The Paleosphere is definitely changing. As more popularity is drawn to the movement, so are more people trying to take advantage of the free audience, and then there are others who learn a little about paleo, and then give their gut feelings on topics that used to be nicely discussed. I'm pretty much thinking about PaleoHacks with this.
But, then again maybe Paleo is loosing it's newness for me. I've pretty much learned quite a bit of the backing science, and rational, on why one would choose to eat 'Paleo'.
As Paleo is entering more into the light, more crazy shit is going to happen, but I'm just going to ignore it, and do my own Paleo thing. I don't have to agree with 'Paleo' people to eat the way I do. Anyways, I don't really tell people I'm Paleo, I just say I don't eat wheat, and I hate sweet things - which just turns out to be true.
There's also some aspects of my initial reading of paleo that really isn't reflected anymore, that is the departure from the mainstream culture. I remember reading about barefoot running, and squatting to poop, and thinking that it all makes sense, and that mainstream culture is wrong, and I kind of knew it all along. You could say Paleo was just another way that I could distance myself from the mainstream, although with Paleo I've had rather nice results. I like not being mainstream.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Current status
Toned down the fats a bit, earlier I was trying to eat more, to see if it made me feel better or not. I think it made me gain some fat, or I at least stopped leaning out a bit, so I reduced my fat. To fuel my lifting I've been adding in more carbs. Right now I'm cooking a soup for my lunches which is made from a 3-4lb butternut squash, with onions, green onions, mushrooms, hot peppers (habanero, jalapeño, chili) and spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, caraway, black pepper). Also drinking 1-2oz of cranberry juice diluted in 0.5-1L of water, which supposedly helps liver function, but it's also a good way to increase my water intake.
My guess is that I'm eating somewhere around 200g carbs now, especially on WO days. Trying to stay at 200g or a little less on protein. Probably my target is 180g, but I kind of find it hard to eat less protein. Meat tastes good, and it comes in 400g packs, so two of those, and that's all the meat I can eat in a day. I want to eat meat for lunch, otherwise people might think I'm vegetarian - happened once, when I was eating 300g+ protein a day, I had a good chuckle.
Germany and Sweet Foods
I posted earlier about how everything is too damn sweet, which was drawn mostly from my US experiences, but now I often think about German cuisine, now that I live there.
For the most part, German cooking is making a trend towards all kinds of fruit additives to their food. Not additives in a way that apple juice would be added to fruit leather for sugar, but more that there is fruit added to foods just to add a sweet flavor. Sauerkraut can be found with pineapple in it, plum compotes accompany roasts, and others. Then you have salads with a little marmalade added "for sweetness", or with a drizzle of maple syrup. I suppose this is kind of common in American mainstream processed food, added sugar that is, but it seems that even more "cultured" forms of German food has this added sweetness. Which reminds me that for a curry soup, there's often fruit, like mango, added in, or oranges added to pumpkin soup.
No wonder Germany is starting to have problems with diabetes and obesity.
For the most part, German cooking is making a trend towards all kinds of fruit additives to their food. Not additives in a way that apple juice would be added to fruit leather for sugar, but more that there is fruit added to foods just to add a sweet flavor. Sauerkraut can be found with pineapple in it, plum compotes accompany roasts, and others. Then you have salads with a little marmalade added "for sweetness", or with a drizzle of maple syrup. I suppose this is kind of common in American mainstream processed food, added sugar that is, but it seems that even more "cultured" forms of German food has this added sweetness. Which reminds me that for a curry soup, there's often fruit, like mango, added in, or oranges added to pumpkin soup.
No wonder Germany is starting to have problems with diabetes and obesity.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
What if
So, John at Hunter-Gatherer posted a link to an article claiming that the economy discriminates against men, which in turn reminded me of some things.
First off, I think the whole "men's rights" thing is a response to society giving men a particularly shitty identity. All the good parts of being male are not valued anymore, or not even considered worthwhile. A blog about cars actually touched on this rather well, which I also found via Hunter-Gatherer sharing it:
"Of course, “man’s work” isn’t what it used to be. Forget the “war on women” you’re hearing about right now, although it may well exist. There’s been a “war on men” for the last fifty years, and it’s been more successful than any of the Middle Eastern adventurism which has burned up the lives of American men like so much unwanted firewood at the end of winter. A war against the ideas of manhood, fatherhood, responsibility, dependability. The traditional American man — think Gregory Peck in To Kill A Mockingbird — has been parodied, denigrated, humiliated, ironized, writen out of existence. It’s no longer pleasant or even feasible to emulate our grandfathers and their unashamedly masculine lives.
Instead, we choose one of two paths. We become “modern men”, sensitive to womyn’s needs, ashamed of our basic desires, never sure whether to hold a door or let it slam shut. Most college-educated men take this path, particularly if they want to succeed in life. The men for whom success isn’t even an option — the rural, the uneducated, the discarded — well, they choose a distended hyper-masculinity. They can’t take care of their children, but they can bench-press a small car. They can’t hold a job, but they can kick your ass under MMA rules. They’ll never ascend above the service class, but if you are walking down a narrow hallway towards them you will guaranteedly have to bump shoulders with them. It is the appearance of masculinity serving in the stead of its actuality, an unemployed gym rat living with his parents and riding a Hayabusa covered with tribal graphics to the 7-Eleven on Saturday nights. "
I find this sentiment becoming more common, first I encountered it at T-Nation, but now I'm seeing it more. Men are getting pissed because it's not valued to be a man anymore. In a way it's not good to be a man, since men discriminate against women, and stuff like that. In general, it's just not a satisfying identity to have, much like the generic identity of being "white" in the US.
Jumping topics a little, women and men think differently. I remember reading an account of a Dutch transgendered man, who was a women, describing how his thought process changed as he took hormone therapy, and how he perceived the world differently. Anyway, women and men think different, so why wouldn't it make sense that they have different skills and capabilities? I think some of this gender equality discussion starts making an idealization of what humans really are, although this could just be me assuming they are using biological definitions wrongly, when in fact, they've redefined them for their own scholarly purpose. But, my main question is, what if men and women are different? What if there should be gender inequality?
I work in the science industry, and I wonder what would happen if there were to be only women groups, and only men groups. This would produce a change if men and women have different ways of working together and leading. The way gender equality discussions are going now, no one would ever probably consider condoning formation of single-gender groups, but I think it would be something interesting to consider.
First off, I think the whole "men's rights" thing is a response to society giving men a particularly shitty identity. All the good parts of being male are not valued anymore, or not even considered worthwhile. A blog about cars actually touched on this rather well, which I also found via Hunter-Gatherer sharing it:
"Of course, “man’s work” isn’t what it used to be. Forget the “war on women” you’re hearing about right now, although it may well exist. There’s been a “war on men” for the last fifty years, and it’s been more successful than any of the Middle Eastern adventurism which has burned up the lives of American men like so much unwanted firewood at the end of winter. A war against the ideas of manhood, fatherhood, responsibility, dependability. The traditional American man — think Gregory Peck in To Kill A Mockingbird — has been parodied, denigrated, humiliated, ironized, writen out of existence. It’s no longer pleasant or even feasible to emulate our grandfathers and their unashamedly masculine lives.
Instead, we choose one of two paths. We become “modern men”, sensitive to womyn’s needs, ashamed of our basic desires, never sure whether to hold a door or let it slam shut. Most college-educated men take this path, particularly if they want to succeed in life. The men for whom success isn’t even an option — the rural, the uneducated, the discarded — well, they choose a distended hyper-masculinity. They can’t take care of their children, but they can bench-press a small car. They can’t hold a job, but they can kick your ass under MMA rules. They’ll never ascend above the service class, but if you are walking down a narrow hallway towards them you will guaranteedly have to bump shoulders with them. It is the appearance of masculinity serving in the stead of its actuality, an unemployed gym rat living with his parents and riding a Hayabusa covered with tribal graphics to the 7-Eleven on Saturday nights. "
I find this sentiment becoming more common, first I encountered it at T-Nation, but now I'm seeing it more. Men are getting pissed because it's not valued to be a man anymore. In a way it's not good to be a man, since men discriminate against women, and stuff like that. In general, it's just not a satisfying identity to have, much like the generic identity of being "white" in the US.
Jumping topics a little, women and men think differently. I remember reading an account of a Dutch transgendered man, who was a women, describing how his thought process changed as he took hormone therapy, and how he perceived the world differently. Anyway, women and men think different, so why wouldn't it make sense that they have different skills and capabilities? I think some of this gender equality discussion starts making an idealization of what humans really are, although this could just be me assuming they are using biological definitions wrongly, when in fact, they've redefined them for their own scholarly purpose. But, my main question is, what if men and women are different? What if there should be gender inequality?
I work in the science industry, and I wonder what would happen if there were to be only women groups, and only men groups. This would produce a change if men and women have different ways of working together and leading. The way gender equality discussions are going now, no one would ever probably consider condoning formation of single-gender groups, but I think it would be something interesting to consider.
Friday, April 6, 2012
Problems with Identity
I've had ideas for this post for a long time, always floating in my thoughts. Usually being brought up by a certain article I read somewhere. What going to try to address is identity, or cultural identity. I could probably write a book on what identity is, but it's probably already been done, and lengthy definitions tend to aggravate me.
What I'm trying to get at, albeit roughly, is that it seems that everyone is defining their identity in terms of others. There's "Black" Americans defining part of who they are with the racism they experience from "White" Americans. Women defining themselves by the lack of masculine characteristics, and men the other way around.
I guess if people just started not caring as much about how other people define themselves and fit their definition to them, and take a break on political correctness, we'd have more meaningful groups, or at least those that do not feel threatened by the existence of others. In regards to political correctness, I mean that people should still take care not to offend people, but I'm still going to define myself as a man as being strong of constitution and will, and not care that others define themselves differently. This starts getting into the territory of "What is a Man?" on a societal scale, instead of just being a personal definition.
That was a rough snapshot.
And one reason why I like T-Nation, it's a good platform to reach men, and "Your crumbling Y Chromosome" was conveying the ideals of a strong man, something that tends to be avoided, or just not done.
People are having trouble
identifying themselves currently. Media is defining people, instead
of people defining themselves. People are being defined in terms of
other groups, Black vs. White, Man vs. Women, Gay vs. Straight.
If people just defined themselves as
who they are, and didn't rely on other groups for identification,
there would be a stronger sense of identity among people.
What I'm trying to get at, albeit roughly, is that it seems that everyone is defining their identity in terms of others. There's "Black" Americans defining part of who they are with the racism they experience from "White" Americans. Women defining themselves by the lack of masculine characteristics, and men the other way around.
I guess if people just started not caring as much about how other people define themselves and fit their definition to them, and take a break on political correctness, we'd have more meaningful groups, or at least those that do not feel threatened by the existence of others. In regards to political correctness, I mean that people should still take care not to offend people, but I'm still going to define myself as a man as being strong of constitution and will, and not care that others define themselves differently. This starts getting into the territory of "What is a Man?" on a societal scale, instead of just being a personal definition.
That was a rough snapshot.
And one reason why I like T-Nation, it's a good platform to reach men, and "Your crumbling Y Chromosome" was conveying the ideals of a strong man, something that tends to be avoided, or just not done.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Current Diet: 1-29-2012
Reflecting back on my past 3 or so months I've been living in Germany, I've realized that I've departed quite a bit from what I was eating back in the states. Primarily the frequency and amount of vegetable consumption has gone way down, and the quality of the meat that I eat isn't as good as I'd like it to be.
The main vegetable matter I eat is sauerkraut, spinach, and canned tomatoes, in order of frequency, with all of them being organic. I'm eating organic ground meat (pork and beef mix), organic eggs, Kerrygold butter, and organic/Kerrygold cheese, along with the occasional conventional meat, although lower fat. I eat fruit probably once every two weeks, and I am experimenting with eating more carbs prior to my workouts in order to have more glycogen. I've started doing this as I realized I fill out a lot when I eat more carbs, which shows me that I am fairly glycogen depleted (in muscles) normally. Makes sense due to my pretty low carb diet.
Typical Day:
- Breakfast - 300g ground meat or 6 eggs cooked in 50g butter, with Sauerkraut, coffee [60g P, 50-70g F]
- Lunch - 300g ground meat in broth with spinach, coffee [60g P, 30g F]
- Dinner - 300g ground meat or 6 eggs in 50g butter, sauerkraut [60g P, 50-70g F]
Calories: 1900-2250
Recently I've been buying some cheese, and eating 200g a day, adding roughly 30g P and 30g F, and 390 calories to my daily totals.
For lifting, I eat two potatoes the meal prior to lifting, and then two post. On Saturdays I lift around 10:30am, so I've been experimenting with eating two more potatoes on Friday night.
Looking at my totals, I'm a little surprised to see the calorie totals around 2000, I was under the impression I was eating around 2500 or so.
Everything is too damn sweet
Almost every vegetable or fruit breeder
out there is selecting for sweetness, since that's what the consumers
want nowadays. We have “super sweet” sweet corn, sweet carrots,
sweet cabbage, sweet broccoli, and sickly sweet fruit. There is also
a selection for “milder” tasting fruits and vegetables, with
carrots tasting less like carrots, and apples less like apples. To
me, it seems every plant product is tending towards some form of
sugar delivery system.
This irritates me, as I want to cook
with “serious” vegetables. Carrots that with slap you in the face
with their terpene content, and flavor the shit out of soups. I'm
also looking for fruits that actually taste different from each
other, in other words, fruits that have higher concentrations of
phenolics, and aromatics. In the past years I've been enjoying
“antique” apples, and eating many different kinds, since some
have more spicy notes reminiscent of licorice, or more milder notes
like bananas and strawberry.
Another thing that I've been thinking
about, is that since many of the compounds that give fruits and
vegetables their characteristic are actually there for defense
against pathogens and herbivores, by selecting against these
compounds, were actually selecting for plants that are essentially
harder to grow. Instead of plants defending themselves against
pathogens, we have to take the roll with insecticides and pesticides.
If we just bred plants for being what
they are, and not focusing on making a bland, sweet consumable for
the masses, we could enjoy more kinds of flavors in our foods, and
grow them better.
Now I just need to get some of these
heirlooms varieties and breed my own.
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