A perfect example of this are Mark’s Fat Guacamole Devils, which are deviled eggs with guacamole instead of a mayo based filling.

Mark's Fat Guacamole Devils, yum!

Head over to Mark’s blog for the full recipe and check out some of his other primal creativities!

Cheers!

However, America has an obesity epidemic on its hands and poor eating habits are to blame.  If the typical American would cut out 90% of sugar and refined foods, they can instantly lose weight and start feeling better about themselves.

Here are a few reasons why you need to avoid sugar at all costs:

13. Sugar can weaken eyesight.

19. Sugar can cause premature aging.

129. Sugar induces water and salt retention.

There are 146 Reasons Why Sugar Is Ruining Your Health that you should take seriously.  Avoiding one sugar molecule at a time can lead to exponential improvemnts in your health.

And Dr. Mercola covers 76 Ways Sugar Can Ruin Your Health if the 146 weren’t enough.

Steak, asparagus, avocado, and MacNCheese

In the case of last night’s dinner, I just rubbed up a steak, seared it, and then tossed in some asparagus, sliced an avocado and nuked by microwave some Trader Joe’s Mac N Cheese.  Overall, about ten minutes in the kitchen.

Results, a great fitness recovery meal full of protein, good carbs, good fats, and some really simple carbs in the form of Mac N Cheese.  Yum!

Because of its flexibility, the burrito is a great meal for beginners to experiment with.  Start with choosing the tortilla from a variety at your local market.  Each tortilla has a different flavor, from strong to mild.  The choice is really quite personal. I personally recommend hand ground corn tortillas or Ezekial whole protein tortillas to avoid allergy prone wheat that also lacks nutritional content from over processing.

Once you have the tortilla, you need to decide what to put in it.  This is where thinking outside the box will deliver an eating experience like no other.  You can start with an ingredient or you can choose a culinary region (i.e italian, mexican, cowboy).   I tend to start with egg and add various ingredients from there, putting together a theme as I go.

Additions can include potato, sausage, beef, vegetables, or salsa.  From starting with onion and bell pepper, to marinating the potatoes in various ways, to using various brands/flavors of sausage, you have enough variations to make a burrito for everyday of the month.  In addition, burrritos can be assembled ahead of time and refrigerated/frozen, or you can build them as needed.

Here are some of my more successful experiments:
1) My favorite burrito consists of scrambled eggs with salt, pepper, a little cholula, boiled potato/hash brown, colby jack cheese and salsa on an Ezekiel tortilla.   Sometimes simple is best.

2) For an italian burrito, add some basil to the egg mixture before cooking. Then compile the burrito with some hot italian suasage, mozzarella/feta cheese, and sliced tomato. The Ezekiel works well here.

3) For a cowboy burrito, add some chili powder to the egg mixture.  Prepare the potatoes with onion and bell pepper.  The meat should be a well seasoned and marinated brisket (not bbq).  Compile the egg, potatoes, and brisket with the cheese of your choice on a corn tortilla. You can even add some western style beans for added fiber and protein.

4) A swinger burrito is sorta like the sloppy joe of burritos. All you need is some scambled egg (salt and pepper is all you need) and some chili, preferably the thicker the better.  Throw the eggs on a corn tortilla, then some chili and cheddar cheese.  Wrap it up and enjoy.

5) The greek burrito uses spinach and feta cheese, mixed into the egg mixture just prior to putting it together.   A little oregano also helps with the greek theme.

Since this a fitness site, I would encourage everyone to expirement with high quality ingredients that are free of hormones, pesticides, and other not-so-great stuff.   I typically use free-range eggs and organic. locally grown vegetables from my weekly farmers’ market.   Buying locally grown and using fresh ingredients is the key to every great tasting, nutritional meal.

Experiment and have fun…  the best way to start off your day!

The most recent culinary health food experiment to occur in Aric’s kitchen involved some seafood and a mix of green ingredients.  In this case, I started with two ingredients: frozen shrimp and asparagus.  I instantly thought of a cold salad.  With a salad in mind, I noticed I also had a few avovados that needed to be used.  Then I turned toward the spice rack and grabbed some chili powder, minced roasted garlic, salt & pepper, and a little olive oil.  Toss them all together and Shrimp Green Salad was born… although the green refers to the color, not the type of salad itself (aka. “mixed greens”).

So, here goes Shrimp Green Salad:

1. Steam the frozen shrimp until tender.
2. While the shrimp are steaming, dice up an avocado or two and toss in a bowl with the olive oil.
3. Once the shrimp are tender, toss them into the bowl and stir.
4. Cut the asparagus into 1 inch pieces and toss them into the steamer, cooking until slightly crispy, yet tender or to your liking.  Please do not over cook.
5. While the asparagus is cooking, add the spices and herbs.  Don’t measure, just add to taste.  I added chili powder, minced garlic, a little mixed herbs from Trader Joe’s, basil, salt and pepper, and a little sweet paprika for color.
6. After the asparagus is the way you want it, chill slightly to prevent further cooking and toss into bowl.
7. Mix well, adding additional olive oil if the salad is a little dry.
8. Taste. Add additional spices or herbs as you see fit.  Mine needed a little acid for depth of flavor, so toss in a little lemon juice.
9. Enjoy!
10. Note: I added some prepared chicken to mine, in addition to the shrimp.  The chicken needed to be used.

Shrimp Green Salad

This is a salad that will get better if chilled for an hour or so in the refrigerator.  Letting it sit will give the spices and herbs time to mingle with the olive oil and other ingredients.

This is a wonderful combination of health foods.  The avocados have good fats, the shrimp and chicken are high in protein, and the asparagus is a high quality carb.  Overall, the dish is very primal as it does not have any refined foods in it.

Can you imagine cavemen sitting around a fire enjoying their Shrimp Green Salad?  well, maybe not…

Until next time!

1) Lost 62 pounds
2) Reduced BMI by 10%
3) Participated in 4 triathlons, 2 duathlons and numerous 5k events
4) gone from feeling not-so-great to feeling wonderful.

Now, the story continues at a new blog called Aric In Training.  The blog has been up for a few months now and overlaps with this one.  Instead of maintaining two blogs on the same subject, I decided to use Aric In Training as my triathlon training blog and use Fitness & Food as an expirement in healthy eating.  While triathlon training and nutrition go hand in hand, they are large enough subjects to warrant separate space in the blogosphere.

Topics here will include:
1) Primal recipes
2) Experimental recipes using token ingredients
3) News and topics on organic, sustainable foods
4) Anything related to healthy eating and fitness.

Aric In Training topics include:
1) Triathlon Training Plans and progress
2) Race results and commentary
3) Discussion of training with metrics
4) Workout logs
5) General fitness and exercise tips

I hope you all will enjoy both blogs in the coming year.

Instead, I went to the gym pool to work on my crawl stroke, the first time since the Ventura Triathlon.  Once home, I did a number of jump rope workouts that help with my running posture.   In the end, I got the training in, just not quite how expected it to go and it makes me stronger for the next triathlon.

This brings up an important point about working out and motivation.  While making plans with others and sharing workouts is great, you need to realize why you are working out and roll with the change in plans.  Triathletes are very psychologically intense and adaptable, so being able to run with the punches is simply part of being a triathlete.

The Swim

After setting up a and participating in the “pre-race” meeting, I headed down to the beach.  I was surprised to see the ocean so calm.  I didn’t hesitate to jump in and get warmed up.  After staging for the swim, I was shocked to hear other participates in my wave talking about how they have never been in the ocean before.  Hmmm… it wasn’t just my first triathlon.  Anyway, in the seconds before the horn, my heart rate went from 92 bpm to 127 bpm.   The initial dive didn’t go too well and I ended going a lot wider around the bouy than I expected.  In the end, I finished the 200m swim in 12:20.  Two participants from my wave were hauled back to shore via the lifeguards.

T1

The run from the beach to the transition was harder than I thought.  My heart rate was really high, 177 bpm and I was in no shape for sand running, so I walked it.  Afterall, I wasn’t going to win.   This is when I got confirmation that my wetsuit was really too big for me.  As I was walking, it kept slipping down… next year I will buy one that fits (really, I bought the wetsuit when I still had 20 lbs to lose).

Transitioning to the bike went a lot quicker than I thought. Stripping the wetsuit was easy, I threw the socks on over my sandy feet (the sand actually helped me get the socks on), my jersey, gloves and helmet.   It went so smoothly, that I stopped, took inventory and then proceed because I felt like I was forgetting something.

The Bike

Cycling is one of my favorite past times.  Cruising along on two wheels under the bright sun is a great way to experience nature and the urban environment.  Needless to say, the bike was steady and fun, cruising at about 18mph.  I definitely started feeling a little fatigued in the latter portion of the ride.  This was after passing a number of cyclist that kept speeding and slowing down.  My objective was to keep a steady cadence and let the gears work the hills, etc.   I was quite disappointed to arrive back at the park after 4o minutes as I wanted to keep going.  The final dismount before the transition area was disappointing as a cyclist stopped well short of the dismount line and I almost ran into him.  Oh well, just farther to run.

The Bike Data - Notice Smooth Heart Rate

T2

I didn’t have a clear plan in my head as far as what I was going to wear for the run.  I knew I had to change shoes, shed the gloves, and trade a cap for the helmet, but I couldn’t decide whether to continue with the bike jersey or switch to the running jersey.  I ended up keeping the bike jersey, throwing on the shoes and cap before heading out.  Since I was at the far end of the transition area in relation to the run course, I had to run quite a distance before I could even start running.

The Run

I was not that far out from the transition area when I really felt the fatigue of the day.  My body and in particular my legs were shot and I felt every step.  I could only manage running in short spurts and then my stomach started feeling odd, possibly from too many fluids.  I knew the run was going to be hard, but I didn’t expect it to be this hard.  Looking at my GPS, it seemed like it was taking forever to cover the distance.  To make matters worse, I hadn’t scoped out the course, so I really didn’t have any reference to the turn around.  However, I pushed on and found inspiration in the other runners.  Coming around that corner and seeing the finish line really helped me push it too. The run was 11:00 minute pace, not bad considering that I swam and biked prior to the 5k.

Ventura Triathlon Run Data - Notice the sporadic speed.

Crossing the finish line was awesome!

The Results

Finished in 1hr, 38 minutes, 16 seconds.  Overall, I placed 312 out of 373 and placed 24 out of 25 in my age group (30-39, M).

The initial video reaction to finishing the triathlon:

While I am extremely nervous, I can’t wait to be on that beach Sunday morning and dive into the ocean, kicking off an hour and half experience that I will never forget!