Before you read this post, I want to emphatically state that anyone undertaking a new type of diet or exercise, should first consult a medical professional. Take a responsible approach to your health and wellness.
It has been a few weeks since my last post. I wanted to wait a little while because I was trying something out, and I didn't want to give inaccurate information about progress/results until I was fully satisfied that I could actually both see results as well as have actual numerical outcomes.
A few years ago, weighing 155 lbs, I went in to have surgery on my knee. I had been running over 1,500 miles a year for several years. And, while the miles were not the proximate cause of my injury, my running was starting to be affected by painful knee issues.
Post surgery, I took two weeks off from running and then slowly came back into the sport. Over the next couple of years, my mileage was back to 1,500 +/annum, and I completed trail marathons and ultra marathons.
The one thing that didn't go back to normal was my weight. Something happened when I took the time off for the surgery and recovery. I had continued to eat quite a few calories each day, but they weren't burning off as they had before. My body seemed to find every opportunity to store and convert as many calories to fat as I could consume. My weight in the two weeks after surgery had risen by 10 lbs. In the two months following, it went up another 10. Over the next two years, nothing I seemed to do - no amount of exercise, saunas, portion control/caloric restriction, or even juice fasts - had any real, lasting effect on my weight. It went up another 20 lbs.
Now I'm 5'10" and in good shape. My frame can handle 200 or so pounds pretty well. I look like your typical beefy American. But after gaining the weight, I didn't feel as good as I did when I was 155#. My favorite clothes didn't fit (or at least not as well), my race finishing times were not as good (with my former slightly sub 8 min/mi times becoming distant memories), and, if I am to be completely honest, my self-esteem was a bit diminished. In short, I didn't feel like me.
For a while I tried upping my mileage. That aggravated a hamstring issue. And, while I could still run plenty of miles, I was always running through pain. Ultimately, after no major (but many minor) setbacks, I came to the slow, unsatisfying conclusion that I might never be as thin or as fast as I had been just a few short years ago. Or, if I were able to do it, the effort would be a drastic, and unsustainable cut in caloric intake that would have to balance out with my need for protein to sustain my workouts. While I was not clinically depressed by drawing this conclusion, I will confess that it was a downer.
One thing I have taken up over the past few years is listening to podcasts during most runs. Sometimes I prefer to hit the roads or trails with only my own voice in my head. But as the miles and years have added up, I have found taking along company in the form of podcasts to be a nice diversion to my thoughts. In the previous blog post, I listed podcasts I like. All are entertaining, but I listen to each one for slightly different things: current events (the Gist), knowledge (Lexicon Valley), interesting subject (Henry and Heidi), general chat and a little mental health (Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew), A mix of philosophy, religion/atheism, politics, and humor (Penn's Sunday School), and unexpurgated fun (Matt and Mattingly's Ice Cream Social).
A little over a month ago, I started to hear Penn Jillette talking about losing weight quickly and easily on his podcast. He talked a bit about someone named Cronise, and also about a guy named Fuhrman. I paid a bit of attention. While I have never been too fat, I do struggle with weight. I also make my living in what could be considered the health food industry. So I always like to keep up on new diets.
From what I could discern, Penn Jillette was doing a diet/lifestyle program that consisted of eating a highly-nutritious, plant-based (vegan) diet coupled with a regimen of cold stressors. The plant-based part of the program emphasized raw and unprocessed foods. The cold stress portion seemed to roughly work off of the idea that a body will burn many more calories when subjected to cold, than it will in normal or hot circumstances. I'm not explaining this very well, but if you think of the calories you would burn standing still in 80F air (which would feel warm), vs standing still in 80F pool water (which would feel cold), you'll get the idea.
I was intrigued. I looked up Ray Cronise and Dr. Joel Fuhrman on Wikipedia. Both had interesting ideas. I wasn't ready to move on them yet, but the plans they espoused did look both intriguing and doable. As a vegan, I figured I would have an easier time than most. If I decided to do a program based on Cronise and Fuhrman, I'd basically just have to cut out the processed food that is as much a part of many vegan diets as it is in conventional fare.
When Matt and Mattingly's Ice Cream Social started covering the Cronise / Fuhrman combination a few weeks later (in the way I listen to the podcasts), I was happy to be slightly more knowledgeable about the subject. Matt Donnelly (one of the hosts) reported having great success while on the program that Ray Cronise designed for him. Matt's discussion of his health prior to starting to work with Cronise, was really touching. My favorite funny man had a very real moment as he explained to his listeners just how much the change he was undergoing had affected his life. I decided at that moment to come up with a plan based on what I could discern from all I had heard and read about Cronise and Fuhrman.
During a weekly conversation I had with my friend (and editor of RUN), Mark Robison, I mentioned the planned lifestyle change I was contemplating. He said that he and his wife, Dianne, do the Fuhrman diet on occasion if they feel they are gaining weight. He said that the diet works well, but that he and Dianne thought the allowable menu got a little old after a while. Still though, he would recommend the diet.
So, with the endorsements of podcasters and friends, three weeks ago I started my new program. In planning it, I knew it would have to by a bit of a hybridized endeavor. I have certain things I love to do. I knew what I could gladly change or give up, and I knew what I couldn't. I wasn't going to eschew hot exercises - running, tennis, biking and disc golf - and I wasn't going to give up a wine, bourbon, or beer. I also needed to keep a decent amount of salt in my diet (as every doctor I have been to in the last 10 years has emphatically stated - mainly sea salt in my case). But I was going to get rid of all the processed food that had crept into my vegan diet. And I was also going to change the way in which I worked out in order to accommodate the addition of cold stressors into my life.
First off, I made the change to unprocessed vegetables and fruits almost immediately. I slowly, little by little, ate down the processed foods in my refrigerator until there were none left. Next I cut my running miles in half (from roughly 30 to 15). I added 5-6 days a week of swimming for 45 minutes at the olympic pool that sits 100 yards from my house (I normally swam 1 day a week). I added about 20 miles of biking each week (basically and extra day + errands) to the 20 I already do. Tennis and disc gold remained the same 2-3 times each.
To crank up the thermogenic (cold) stressors, I switched all of my showers after hot workouts (running, biking, etc...) to cold water only. That took a little getting used to. I found the easiest way was to start warm and work my way down in the course of the shower. After a couple of particularly hot runs I also tried taking cold baths - those were, um, painful. But, as with anything, over time, I have gotten used to the cold, and kind of enjoy the shock.
Three weeks into the new program, I have indeed dropped 20 lbs and lost at least an inch from my waist. The combination of diet and thermogenic stressors does seem to work. Another benefit I've noticed is that the cross-training, with the added time spent swimming and biking, has also led to better overall fitness, and an alleviation of some of my hamstring pain when I run.
There has been no calorie counting, no deprivation, no hunger. At all. Not once. I have also been able to embrace the new way of eating without any loss in energy.
I hope to stay the course on this very personalized program until my weight stabilizes somewhere 20-30lbs below where it is now. If this seems to be a very cart-before-the-horse statement, it is only because the results of this change can be quantified so quickly, that it is difficult not to be able to tell very quickly where this is leading. For me, I think the program can continue indefinitely. I really like the food I eat and the satiety I feel. I really hardly seems to constitute what I normally would think of as 'dieting'.
I don't know that I would recommend a person begin this type of diet on his/her own. As a vegan and a very active person, I felt the changes I made to undertake this new lifestyle were minor. I also took a long look at how I live, and I tailored (read 'changed') things to fit in best so that they would work for me. Most people would benefit from contacting a health professional or someone recommended by either Ray Cronise or Dr. Furhman (or their websites) prior to starting a program like this. Here is a link to a Dr. Fuhrman website if you want to read more: https://www.drfuhrman.com/library/what-is-a-nutritarian-diet.aspx
And, since Running Conversations covers a lot of running and vegan material, I thought I would include a link to a Ray Cronise interview that appears on the No Meat Athlete blog. It is worth checking out here: http://www.nomeatathlete.com/radio-20/#comments . An interesting thing about Cronise is that he doesn't emphasize eat less, exercise more. I have continued to work out as I always do for reasons other than diet - mainly mental health/stress relief.
I do not ever want to turn this blog into an ad nauseum diet discussion. Its emphasis will always be on running. But I did want to share information about this program I am working on in the context of how it can relate to creating a healthier lifestyle (and potentially a return to faster times) for runners fighting a bit of the battle of the bulge.
I'll post what I eat daily as part of this diet in the next few days.
Until then keep running and enjoying the summer on the roads and trails.
