Primal Journa- JHen page

[JHen]

So, I figured I would do this to share results and get input. Nothing motivates like good results, and nothing motivates better than good results than getting great compliments on those results! So, I decided to start a journal here in this online community of Groks and Grokettes.

I started the Primal Blueprint diet and fitness six days ago. I've never been satisfied with my physique or energy levels. I've always been a bit of a porker (except when I worked at McDonald's and pretty much ate nothing but big freaking burgers). If I had to put a number to it, I would say I'm 15-20 pounds overweight (weighing in at 190-200 pounds).

I'm married and my wife has also been meaning to lose weight and has tried a lot of doses of Conventional Wisdom with the results only being tiredness and frustration and utter failure. So, she's on board, reluctantly, but I told her we would try it for three months and if there are no results, then we will figure something else out (even six days in, she already sees results in me). I have utter confidence in the primal blueprint. I'll take hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years of evolution over things the government is telling us (in my political circles, sage advice consists of doing exactly the opposite of what the government is telling us. No fan of Uncle Sam am I).

I'm 6'0" tall, started out weighing 190 pounds when I weighed myself, naked so as to have a consistent control for weighing (pesky clothes). That was six days ago, so 12 September. My wife weighs in at I think about 130-140 pounds. I don't know because she won't tell me. She is 5'0" and fairly tubby to be honest, but I didn't say that >.> <.< >.>

Anyways, I started just cold turkey. I had cut out a lot of higher sugar things like soda and stuff pretty well long ago, but I had gone to it every once in a while. No more. I cut out all grains entirely. The only sugar I get that I'm aware of comes from my morning coffee which is just a pinch or two of sugar and some creamer I'm waiting on depleting before buying just heavy cream. My wife and I have been walking every day after dinner, except yesterday where she spent the entire day at the zoo with some family, and another day when it was cold and rainy. Our walks are usually an hour or more at a slightly faster than normal pace. Today we went for a walk that was about three hours long. In this I feel improvement. An hour walk would have my legs itching from circulation trying to happen, but today nothing bothered my except my knees (I was walking in boots. I long for a pair of Vibrams). I walked barefoot the other day but needed a break as it caused some good blisters on the balls of my feet.

As far as body weight and feel, I weighed myself earlier and weighed in at 185 or so and I can feel the difference. My body just feels tighter and leaner already. My wife also tells me she can see improvement. My wife says she doesn't feel any change yet except her thighs feel a little leaner and less cottage cheese like (which really is all she cares about, her thighs touching, which always makes me chuckle). She hasn't been as strict with diet as I have, and she makes herself feel guilty, but I tell her it's OK to fub every once in a while.

I also struggle with diet. I've never been big on vegetables and solid fruits and I are not on eating terms. I've tried numerous times to eat fruit but I just can't manage it. I love juice, I love the taste of fruits, I just cannot manage to eat them solid. I plan to blend up fruits and drink them. Not optimal but better than nothing. I've been easing myself into vegetables over the last six months or so and my pallet in that regard has expanded. I used to never eat things like onions, olives, tomatoes, anything leafy. Now, however, I put onions in everything just about, the dinner I made the other day consisted of taco meat piled onto a bowl of leafy green bits, as many as the bowl could hold. I ate it all down no problem. I chomp down broccoli raw, but I've always done that. We've gone from cooking in olive oil to cooking with coconut oil and lard.

We don't get much organic because it is expensive and our current budget doesn't allow it, but we get what we can. I'm getting into hunting and am planning to bag as much game as I can. I also plan to plant as many vegetables as I can at my house, though we live in an upscale trailer park (I say that because trailer park inspires images of people named Bubba who drive beat down pick ups and do meth, this is certainly NOT that kind of trailer park) and they have a lot of rules. I plan to just plant a plant here or there and wait and see if they say anything.

We are looking for a gym nearby since we don't have the proper room for a real weight room, otherwise I would save money and do it here at home. Tuesday is probably going to be our high intensity day.

Six days in I feel much less hungry, but I do get urges in the non-hunger which I attribute to my body wanting some carbs because it is used to getting a lot. It was bad to start with, but now six days later, they are much less. I definitely feel improvements. I won't come on here everyday with updates, probably once a week. Here is a picture of myself, six days in (don't expect any of my wife, she avoid the camera like its going to steal her soul lol).




So, I'll give it a week, post an update including a new picture. My goal with this is to lose fat, gain some muscle, but just feel and look better and build a good foundation for future health. My wife's is pretty much the same. She's constantly saying she doesn't want to live to be old because she doesn't want to have to be decrepit and taking 30 pills a day. I tell her, if this works out, you could live to be 80 and move around like a 40 year old (maybe an exageration, don't know. I guess I'll find that out when I get there!).

[JHen]

We're also planning on doing the River-to-River trail in Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois about this time next year. I consider it the marathon of walking, since it is 160 miles long going from the Mississippi River to the Ohio River. Very Grok like I think.

[Hedonist]

Welcome. Sounds like you are off to a good start. About the fruit juice though . . . not good if you are trying to lose fat. Fructose turns directly into fat. It would be good to find some veggies you like. Hints: butter, bacon. More

[JHen]

Vegetables aren't a problem. I've already done what that article suggests lol. It's the eating of solid fruits. Apples are the worse. Eating one makes me want to physically vomit.

The fructose is always there, whether you juice or not, so what's the difference? Does the solid bits play some role in the processing of the fructose?