This week's tip:


Eat Like a Caveman to Keep the Pounds Off

The Paleo Diet can help you stay trim, especially around the holidays
 

By Brent Bovitz

Paleo dinner

Did cavemen have plates? ... A Paleo-style meal with pork, vegies and fruit.

Photo: Wikipedia creative commons

For inline skaters in the Northern Hemisphere, the off-season coincides with the holidays. That means we have plenty of time to eat, drink … and get fat!

Those of you who know me know that I love to eat. So I’ve got to be especially careful at this time of the year.

But I’ve got two things going for me: I keep up my training and I follow the Paleo Diet.

In case you are unfamiliar with it, the Paleo Diet, or Caveman Diet, is inspired by the presumed wild diet of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. It’s heavy on lean meats, fruits and vegetables and light on fried foods, breads and sweets.

The reason many middle-aged athletes have embraced the Paleo Diet is that, as we age, our metabolism slows down and we no longer burn an infinite number of nachos. I noticed this, sadly, after I turned 40.

I follow the Paleo Diet year-round. But I am particularly strict with it in the winter when my training is cut back. That means eating small “Paleo” meals 85 percent of the time.

A typical Paleo meal consists of a piece of lean meat about the size of a deck of cards and a portion of vegetables the size of a fist.

I eat a lot of lean pork, turkey and chicken and avoid, for the most part, milk, cheese, sodas, breads, pastas and sweets.

I also drink lots of water. In general, you should drink one-half ounce of water for every pound of your body weight. So if you weigh 180 pounds, you should drink 90 ounces of water (11 cups) a day.

As a reward for sticking to my diet, I allow myself three or so “cheat meals” a week.

A cheat meal could be four slices of pizza or two-thirds of a rack of smoked ribs, both with a side salad and a glass of red wine. Other cheats could include a juicy steak or pasta dish.

If my diet is going well, I’ll treat myself to a small piece of dark chocolate for dessert. But if I start gaining weight, I lose the chocolate.

Summers are easier. When I am burning lots of calories and the pants are getting loose, I allow myself a dessert of vanilla yogurt with chocolate sauce.

I monitor my progress by weighing myself daily.

A bathroom scale can help keep you honest. Just step on once a day. Are you holding ... are you growing?

Adjust accordingly.

Remember, a spandex skinsuit tells no lies.

...

brentbovitz150pBrent Bovitz won the Pro 40 (Pro Vet) division of the 2012 National Roller Cup. He is a member of Team Twincam and a technology coach for the Eden Prairie School District in the southwest suburbs of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

 

Team Twincam


 

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