Paleo vs Vegan

It is easy to assume that as an individual following a Paleo lifestyle that I would have nothing but bad things to say about vegans.  You wouldn't be wrong to assume that, since many of the well known Paleo evangelists tend to quickly put down vegans or anything that isn't at least in the low carb realm.  In reality I think there are far more things that these two communities have in common.

I have a close friend that went all-in vegan about 6 months ago.  He has shared his before and after blood work, body fat, and I run with him regularly.  It is remarkable how close our results align to one another.  He has lost just about the same amount of weight. His body fat change is nearly identical.  He is running at about the same level.  And while our blood stats are somewhat different he has also had very significant improvements, especially in triglycerides.  So with all that it is a little hard for me to look at him and explain why he should eat steak instead of beans and grains.  

Who am I really comparing

Many vegans start out as vegetarians and ultimately make the choice due to ethical convictions. I am not going to address those differences. The remaining vegans are dietary vegans and have made the switch as an attempt at losing weight and/or get healthy basically the same reason I am Paleo.  

A breakdown of the similarities

• It's about getting healthy
• It's about whole foods
• It's about sustainable and ethical food production
• It's about eating and living naturally

And the differences

• Vegans don't eat meat
• Vegans don't eat eggs
• Paleo don't eat legumes 
• Paleo don't eat grains

Ok, I admit if you really dig there are lots of nuances to both vegan and Paleo lifestyles that could make these lists very long.  You can even find differences between vegans themselves or individual Paleo.  What I listed above are the fundamental similarities and differences I think most can agree on.

So what does this really mean 

Look around you, head out to any restaurant, grocery store, or any public place.  It is amazing how few lean people you will see.  It is amazing what you see in people's carts at the grocery store.  Look at your friends and family.  How many are overweight?  How many are 20, 30, 40 pounds overweight but believe they are healthy because so many people are 50, 60, 70 pounds overweight.  How many people do you know that eat something and assume it is healthy but you know better.  Here is the reality, our country and most of the developed world is in a total health crisis.  The solution to this crisis is actually pretty simple and straight forward.  Individuals are so inundated with false information partnered with a dependency on processed calorie rich, nutrient sparse foods that they lose the forest in the trees.  I eat meat and my friend eats beans and grain but ultimately we want the same thing.  We want to live a long happy healthy life.  We want to impact the lives of others around us and show them what we were able to accomplish and that it is not impossible.  We want to change the path our society is on.  Vegans and Paleo should be arm and arm and save the grain vs meat debate for a time when a majority of our bothers and sisters are eating healthy whole foods.

Thanks for stopping by,

Chuck

My Christmas Challenge

Unfortunately, I have not been very diligent about taking pictures of myself, measuring body fat accurately, or taking general body measurements during my Paleo adventure.  So to get myself to track things a little closer, have a little extra accountability, and show everybody out there what a paleo type lifestyle can do for you, I have decided to give myself a Brady Nutrition Christmas Challenge AKA before New Years resolution.

Over the next 3 months I will continue my transformation and fully document it on this blog.  During this time I am going to evolve my own Brady Nutrition Philosophy, to include how I eat, train, play, work, etc.  I believe that my body fat is somewhere around 19-20% (based on my cheap inaccurate scale) and as of today I weigh 174lbs.  I am going to schedule a Bodpod scan and VO2 Max test as early as possible to get a true body fat baseline and some general fitness measures.  My blood work is pretty recent so it should work as a baseline.  Every week I am going to post everything I eat, how I feel, exactly what exercise I am doing, all the measurements I can accurately take at home, and a picture.  My goal is to take my health and fitness to the next level.  I primarily want to achieve greater lean body mass and general fitness, not necessarily weight loss.  At the end of the experiment I will get fresh blood work, VO2 Max, a Bodpod scan, and post the final results.  I hope to reach 10-12% body fat, which is a little ambitious but should keep me focused.  I am not too concerned about my blood work but it will be interesting to see how the numbers change.

Thanks for everyone who is supporting me and I hope I can be an inspiration to some of you to change your lives and get healthy.  If you are interested in taking your own Brady Nutrition Challenge let me know and I can help you make a plan and support you on your adventure.  We can document your progress and results on the blog if you like.  Here goes nothing, my next post on the challenge will have my initial numbers.

Thanks
Chuck

This is what Paleo did to my cholesterol

I didn't think I was going to post my actual Lipid numbers but after receiving the results I had to share them.

If you read my brief history post you will have the context on some of these milestones.

April 2012 - Start doing some real mild treadmill work

First week of May 2012 - Pick up the pace and start running on the road and mountain biking to prepare for my first adventure race.

06/12/2012 - I had an annual physical with the following Lipid profile and received a counseling from the doc.
Total Cholesterol - 232
HDL - 56
Triglyceride - 218
VLDL - 44
LDL - 132

12/13/2012 - After working up to running around 25 miles a week, running my first half marathon, completing my first 6 hour adventure race, and going on a super low fat diet, I had a follow up blood test with the following LIPD profile. The doc told me I was on the right track but still had a lot of work to do.
Total Cholesterol - 207 down 10.78%
HDL - 55 down 1.79%
Triglyceride - 172 down 21.1%
VLDL - 34 down 22.73%
LDL - 118 down 10.61%

09/13/2013 - The time between the last test and this test was a bit crazy.  I spent the first 3 months going to physical therapy for a nagging piriformis strain and plantar fasciitis.  I completed my second adventure race but did not train much due to my injuries.  I had a 2 month complete break from diet and exercise while caring for my wife's medical issues.  At the tail end of my wife's medical situation, the first week of July, we decided to try Paleo for a month after watching "The Perfect Human Diet".  I also started running again in July but have kept to 5-10 miles per week.  With all that, didn't expect much from the numbers but hoped to see a little progress due to the Paleo diet.  I was very wrong and the numbers were shocking.

Total Cholesterol - 160 down 22.71%
HDL - 65 up 18.18%
Triglyceride - 55 down 68.02%
VLDL - 11 down 67.65%
LDL - 84 down 28.81%

As you can see the numbers are a radical departure from the previous tests.  I switched doctors for this last test.  My new doctor is very supportive of my current plan and told me not to worry about the results either way.  His comment on the paperwork was "Perfect all the way!"

Welcome to the Brady Paleo Blog

Welcome to our blog!  On July 1st 2013 my wife and I began to transition our family to a Paleo lifestyle.  We have done many things over the past few years to improve our health and fitness. We have made some progress over the years but nothing compared to our first couple months living Paleo.  We have become so passionate about our new lifestyle that we have decided to chronicle our journey and philosophy here.  We have always been adhoc creative cooks and a lot of what you will see will be the simple on the fly recipes that we develop every day. We are avid observers of the Paleosphere and are excited to jump in and helping spread the word.

Thanks
Chuck and Steph Brady