Shawsu Workout Studio

Agave Nectar - Worse than High Fructose Corn Sugar?!

          

Just picked up this article from nutritionist Jonny Bowden's site .... I've read before that Agave nectar-sweetener-syrup is NOT as healthy as its marketing has portrayed, but after reading Bowden's article I threw away my bottle of Agave sweetener! 

Basically, stick with real food!  All fruits have fructose in it but it comes with a complete compliment of vitamins, antioxidants and fiber blended perfectly for human digestion. As it turns out, Agave sweeteners are 90% fructose! About twice the amount of fructose in HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) which we all know is really bad for us.

Here's a link to Bowden's web site and article:

http://jonnybowdenblog.com/the-truth-about-agave-nectar-it%E2%80%99s-all-hype/

Our 1st Guest Speaker Event!

Shawn here.....Yesterday evening was the launch of our complimentary Guest Speaker Series. Michal Rinkedich of Camelot Center (www.camelotcenter.net) gave an enlightening talk that helped us to better understand where the science and practice of Chakras originated and the effects of our Chakras.  Michal limited her discussion to the seven main Chakras, explaining and demonstrating the impact of those Chakras on our body (physically), mind (emotional), and spirit (spirituality).  As an audience, our range of experience with Chakra information ranged from hearing the word Chakra, to those who have received treatments in Chakra balancing from Michal and other practitioners. 

Because this is a relatively new science to me, I can't begin to recreate the inspiring information that Michal shared with us so I look forward to her next speaking engagement with us as well as attending some of her Monday night open houses and receiving at least one treatment from her!

We are honored that Michal will again share her knowledge and spirit with us on Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 7pm here at Shawsu,

Looking forward to seeing you at our next Guest Speaker event!

Day 28 of the Paleo 30 day Challenge!

Shawn here.....I feel great!  Got up this morning, drank about 16 oz of purified water and ate an apple on the way to the Studio.  Had a fabulous workout with one of my 30 day Challenge partners and then went to Tom's Restaurant next door and got a Turkey burger (minus the bun) with grilled onions, fresh salsa, and half an avocado.  Yummy!  Worked with 3 clients and ate a fist sized amount of Trader Joe's "Just Chicken" (with olive oil and a feww dashes of Tobasco) during my half hour break and worked with three more clients!  Now I'm eating a Trader Joe's beet salad @ about 5 pm.  I also ate maybe 10 red grapes in the afternoon between clients. 

I've lost 7 pounds and 2 inches off my waist.  I really like Dr. Oz's idea to focus on "Waist Management" (our waist girth) rather than the scale!

Day 5 - The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain, PhD

I felt and feel great today!  Yesterday was very rocky.  I was quite irritable when I got home last night.  Today I worked a lot more hours and later into the evening but I managed to eat regularly and ate meat with 3 meals!

For breakfast I had salad and a less-than-hand-sized piece of steak left over from last night's dinner and an apple.

Trainer & co-Paleo Dieter Sergio Maldonado stopped by and brought me a Paleo Snack of a pear, a cuttie orange, raw cashews and raw almonds.  I finished it for my afternoon snack.

For lunch I went to Tom's, next door, and Maria grilled a piece of chicken and put it on a bed of salad with an avocado and extra virgin olive oil.  It was real swell!

My massage client this evening has been on the Paleo Diet for about 3 weeks and feels fabulous.  She's so happy with the way she feels and how her body is changing that she foresees to problem staying on the Paleo Diet the rest of her life. She mentioned that she didn't thing that cashews were on the diet.  So we checked the book and found that cashews are ok not great due to their ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6.  The list of preferred nuts in best-to-good order are:

        Walnut, Macadamia, pecan, pine, cashew, pistachio. All others not recommended.

Oils in best-to-good order:

        Flaxseed, Canola, Mustard, Walnut, Olive Oil.  All other oils are not acceptable.

I dawned on me today that I hadn't provided information on the Paleo Diet book so I included it in today's heading.

Cheers!

Shawn

Paleo at a Vegetarian Restaurant & Info on Grains

Now this was tough.  Just got home from a cruise to Santa Cruz and dinner at the vegetarian restaurantDharma's.  It was wonderful that all the vegetables were beautifully fresh and organic but where's the beef!  Basically the vegan restaurant, like every other restaurant I've been to since the 1st, had at best one maybe two items on the menu close to my Paleo needs.  Tofu is a no-no so the soups were out, but I ended up having a lovely and filling "Mediterranean Salad" with greens, red onions, Klamata olives, artichokes, and feta cheese with extra virgin olive oil, fresh lemon and lime dressing.  I also had half an egg roll in a rice wrapper and gluten free beer by Anheuser & Bush.

OK ..... I don't really know yet where artichoke stand in the Paleo diet.  Cheese is not in the plan, nor are any grains.  I shouldn't have had the feta and it's really hard to avoid grains, like rice and the the sorghum (sp?) used to make the beer.  But here's the thing, we know that one of the ways that our body develops allergies to food and rejects the food causing an inflammatory response is by over eating the particular food.  Our body's hate repetition and love variety. 

While researching the Neolithic (post Paleolithic, Agricultural Revolution) time period  and foods are grains, wikipedia provided a breakdown of grains and cereals by the amount produced.  If we realize that the more of a food or food byproduct that gets produced, the more of that food stuff we are likely to consume, so the more likely we might be to become allergic to or become sick or feel dis-ease as a result of eating it.  After all, quinoa is a grain, and it's currently tauted as healthy compared to wheat's gluten.  And quinoa is the least produced grain according to wkipedia, so have we just not over consumed it yet? 

Basically, at the moment, if I have to make a choice between a a grain/cereal high on the production list (maize/corn, rice, wheat, or barley) or lower on the production scale (sorghum, millet, oats, rye, buckwheat, fonio, or quinoa) I'll be going for the lowest and least processed on the list.

Here's an excerpt from wikipedia on what the heck grains are:

"Cereals, grains or cereal grains, are grasses (members of the monocot families Poaceae or Gramineae)^[1] cultivated for the edible components of their fruit seeds (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis) - the endocarp, germ and bran. Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more food energy worldwide than any other type of crop; they are therefore staple crops. In their natural form (as in whole grain), they are a rich source of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats and oils, and protein. However, when refined by the removal of the bran and germ, the remaining endocarp is mostly carbohydrate and lacks the majority of the other nutrients. In some developing nations, grain in the form of rice, wheat, or maize (in American terminology, corn) constitutes a majority of daily sustenance. In developed nations, cereal consumption is more moderate and varied but still substantial."

And here's the link to the wikipedia site:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cereal

Why Paleo?

You get to eat all the lean meats, fish, and seafood you can eat!

Eat all the fruits and non-starchy vegetables you can eat!

(No cereals, legumes, dairy products, or processed foods~and I use the term food here loosely)

A few people have asked me now why I'm doing the Paleo Diet and not some other diet and today on a motorcycle ride with friends we were discussing the topic.  The reason I'm going with the Paleo diet is that it is the most basic and seems to address the other concerns of importance; namely, inflammation and pH balancing which are important to combating all the Western diet ailments including heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, some cancers and autoimmune disorders. 

We rode to Buck's restaurant in Woodside, which I highly recommend.  Though, as has been true at every venue I've been to since January 1st, it's a bit challenging (not impossible) to get something Paleo.  I had one of Buck's specials. One large artichoke baken with olive oil and herbs cut in half with shrimp stuffed on one half and fresh crab in the other half, on a bed of fresh spinach.  It was absolutely delicious!

My afternoon snack was organic (from the SF farmer's market) beef jerky, walnuts, and dried fruit.  

Cheers!

Shawn

Going Paleo for 30 days

Shawn's Day 2 - No Grains, No Legumes, No Dairy, Nothing Processed .......

I realized while talking with a friend and client today that I forgot to include "No Dairy" in the heading of my first Paleo Diet posting yesterday.  I think it was because for me, dropping dairy products will be not as traumatic as grains and legumes.  Though while I was at Peet's getting latte's for my family it was challenging to order plain drip coffee (half hot water, half caff).  I packed snacks of celery, carrots, kiwi, an apple, and cheese (I know it's processed non-Paleo....but you know....just in case of emergency) for the trip to the farmer's market at the Ferry Building in San Francisco.  If you've never been, it was quite fun!  Similar to the Campbell farmer's market but I liked that the SF market had more protein vendors, there was a grass fed sustainably grown red meet vendor, chicken and fish vendors.

At the farmer's market, only a couple of the food vendors had anything even close to fitting the Paleo plan.  One served hamburgers including buffalo burgers which would have been grand except that the only Paleo carbohydrates were pieces of lettuce to put on the processed-non-food hamburger buns.  I ended up having two organic eggs lightly scrambled with arugula and onion.  Not supposed to eat potatoes, but I had probably the equivalent of two red potatoes and did not eat any of the large piece of foccacia that was doused with butter and herbs and looking wonderfully deadly.

Went out to dinner and had clam chowder and a chopped salad with chicken and a dressing of olive oil and lemon. No bread, one glass of Pinot Noir and water.  I wouldn't make a habit of the clam chowder since it more than likely had dairy product but I don't think I could have pulled off not eating the bread and all the cheese in an onion soup.  The fam got dessert to share so, just to be polite, I had one fork of cheese cake and one of chocolate cake.

I did not add salt to anything.  This is a big deal for me.  I was a salt-aholic until last February.  I always thought that because I have always had normal blood pressure that I didn't have to worry about using too much salt.  Then in February 2009 I experienced a kidney stone and learned from our nutritionist, Diane, and since then in other readings, that salt is generally a culprit.  I didn't quit salt cold turkey (as I had quite the addiction), passed one more stone a few months later and have now stopped adding it to my food.  This is handy since salt was never used pre-Agricultural Revolution.

 

Going Paleo! Pre-Agricultural Revolution Fueling

Day One ….. No Grains ….. No Legumes ….. No Refined Sugar.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about food over the years about diet and nutrition, and particularly the last several months as a result of researching information on cancer.  It’s been quite a labyrinth sifting through the massively complicated information on nutrients and how to compound the healthy, not-so healthy and sickening components of food into a diet.  I found that I was getting lots of confusing information on what to eat when, and then was barraged by sporadic information about the foods we are eating being unhealthy in general.  What’s a person to do?  Well I guess just keep getting fatter and unhealthier, since that’s what American’s have been doing since at least the 1950’s. 

Then along came Michael Pollan.  His book, In Defense of Food, caught my eye a couple of months ago.  When I picked in up I actually thought it was going to be about justifying the foods that businesses, the FDA, and government have approved.  I think really that I was kind of secretly hoping that everything else that I’ve been reading would be proven wrong.  Hoping that I didn’t have to suspect and wonder about the quality of what I’ve been eating.  But Pollan in a very entertaining, simple yet deep way defends food, real food.  Between Pollan and several other books that I’ll talk about later, fueling a human is simply a matter of eating real versus processed industrialized food.  So let’s go Paleo.

I read The Paleo Diet, by Loren Cordain, in around 2003.  The book caught my eye only because I was taking and enjoying the heck out of anthropology classes at the time.  So, rather than a “diet” book, I thought it was going to be, well, more anthropological.  Flash forward to the present and almost a year ago a couple of young trainers were talking with me about the Paleo Diet.  I’d mention that I’d read the book years ago, which I did, and remembered it as being interesting, but it didn’t stick.  I glanced at my book, complete with highlighting, and checked out a couple of web sites.

So Trainer Sergio Maldonado and I agreed to do the Paleo Diet for 30 days.  No grains (maize/corn, rice, wheat, barley, sorghum, millet, oats, rye, triticale, buckwheat, fonio, quinoa,), no legumes, nothing processed.

Day 1 – Paleo Diet (This is going to be a challenge.)

Before 5-mile run:  8-10 oz. Purified Water, few sips of Green Tea, 5-Baby Carrots.

After 5-mile event:  16 oz. bottled water, 1-medium sized orange

About 10 or so Baby Carrots walking to coffee.

8 oz Black caffeinated Coffee with about 8 oz. hot water added.

About an hour after the event we had Breakfast:  2-eggs scrambled with Machaca (shredded beef, more than likely not grass fed), and cactus, topped with raw onions, fresh parsley, salsa, and juice from a half a lime.

Got home, read a little, worked on the blog a little and took a long nap.

Ate a few raw almonds soaked in purified water, and drank water, and had herbal tea.

For dinner I had 2-eggs scrambled with red onions and Hickory Farms beef stick (I know it’s not Paleo, but I just cannot waste money), soaked raw almonds, an orange and an apple.

Make Sure Your Water is Clean!

Hi All!

I was just watching a Tivo’d Doctor Oz show and he was discussing a topic that I think is important to pass on to all of you because we at Shawsu are always advising you to drink water.  The topic was regarding our toxic American water supply.  Many of you may have seen the investigative article in the New York Times that launched Doctor Oz into covering this topic.  In fact, if any one has this article I’d love to read it!

The following are Doctor Oz’s recommendations to maintain health, avoiding many serious even fatal medical conditions:

1)      Obtain your Municipal Water Report.  By law it has to be available to customers.  Available by contacting the City or the Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) website.

2)      What to look for in the Municipal Water Report – The report will provide the average number should be the limitations of the substances, and the sources of the contamination. Particularly look at the Lead content, Nitrates and Nitrites, and E.coli (should be zero).  There should be no Arsenic, Cyanide, or Mercury.

3)      Purify your water. 

a.       Test the water in your house.  Dr. Oz showed a product called “watersafe,” drinking water test.  This is completely do-able at home; it does not have to be sent out to a lab. 

b.      Use a carafe water purifier, or

c.       A screw on water filter easily installed on the water spout in your sink, or

d.      A separate filtered water spout for drinking water.

e.      Dr. Oz also recommends filtering your shower and bath tub water.

                                                               i.      Contaminated water easily enters your body through your skin because when taking warm showers and baths the warm/hot water opens the pours of your skin.

                                                             ii.      Children are particularly susceptible to contamination.

                                                            iii.      If one can’t afford to install a shower or house filter, Dr. Oz recommends taking cooler temperature showers and avoid using any misting options as this will be more easily inhaled.

                                                           iv.      A big fix would be installing a water purification system for the entire house.

Regardless of which filtration system you choose or already have, make sure that the FILTER IS CLEAN! 

Interested in learning more?   Dr. Oz’s website also provides information about the toxicity of our water and the health hazards. Check out the article at the following website --

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/your-water-safe

Is Osteopenia a disease?

Driving home tonight I tuned into NPR (National Public Radio) and had the good fortune to listen to a report  about osteoporosis and osteopenia.  Basically, the pharmaceutical giant Merck activated a brilliant marketing plan in the mid-1990's to push Fosamax (a pharmaceutical for generating bone density in people with osteoporosis).  Merck’s sales of Fosamax were lagging when they realized that the term “osteopenia” had been coined to merely create a category for those individuals whose bone density numbers were between osteoporatic and completely healthy.  Merck employed the term to create a disease so they could sell more of their product!  The plan has been highly financially successful, like in the billions of dollars.  Thousands of women are taking Fosamax for a disease created by a business, and this is not the only pharmaceutical created ailment (but it was the only one discussed in this report).

The only healthy ways to maintain and grow bone is through strenuous resistance weight-bearing exercise and a healthy nutrition plan of "real" food possibly supported by 
supplements.

Check out the report done by NPR! 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121609815

You may read it or listen to the report.