If we consider the first month a trial, then this marks the beginning of a long term lifestyle change. I just feel too much better to go back, plus I know there are many improvements to be made and benefits to be gained by continuing to refine and improve the diet and fitness plan.
Primal Cookbook Review
I pre-ordered the Primal Blueprint Quick and Easy Meals
Looking beyond the binding, the recipes are organized by suggested meal time, which is great. There are wonderful photos showing both the ingredients and the finished product. Being a photographer myself, I appreciate the quality of the photos. Co-author, Jennifer Meier is also the photographer. Kudos!
We tried the Buttery Eggs with Leeks recipe this weekend for breakfast and I should have made my own photo of Amy’s version. Doh! Maybe next time. I loved it. Amy likes her salsa with an omelet better, but it still gets a hearty recommendation from both of us.
New fitness plan started
I finally got the Primal Blueprint Fitness e-book and familiarized myself with what the “Lift Heavy Things” workout consists of. Turns out the heavy thing is ME! The suggested workout movements are simple and use body-weight for resistance. It’s very intense compared to the Bowflex routine I was doing, but at least I’m not starting at the bottom progression except for pull-ups. I’ve never done those at all.
Speaking of pull-ups, I didn’t have a good pull-up bar. I started out using the upper bar of the Bowflex, but it was really too narrow. We went to an Aldi grocery store this weekend and they had an assortment of fitness gadgets (go figure!) for $5.99 ea! One was a doorway pull-up bar so I got one. The bar was of very good quality, especially for the money. If you have an Aldi in your neighborhood, check it out.
I started with the self-assessment which calls for doing certain movement progressions to failure and comparing the results to a chart to determine your starting point. The self-assessment kicked my butt! I went ahead and performed another cycle as best I could, but I had to put three days between the first and second workout, so no sprints this week. Sprints are another component of PBF along with Moving Slowly, which I did plenty of.
The PBF plan calls for 3-5 hours per week of “Moving Slowly” in basically any activity which causes your heart rate to maintain between 55%-75% of “max”. This range keeps your body burning fat/protein without going into glucose reserves.
Without a heart rate monitor I really couldn’t be certain if my intensity level was correct, so I jumped on Amazon, read some reviews and ordered the Omron HR-100C Heart Rate Monitor
My copy has worked great so far and I’ve already found out that the first half-mile or so of my 2.5 mi walking route was a bit too slow. On my last walk, I successfully got my heart rate up to target range and kept it there just about the entire time. This shaved a couple of minutes off my walk…a bonus.
I must be at what my body considers and equilibrium weight, because I barely lost a pound this week. That’s ok though, as I said, I’m in this for the long haul and it’s just a matter of time. I haven’t been below the weight I’m at now (about 195lb) in probably fifteen years, so it may be a tough plateau to break through.
New resources
I added two new blogs to my Google Reader this week. One is by Matt Madeiro, who started his Primal journey exactly a year ago this week and he has some great insights from his experience. Find his Three New Leaves Blog here.
The other blog is The Perfect Health Diet. It’s written by a husband and wife team of scientists. I’m using this as another opinion on diet. All of these bloggers have slightly different opinions and experiences and recommendations as to what can or cannot be included in the optimal eating plan and this is a good addition to the list.
Last but not least, we found a couple of sources for local eggs, so the continuous improvement of food quality has begun. We’ll probably shop for a chest freezer after the tax return gets here and start looking to buy some local meat to store in it.
That’s it for this week’s update. Feel free to share your “Primal Experiences” below.
]]>The Primal Blueprint
I have to give a big plug for The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. I got it this week and have been gobbling up the good info. I read a lot of blogs and books so I know when I see the real deal. Mark Sisson publishes a dizzying amount of content on what he calls the Primal Blueprint lifestyle. I think I want to change my mind and adopt this term instead of paleo If you want to learn more about improving your nutrition, your fitness and giving your body what it was created to have (I don’t subscribe to the evolution idea), then The Primal Blueprint is for you. Follow it up on Mark’s blog called Mark’s Daily Apple.
So far the most eye opening thing in The Primal Blueprint has been the chapter on ‘Don’t Eat Poisonous Things’. I can’t believe how bad for me some of the stuff I’ve been eating for the last forty years has been. Sure, sugar and other sources of carbohydrates spike insulin levels, and that’s bad enough, but poly unsaturated fats and genetically modified foods are downright scary.
Status Update
We received the food dehydrator this week and Amy made our first batch of jerky. Very good snacks. We also tried sweet potatoes with so-so results and we have a batch of bananas drying now. Once we get the hang of it we should have a great source of handy, primal snacks.
A couple of other results from this week. First I learned to make eggs over easy without breaking the yolks. I know, big deal, but you don’t understand how little interest I’ve had in cooking and food preparation in general before now. I Guess I found the geek angle with all the talk about “reprogramming my genes” and that got me interested.
My reflux and IBS type symptoms are still at bay, which I’m thrilled about. I’m still getting used to my new appetite and marveling at how stable it is! I’m down to two eggs with bacon, fried bologna or sausage for breakfast which is proving to be plenty to hold me well into the afternoon. Skipping lunch when I need to is more handy than I could have imagined.
At the end of two weeks I’ve lost four of the seven pounds I gained in the first two months of the year from eating Christmas candy and then Valentine’s candy. The weather is getting warmer and I’m getting in more walks. Push-ups were already a part of my workouts, but I haven’t spent much time incorporating any of the other workouts suggested by Sisson in The Primal Blueprint. One step at a time.
At some point we’d still like to find some ‘cleaner’ foods (organic, etc.), but for now we’re settling for the fare from our local grocer. At this point I’m claiming Sisson’s 80% Rule and not stressing about that. I want to do a little research and see if I can trace back some of their sources. It may turn out to be not all that bad, i.e. 90% rule?
If you’re thinking about giving the Primal Blueprint a try, I encourage you to jump in for 30 days. I’ve never seen positive results this quickly from following any other eating plan. Period.
]]>A turning point
This is a quick post to document a turning point for me in the health and diet department that should also impact my fitness.
What triggered it
The trigger for this coming change came from an unlikely source. Paul Thurott is the host of the Windows Weekly podcast with Leo LaPorte on the TWiT network.
In a recent episode (more than one actually), Paul mentioned a book called Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It
Paul didn’t go into a lot of detail about the diet because as he and the author states “it’s not a diet book”. It was Paul’s statement that “…it’s not IF I lose weight, but how much…” and the conviction with which he said it that prompted me to order a copy of the book.
The first half of the book is a bit tedious as Taubes gives a detailed background of the digestive process and how carbohydrates affect insulin production and the consequences. However, I started devouring it in the second half when the “What to do about it” stuff kicked in.
To tell you the truth, i don’t know exactly what I’m getting into yet except that there will be very few carbohydrates in my future. It’s not “Atkins” or “Sugar Busters” or any other diet exactly. That’s one of the main reasons the idea appealed to me. It’s a “lifestyle”.
Other stuff I’ve found on the subject so far.
The Taubes book just left me wanting more so I searched for related books on Amazon.com and tried to figure out what some of the lingo was associated with this “dietary lifestyle”. I was introduced to the “paleo-primal lifestyle”. The main idea I’ve found is that we should eat the way our forefathers ate in the times before agriculture. In short we should be eating what was “recently alive and soon to spoil”.
My next book to read will probably be the The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson
I’m sure these will lead to others, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten so far.
My first day Going Primal
We just went shopping and re-stocked our “carb cabinet” as I call it last week. I’m anxious to get going with this new dietary direction / paleo-primal lifestyle, but not committed enough to waste a week’s worth of groceries no matter how poisonous.
Today at lunch though, I decided to see what it would feel like to skip some carbs. So I made scrambled eggs and turkey bacon. It was almost three o’clock this afternoon when the big bowl of Oatmeal Squares (which is my favorite cereal) I had for breakfast wore off. I started getting light-headed and had a mild headache. Strange feeling, but in a way I’m looking forward to exploring the paleo lifestyle and getting through to the other side. I didn’t give in to the cravings though and by 7pm I’m feeling much better. For now. :-0
Dinner was roasted chicken and cheddar cheese. Earlier this afternoon I snacked on some pepperoni and cheese. I’m simply stumbling through this for now. We’ll get organized in a few days.
We, you say? Yes, my wife and I are doing this together. She tried Sugar Busters a few years ago, but I scoffed and complained about the whole grain pasta and bread. Stoopid me! “Going paleo” together will hopefully make it easier.
Background coming later
There is some background that needs to be shared before you can understand how I had this seemingly knee-jerk reaction to one guy’s mention of some book, but I’ll save that for another day.
Feedback
What about you? Have you discovered the paleo-primal lifestyle? How’s it working out? Any advice? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments.
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I just finished Scott Hargis' new ebook, The Essential Guide to lighting Interiors. The book is a great compliment to the in-person workshop that I attended with Scott and Thomas Grubba in Raleigh NC in 2009. If you're a real estate photographer of any flavor, I highly recommend this book. More info: http://bit.ly/akIIia
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I realized not long ago that it had been a while since I read an actual book. I spend a lot of time at my computer screen and read a ton of websites and blogs, but actual books….not so much. And when I think about it I really miss reading.
I used to read all the time. Louis Lamour and other westerns, Clive Cussler and the adventure genre were some of my favorites. For my return to reading I’ve decided to read business and marketing oriented books to increase my knowledge of my chosen area of expertise.
I got the recommendation for my first book from Cory Miller and James Dalman’s Webdesign.com reading list. It’s called The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell and I thought I’d share my thoughts on it.
This was my first Malcom Gladwell book and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I like his writing style. The Tipping Point is a book about change and some deep thinking on epidemics. Gladwell himself describes the book as an “intellectual adventure story”. It largely exposes some concepts that you will have to walk around with for a while before the practical use becomes apparent. At least that has been my experience.
From the description of the book I was hoping to get some practical ideas for creating more interest in my business, i.e. to improve my marketing efforts. It’s not that kind of book. I think it just might turn out to be better.
In the book, Gladwell spends a lot of time developing the idea of how epidemics are started and spread and gives specific examples. Some of the examples are about disease epidemics as you might expect but the others are about crime, fashion, bad habits and school shootings. I’ll have to admit that in the middle of some of the lengthy examples he almost lost me. If this happens to you, stick with it. At the end you’ll realize that you need the benefit of the examples in order to apply the principles.
Gladwell’s findings are that almost always, a tiny percentage of the do the majority of the work to start an epidemic. He calls this the Law of the Few. The other two rules of The Tipping Point are The Stickiness Factor and The Power of Context. He uses these three rules to organize thinking about epidemics and help us to understand how to create a Tipping Point of our own.
Carrying out the rules of the Tipping Point are three main types of people. Gladwell calls these Mavens (information brokers and are teachers), Connectors (who know “everybody”) and Salesmen (excellent at influencing people).
Again, examples from various parts of history are given including Paul Revere (a Connector and a Maven). Each of these people play a different but vitally important role in an epidemic.
With my subconscious mind armed with the concepts about how and why epidemics are created and spread I am now watching for that piece of information that will help me answer the question that Gladwell leaves us with in the Afterward of the book. That question is: “How do I find the Mavens that will spread the word about my particular business?” or put differently, how do I build a Maven trap?
The last few pages of the book are the best in my opinion, but would be of much less value without the experience of the examples so again, stick with it. It’s worth it.
In conclusion, I highly recommend The Tipping Point. If you’ve read the book and figured out how to build a Maven trap in your business, I’d love to hear about it. Why not leave a comment?
]]>If you’d like to check Dave out start at his Bold Approach site or his Blog.
I don’t have it yet, but I expect to get his new book soon. It’s called Power of an Hour and promises to help you to create consistent and ongoing improvement in your game in just one hour per week. A quote from the site:
The Power of an Hour identifies specific core areas of personal, professional, and business improvement, then guides you through a step-by-step process that keeps you focused so you can reinvent your life and business. The results are fast and predictable.
Power of an Hour is a brand new book and is available at Amazon
but do feel free to leave your comments about it. I will review it soon. Stay tuned.