A list of Paleo / low carb snacks. Stay lean for MMA

Almost every day someone asks me for snack ideas. I don't generally recommend snacking at all, if it can be helped but sometimes it is better than crashing the whole train into the wall! Also, I would say that most fruits and nuts should be consumed only in moderation. That being said I do have a great deal of sympathy for those of you who are trapped in this rut! The tendency for people to feel a need for snacking comes from both the ingrained habit as well as the hormonal response to the types of foods we eat. There are "trigger foods" that can cause a person to eat even when they are full. These foods generally consist of carb or sugar-laden foods because of the large swing in insulin and leptin from eating them. The more you eat these foods, the less sensitive your body is to the signals of leptin and insulin so your natural "full" response to eating will get dulled forming a cycle of apparent need - "jonesing" for sweets or carbs late into the night! I speak from experience, I'm the guy who looks in the pantry fifteen times per night even when I know there is nothing in there. I'll eat a whole box of gluten-free cookies if we have them in the house. You will probably notice that these cravings are also mostly at night and at times when the brain is not engaged and challenged ie; watching T.V. This is a further sign of hormone disregulation and brain chemical imbalances. If you follow a natural paleo-style diet you will stand the best chance of balancing these various systems and getting rid of the cravings to a large degree. Here are the guidelines I follow for eating, my "diet" if you will, it is based on Robb Wolf's Paleo Solution diet and writings by Loren Cordain, Mark Sisson and Nora Gedgaudes as well as many more nutrition experts.

1. No white carbs, ie: bread, pasta rice.
2. 5 hours between meals.
3. don't drink your calories, ie: beer, fruit juice smoothies but drink plenty of water.
4. Don't eat fruit, a handful of berries is OK.
5. Eat good quality protein and fat at every meal.
6. Eat as much "above ground" veggies as you want and make sure you eat a lot!
7. No processed oils or vegetable oils and trans-fats. Only animal fats and fish oil, coconut oil and olive oil.
8. If it could not be killed, picked or pulled out of the ground, it is not food!! Don't be fooled by "natural" or "fat free" or "healthy" labels.
9. No food for 3 hours before bed
The more I eat this way, the less I crave food in between meals and sometimes I only eat two meals per day even when I am slinging drywall in the day, followed by boot-camp and Kickboxing classes at night.
It takes a little more planning at times to eat right when you are out a lot for work or travel or even training. By planning I mean, cooking an extra portion the night before to bring to work the next day and stocking the fridge and cupboards with items that are not going to cause problems.

Now, here is a list of some snacks that you can try to incorporate into your daily plan. I hope this helps. I will also keep adding as I find new ideas and I will post them here and at Coach Toby Combat Systems facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/coachtoby/?ref=ts

1- Cook up some beef, chicken or prawn skewers the night before and bring them to work, it's like jerky on a stick!
2- Cut up lots of veggies and fruit to keep in the fridge but store them in a bowl of water with lemon juice or spray some lemon juice on them and cover this will keep them from going brown.
3- Use lots of seasonal squash and pumpkins for your stews and dinner side dishes and wash the seeds, bake them on a pan with coconut oil and sea salt to keep in paper bags in the pantry for munching later.
4- Mmmm... trail mix! Mix nuts, seeds, dried berries and a little dark chocolate nibs, use your imagination.
5- Pepperoni chips - , your kids will love them! Cut into thin slices a whole bag of firm pepperoni sticks and cook them in the micowave until they are hard. Eat em like chips!
6- Pop sorgum seeds like popcor, oh yah!
7- 85% cocoa or above chocolate seems to take away most sweet carvings with the least amount of damage.
8- Roll up strips of cheese into slices of roast beef and eat them like roll-ups.
9- A teaspoon of coconut oil in your coffee or tea gives your body what it really needs for energy but dampens your hunger and helps to adapt your metabolism to run on fats.
10- Smoked salmon and beef jerky are good stand-bys.
11- Kale baked in the oven with oil and sea salt makes great chips.
12- If you like pickles you can but naturally fermented pickles and Kim Chi and sauerkraut at farmers markets like Langley F.M.. These you can also make yourself - look up the how-tos on youtube, there are tonnes! Naturally fermented foods are very healing to the gut and have been known to help with many auto-imune issues.
13- How bout a simple boiled egg?!?
14- Full fat yogurt, non-sweetened ( you could throw in some vanilla stevia for taste)
15- Smoothy - can of coconut milk, 2 to 4 eggs raw, yogurt or Kefir and sweeten with stevia.
16- Remember pork rinds? Turns out they are not all that bad for you!
17- Coconut flakes (big ones) You can add this to your trail mix or eat by themselves.
18- Cosco has a gluten-free quinoa crackers that are very thin and low in carbs, slap on some almond butter or some goat cheese and liver pate and you got some good eatin'!
19- For snack or sometimes desert I like seasonal berries in heavy cream or coconut milk.

Try this recipe for chocolate cake! I stole it from the blog - http://paleospirit.com/2011/chocolate-paleo-snack-cake/

Ingredients;
10 medjool dates, pitted (I buy mine in bulk at Costco)
1 cup of unsweetened applesauce (or one ripe banana)
3 eggs
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine celtic sea salt
1/2 cup strong brewed coffee

Instructions

Place the dates in a food processor and pulse until completely pureed.
Add applesauce (or banana) and continue to pulse until pureed and combined with the dates.
Add the fruit purée to the bowl of a stand mixer, add the eggs, vanilla, coconut oil and coffee and mix on low-medium speed until well combined.
Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix on low-speed, scraping down the sides, until you have a smooth batter.
Grease a 8×8 glass pan with coconut oil, pour in the batter and smooth it with the back of a spatula.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.


Here is a recipe for rolls that are gluten free ass well as carb free and they are good for dinner or desert! I stole this one from this blog - http://blog.yourlighterside.com/2009/05/gluten-free-low-carb-buns-aka-oopsie.html

3 large eggs
pinch of cream of tartar (1/8 tsp)
3 ounces cream cheese (Do not soften)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

Separate the eggs and add cream cheese to the yolks. Use a mixer to combine the ingredients together. In a separate bowl, whip egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff (if you're using the same mixer, mix the whites first and then the yolk mixture). Using a spatula, gradually fold the egg yolk mixture into the white mixture, being careful not to break down the whites. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray and spoon the mixture onto the sheet, making 6 mounds. Flatten each mound slightly.

Bake about 30 minutes (You want them slightly softer, not crumbly). Let cool on the sheet for a few minutes, and then remove to a rack and allow them to cool. Store in a loosely open sack and allow to rest on the counter before use (otherwise they might be too moist). Can be frozen.

Notes: If you are making these to be savory (for burgers) you can add dry mustard and dill or other seasonings to the yolk mixture. If you want a more sweet roll, add a very small amount of stevia natural sweetener to the yolk mixture.

Nutritional information per roll: Calories:85 , Carbohydrates: .6 g, Fiber: 0g, Net Carbohydrates: .6g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 7.5


Finally, here are some ideas from Mark Sisson of "The Primal Blueprint" - http://www.marksdailyapple.com/snack-solutions-primal-alternatives-for-non-primal-snacks/

Wrestling 101 - Cutting Wieght

A lot of people are concerned about there weight, but probably none more so than fighters. As fighters we are under a lot of pressure to be bigger, stronger, and faster than our opponents. We cut weight to be at the top of the weight class. The more you cut the bigger and stronger you will be, theoretically. If done wrong though, all that size and strength won't help you if you're not at 100% on the day of competition. We are going to look at some ways to make the cut easier as well as how to stay at 100% for fight day.

Let me first make something really clear, cutting weight is not the same as losing weight. You are simply removing the water from you're system to help drop a couple of pounds. As soon as you reingest water you put the weight right back on. As I cover the weight cutting process remember that these are the tips that work for me, some people drop the water easy while others have a hard time with it.

The water cutting process generally starts a week out from when you have to weigh in. During that time I will increase my water intake to about 4 - 6 litres of water a day, more if I'm working out hard. Now what this does is trick my body. Most people are dehydrated in their day to day lives. Their bodies retain water out of fear that more water isn't coming for a while. By drinking extra water, or what I like to call super hydrating, our body is forced to get rid of the water instead of retaining it to make room for the more that is coming. Another thing you need to do is cut out salt as it makes you retain water, therefore making it harder to lose it. We keep this up for the whole week.

The night before weigh in I take my last drink of water as well as my last meal. The day of the weigh in is when I start the hard work. Basically you need to sweat. Simple. By super hydrating the week leading up to our bodies will give up the water easy, but we don't replace it. Our bodies won't have enough time to readjust to retaining water therefore it will be easier to dehydrate ourselves and drop more weight. Some people like to give themselves two days to cut weight if they have a lot to lose. Say you had to drop 12 pounds to make your weight class, you could cut 7 pounds the first day and drink back 1 pound of water throughout the day and the next day you drop 6 more, effectively dropping 12 pounds. If you do this make sure to eat dry foods throughout the first day, no fruits, vegetables or anything else with lots of water in it. For any serious weight cutting I recommend picking up a sauna suit.

Now that the weight is dropped many people think they are done, but the most important part to being 100% is how you replenish. Make sure you gradually introduce the water back to your system. Pedialyte is a really good drink to replenish with as it has electrolytes and other stuff you lost during the sweating period. If you drink to quick you will cramp up and feel really bad. By this point you're probably thinking with your stomach instead of your head, but we have to make sure we eat properly at this point. That means go back to your routine leading up to this weigh in. Don't go get greasy nachos right after weigh in as this will be a shock to your system and not make you feel very good. The other really important thing is a good nights rest as you body needs to recover.

Now remember that this is just to cut water weight. To control your weight you need to eat properly. As far how much you should cut, that all depends on you. If you've never cut weight before then I recommend a practice cut to learn what is feasible for you. Now as the tournament is this weekend here is a highlight of Genki Sudo, one of the best/most entertaining grapplers and MMA fighters ever.