<![CDATA[The Leaning Caveman - Home]]>Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:38:16 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Sensa experiment closeout]]>Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:33:39 -0800http://www.theleaningcaveman.com/1/post/2012/02/sensa-experiment-closeout.htmlFollowing up on the Sensa experiment, here's my result and what I learned.  Sensa definitely heightens the taste sensation that you get from food.  I can see where that will increase satiety in some people but it did nothing for me.  In the course of my little experiment I lost exactly 0 pounds.  Zilch. Nada.

There's a couple of issues in the experiment design that highlight the limitations of Sensa for someone that is already on a diet.
  1. If you're already restricting your portions then Sensa doesn't help you eat less.  I never put enough food on my plate to get fully much less overly full.
  2. Sensa doesn't work with moist food.  I eat a lot of foods that could be considered moist; ie. chili or dishes that are covered in salsa, tomato sauce or something of that ilk.  The Sensa crystals just melt away when they hit something wet.

So to address the number one question I've gotten so far, "Will Sensa work for me?" The answer really is that it depends.  If you don't currently restrict intake then there is a chance it will work.  If most of what you eat is sauce free, there's a chance it will work for you.  If either of these are true though, then Sensa is probably not the best option for you in my opinion.

All of this begs the question for me though of what will work?  How do we help people lose weight when they have the best of intentions?  I've been looking hard at that, diligently searching Medline and other research sites and think I may have an answer that is relevant.
]]><![CDATA[Hidden Dangers of Excess Belly Fat; More Than a Vanity Issue! ]]>Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:47:11 -0800http://www.theleaningcaveman.com/1/post/2012/01/guest-post-hidden-dangers-of-excess-belly-fat-more-than-a-vanity-issue.htmlDid you know that the vast majority of people in this day and age have excess abdominal fat? The first thing that most people think of is that their extra abdominal fat is simply ugly, is covering up their abs from being visible, and makes them self conscious about showing off their body.

However, what most people don't realize is that excess abdominal fat in particular, is not only ugly, but is also a dangerous risk factor to your health. Scientific research has clearly demonstrated that although it is unhealthy in general to have excess body fat throughout your body, it is also particularly dangerous to have excess abdominal fat.

There are two types of fat that you have in your abdominal area. The first type that covers up your abs from being visible is called subcutaneous fat and lies directly beneath the skin and on top of the abdominal muscles.

The second type of fat that you have in your abdominal area is called visceral fat, and that lies deeper in the abdomen beneath your muscle and surrounding your organs. Visceral fat also plays a role in giving certain men that "beer belly" appearance where their abdomen protrudes excessively but at the same time, also feels sort of hard if you push on it.

Both subcutaneous fat and visceral fat in the abdominal area are serious health risk factors, but science has shown that having excessive visceral fat is even more dangerous than subcutaneous fat. Both of them greatly increase the risk your risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, sleep apnea, various forms of cancer, and other degenerative diseases.

Part of the reason visceral fat is particularly dangerous is that it apparently releases more inflammatory molecules into your body on a consistent basis.

If you care about the quality of your life and your loved ones, reducing your abdominal fat should be one of your TOP priorities! There's just no way around it. Besides, a side-effect of finally getting rid of all of that excessive ugly abdominal fat is that your stomach will flatten out, and if you lose enough stomach fat, you will be able to visibly see those sexy six pack abs that everyone wants.

So what gets rid of extra abdominal fat? Is there actually a REAL solution beyond all of the gimmicks and hype that you see in ads and on commercials for "miracle" fat loss products?

The first thing you must understand is that there is absolutely NO quick fix solution. There are no pills or supplements of any sort that will help you lose your abdominal fat faster. Also, none of the gimmicky ab rockers, rollers, or ab belts will help get rid of abdominal fat either. You can't spot reduce your stomach fat by using any of these worthless contraptions. It simply doesn't work that way.

The ONLY solution to consistently lose your abdominal fat and keep it off for good is to combine a sound nutritious diet full of unprocessed natural foods with a properly designed strategic exercise program that stimulates the necessary hormonal and metabolic response within your body. Both your food intake as well as your training program are important if you are to get this right.

I've actually even seen a particular study that divided thousands of participants into a diet-only group and an exercise/diet group. While both groups in this study made good progress, the diet-only group lost significantly LESS abdominal fat than the diet & exercise combined group.

Now the important thing to realize is that just any old exercise program will not necessarily do the trick. The majority of people that attempt getting into a good exercise routine are NOT working out effectively enough to really stimulate the loss of stubborn abdominal fat. I see this everyday at the gym.

Most people will do your typical boring ineffective cardio routines, throw in a little outdated body-part style weight training, and pump away with some crunches and side bends, and think that they are doing something useful for reducing their abdominal fat. Then they become frustrated after weeks or months of no results and wonder where they went wrong.

Well, the good news is that I've spent over a decade researching this topic, analyzing the science, and applying it "in the trenches" with myself as well as thousands of my clients from all over the world to see what works to really stimulate abdominal fat loss.

The entire solution... all of the nutritional strategies, as well as training sequences, exercise combinations, and more have all been compiled in my Truth About Six Pack Abs Program.
Keep in mind that the point of this whole program is NOT abdominal exercises (that is only a very small portion of it). The main point of this program is showing you the absolute most effective strategies for losing your stubborn abdominal fat, so you can get rid of that dangerous health risk, as well as get a flatter more defined midsection.

If you follow the guidelines, you WILL lose your belly fat that has been plaguing you for years. This is not guesswork... it is a proven system that works time and time again for all of my clients on every corner of the globe that actually apply the information I teach. If you apply it, the results will come. It's really that simple.

The only reason most people fail in their fitness goals is that they have good intentions at first to adopt a new lifestyle, yet after a few weeks or months, they abandon their good intentions and slip right back into their old bad habits that gave them the excess body fat in the first place.

I want to help you succeed in finally getting rid of that extra abdominal fat that is not only UGLY, but also DANGEROUS.

Don't waste another day allowing that nasty abdominal fat to kill your confidence as well as contribute to your risk for MAJOR diseases.

Get the solution to rid yourself for life of this problem at...

http://exposeyourabs.com

]]><![CDATA[Little Hiccup in the Sensa Experiment]]>Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:41:15 -0800http://www.theleaningcaveman.com/1/post/2012/01/little-hiccup-in-the-sensa-experiment.htmlNot to be too punny here but if I'm going to give Sensa a fair shake in this experiment, I have to remember to use it every meal  Since my last check in, that has not been the case unfortunately. So consider today a restart of the sprinkle diet after a brief pause to let my taste buds reset.

All that being said, I can share my initial impression of Sensa.  The long and short of it is that using this stuff is like eating in technicolor.  The scents and tastes of what you're eating are greatly heightened and the amount of satisfaction that you get from flavorful food is absolutely ridiculous.  That being said though, I did not really notice it on bland items such as oatmeal. ]]><![CDATA[Sprinkle this, sprinkle that. Sensa sprinkle diet experiment]]>Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:47:32 -0800http://www.theleaningcaveman.com/1/post/2012/01/sprinkle-this-sprinkle-that-sensa-sprinkle-diet-experiment.htmlIf you're anything like me, you've probably made a resolution or two this new year even if you don't want to admit it to anyone else.  One of my resolutions is to finally hit my target weight and keep it there.  Of course when you make a resolution that involves dieting, sensory acuity kicks in and then suddenly you notice every since ad message that involves losing weight.  I swear that in the past two weeks I have literally seen 1,000 pieces of advertising between TV, Internet and print.

One of them that has really caught my attention though is the so-called sprinkle diet which is put out by this company called Sensa.  Apparently this neurologist has determined that if he can adequately manipulate your senses of taste and smell then you'll reach a point of satiety more quickly and lose weight.  To that end he has two powders (one for savory and one for sweet) that you sprinkle onto whatever it is that you going to eat.  No other change required.

In a double blind study with 2630 participants, the Sensa users lost an average of 30.6 pound in six months!  This compares to the placebo group that lost only 2 pounds.  I say that is impressive.  Which leads to our experiment; over the next 2 months I am going to try sprinkling, track it here and see what it does. Is it for real?  Is it a scam?  I have no idea but we're certainly going to find out.

Start day is tomorrow.  ]]><![CDATA[Ranger Challenge Update 1]]>Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:27:49 -0800http://www.theleaningcaveman.com/1/post/2012/01/ranger-challenge-update-1.htmlIn the last post on the topic, we laid out the Ranger Challenge and what the criteria for success was going to be.  For those of you that slept through, the goal is to meet or beat the following:
  • 80 pushups in two minutes
  • 80 situps in two minutes
  • 12 chin ups 
  • 2 miles in under 14:30
Knowing full well that I probably wasn't going to hit these numbers I took a few weeks to 'practice' so that I could at least try to show up.  Here are my initial results.
  • 42 pushups
  • 50 situps
  • 4 chin ups
  • run in 19:50
Not sure how good or bad that is for someone that is rapidly nearing the big 4-0 but I know I can do better.  The plan so far to improve my performance is to: 
  1. Start running intervals in order to increase speed
  2. Perform 15 chin ups every other day in a pyramid to failure format with one minute rest in between sets.  (i.e. failure at 4, failure at 3, failure at 3, failure at 2, failure at 2, failure at 1)
  3. Use similar pyramid approaches for situps and pushups.  I'm still cooking up the exact formulation.
  4. Perform the test of all pieces no more often than once every two weeks.
  5. Lather, rinse, repeat.


Thinking of joining the challenge?  Leave a comment and let us know your initial scores. ]]><![CDATA[Planning a new challenge for the new year]]>Wed, 28 Dec 2011 06:18:53 -0800http://www.theleaningcaveman.com/1/post/2011/12/planning-a-new-challenge-for-the-new-year.htmlI hate to admit that this particular caveman has gotten a bit complacent. I've been bopping along through the holidays, missing workouts and making excuses along the lines of "oh come on Halloween/Christmas/Thanksgiving/Flag Day/whatever only comes once a year" as I stuff ridiculous amounts of starchy death treats into my mouth.  Fortunately I saw the error of my ways before it caught up with me on the scale but after giving myself a fitness test this morning, I am clear how far I've fallen.  So what to do?  I could merely get back on the horse and continue with the status quo but this seems like a great opportunity to kick it up a notch (or five) so here's the plan.  I am instituting what I am labeling "The Ranger Fitness Challenge."  Here's what it entails:
  • Pushups- Greater than 80 in 2 minutes
  • Situps- Greater than 80 in 2 minutes
  • Chinups- 12 or more (untimed)
  • 2 Mile run- 13 minutes or less
Here are the ground rules which I am borrowing from Uncle Sam.  If you touch the ground during pushups, you're done.  If you release from the bar during chinups, you're done.  If you touch the ground during chinups, you're done.  No kipping.

For those of you that are into military type things, these are the standards for Ranger candidates at the conclusion for Phase I training in Ft. Benning. ]]><![CDATA[Summer time and living is easy.... 5 primal things to do this summer]]>Sun, 10 Jul 2011 20:01:29 -0800http://www.theleaningcaveman.com/1/post/2011/07/summer-time-and-living-is-easy-5-primal-things-to-do-this-summer.htmlOk so it's been entirely too long since I've updated the site.  Frankly, real life has been entirely too good to spend a lot of time online.  But to get back in the throes of blogging, I'm going to kick it off with a list that's sure to bring out the caveman/woman/child in all of you.  Here's my list of five things to do this summer:
  1. Climb a mountain (or five).  I'm lucky enough to live in Colorado which means that there is a wide array of mountains literally within 90 minutes of my house.  We kicked off the summer with a little 7900' one called Plymouth Mountain.  In the next weekend or two, we're going to finally do Mt. Beirstadt and Mt. Evans in the same day.
  2. Go down a slide, literally.  Nothing like the water park to bring out the kid in all of us.  It doesn't matter if you're in a tube, on a mat or just laying on your back, there's nothing quite like having the water move you along.  I can just see our caveman ancestors floating down streams trying to grab fish.
  3. Walk on water!?!  Try stand up paddleboarding (SUP for short).  It's a great upper body workout and an absolute blast.  At it's essence you are standing on a longboard and rowing with an extended oar.  After getting the basics down, look for some waves and do a bit of surfing.  The gentle rocker of the longboard makes it pretty simple and you use the oar as a rudder.  Kupaianaha dude!
  4. Taste both oceans in one season.  Break out of the standard one week vacation trap and shake it up a little.  Take two vacations while work is slow.  Don't have the days? Fine.  Take two extended weekends and visit each coast.  I can tell you that the Atlantic and Pacific taste completely different and the ability to bend the time space continuum is one of the few major advantages that we have over the caveman.
  5. Go for a walk at night. I for one prefer to do this with a loved one but can see where others may enjoy the solitude.  Nevertheless, get outside and savor the warm night air during the one season that you don't need a jacket or a sweater to be out after dark.  People don't experience the dark enough anymore and are completely neglecting the evolutionary gift of the rods that we have in our eyes.  Use them people.

 
]]><![CDATA[The easy way to improve your fitness]]>Thu, 23 Sep 2010 10:52:25 -0800http://www.theleaningcaveman.com/1/post/2010/09/the-easy-way-to-improve-your-fitness.htmlI have a confession to make; aside from walking I have been slacking off on my exercise routine aside from walking.  As much as I enjoy P90X I have been struggling to carve out that chunk of time every day to exercise in front of the TV.

I know it's terrible so on Monday I decided to take action.  I have started to use Mark's program, Primal Blueprint Fitness, to great effect.  I haven't done a new set of measurements yet but I'm on day 4 and my energy level is improving steadily.  More importantly, I find myself more motivated to workout again.


Mark has made this program free to download and get started.  In it he advocates that you get at least three hours a week of movement/play and do two strength workouts which is very reasonable for even the most time constrained.  I appreciate that the program has a very good system for evaluating your current level of fitness so that you begin at the right level and don't get overwhelmed.  As a P90Xer I was a bit humbled during the evaluation but recognize that it is for the best that I work at the appropriate level.


Grok on.]]><![CDATA[Persistence hunting v2.0]]>Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:23:43 -0800http://www.theleaningcaveman.com/1/post/2010/08/persistence-hunting-v20.htmlA few weeks ago Mark talked about using persistence hunting as a way to get some exercise while having fun.  Living in a suburb of Denver (Parker for those who care) there is still lots of wide open spaces it is possible to take this to a whole new level.  When I am out for evening walks with my SO discussing the events of the day and various and sundry topics that bring us closer together, deer are a common occurrence.  So common in fact that we literally walked up on  a pair of bucks and came within literally ten feet of them.  It was an interesting situation since neither party was particularly sure what to do.  Being the predators with forward facing eyes we quietly stalked away until they were comfortable going back to their evening snack.

With this experience fresh in my mind as I read Mark's article I decided that joggers would be far to easy.  Instead I have chosen to stalk wild animals.  Not hunt, trap, annoy or assault but simply stalk them.  The domesticated deer in the neighborhood have proven to be far too easy while on foot so I have taken to stalking wilder herds by mountain bike.  This is a ton of fun to say the least.  There really is something very primal about paralleling a herd at dusk; trying to stay stealthy quiet yet keep up.  You don't get to make any gear changes and you're forced to choose the quietest path which isn't necessarily the easiest.
 
The other target that has proven to be worthy adversary is stalking foxes.  These mangy little critters have moves like you wouldn't believe.  I've only tracked them by foot so far but they are proving to be far more elusive and crafty than deer.  It is far tougher to track a predator and is an absolute blast as exercise.]]><![CDATA[5 months, 50 pounds-- oh my!]]>Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:40:49 -0800http://www.theleaningcaveman.com/1/post/2010/06/5-months-50-pounds-oh-my.htmlI have not been terribly diligent in updating this site.  Sorry gang, I'll try to do better.  The good news is that we are now at the 5 month mark and I am clocking in at 50 pounds lost.  50 pounds!  That's the typical 6 six year old that has melted off of my body.  I have certainly had my fair share of missteps along the way, carb laden days and trips where the choice is between a cuban sandwich or a cinnabon but I've knocked out 50 pounds.

For those of you that are on the fence about embracing a primal lifestyle, I say quit waffling and get a copy of the "Primal Blueprint" today.  Not tomorrow, not someday but today.  If you won't do it for you 
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