Red Leopard

You really don’t notice that you’re not sick when you’re not sick. But take ill, and that is all you notice. I’ve been pushing life a bit hard of late and life in turn bit me right on the ass.

I had felt run down for a couple of weeks but late last Thursday, I felt simply awful. By midnight, my head was a hair from exploding. I knew I was out of commission for the next few days.

Friday was the worst. I could barely concentrate so I just slept. Sort of. I thought of the The Hot Zone and wondered if I was going to bleed out like an ebola victim. “Of course not,” I thought. Followed by a thought that none of the ebola victims thought they were going to die. I felt rotten.

Saturday, I slept nearly the whole day and all night. Tracy made chicken soup from scratch. That always brightens my outlook. I like chicken soup.

Sunday, I read a bit and slept. I’d like to believe this was a random illness, one to chalk up as luck of the draw but I don’t. I caused it. Stress. Poor nutrition. Lack of exercise. Inadequate sleep.

Of these, nutrition is the easiest to improve. I’m reminded of what the nutritionist Cliff Sheats wrote in the forward to his book “Lean Bodies Cookbook“.

“I entered the field of nutrition because I was intrigued with how it had everything to do with restoring my health when I was much younger.”
—Cliff Sheats

Cliff played tennis. He and his tennis buddies regularly ate candy bars to get a sugar boost with the intention of adding energy to their game. In the end, Cliff was a mess. Hypoglycemic, severe allergies, breathing difficulties… a real mess. He went on medications that seemed only to make things worse.

At the recommendation of a friend, Cliff went to a nutritionist who put him on a high-protein, high-complex-carbohydrate, high calorie diet. In two weeks, he felt much better and in nine months he was playing the professional tennis circuit. The rest is history.

I used the Lean Bodies nutrition plan thirteen years ago while training for a marathon. I wasn’t completely rigorous then but it did make a difference. I felt great. I haven’t felt good—much less great—in a long, long time.

Today, I recommit to the Lean Bodies program for the remainder of 2008.

Lean Bodies requires discipline. I recall how difficult it was to consume the prescribed number of calories that fell within the guidelines of Lean Bodies.

The Lean Bodies book outlines a gradual increase in calories over a seven week period for easing into the program. This is a high calorie program. How high? Betwen 2,300 and 3,500 calories per day. A couple trips to the local fast food joint takes care of that, you say? Ha! Lean Bodies stipluates you eat primarily complex carbohydrates, proteins and unsaturated fats. That’s not always so easy.

For example, here is the #3 burger meal off the standard menu of a local fast food restaurant. And believe me, I chose this restaurant because it was better than its competitors in meeting the Lean Bodies guidelines.

Calories from #3
         SUM  f   sc  cc  p
burger : 670 370 148  16 158
fries  : 400 160   0 216   0
cola   : 198   0 198   0   0
cola   : 198   0 198   0   0 (refill)
-------------------------------------
total   1466 530 544 232 158

f  : fats
sc : simple carbs (bad carbs)
cc : complex carbs (good carbs)
p  : protein

This quick lunch packs 1466 calories. Seems that would get you half way to the total calorie goal for the day. Not so fast. Lean Bodies prescribes between 65 and 70 percent of your total calories come from good carbs: unrefined, starchy carbs and leafy, fibrous veggies. Of the remaining calories, less than 10 percent from unsaturated fats and the rest from protein.

Since good carbs seem to be—for me, anyway—the hardest to eat enough of, let’s peg them as the basis for what a lean bodies meal might look like. Recall from the chart above that we have 232 calories of good carbs. If we low ball the carbs at 65 percent, then the total meal should have

LB Calories Based on Carbs
          cal   %cal
carbs   : 232    65
other   : 123    35
--------------------
total   : 355   100%

LB : Lean Bodies

Immediately we have a red flag. Based on the number of good carbs we are eating, the entire meal should come in at a mere 355 calories. We have an excess of (1466 – 355) = 1111 calories.

Now let’s get a split between fats and proteins. If we high ball fat at 10 percent, then the total meal breakdown is

LB Calories Based on Carbs
          cal   %cal
carbs   : 232    65
protein :  88    25
fats    :  35    10
--------------------
total   : 355   100%

Look where all those good carbs came from: french fries. Very few from the burger. Want another startling revelation? Skipping the cola (or drinking a diet cola) eliminates nearly 400 calories of bad carbs. All those jokes of people ordering the #3 with a diet cola… it actually makes a real difference!

Calories from #3 (no drink)
         SUM  f   sc  cc  p
burger : 670 370 148  16 158
fries  : 400 160   0 216   0
water  :   0   0   0   0   0
water  :   0   0   0   0   0 (refill)
-------------------------------------
total   1070 530 148 232 158

In the end, I’m not sure there is much you could do to shoehorn the #3 into Lean Bodies. Sure, drink diet cola, water or nothing. Even go Atkins and 86 the bun and fries.

Calories from #3 (Atkin-i-fied)
         SUM  f   sc  cc  p
burger : 670 370  28  16 158 (no bun)
fries  :   0   0   0   0   0 (no starch)
water  :   0   0   0   0   0
water  :   0   0   0   0   0 (refill)
-------------------------------------
total    670 370  28  16 158

Dropping the bun saved you from 120 bad carbs but you lost 216 good carbs in the process. 55% of the carbohydrates in the Atkin-i-fied version come from saturated fats, the bad fats.

If you choose to walk the Lean Bodies path, you will be hard pressed to stay the path. But it beats the hell out of being sick as a dog.