Tools for Cavemen: Outfitting a Paleo Kitchen

     So you've finally decided to try out the Paleo lifestyle, but you probably feel a little overwhelmed as to where to begin with this whole damn thing. Of course the best place to start is by outfitting your kitchen with the tools that will help you cook and eat healthy paleo meals. Now let's begin.

Tools of the trade

• Knives: Personally, I own a pair of Santoku knives. One 5 inch and the other 7. Both work great for chopping, cutting, slicing, and dicing. I suggest outfitting yourself with something very practical and something that feels comfortable in your hand. Also, don't spend money on a whole set of knives. You'll never touch half the stuff that's in there. Instead, buy one or two high quality knives, either a Santoku or a chef's knife will do fine for almost all of your cutting tasks. If you have a little extra money, a paring knife will do great when cutting up or peeling veggies. Along with your knives, get yourself a proper sharpener. This will ensure you keep a healthy cutting blade for the life of your knife.

• Pots & Pans: First things first, you DO NOT need non-stick pans, so get them out of  your head. After a while, they scratch up and release all of that yummy black coating into your food, and when heated to high temps, they release toxic chemicals too. Not good! Instead, buy stainless steel (relatively cheap),  copper (expensive), or for you guys with a little more experience, cast iron is good if seasoned well. Also, carbon steel woks are awesome to cook with, and are great for stir fry's.

• Steamer: Steamers are great if you got a little extra dough. They cook up veggies nicely, and some allow you to cook different types of meats. But if you want to keep things simple, just boil up some water in a small pot and use a cheap steam basket. They work just as good, and keep you from having to drop hard earned cash on some funky contraption. And for you spacemen, you can always nuke veggies in a microwave.

• Cutting Surface: I suggest you go out and buy a large bamboo cutting board or something comparable. The plastic versions of theses get chopped to bits every time you slice and dice and end up in your food causing havoc to your body.  Keep it simple and keep it natural.

• Spoons spatulas etc..: Again go with the wooden, or bamboo versions of these. They work just as well as their plastic counterparts, they don't release toxic chemicals, and they don't jack up your pans.

• Convection Oven: These are great for paleo cooking. You can bake, broil, rotisserie, and toast (not bread) just like a regular size oven. They save space and help with utility costs.  They also help prevent you from turning your house and kitchen into a volcano. Get one of these last since they tend to be a little bit pricey.

• Crock Pot: Crock pots are amazing and should win some kind of paleo award. You can set them in the morning and have great meals when you get home. They're cheap, easy to use, and last forever. Also, if you want to impress some people, look up some tasty crock pot recipes, cook 'em up, and serve them like you've been slaving over a hot stone all day. Your cooking abilities will gain 5 points just by having and using one of these babies. Go get one!

• Misc: Meat Thermometer-make sure that meat is cooked to proper temp. Food Processor-helps cut preparation time, but adds to the clean up. Plus, you don't really need it. Kitchen Shears -great addition to your tool kit. These will make easy work when cutting up meat, chicken, or just opening up tricky bacon packages. Peeler  & julienne peeler - its all in the name they peel veggies, and the Julienne version can help you make veggie noodles out of zucchini. Vegetable Brush - for cleaning up store bought veggies that might be covered in pesticides. Can Opener - all that coconut milk has to get out of the can somehow. Blender - plug it in, stick in some fruit or what ever you need to pulverize, put cover on, push a button, and now you get a semi solid liquid yay! Great for shakes or soup preparations. Get one! 

     Well, thats it! Once again, by no means was this ever meant to be a comprehensive list for your kitchen. Instead I outlined the basic tools you need to cook practically any paleo meal. I went for easy, affordable, and practical. Now go kill something and eat it! 

Alcohol vs Crossfit

Crossfit Buffalo

Great post from Remy over at crossfitsouthbay.com 

No one can deny: drunk can be fun. Not much has changed since high school/college other than maybe my alcohol tolerance and propensity to prank/trespass/sleep in public places. However, how much I value my health has definitely changed, hence the frequency I partake.

‘EtOH’ is organic chemistry for ‘alcohol’ or ethyl alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. I sometimes hung out with a crowd that would refer to alcohol by this name (yeah, nerds partied, too). Calling it EtOH redefined alcoholic beverages to be perhaps more deviant than just throwing back some beers given what we’d sometimes do with it — brew our own beer to create it, extract/isomerize elicit substances into it, among other things. Making it into numerous games also redefined it — pong, flip-cup, etc. Calling it another name highlighted the values I identified with then.

Now, I just like calling things what they are. Alcohol is a serious toxin in the body and even in moderate amounts it’s definitely at odds with health goals. Alcohol’s also been called a crutch, a social lubricant or yet another product we rely on to help us define happiness. Whatever your persuasion, alcohol came into our diet relatively recently and hasn’t been around from an evolutionary perspective long enough to produce any significant adaptations to its seriously toxic short and long term effects.

The list of facts below summarizes effects of non-excessive alcohol use. Excessive is defined by most health sources as more than 1 drink per day. However, for women, this level of use has been associated with increased risk for breast and other cancers, as well as for those with other negative nutritional and lifestyle factors. And while 1 drink per day may not be ‘excessive’, for the subset of population that is trying to improve fitness beyond just wellness or avoiding disease, these facts should hopefully be even more meaningful.

Alcohol & Performance

• Consuming alcohol after a workout can cancel out any physiological gains you may have received from the activity.
• Alcohol use drastically reduces protein synthesis resulting in a decrease in muscle growth, and even short-term alcohol use can impede muscle growth.
• Even a small amount of alcohol severely disrupts sleep resulting in suppressed vital hormones (particularly HGH by as much as 70% — a hormone integral to sustained muscle building and repair) and decreased oxygen availability resulting in decreased endurance.
• Alcohol is toxic to testosterone levels essential to muscle development and recovery. Alcohol disrupts the fluid balance in muscle cells, resulting in reduced ability to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), your muscles’ main source of energy, as well as dehydration and slowing of repair processes.
• The body metabolizes alcohol sugars into fatty acids and promotes the storage of other carbohydrate as fat.
• The metabolization of alcohol by the body is an oxidation reaction with the enzyme dehydrogenase. This creates an elevation of NADH (remember the Kreb’s Cycle?) which reduces the production of ATP, resulting in a lack of energy. Women have much less dehydrogenase which is what accounts for the effect of higher intoxication for the same amount of alcohol consumed by a male of the same size.
• Alcohol use inhibits absorption or can use up important nutrients. To name a few: Thiamin is integral to metabolizing carbohydrate, proteins and fat, hemoglobin creation; B12 is essential to maintain healthy red blood and nerve cells (and lots of other functions); Folic acid is part of a coenzyme involved in the formation of new cells; zinc is essential to your energy metabolic processes.

Alcohol & Health Risk Factors

Over time, excessive alcohol use can lead to the development of chronic diseases, neurological impairments and social problems. These include but are not limited to:

• Neurological problems, including dementia, stroke and neuropathy.
• Cardiovascular problems, including myocardial infarction, cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation and hypertension.
• Psychiatric problems, including depression, anxiety, and suicide.
• Social problems, including unemployment, lost productivity, and family problems.
• Cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, liver, colon, and breast.
• In general, the risk of cancer increases with increasing amounts of alcohol.
• Liver diseases, including: alcoholic hepatitis, cirrhosis (which is among the 15 leading causes of all deaths in the United States), other gastrointestinal problems, including pancreatitis and gastritis.

HOLY WOW WE GOT BABY!

So yesterday was a day of days for me. For the first time in my life I've never been so proud to be part of something as I am to be part in creating a baby! Janell and I sat nervously in the OB's office waiting to hear the strong and steady muffled lub-dubs of our little creation. That unbelievable sound drilled a hole straight into my heart. I am in love! We are at week 15 and counting. I'll keep you guys updated with a weekly baby post.

So easy RIIIGHT..

So easy a caveman can do it, right? Well, after some thought, I've decided to set up a blog. Mostly I'd like to make this thing as fun and creative as I can. Keep in mind that I'm a very simple guy, and I don't really care about grammar and spelling. So if something doesn't seem right, it's probably because I was too lazy to hit the spell check button or wake up Janell (my female forever cavemate) to proof read my blog entry at three o clock in the morning. Well, on to what this blog is all about.

My name is Samuel "Sam" Aguirre. I'm a 25 year old man, born and raised in Southern California. I'm half Colombian (on my dad's side) and half Guatemalan (on my mom's). I was raised in a pretty traditional Hispanic home, and I am the second of five children. I have a sound belief in God, but by no means am I a perfect Christian. I always try to live my life to the fullest and make the most out of every moment, because life is long and I don't want to miss a thing! At the moment Janell and I are living in Buffalo NY. The reason for this is because she is attending medical school at UB or The University at Buffalo. So far she is kicking ass in school and on her way to becoming a doc (early retirement for me!! he he). So for at least the next four years, we will be living here with an empire state of mind. 

What is CrossFit? Well, by definition "CrossFit is a strength and conditioning system built on constantly varied, if not randomized, functional movements executed at high intensity"-CF Journal. Or for us cavepeople, CrossFit is a non traditional style of training that is built right into our genes. The original cross athletes relied on well-balanced muscular bodies to tackle everyday perils. Whether crossing varied terrains, joining in on the daily hunt, or just taking off when shit hits the fan! By design CFit is easy to understand, tough to execute, and impossible to master. Constantly challenging WOD's, or "Workout Of the Day", keep daily exercises from getting boring. So if you dare to break away from the daily grind at your local globo gym, or just tired of getting nowhere with your routine, check out crossfit.com. Read up, and start doing some WORK! I guarantee that a lil CFit will go a long way. And not only will you have "increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains" (might want to google that), but you'll also have a better chance of surviving the zombie apocalypse he he. And if your in the Buffalo area, check us out at crossfitbuffalo.com. Drop by, get a WOD in, drink the Kool-Aid, and meet a bunch of cool ass people! 

Well, I think I've lost most of you guys by now, so I'll finish up.  I'll try to keep posts short but as sweet as I can. Keep on checking back from time to time, and comment as much as you want. I'd love to hear what you have to say. Rock on and go eat some meat!