A few sample meals with inevitable side rants

Ok, so I keep getting more and more questions from fellow chronies about what I eat.  Rather than procrastinating to writing the perfect blog, I've just grabbed a bunch of food pictures from my iphoto library.  Yes, I hate to admit, I'm that annoying guy that always needs to pull out his phone to take a picture of his meal. 

But first I want to start out by saying that last night I had a wicked case of the munchies, made a poor decision and hammered back a box of 20 timbits.  The reason I chose to share this is to say that I am not perfect!  I have my moments of weakness just like everyone else.  Being a trainer and having all the right knowledge doesn't make me superhuman.  I'm prone to stress eating, and I love shitty, terrible chemical laden foods just as much as you do.  The accountability thing really works though, just the act of sharing that already makes me not want to do it again!  Be honest with yourself, theres always a clean slate available.

Having said that, I'm on top of my game about 80% of the time, and I've been cleaning up the junk diet consistently ever since my initial post-surgery binge.

Upon rising, I usually have a glass of water with 1tsp of sea salt.  This is great for thyroid health, and now that I'm missing my large intestine I can always use the extra sodium.

Side rant-You don't need to have a malabsorbtion syndrome to enjoy your salt!  Real salt is good for you, table salt is not.  Just like saturated fat, studies showing high sodium diets to be harmful were done on junk diets, so its more correlation that causation.  Regular table salt is processed with heat which kills all the trace minerals that make it so healthy.  The flowing agents added to make it pour so nicely can also be carcinogenic.  Stick to sea or pink himalayan, and use it to enhance the flavor of your foods.  It sure seems ironic to me how someone could deprive themselves of salt at breakfast and then dump a bunch of ketchup on their eggs.

With the salt water I'll take any pills that need to be taken on an empty stomach, currently thats just a couple of probiotics.

30-60 minutes later I'll have my "breakfast" of bulletproof coffee.  You've probably heard of it by now,  I'll admit it is super trendy these days.  Call it a health fad, but its awesome.  For those who aren't familiar, its 2 cups of high quality coffee blended with grass fed butter and MCT oil.  Do NOT attempt to just stir it, or you will be terribly disappointed.  And before dismissing it as "not a balanced breakfast"  hang on a second.  Think of it as a serving of healthy fats, but caffeinated.  You get the antioxidant benefits of the coffee, instant energy from the mct oil, and fat soluble vitamins as well as CLA from the butter.  Not to mention it tastes like the best latte you've ever had. I always do 2 tablespoons MCT oil (worked up to this, too much at once causes diarrhrea) , and 1-2 tablespoons butter.  The amount of butter just depends on hunger.  My favorite thing about it is the mental energy and clarity, with no crash.  You don't even think about food for 3-4 hours afterwards.  I know personally, if I start my day with a bowl of oatmeal crisp, first of all I want to eat the entire box, and even if I manage just one bowl, I'm fucking starving an hour later.

 With the coffee I'll take my vitamin A and D, and whatever else I'm currently on that is to be taken with food.

Side rant- Your entire diet needs to be balanced, not individual meals.  There are benefits to altering macronutrient ratios of a meal depending on its time and application.  For example, filling up on fat and avoiding carbs in the morning results in steady blood sugar and much more energy, where as post workout you want carbs to refuel, but zero fat because it will slow down the absorption/assimilation of other nutrients. 

In the afternoon I usually have a smoothie consisting of
-1 cup frozen fruit (my favorites are blueberry, mango, cherry, and seabuckthorn berry) ,
-coconut water and almond milk until its "enough" liquid for 1 serving.
-a couple "glugs" of avocado oil or olive oil
-another "glug" of MCT oil
-1tsp matcha green tea powder
-20-30 grams worth of protein from any combination of whey, hemp, or collagen protein powder
-other amino acids if I'm taking any at the time
-1/2 tsp real vanilla powder
-sometimes a TBSP of hemp hearts
- Sometimes a cup of frozen steamed kale or spinach, but not gonna lie I've been slacking on the greens lately

Beyond the coffee and the smoothie being staples my meals vary day to day, here are a few samples:

Chili made with bison, sweet potato, quinoa, celery, mushroom, bone broth, tomato sauce.  (no beans)

Cucumber slices and guacamole.  (Easy and portable).

 Homemade chocolates.  Raw cacao powder (super healthy, look it up), raw cacao butter, and a bit of maple syrup, thats it.  For a filling (optional) I used homemade macadamia butter.

 Real coffee.  Not ground 2 years ago and stored in a plastic disk.

 Macadamia butter mentioned previously.  Dump macadamias in blender, blend, done.

 BP coffee, boiled egg, leftover burger patty with guac.

 Steamed salmon with lemon and dill, 2 eggs.  15 minute supper. 

 Picnic lunch for the beach.  Spinach salad with chicken and hemp hearts, apple slices to dunk in almond butter, bananas and grapes.

 Lamb roast on top of onions and lemongrass before adding coconut milk and tomato paste.

 Zucchini, peppers, mushrooms fried in grass fed butter, loaded with plenty of salt and spices.  2 eggs thrown on top.  This is one of my quick and easy at home lunches.

 A whole pig's worth of pork belly (unprocessed bacon). Pork is definitely not something I would suggest eating this much of if you get it from the grocery store.  This is pastured organic, otherwise pork is typically a very dirty meat. 

 Leftover steamed cod on peas.  With salt and butter of course. 

 -I load herbs and spices on everything.  For fresh ones I like rosemary, cilantro, tarragon, and mint.  Dried I use a lot of of turmeric, cumin, cinnamon, fenugreek, garlic, dill, and oregano.  Seriously, I go hard on the spices.  I used to need to put ranch, teryaki or bbq sauce on everything I ate until I learned to use them.  Have fun with it, just check your expiry dates and please don't ruin your beautiful spices by storing them above the stove, that spot is basically a mold incubator. 

- I also enjoy 1-3 cups of tea per day.  I like green or peurh in the morning, ginger, rooibos, or peppermint anytime, and either kava or chamomile at night.

So there's a few examples anyways, if you find this information interesting or useful, please share!  What else should I blog about?

Feeling so much better! Here's how:

Been a while since I’ve blogged.  I’m certainly in a different space now, it feels great.  To start off, here are a couple of progress pictures.  The surgery was March 11 and as you can see, it kicked my ass pretty hard:

 April 7, 127 pounds

May 11, 140lbs

 Other than the occasional panic attack every couple of weeks, my anxiety is almost completely gone.  Its so liberating to be able to just go out and do things as I please!  No more sick queasy feeling in my chest every time I try leave the house!  Since surgery I've been able to accomplish the following:

-Gained 20lbs
-Finished my exercise nutrition course
-Coached a handful of classes at the gym
-CRP (inflammation marker) down to 8.0 For a reference, the lowest I’ve ever had it since being sick was  47.  0-7 is considered healthy range, so I'm almost there
-Most importantly, I’m enjoying life again!  I’m having so much fun just going for walks to the river, driving home to the acreage, cooking new recipes, and exercising for the pure thrill of it. 

All with the following also happening since the operation:

-blood clot in my right leg
-2 percutaneous drains for massive abdominal abscesses, left for 3 weeks then right for 3 weeks.
-Huge incision over my belly button, without staples.
-1 overnight stay after removal of 1st drain, another night in emerge to get 2nd drain pulled.

One of the drains I lived with:

This didn’t happen all on its own though, I had to facilitate this recovery.  After letting myself rot for the first few weeks, I knew I had to take active steps if I wanted to speed the healing process. I committed to a 30 day exercise program, stuck to an extensive supplement regimen, and I committed to a morning routine consisting of the following:

-Push ups as soon as rolling out of bed.  10 seconds down, 10 seconds up until failure.  At first, I could only do one, by the end of the month I managed 4 or 5.  Anyone can do this!  It took less than 2 minutes out of my day each morning.
-Meditate for 15 minutes.  (I use the app headspace)
-Weigh myself

I sleep with my phone on airplane, and make a point of not turning it on until those 3 things are done.  Same thing goes for the laptop.  I’ve found texts and emails to be an even worse focus sucker when you start your day with them. I use another app called askmeevery , where you can have it ask you anything you want via text and email.  Every morning I get a text asking “how many push ups”, and another asking “how much do you weight.”  This is awesome for accountability, the guilt of typing in that “0” is enough to make you just do the damn push ups.  My other favourite part about the app is that it automatically charts and graphs all your data for you, so you can see your progress in a nice visual.

Side note- those who think weighing in every day is excessive, here is my reasoning why.  We can lose and gain significant amounts of weight even during the course of a single day.  This is due to fluctuating hydration status, how much we eat, and other factors.  A lire of water weights 2.2 pounds, so you can drink/pee that amount without even knowing it.  The amount of carbohydrates stored in the body also influence how much water weight we hold onto. Since this number can change so much without your weight “actually” changing, I like to weigh in at the same time every morning, and then use a weekly average to tell where I’m at.  Also, the scale should not be feared!! Use it as a guide for future decisions, not a judge of past ones!

At night I get 2 more questions, one asking me “what did you eat today”, and one asking “what are you grateful for”.  This is my foolproof way of keeping a food log and gratitude journal.  Writing a food log is a humbling, surprisingly effective way of cleaning up your diet.  There's something about actually writing down “ate liter of cookie dough ice cream” that makes you really, really not want to do it again tomorrow. The gratitude journal is a super effective way of well, simply being happier!

As for diet, I tried eating super clean at first, but that resulted in me just picking at my food and really not eating anything.  Eventually I just started eating whatever the hell I felt I could get down, and my body actually thanked me for it at that point.  2000 cals of ice cream and toast beat the hell out of 400 calories of  healthy food.  So for the first 4 weeks or so I really let myself go diet wise, though I don’t feel guilty about it.  With such a low appetite, having a craving for anything at all was a blessing so I indulged it, whether it was mac n cheese, bread, or ice cream.  I loaded up on that stuff, and I’m not going to lie, it was awesome.  Eventually the novelty wore off though. Weeks 5-present I’ve been doing better by eating much more healthy foods throughout the day.  I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t still enjoying some nighttime treats once my healthy “checkpoints” have been met for the day. Just because I’m conscious of it doesn’t make it any more acceptable, but its an evolving process.  If I’ve learned anything, its that small changes are the only sustainable ones. I've always found that adding good foods works better than subtracting bad ones.  Eventually the good replaces the bad, and if you eat the right stuff you won't crave the wrong stuff after a while. 

I started my first formal exercise May 11th.  A simple 30 day living room workout.

My reasons for going with this one were that:
-Strength (not silly cardio) training "wakes up" and activates your body into healing mode.  This is why simply having muscles keeps you from aging.
-it features compound movements working major muscle groups
-extremely beginner friendly, can be done anywhere
-simple and effective progressions
-written by a reputable coach (Brett Contreras is awesome)

Since 250 reps seemed a little silly, once I reached day 15 I went back to day 1 but added weight. I really wish I took pictures of my first couple workouts. At the beginning, I was so feeble I had to have stools on either side of me for balance  Keep in mind, for most of this program I had a 4 inch wire jammed in my side near my kidney. By the end, I was completing 150 loaded squats (broken into sets of 10-20) either holding a kettlebell , wall ball, or even an empty barbell.  After completing the 30 days I managed to pull of some real front squats!  May have only been 75lbs, but I felt like superman!

First set of "real" squats @ 75 pounds.  A couple months ago this was unfathomable:

My supplement regimen has been the following:

-1Tbsp high EPA fish oil
- 3-5 grams vitamin C spread throughout the day (for collagen synthesis for my incision)
-2 tbsp hydolyzed collagen protein (Incision repair, this stuff has also helped my arthritis more than any other supplement)
-1 B100 tablet
-800mg folinic acid
-30 000IU vitamin D
-25 000IU vitamin A for 2 weeks, then every other day
-Cannabis oil, in the form of either capsules, food, or blended into tea, totaling 100mg CBD and 400mg THC per day (Most effective medication I have ever used, bye bye prednisone, no more painkillers!) 1:1 CBD to THC is optimal, but I can't quite afford it.   
-2 shakes per day, each containing 7.5grams arginine, 5grams ornithine, and 10 grams glutamine.  This is an effective stack for surgery recovery, but also for healing sports injuries.
-Lots of MCT oil and Avocado oil in smoothies
-Magnesium (glycinate) 400-600mg per day
-Topical magnesium spray, 20 sprays at night.
-15mg zinc (gluconate) and 2mg copper, 2x per day

Of course none of this progress would be possible without the incredible support I have.  I am extremely fortunate to have wonderful friends and family backing me up every single step of the way.  Thanks everyone!

Cheers

Grindin' :)

Tough night again last night but I got my ass to the gym anyways, and had to write a blog because I feel so damn good!

Bad sleep last night.  I'm having troubles with my mind racing at night still.  It's at least not anxiety keeping me awake, just obsessing over to-do lists and other stuff that is totally irrelevant in the middle of the night. Had a typical morning, up around 6am with the hangover-of-death feeling.  Not to mention the crippling torso discomfort.  I would call it back pain, but torso discomfort is more accurate.  It doesnt sound as bad but it fucking sucks.  When I wake up, my intestines are in spasm so bad that all of my "front" core muscles literally contract against my will and pull my whole body into forward flexion.  My physiotherapist figures this is how I got my bulged disk, and continue to have back pain even post-decompression therapy.  Not to mention being on the toilet, I'm violently pulled forward at least 10x per day.  Obviously, the solution is maintaining proper posture, trouble here is that my erectors (back muscles) have to work 10x harder than normal just to maintain that upright posture, because they are fighting against the opposing muscle groups, that will not let go until my intestines let go.   So yes, I can correct it, it just becomes exhausting trying to stay upright all the time.  Sitting is the worst.

OK, got off on a tangent on how its not just back pain.   Anyways I woke up with this torso pain around 6am, the usual, feelinglike garbage but I'm experienced enough that I know I will continue to feel this way until I've had 5-6 really awful bm's, still sometimes bloody.  I try to start stretching, extending my spine, and usually get on the inversion table to get things moving.  This is all extremely uncomfortable at the time, but sort of speeds up the inevitable.  If I'm not up to moving yet, I'll start with a cup of ginger tea for the nausea.  As soon as I'm able, I try get down either a bulletproof coffee or a small shake, usually just water, protein, and a couple shots of olive/avocado oil blended together.  I've become a firm believer of protein and fat ONLY for breakfast (because it works), the trick for me was getting it in a form I can choke down in the mornings.  As soon as I put anything into my mouth its a matter of about 5 minutes before I need to run to the can.  I'm aware of this in the mornings and like I described, the body pain doesn't go away until everything is "emptied out" for the morning.  So even though its the last thing I want to do, forcing down a few calories usually results in getting my day started a bit sooner if I can tolerate it.  When your sick, getting better is often just a matter of doing stuff you don't want to do.

The good news is I started feeling better around 10.  My last two days have been shitty so I was damn well gonna capitalize on this one.  I'm definitely making progress, the last blog I posted about pacing around for an hour before leaving the house.  I'm finally stepping out of my comfort zone an ENJOYING seeing people.  It really feels amazing to get that back.  That alone was enough of a victory to put a smile on my face.  Also, instead of nervously walking around the gym picking odd exercises, I wrote a warm up which I stuck to, and then did a fun little strength workout.  I'm so thankful to be able to lift again, I beleive short, but intense training has amazing health benefits for sick people.  Yoga is awesome for a million reasons, but you simply cannot duplicate the hormonal effects/benefits of heavy lifting or sprinting.  Growth hormone and testosterone are not just for bodybuilders, they are both extremely important for HEALING!!  Also anti aging, but I'm getting on another tangent so I'll save that for another post.  Today's workout was:

-5 minutes elliptical
- foam roll and sun salutations

Warm up (3 rounds)
- BW reverse lunge with twist (pause at bottom for a good active stretch)
-10 Cable external rotations (good arm)
- 5 glute bridges/leg (just for activation purposed)
- 10 leg swings against a wall

GETTING JACKED (jk)
All in a row:
- 3 Back squats at 125lbs
- 3 Kettbell push jerks (The grey one lol, dunno size) Right arm only
- 3 Single arm chin negatives.  Right arm only

Rested 3 minutes, did 5 sets.

Pretty high intensity for just starting, but the key here is that the volume is extremely low.  Volume makes me sick, not intensity.  I may come off as a bit of a bonehead choosing to lift weights having arthritis and all this other nonsense, but I've found it to be all postural.  My back is relatively strong still.  I can still squat and deadlift ok with strict form, but picking a pen up off the floor with a rounded spine can fuck me right up.  Long drives = by FAR the worst thing for my back.  You get the idea.

I wish more sick people realized the benefits of exercise if they just pushed through it, because I feel amazing right now.  The trick isn't fooling yourself into thinking a 30 minute walk will make you better.  Don't get me wrong, it will feel refreshing, but its boring as hell and won't give you the addictive benefits that make you want to keep doing it.  I want to re-iterate that although I was lifting "heavy", the total number of reps for ALL my exercises today was only 45.  Keeping the volume down is how I am able to make this work!  By the time I got home I was hungry as hell, in a cheery mood, and the whole workout took the same time as that 30 minute walk.  Of course I lingered and visited at the gym, which was also very therapeutic for me.

Last thing I'll share is my post workout shake for anyone who's interested in what I take.  I have a few recipes for concoctions I believe to be optimal, but I'll save those for when I'm REALLY training.  For now I keep it simple:

-Not enough volume to necessitate any carbs.  If I wanted some I'd use a bit of cherry juice or some waxy maize starch, etc.

- 1 scoop grass fed whey isolate (shouldn't need to explain that one)

- 1 scoop glutamine.  I have my mixed thoughts on it's efficacy as a workout supplement, but its cheap as hell, and happens to be VERY important for the gut lining.  I take it a few times a day for my crohn's anyways so I throw it in the shake.

- A few big dashes of turmeric.  This is a hardcore anti-inflammatory, and since my body is always fighting a raging onslaught of inflammation, anything to dumb down the acute response from training is welcome.  It's also something I take all day long for my guts anyways.  Google some research, it's actually more effective than advil for arthritis, etc.  Some high-end supplement companies are even starting to throw it into their post-workout blends now.  I believe you still want that acute inflammatory response during training, but afterwards its time to bring it down.  Think of why you jump in the ice bath after lactic workouts (although the research on those is also now SUPER conflicting).
-1/2tsp acai berry powder.  This is something new new I'm trying, just something I had on the counter for throwing into smoothies.  It's pretty well known for being an extremely potent antioxidant.  There have been studies showing cherry juice (also pomegranate and cranberry, but don't quote me on that) being effective in reducing DOMS when taken post workout due to the antioxidants.  It's worked for me in the past anyways. My hope/theory is that acai might have the same effect.  If it works it will be a lot more convenient to mix in the powder as opposed to bringing actual cherry juice to the gym.


So yeah, great day so far!  I'm so thankful to have so many fit people around me to keep me inspired.  If my girlfriend can get up and go for a run at 7am when she has a full day ahead of her, I can dam well get to the gym for 30 minutes when its convenient for me and my entire day is wide open. 

Like most of these, that turned out being a lot longer than I had planned.  Time to eat again, and then make a costco run!

 Cheers!

139lbs but back to the gym!

I finally feel like I'm well enough for some more regimented exercise.  I'm not really trying to exercise more, just now in a quantifiable way.  I'm currently at almost the lowest weight I have ever been, and had Lauren take some prison-style shots just for keeping track of progress.  It may come off as vain but benchmarks are important.  I've always been fascinated by how our bodies can change and adapt according to what we do with them.  So here's where I'm currently at:

 

 I tried to stand as natural as possible.  You can see a difference in my shoulders if you look closely.  I have thoracic outlet syndrome on my left shoulder.  Its where your neck, pec, and trap muscles clench up, and the result is pinching off the nerves/arteries that run between your 1st rib and collar bone.  You can see my left shoulder hiked up towards my ear sort of, and that's me trying to relax.  It gets to tight it shoots into the back of my head, and if I lift my arm overhead too long my hand goes numb.  I've had this once before and had aggravated it by pole vaulting that time, this time around it just came out of nowhere and has been this way for months.  I think stress might have something to do with it. 

Add to that a narrowed disk space in my spine, swollen right ankle (can't see in the pic), and freaking arthritis stiffness everywhere.  Even my wrists feel like they have water in them or something.  My back is by far the worse though.  The stiffness and dull ache is so debilitating it sucks the energy right out of me.  This kind of pain just kills your motivation.  It isn't acutely painful by any means, but just so dam stiff and sore all the time.  When my stomach is in distress, or right before a poop my back hurts so bad I can't even stand upright, my abdominal muscles just want to pull me forward.

So I finally got myself to the gym yesterday, and managed:

-5 minutes of easy rowing

-3x5 shoulder press with the bar, front squat with 40lbs, an chin ups

-thats its!

So you could hardly even call that a workout by most standards, and I totally could have done that from home.  The reality is I just wouldn't have got it done at home.  Right now creating the habit of exercise is more important than the intensity of the exercise.  I got back into the process of making a playlist, mixing up the protein shake, but most importantly getting out the door!  I'm still socially anxious.  I never want to leave my condo because I don't want to get sick and I'm too proud to be vulnerable in front of people.  Beyond that, even when its people that I know understand, it really sucks having pain attacks away from home so I never want to leave.  I paced around home almost 2 hours trying to get to the gym but I'm glad I finally made the first step towards getting in shape. 

My goal for tomorrow is simply to make an appearance at the gym again.  I had IMS today so I likely won't feel up to "lifting" again, but even a bike and stretch would be a positive step.  Our sauna will be up and running any time, definitely looking forward to that as well!

Also, Dr. Louie's office got back in touch with me and treatment has been postponed, likely at least a month.  I'm actually OK with this, it sounds like he is really making sure he has everything figured out before proceed seeing as I am somewhat of a unique case.  I'm sure I can benefit from a few weeks to keep building my strength up before the transplant as anyways.