From Superfan Cindy “Cheena Bike”:

Something amazing happened yesterday while I was riding my bike. One of my fellow cyclists/kick-ass chick AKA- Kristie Concepcion said to me: Hey, follow behind my wheel, come on! I said- Who me? Yeah right! I thought me? She’s an Ironman and she kicks ass. But anyhow, I did and was able to hang on for a good 5 miles with her!

3 months ago, I could of never done this! The point to this message is:

2 hrs before my cycling, I ate 2 hard boiled eggs and half a slice of a small avocado. Right before the ride I had my own homemade coconut oil/peanut butter ball thingies that I make for the week.

When I followed behind her, it was like something in my legs turned on, like turbo? And I was fine, no pain and I didn’t feel like I was going to bonk! I had this burst of energy!!! It was amazing Granted, this is not how I’ve been riding. I’ve been following your advice and I alternate between zones and I think that all this hard work was put to the test yesterday. So, It’s good to know that If I needed to go that fast my body could do it. WOW!!

I know you’re a pro! But this to me is a big deal and I see so much more potential in me with my biking and I LOVE IT!!!! Thank you, thank you! It’s like finally that light bulb turned on!!! I get criticize by family and friends who do not agree with my NSNG lifestyle…They tell me that I’m killing myself, but I’ve never as great as I do now!!! I must be doing something right! I just tend to be a little impatient and just want to shed all this weight off NOW! But I know how it works now all thanks to you.

Cindy

Andrew Weaver is the real person behind the Doughboy to Ironman project, which began in early 2011. He caught a case of adult onset athleticism on Dec 1, 2010. His current weight loss stands at over 100 pounds, with plans to nearly double that. He jumped on the NSNG bandwagon in December 2012. He is an ordained Lutheran pastor, who uses a lot less profanity than Vinnie. He has been happily married for 18 years, and is father of two creative and brilliant children. His blog is found at www.doughboytoironman.com He isn’t an ironman yet, but it about halfway there. His kids think he’s awesome. They’re right.  Take it away, Andrew…

Why is this in my race bag?

It’s 7am. I’m checking in at packet pickup to take on the hardest uphill climb I’ve done in my short life as an endurance athlete. I’ve done half ironman races, I’ve done a 5k open water swim, I’ve gone places that the person I was 110 pounds heavier could not have imagined a few years ago.

Yet the uphill battle I am expecting this day (a 25k trail run that has climbs so steep, everyone ends up on their hands and knees, some of us in prayer not to fall off the mountain to our deaths) is met with another uphill battle: another freebie in the race bag that makes me wonder “why did I join up with the endiurance community if this is the crap people still eat?”

There is a technical term for this: cognitive dissonance. That’s when your mind holds two different thoughts at the same time, which cannot be reconciled. We don’t usually think about this consciously, but when we believe one thing but act as if we believe the opposite, we’re living in cognitive dissonance. When Ted Haggard was leading the charge against homosexual people having rights, meanwhile paying a male prostitute with meth, right there is a solid hardcore example of cognitive dissonance.

The food around endurance sports is a less dramatic, but just as accurate, textbook case of cognitive dissonance, and precisely the source of my own frustration that made me wonder why I was the same weight after two years of endurance sports. Looking for off-the-beaten-path answers is what led me to find first Vinnie, then low carb, then paleo. And all of these voices need to be much louder within the endurance community. We’re made up of a lot of people who may look fit, but are carb addicts. If you find this stuff in a bag at a trail run, where I expect a less modern, more natural vibe, it’s clearly everywhere.

If you look around the world of triathlon, as well as the three individual sports that go into them, you will find a vast array of people, many shapes and sizes. This is a good thing. Without that, many of us would never even bother. I am glad to have found a community that invites me to be a part of it, as one of the slowest, and still largest out there. It has inspired me to blog, and to encourage others who don’t see themselves in the category of “athlete.” There is nothing like the encouragement that the back of the pack receives at a triathlon, marathon, or even your local 5k.

But even with my weight loss so far, I am still a very large guy, and I don’t want to stay this way. I took a hard look at things after my first year in endurance, going from couch to half-marathon and an Olympic distance triathlon in my first year. The progress in distance was great. But the weight loss was not happening. I had to take a serious look at my relationship with food. That landed me in the 12-step world, for which I am truly grateful. But even in those first months, I had convinced myself that all this talk of eliminating sugar entirely, well, that didn’t apply to me since I am now an endurance athlete. We fuel on carbs, right? So I was off Snickers bars (ate two on the bike in my first tri in 2011) for the “much healthier” box of clif bars. I was seeing weight loss under my new self-defined abstinence, so I was sure it was working. My first OA sponsor really tried to warn me that I was playing with fire, that there was little difference. I said “oh yeah, yeah… I know.” But I didn’t. After a disappointing DNF at my first half-iron attempt, I fell off the wagon, and was again overeating as an addict, and of course I regained a lot of weight.

The endurance world is made up of high achievers and tough-it-out types. But we spend a lot of time making it harder on ourselves than we need to. At the middle and back of the pack are many of us who still struggle with weight, but use the long training hours and races as an excuse to indulge in too much food. Check out the food tent at any big race. Even after the race, it’s quick carb city. The red herring of “carb loading” has gone so far from what it ACTUALLY meant for elite runners who would deplete reserves to then jam them back quickly, to now being an everyman’s parade of pasta for days before and after an event. It’s human nature to take the excessive part of a method and forget the other side. (How many Mardi Gras partiers actually observe a disciplined Lent?) Check out the conventional wisdom from this article on active.com, a major player in the mainstream endurance world. Carbs=good, fat=bad.

The current grab-anything-that sounds-good trend that is keeping many endurance people on the sugar wagon is good old chocolate milk. One magazine prints an article comparing chocolate milk to other drinks for recovery, and instantly establishes a paradigm we’re all dying to hear: it’s good for you! Recover right! The chocolate milk people wasted no time in jumping the popular wave, and have pro triathletes on board for marketing. Two months before I found the NSNG way, I was considering producing a “Become One” video contest entry to win a trip to Ironman Kona and train with Hines Ward along the way. I hope Hines finishes Kona strong. I hope the people who won the contest get to compete and finish. But I know that as long as I stayed on the chocolate-milk-as-recovery train, I was still living in my sugar addiction, undoing all the progress I made with training.

Somewhere toward the end of the second year of my new life, I decided to start looking for an answer to a question that I was not hearing anyone ask in the endurance world: why do we rely on sugar so much? Is there a low-carb option? I was already sympathetic to the paleo mindset before I knew that label. I have been a small-farm, vegetable CSA, pastured chicken, grass-fed beef, raw dairy advocate for a long time. But there was a disconnect. I had been drinking the kool-aid (actually gatorade) of the conventional wisdom that constant streams of highly refined carbs were the way to fuel any long distance activity. But these were the substances that caused me lifelong trouble. Was there a way out of this vicious cycle? Or would I just continue being the fattest guy at the race?

IF you’re reading this post, then you know the rest of the story. First through the Angriest Trainer podcast, then with an expanding web of resources, the names Jimmy Moore, Mark Sisson, Bob Seebohar, Gary Taubes, William Davis, Nora Gedgaudas, Phinney and Volek, all became part of my library.

I am in season three of becoming a runner and triathlete. I am still between Doughboy and Ironman. And I still have what an addict needs to properly call a relapse from time to time. But now when I open a swag bag and it’s full of cookies, nutrigrain bars, gels, or even a huge jar of spread that’s nothing but sugar and industrial seed oils, I just pass it along. And as I’ve joined a facebook group with one of those very telling names “Run Disney So I Can Eat Disney” I enjoy the camraderie and fun of groups like this, but I’m sure to say “hey, the bacon challenge is fun, but it is what we should be fueling on anyway!”

The NSNG voices are growing, the paleo movement is making inroads into endurance (when they’re not slamming “chronic cardio”) and when more people have their ah-ha! moment as Vinnie nails the reality of all the porta-potties, gels, and fat people at triathlon (I resemble that remark), you’re going to see a movement take hold. There’s no reason we have to keep blending the sport that we love with the “food” that gives us the weight we’re trying to lose through that sport.

There is another way. Getting off the couch is a great first step, and I applaud anyone willing to do it. Food is usually a tougher enemy. But if I can make a change and willingly put on lycra in front of other people, there’s no reason I should let oreos bring me down.

I’m not perfect at this, and my current stretch of weight loss is slow. But when I dropped grains and sugars, I reversed type 2 diabetes and significantly lowered my triglycerides. This stuff works. And it can work for all the distance activities I want to do. I just have to look the other way when the big sponsors push all their carbage in my face.

Andrew “The Doughboy” Weaver

Vinnie and Anna talk Bulletproof Coffee, chronic pain, and interview cousin Kaitlin Tortorich, gold medal tumbling champ.

Michael Tortorich sums up the podcast in the My Uncle Vinnie Blog Wrap Up:

Yeah…awful lot of people named Tortorich in this podcast (in Vinnie voice). Before that though, Vinnie goes into an early rant this time. Later, he gets into gym etiquette, and a tale from a recent skeet shooting trip. Vinnie and Anna then interview gymnast Kaitlin Tortorich. A distant relative, she is a gold medal winner. They talk about her chronic pain, her chronic pain, and drive-through daiquiri shops in Louisiana.

Vinnie and Anna discuss juicing, chewing gum, vitamins & supplements, and how to find a trainer.  Here is Andrew Weaver’s excellent blog post.

And just because you can never have too much of this beauty:

Vinnie, circa 1992

Michael Tortorich sums up the podcast in the My Uncle Vinnie Blog Wrap Up:

For some reason, the infamous beach photo of Vinnie comes up again (if you must see it, take a look above). Early in the show, Vinnie and Anna also talk about pop diva Beyonce, who is getting ready for an upcoming tour. They go over all of the foods and beverages the singer plans to cut from her diet. Later, Vinnie answers a question about how he transformed from a 225-pound football player to a 170-pound athlete. Also, Vinnie gives tips on choosing the right personal trainer. Later in the show, Vinnie and Anna go into detail about vitamins.

Vinnie and Anna talk to Paul Cappelli and Steven Crutchfield, owners and olive oil makers at Villa Cappelli (our new sponsor).

Michael Tortorich sums up the podcast in the My Uncle Vinnie Blog Wrap Up:

Early in this podcast, Vinnie talks about a common theme he has seen at the gym – going from “zero to a thousand” in a minute. “I take my time to break into it,” he says. Vinnie then gets into a photo shoot yours truly took on – the Baton Rouge 5K Foam Fest. “It’s perverts’ new way of doing a wet T-shirt contest,” as Vinnie says. Believe you me, there was plenty of foam…and mud. Later, Vinnie and Anna call Steven Crutchfield and Paul Cappelli to talk about Villa Cappelli (check out the link above). They go into detail about all things olive oil.

Vinnie and Anna interview the genius behind Sinastr, whose name we cannot reveal (because we don’t know it).

Michael Tortorich sums up the podcast in the My Uncle Vinnie Blog Wrap Up:

Vinnie leads off this episode talking about his epic day off. Later, Vinnie sets the record straight about his Oprah appearance. He agreed to participate in the “Where are they now” piece if they allowed him to mention this podcast and his book. Apparently, there was some sort of oversight, and all mention of the book and show ended up cut. I hope you’re sitting down…Vinnie gets quite angry over the whole deal. He calls out the usual suspects when it comes to ratings grabs, like Octomom and Dennis Rodman. Vinnie then mentions his involvement with The Tom Chenault Show. Later, they get Sinastr on the phone for a chat. Like Vinnie, Sinastr is also from Louisiana. Turns out, Sinastr saw himself in an unflattering light in a sex tape, and decided to make a change with his health. Weighing in at 270 pounds, he dropped all the way to 200. “You know how hard it is to lose one pound in southern Louisiana?” Vinnie asks. Why did Sinastr trust Vinnie? He didn’t have anything to sell.

Vinnie and Anna have Dean Lorey on the show to celebrate the 100th episode of the Angriest Trainer podcast.  See this movie: Happy.

Michael Tortorich sums up the podcast in the My Uncle Vinnie Blog Wrap Up:

Dean Lorey returns for the 100th episode extravaganza. After an update from Dean, they talk about their guy’s nights out. Vinnie then talks about his experiences at the shooting range. They later discuss the movie Happy (link above). The conversation eventually turns to the perils of wearing underwear.

Vinnie and Anna talk health, fitness, and roach motels with Dr. X.

Michael Tortorich sums up the podcast in the My Uncle Vinnie Blog Wrap Up:

Vinnie leads off this episode by bringing up the “Do not abandon your baby” sign he saw on a coroner van. They then get the anonymous Dr. X on the phone. After introducing Dr. X, they get into a discussion of “boot camp” programs. Vinnie even tells my story about a boot camp I went to where the instructor was the heaviest person there, yelling at other heavy people. Later, they talk about being on time (i.e. Lombardi Time). That leads to discussion of heart rates. Stick around until the end because Dr. X talks about the weirdest things she’s found up people’s butts.

Vinnie and Anna talk in-studio to Rich Roll, author of Finding Ultra, and our favorite vegan!

Michael Tortorich sums up the podcast in the My Uncle Vinnie Blog Wrap Up:

Author and podcaster Rich Roll returns for a second interview. They lead off the show with discussion of the flu vaccine. They then talk about audio books, and how podcast innovator Adam Carolla read his own books with lots of improvisation. Later, they get into the craziness of Calabasas and Hidden Hills (two affluent southern California cities). Bruce Jenner comes up next as topic of conversation. They later discuss the difficulties of promoting a book.

Rich Roll

Vinnie and Anna discuss bullet proof coffee, lactose intolerance, almond milk, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a ton of other listener questions.

Michael Tortorich sums up the podcast in the My Uncle Vinnie Blog Wrap Up:

Vinnie starts this episode by talking about physical education in schools. “It belongs there,” he says. Having connections to James Carville, he tried to get involved with the President’s physical fitness program. Instead, Arnold Schwarzenegger took over the post. Vinnie and Anna then loathe the boasting they endure on Facebook. They follow that with some coffee tips. That leads to a discussion of the Vitamix. Later, they talk about lactose intolerance. They get into a discussion of NBA star Kobe Bryant‘s diet.