaks, Chops, Burgers, Shrimp, squash, tomatoes, peaches, eggplant, cabbage, (yes cabbage), and the list goes on and on. Simply drizzle on your fav oil add some seasonings and put it over some coals, or gas , whatever you got and flame it up.

Grilled Fish Supper:
Grilled Catfish Drizzled wil olive oil and seasoned with some Essence of Emeril
Grilled Zuccini
Grilled Radiccio topped with Feta Cheese
Even tho its fish, I recomend a nice Beaujolais, pinot grigio would also do the trick.

Basic Work Out

Today was workout day. I kept it fairy simple. 2 x10 each for squats, leg curls, Bench Press, Row, Over Head Press, Lat Pulldowns, and sit ups. Nothin' fancy toady. For the most part when it comes to strenght training, basic is better. For get the whole complicated nonsense about some crazy set and rep scheme. Pick a hanfull of basic exercises that cover the whole body and work them hard for 1, 2 or 3 sets. Rest for a couple of days. Every so often when the weights get to easy, add more weight. Thats it folks, the bottom line of all successfull strength training programs comes down to overload, recovery, and progression. One of the best sources I've found for real training information is a place called CyberPump. It is a $12 a year subscription, but is well worth the price. The only thing you won't find there is advice from Roid Rangers.

Lunch Today was a Kev Original.
One Mama Lupes Low Carb Tortilla
Cream Cheese
Proscuitio
Turkey Breast
Avacodo
Cucumbers

The wife and I were lip smacking, digging it hard.

I also made some blueberry muffins from a recipe I found on LowCarbLuxury.com. I did change the recipe slightly in that I added .5 tsp of guar gum to the batter. They are maahhhvulus. Definatley a gold star.

Pizza and Pancakes

Last night being Friday Night, Pizza was on the menu for dinner. We had previosly purchased a pizza dough mix from dixie diner. The dough was simple enought to make; add oil, water and an egg, stir until well mixed. The textue of the dough was somewhat crumbly and spongey at the same time. I rolled it out to about 1/8 inch thick and placed on a well greased baking tray. The dough was topped with a comercial low sugar pizza sauce, a combonation of bacon, onions, mushrooms, and garlic that I had saute'd and let cool a little, and Kraft Mozzeralla cheese. I then baked it according to the directiosn on the dough package, 425 deg for 18 mins. I should have checked the pizza a few minutes early. The cheese was a little over carmalized, and the dough a little dried out. Over all the flavor was fine, the dough was a little biscuity, but not bad. The was a nice herb flavor to the dough, and the flat bread recipe on the container might be worth a try. I give it a silver star, good but not great.

This morning we had Blueberry Pancakes, StellaStyle. While the portion size was small, in fact I ended up eating 2 portions, the taste was mahhhvulus. The Prep was relatilvely straight forward. Dump everything in a food processor, blend, scrape, blend again. I did end up adding a couple of tablespoons of water to the batter as it became to thick. Cook like normal pancakes. We served it topped with a few extra blueberries and some whipped cream. This is definatley going to be added to our regular weekend breakfast rotation. Another Gold Star for George Stella and his StellaStyle pancakes.

In the Begining

Where to begin, with no history, and no expectations to live upto, what should a first post contain? I think I'll start by posting my food and exercise log for today and maybe a few comments. Lets see how things progress from there.

Breakfast
One StellaStyle Muffin
Coffee with cream and splenda
Hood LC white milk

Lunch
2 ground turkey patties
lettuce
cucumbers
two slices tomato
.5 avacado
a drizzle of good olive oild and balsamic vinegar
about .5 cup fresh fruit

Snack
Handfull of nuts
about .75 cup Hood LC Choc Milk

Dinner
Blackend Scallops with Black Soy beans and Spinach,
Tea Sweetend with Splenda

The Muffin I had for breakfast and the Blakend Scallops recipe came from George Stella's cookbook "Living Low Carb" . Goerge gets two gold stars for these. Both are highly recomended.

My Workout Today
Deadlifts, Leg Ext, Leg Curl, Calf Press, Pullover, ChestPress, Row, Lat Raise, Triceps, Curls, Crunchs

I only do one set. From a health and fitness perspective thats all it takes. It makes for a very time efficient workout. While champion bodybuilders may do set after set, I have a life outside of the gym, and even if I were to do more sets it is unlikely I would ever be a champion like Arnold.

As I continue to progress I'd like to review more recipes as have quite a collection of low carb cook books.
Today was a good Low Carb day.