FiendFyre

Thanks for the replies. Loren, the canola oil thing came from reading the Dr. Cordain take on Paleo where he pretty much worshiped that stuff (www.thepaleodiet.com) and it kinda made me go o.0

I've been reading several posts here about the paleo/primal diets and I'm confused about how the name relates to the actual diet itself. Originally I was told that it was a diet based on what would have been available to people living in the Paleolithic era (so no dairy, agriculture, fruits from other regions) and the theory was that our bodies had not evolved to be good at digesting refined (or whole) grains and dairy because there has not been enough time for us to become acclimated to those foods. Lactose intolerance and celiac disease were pointed out as manifestations of health problems made worse by eating foods humans are not built to eat. (BTW, whether or not this is actually true of one iteration of the diet, it's what I was told so go easy if I'm totally wrong.) Recently I've read more about how it's more than "what was available to our ancestors" and less of the "we can't digest this" and more "this food has toxins if you cook it wrong/don't cook it at all/process it/etc" and that canola oil is both amazing and a horrible Frankenfood that will kill you. I'm confused, not making fun. So my questions are: If it's NOT about what our ancestors ate why call it Paleo? Why not A Diet NOT Rich in Stuff that Kills You or something similar?

@Waldo mostly I was making the case that calorie counting becomes an easily abused tool and while the bias does go down over time (especially if you track more generally rather than to the exact calorie and are good about measuring your portions) but many, many people do not use it that way and get discouraged that their 100 cal/day deficit is not making a difference when trainers and traditional advice is that’s all you need to start seeing some change. Sedentary people who begin exercising and reduce their diet even a bit can see huge results just because any change is huge from doing absolutely nothing but that stops after the first few weeks and can also be discouraging because big initial losses make some people think they don’t need to ramp it up to keep that rate of change. Calorie counting as a tool can be effective to see how poor (or ok) your diet really is, but it can very easily turn into a “diet†rather than just a tool. If used correctly, and with the understanding that metabolism is not a day by day balance sheet, it can be motivating and allow some people to see trends in diet over time and make adjustments. Sadly, lots of people DON’T know this, otherwise it would not happen as often as it does. I'm not the only one who has been told at a WW meeting that losing weight was the main goal, not health.The original question: shows how something as simple as this tool has been abused and turned into a misunderstanding of how a body works and how much we can actually know about it. Eating according to what you burn is exactly what I stated: ticking off your food against the treadmill or whatever exercise and letting it become the diet instead of the tool that lets you see over the long term. Using a tool can be safe and effective, if you're shown how to use it properly and use it as intended.

This particular discussion is why I stay away from things like Weight Watchers and calorie counting obsession. You can eat a whole box of cookies every day, as long as you don't eat anything else, and still be within your "points". Is it healthy? NO. Will you lose weight because you're consuming less calories and manage to drag yourself out of bed to exercise even though you feel like crap? Maybe, depending on who you are. Scores of anorexics show that this mentality is possible, but not healthy and definitely not how you want to lose weight. There is no magic. There is no diet that is perfect for everyone. For example, I disagree with Paleo for many reasons, but several of my friends have had epic results with it. One of them has celiac disease so it REALLY is the right diet for her. Not so for me personally. Neither is counting every calorie against the treadmill. There is no way to know how many calories exactly you're burning. There is no way to know how many calories your food has without a bomb calorimeter (and then you can't eat that particular piece of food because it's gone now). The real question is not "Does this help me lose weight?" That question is not helpful. Cutting off your leg will lose you weight. The real question is "Can I sustain this method of eating and use it to fuel my goals?" Losing weight should be a side effect of being healthy, not the ultimate goal by itself. BTW, if you actually read all of this and don't just want to say tl;dr or call me stupid because I didn't say "we're ALL right, guys, stop fighting!", Respect: you've earned it.

I agree with smurray and catspaw: having a stuffy nose never stops me from exercising and sometimes the increase in body temperature can help speed up the healing and help my nose drain (gross, I know, but whatev). However once I get a wet cough it's all tea and rest all the time. I spent 2 weeks in bed after a surgery and ran just as well after I got back to the gym as the day before I stopped going. I was a bit stiff though from not stretching for that long.

Cumulative update 9/16/11 Diet: No fast food, 75% win in my book. Fitness: 25 min run hills 4mph. Covering the display psychs me out. I guess counting down the minutes really helps me stay in the zone. 9/17/11 Diet: Fitness: Cleaned my kitchen and living room (not really fitness, but I was moving around a lot to do it) 9/18/11 Resting from everything. 9/19/11 Diet: 75% win, Chipotle burritos are big enough for two meals. Fitness: 45min personal training 9/20/11 Diet: 50% win, Stuffed crust pizza, but still under 2000 cal total for the day. Fitness: 24min bike 6.8mi, 1.14mi run hills 20 min FELT like a BEAST again. I wish every day could be like that. 9/21-22 were spent driving all over Hell's half acre and helping my grandma organize her garage. 9/23/11 Diet: Buffalo Wild Wings just might be my 4th favorite place ever. 75% win, accounting for all the corn syrup probably in the BBQ sauce. Fitness: 45min personal training, Back and Shoulders. I think I need gloves for kettlebells because flipping it over the back of my hand to go from upright row to overhead press ripped the crap out of my hands. Whine, whine, whine, I'm a girl still.

9/15/11 Diet: 50% win. Chocolate muffin and pizza. Having my bf over makes me a lazy cook. Fitness: 45min personal training session, chest and legs. Up to 10 jump squats in a row. XD

9/14/11 Diet: 90% win. Chocolate muffin, but no McDonald's. Fitness: RF Rookie workout A, AND a 30 min jog, level 2 hill program 4mph. It was Legen- get ready to MOOO- DAIRY.

Thanks for the encouragement guys! Lathomas64, I'm always awesome. True story. 9/13/11 Diet: 75% win. There may have been a Tendergrill sandwich incident. Fitness: 30min 10.6 mi bike, 18min mile on the treadmill. Enough win for my first day back. Extra Win? Weeded half my garden and organized a book case.

Back on the bandwagon as of today, 9/9-9/11 are being ignored so I don't lose my sanity this close to competition. I bought the Rebel Fitness Guide last night and I'm really excited to try those workouts. Official update for today will be up after dinner.

Experiences like this always make me embarrassed to be a personal trainer. I can't believe someone would be so insensitive to your workout preferences and insist that using free weights is dangerous and will give you bad form. Slap on the headphones and give her the cold shoulder, but don't let running into her at the gym make you feel like you're doing anything wrong! And there's absolutely no reason it should take two months to "correct your form" unless you are seriously doing deadlifts with only your pinky fingers.

Great goal, Havock! There's nothing wrong with some LSD (long slow distance) and the conditioning aspect of running has a way of sneaking up on you if you don't push yourself in a progression. I didn't have a program I was following, so after getting up to a 10min jog I didn't keep pushing because that was such a huge thing for me in itself. Luckily, about 2 weeks later I got a wild hair and was able to jog 20min straight and yeah, it was granny speed, like 4mph. Keep it up!

All of my bras are Champion, they size by cup and band so you get a closer fit than some of the "stretch" that are S/M/L sized. I really like the pullover T-backs. However, even though they come highly recommended, I HATED the kind with hooks in the back like regular bras. Supposedly they are adjustable and larger busts need that, but I've had the adjustable straps come un-adjusted and after the first wash the whole bra was never comfortable.

Thanks Kain. I'm gonna show those germs a pic of your stache and maybe they'll see who the boss is now. BTW I think "soon" and "later" are about as close as we Rebels come to having a taboo. As in, saying "I'll get to the gym later" is like a -50 nerd points. Anyone else notice this shift in language?

That's amazing and looks like a real blast. Congrats on your time, and getting to play in the mud!

9/8/11 Diet: Fail, not even willing to think about it. Fitness: 45min personal training, upper body focus. Amazingly I was not as sore as I typically am after a workout. In other news, I've been sidelined for the past 2 days with illness. Running with a sinus infection is not part of my "no pain, no gain" philosophy. I'm hoping I'll be able to get back on the bandwagon tomorrow and forget about all of the condensed soup I've been having while watching Wes Bentley be hot.

I've had good luck with a plastic one from Fred Meyer. It looks like a jelly bracelet with black handles and I was able to do doubleunders with it back in high school, though I haven't tried recently. Only problem I've had is if you use it on concrete or asphalt it starts to rough up the plastic from rubbing on the ground and will probably wear through if used very frequently on that kind of surface.

Good for you sticking with the 5k even though you won't be there for the race! Some of the difficulty curves on planned workouts surprised me. The active.com marathon training program especially is not designed for beginners. Knowing when to dial it back and still stay at the challenging level is an art, since not everyone progresses at the same rate.

Those are some pretty beastly goals, and a 9k for dinner? Win. Keep up the good work, fellow carb addict. I think about trying Paleo too but changing a family diet is not a small thing. and sometimes I want to kill if I don't have a sammich now and then, that's just me There are so many people who ask me why people with kids say their home life changes so much and invades every other part of their life. Now that's what I'm gonna tell them.

Batma'am, I salute you. I really like your system for the squad goals, I wasn't sure if they were something we did for ourselves or what but I'm following your lead. Paleo chili sounds pretty awesome by the way. I've heard many a chili purist lament that people ruin good chili with beans so I'm interested in how the paleo folks remedy this situation.

Sounds like you're off to an awesome start. Getting into conversations can be tough, even when you have people handy to talk to. I haven't read The Christian Delusion, but I read a few short essays by Richard Dawkins (who writes in the same vein) and they were some dense reading, and very thought provoking.

I have an unscientific theory about why ginger beards make girls' knees weak. Especially when paired with Blue Steel. I can't wait to see the pics from Warrior Dash. Caption reading "you must look THIS epic to advance to level 5"

9/7/11 Diet:75% win (do Pad Thai noodles count as a processed food? God I hope not.) Fitness: 1.46 mi in 25 minutes, hill program. I felt like I could have run forever, but got incredibly depressed after the first mile because my outfit was causing an elastic-on-raw-skin situation. Note to self, last weeks of training is not the time to try new things.

9/6/11 Diet: 50% win (I don't like the direction this is heading so far...) However tortilla chips and guacamole are not the worst that I could have had. Fitness: Personal training 45min, and for the first time my lunges feel amazing.

If it's really cold outside, I breathe in with my nose and out my mouth to warm the air (many asthma attacks of learning there) but I can't run as fast because of not getting enough air fast enough through my nose. Tiny nostrils here too, maybe? Rhythm and maintaining an even rate of breathing does more for me personally than which orifice gets the most use during a run. The weirdest reasoning I've heard for nose breathing is that the oxygen gets to your brain faster (??) if it goes through your nose, as if there was a lung-bypass something that runs from nose to brain. Some athletes are superstitious about things like that, I guess.