BrettJ's Primal Journal page

[BrettJ]

So this should be interesting. I only discovered PB a few days ago, but reading through this website lots of things really seem to make a lot of sense to me and line up with some thoughts I've had before about our diets and evolution. So I started yesterday and figured I would enjoy giving this a go.

Yesterday

Breakfast was two eggs, two bacon, a mushroom and spring onion (would have had more of those but turns out I'm all out). I had work so I bought two apples, a bag of cashews and 200g chicken breast. I ate the apple for a snack, and then had handfuls of nuts and chicken as I went through the day, eating a fair amount of them when it came to lunch, then more handfuls of nuts as I went along. Dinner was a large vegetable stirfry with the remaining chicken, with a little sweet chilli sauce since I had nothing else to flavour it with. I think I had a clementine at some point too. A few cups of coffee throughout the day.

Walked A LOT at work. I'm a bar man so I'm constantly moving and doing something slow, though I don't know at what heart rate.

Today

Two bacon, one egg for breakfast (probably a bit much bacon this week). The breasts from a roast chicken for lunch. Had to go back to bed to stop a migraine coming on, but when I was up again had a bag of Fruit Flakes (little bits of pureed strawberry with yogurt covering - probably not the best thing as a bit much sugar) and an orange. Three sausages with a tiny bit of mash, three big broccoli shoots and a bit of spinach for dinner, followed by a plum. Also coffee through the day. Probably will have some cashews as a snack later.

I know sausages and mash aren't ideal, but I wasn't feeling great and that's what was made for dinner.

Thanks to the near-miss migraine, no real exercise today beyond walking around a supermarket, maybe I'll get some in later today if I feel a bit better.

I'm going to take a 'before' picture later tonight or in the morning. I gained a bit of weight and lost muscle mass at uni the last 4 years, and now that I've graduated I need to fix that. A good old 'before' pic should help with the motivation.

[Hedonist]

Traditional sausages without grains, soy or other junk are good. Otherwise, not.
Mash is not ideal under Primal. However, more and more of us eat potatoes.
It is generally recommended to avoid snacking by getting enough protein and fat at meals so that you don't get hungry in between. Cashews and chicken are better than most snacks people eat.
Be careful with the fruit.
Being on your feet, moving at whatever pace is good.
Welcome to Primal. Good luck.

[BrettJ]

Thanks Hedonist. I'm feeling pretty positive about Primal right now. Just put my last couple days food into fitday and it's turned out at about 55% fat, 23% protein 23% carbs. Obviously the fruit and mash haven't helped there, I've had over 120g carbs both days, I need to knock off about 20gs ideally.

How do you mean traditional sausages? As in, made with just meat? The sausages I had today, while not pure meat were of pretty good quality so they weren't stuffed full of rusk. Would it be preferable to have a few largish meals as opposed to just eating small (healthy) snacks through the day? There's so much content to be read on this website, so much information to take in it's hard to remember everything I've read.

Also, thanks for replying, it's nice to know people actually read these threads.

[Hedonist]

Traditional sausages could have good stuff besides meat. Here in California we get lots of sausages with apples, asparagus, olives, hot peppers, etc. I would avoid any with rusk. (I had to look that up.) Sausages with animal parts besides muscle meat are especially good for you.

Yes, the general thinking here is to eat a few large meals and not snack. I do usually have a snack in the afternoon - nuts, cheese, pork rinds or something else fairly Primal. But then, as my forum name says, I'm a hedonist.

There is a big info overload. I try to say hello to each newbie.

[belinda]

Try not to substitute nuts for meals. If you're trying to lose weight, nuts are really high in calories!

Three eggs and four slices of bacon is one typical breakfast for an adult male (or female!) on here ... not two breakfasts

And, Welcome!

[BrettJ]

Haha, I guess I'll try to not to feel guilty about eating too much bacon then. Hard to get past that sort of mindset though. You're not wrong about the nuts, I looked at the calories on the pack and it was way higher than I expected. I'm still trying to put together different meals I can have atm, I've not had much time to get to plan so I'm winging it a little. Thanks for the advice, and the welcome.

[BrettJ]

The hello is appreciated, as is all the sausage info. I'm glad I won't have to give those up and I might try to find some with some interesting non-meat ingredients. I was gutted originally to see peanut butter isn't generally supported, but reading through your blog I noticed you use it, as well as dairy, potatoes etc. Do you still find you get good results with that leniency? If I could bring peanut butter back into my life I would be beyond happy. I'm also pretty keen to try liver since it's so cheap.

[Hedonist]

I don't eat much peanut butter. Mostly I eat almond butter, which tastes just as good to me if not better and is produced locally. But even then, I might eat a couple tablespoons per day. I have some white rice about once a week. Same with corn tortillas. I do eat lots of potatoes and dairy. My fat loss results are good if I stay under 100 grams of carbs per day. Between 100 and 150, my health is great but I don't make progress on fat loss. I am not lenient at all about junk food, sugar, wheat or other non-Primal stuff.

[BrettJ]

Well that's great to know. I was getting the general impression from reading the forum that the occasional slip up was fine, but thought that was probably stricter than I'd be. The way you eat sounds a lot like how I imagine I will be eating, so it's good to know I can still get good fat loss results with good carb control even if I'm a bit lenient. I really appreciate all your responses. This is quite an adjustment to make, especially since I think I'd like to make it a permanent change if all goes well, all the support is making it a lot easier. Cheers

[BrettJ]

I realise today's not over, but I've not been well today and I have nothing much else to do so.......

Had a dodgy stomach today, advice from folks on the forum was inconclusive: could be a bug, could be the result of some carb loving gut flora dying off. Who knows? Either way I lost my job because apparently my boss thought I was faking it to avoid work. I'll sort that out in time, but for now I have a bit more spare time on my hands and I live pretty close to a forest so I'm going to go for a walk/run tomorrow and play about in the trees. It's been months since I've been there so I'm pretty stoked for that, might see about taking our dogs with me.

Today's breakfast was (unsurprisingly) 2 bacon, 3 mushroom, 2 spring onion 3-egg omelette with a little cheddar on top. Good stuff that was. A cup of coffee with a little hazelnut syrup, which I am forgiving myself because it's been a rubbish day. Later had a big salad with ham and mackerel, which I actually couldn't even finish and will go back and munch on later tonight probably. Add on to that a small biryani, which yes has rice but I'm still under 50g of carbs for the day and it was loads of chicken, so suck it. Not much food today, but not too hungry either so it's all good.

1249 cals 80.9g fat 96.3g protein ~40g carbs (couldn't find a nutritional breakdown for the hazelnut syrup but even assuming its all sugar which it pretty much is, it's probably about 10g) Oh and the mackerel was a nice big dose of omegas, woop woop.

Just rounded the day off with a walk in the park. It's this massive field on a hill, lots of long grasses blowing in the wind, amazing view of the sunsetting over the local reservoirs. I took off my shoes and socks, because hell yeah, and wandered about for a while then came across some wild blackberries. Couldn't help myself, had to pick a few to eat. They were delicious and sweet and high up so as to have not been peed on by dogs. Paying attention on the way back home I realised there are a couple of blackberry bushes just around the corner from me. Going to have to go foraging for more soon with a bowl to put in my fridge.
Grok on.

Oh yeah, and here's a 'before' pic so I/we can see how I get on as time moves along. I'm not fat exactly, but I'm not in shape either.