Primal Blueprint, Day 2
It’s been two days now since I started on this new plan and there’s good and bad news.
Bad News
- Still struggling with a cold. This has nothing to do with the Primal Blueprint though, I got this cold two days before I started living by Mark’s plan. Still, it’s a bit frustrating to wake up every day with a sore throat and a headache. I wonder if my new lifestyle is making things worse or better but I suppose there’s no way to really know that.
- Experiencing the same issues I did when I first tried out intermittent fasting. Namely, going out with people becomes very difficult since most restaurant meals are not even close to the Primal Blueprint. Still, with enough planning, I’m finding that I can go out and still stick to this plan. Mexican restaurants seem good (hold the rice), seafood places are good (again, hold the high carb sides) and sushi places are great (avoid the rice and order sashimi).
- I’m going through a lot of cravings for sugar. Good thing I started this AFTER I got rid of most of the sugars in my diet last month or else I doubt I could stick with it. There’s an important lesson there by the way, don’t try anything drastic like this without some gradual changes, you’ll greatly increase your chance of success.
- Not sleeping well, but this could be related to the cold. I’m trying to avoid taking any medication for this illness but that’s difficult when I’m staying up all night coughing. What’s worse, losing sleep or taking a cough suppressant? There’s valid reasons for coughing but my body needs sleep!
- I miss my runner’s high.
Good News
- This is forcing me to cook at home more, which is good. I’m greatly enjoying finding out how good of a cook I am. So far I’ve realized that I make a pretty kick ass omelet, stir fry and fish.
- My body feels great even though I’ve been working out while sick. I’ve been doing 25 minutes of high intensity weight lifting followed by 10 to 15 minutes of low intensity elliptical with a lot of walking and biking thrown in for good measure. My muscles and joints are experiencing no pain, probably because I haven’t been jogging in two weeks. Of course, I’m going to see if this has any negative side effects at the end of July, when I do a physical.
- I feel like I have more energy than I did before, which is promising considering the fact that I’m sick and haven’t been sleeping well. I’m not falling asleep in meetings or in front of the computer, even without caffeine. we’ll see how I feel when this cold is done.
- My weight is down by several lbs. This is essentially meaningless though since weight fluctuations over a couple of days can be attributed to the normal metabolic process rather than any changes in body composition.
Things To Try Out This Week
- Need to see if I can have a good meal at an Indian restaurant. I LOVE Indian food and I’m going to have an issue with a diet that does not allow me to eat it.
- Need to go hiking, something I promised myself I would do regardless of the Primal Blueprint.
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Overall, I’m liking this new way of living. Of course, it’s only been two days…
Monthly Update - May
I’ve decided to go back to these monthly updates as a way of keeping myself centered on my goals. So here’s my update for May along with my goals for June.
May
No more caffeine - I managed to really reduce my intake of caffeine to almost zero. That’s an amazing improvement over where it was and I’m feeling much better about my energy levels. The withdrawal was a bit painful (2 day headache) but I’m over that now.
Better sleep - I bought a very comfortable bed and rearranged my bedroom so it’s no longer a work area. That should help along with the reduced caffeine. I am trying to get to bed at a reasonable time which is also helping. Combine this with the lack of caffeine highs / crashes, and I’m no longer falling asleep randomly through the day.
Sugar - I reduced but did not eliminate my sugar consumption this month. Good progress but still not quite where I want to be. This will remain a goal for June.
I didn’t have any other goals in May so nothing else to report. Overall, it was a good month and I’m quite happy with how I’m doing.
June
Eating routine - This is what I would like my eating routine to look like Sunday to Friday:
- No more sugar other than on Saturday
- No more caffeine
- No more binge eating
- Small breakfast with a good amount of protein
- Lunch size depends on dinner plans
- Good sized if no dinner plans
- Small salad if dinner plans
- No dinner unless I have social plans
- Instead, a small salad or some fruit
On Saturdays, I can eat whatever I want
Weight - My goal is to get to 215. I think I’m pretty close to there already but this month is sort of a calibration month for me so I’m not setting particularly high goals.
Hiking - I want to hike Mission Peak and see how fast I do it. Again, this will be a calibration for future hikes to see if I can improve.
Exercise - No particular goals here. My routine is already good and I’m pretty happy with how my body is performing.
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I’m also conducting a new 30 day experiment but since it’s not specifically fitness related, I’m going to post about it on my personal blog and not here.
One Day At A Time
NOTE - Our body image series will continue on Friday.
In 2003, I started eating healthy and exercising. I saw improvement really fast. I dropped weight and I felt a lot better. I went from 280lbs to 220 in about 3 years, hence the name 60 in 3. I also added a lot of muscle mass and improved all the numbers by which health is measured. Then I hit a plataue. Although I wanted to get to 180lbs, I found myself running up against the problem of my eating. For a variety of reasons, my eating habits reverted back to some of the old bad habits.
It wasn’t quite as bad as the days of large pizzas and a gallon of coke for dinner, but it wasn’t good either, and I’ve been strugglin for years to figure out a way to break these habits yet again. I kept having small successes and then I would relapse back to binge eating. I go a week and do really well but then I would ruin it all in a weekend of overeating. It was frustrating and I thought I would never reach my goal weight.
Lately though, I’m seeing a nice amount of progress. I’m getting the binge eating under control and the candy / caffeine habits are slowly being broken. I wanted to share with you what’s been working and what hasn’t.
What Hasn’t Worked
Guilt - I should have known this one wouldn’t have worked but guilt is a hard habit to break. Guilting myself into eating less never works, it just makes me feel bad. Neither does beating myself up afterward.
Daily Weigh Ins - I thought measuring my weight every day would give me incentive to keep going. It didn’t. It just made me feel bad about the overeating from yesterday.
What Has Worked
Eliminating Temptation At Home - I no longer buy cookies and chocolates and so on for the house. I always told myself I would eat them in moderation but that never really happened.
Getting More Sleep - It’s true, lack of sleep leads to overeating. Ever since I started focusing on a better night’s sleep, I’ve found myself eating less.
Cutting Out The Caffeine - This could be related to the better sleep thing, but cutting out caffeine seems to have made me less prone to cravings. My metabolism is more steady rather than peaking and crashing every two hours.
Support - Thanks to a special someone who’s making me walk the walk and not just talk the talk, I’m eating more healthy meals at home.
One Day At A Time - I told myself I wanted to eat healthy for just one day and then I ate unhealthy the next day. Then I ate healthy for two days and then went back to unhealthy for a day. Each time, I extended the number of days I was eating healthy by just a little bit more. These days I’m eating healthy for an entire week and then giving myself a pass on Saturdays. It’s been working really well.
Motivation
And of course, I needed to find the motivation to make this change. I think I was stuck in this rut where I couldn’t see the benefit of losing more weight. It wasn’t as clear to me what these additional 40lbs would do for me whereas the first 60 had a very clear benefit. These days I have a goal in mind. I want to sleep better and I think losing the weight will help me with that. I also have a goal of having a noticeable 6pack by next summer. Sound shallow? Maybe so, and there’s a part of me which wonders how this connects back to the topic of body image which has been on my mind for the past few weeks.
Am I going for too much weightloss? Am I giving in to some manufactured ideal of what a man should look like? I don’t know the answer to that but I do know that I intend to lose this weight slowly, gradually and in a healthy manner. I’m not going on any crash diets, I’m just going to continue eating healthy and work out. We’ll see where my equilibrium weight eventually settles and at that point I’ll decide if more changes are warranted.
I also want to make my weight goals and progress public again. I stopped that last year when I was going through a rough personal patch and needed to focus on other things. From now on, it’s back to the monthly updates which will hopefully be full of good news 
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Hope everyone is having a good day. As for me, it’s time to go to sleep!
Changes For May
You may recall that I was trying to get rid of chocolate and caffeine from my diet in April. Well, the plan almost worked perfectly. Caffeine is virtually gone and chocolate is greatly reduced. I wasn’t 100% on target but I made enough progress that I feel really good about things. Now I’ve had a week off from working out and I’m feeling great.
So for the month of May, my plan is as follows:
ZERO Chocolate and Caffeine
I want to see if I can cut these things out completely, just for a month, to see if I really need them in my life. I’m guessing that I’ll find caffeine to be unnecessary but I’ll probably never get rid of chocolate completely. Still, it’s worth a 30 day trial to see if this is truly an indulgence worth having. Actually, when it comes to the chocolate bit, I’m going to remove all processed sugar from my diet this month. We’ll see how that goes.
Better Sleep
I’m going to focus this month on improving my sleep. That means going to be on time, buying a new bed and trying out a few new sleeping positions. I’ve been reading up on sleep apnea a bit more and I’m going try sleeping on my back but with my head raised. I’ll see if that improves the quality of my sleep. I’m also going to invest a bit more time in shopping for a comfortable bed as opposed to my last few bed purchase decisions which consisted primarily of “hey, this feels bouncy!” in the store.
Less Binge Eating
My one remaining eating problem is binge eating. I sometimes get in this mood where I crave food. Even worse, if I get into this mood when there’s a lot of food around me, I tend to overeat way too much. Even though I’m aware of this, I will occasionally put myself into situations which make the problem worse, such as when I suggest going to a buffet. So for the month of May, no buffets at all!
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Next month I’m planning to make some changes to my exercise routine but I’d like to think them through this month.
That’s it, those are my goals for this month. What about you? Anything special planned? Working on any 30 day trials?
October Goals: Back In The Game
When I first started writing 60 in 3, I start each month with a post that talked about my goals for that month. Lately, I haven’t done that. I’ve put my fitness goals on maintenance mode while I’m going to school and focusing on work because I thought I didn’t have time for them. I didn’t let them go completely, I still work out 5 to 6 times a week, eat healthy and I remain physically active, but I’ve stopped trying to improve.
Well, I think this is a mistake. I’ve never been a person who’s satisfied with the status quo. I always want to improve, even if it’s nearly impossible. In fact, trying to stay in place for the past few months has been really hard on me. I keep seeing new things I’d like to do, new activities to try out or new goals to reach for and I keep telling myself “just wait a year until school is done”, which is really depressing me. So I’ve decided not to wait anymore. I’m going to get back in the game with new goals and new things to try. I’ll make them reasonable, things I can achieve with my limited time, but I’m not going to be happy just treading water.
October’s Goals
1 New Hike - This month I want to try a hike someplace new. Someplace I haven’t been before. I mostly hike the same trails over and over and I’d like to change that. So one of my goals for this month is to find a new and challenging hike trail. I’m particularly interested in peaks and mountains since I’d like to one day climb some of the famous mountains of the world like Everest.
215lbs - I’ve been close to this goals for a year now and I keep bouncing back and forth around it. Well, not anymore. This October is the month during which I see 215 or lower on that scale.
Sprint Running - I’ve been wanting to do this a bit more and this month is as good as any. I’m going to change one of my weekly cardio workouts into an all out sprint run. We’ll see how it goes.
Learn A New Recipe - Last but not least, I want to keep going with this whole cooking at home thing. Which means I need to learn at least one new recipe. I’m going to aim for a chili or some kind of stew, but we’ll see.
The Value of Public Goals
It’s good to have goals. it’s even better to have public goals that your friends and family (and readers) know about. It provides motivation and gives you something to work towards.
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What are your goals for this month?
August Update - Workout, Eating, 216.4 lbs and Goals
I realize it’s been a while since I updated you all about my fitness goals and progress. That’s primarily due to how busy I’ve been. However, I think not updating is a mistake. It gives me less incentive to work on my goals, which is bad. So here goes.
CURRENT STATUS
Workout
Exercise wise, I’m doing great. I’m doing a weight workout three days a week with a 30 minute elliptical session on those days. I’m also running two days a week. In addition, I’m quite active in other ways. I bike to the office most days, I work in the yard on the weekend and I am walking or biking on as many errands as I can. The new house is really helping being more centrally located.
Speaking of which, I can’t say enough about how nice it is to live in a walkable neighborhood. Seriously, don’t underestimate how big of an impact your home has on your health. I see it in my neighbors and in their kids. Everyone in the new neighborhood seems to spend a lot more time walking and outdoors in general. This makes for a really friendly neighborhood and a much healthier one.
Eating
For the most part, I’m doing well on the eating side of things. However, I really haven’t had a chance to work on the things I’ve wanted to work on. I’ve been trying to eat multiple smaller meals during the day but work sometimes makes that hard. I’ve also been trying to cut down on the sweet snacks but school makes that a bit difficult. These things are going to be my goals for this month.
Weight
Holding steady. 216.4 this morning.
GOALS
Exercise
I’m happy with my exercise routine so I’m not looking to change much. I would like to increase my running speed somewhat but that’s not a high priority goal. The only thing I would like to change this month is my hiking frequency. With work, school and the move to the new house, I haven’t had a chance to go hiking at all this summer. I intend to change that this month and would like to go on at least two hikes.
Eating
I’m going to make Monday’s my “chocolate free” days. I love chocolate but I think I still eat a bit too much of it. Let’s see if I can cut down just one day a week and see how that works.
Weight
I’d like my weigh in at the end of the month to be under 215lbs.
Other
I want to find some event or goal to start planning and training towards. I find that motivating and I want to make sure I have something I’m working towards.
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This month is a calibration month for me as I get back on track towards my overall goals. Not a lot is going to change. Instead, I’m going to take stock, see where I am and decide on what I’m going to change and why.
April Goals - 213lbs, Marathon Training, Better Eating
My March goals were:
- 215lbs - I didn’t quite make it last month, so I’m hoping to do it this month. I want to see a whole week in which my morning weigh in is under 215lbs.
- Marathon Training - I am starting my training for the Maui marathon on the 8th. I have a detailed training plan that a friend worked up for me and I want to make sure I follow it.
- Higher Weights - I also want to improve my weight training this month by increasing the weight I use on at least 4 different exercises. That means I’m going to pick one exercise a week and increase the weight.
- Better Eating - Along with the no candy on weekdays rule, I want to make an effort to avoid buffets. These are my weakness as I love food so much that I usually keep eating it even if I’m full. I want to see if I can go a whole month without buffets.
So how did I do on these goals?
215 lbs
I wanted to have a whole week where the scale showed 215lbs or below. I almost got that. The entire last week of March the scale was showing 213’s and 214’s, but one day it showed a 215.2 or so. By the way, I don’t normally weight myself everyday but this was specific to achieving this goal. I’m going to count this goal is 90% successful. I clearly came very close although I didn’t quite achieve my success criteria. Still, I’m close enough to move on to the next weight goal.
Marathon Training
Marathon training is going great. I’m up to running 8+ miles on the weekend. The only bad part is that I’m going to have to find a different marathon since it turns out the Maui marathon I signed is on the same weekend is my grad school sessions. School being a higher priority, I’m planning to sign up for a different marathon at about the same time.
Higher Weights
Mission accomplished. I increased the weights I use on three different exercises and also increased the number of push ups I do.
Better Eating
I managed to avoid all buffets with the exception of one dinner with my wife. Even that one went well since I limited myself to one plate and no desserts. However, I did have some issues with candy when, this being Easter season, a lot of people brought chocolates in to work and social gatherings. My will power failed me and I did overindulge.
GOALS FOR APRIL
- 213lbs - I want to see one whole week in which that scale says 213lbs or below.
- Marathon Training - Continue marathon training.
- Better Eating - Back to basics, less candy and keep up the “no buffets” rule.
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What are your goals for the month of April?
