Pembroke's Journal page

[Pembroke]

Day 1: Leaving the Cave

So, last night my Primal Blueprint and PB Cookbook arrived and I tore into them--probably thinking I could eat paper instead of food. I'm about 1/2 through the Primal Blueprint, but I didn't let that stop me from beginning right away.

Let's do this.

6'4" and 316 pounds, which essentially means I'm carrying around a spare moose in my body. My energy levels are generally low, which sets the tone for my entire day. I spend too much time in front of the monitor, and not enough time traversing the planet.

Mind you, I'm not through all of the materials but thought I'd start walking the walk and mimicking the other tribal members. Thus:

Breakfast consisted of black coffee, a boiled egg, an apple, and some grapes. Water throughout the day, and around lunchtime I ordered a hamburger with cheddar cheese and no bread, and a side of coleslaw (which I secretly wonder wasn't a mistake); tonight, I'm heading to the market to hunt up the ingredients for a paprika goulash I found online.

It's worth mentioning that I'm starting small: parking the brontosaurus at the furthest corner of the parking lot, making a point to walk around the cave, outside the cave, and opening the door to adventure.

Instead of weight goals, or opportunities of failure, I have only committed to this one goal: in 2014, I want to raft a river in New Zealand (which includes hiking, and camping).

While I don't suspect I'll scribble on this cave wall every day, I would like to check in and capture the story.

Looking for encouragement, and other Primals to share the journey. My campfire is your campfire.

More soon.

Howl!

[Primal Primate]

Hi Pembroke,
Welcome to the caves! I read your opening entry and it sounds like you have the drive and desire to push forward and have a great journey. I'd caution eating lots of fruit - berries are good and so is veggies but there is a lot of sugar in those sweet fruits (berries have the sugar too but there are other good things in them that are a trade off) Big thing to remember is to limit the carbs to 100 - 150 grams a day - this is a good range to lose the weight. Also although it seems wrong (by CW - conventional wisdom - standards) a little healthy fat goes a long way when you get those crazy cravings at the beginning - a handful of almonds or such is great to get rid of the cravings and hunger and if it comes in a box or is heavily changed from its natural state odds are you don't want to put it in your mouth!

Best of luck in your journey!

[Pembroke]

Dig the encouragement.

So, I'm a fairly uneducated knuckle-dragger when it comes to carb counting; I assume I'll pick up some wisdom in the pages, and have to further come up to speed on wise choices. Almonds are among the first snack foods I stocked in the cave in case of temporary insanity.

Rule #2: Don't eat poisonous things ... pretty much describes 2/3 of the supermarket shelves, a venerable war zone of unhealthy eating that I've spent a lifetime addicted to.

This hunter & gatherer will have to spend more time in the produce and meat area, and less time in the boxed isles of rows 2 through 14.

More soon.

[Primal Primate]

So, I'm a fairly uneducated knuckle-dragger when it comes to carb counting

So was I when I first started. There are a lot of ways to keep track of your carbs - easiest by far is by using an online food journal or tracker - paleotrack.com is a pretty popular one with the cave dwellers. Big thing is to read your labels and look at the grams (sorry I'm Canadian) of carbs and also how much of the carb intake is sugar. Fruit Juice for example has a ton of carbs and almost all of it is sugar. It just takes some time but you start to be able to read your body and what works for you.

Rule #2: Don't eat poisonous things ... pretty much describes 2/3 of the supermarket shelves, a venerable war zone of unhealthy eating that I've spent a lifetime addicted to.

This hunter & gatherer will have to spend more time in the produce and meat area, and less time in the boxed isles of rows 2 through 14.

Not sure how they do things in the US but up here the 'fresh' stuff is ringed around the outside of the store and all the processed crap is in the inner isles. Makes it easy to start at produce and head around to dairy and then over to meats and avoid the bakery lol. Even better however is doing the leg work to source out a great butcher and/or farmers market. Or if you have the space start up a raised garden - grow your own food (know what is in it) and get a bit of play in the yard in at the same time. This year we are going to hit up some "you pick" farms in our area - I like the idea of actually working for my food. As for meat most of my meat is wild - hunting and fishing cuts down a lot on cost but we do supplement it with store bough seafood and meats from time to time.

Take the journey one step at a time and you'll get there! See you in the caves.

[Pembroke]

Not sure how they do things in the US but up here the 'fresh' stuff is ringed around the outside of the store and all the processed crap is in the inner isles.

Fairly similar market experience; when the warmer months hit, I'll have to make use of the farmer's markets and such. I dig the idea of sourcing out to a local butcher--will look into that as soon as possible.

Or if you have the space start up a raised garden - grow your own food (know what is in it) and get a bit of play in the yard in at the same time.

I'm a consummate gardener, which has me w(a/o)ndering if we have any primals who can (jar) and preserve food. Fruits can quickly get too sugary, but I suspect certain vegetable & pickle recipes could work. Additionally, I have a new adventure to look into: I brew my own beer, which means I either have to curb that activity, or scour the caves for a means to brew a low carb beer (which still needs moderation).

[Pembroke]

Day 9: Oh, the places

So, several items of note: while reading through the Primal Blueprint it became clear that I would need additional materials and help. I've been whittling down my bad diet habits through trial and error as I read through the book, getting better each day. But, it's time to get serious.

Last night, my 21-Day Total Body Transformation book arrived, along with a couple of cookbooks I ordered. After reading through the transformation book, I'm targeting tomorrow (Saturday, Apr 27) as my official day one. It's not to say today is a license to go backward, it's to say tomorrow will begin and end with the prescribed steps.

This past week has been a proverbial mine field; went on a business trip to New York with colleagues--the good news, the diet was solid: steak & leafy salad (lunch), omelette w. spinach mushrooms and tomato (breakfast), fish shrimp and scallop for dinner, etc. All good stuff. And, the rule of move more was in effect--took long strolls in the city opting for legwork instead of short taxi rides.

With the good, usually comes the bad and the ugly: business trips after-hours. Long hours sitting followed up with alcoholic beverages. If anyone has advice in this social situation, I'm all ears. It's generally bad form to not join-the-fun, but I'm looking for better social options besides 2-3 pints of beer (bad for the cavemen).

It's Friday, having traveled and slept, I strolled the river road this morning and stopped in for orange-ginger tea (fresh, loose leaf), egg, ham, tomato, cheese, and a magazine on backpacking in the great outdoors (which sounds like a possible caveman sport to me).

Besides all that, I'm feeling good. Knowing I've not nailed the basics by any stretch, but it's been a solid week and I'm taking my successes in stride. Now, I have a lawn to mow and it looks like I have a pantry to clean out tomorrow.