It sounds trite, but we witnessed the full cycle of life in just a few days. We lost Grandpa on Friday, then on Monday at 12:16 pm Chrissy gave birth to Kayden Gower (he’s a pretty cute little buggar). I’d really hoped that Kayden would make an arrival in time to get a photo to Joe but it was not to be. Joe did get to see an ultrasound of the Little Guy back in June so that’s pretty darn close. I’m soooo proud of of both Chrissy and Shawn for their hard work in this whole thing. Chrissy pushed like a champ but Kayden got turned a bit sideways and THOROUGHLY lodged. He could not go out via conventional means so they resorted to a C-section…only to yank him out the back way! The Gower Family is doing great…I’m incredibly lucky to have Shawn and Chrissy in my family. Nicki is now whipped into Baby Fever. Stay Tuned.
Making them is the best part. Well…It is a whole different feeling when you have kids. You love your wife, but children flip a different switch. You love your child so much it would seem inconceivable to be able to love two or three or however many as much as the first, but obviously you can. After we had our first son I figured out why my parents didn’t do me in when I was bein an A-hole. DO NOT read “What to expect when you are expecting” it will give you nightmares. Yes it is informative, but not worth it.
Joe!!
Great to hear from you!! Old School CrossFit…man, I miss the old days!
i am the real kayden gower
oh my, he is so cute! I don’t think Nikki is the only one with baby fever!
Ha! It’s catching!!
Robb – Great site and congrats on the addition to your family.
Quick question about nutrition. I am a crossfitter/endurance athlete. Right now I’m doing 60miles a week in 4 days – Tues,Thurs,Sat,Sun. All 4 days have a good deal of quality in them. ex Warmup 4miles – 7x1000m of intervals, then warmdown. I’m off crossfit for an 8 week period while getting ready for my marathon and only pop in a few pullups or a fran every now and then to keep some power up. I’m 40ish, 180lbs and 5’10”. I’m trying to eat for solid workouts while dropping down to about 173 or so (I’m about 11% BF or so). I started with the zone and have adapted as per your various instructions to others. I eat about 3,000 cals/day and am what you would call AHCCZ. My diet is 56%F, 21%C, 24%P, 4% Alc (FitDay). I think I’ve dropped carbs for fats as suggested. First off, does this seem about right? I get pretty light headed during various parts of the day. I’ve been on this zoneish diet for about 1.5months and I have lost a few pounds, but consistent with another article you wrote, my endurance activity, and probably age are conspiring against me to try and hold me to my weight. I’ve lost about 2lbs since I started on drastically reduced calories from what I used to eat.
My real question is more nutrition and biochemically based. Anecdotally I am eating a lot less carb than I was prior to said diet. I imagine on that diet, restricting intake, would likely cause me to feel light headed as well, as my body produced a response (insulin?) to tell my brain it was being starved. Replacing 1 block of carbs with 3 blocks of fat and reducing my impact would take away the main stimulant for this response, thus not making my body think it was starving? If not what is the biochemical reason that replacing carb with fat would be expected to help with feeling light headed?
As an aside, I have run many long endurance events and have concluded (partially from Ross and Johnathons Science of Sport blog) that alot of my personal performance difficulties at later stages of those races are more attributable to a loss of glyogen that my brain uses for fuel vs. glycogen as a whole. When running at a quick pace, I have often felt light headed and a bit out of it, before the rest of my body felt too badly. I’ve done enough events that I can tell what a real bonk feels like vs. a brain fog bonk. I mention it because I start my runs over the past two weeks feeling foggy, almost like I’m going to bonk, but then never do. The feeling definitely hurts my performance in the session but as I merge into the intensity, alot of the fogginess disapears. As I’ve said, despite running 15 miles last night, with intervals in the middle, I never did bonk. I also think my body has become more efficient at burning fat.
Sorry – I guess it didn’t turn out to be a short question after all. BTW- my carbs are mostly veggies, but I do eat, only in the morning low GI bread (31). Beyond the reactions to wheat that are justified, would a bread thats at 31 be much worse than a low density carb source.
Wholly Christ! That’s a bunch of info. Can’t I just get you excited about competing in 5K’s and Olympic lifting?
How do you fel in the morning? Clear headed, foggy headed & tired? How about the evening…more awake or less awake than AM? I’m thinking some high cortisol, lack of hepatic glycogen repletion or generalized insulin resistance that burns through the glycogen stores early, leaving nothing for later. Let me know on that stuff…our friend Kelly Cawthorn is a RD and works for Joe Friel helping his endurance athletes…it’s just a fucking mess trying to keep you guys from blowing up!
Thanks Robb, I hear ya. Wish I was fast at 5k’s, but just don’t have the gift. Did a 14:55 once 20 years ago, but it takes a 13:40 to do anything decent.
Waking up I feel good. I eat my 3 eggs, smoked salmon, one piece of toast and some fruit and still feel alright. In the evening I’m quite awake. Since I moved to the UK (I’m from the US) the different time zone has been putting me to bed at 11:30 or 12 instead of my customary 10:00 or 10:30. I wake up between about 7am and 7:45.
It had been after lunch that I was feeling dizzy and sometimes an hour or so before. I have been feeling better for the past three days though. I’ve been eating more fat at lunch, no dense carbs and the same amount of protein as normal. I think thats helped, but after lunch today will be the tell, as Tuesday last week is when I really felt light headed last week.
Sincerely thanks though for getting to all our shitty questions. I’ll look Kelly up.
Hey Robb -Congrats on the new addition and sorry for you and Nicki’s loss the week before. Things really did come full circle.
So, I have a quick question for you. What’s your opinion on Mona Vie (the acai berry juice that’s making it’s way around the health and fitness industry). Seems to be a good thing, but curious what your take on it is. Any words from the wise?
Robb, congrats on the addition to the family. I only know of one cure for baby fever, and it involves changing diapers and very few hours of sleep for a few years!
I also have an IF question. Over the past few months I have overhauled my diet to almost full Paleo/Zone guidlines. I would like to start working IF into my eating. I believe it would be a great fit to my schedule. How could I go about a 15-19 hour fast if I train at 0400 in the morning? Would it hurt my goals of leaning out and gaining strength/muscle if I work out at 0400 and then don’t eat until 2 in the afternoon? I would really prefer to maintain my morning workout schedule. Thank you in advance for the help.
Joe-
You could try that…I’m worried about lack of recovery but you can tinker with that and see how you do. That is a VERY early wake-up…go easy on any additional stressor like IF.
Congratulations on the new Arrival.
Robb
Is there a way to contact you (other than leaving a post here)? I have a gluten free cookbook coming out and want to interview you…
thanks
antonio
[email protected]
http://www.burnsports.com
http://www.healthyurbankitchen.com
Baby fever? I am available for adoption!
dude, I do not want the food bill to feed you!
Robb, congrats on the little one!
On a side note, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all the information that you provide through this blog. And I’m hoping you have a second to answer a question for me.
I’m a crossfitter (Diablo Crossfit in Walnut Creek), do Xfit 4-5 times per week, follow the paleo-zone religiously, have messed around with lowering my carb blocks and increasing my fat blocks, have experimented with IF, get at least 7 hours of sleep a night, and STILL can’t break my weight loss plateau.
Since I started working out about 18 months ago I’ve gone from 252 lbs to 210, but I can’t get any lower. Been at this plateau for at least 3 months. Eight years ago (before I gained all my weight) I was comfortable at about 175-180 lbs., so I definitely have a good 30 or so lbs. of fat left to lose (primarily around my mid section).
My question is regarding diets based on blood type. I have been doing a bit a research on this theory and it says that my blood type (type A) should be eating very little meat or dairy, lots of beans, lots of veggies, and lots of cereals. Basically in complete contradiction to the paleo-zone in many ways. What’s you opinion on this type of diet theory?
Sorry to highjack the post about your newborn child, but I’m desperate and frustrated! Thanks again!
Dan!
Ohhh boy, the blood type diet. I’m an “A” but if I were to eat that way it would literally KILL me. This is the tough deal with all the blood type stuff, there are certain situations in which blood type affects pathogenesis…but the blood type diet as D’adamo wrote it is little better than astrology. He raises the issue of lectins, good on him for that, then it’s just bull-shit.
Why are you focused on weight? What is your body comp? are you carrying extra fat? where is it distributed? Just int he midsection? Spread evenly?
Robb,
Thanks for responding. I appreciate the input on the blood type diet. I’ll avoid that one.
You are right, I am probably focused too much on overall weight. However, I think there is something going on here beyond just paranoia. 🙂
I am carrying extra fat, all over but primarily on my upper arms, thighs, and around the mid-section. Mind you, I was a BIG boy about a year ago and a half ago. I’m 5′-7″ and I topped out at 252 lbs. I’m currently about 210 lbs. I’ve lost a shitload of fat and put on a shitload of muscle but I’m still about 28-30% body fat. And despite still seeing muscle gain, I’m primarily concerned about the fact that fat loss seems to have slowed down considerably (at least visually). Translation: my belly ain’t gettin’ any smaller!! That’s why I was researching alternative eating plans to see if I could find a way to kick start my metabolism. But maybe I’m just stressing over nothing. Thoughts?
Thanks!
I think it just takes time…Keep the protein at~2g/lb BW…yep, that’s a bunch, give it a shot. 10-15g/day of fish oil, sleep. If those are nto in place, you are spinning your wheels.