Dost thou even hoist? The first Miss Afghanistan does

Recently I was reviewing some Afghanistan cultural information for work.  Well, lo and behold after we liberated the country from the Taliban they had a Miss Afghanistan contest, and Miss Vida Samadzai won the contest and competed in teh Miss World contest.  The biggest controversy was she competed in a red bikini and built a fan club-like following, both of which were scandalous.  Even more amazing her fan club posted a video of her deadlifting to YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17-dLqd5RkM

She does a pretty good set of 5 deadlifts-which is the deadlift portion of the 5x5 plan I have found very useful in my personal training.

So if Miss Afghanistan deadlifts, shouldn't you?  It's amazing to me this lift is all but banned in most gyms in the US!

Another benefit of God's Diet Plan/the clean diet

I have been eating the "no white flour, no white sugar and little starch" diet for almost a month now.  I have also been eating many other foods much closer to the way God made them (my version of God's Diet Plan) during this time.  I've been eating a greater variety of fruit than usual, lots more veggies, and almost nothing fried.  Also eliminated has been almost all soda, all but three pieces of bread in over as many weeks, and desert in general.  I think I have had three cookies, two small peppermint patties and maybe four or five hard candies in a month-which is huge for me as I had developed quite the sweet tooth.

To top it off, I have been traveling for the past week for work and either eating out or having to make sandwiches for lunch.  That could have been a landmine-loaf of bread, chips to munch on with it and sweet or very salty snacks.  Instead I have used Romaine lettuce leaves as "bread" and too be honest like the "sandwiches" a lot like that!  Another change has been when we go out for supper-no eating half a loaf of bread or my own basket of chips, plus a big supper and either lots of Coke or the occasional beer.  As I have posted about in the past, these meals would result in feeling bloated by the third or fourth day on the road.  Portion control helped, but changing what was eaten has had an even bigger impact.

So let's recap:
Smaller, frequent meals
Food close to how God made it, include lots of raw fruit
Protein and good fats like almonds and other nuts
Water
NO ADDED SUGAR
NO WHITE SUGAR
NO WHITE FLOUR
No added salt

Overall very happy with how I feel physically, and oh by the way, I've dropped at least ten pounds without even trying!

Recalibrating my taste buds

As I posted last week, I am on a type of elimination diet and have gotten rid of most refined flour, sugars and synthetic sugars from my diet over the past two weeks.  This is the first few days on the road for work since embarking on this, and new challenges have cropped up.  Where I no longer am at home where we have lots of bread, crackers, chips and candies, I also only have a small fridge, no real way to cook other than a microwave.  Fortunately the hotel I am staying in cooks hot breaksfasts to order, and I have enough nights at this chain to get the breakfast "comped".  Of course there are all the pastries I normally enjoy, plus a waffle iron I have used many times in the past!  But they also do eggs to order, fruit, and have milk available.  The team I am part of doesn't really eat fast food, so that is good-I never seriously looked at a fast food menu until recently and saw how much of the food is basic, over-processed starch!  I've already hit the grocery stores twice in three days to stock up on romaine lettuce and sandwich fillings that aren't too bad.

One thing I also noticed is despite knowing better, I have the typical modern American diet:  Lots of white bread and buns, daily french fries, little fruit and vegetables, and too much soda-whether diet or loaded with sugar.  My taste buds have gotten acclimated to "sweet", "salty" and "peppery" and little else.  Not only is this not very heathy, it actually was quite boring once I reintroduced natural sugar from a variety of fruits, whole vegetables but no potatoes, and piece of romaine lettuce instead of even good breads as "sandwiches".  While I hope to go back to eating a few pieces of quality bread a week I honestly don't miss whole wheat bread sandwiches compared to the romaine lettuce!  I also am back to eating many small meals a day most days.  Last night was the exception, as we went to a Mongolian grill and I definitely enjoyed it!  I resisted eating a whole bowl of rice by myself which also allowed me to get thirds (yep, thirds) but truly enoy the vegetables and an extra serving of meats.

One thing I learned from my friends who are unfortunately going through chemo right now is that our taste buds are rapidly growing cells, and as my body replenishes them, the longer I go without overwhelming them each day with lots of sugar and salt, they become more sensitive to normal amounts instead of mega-doses of these tastes.  I had two small thin mints over the weekend, and was nearly shocked by how strong they were, instead of eating them by the handful.  Two were enough-as the tastes exploded in my mouth since I hadn't had chocolate in about 10 days.  While losing weight wasn't the goal (better health was) I have dropped nearly 12 pounds in just over a month and still feel healthy and am just as strong.  This is further proof that if we eat foods closer to the way God made them and enjoy all the spices and flavor in natural foods, our bodies respond with health and vitality.