ChallengeBlog

Originally posted on another blog of mine

In November 2008, I joined “Team Kili” a group of 8 blind climbers and 17 sighted guides from the Foundation for Blind Children.

They were hiking the Phoenix 7 Summits Challenge as part of their training to summit Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa. I was invited to join the training hike by Sensei Mike Armstrong my martial arts instructor and best friend. At the time I’ve known Sensei for about 1.5 years and was used to him performing feats that would be considered impossible for someone who is completely blind; However when I joined the group I saw something I didn’t expect. I saw 7 other blind people with a huge challenge ahead and the determination to conquer it; At that point I knew I wanted in on this!

Fortunately I was able to join the team as 1 of the 17 sighted guides, I was added to Team Armstrong which consisted of Sensei Mike, Greg DePinto, and myself. While I would have happily guided any of the blind climbers I was glad to be placed on Sensei’s team as I wanted to be there every step of the way to help Sensei overcome this mountain.

On June 23rd, 2009 Team Kili started its journey at Machame Gate (1634 m/5,363 ft) and 6 days later 8 Blind climbers and 17 Sighted guides reached Uhuru Peak (5,895 m/19,340 ft) the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. In doing so we set 2 world Records the Largest Blind Group & the Youngest Blind Climber to summit.

I will never forget the experiences of Kilimanjaro, the best day for me was day 4, as Sensei was very sick from the end of day 1 until day 4 where we scrambled up the Baranco Wall. With his recovery Sensei was renewed with energy, the wall required some hiking with quite a bit of scrambling to reach the top. Team Armstrong spent quite a bit of time at the Tempe Rock Gym before leaving for Kilimanjaro, so climbing the Baranco Wall was nothing but fun for us, we scaled the wall like it was a jungle gym with smiles on our faces.

The hardest day on Kilimanjaro was summit day; as the day before I had over exerted myself at about 16,000 ft and felt as if I was going to pass out (my lips and left hand went numb). I was afraid on summit day I was going to have the same problem and I did, several hours into the summit hike I started having problems keeping my pace with my breath. The air was so thin that with every step I had to take at least 2 breaths before the next. I had a real hard time keeping a slow pace that allowed me to breath, and I felt as if I was running full speed while breathing through a clogged snorkel and having an asthma attack.

However I was fortunate to have Kirsti (one of Kevin’s assistant guides) there to help me out, Kirsti helped me find and keep a pace that allowed me to continue, and with that pace I made it to the top. I was cold, tired, and my lungs felt like they were in a vice grip but when I reached the top I forgot it all and was overcome with a feeling of accomplishment. A experience I think everyone should have in their life.

Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro is an unforgettable memory for anyone who attempts it. I will never forget the 8 days I spent on that mountain, or the 24 other people on that trip who all had a goal of showing the world that no matter what challenges life has in store you can over come and do anything with hard work and determination.

As a personal note I would like to thank several people.

Kirsti – Without your guidance I’m not sure if i would have made it, you stayed with me when I felt as if I was going to pass out and you made me promise you that I would make it up that mountain which helped motivate me even more. I will never forget the help you gave me.

Kevin – Thank you for putting up with all of the whining and for leading us through this great adventure. The only reason all 25 of us made it up this mountain was because of your guidance.

Sensei Mike – Without you I never would have had the opportunity to climb Kili in more ways than just introducing me to the team. Without the many days spent at your dojo I never would have physically been able to make the climb or had the mental strength to overcome the physical pain and continue on.

You were also the greatest inspiration to keep going as watching you continue on for 4 days even though you were so sick I thought they were going to make you turn back, and the fact that even though your blind, you never let that get in your way in everything you do in life. This was the motivation I needed to make it to the top, I could have taken the easy way out and quit but I thought to myself “Sensei would never quit” and this kept me going.

Team Kili – If I was making a motivational poster for the word Teamwork I would put your picture up as we were the role model of teamwork whether it was helping Pat and Sensei while they were sick or making fun of Marc when his pee bottle exploded in his tent. We defined the word teamwork, Thank you for sharing this experience with me each and every one of you will be a friend for life.

My Friends and Family – Thank you for your support with your support not only were we able to shatter peoples perception of the blind but we were able to raise enough money to put 50 babies through the FBC programs.

The 8 blind climbers of Team Kili – Always remember how much of a badass you are (yes Cindy you are a badass). You stepped up to a challenge that most would say no to and you did it only to show the world what you are capable of. I hope you realize how much of an inspirational act this was for everyone.

As many of you may know I’ve been training seriously in the martial arts for about 3 years. I have been training in Kyokushin Karate and Aiki-jujitsu; Kyokushin karate is actually well known for its full contact knockdown tournaments.

These tournaments are bare-knuckle with some basic rules. You can win the fight by knocking your opponent either down (1/2 point) or out (1 full point), usually they are won via a technical knockout where the opponent is still conscious but unable to continue. On August 7th I fought in a full contact knockdown karate tournament in Elko, NV. The below videos are from the fight  (I’m the white guy).

My buddy Jeff found a cool application for my android called Retro Camera and I decided to try it out while hiking this morning. The picture is from about half way up Shaw Butte over looking Sunnyslope (the area I grew up in) and in the distance downtown Phoenix.

Taken on 08/21/2010

Over the past month I have been trying a new diet regimen called the Caveman Diet; officially known as the Paleolithic Diet it has a simple yet effective plan.

If you can’t kill it, don’t eat it.

The philosophy and origin of the Paleolithic diet is based on human evolution. It is simple, Humans have not evolved to eat processed foods like Twinkies.

Modern man appeared in Africa approximately 200,000 years ago but we  just started farming and domesticating animals 10,000 years ago; and to top it off processed foods only started to appear in the 1900′s. The theory of this diet is that modern man does not have the genetic make up to eat the way we do. Before 9,000 B.C. or so humans only ate foods they could hunt down or gather on the way. The goal of the caveman diet is to emulate what our ancient brethren did for nutrition, eat only what you could hunt or gather.

To make it simple here is a list.

Types of foods you can eat:

• Meat
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Nuts (only ones that can be eaten raw)

Foods that you cannot eat:

• Processed foods
  • If you don’t know what it grows from its processed
• Dairy
• Wheat
• Rice
• Alcohol
• Beans
• Other peoples food from the company refrigerator
  • I know who you are

As you can see the list of foods you can eat are much smaller than the list of foods you cannot eat. In the end if you think about how a caveman would have eaten it makes sense; ancient man struggled to survive and they ate what they could. With today’s modern convenience we do not have that luxury; we must be careful of what we eat, as the current food available to humans in developed countries is exactly why we are getting fat as a population.

Case Study

Since I’ve been on this diet for approximately a month now I decided to write up my experiences with the diet.

My Goal

My Goal is very simple yet complicated at the same time, at the moment I’ve reached a very healthy weight and have been on a plateau for a while. I’ve decided to stop trying to lose pounds and focus more on building muscle and building more body tone. Fat loss is great but at some point you need to stop dieting to lose fat and diet for muscle growth. To do this I needed a diet that matches the following requirements.

• Easy to determine what and how much I can eat
• Provides enough calories and carbs to keep up with my daily requirements
• Doesn’t allow any flexibility on bad foods
• Provides a valid mixture of protein and carbs to support muscle growth

There are many diets out there that have some of the above but it is rare to find one that has them all. Enter the paleolithic diet.

Methods

The diet in its true form is pretty strict and suggests eating habits that are fairly difficult and expensive to support. For example the diet is very whole foods oriented; the idea is that the steroids put in our meats, pesticides on our plants, and numerous unknown chemicals in regular food is not only making us fat but also causing many of today’s health issues. While I don’t immediately disagree with that assessment I’m also not completely sold on it, without seeing hard scientific proof of these claims they just sound like something only tinfoil-hatters would embrace. As a more realistic approach I am eating mostly organic fruits and veggies when available and buying meats that claim to be chemical free.

As far as the diet goes I followed a simple philosophy.

• I can only eat meats, vegetables, fruits, and the accepted nuts
• I can only drink water
• I can have some sauces, salad dressings, and marinades
  • This is not on the official diet but I just didn’t want to eat salad without dressing
• I will use olive oil for cooking most things, but also use PAM for my eggs as it works best
• Only eat when I’m hungry
• Eat protein heavy meals after my workouts (with veggies)

The last rule is something I added, the thought is after you workout your body requires protein to rebuild the muscle. It makes sense to supply your body right after a heavy workout, besides after hunting down a gazelle early man didn’t go have an apple. As far as exercise is concerned, my exercise level is pretty intense, I also added some weight lifting which has helped in the building of muscle.

Results

In order to analyze the results we will break them down by the requirements.

Easy to determine what and how much I can eat

The caveman diet actually does pretty well here, its simple if its a meat, veggie, or fruit I can eat it; with some exceptions. Surprisingly I’ve found it pretty easy to order food at restaurants and stay on my diet, I didn’t think it would be that easy initially. Most places even the fast food ones have an alternative that can easily be changed to match your diet. For example I went to Subway which is a restaurant with the bread as a primary ingredient, yet it was simple. I ordered a grilled chicken salad with double meat, some veggies; got a side of apples and a water. The meal was healthy and filling at the same time.

As far as how much can I eat goes, it was simple I stopped eating when I wasn’t hungry anymore.

Provides enough calories and carbs to keep up with my daily requirements

This is a tough one but the caveman diet actually seemed to follow through with this one, much unlike some of the other diets I’ve tried with the caveman diet I never found myself running out of energy in the middle of my workout. I also do not have the starved feeling that happens when you don’t eat enough calories.

Doesn’t allow any flexibility on bad foods

I can be pretty bad at cheating, if a diet is a little flexible I tend to convince myself that its ok to eat that bag of M&M’s if its only for today… ok maybe tomorrow as well. The caveman diet doesn’t allow any flexibility, cavemen simply didn’t have the bad foods; there is no way to justify your way out of that.

Provides a valid mixture of protein and carbs to support muscle growth

Since Humans are omnivores I can completely see someone on this diet and only eating a little meat here and there even though the main sources of the diet suggest a protein heavy diet. I agreed with the main sources of the diet and have been eating quite a bit of meat on this diet. But in addition to the meat I’ve also been eating a large amount of good carbs via the fruits and veggies, the mixture of the two allows my body to absorb the protein and use it for muscle growth after my workouts. And as far as I’ve noticed it seems to be working.

Conclusion

The caveman diet gets an A (as in Awesome) from me; the Diet has met every single requirement of mine and not only did I maintain my weight I’ve also lost some weight while putting on more muscle. The weight wasn’t anything significant but it was enough and pretty steady, I would not be surprised to find myself losing even more weight as I continue this diet. The nice thing about the diet is even as I lose weight I am not losing my muscle tone but rather increasing it, which means I am losing purely fat.

Almost overnight I’ve become a proponent of the caveman diet, and considering how many diets I’ve tried and quickly discarded that is saying a lot. This is one diet I think I will be sticking with for a while, if not forever just like our ancient brethren.

Word of warning

I will warn you that as you are doing research on this diet there are some people who take it a little too far and are very adamant about how closely people need to follow the diet. If they found out that I wrote a review on the diet while having salad dressing they may try to spear me with their new age caveman weaponry. I suggest ignoring them and following the diet as closely as possible while still being realistic for your own needs.