Half Assed Fitness

Want to hear something funny?

Me. 

Consuming 3400 calories.

In one day.

I never thought I'd see the day but here I am, planning for this very thing.

We've got a hike planned for Saturday. A 16 mile backpacking trip and I'm planning out my meals. Actually, for the most part I'm planning liquid calories since I can't eat that much food. I just can't.

Here is a screenshot from Cronometer, an INVALUABLE tool for planning and monitoring your calories and nutrition. (not affiliated)

You'll notice that I still have some calories to spare as well as only replenishing 40% my daily allowance in fat. Hiking is an endurance sport which means you operate in the fat burning zone for the most part so in essence, this hike should result in some fat loss. Yay! I've got a few to shed right now. 

When we're going long term on the Appalachian Trail though, this will be something I'll need to correct.  It's very hard to consume enough calories on a thru hike to keep from losing too much weight but the more fat you consume, the more you have for fuel. It's really sort of the opposite of every single thing I've known to be true in the past but...the goals are different so the goalposts have moved!

I'm looking forward to this hike. I feel ready and I'm excited to try out the liquid diet as well as some other gear testing my husband I are planning. We've got ourselves a new tent that is 3 pounds lighter than our last one and he got a new sleeping bag so I'm going to test out his old one which is another 3 pounds lighter than my existing bag. That's a big difference!

Wish us luck!

Most of my life, my health and fitness goals have revolved around losing weight and getting into shape or getting stronger.

For this endeavor though, I have to adopt a completely different mindset. 

When hiking long distances and over strenuous terrain, you are being truly athletic. You are working your body longer and harder than it's used to and you need to feed and water it appropriately. I'm not used to this. I've only even eaten when hungry and not eaten when I'm hungry in order to reduce calories. I've never gotten into anything intensely enough to need to alter my food habits to fuel my activities but I witnessed it first hand on the first hike listed in my post How It Started.

I struggled on this hike and my husband got annoyed with me and threw a Clif bar at me and said "Eat this". I'll be darned if he wasn't correct. About 30 minutes after eating the Clif bar, I could feel my energy go up. It's the first time I've ever experienced food as fuel. I just assumed everyone else that ate along the trail was actually hungry. Several hikes in now, I can definitely see the improvements in my strength and stamina and it's not all from getting in better shape, a lot of it is approaching food differently.

One problem I do have though is my stomach absolutely does not enjoy eating when I'm working hard. Getting those Clif bars down while breathing hard and trying not to choke isn't fun. That and if I eat anything substantial, I get a stitch in my side. The idea of doing that for months at a time on the Appalachian Trail does not appeal to me. So I'm looking into alternatives. I'd much rather drink my calories, carbs, and proteins if I can. 

The good news is, this isn't a new problem. Apparently many people feel the same way so I'm finding some great resources.

The bad news is that liquid calories are heavy! I don't want to have to carry more weight, that's counter productive. More weight equals more calories burned which means more calories to carry and so on...

So, on to the research!

I've admitted before that I am a roller coaster ride when it comes to fitness and health. Well, the coaster is back on an upswing and this time it's a big one!

I'm going to document my latest fad; hiking...backpacking specifically.

Previously in life, I've done quite a bit of hiking and a small amount of backpacking. Hiking in 7 miles to a spot you can't reach by car and then staying for a few days and returning. Nothing serious by far.

That is changing. I'm now moving into the realm of hiking/backpacking athlete. We're planning to hike the Appalachian Trail. That means I need to get in shape (again) and I've been learning a ton about feuling my body, recovering, and equipment to make my life more enjoyable while we hike.

I'm having to modify some things as well. For instance, my body does not enjoy eating while on the move. Or eating when I am not hungry. Both of those things are necessary when doing an intense workout so I'll be going over my workarounds and sharing the results along the way.

Wish me luck!

I spent over 6 hours with friends and family yesterday. During that time, I was the only one who used the restroom, 3 times! I was also the only one of us out of 8 people that was drinking water. This is not an uncommon theme. I've noticed the same thing at work. Not so much the number of times people use the restroom, ain't nobody got time for that, but the water thing. If anyone is drinking anything at their desks, it's usually coffee or soda.

Now, I drink my fair share of coffee, at least a  couple of cups each morning and most evenings I have one or more alcoholic beverages. But I always, always, drink water as well and sadly, I seem to be fairly unique in this. Friends have made fun of me for not getting hangovers, I think it's safe to say that my water habit is a big reason for that.

My Mother, a 67 year old woman thinks Gatorade hydrates her better than water. WTF? I've also had people say that they don't drink water so they don't have to go to the bathroom. You realize that that's actually a good thing, right?

Drinking enough water is very important and I'm not even going to pretend that I always drink as much as I should. The old adage of eight, 8 oz glasses of water a day is of course a generic guideline but it's not a bad one and that's why I try to shoot for.

Most people are not getting enough water. Rodale Wellness says that "In fact, most of us function in a chronic state of dehydration."

Attempting to function without enough water is similar to trying to run a car that doesn't have enough oil to lubricate its system. And what happens to a car that isn't lubricated? It heats up, and the engine can crack and get damaged. A similar effect occurs in the body when you're not well hydrated, which often happens because you're too busy and your system is running too fast and too long without a break.

There are a host of problems that arise from or at least are aggravated by dehydration: allergies, joint pain, constipation, depression, irritability, or mental fog, bad breath, dry skin, muscle cramps, and many more. You'd be surprised what a big difference a little water can make.

The easiest way I've found to make sure I get the most amount of water each day is by using a 32 oz Nalgene.

Did you know that raw spinach and cooked spinach have very different nutritional profiles?

According to Vegetarian Times:

Raw Spinach Benefits: [Raw spinach] is rich in many essential nutrients, some of which are more available to our bodies when we consume them raw. These nutrients include folate, vitamin C, niacin, riboflavin, and potassium.
Cooked Spinach Benefits: When you eat spinach that has been heated, you will absorb higher levels of vitamins A and E, protein, fiber, zinc, thiamin, calcium, and iron. Important carotenoids, such as beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin, also become more absorbable.

Getting a mix of both in your diet is a great way to keep variety in your life and increase your overall nutrition levels.

As an added #lchf bonus, you will get the extra benefit of a higher fat content (and deliciousness!) when cooking your spinach in butter.

I've taken to cooking most of my greens fried in butter with garlic and onions. So yummy!

I think the term processed foods is way too generic for a lot of people to understand. I was reading an article the other day that said "it's important to remove processed foods from one’s diet to keep as many toxins out as possible". What do you think of when you hear that term? I just kind of glossed over it like a lot of people probably do.

I like this definition from Healthy Eating SF Gate:

You can determine whether a food is processed by looking at the ingredient list. The longer the ingredient list, the more processed a food is likely to be. Processed foods are usually found in the center aisles of the grocery store and are more likely to contain ingredients that you are not able to recognize or ingredients that you wouldn't have in your kitchen. Avoid foods that you wouldn't be able to produce or make yourself at home. Stick to unprocessed, natural foods, mostly found on the periphery of the grocery store, such as vegetables, fruits, eggs, meat and other single-ingredient foods.

Here is a sampling of what processed foods are:

• Pasta
• Cereal (even the healthy kind)
• Bread 
• Granola bars (yup, even the healthy ones)
• Crackers, cookies
• Dried fruit (unless you make it yourself)
• Margarine
• Any mixes or instant foods - any "just add water" type foods
• Fruit juices, soft drinks, drink mixes, flavored water
• Convenience foods, pre-made meals, such as microwave meals and frozen meals. (I know, I used to advocate some of these. I've learned!)
• Candy, candy bars, snack cakes, snack mixes, jerky, chips
• Microwave popcorn
• Fast food, pretty much all fast food
• Salad dressings, sauces
• Anything labeled “light”, “low fat” or “fat free”
• Atkins and Weight Watchers foods. Any brand that sells a product to fill a "diet" niche.
• There are many, many more

Do you know what this list is? It's about 80% of what's available at the grocery store.

Not all processed (read: boxed and bagged) foods are horrible. There are some redeeming items like un-roasted, un-salted nuts. These come in a bag but they are healthy overall.

The main thing to look for is the number of carbs. That's really all you need to check, the rest is sort of irrelevant, even the sugar levels because if it's got high sugar, it will have high carbs as well.

If an item has more that 10 carbs per serving, find an alternative! A ketogenic diet has a max carb intake of 20 carbs per day. A Low-carb diet is 50 or less.

If you have a serving of spaghetti noodles for dinner, you are already at 40 grams! Just for the noodles alone. Instead, you can have a bowl of spaghetti sauce (homemade is best!) with meatballs and maybe some zuchinni zoodles and you're only looking at 10 grams (give or take depending on brands) for the whole meal. All of the flavor is in the sauce anyway. 

I think the more labels you read with this carbohydrate criteria in mind, the more you will see boxes and bagged convenience food as, "not food". Because they are not. They are sugar, fillers, flavoring, and chemicals. That's about it.

I've mentioned before that I have several relatives that are quite unhealthy. My Aunt who has had cancer, twice. My Mom who is pre-diabetic. Her husband who is full on diabetic and takes insulin regularly. As well as other relatives with gall stones, more diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, heart problems, and all of them, all of them have allergies.

So I have to say I was quite shocked and disgusted this evening when I stopped by to visit and I saw what their snack situation looked like. I wish I was making this up but I'm not...my Aunt, Mom and her husband are in a beach rental this weekend. They will be there for 3 days. Here is a list of what was visible to me, on the counters and the table:

• Three 2 lb. bags of M&M's (different flavors)
• Two 1 lb bags of Worthers (different flavors)
• A can of Swiss Miss cocoa
• 3 bottles of Jones Soda (green, red, and yellow)
• 2 packages of butterhorn pastries
• Bag of Oreos
• A 2 lb bag of Reeses peanut butter cups
• A bag of tortilla chips
• A box of crackers
• A bunch of grapes
• A bunch of cherries

All of them, opened. 😨 !!!

I'm pretty sure the grapes and cherries were there as the "healthy" option but those are some of the highest sugar fruits there are.

I'm no saint but I haven't eaten that much sugar in the last 5 years let alone during a 3 day vacation!!!

I'm not really sure what to think but the first thing that comes to mind is that these are grown-assed adults who should know better! I honestly feel like they may be trying to purposely kill themselves.

But seriously, I'm pretty sure the fact that I don't eat like that is why I don't have the ailments that the rest of my family does. It can't just be luck. I just wish there was some way to make them realize what they are doing to themselves. 😢

Three things motivated me to start looking into low carb eating. The first was common sense.

I'm not the kind of person to wait around until I have a problem to take action. I like being proactive. And I'm also a bit conspiracy theorist. I don't trust that Western Medicine really has our best interests in mind, I think it has the money in it's pockets in mind the majority of the time.

So I believe that taking care of myself as naturally as possible is the best approach. My back hurts? I do some yoga. I have a  stuffy nose, I grab my neti-pot and my coconut oil. I focus my eating on nutrition and it's been working for me. My immune system is strong and my body is pretty healthy. (As long as I keep up my good habits, I do slip sometimes).

At any rate, I got to thinking about diets and how if you are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes,  you are put on a low carb diet to reverse the affects. At least that's what I thought happened, the more I research it, that is not what Western Medicine recommends even though there is evidence that it works.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends you eat "healthy". It was a huge red flag for me when in order to find out what that means, you have to actually purchase a food plan from them. WTF?

Fortunately for me, I don't have diabetes, my research has been based on how to avoid it since it seems like it's become the latest fashion anymore; everyone has it. People in my family have it.

The third motivation for me was cancer. Again, I don't have cancer, I want to avoid it if possible. Like most other maladies nowadays, it seems like it's not if, but when you end up with it. I don't buy it.

Again, looking at diet, I was intrigued to find out that ketogenic diets have been used in cancer treatment with success. And even Dr. Mercola says:

From my perspective, it's nothing short of medical malpractice and negligence to fail to integrate this type of dietary strategy into a patient's cancer treatment plan (along with optimizing vitamin D). A ketogenic diet along with intermittent fasting can be easily integrated into whatever cancer treatment plan you decide to follow. Personally, I believe it's absolutely crucial, no matter what type of cancer you're trying to address.

That said, remember that a ketogenic diet, in which you replace carbs with low to moderate amounts of protein and high amounts of beneficial fat, like avocado, coconut oil, butter, olive oil and macadamia nuts is recommended for everyone, whether you have cancer or not. It's a diet that will help optimize your weight and health overall, as eating this way will help you convert from carb burning mode, to fat burning.

Well, there you go.  Only time will tell but it seems to me it's typically easier to avoid problems than to try and fix them...I think I'll keep it up.

I've been keeping a food journal for at least 14 years. Sometimes I slack off and miss months at a time before I realize I've got a problem and dig it out again, or since my journal is online now, try to remember what the password was that last time I logged in. But for the most part, it's been a constant habit which makes it a very useful tool.

Periodically, I go back and review what was working and what wasn't and there has been one macro nutrient that has been consistently low as far back as I  care to look...fat.

I have never bought into the whole fat-free (or sugar-free, or gluten-free) marketing of products. I have always preferred to use natural, unscientifically modified foods. For example, I have always, always used butter, not margarine. So that isn't the reason my lipids were low.


It was just something I observed though, I didn't think much of it and kind of assumed that it was a good thing, everyone should keep their fat intake down, right? What could fat possibly do that's good for you?

Other people don't seem to have this issue. I see comments from people all the time saying they have always had a high fat intake. I'm very curious where it was coming from. What exactly have they been eating? Even now that I am purposely trying to keep a high amount of fat in my diet I have trouble. Avocados have become my best friend. If I don't have an avocado a day, I really have to work to keep my lipids up.

So, now that I am eating enough fat, what are the good things fat can do for you? Here's what I've observed:

• My skin is not dry anymore
• My fingernails are healthy and shiny
• My hair falls out less (it was never really bad but it's even less now) 
• Less PMS symptoms
• Less mood swings
• My creaky knees aren't quite as creaky anymore
• Reduced acne
• Better digestion

To be honest, I don't know how much of this is from increased fat and how much is from reduced carbohydrates since I've been working on both at the same time but it makes sense to me that your body needs fat. It's like oil in your car, it lubricates and keeps things running smoothly. I just didn't realize how much it really needed.