Paradigm Detox Day 1

The Monday after Thanksgiving weekend traditionally is when most people freak out about being overweight or how much weight they put on over the Thanksgiving weekend. I certainly had that moment of panic this morning, yes indeed. But I also had a plan in place.

I read The Paradigm Diet late last year, and even put a review up here singing the praises of the program We started off the year as vegans, but Ironman training quickly got in the way of the reduced caloric intake so eggs and eventually meat worked its way back into our normal routine. Since then, I found the author, Dr. Adam Dave, MD, on facebook and we became fast friends. Again I can highly recommend this book if you haven't heard of it before, and he's put out some others as well. His advice was taken to heart when my foot started acting up in late summer and I was very appreciative.

Then a few weeks ago marathon season hit in Southern California. When the good doctor reported a marathon PR of 2:49, ran barefoot and shirtless to show off that single digit bodyfat I was intrigued. Then the next weekend he put up a 2:58 marathon, so you know it wasn't a fluke, I had to be a bit more inquisitive. Does this guy actually actually still follow the plan in his book? Can that really fuel  these fast marathons?

Yes and yes. I got the short version of his habits, but he gave it to me with a challenge. I should be the next experiment. Give it two weeks and I should shred right up! So every day for the next 14 days I will blog daily weight and bodyfat %, complete food journal, and workout log. It will be an afternoon post and I don't expect any comments around it, but it will give me a category reference to look back at and see how shredded I get.

The theory behind the Paradigm Diet is to only put in the most optimal foods for the body to perform at it's best. This will minimize body fat naturally, as well as make you look younger and feel better than ever. Injury problems should melt away as the body heals itself. It's vegan (no animal products at all), sure, but it's really plant based whole foods vegan. No potato chips or any other processed stuff that doesn't happen to contain meat.  The main structure of the plan looks like this:

bananas and dates before morning workout
AM workout
frozen fruit smoothie breakfast
big-ass salad (kale, beans, avacado-lemon juice-soy sauce dressing, rasins, etc) lunch
Giant Steamer dinner (vegetables, beans, greens) topped with raw veg dinner
more fruit for dessert if needed

Sometimes my main workout comes in the evening, like swim practice tuesday and thursday, and obviously starting the day with fruits and fructose is designed to fuel that morning workout. Not entirely sure how that is going to play out.  I'm also going to push the core strength and yoga along with normal marathon training, so every day should (might) contain one swim/bike/run workout, and one strength and/or yoga time.  This stuff is high carb, high fiber, with lots of protein and very little fat. Everything is whole foods, nothing processed.  Let's go!

Monday Dec 2 2013
MMNW: 185.2 lbs, 22.2% bodyfat (Thanksgiving weekend was not kind on the scale)
1 banana, 2 dates
AM workout: run 3 miles, 25 minutes, treadmill, felt great.
Breakfast smoothie: banana, apple, spinach, frozen (peaches, canteloupe, blueberries), OJ, water
Lunch: oatmeal (soy milk, chia seeds, flax seeds, rasins, almonds), and some animal crackers
Dinner: Big salad - Romaine, avocado, pumpkin seeds, rasins, edamame. unbelievably good!
PM Workout: Yoga
Snack:

Oatmeal isn't paradigm (processed instant oats), neither is the soy milk. But we were out of town all weekend without enough groceries for a proper lunch. That dinner salad was amazing. Take a whole avocado and mash it up with the juice from 1 lemon and some soy sauce. incredible dressing for your salad.

My hope for this 2 week detox is that I will shred down some body fat, my right foot is hurting a little bit again so that should heal up, and it should become a habit. Dr Dave says that this style is very habit forming, I bet he's right. Challenge accepted!