This weekend I spent a very long and cold day at the Balanced Bites Seminar.  Based around healthy eating and the Paleo diet, I settled into to my folding chair for a 9-5 on the wonders of making me stronger, healthier, and hopefully a little leaner.

The workshop was presented by Diane Sanfilippo and Liz Wolfe, both Crossfitters, health nuts, and Paleo devotees.  The day started off with some Steve’s Original Jerky and a few funny stories from Liz Wolfe, who I have to say was the highlight of the entire day and was pretty funny to listen to.  Check out her blog Cave Girl Eats if you haven’t yet.  It is now on my rotation of regular reads.

“Pratical Paleo” by Diane Sanfilippo. It has great charts, tools, recipes and references. Totally worth the price tag. Check it out here at Amazon.

The morning was mainly about the nutritional myths and truths Americans are fed on a daily basis and fed into the rest of the day about how we need to get back to what our bodies were meant to eat, live, and work, not what we want them to do.

It was a long day so I am just listing the highlights.

Here are things that are not so great for you:

Low fat diets:

Food that humans were created to eat were filled with healthy fats.  The body thrives on them.  By taking that fat our of our diets our body is not getting vital nutrients it needs.  Once the fat is out of our foods we are  doing nothing more than consuming highly processed garbage.  Seriously, if anyone has Skippy Low Fat Peanut Butter, throw it out.  That fat is just replaced by sugars and crap.  It is NOT healthier.  And you will just be hungrier later on, which just makes you fatter.  I have learned the hard way.

Working the late shift:

This type of schedule actually disrupts your natural circadian rhythm and can be toxic to the human body.  It was suggested if you are not working normal daytime hours, think about considering how to change that during the future for your own health.

UltraMarathons:

Your body was not made to run that long of a distance.  Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean your body won’t hate you later.  I am going to re-read this the Monday after the Runner’s World Hat Trick and tell myself “Idiot, look what you wrote, should have listened to yourself!”  I am still running it.  What of it?

Grains:

Both white and whole grains really aren’t good for you.  They are completely processed either way.  They aren’t eaten in their natural form therefore it doesn’t really matter if you eat Wonder Bread or whole grain wheat.  No matter how “whole” these foods show up at the factory, once they have been puffed, flaked, floured, and shredded, they can barely be considered food.

Dairy:

I am ignoring that whole part of the day for now.  Dear cheese, I love you so.

Meats:

Humans were made to eat meat.  BUT that does not mean all meat is good for you.  Some places where animals are raised for slaughter are horrific and filled with germs and disease.  Source your food, buy grass fed if possible, and buy local.

Stress:

I can’t even get into this, but if you can make out this chart, you’ll probably come out with the same conclusion I had.  ”Clearly, I need to relax but this chart isn’t helping.”

This lady’s head was in my way ALL day. This was not a momentary thing.

Things that are good for you:

Eating for Nutrients (duh!):

Do not look at a label for calories.  LOOK for ingredients and nutrients.  Some of the most nutritious foods may be high in calories, but they are so much more satisfying you will not be as tempted to overeat since they are naturally filling.

Perimeter Grocery Shopping:

Shop ONLY the outsides of the grocery store.  That is where the whole foods are.  Sunday, for the first time, probably ever, I shopped only the perimeter.  By doing so I forgot Cooper’s applesauce.  I fed him cut up apples instead.  He liked them just as much.

Eggs:

Egg yolks contain the most vital nutrients of the egg.  Do not toss them.  (I am guilty of that.  Tomorrow I shall dine with the yolks). My B.

Cholesterol:

Bacon, eggs, red meat, grass fed butter, coconut oil and other natural saturated fats are not the same enemy as the man made ones.  These nature produced fats and cholesterol laden products do not translate to your cholesterol level directly.  It is a common misconception.  These fats are in fact MUCH healthier for you than refined seed/vegetable oils (canola, soybean, and corn oil etc..) such man made oils can even be considered toxic.

Sweeteners:

We can not improve on what nature has made.  Do not eat Truvia, Splenda, Equal, and so forth.  This is a battle I personally struggle with.  I am currently working on ending my personal artificial sweetener habit, because really we all know it is terrible, it is not a shocker.  I am doing my best.  I need like a 30 day chip at the end of the month…or 31 days.  I’m an awesome math teacher.

Final Reflection:

Now as for the workshop itself, I thought personally for $60 there would be a little more.  2 pages of paper, photocopied and stapled together wasn’t my idea of awesome.  I am not saying I needed a whole book, but atleast a print out of the PowerPoint slides would have been nice.  I would have helped me recap better than my messy scribble notes.

And it would definitely of helped more than game of MASH I played with Erin when my ADHD kicked in and couldn’t take anymore notes at all…

8 babies is going to be tough on a scooter…

Besides that I enjoyed the day tremendously and felt I really learned a lot.  I feel renewed in making healthy choices and that is the most important thing.

Finally, since I work in an inner city school, I am the ultimate sap for people helping city kids out in different ways.  Steve’s Club helps out kids in Camden in order to keep them focused in school.  It is harder than you would think to accomplish this for many.  Check out this video and order some jerky or something and help these kids out!  They need your 8 bucks more than you do.