The Leaning Caveman

 
30 pounds lost 04/12/2010
 
These past few weeks have been insanely busy.  I've had a schedule full of business items, the job search and many a personal issue yet somehow I am now down a total of 30 pounds.  30 pounds?!?  It is absolutely insane to me that I've hit this number only a little over five weeks into the process.  What makes it even crazier is that I have been too busy to consistently stick with my P90x routine yet the weight keeps coming off.


This caveman is getting leaned out.  Fast. 
 
Quickie update 03/23/2010
 
I've been incredibly busy lately but wanted to provide a quick update.  In the short period of time since I've started on this journey, I have somehow managed to lose 20 pounds.  If the trusty Tanita body composition scale is to be believed, the majority of that is straight up body fat.  Most interesting to me is that my energy level and appetite have never been better.  I literally sprang out of bed this morning at 5:15 ready to take on the world.
 
 
I discussed my my new workout regime on Monday and described how I am mixing P90X with being primal.  As it turns out I get the Mark's Daily Apple newsletter in my inbox today and low and behold Mark has an article on the usage of crossfit and P90x with the primal lifestyle.

Mark has many a good thing to say about each of the fitness plans and covers how they are very popular with other followers of Grok.  In terms of issues, he discusses how he isn't sure how sustainable doing P90x is over the long run after fitness goals are met and I have to agree with him.  That being said though, I have a long way to go until that is the issue.  Looking forward however, I could see replacing some of the cardio routines with long hikes or runs when the weather is nice.  I also have a feeling that Yoga X will eventually get monotonous after round one is complete but I have a Bikram yoga place around the corner and know several Iyengar instructors so I'm not too concerned about alternatives.  Considering that my right arm got to failure doing the second round of Congdon curls during Shoulders & Arms today,

Read the article for yourself and be sure to share your comments below.  Thanks.
Link to article on Mark's Daily Apple.
1 Comment
 
 
We are now a couple of weeks into this new journey and I'm pleased to announce that I have lost 12 pounds.  The cravings for sugary little bombs that send my glycemic load through the roof are more or less gone and nearly all starches have been eliminated.  I even survived a trip to San Francisco and remained more or less primal through the entire process.  In fact I have to give the W Hotel across from Moscone Center kudos.  The breakfast menu in their restaurant is one of the most primal friendly that I have ever seen.  Well done guys.


Moving on to today's topic which is of course exercise.  Generally speaking I am a pretty sedentary guy; I ply my trade by sitting in front of a computer, sitting in meetings and sitting on airplanes.  Left to my own devices, exercise isn't something that is generally on my radar.  But since I am trying to emulate Grok, I have engaged in a workout plan.  In this case I am using P90X.  I chose the program for a couple of reasons.  First and foremost is that I have a copy.  I had started through the workouts prior to getting the ever lovely H1N1 and pneumonia after Thanksgiving.  The second reason is that it is a proven, structured workout plan that gets incredible results.  The third reason is that Mark Sisson (author of The Primal Blueprint) was a consultant to Beachbody during the creation of P90X and the diet plan provided with the DVDs does not veer too far from being primal. 


During the past week (what I'm calling week 0) I reacquainted myself with the workouts.  I made it through all three of the strength workouts (Chest & Back, Arms & Shoulders, Legs & Back) and Kenpo X with a minimum of drama but Plyometrics and Yoga X cooked my noodle.  It is going to be some time before I feel that I have mastered those two beasts but I am looking forward to trying.  Today is day 1 of week 1 of my restart.  That means I put myself through Chest and Back and was able to complete each of the exercises.  I even did it without any knee pushups!  We'll see how this goes.  First round of photos go up at the 30 day mark!


Are you primal?  Have you attempted P90X?  I'd love to hear from you in the comments.
 
 
I started down the track of being primal like so many people;  I was full of verve and vigor, thinking to myself that this would be 'easy' since so much of it involved my favorite foods.  How difficult can a diet that involves eating steak and lobster be?  Well it turns out that I left out two important details.

The first thing that I overlooked is just how ubiquitous processed foods are in day to day life.  There's no way that you can get natural beef jerky to go with your tea at Starbucks although you can get every flavour of pastry known to man.  The lesson there is that it is important to pack your own snacks or at the very least examine your schedule beyond the next task or commitment and think about the day.  This is going to be critical for me next week as I am in San Francisco at a conference for two days.

The second consideration is family dynamics and support.  My household lives on carbs and cheese and likes it that way.  They also don't suffer from metabolic syndrome or anything else that would lead them down a primal path short of seeing a profound change in me.  I wouldn't say that they have been unsupportive at all but I will say that you my caveman friend need to recognize just how tempting it can be to join in when the rest of the family is having pizza night and you are supposed to be grilling a chicken breast to put on top of a salad....... while it is snowing outside.

Now that I have learned these two lessons the hard way, I can recognize these issues that cause me to veer off track and will be better equipped to stay primal going forward.  All that being said, the scale is heading in the right direction albeit slowly and I do feel better when grains and other non-primal foods are relagated to a t
 
Saturday quickie 02/06/2010
 
After several days of staying primal, I woke up this morning to a curious phenomenon.  I had no appetite.  None.  Zip.  Nada.  And it continued that way for nearly four hours after I woke up even though I had my morning cappuccino here at the house.  Of course in order to improve the primal nature of my morning ritual I have been transitioning from skim milk to something that hasn't had the fat stripped from it.


All I can say is SWEET!


It is certainly getting easier to remain primal as each day passes.  The pangs for sugary goodies are more or less gone physically and I've become keenly aware of the various rituals and stress reactions that triggered the sugar rollercoaster.
 
 
So I am in the throes of day 3 and the lack of sugary food and grains has finally caught up with me.  My body is screaming for some bland bread, cookie or a frappa-mocha-cino but so far I have resisted temptation.  No one said that getting this stuff out of my diet was going to be easy, only that it would be worthwhile.


Mark Sisson of Marksdailyapple.com and the book The Primal BluePrint says that the transition can take up to 30 days to completely eliminate the cravings.  Hopefully the remaining 27 days won't be like this.  One thing that I have done to minimize the potential for being overwhelmed by cravings is that I'm not cranking up the exercise level until I have been in caveman mode for two weeks.  I'm doing this to let my body adjust to burning fat from its stores.  Believe me, there is plenty for it to burn.


On the up side, I have already lost 2.2lbs (1 kg).  I'm planning on doing a full update on metrics each Monday.
 
Bargain brisket 02/02/2010
 
Seeing as how this experiment is going to require copious amounts of animal protein, I am always on the look out for dishes that will yield large quantities of leftovers that are as delicious as they are the first time around.  In this particular case I have to say this particular brisket concoction that I have made is even better.  I bought the brisket from the vacuum pack section at Costco and trimmed about 3/4 of a pound of fat off.  Don't worry about the rub being too spicy.  My seven year old daughter was grabbing chunks out of the pan and dipping it right in the basting juice.


Ingredients:


5 lb brisket (trim the big chunks of fat off)
1.5c - 1q beef stock


Rub-
2 T. chili powder
2 T. kosher salt
1 T. dried garlic
1T. freshly ground black pepper
1/2T. sugar
1T. onion powder
2t. dry mustard


Mix rub ingredients together and slather onto brisket.  Place into an uncovered roasting pan and insert into a 350 degree oven for 1 hour, 20 minutes.





Remove from oven and add beef stock to pan until there is a half inch of liquid in the pan.  Cover tightly (I use foil versus the lid to get a better seal) and place back into the oven for 3 1/2 hours at 300 degrees.  It should be fork tender when you remove it.  Let rest for at least 30 minutes if you can stand it, cut across the grain and enjoy.
Picture
 
 
Hi.  My name is Mike and I am starting this blog to discuss weight loss, diet and lifestyle modification.  You see not too long ago I could see my abs, lift twice my body weight and dunk a basketball (I'm only 6' tall).  Then I bought a business and ate up all of my time for the gym. Then the recession happened, any sense of eating properly went out the window and the stress level went through the roof.  Eventually the business went bye-bye and now I'm cleaning up the mess.


Over the remainder of 2009 I tried a great multitude of diets and exercise regimes, none of which lasted.  Heck I even started training for a triathlon in the spring until the combo punch of H1N1, pneumonia and an upper respiratory infection put the kibosh on that until I can ride my bike without sounding like a barking seal.  Needless to say I have I have lost the same 10 pounds half a dozen times in less than a year.  But enough is enough and I think I've found the way forward which is why I'm starting this.


Over the past several weeks I have read nearly a dozen books on diet and all of the research that I can get my hands on and I keep coming back to a pretty basic idea.  My idea is that our ability to process ingredients and create food out of things our fore-bearers would have balked at has greatly exceeded our body's ability to handle it.  In other words, our technology has beaten our genes.  With that in mind I'm going to use my body as a laboratory to implement a more primitive diet that relies heavily on fruits, vegetables and delicious meat to get my blood sugar and adipose tissue (aka fat) under control.


The core of what I'm doing is based on two books; The Paleo Diet by Dr. Loren Cordain and The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson.  I find each of them to be very credible and authoritative on the topic of diet.  Dr. Cordain is a professor of nutrition at Colorado State University and Mark is an Ironman (Hawaii), publisher of Mark's Daily Apple, recovering marathoner and consultant to the ITU and IOC.  As I continue down this path I will blog what works for me as well what doesn't, recipes, tips, motivation and most importantly results.  I want to create a clear record of how well the process works and how quickly this particular caveman was able to lean out.  Ugh.


YVPYJQPW5Z5Y
1 Comment