The Primal Blueprint – It’s the Real Deal

The results I’m seeing after two weeks of following the paleo lifestyle are exciting enough that I wanted to blog about it again this week. I may have mentioned before that my wife Amy is on board with our new primal eating plan. She’s the cook in the family so that really helps. The fact that we’re pulling together on this is REALLY a benefit. This is not nearly as difficult a transition as it could be without family support.

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.