Saturday, November 03, 2007

Yesterday's Training.........and Kicking the Sugar Habit





This week was my first full week of training in months. Full because I was able to do three weight training sessions plus one sprint workout. That should be the template for the rest of the winter, God willing with this baby on the way. My diet has been significantly better; almost two full weeks without any refined sugar. No cookies, no candy, no chocolate, no COLDSTONE ice cream on the weekend, nothing......nada........zilch.......ZERO! It has been tough but my goal is to extend this streak as long as I can. I have never been on a refined sugar fast...never. Always there has been ample amounts of sugar in my diet and my health and immune system have suffered from it. Now I am not one of the zealots that thinks you can never eat any sugar at all....that's not what I am talking about. But I do think that we all eat too much sugar and it destroys health if left unchecked. This is the right thing for me right now....my body needs a break............and I am still getting natural sugar from frozen berries and whatever else if found in whole unprocessed foods.

If you are anything like me, honestly, you must admit that you love sweets. Donuts, love them! Ice Cream...love it! Toblerone Chocolate...the Best! Pastries and hot chocolate....too damn good! I will admit it.........I am a sugar junkie. A couple of weeks ago I got some blood work done as well as some muscle testing done. Both tests showed that I was not responding well to sugar at all and that my fasting GLUCOSE leves were dangerously high for a soon to be 34 year old man. That is the great thing about blood work....your lifestyle will always come out in your blood. You cannot lie to your blood as blood is the vital sap of life that determines your health. With my daughter on the way (and with Type II diabetes in my family), I want to stick around on this earth for a long time to be part of her life.

As my wife says, having skinny genetics like I have can be a curse. Here's why; when you are thin and can get away eating alot of crap food without gaining weight, you erroneously conclude that you must be healthy. WRONG! Someone who has less the favorable genetics in the "get lean" department will eat sugar and gain weight. That is called INSTANT feedback. They immediately can see the negative consequences (gaining fat) from their bad eating while someone like me will not visibly see it in a rise of bodyfat. But ever more deadly, my harm lies in the background, almost invisible to me until one day I wake and find out that I have diabetes or some auto immune disease. Now don't get me wrong, I love being able to get lean quickly but , it can be a double edged sword because the INTERNAL damage can be asymptomatic for years until it's too late.

Lucky for me I am catching it early! I hope to be able to get a hold of my blood sugar levels quickly. In two weeks I must say I feel significantly better. I was poisoning myself everyday and my body was getting sicker and sicker. My cravings are still there......and I must admit it is very difficult to say no when all around you is sugar, all the time...everywhere you go. Now with holidays approaching I will be tested big time. I automatically link holidays (Christmas and Thanksgiving) with eating sweets. YIKES! Thank God for DISCIPLINE.

TRAINING (Friday)

Zercher Squats
135 x 5
185 x 3 x 3 sets

Barbell Military Press
95 x 5
115 x 4,4,4,3

Weighted Pull Ups
32kg 3,3,3

30 comments:

Joe Sarti said...

Franz, I am right there with you.

Question: any particular type of blood work? Did you take a glucose tolerance test? I am interested in doing some testing as well, so I am curious to learn what you did.

I too am eliminating the sugars, they reek havoc on the body across the board, energy, body fat levels, etc...must lead by example for the clients :-)

Sean Schniederjan RKC said...

FS-

I'm a sugar junkie too. It gets bad around the holidays becuause my whole family is baking the sweet stuff every day!

So for Lent I always quit cold turkey. Its difficult, especially the first week or so. Good luck!

Scott Dawson, M.S. said...

Franz - Thanks for checking in with my blog! Sugars, only complex carbs when I can. If you have to eat simple sugars, pile on the fiber to slow down absorbtion, huh? The semi-annual Atomic Chocolate shake is a must.

Unknown said...

The key at Thanks Giving and Christmas is to eat so much turkey that you get too full to eat sweets. Or at least eat so much that you pass out before you're able to go for the sweets. Unfortunately, i'm not crazy about turkey!

Aaron Friday said...

32kg for triples? C'mon man, you're a pullup guru.

Taikei Matsushita said...

My guess is 2X2 40kg or 4X1 40kg pull up next time.

Franz Snideman said...

Joe,

Basic medical blood work: cholesterol, Testosteorne levels, glucose, liver enzymes, etc.

The muscle testing is called Nutrition Response Testing (something I myself am starting to do on my clients - very accurate).

sugar is bad news!

Franz Snideman said...

Sean,
Misery loves company :)

Cutting it out is hard...real hard. Today makrs two straight weeks without any refined sugar...feels good man!

Franz Snideman said...

Scott,
Fiber is the key. ALWAYS! I still do not eat enough fiber. It's hard to eat broccoli and asparagus and salad at every meal.

Franz Snideman said...

Aaron,

My goal is to get the BEAST for a single. I am almost there.....a couple of inches away from the bar!

Franz Snideman said...

Taikei,

the 40kg is tough. I can get it on a good day!

Mark Reifkind said...

aaarrrggghhhhhh! Not even ice cream? man I could let go of all the other sugar but not ice cream. also, check tracy's blog for great ways to get your veggies in without the usual boring salads and such.
smart thing to do dude and you will be way healthier for it I know.
just cause you're a friend I will eat your portion of ice cream FOR you,lol. hey, we're friends what else would I do?

Franz Snideman said...

thanks Mark! I to love ice cream.....but I don't do well with it.

You're lucky! :)

Eat some for me......because I'm done with it......at least for now!

Adam said...

Franz

Man i know what you mean, i feel useless in the morning with out a can of Monster or something like that.

Why is it everything that tastes so good is so damn bad for us!

Lauren Brooks said...

I am so sorry to hear about your high fasting glucose levels. You are a trooper to give up refined sugar completely. I wish you the best of luck. I know how hard that is. Glad you are feeling better though.

Good luck! And hopefully you will allow yourself a littly tiny reward every now and then.

Howie B said...

Congrats on your first complete week Franz. I know how hard this will be for you. Just like you said, aim for a small milestone without the sweets, then try to extend it. And if you slip up, start all over again. I did a 10-week stint like this back in April. Coupled with high heart rate workouts (low poundages) I dropped 10 pounds. Growing up, we were big sugarholics. Not an easy habit to break. But like Rif, nowadays I find it hard to keep away from ice cream. And chocolate, but at least that has its health benefits too. Keep up the hard work, we're all rooting for you.

fawn said...

Franz,

I hear you on the sugar... I feel like I have a sugar addiction. I don't have a lot of food cravings... but once I have sugar I will crave it! LOL! If I can go a week without refined sugar, I feel so much better and the cravings are gone!

Even worse that regular sugar... High Fructose Corn syrup! Seriously bad stuff! My prediction is HFC will be revealed to be dangerous like cigarettes!

Franz Snideman said...

Adam,

I think we can all relate. Sugar is a tough one to beat!

Howie B said...

I have seriously been trying to remove High Fructose Corn Syrup from my diet. If I decide to eat crap, well I know it's there. Worse is that its in places you'd never expect. I now only buy Stonyfield Yogurt because its the only one I've found without it. And breads too! Pepperidge Farm Naturals are the only ones on our shelves not loaded with it. Just awful!!

Franz Snideman said...

Fawn,

High fructose corn syrup is the worst. I must admit I have probably eaten a lot of it in my lifetime.
I feel way better without it!!!!

Franz Snideman said...

Howie....

yes..good job on the discipline with your yogurts and breads! We all need to be much more conscious that we are!!!

How we as a society go so off track with our diets is amazing....everywhere you go marketing campaigns are attacking us and brainwashing us to LIVE ON SUGAR!!!

Let us form a REVOLUTION against the evil sugar marketing and save our children from poor health. I for one am starting with myself so I can BE THE EXAMPLE to my family and my coming daughter. As they say, children don't do what you say, they do what you do!

leslie said...

I SO needed to see this today! I've recently stopped eating animal products -- I feel better when I stay away from meat, chicken, and fish. And I was thinking "If somebody told me that sugar caused wrinkles, I would NEVER eat sugar again!" But I sure do love the stuff. And it's a trap if you workout hard, because hard workouts mean more calorie burn which means you can "get away" with more crap in your diet, you know?

Looking forward to following your progress and best of luck with it, Franz!

Franz Snideman said...

Leslie,

Glad you liked the post! Hopefully we all can benefit from more discipline with our food!!!!!!

Be well!

Aaron Friday said...

Eating high-fructose corn syrup is like eating diabetes, obesity, cancer and heart disease. Just about anything else you could consume short of crack cocaine would be better for you.

Glad you mentioned that, Franz! This stuff will see the light of day eventually.

Franz Snideman said...

Aaron,

I hope so brother! We need to get the word out....and starting by talking about it on the blogs is a great idea!!!!

Mike T Nelson said...

Nice work on the streak Franz! You can do it!

Nutrition Response Testing--is that a form of Applied Kinesiology (AK)? What did you find for yourself? Just curious.

How much joint mobility work do you currently do? CRF work (Cardio Respiratory Fitness)--can be high rep KB swings and snatches. I would be interested how much these may effect your blood glucose.

Was it an oral glucose tolerance test, or just a simple fasting glucose (sounds like a fasting test).

Keep up the awesome work!!
Rock on
Mike N

Anonymous said...

you are a brave, brave man for giving up sugar- cold turkey! :p

I HATE when I allow myself to over-indulge! I get reminded really quickly of the consequences, though! My blood sugar takes a major nose-dive and I get the shakes with nausea. It's a terrible feeling :(

I like the link you made between thin not necessarily being healthy... The blood tells all! ;) There's really no better way to get a snap shot of your health than through a simple blood test.

Goooooood luck Franz!

Franz Snideman said...

Mike T,

The NRT has its roots in AK. I really like the work and find it is immensely helpful and resolving chronic health problems, BIG TIME! It is fast becomming a big part of my nutrition/wellness tool box!

Franz Snideman said...

Sara,

It was very difficult giving up refined sugar cold turkey. Now more than two weeks into my sugar fast I am feeling a ton better. I'm not sure I want to go back to the sugar days, although I am stil allowing some starchy carbs in my diet which I guess technically could be counted as sugar (Brown rice, rice bread, occasional potatoes). I need a little bit of carbs especially on the days I sprint, train alot of cliets and workout.

:)

Yoana Teran Snideman said...

I am very proud of you my love!
You are doing great!!!

I have to admit that the first few days I got nervous because you were acting very different. I prayed to God that I would get my nice and sweet husband back and I got him back!!! But this time without that crazy sugar around him. I can also see your abdominal anatomy with the amazing lean and strong body you are getting!!

Love,

Your Wife!