The 2011 Primal Blueprint 30-Day Challenge Begins Now
If you want to lose weight, gain muscle, reduce stress, increase energy or just generally look and feel healthier you’ve come to the right place. Oh, and you can win lots of cool Primal gear, too. That’s right, it’s the annual Primal Blueprint 30-Day Challenge!
The 30-Day Challenge Details
So what’s the challenge? To get Primal, of course! I hold this 30-Day Challenge every year to encourage Primal beginners to give this way of eating, moving and living a try because I know it works, I know how empowering it is, and I know it changes lives.
I also do it to motivate those that have been dabbling with the Primal lifestyle for a while, but haven’t fully committed or still have some room for improvement (myself included!), to go all in and resolve to finally tackle whatever it is they want to address in their lives.
The actual challenge itself is pretty straightforward. The details can be found in the image below. I recommend downloading the 30-Day Challenge flyer here, and clicking on the links to learn more about each of the topics. (And maybe print a few copies to hand out to friends!)
No sign-up required. Anyone can participate. Just commit to the challenge, and check back every day for motivation and guidance.
Above and beyond the challenge as outlined below, I encourage you to make your own personal challenges. Customize your goals to fit your needs and commit to 30 days starting now.
The Primal Leap – One-on-One Support
This 30-day challenge perfectly complements The Primal Leap. The Primal Leap is my effort to provide one-on-one support and step-by-step guidance to those looking to lose weight, take control of their health and get Primal for life. If you would like expert feedback and be told exactly what to do and when to do it The Primal Leap is for you. Learn more here.
Community Support
Just like last year, I highly encourage you to use the forum during the challenge. In it you can start a “Primal Challenge Journal” to publicly state your goals and track your progress.
Create a journal to receive positive feedback, advice and help along the way from myself and the Mark’s Daily Apple community.
The 30-Day Challenge Contests FAQs
The main challenge itself isn’t competitive but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some friendly contests along they way!
Over the course of the next month Mark’s Daily Apple and sponsors will be giving away thousands of dollars in prizes.
Here are some rules and answers to FAQ:
- There will be a new contests nearly every day for the duration of the 30-day challenge (through Oct. 11), so check back daily!
- All contest prizes relate in some way to the Primal lifestyle. You won’t find any miracle weight loss pills, tummy crunching sling-a-ma-doo-dads, or whole wheat health blast jazzer snackers.
- Some contests will require a bit of leg work while others will require something as simple as commenting on a blog post.
- There is no limit to how many contests you can participate in.
- The duration of any one contest depends on the nature of the contest. Some will last a few weeks (to give you time to complete the contest task) while others will be as short as one day. All deadlines are Pacific Standard Time.
- Contest prizes will be awarded either by a random drawing, by reader voting/polling or by an executive decision (who I think should win!).
- Some prizes will only be available to United States residents. If you live outside the U.S. and win a prize that can’t be shipped internationally an alternate prize of equal value will be awarded.
- I’m not being paid by any company that is sponsoring the contest with a prize.
To track all the contests visit the 2011 Primal Blueprint 30-Day Challenge Contest Page for daily updates.
New to the Primal Blueprint and Mark’s Daily Apple?
If you are new to the Primal Blueprint and Mark’s Daily Apple and don’t know where to begin here are some resources to get you started:
1. Not sure what it means to “Go Primal”? Check out these articles for the basics:
- The Definitive Guide to the Primal Blueprint
- The Definitive Guide to the Primal Eating Plan
- How to Succeed with the Primal Blueprint
2. The Primal Blueprint 101 Page
3. The Forum – Ask any and all questions you have about the Primal lifestyle.
4. The Book
5. What to eat? – Primal Blueprint Recipes on MDA and The Primal Blueprint Cookbook and Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals
6. Have a question? – Contact Me
Tell your friends and family about the challenge so they can get Primal, too! Use the “ShareThis” link below to send this article via email.
Subscribe to the Mark’s Daily Apple Newsletter and Get Challenge Updates All Month Long
Posted By: Mark Sisson
I’m meeting with a nutritionist at my gym this week as a part of a fitness challenge. I’m going to share this 30-day plan with her instead of letting her suggest I get 50% of my calories from carbs.
I’m 45 lbs “successful” so far with this way of living.
The main challenge and focus will be getting off my butt and lifting heavy things and sprinting. I’m feeling excited and ready though!
I know I am late, but I wanted to post my own personal challenge. In addition to totally eliminating grains and sugars, I also want to get my daughter on board. She is (and has been since birth) a carb junkie. We have had success in the past– we got her to try things that she agreed she liked (bacon, meatballs, etc). I want to get some good fatty meat into each meal that she has for this month.
Thank you launching that challenge again Mark!
I commit myself to completely give up grains and sugary stuffs and keep my carbs intake below 100g a day.
I’m also designing a new fitness plan (for my previous one rather looked like Kelly Korg’s morning trip to the gym…)
Thank you again
love from france
Hi! Going Primal again! I am taking on NO alcohol for the 30 days, limiting my fruit to berries and not more than 2 squares of 85% chocolate each day. I will do sprinting once a week(starting after my triathlon this weekend). I think the HARDEST challenge though will be to do something fun and relaxing everyday. With two kids, working, exercising and making all meals from scratch, plus 8 hours of sleep a night…I guess I have to make doing all of that fun! I am looking forward to it!
Sugar is a biggie for me on several levels…I have a sweet tooth a mile long, I’m pre-diabetic and my husband loves sweet rolls with his morning coffee, especially when we are traveling, which is often.
Life has been a bit crazy as of late and I need to tighten things up in some areas. My Primal Challenge will be to stop putting flavor shot in the teas I get at the local cafe (even if the special is a flavored drink) and cut back on the amount of dark chocolate I eat to only a half a Trader Joes 72% cocoa bar a day or less.
I’m in the middle of a Whole30 so I’m just going to extend that into this PB Challenge! Focusing on no alcohol, dark choc in moderation, 1 cup of black coffee/day or less, adding in more veggies, minimal dairy, adding in Sprints to my PBF plan… also focused on getting my 15 sunlight every day for Vit D! Oh… and sleeping 8 hrs at night.
My personal challenges…
#1 No dairy!! I wanna see if I like it.
#2 Stop lurking and start posting. I’ve been primal and lurking here for a whole year now, I think it’s time to be more active!
Success!
Went to visit a laid up friend last evening. Her husband has been so against my nutritional changes and is constantly trying to make me feel bad about turning down items that I am avoiding.
Case in point, I successfully declined his peach pie made with their first ever peaches.
He was upset with me because he got the pie out of the freezer to share.
He believes I am inconsiderate.
And, so the social strain continues.
He is, afterall, my best friend’s partner.
To sprint once a week!
I second that. Sprint once per week
I just discovered MDA (today) when researching how to maintain lean body mass during weight loss. Last week I started a challenge at my kickboxing gym. I dropped from 174# to 167# in 7 days – but according to my body fat monitor it’s equal parts fat and LBM loss. Going to give PB a shot. Biggest challenge? Accepting that eating more meat is actually healthy.
Completely giving up gluten for these 30 days!
Would any of the other challenges not involve twitter? I am probably one of the few who do not use it.
well, I’m committing to only purchase and prepare foods that fit within this eating plan. That’s my challenge – and it’s a doozy!
I am starting a day late but on! Was very faithful to the lifestyle for a few months last year but gradually moved away from it…I like the “play” idea and will remove grains and sugars…am exercising appropriately and will continue that…need to be/have more fun!
My personal challenge is to ditch grains for good !
I started the 30 day challenge yesterday!
I am working to give up grains and sugars (I love sweets, obviously – and I will give it up).
I am also challenging myself to follow the fitness plan – I tend to not have much time or the gym but my goal is to make time for these simple workouts.
I have been recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Nervously committing to the program and hoping that it will bring better health.
Mini-challenge: one day at a time, neither looking back nor ahead.
Been doing Primal for 3 weeks now. Losing very little if any weight. I’m not overweight and I work out heavy 3 times a week. Sticking to it because I believe in the Philosophy. Like the 30 day challenge. No fruit for me today. Will do an IF tomorrow to try and kick start my metabolism. (Something new each day)
Have dabbled in Paleo before but never jumped in wholeheartedly. I commit to 30 days without grain and learning as many new paleo recipes as possible. Had coconut flour pancakes last night and started the day off right today with salmon, greens and tomotoes for breakfast. Doing CF hero workouts all this week in honor of 9/11 – started with Murph yesterday and walked in the forest with the dogs this morning. Excited for this challenge!
I try to live the primal lifestyle but still can’t seem to lose the weight. I think I need additional help and maybe with the 30 day challenge I will get it!
In addition to giving up all sugar and grains, adding sprints twice a week to my workout regimine, I will not bathe or shower for this 30 day challenge! Now THAT’s primal
I’ve been primal since the 1st of the month. Definitely joining in!
Drs. refused to operate on my knee/femur because of my ABI, so i took it upon myself to rehab with a trainer and chiro.. started with showing the trainer your book lol so yeah, rehabbing and stripping down to a better , healthier, happier me:)
My husband and I started the challenge yesterday – really excited!
) and we’re ready for the challenge!
We have been eating Paleo/Primal since the day after Thanksgiving 2010. I’ve lost 45 lbs since then and feel absolutely incredible.
We’ve fallen off the wagon lately (just slightly, we love margaritas and texmex
I know we missed the mini challenge, but our goals are to sleep 8 hrs or more each night, and closely follow the primal exercise routines – and of course, no margaritas.
Good Luck, everyone!
of all the challenges in life, why is it that food is the hard one?
my roommate who has struggled with weight and I, who has always had problems keeping weight, are both attempting to move to a Primal Lifestyle.
personally my hardest bad food to give up is sugars. i have always been a candy snacker. jelly beans, hard candy, licorice and soda are staples in my life.
since finding your site i have curbed my intake of sugar quite a bit and feel much healthier. my workouts seem more effecient and my teeth are thanking me already.
of course that is not the only one, but it is a great step, as is quitting smoking, and more regular exercise.
i am proud of myself, and proud of my roommate. she works three times as hard as i do.
I’m so excited! My challenge to myself is to eat 100% primal!
I am hoping to get into one-derland (meaning,getting my weight into the 100′s). I also want to continue to improve my morning/afternoon bike commutes.
Wow! I’m feeling so inspired. I’ve just spent the last couple of hours reading page after page of people challenging themselves and loving their Primal lives!
My Personal Challenges:
1) Fitness – On top of my ordinary medium intensity cardio I will do:
1 HIT session a week. I think that means sprints for me.
2 sessions of Heavy lifting a week. I set myself a pull up challenge in July. I’ve gone from not budging to being able to lift myself 4-5″ – the plan is at least 1 full lift by December!
2) Sleep – I will try to get 8 hours a night.
I really struggle with getting enough sleep. It impacts on my life in such a major way. My mood, my effectiveness at work, my ability to mange my diet and the energy to move about enough.
It’s my biggest saboteur. And I’m not sure about what stops me. Staying up too late, reading MDA comments?! Coffee? Chocolate?
3) Food – I’m almost there with the food. I’m already grain free, nightshade free. I’ve even managed to be sugar free 95% of the time the past few months. I still struggle with dairy and legumes – chickpeas to be specific!
So, my food challenge will be to keep my carbs under 80g a day and No dairy and No legumes (and sticking to my other exclusions as per normal)
I’ve already ‘technically’ broken this with a protein shake (dairy), tamari (soy) (and chocolate?) What do you guys reckon?
I’m going to start a journal on here and have just set up a blog to document my journey.
Come see me at http://thegirlgoesprimal.blogspot.com/
Looking forward to sharing and learning with others over the next 28 days!