Hydration while Hiking

When I first moved to Seattle, I learned that this is a place for "outdoor people."  You know the type... people who like to do activities outside for fun.  Hiking, fishing, skiing, snow shoeing, biking, boating, camping, backpacking, rock climbing... basically a lot of things I wasn't really into.  Prior to moving here, I ran outside or went for walks and I have always loved to kayak, but mostly my outdoor activities were barbecueing and sitting by a pool.  Eager to fit in and make friends in the PNW, I accepted an invitation from a coworker to hike at Mount Rainier.  We had probably walked about two miles when I said... "Ummm.... I don't think I've ever actually hiked before."

"What do ya mean?" she asked. "Well," I replied, "Connecticut doesn't really have high mountains.  I can see we are still headed away from the car and have probably already walked two miles, but my previous hikes would never have surpassed maybe 3 miles and were a lot flatter.  I'm not sure if I'm well enough prepared for what we're going to do today." She did the smartest thing you could possibly do in that moment.  She asked what was in my backpack.  What was my water situation? I had two 20-oz plastic bottles in my backpack, both mostly frozen still.  Did I mention it was August and at least 70 degrees in direct sunlight?  What else was I carrying?  I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and an apple, an extra pair of socks, and a long sleeve shirt.  That was it. 

Mt. Rainier August 2016

I ran out of water.  I ran out of food.  And my phone said we walked about 12 miles that day. By the time we got to the car, my legs felt like brick walls and you can imagine how my feet did walking that much in an old pair of NIKE Shox tennis shoes.  But the view!

Since that first hike in August 2016, I have regularly fallen into the trap of agreeing to hike with this same friend.  If it sounds like I'm blaming her, I'm not. I really love going.  I've seen some really incredible places and made a great friend along the way... I just tend to hit a wall of physical misery somewhere around 10 miles of walking and she does an awesome job of finding us 12 mile hikes.  We recently went to the Olympic Peninsula and did the Dungeness Spit hike... my phone says we walked 14 miles that day. I feel like I keep falling for the same trick... or I keep asking for it!

Every time we go for a hike, I think I get better with my preparation.  I no longer wear all cotton.  I now have a Camelbak Backpack that can carry multiple liters of water.  (This same hiking friend got it for me, isn't she the best?!)  I carry sunscreen so I can re-apply.  I carry nail clippers and band aids and a small amount of medical stuff in case there is a need for it.  There is a lot more food on every outing, also.  As a physical therapist, I really should have known the importance of hydration and nutrition on this amount of physical exertion as well as for recovery, but I really didn't know how under prepared I had been.

Recently I was chatting with some of my current coworkers discussing the basic things you should have when you hike.  I don't really feel the need to carry fire starting materials or shelter when I go for a day hike, because I don't plan to spend the night in the wilderness, but some websites recommend you prepare to be stuck out there and carry these types of things. Also, I have an irrational fear of getting lost and a terrible sense of direction, so I should probably prepare better for this type of situation. If you're curious to know more about the basic essentials you should bring hiking or camping, REI has a post about it, here, and I'm sure they'll sell you all the equipment listed so that you can have the safest hiking or camping experience ever!

But today the focus is hydration.  Water is essential for our survival.  This scientific paper was really interesting and explains a lot about the importance of hydration.  Water makes up our blood, helps regulate our body temperature, serves to transport nutrients and wastes, and is an essential component of cellular processes.  The paper states "during challenging athletic events, it is not uncommon for an athlete to lose 6-10% of their body weight... decrements in performance can occur with as little as 2% loss of body weight" Running out of water while hiking or exercising can be scary because drinking water found in nature can make you really sick.  I don't know all the rules, I just know that when I ran out, my friend wouldn't let me drink from the lake because of the risk of bacterial infections which lead to serious tummy aches... and other gastrointestinal issues that I'll spare you the details of.  Just know that if you drink water in the wild, you could end up feeling really miserable.  Fortunately she had enough water to share to finish our hike.  But how much should you bring when you have to carry it and it can be super heavy? 

I read several websites and articles looking for the recommendations.  Most of what I found says a half liter for every hour you plan to be out walking.  More water if it's hot, if you're going on a steep incline/heavy exertion hike, you're not a regularly trained hiker, you sweat a lot, or you tend to drink a lot of water in general. 

If you're thirsty, you're already probably a bit dehydrated and need to drink.  In fact, the paper  listed above describes the need to drink before you reach this point, even when not thirsty, while being active.  There are recommendations of consuming water every 20 minutes, but again, this really varies based on exertion level, fitness level, temperature, and sweating.  Still, dehydration and heat stresses can become medical emergencies if they're not properly handled.  Conversely, you can drink too much water without sufficient salt which is also a medical problem.

You can actually find out a more specific amount of water you should consume by weighing yourself, exercising while measuring your water intake, and then re-weighing yourself.  The Seattle Storm go through this every season in order to try to determine how much fluid replacement players might need for optimal recovery after practice and games.  Fluid replacement is important with exercise of all types, but for today, I'll just try to be safer while hiking and be prepared as much as I can be for the conditions I'm expecting.  There are so many other important reasons to consider hydration.  In the clinic, we discuss drinking more water with patients experiencing post concussion syndrome and chronic pain a lot, also headaches, and anyone experiencing dizziness.  In general, we probably all need to drink more water, particularly when we're active.  Let's hope the summer sunshine is here to stay in Seattle, and here's to a summer filled with gorgeous hikes!

SUGAR!

It was recently recommended to me that I watch the movie “That Sugar Film” which also has a book, "That Sugar Book" which I also read.  I’ve spent many periods in my life avoiding sugar or carbohydrates or dairy. I always feel better without these things in my diet, but tend to have a backlash after they find their way back into my meals. I'm not currently restricting anything, but I always like to learn about nutrition to make more informed choices about what I'm eating, so I figured I'd check them out.  I've previously written about nutrition here and with the Whole 30 here. I'm DEFINITELY NOT recommending anyone restrict sugar or try these diets - but if you're interested in learning the science behind how sugars interact with your body, these are entertaining and eye-opening resources you can check out.  I've spoiled the story a little bit here, but the details and imagery were worth it if the topic interests you.

Australian movie actor and writer Damon Gameau met a girl and took refined sugar out of his diet to get healthier... plus that's how she ate and cooked.  He later decided to do a self experiment eating the average daily sugar intake for 60 days to see how his body reacted. He filmed the experience - making the movie- and kept a diary which he then used to write the book.  In summary, the addition of 40 teaspoons of sugar (about 160 grams per day) made him sick, but here are some of the highlights.  

• If you removed all the items containing sugar from a supermarket, only 20% of items would remain.  That's because it's added to pretty much all processed foods.  
• In the 1970's, there was a sugar versus fat battle around the world and ultimately it was decided to remove fats from the diet, resulting in a sugar boom. Low fat everything became available, but to make better flavor once fat was removed, sugar was needed.  It was suggested throughout both of these resources that the negative outlook towards fat was created by the sugar industry.  This ultimately led to massive creation of fad diets, like the Atkins diet, which believed the opposite was true and restricted sugar and carbohydrates instead.
• One teaspoon of sugar is roughly 4 grams.  So you can figure out by looking at nutrition labels how many teaspoons of sugar you're consuming based on the grams listed. 
• Sugar has a long list of alternative names on labels which sometimes make it easier for manufacturing companies to hide it.  Fruit juice concentrate = sugar.  High fructose corn syrup = sugar.  Agave = sugar.  Nutrition labels list ingredients in order from highest content in the product to lowest.  By using a variety of these (and fake sugars like maltodextrin), the concentration of each one is lowered so the ingredient gets bumped later in the list.  Tricky.

So the narrator, who has been off sugar, starts consuming sugar with a team of supporters including physicians and dieticians to watch his blood levels, body weight, and nutrition. He does this challenge without touching any candy, baked goods, soda, or chocolate.  He only consumes foods marked as healthy like yogurt, cereal bars, and juice and chooses low fat options whenever possible. He gets blood markers taken before, during, and after the experiment monitoring for changes of the heart and liver as well as tracking his blood pressure and heart rate. 

Different types of sugar are explored in these resources and the basic science of how the body processes sugars is outlined.  For example, glucose is the sugar that is used by the brain, cells, and organs for energy.  Lactose is the sugar that is found in dairy product. Sucrose is table sugar that is added to numerous foods we easily have access to.  It is composed of two different sugars - half glucose (the one I just mentioned is used as energy by the body) and half fructose. Fructose is the sugar in fruit and vegetables, including from corn as high fructose corn syrup and was previously very rare as fruit was not available year-round and to acquire honey, you'd have to fight the bees.  Fructose makes food very sweet, and it is considered to be the problem sugar because we have made it so much more readily accessible.

So Damon starts his sixty day journey of 40 tsp of sugar that are primarily fructose and sucrose.  He maintained his same exercise routine and overall had a consistent caloric intake from his non-sugar diet.  Some people he met along the way would say that his experimental diet looked healthier than their own typical diet.  Based on his study - that's a problem.  

It was obscenely easy to hit the target of 40 tsp per day. Cereal with yogurt and apple juice for breakfast on the first day totaled 20g (5 tsp) at breakfast. A 12 oz glass of apple juice has 33g of sugar (about 8 tsp).  Serving sizes really mattered because usually packages were multiple servings and could be far more sugar than he expected.  He noted many times throughout the experiment that beverages were a huge source of sugar intake and how this could impact your health in a variety of ways. 

After 12 days, he went to get a check up.  He had gained 3.2 kg (7 pounds!) and it was all in his belly. Visceral fat around the organs rather than distributed around his body.  Three weeks in, watching the movie, he looked ill. His blood tests showed changes in his liver enzymes with fatty infiltration.  He was feeling moody, lethargic, and like an addict waiting on his next sugar dose.  Twenty one days of sugar and it was obvious that it was making him sick.

One area that I found really interesting was that he explored the history of the aborigines and their health changes as they started eating processed foods and sugars.  He went to visit a community that had eliminated coca cola and the health of the community dramatically improved. 

One experiment he tried was to swap out the sugary food choices for a non-sugary option and add the actual amount of sugar to the plate.  This had a dramatic visual effect.  AKA it looked really disgusting. For example, he had planned to eat some teriyaki chicken where the sauce packaging said it had the equivalent of 4 tsp of sugar in it. Instead he had chicken without sauce on it and poured 4 tsp of sugar over the chicken and consumed that. Instead of drinking a bottle of Powerade that had 8 tsp of sugar, he drank warm water with 8 tsp of sugar. Ultimately he still had the 40 tsp for the day but as straight up white table sugar. This made him throw up. 

A month into the experiment, Damon comes to America. (side note: if you haven't seen the movie Coming to America, you MUST!  Here's the trailer.)

Upon his arrival to the USA, he gets a Jamba juice that has 34 tsp (136 grams) of sugar in it. He then shows all the fruit he would have had to consume to make that smoothie and shows how it would be impossible to eat that many whole pieces of fruit.  I've never tried to eat four apples in one sitting... but I definitely don't think I could...and then throw in a banana and some berries and limes?  No way!

He realized quickly it would be super difficult to stay under 40 tsp sugar per day because of all the high fructose corn syrup in the USA, which is not produced in Australia. He meets with an Appalachian region of Kentucky dentist who does mobile home treatments educating kids on how much sugar and caffeine are in Mountain Dew and Pepsi (or Coke). They have considerable tooth decay and start drinking soda at age 2-3 out of their baby bottles! An almost 18-year old has a mouth full of rotten teeth and they plan to extract many of them on the movie.  Damon reached out to Pepsi who said, "In moderation, Mountain Dew is part of a balanced healthy diet." 

He meets with researchers and undergoes various tests. One test was to get his brain studied under fMRI so while sugar is fed to him, they monitor the effects in the brain and then they teach him the science of sugar on the brain and hormones. He also can see what happens to his brain when he is simply shown a picture of a milkshake.  After having so much sugar, even the image of a sugar intake lit up his brain like a Christmas tree.  The researches told him about a study that showed rats worked harder for sugar than for cocaine... it's that addictive!

At the end of 60 days, Damon completes the journey and goes for follow up tests. I won't go into the details... but all of them were bad.  He had a body weight increase of 8.5 kg (18.7 pounds), 7 percent body fat increase and 10 cm increase at waistline.  And the whole time he's eating foods marketed as  "healthy." The calorie intake was virtually the same, but the source of the calories was the problem. 

Then he goes through the change back to his healthy diet. The first week he felt withdrawals and horrible sleep.  It took almost a month to get over the addiction/cravings.  He quickly lost 6 kg just by changing back his diet. Blood tests also restored. Good news: this is a reversible problem! The palate took a while to readjust, but overwhelmingly his body recovered (in the short term).

The recommendations from the movie and book are to limit to 6 tsp of sugar per day which is 24 grams.  Some people are more sensitive and should restrict to less because it triggers them, others can probably tolerate more.  According to the book, in 2003, the World Health Organization was preparing to recommend limits of 10% of caloric intake be from sugar. The sugar industry attacked the WHO and threatened congressional acts that would pull $260 million in funding if they did it. That recommendation was never made public, which suggests that the government and politics interfere with health policies... isn't that sweet?

Happy 2019, everyone.  Stay healthy.

Book Alert: The Omnivore's Dilemma (and The Jungle)

I recently read The Omnivore's Dilemma: A History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan.  I had been meaning to get to it for several years, probably since I read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle which fascinated me.  Both books I would recommend to people who are interested in learning about food in the United States.  They're very different.  The Jungle was written in 1906 and goes into great detail about the living and working conditions for workers in the meat-packing industry.  It was appalling and an interesting way to learn a piece of American history.  I'm certain that if I was a meat-eater when I had read it, I wouldn't have been afterwards, despite how much the industry has changed (I hope!) since that time.  Most days I wish I was a vegetarian but I just can't get myself to do it.  You've been warned!

In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan examines four different pathways to a meal.  He considers the sources of ingredients and what the go through to make it to your fork.  It starts as a story about corn and it’s impact on our food supply as well as contributing to the obesity epidemic, economics, and politics. Fun fact: There are about 45,000 items in a typical grocery store and 25% contain corn.  Looking at a chicken nugget: the chicken while it was alive was fed on a corn-based diet. Once the chicken is used for meat, the nugget is held together with corn starch, then breaded in corn and fried in corn oil.  My favorite quote from the book: "If you are what you eat, we are mostly processed corn." 

Corn evolved to be able to grow under a very wide variety of weather and soil conditions. Because it is used for so much, farmer's were almost forced into growing it and ultimately had difficulty feeding their families because they devoted all their land to corn instead of a variety of animals for meats, vegetables, and fruits.  When the cost of corn decreases, the government helps subsidize farmers so they can stay afloat.  I won't lie - I didn't understand all the political implications that were described, but I did comprehend that the government and politics are intermingled into farming and into our food and that makes things complicated for everyone.  

A huge portion of the corn that is grown becomes high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a sweet form of refined sugar.   A lot of it goes into soda. A farmer gets the tiniest fraction of pay for the corn and the beverage companies get a much larger percentage for what they make from it.  In 1980 Coke changed from sugar to HFCS because corn is cheaper than sugar. Pepsi followed in 1984, and people couldn’t tell the difference in taste.  After a better understanding of how corn is the basic substance of so much of our food, meals from four different food chains were examined. 

First: The industrial corn chain followed to McDonald’s: With the advent of fast food, a family can eat separate meals while still eating together. Separate meals generally means larger portions. The nugget is the reason chicken is more popular than beef in America.  A meal for 3 people from McDonald’s was analyzed for how much corn was used to make it. The six Chicken McNuggets that Pollan’s son consumed used enough corn to feed a handful of people. And the 4,510 calories of the whole family's meal required processing that could have supplied tens of thousands of calories of corn to feed starving communities.  The cost of production of the products we eat is higher than the energy we're getting out of our meals.

The second meal is of mass-produced farming to stock our grocery stores.  This portion was interesting because it looks at some of the imbalances with fuel requirements to produce the food where that fuel could be used in an alternative means.  Similar to the energy cost of making the Chicken McNuggets only looking at the feeding of the animals that are then sold at the grocery store.  Pollan goes to a cattle farm and observes the conditions there, but he meets quite a bit of resistance from facility owners trying to protect their secrets. 

The third meal was based on organic farming. Pollan spends time on a smaller farm learning about the animals and their grass feed and even how to kill a chicken and prepare it. He cooks a meal from the chicken, corn, and eggs of the farm. It was interesting to learn that there are farmers who won't send their produce far from where it is raised, because they're not using anything to preserve the meat so the quality would be poor if it was shipped cross-country.  Pollan's experience participating in the chicken butchery was fascinating... like a new version of The Jungle - but so much safer for the workers and so much less gruesome for the animals.

The fourth meal was a hunter-gatherer-home grown meal. He learns how to forage for mushrooms - which doesn’t sound too hard until you’re holding a mushroom, unsure if eating it will kill you or not since they can be poisonous.  Then growing a garden and getting a hunters license and learning to shoot so he could hunt for the meat.  He kills and prepares a pig and makes the whole meal from ingredients he had grown or scavenged or hunted on his own. 

Overall I really liked learning about the different ways food can end up on the table.  If time constraints and money were no issue - it would be amazing to have a meal every night that was grown in my backyard.  I definitely couldn't hunt an animal and then eat the meat... I can't even fathom the idea of going fishing and on the few occasions when I've made lobsters and cooked them, I've felt terrible about my meal.  But I could see myself milking a cow to make my own cheese... because I love cheese and that doesn't hurt the cow.  If only there was enough time.

I'd recommend both of these books, just like I previously recommended Deep Nutrition here.  There are some other nutrition/food books on my list coming up, too, but any recommendations for what I should read next? 

Book Alert: The TB12 Method by Tom Brady

Another Book Review - this one by the New England Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady.

photo: Amazon.com

I just finished reading Tom's new book, The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance.  Published in 2017, Tom is on the verge of breaking into the fitness industry with his facility, his methods, and his plan for the future. Sounds like his retirement plans are in order - but he keeps saying he wants to play into his mid-40's so he has a few seasons left in him.

He starts off with “Ability allows athletes to achieve. Durability allows them to continue achieving. Pliability makes both possible.” Pliability is “targeted, deep force muscle work that lengthens and softens muscles at the same time those muscles are rhythmically contracted and relaxed.”  This is the premise of Tom's training program but thankfully, he integrates nutrition and recovery and has a more holistic approach than just deep manual therapy. 

Basic book outline:

Tom used to believe that he needed to improve physically being only the 199th pick in the NFL Draft in 2000 and never being the biggest, strongest, or fastest but always with a strong work ethic.   He initially thought that the means to make these physical improvements was through strength and conditioning.  Now, though, he believes the typical strength and conditioning cycle that most athletes participate in includes injury and extended periods of rehab ultimately limiting career duration in all major sports. The usual strength and conditioning approach is missing pliability training.

Looking more at pliability, Tom advocates for deep muscle work while he is contracting and relaxing his muscles. It’s a little like a deep tissue massage combined with an active pin-and-stretch technique or active release technique with the focus that it is not a passive treatment and has neurological benefits as well as the ability to facilitate blood flow.  He also notes that these treatments can mostly be done using vibrating foam rollers or spheres which he has for sale- but you can't use a regular foam roller because the vibration stimulates the nervous system and this is important.  He refers to this pliability training as “positive, intentional trauma that causes new learned behaviors.”

The book includes a fair amount of negative perspective towards weight training with more support for the use of resistance bands.  The analogy he used is: “imagine your body is a pickup truck. It’s weighted down with 1000 pounds of bricks in the cargo bed. This is what weight lifting does to your muscles, ligaments, and joints.  Now imagine your body is a pick up truck towing 1000 pounds of bricks behind it. There’s minimal weight on your structure. This the difference between load and resistance.”  He thinks the use of bands can be structured more to mimic sport-specific actions and has several exercise photos in the book that you can use to get a workout program going.  This summarizes Tom's workout routine and soft tissue work.  Then he proceeds to discuss the other components he finds essential: hydration, supplementation primarily with electrolytes, nutrition - mostly a plant-based diet with occasional meats, positive mental attitude with brain training and rest/recovery components.  

What I liked:

I’m a supporter of the use of manual therapy and generally I apply more deep tissue work than superficial. I also think this is frequently neglected by athletes- primarily because when reviewing my own current program I have minimal soft tissue work programmed in or even sufficient recovery time and self mobility work. If I’m likely to skip it myself, wouldn't professional athletes who may not buy into it even more likely to skip out?

Train your muscles for the activities you want them to do.  A quarterback doesn’t need to be able to run a marathon.  He does need to be able to quickly move and change directions and throw a football.   There are some good exercises included that will help me grow as a physical therapist. I already love to use a pallof press in various positions but have never used a pallof squat before and know I will now. 

He breaks down the different sources of water: tap, distilled/filtered, spring, mineral, carbonated, and purified and describes how they differ.  ’ve been thinking that seltzer was making me dehydrated having considered the biochemistry of carbonation and the function of bicarbonate/carbonic acid in the cloud stream so it was nice to see that he agrees that it can be a dehydrating option since I haven’t done any research in that topic yet. 

From a nutritional standpoint, the suggested diet somewhat overlaps with Deep Nutrition and Whole 30 principles which I already subscribe to.  Interestingly the book suggests that you should avoid meals which combine protein (needs acidic digestion) and carbohydrate (needs alkaline digestion) which I have not seen before.  

What I didn’t like:

N=1: Tom Brady. You say you have a training center focused on your principles. Bring on the data. From the perspective of evidence-based practice - there are no cited sources in this book and while I have learned and studied some of these ideas, there are numerous statements included that I would need references to review in order to buy in entirely.  So far this is all anecdotal- of course you’re having better physical outcomes in football by taking better care of your body. People differ, though. The back of the book has a few pages of anonymous testimonials but that's not sufficient from an evidence- based perspective.  

I have concerns over the risk of deep tissue work by untrained people  with no discussion of the risk for blood clots or other potential complications such as issues with skin integrity or while already injured or who are diabetic.  The book shows you the principles enough that I could actually complete a full pliability session and workout, but there are definitely going to be non-clinicians reading the book and I don't think there is adequate precaution or concern for potential reasons you would not use these methods. 

The diet/nutrition could be considered pretty rigid. To be fair- so is the Whole 30.  If he's targeting the general population, it will be interesting to see how many people get on board with it or just take small bits and pieces to make small improvements in health.  For example, Tom goes as far as saying he eliminates night shades because despite the antioxidants, they can slightly increase his inflammation. He has every right to exclude so many foods- but he also has the funds and access to a food service that prepares meals for him which so many of us do not have available. He’s working on optimizing his body to be the all time greatest quarter back in the NFL- major difference in his physical demands compared to my own. If he thinks he gets a competitive edge from this program, I’m impressed he has sustained this lifestyle for so long.  I don't know that I would need to be quite this extreme. 

Ultimately- would I consider taking one of his courses to certify as a TB12 body coach to learn more and (hopefully) get some of the research that is essential to back the program?  Sure I would. I like to learn. And I like manual therapy.  And I think there are some great points to the program.  I definitely don't hydrate sufficiently and I know my body feels best when it follows a somewhat similar nutrition plan.  I disagree with the negative impact of weight lifting - but also think this varies between people and it makes me wonder if he could have had similar benefit with the addition of pliability along with typical strength and conditioning rather than the use of his resistance bands.  Will I incorporate the techniques in my own programs? I absolutely think I might add more soft tissue work and self myofascial release or foam rolling with pin and stretch into my next training cycle to see how I respond and I added some of it to my workout the past few days and know that my soreness improved.  

Disclaimer: I am not a New England Patriots Fan... but I am from New England and I certainly respect any professional athlete who can remain at their post for nearly 20 years.  And I like to learn - so Tom Brady's book declaring new and innovative ways to improve longevity in sport - of course I'll check it out.   Tom is a public figure - if his methods can help someone prevent or recover from injury, I'm a supporter, and I want to know how he does it..

The Whole 30

Update April 2021 - This blog post expresses an opinion and lifestyle that I previously supported.  But after years of learning about diet culture and the negative outcomes associated with dieting, I no longer subscribe to these beliefs.  I've kept the post because of growth over time, but no longer support restriction of food because of the negative impact it had on my life.  

Shrimp Tacos on Jicama Slices - made by me!

January 2018 is here and with its arrival come the annual resolutions to commit to a healthier lifestyle. New year, new you, right?

his January I’ll be completing my 6th round of the Whole 30. For those of you who haven’t yet heard about Melissa Hartwig and her Whole 30 Empire- here are the cliffs notes. 

The Whole 30 is a month of eating certain foods while eliminating other foods so that you have the opportunity to see how your body responds when you add the eliminated foods back in. There are rules and they must be strictly adhered to for the whole 30 days or you have to start over. The key rules (as I prioritize them) are:

1) No sugar... see ya later chocolate!

2) No dairy products... I’ll miss you, cheese!

3) No grains- gluten or otherwise.  This includes wheat, rice, corn, quinoa, granola, oatmeal... Basically a lot of the carbs are out- but not all of them.  Potatoes are my friend. 

4) No legumes or peanuts... I look forward to the return of my chunky peanut butter when I reintroduce legumes Every. Single. Time. 

5) No alcohol... hence the rise to power of La Croix/Seltzer and Kombucha.

6) No fake stuff... like additives to foods, colorings, fake sugars... who misses these anyways?  We’re literally eating chemicals in tons of our foods. 

7) No baked goods or treats that resemble them but are made out of approved ingredients. Don’t try to make pancakes out of almond flour and mashed bananas. It’s just 30 days.  You'll survive.
(For more details on the rules, you should read Melissa Hartwig's Books or just start at the website which has lots of helpful tools including the rules, food additives that are allowed (like citric acid which can be manufactured but occurs naturally in citrus fruits - and several others), a list of all the different names for types of sugars - none of which are permitted, and several suggestions for meal preparations, grocery shopping, etc.  I will say that I did my first whole 30 program based on the website and have since read several of the books which have made the process easier in subsequent rounds.

What you can, and should eat:

1) Vegetables. Cooked or raw. 

2) Animals that lived happy lives or as close to organic as you can afford and acquire. For me, as a non red-meat eater- this means a lot of chicken, turkey, and fish and eggs. 

3) coconut, olive, or avocado oils or ghee/refined butter for cooking. 

4) so many seasonings like herbs and spices as long as they don’t include any of the not allowed items. I personally live on cumin for tacos/fajitas and Franks Red Hot (original flavor) made into buffalo sauce during my whole 30’s. 

5) Nuts and seeds including nut butters that aren’t peanuts

6) Fruit

Basically- eat healthy for 30 days. Read your labels and see what kinds of things are added to our food to make you more aware.  Cleanse yourself. 

After the 30 days is up- you can either follow the guide in the Whole 30 book to introduce the eliminated components one by one or you can choose which one to add first. For example, I was really sure before doing this that dairy products bother me—- but after reintroducing them first on several rounds, I’ve determined that it either isn’t dairy products or that it is a certain dairy product that I have not yet isolated. In comparison- chick peas/garbanzo beans definitely make me feel miserable so I now avoid eating hummus and adding chick peas to my salads and only eat them if they’re in a felafel sandwich that looks and tastes amazing when I’m not in whole 30 mode.  Interestingly, I don’t seem to have the same reaction to quinoa or peanuts and haven’t tested black beans or pinto beans enough to be sure.  

So- why would anyone do this? I can tell you that I lose weight every time I do a whole 30, but that I have gained it back every time I reintroduce sugar.  Since I've been calorie tracking for about 4 months continously while not on the Whole 30, and now am 4 days into this round - it's easy to see why.  A single piece of cheese and two pieces of bread which I may have had with my turkey sandwich while not on the plan were 300 more calories - and that's just in a lunch sandwich.  It's unfortunate I haven't been able to sustain the loss - but maybe that will be different if I keep tracking moving forward.

Regardless, I’ve learned valuable things about what I eat and how my body responds to those foods. In particular, I feel a whole lot better when I eat this way, so it’s a nice way to start the year off with clean eating, trying to get on track, and test out what foods seem to bother your gut or your skin or your body in various ways. When I do a whole 30, I have more energy after the initial few days, I feel less bloated, my skin, hair, and fingernails are much nicer, and I don’t have ANY of the binge eating issues that plague me when I’m allowing myself to eat whatever I want. The program is not intended to be for weight loss- it’s intended for improved self awareness and personal growth so you can achieve Food Freedom.  This is the idea that you control what you consume and that your food does not control you.  I have, on too many occasions, known that food was in control. For the next 30 days- and typically longer when I’m reintroducing things - I feel very much in control.  

I personally have not reached my place of Food Freedom, yet, but with my new nutritional knowledge after reading “Deep Nutrition” and overlapping some of the consistent ideas, I’m looking forward to combining these ideas moving through 2018 to see if I get closer to 2018. Deep Nutrition advocates for some dairy and ohhhh man do I love cheese- so that’s a key difference. It also recommends fermented foods, meat on the bone and bone broth as well as organ meats, and raw vegetables while eliminating sugar and poor oil sources. In combination, I think there might be a happy medium for me and look forward to sharing my journey.

Disclaimer: as a physical therapist - I don't just go around advising people to participate in this program because that's not within my scope of practice.  But as a human being, this is what I'm doing for myself and lots of patients have heard about it and often ask.  This is to better educate you about the plan - since it's been around for years and is increasingly more common.

Anybody else doing a whole 30?  How’s it going? Any fun recipes you want to share?  I'm happy to share my favorites if you're in need!

Happy New Year.  Here's to a healthy 2018.

Book Alert: Deep Nutrition By Dr. Catherine Shanahan

I just finished reading Deep Nutrition by Dr. Catherine Shanahan.  Fascinating stuff.  And if Kobe Bryant endorses it, as one of the few who was able to play NBA elite level hoops for 20 years, it has to be worthy of a few weeks of my reading time, right?

A few snippets that I found fascinating from this book:

1) Nutrition can affect genetics in later on generations but these may not be permanent changes.  The idea that DNA and genes are a series of light switches turned on or off by what is available is novel to me.  One example in the book describes a 1930 study conducted using pigs that were deprived of vitamin A before they reproduced.  The litter of these deprived pigs were born without eyeballs because the mother had no supply available and vitamin A is essential to formation of the eye.  The blind piglets, however, were fed normal diets that contained vitamin A and they were able to give birth to pigs with eyeballs. Unreal!

2) The science of food is considered with respect to the biochemistry of oils and how certain ones (particularly vegetable oils) are dangerous for consumption. Dr Cate shows how vegetable oils have multiple double bonds in their chains which break apart when heated leaving reactive compounds in our bodies that can wreak havoc on the system. My inner chemistry nerd loved trying to comprehend the complexity that she simplified here.  Additionally, there is a lengthy discussion of the science of all the ways vegetable oils can affect the body- and none of them sounds good!  This book is a challenging read- even with boat loads of science learning behind me, I had to really work to gain full understanding of some of the biochemistry going on- but it is definitely making me think about my food in a new way.

3) Following oil, the book went on to discuss the negative effects of sugar consumption. After completing five rounds of the whole 30, I'm positive that my body hates sugar... though my mind continues to crave it and give in to the temptation of its deliciousness. Discussions of how sugar influences cholesterol levels, diabetes, migraines, erectile dysfunction, and cardiac issues were outlined. I doubt I’ll ever be able to completely exclude my favorite treats from my diet, but the anecdotes and research outlined in this book will certainly make me think more about the treats I’m consuming and whether or not they’re worth it. 

4) Consider food as medicine. If you focus on what we eat as the problem, it might be hard to realize that food is also the solution.  The book looks at a few conditions - particularly concussion, Alzheimer’s, and autism- and discusses how oxidative stress contributes to these diagnoses. Did you know that what you eat after a concussion can impact your potential recovery because certain foods increase oxidative stress on the brain which it is already overloaded with from the injury? I had never thought about it from that perspective, and I treat people who have experienced concussions!  The book outlines "The Human Diet" with the four key components of what you should be eating. 

Overall, I definitely recommend the book but think it’s only fare to mention it felt like hard work to get through some of the heavy science portions. Ultimately I’m so glad I did and will definitely be applying some of the principles I learned to how I eat and cook.

Check it out!  Next up to read: "The Origin of Species."