 “One of the main ways the processed food industry is trying to grow and defend their business is by funding self-serving research. The goal of these studies isn’t to uncover “the truth” or to improve public health. Instead, the research is carefully constructed to create sound bites and statistics to help market their products or combat potential regulation. This is one of the primary ways we end up with conflicting studies that confuse consumers on what they should eat or drink.”
This from the mouth of Bruce Bradley, a veteran food marketer at companies like General Mills, Pillsbury, and Nabisco, in this interview at Grist.org titled “Confessions of a Former Big Food Executive“.
As someone who follows health news & research on a daily basis, I can confirm there are enough contradictory “facts” to give us information-indigestion to go along with our clogged colons. The public is told to “get educated” about their food choices, but this has become even harder than avoiding the obesity plague, thanks in part to the verbal diarrhea Mr. Bradley is drawing attention to.
I don’t know why yet, but I have read literally hundreds of books, thousands of news articles, and watched dozens of documentaries about health & fitness. Over the years I have been converted to - and become a vocal advocate of – diets as contradictory as Vegetarian & Paleo.
I have had Wheat Belly, 6 pack abs, a Body for Life, a Body for Wife, a 4 Hour Body, survived The Vegetarian Myth, discovered The Paleolithic Solution and rebuilt my health using a more Primal Blueprint. I consider myself better-versed in the data than the average Fat-head, but even I can get spun out of The Zone about simple staples such as whole wheat over meat or Forks Over Knives!
All is not lost though, and my floundering through carbs & ketones has led in a round-about way to the most thriving well-being of my life. I haven’t found The Perfect Human Diet, but am ok with my diet evolving as I uncover better practices, and try to keep the door open to change.
Your health is a high enough priority for you to justify SOME efforts into understanding basic biology and keeping abreast of the issues. BUT, unless you are making a living as a health expert, you probably can’t justify the amount of effort required to stay on top of this Super-Sized mountain.
Armed with my high-school diploma, and all the spare time of your typical father of four, my personal approach is two-fold: Experimentation (take action!), and Follow Trusted Sources.
Experiment. It’s been said that people are more likely to change religions than they are to change diets, and I have certainly seen some evidence of that. However, I can’t relate. I find that trying out diets is heaps of entertainment, not to mention a better conversation piece than the weather. The changes that can occur in your body, and how you feel (and how your spouse feels about you) at times are staggering. In the process you learn a lot about how you individually respond to certain foods and proportions. What is working for everyone else, may not have the same effect on you.
This experiential knowledge is invaluable. Taking action will take you farther than reading research papers. You will discover that disciplined eating isn’t something you just turn on, it is a skill that takes years to develop. Have patience when you bail off the wagon, habits that can only sustained by the right mindsets, and these mindsets take years to mature as well.
I can’t keep on top of everything, so I use trusted sources to filter the information for me. Finding these sources are tricky, there aren’t many experts who agree on very much. Like everyone else born in the last hundred years, I have developed a healthy skepticism of “experts”. Instead of degrees, here are a few of the credentials I look for:
- Track record: their followers are experiencing improvements in health & wellness.
- Vitality: they practice what they preach, walk the talk, and are experiencing the results I am looking for.
- Humility: they admit to mistakes, change their message & evolve their story when confronted with reasonable evidence.
- Transparent financial disclosures: I am fine with folks making a buck or million on their wisdom, but I try to follow professionals who disclose potential conflicts of interest, so that I can take this bias into account.
As you navigate the murky waters of nutrition, maintain proper perspective. Bear in mind it’s likely your crappy attitude is a more dangerous killer than Ronald McDonald. Get your sleep. Cram as much laughing, hugging, praying, sex, and physical activity into the rest of the day as possible, not necessarily in that order.
A last word of advice from Mr. Bradley:
There is no free lunch. Over the long-term, you always get what you pay for. Cheap food is very expensive once you add up the true costs — like the taxes you pay to subsidize Big Food companies, health consequences like obesity or diabetes, the devastating harm to our environment, and the inhumane treatment of animals raised within the industrialized food system.
What’s your approach?
 Here are a few of the resources that have guided our experiments with IF (intermittent fasting). We have been playing around with this for almost a couple of years and are intrigued enough to continue our tinkering.
The touted benefits of IF or “caloric restriction” include enhanced immune function, longevity, body composition, insulin sensitivity, and metabolism. I’d say that is a reasonable sized carrot on the end of the stick.
IF does require small amounts of discipline in the form of delayed gratification, but the methods linked to below we have found to be sustainable with our lifestyle. A wee bit of masochism helps, but is not a pre-requisite. In fact, many practitioners would fall into hedonist camps.
Personally, we’ve tried 17 hour fasts up to 30 hour fasts, and frequency has ranged from once per 10 days, down to every 3 or 4 days. For the best part of the past couple years, it has been between 17 and 24 hours long, every 6 to 7 days.
Recently, we’ve embarked on the 16 hour daily fast as taught by Martin Berkhan at LeanGains.com. The Lean Gains method might be somewhat familiar to some as the “too busy for breakfast method.” The jest of it involves abstaining from food [...]
 There was a new book released yesterday, and I think you should buy it.
Everyday I wake up and feel GOOD. I’ve got energy, no pain, no sickness, ease of movement, and I feel stronger everyday. This won’t always be the case, so I don’t take it for granted. Everyday I’m grateful.
Mark Sisson, the author of this new book, is one of the people I’m especially grateful for when it comes to the health I am currently enjoying. I have been following his writing and advice for a few years, and I don’t believe I would be experiencing the results I am, to the degree that I am, without him.
This book will be a best-seller, and to help put this message in front of as many as possible Mark has offered some pretty sweet deals for folks who buy the book before October 24th. Here’s the pitch from Mark (Disclosure: if you purchase the book through one of the links below I receive an affiliate commission):
The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation.
It’s a practical, action-oriented guide for how to eat, exercise and live Primally – a step-by-step, “cut to the chase” resource to make a smooth and quick [...]
 Ethan (L) and Ariel (R). Everybody needs a friend like Ethan.
Ariel turned 9 on October 15th, and what strikes me about this age is that 9 is halfway to 18, a legal adult here in the province of Alberta. This means we are halfway through our responsibility of legal parent/guardianship to Ariel, and I’m NOT particularly excited about the rapid pace of this development.
Ariel has un unrelenting curiosity to understand how everything works. It is great fun to watch him develop his science bent, and we’re all learning lots as a by-product of his unending questions. Google has become a close friend.
Ariel has also developed his own unique taste in music. His siblings are all fans of top 40 pop, and Ariel sticks his fingers in his ears when subjected to it. Ariel likes rock, plain & simple, and if given access to the radio controls he has it switched to the modern rock station in a flash.
To our chagrin, Ariel is also becoming quite a hockey fan. He has chosen this entirely on his own, with maybe a bit of influence from one of his heroes, Uncle Shawn, as neither Amanda or I could be [...]
 Amanda Sutherland lands the Snatch thanks in part to magical socks.
If you would have told me three years ago that the Snatch would become an irreplaceable component of my health & wellness routines I would have given you a quizzical look.
Ideas usually have to come in the type of packaging/marketing we like before we can give them proper consideration. Fortunately, CrossFit presented Olympic Weightlifting to me in the kind of packaging I am receptive to, and I have since been sold on its unique ability to develop some otherwise difficult-to-develop domains of fitness. (Olympic lifting, gymnastics, and powerlifting form the foundation of CrossFit programming.)
After dabbling in the movements over the past three years, and diving in a little deeper over this past summer, I can say with some confidence that the snatch, clean & jerk, and their associated movements will be an integral part of my physical training from here on.
Keep in mind that my fitness goals do not include becoming big, bulky, or competing in strongman competitions. I’m just trying to be ready for whatever comes my way, and olympic weightlifting movements have become an indispensable tool in this pursuit.
If you have not yet considered these movements to [...]
 Elephants never forget.
Have you ever wished that finding your previous “Fran” times, or your 3 rep max deadlift numbers was as quick and simple as a Google search on your phone? I have good news for you, it is this easy with Evernote! (You can track workouts for any sport with Evernote, I use it for CrossFit.)
Evernote is a free app for your phone, computer, or mobile device that makes it super simple to capture anything, find it fast, anywhere. I have many uses for Evernote, but one of my (and Amanda’s) primary uses over the past couple years is tracking my CrossFit WOD’s. After trying to explain the benefits of Evernote to so many CrossFitters over the past few months, I’ve decided to make a quick how-to post.
Once you have downloaded the Evernote app to any devices you use (I have it on my Macbook, iPhone, and iPad), there are a number of ways to start recording your WOD’s. From your phone, you can create notes by recording audio, taking a picture, or typing in text. On your computer, you can drag-and-drop files into Evernote, “clip” portions of websites from your browser, or even forward emails into Evernote.
Recording [...]
As I posted earlier, Amanda’s team at CrossFit Lineage has qualified to compete in the Canada West Regionals, on the road to the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games.
The Canada West Regionals are held May 27-29 in Vancouver, BC. Considerable travel costs and registration fees will be incurred so we have put together a couple fundraisers to help these athletes get there. Your support in any of these efforts is greatly appreciated, here are a few ways you can get involved. Not all of them are painful.
1. Corporate Sponsorship – Promote your business with CrossFit Athletes
If you think your business could benefit from exposure in the CrossFit community, here are a few options for your consideration. We’d love to work with you to create a mutually beneficial partnership.
Business logo advertised at CrossFit Lineage Facility: Available for sponsorship amounts of $50, $100, or $150
Business logo advertised at CrossFit Lineage Facility & on Team T-shirts: Available for sponsorship amounts of $200 – $1000
Sponsorship of a specific athlete: (covers travel costs for an athlete, and the athletes shirt with your logo on it): $750
Team T-shirt Sponsor (shirts worn by the team and coaches at the competition – your logo on the back): $250
2. Join Us for a [...]
The Village at Pigeon Lake – a great example of a unique retail experience.
A recent analysis of the Strathcona County retail market indicated that the County’s economy could support an additional 300,000+ square feet of retail space. It also confirmed that County residents are still going to Edmonton for their dose of retail therapy.
The response to this analysis has been a push to attract some of the world’s major brands into the community. Another recent survey of residents found that the top 15 requested brands are: The Keg, Target, Future Shop, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Toys R Us, Lululemon, Bed Bath and Beyond, H&M, Moxie’s, Home Outfitters, Golf Town, Whole Foods, Pet Smart, and Old Navy.
I believe the efforts being made to attract these brands are incomplete, miss the mark, and would like to propose a “roll your own” approach instead. Strathcona County has the talent and the resources to fill some of these retail gaps in-house, we just need to do a little soil prep to grow our own entrepreneurs.
The advantages of creating an “incubator” that grows our own entrepreneurs, specifically in the retail sector, include but are not limited to:
unique retail experiences that attract new residents and retain [...]
 Amanda and I just completed the first qualifiers of the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games: a competition to find the fittest on earth. Happily, our team CrossFit Lineage has qualified for the next level, and Amanda will be competing at Regionals in Vancouver! (Which means we will be hitting you up for support in our fundraiser, details TBA.)
To find the fittest on earth, you need to cast a large net, and use big bait. The large net is Sectionals, which were open to anyone on earth who could manage to find internet access and a video camera. An unprecedented 25,000+ people worldwide ended up registering for the six week long Open Sectionals competition. The bait this year is $1,000,000 in prize money put up by Reebok.
Every week, a new, unknown workout was unveiled, and participants had until the end of the week to complete the workout and have it validated by either a CrossFit affiliate, or via video submission of their workout online. Once your workout is submitted to the Games website, you are ranked according to your comparative performance. The top score receives 1 point, if your score ranked at 25,000, you receive 25,000 points! Like golf, you want the [...]
 “We must follow the argument wherever it leads.” – Socrates
This socratic quote is the recurring theme in Antony Flew‘s (11 February 1923 – 8 April 2010) book, and this open-minded philosophy allows the book to be enjoyed by almost anyone, regardless of their stance on the question.
Flew, an atheist since the age of 15, spent most of his life advocating a presupposition of atheism until empirical evidence of God has surfaced. He had ample opportunity to hone his arguments as part of Oxford’s Socratic Club, chaired by none other than Christian apologist, C.S. Lewis.
In 2004, he announced that advancements in science and philosophy had led him to deism, and he now subscribes to the God of Aristotle. Aristotle describes this Superior Mind as having the following attributes: immutability, immateriality, omnipotence, omniscience, oneness or indivisibility, perfect goodness and necessary existence. It is noted that this set of attributes are also traditionally ascribed to God by the Judaeo-Christian tradition.
The book is not written with the intent to “settle” the matter once and for all – it is simply the story of Flew’s life & evolution as a philosopher. You will not have to look far on the interwebs to find rebuttals to [...]
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