clue bat

Sometimes we all need to be smacked back into reality. Despite good intentions, and knowing better, most of us will do things, that after coming back to reality, will cause us to scratch our heads and go, "WTF was I thinking?". My most recent post prior to this one, is one of those things. At the time I started down that happy path, it all seemed so logical. I even lost weight. Must be a good thing right? Sometimes too much knowledge is worse than not enough. When I read things, especially new studies, or different twists on old ideas, my mind goes off on these tangents and starts coming up with ways to improve or alter what I'm doing to incorporate this new information. Sometimes these things can take weeks to play out. This latest episode was relatively short lived. In the case of nutrition, Pareto's principle still holds true. All the complicated answers and formulas and ideas and all the new and novel plans, still come down to the basics. Get enough protein. Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables everyday. Minimize refined sugar and sweeteners. Be active. It really is that simple. For reasons I can't understand, I, like countless others, seek to make it so much more. The hardest thing about all of it is to keep it simple. Is it because we live in a world of such startling complexity that simple answers seem so unacceptable?

Part Time Low Carb

I'm not exactly sure how this came about. I had done some reading about Intermittent fasting and various implementations of cyclical ketogenic diets, and this idea began to form in my brain. This idea was borne of a combination of my boredom as a cook with preparing meat and veggies and not getting to flex my culinary muscles on some of the worlds great cuisines and dishes that I once took such pride in creating, and this nagging feeling that there was such a great variety of new things that were out of my reach due to the restriction of eating a carb controlled diet. While I no longer make my living cooking for others, In my heart of hearts, I still think of myself as a chef. Now I am fully aware that for some, this approach will lead to disaster. For others, it just may be the thing that keeps them from going off the track into a binge. The concept is brutally simple. Eat a very low carb diet every other day. On the opposite days, eat three meals of what ever you want. When I say very low carb, I mean less than thirty grams carb total, including fiber, sugar alcohols, etc. When I say three meals, that means three meals. If, like me, you normally eat a mid-afternoon snack on low carb days, you can have a snack on your off days as well. Your off days are not an excuse to go face down in the buffet and gorge all day. I just means you don't have to watch your carbs on those days. If you want dessert, fine, have it with your meal. For me the addition of grits or biscuits to my morning eggs on some days has been a little slice of heaven. I still don't eat much sugar, and end up getting plenty of fat and protein, mostly because thats how I like to eat. Over the past couple of weeks while experimenting with this I have with out trying, lost an inch off my waist, and 5 lbs on the scale. Nether of which was the goal. I was really shooting for maintenance. I have as a matter of course, lifted weights mostly on my "off" diet days, and I still don't do cardio. Posted below are two recent days of what I've eaten.

LC DAY
3 eggs
3 slices bacon
Coffee with cream and splenda

Grilled steak
Leafy greens
Peppers
Onions
Oil/Vinegar
Provolone cheese

Handful Almonds

Parmesan Coated Tilapia
Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower


Off day
2 eggs
scrapple
biscuit with fresh pumpkin butter
coffee with cream and splenda

Turkey Sub with the works
Diet soda

Apple
Mixed nuts

Saltimbocca Romana
roasted potatoes
bread
Olive oil
tossed salad
Wine
zabaione
(yes, I cook like this)