Newbie looking for tips page

[Jmohr86]

Hello all, I have just recently found out about the primal way of life and have been reading MDA aggressively trying to gain as much knowledge as I can. I am definitely interested in going primal having realized that too many carbs are a very bad thing. I had completed a round of P90X but had almosnt destroyed my results in the final phase due to the main focus of carbs for fuel.

I have only been primal for about a week but I have already shedded some of the fat around my midsection that i put on in the last stretches of p90x, and I did it with taking a week break from exercising to boot, so I am very excited to see what results I can get while doing an intense workout and eating a primal diet. I have been taking the exercise easily because I am wary of the low carb flu I have read about and don't want to bonk too hard while trying extreme exercises.

I have 2 main concerns/questions however in regards to fully starting up a primal lifestyle:

Due to circumstances I will have limited funds and will not be able to consume an all organic/grass fed diet for the next year or so, will this impact my results to a dramatic degree? Over the past week I have been consuming mostly a generic egg omelette with some veggies and chicken. For lunch I would make a BAS with some more chicken and for dinner a chicken stir fry. I of course have been using a lot of butter / olive oil with these meals as I have not recieved my coconut oil from amazon yet.

I was also wondering about a good fitness plan that is perhaps more primal than p90x. Should I go for a less intensive workout program altogether or would I be able to fuel the intense workouts with a primal diet?

[XYZ]

You may find your workouts suffering for a few weeks as your body acclimates. I would take it easy; prepare yourself for some less than stellar workouts in comparison to those in the past.

That being said, having been primal for over a year now, I can kick my old me's ass. My running has improved, I'm stronger in relation to my body weight. I look and feel great (in my opinion).

Focus on eating the best YOU can right now. While grassfed/organic/thewaymothernatureintended would be best, we don't live in a perfect world. Do the best with what you have. If you have to focus on eggs for protein, then do it. If you can buy chicken thighs by the box, but they are factory raised, there's not much else you can do aside from go hungry. Make the small improvements you can on a daily basis. After a few months, those small improvement add up to a MOUNTAIN of changes in your life.

Keep going.

[Primal Dave]

Hi, I'm just getting started, too, and I hear you on wanting to "do it right" but not having the resources. I'm eating in a chow hall (cafeteria for those non-military folks) in Baghdad, so to an extent I'm at the mercy of whatever is being served. Like XYZ said, just take it easy and do what you can do. As for workouts, I've found (before going primal even) that what worked best for me was more along the lines of the primal fitness laws anyways - move around a lot at a slow pace, sprint once in a while, and lift heavy things. What I've been up to lately has been the starting strength routine by mark rippetoe (3 days of lifting a week of heavy barbell lifts focused on squats, deadlifts, bench press, shoulder press, cleans) coupled with lots and lots of pullups. I augment that with lots of walking - I wake up in the morning and walk for a couple miles, and try to work in some walks during my day (walking to & from lunch, etc). On the days I don't lift, I'll do some sprint work or maybe a time trial (2miles or a 5K for time). I try to mix it up when I can with some yoga, or punching a heavy bag. I also play on the unit softball team, and run most of the 5K races they have on some weekends. And I always get an occasional "day off" when work gets overwhelming anyways, so I don't worry about programming in a set rest day, as life tends to get in the way enough as it is.

I hope that helps. Good luck on your journey!

[Primal Dave]

The one caveat I'd throw on this is the eating habits are the key, IMHO. I've been working out fairly steady for a while now...and it's not until I've started (and I'm not perfect yet) dialing in the nutrition that I've started to see weight drop off.