almost to two!

The first two weeks of Primal living are coming to a close, and I honestly do feel better. I don’t feel tired midday anymore, and I wake up earlier. I can easily do two meals a day (breakfast and dinner) and don’t feel the need to snack anymore, though the occasional handful of cashews or almonds is a nice treat.

I haven’t weighed myself yet, thought I want to. I personally feel there’s been a noticeable drop in weight physically, even though the extent of my physical activity over these past two weeks have been a few walks, and parking farther away from the store in parking lots (which is great, especially on beautiful days).

The Primal Blueprint suggests low to moderate activity for 3-5 hours a week (walking, biking, jogging, staying at 75% of your maximum heart rate), as well as a few days of strength training and the occasional sprint session. Over the last week or so I’ve been searching for a good, well-rounded workout, and I came across SimpleFit. Recommended to me by Cheapo, an active (and model Primalist) member of the MDA forums, SimpleFit is an easy, short, body-weight exercise routine that works out your entire body. The only thing I need to buy is a pull up bar, and some FlexBands to assist me in doing pull ups. I’d say an initial $50 to $100 investment beats a $30 to $50 a month gym membership any day.

So, along with writing about my thoughts and ideas (which should be more frequent now) on Primal living, I’ll be talking about my personal SimpleFit experience, and what it does for my body. For more information, head over to SimpleFit.org

omnomnom

Just ate a delicious, filling breakfast of four pieces of bacon, three scrambled eggs (cooked in the bacon grease) with a little bit of cheese sprinkled on top, and a side of blueberries. While you might think I'm slightly crazy by having such a fatty breakfast lacking any sort of grain, it's well within the guidelines of the Primal lifestyle. Check out Mark's Daily Apple if you think conventional wisdom might be even a little flawed, you'll be pretty surprised with your findings.

no more snoozing

one of the primal blueprint laws focuses on getting adequate sleep, something the majority of us don't do. along with adequate sleep he discusses, scientifically, why using an alarm is bad for us. granted, not using an alarm is pretty difficult for the majority of us, but I've been waking up sans-alarm for a few days now (thanks 2nd shift).

basically, when our alarm wakes us up in the morning, instead of waking up naturally, we experience a surge of cortisol (adrenaline) in our body. the recurring using of an alarm, and accompanying adrenaline rushes every morning reduces the effectiveness for times when we would actually need it.

try waking up without an alarm on a day when you don't need to use one, see if it makes a difference in how you wake up, and your energy levels for the rest of the day.

the adventure begins

today marks the second day of me switching over to the primal lifestyle, inspired by The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. in may of 2009, i weighed in at 320 pounds, the heaviest i'd been in my entire life. it was then I decided to change for the better. i started with a diet overhaul; i stopped eating fried foods, sugars, pop and alcohol. within few months I had lost 40 pounds alone, by just changing my diet. with that bit of motivation, I decided to once again join a gym, and get myself on a program. fast forward to may of 2010, I'm down a total of 70 pounds.

after reading The Primal Blueprint, I feel I've been going about my lifestyle change the wrong way. Mark brings up some very convincing points as to why "conventional wisdom" is wrong. so I will be going by his 10 laws, and tracking my progress using this blog.