Ice Cavern Studios

So, I’ve been meaning to write a post on my new choice in footwear for a while now, but I wanted to wait till I was farther into my running schedule before I did. That was until I read this.

First, I want to just say that, I have a pair of Brooks Beasts. They were what I ran this past years Ragnar in. I used them in tandem with a pair of custom orthotics. That should tell you had badly my feet used to pronate. When running season was done, I would lift in them. They were, my athletic shoe of choice.

Note the key usage of the past tense. In case you hadn’t picked up on it, I haven’t put on my beats in about two months.

Just before Thanksgiving of this year, I decided to get a pair of the Vibram Five Finger KSOs. My friends Lowell and Cailyn had been living in them for a couple of months and wouldn’t stop going on about them. After doing some research I decided I’d give them a try. Given how my feet are, I figured at worst, I’d just be sore for a bit, give up and call it a day.

Well, after easing my way into them (seriously, give yourself time to adjust), I discovered that I really really loved wearing them. It started off as me wearing them to work and around the house. Then I started wearing them pretty much full time, accept for the gym. Then, after a weak of wondering why my knees were bothering me after working out, I realized I wasn’t handling being in the Beasts for working out and walking anymore. So I ditched them and it was my KSO’s all the time.

When I got back from vacation, I decided that I actually wanted a couple more pairs of 5 Fingers. I decided I wanted a pair of Sprints to work out/run in, and I wanted a pair of brown KSO Treks that I could wear with dressier ensembles, as well as to work when I was drying my regular KSOs. Thankfully, Lowell was able to hook me up, so I didn’t ave to wait to get them. I can honestly say that I love my Treks and Sprints as much as my original pair of KSOs.

I’ll probably write up more of the experience next month when I’ve started up my initial change in training from Skiing/Climbing to Running/Convention. (Yes, I actually have to train a bit for the Con. I’m on my feet for most of 4 days.) For now, however, I cannot stress how awesome the shoes are. They are super comfortable and I’ve reduced the amount of pain I’ve felt in my legs and back since picking them up. I whole heartedly recommend them.

Life and Times

So I haven’t talked a lot about it, but about two months ago, I decided to change up my diet a bit. Now, for the most part, I had an ok diet. I generally ate “balanced” meals; I drank only water and “various spirits”; and I generally tried to avoid foods that were high in sugar. You know, everything that we were taught in schools was right. For the most part, I was “healthy.” Sure, I had problems with my blood sugar dropping and becoming kind of a not, but hey, as long as I was good about eating i was fine. I felt I had no real reason to change up my diet.

Well, over the course of 2009, a bunch of my friends changed their diets to be more like the paleolithic. They ate no starches, no processed carbs and generally upped their meat intake. Now, being a very skeptical person, I thought this was kind of crazy. I’d heard of this before, or so I thought. To me, my friends had just discovered the new Atkins. Congrats, guys, you’ll be done with this in 2 months and back to where you were. Except they never got there. In fact, they were all dropping rate for a prolonged period of time and in very large quantities. I’m talking guys going from 230 to 160. (Apparently 70 lbs is the current average) Over the summer, when they were only a few months in, I was with 3 people who had, in total, lost my body weight of 170. I was in shock.

So fast forward to the end of October. At this point, I’ve been hanging out/living with people who didn’t eat carbs, starches, etc for a while. At this point, my diet is beginning to mirror theirs, as we just eat together a bunch. As this is going on, I begin to find that I’m having fewer and fewer episodes with my own blood sugar. I’m feeling better and I’m less sick. Needless to say, I’m a much happier person. After having given it some thought, I start to consciously make changes to my diet, and I’ve been eating this way ever since.

So what are the benefits? Well, the biggest is that I’m not having the crazy blood sugar crashes I used to. I’m able to go for extended periods of time without eating and I’m not getting headachy or becoming a complete dick. The other major advantage I’ve had has been that I’ve actually lost a little bit a weight. While I’ve only lost about 7 lbs or so, that’s pretty significant, as I really didn’t have a lot of excess weight to lose.

So that’s kind of my story. I now go around eating as few starches and processed carbs as possible. I’ve gone as far as to bring paleo foods to pot lucks and managed to have people really like the stuff, even though it lacked all the carbs. (I found a recipe for jambalaya that was quite the hit). I still get some weird looks from people, and a lot of people are skeptical when I explain it, but well, the results kind of speak for themselves.

If you’re interested, I’ll point you to my friend Lowell’s (he started all this) intro letter on the subject. It’s worth a read if you want to get healthy.

Also, I listened to this today, and well, given my druthers, I’ll take the beer:

Life and Times