Primal Blueprint - Month 1

It’s been a month now since I started experimenting with Mark Sisson’s The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram Your Genes for Effortless Weight Loss, Vibrant Health, and Boundless Energy
and I’m beginning to notice some definite changes.

Cravings

I never realized how much I craved sweets and carbs until I tried to go a few weeks without them.  Wow!  I’ve always though that smokers are weak because they are unable to stop smoking but here I am unable to stop eating candy.  It’s quite literally a compulsion to eat and it’s very difficult to overcome.  Sure, some of you may say, “I can stop eating junk food and chocolate anytime I want.”  Yes, I thought so too but the truth is that it’s a lot harder than you think.

It’s quite clear to me now that my body became addicted to cheap, easy calories in the form of sweets and refined carbohydrates and that addiction proved just as hard to kick as caffeine.  I’m making great progress but it still amazes me how habit forming sugars and carbs are.  No wonder the food industry likes to stuff us full of them, the more we get the more we want.

On The Other Side…

I now realize just how satisfying a good meal can be when you’re not craving carbs.  Here’s my food intake from yesterday.

• Breakfast - A bunch of blueberries and a peach.
• Lunch - Stir fried vegetables with three scrambled eggs.
• Dinner - Chopped salad and a portion of organic beef about the size of a hamburger patty.
• Snacks - A few almonds and figs.

That’s it.  That’s all I ate.  Note that I’m still getting plenty of carbs in the form of fruits and vegetables, I’ve just cut out the junk carbs.  I also haven’t gone insane with the protein intake and converted all my meals to different versions of bacon wrapped steaks.  Instead, I’m eating a nicely balanced diet of fresh ingredients.  End result? I felt great.  Even though this was actually a small amount of calories, I felt amazingly full and had no cravings for more food later on.

Aches and Pains

The aches in my legs have gone away.  I used to have regular pains in my hips and thighs which made it difficult for me to sleep.  Once I stopped jogging, the pains quickly went away and my sleep has never been better (except for last night when my overly rambunctious puppy decided to chase a moth around my bedroom).  At the same time, I’ve actually increased my weight and elliptical workouts so I don’t feel like I’m doing less exercise.  I’m also biking more although I’m still not hiking as much as I would like to.

Problems, Problems, Problems

The only problem I’m experiencing is around food.  I’m still having issues sticking to the Primal Blueprint eating plan for two reasons:

1. It’s not restaurant friendly and a lot of my social life revolves around eating out.
2. I’m not a good cook at home which means most of my meals are variations of stir fries, omelets and salads.

Actually, I suppose this is one problem and not two.  Namely, I severely overestimated my ability to find foods which match my eating plan.  Which is part of the reason I posted my five things to consider before jumping into a new eating plan last week.

I suppose this is what I’ll work on this week, finding new restaurants and new recipes to work on.

###

And a big thank you to my friends, you know who you are, who support me even when it’s the middle of the night.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

REVIEW - Eat, Drink and Be Healthy

I’ve always been a fan of books written various Harvard Schools.  Perhaps it’s the business student in me, but they always seem to be well written, informative, thorough and objective.  So when I saw a national best seller nutrition book written by a pair of Harvard professors, I figured I’d pick it up and see what the fuss was all about.  What I found was a bit more and a bit less than what I expected.

What It’s All About

The authors of Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating have a problem.  They see the new food pyramid that the USDA has come up along with the accompanying dietary guidelines and, instead of seeing a good plan to follow, they find it to be a disaster in the making.  They have a variety of issues with the USDA information, the most important of which are:

• They are not based on science
• They are based on the lobbying of the US agriculture industry
• They don’t make distinctions between good and bad components of the same food group.  Good and bad fats for example.

I tend to agree with all of these issues, especially the second one.  I urge people to remember that the purpose of the United States Department of Agriculture is to promote agriculture.  It is NOT to promote good health.  Most folks I talk to tend to believe that the USDA has their best interests in mind.  The truth is that it does not.  The USDA is not the department of health, nor is it an organization concerned with good nutrition.  It is an arm of the government concerned with the promotion and success of US farmers, cattle ranchers and other food producers.  As such, its dietary guidelines are written in a way which makes them seem healthy but in fact they’re written to promote US farming products.

The authors have gone a step further and identified what they say are the worst issues with the USDA guidelines:

1. All fats are bad - This is wrong, there are many good fats.
2. All carbohydrates are good - Again, wrong.  There are good carbs and bad carbs.
3. All protein sources are created equal - No true at all.  Organic chicken for example is far better than factory produced pork.
4. Dairy products are essential - Not true.  Man kind did not evolve to consume a huge amount of calories from the milk of cows.
5. Eat your potatoes - This is a horrible idea for most people and yet a large majority of Americans consume many of their calories from potatoes.
6. No guidance on weight, exercise, alcohol or vitamins - The USDA pyramid and most of the USDA’s information has no advice on these important items.

That said, the authors have decided to come up with a better food pyramid and a better set of dietary guidelines overall.  They themselves admit that nutrition research has been a confusing issue over the past few decades.  Nutrition research comes and goes and what was bad yesterday may be good tomorrow.  This is all true, although they make a strong case for most of the flip flops being based on bad science and rumor rather than good science and research.  At the same time, they have collected an amazing amount of data from a variety of sources.  So while this information may change as we learn more about food and the human body, it does represents some of the best science we have today.

The Core

Out of all the data and research which the authors collected, they have come up with a few basic rules for a good eating plan.

• Watch your weight - Yep, it seems almost too basic to be mentioned but it’s worth noting that even the best diet will be bad for you if you eat too much.
• Eat fewer bad fats and more good fats - The book reviews a variety of good fat sources such as fish, nuts and more.  Meats are treated fairly and the book also provides vegetarian options.
• Eat fewer refined grain carbs and more whole grain carbs - I know many of you think carbs in general are evil, but it’s hard to argue with this rule.  If you eat less white bread and more whole grain bread you’re definitely taking a step forward.  Sure, you can take a bigger step by lowering grain consumption overall but one small step at a time.  The authors provide a variety of tips on grains and how to eat them.
• Choose healthier sources of protein - Yes, this goes out to all of you who think your bacon wrapped steaks are a good idea :)  It’s not!  Protein is good.  Healthy protein sources are better.  A reasonable consumption level of healthy protein sources is best.  I liked the authors rankings of protein sources and they also provide a good set of ideas for vegetarians who may struggle to get enough protein in their diets.
• Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits but hold the potatoes - I don’t really need to go into detail on this one, do I?  The authors do and they give a good amount of information about other root vegetables which we may want to avoid like potatoes.
• Use alcohol in moderation - Yep, one small drink a day is good for you.  Note the emphasis on small.  This is not an excuse to drink a six pack a day.  A small drink is a glass of wine or a single beer.
• Take a multi vitamin for insurance - Even assuming you follow their guidelines, the authors believe you should still take a multivitamin every day, just as insurance.  I have to agree.  Considering the cost is around 10 cents a day and there are no negative side effects, I can’t see how this is anything but a good thing.

The rest of the book goes into detail on these rules and gives a whole lot of information on how to implement them.  It also has sample recipes and menus, all of which sounded really tasty.

So Is It Worth Buying?

Depends.  Are you interested in the details or is the quick summary above enough for you?  For most people, I think this book is a bit too much.  You can read the rules above and get 80% of the books value.  Sure, the rest is interesting but it’s very detailed and might bore a lot of people.  For me, it was fascinating, but that’s because I appreciate reading all the little details.

If you’re a beginner looking for ways to improve your diet, this is not the book for you.  You’re better off with something like Mark Sisson’s The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram Your Genes for Effortless Weight Loss, Vibrant Health, and Boundless Energy or YOU: The Owner’s Manual, Updated and Expanded Edition: An Insider’s Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger.  Those are excellent books for beginners looking to learn more about their bodies.  However, if you’re into the fine print of how your body works and want to learn a lot more about proper nutrition, then Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating is an excellent source of information.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Review - The Primal Blueprint

Long time readers of 60 in 3 know that I greatly enjoy Mark Sisson’s articles over at Mark’s Daily Apple.  I may not always agree with him, but his posts are thought provoking, educational and informative.  So I was quite happy to hear that Mark was taking his primal blueprint for health and putting it into a book form titled appropriately enough, The Primal Blueprint.

Style

As usual, Mark’s writing is great.  The chapters are well laid out and include multiple examples which are easy to understand.  While there are some high end biology, genetics and nutrition discussions, all of them are well explained.  In other words, this isn’t just a book for fitness enthusiasts, it’s also accessible for people who are just now getting into a healthier mindset.  That said, even the best written book is useless if the content is bad, so let’s examine what the primal blueprint is all about.

Overall

Mark believes, as do I, that people need to get back to their roots.  Health wise, he sees our primitive ancestors as leading extremely healthy lifestyles from a variety of aspects.  His model, a caveman named Grok, does everything right and treats his body well.  By comparison, Mark uses chapter two of the book to show us a modern family by the name of Korg, Grok backwards, and how the modern lifestyle is extremely unhealthy.  So far so good, I like this philosophy, but is there something actionable in the book?  The answer is absolutely.

The primal blueprint is a set of rules for how to live a healthier lifestyle by emulating our ancestors.  This blueprint is laid out in chapter one and each rule is further detailed in subsequent chapters.  I’m going to list the rules out here and give a brief opinion on each.  For more information on them, visit Mark’s site or buy the book.

The Primal Blueprint Rules

1. Eat Lots of Plants, Animals and Insects - I like this rule, yes, even the insects part.  Too many of us limit our diets to just a few specific ingredients.  In the US, a majority of food seems to be beef, chicken, potatoes, wheat and corn.  That’s a bad thing and health conscious individuals will attempt to change this.
2. Avoid Poisonous Things - Well, that’s a no brainer, right?  Seems smart to avoid drinking that drain cleaner.  Except Mark isn’t just talking about obvious poisons.  He’s referring to all the modern crap that people put into their systems.  That means excess carbs, preservatives, processed sugars, caffeine and a variety of others.  I’m not sure I agree with Mark’s policies on whole wheat foods, but otherwise I think he’s spot on.
3. Move Frequently At A Slow Pace - Mark’s recommended physical activity is slow and moderate paced movement.  Things like walking, biking and hiking.  Can’t argue with him on this one, except that Mark argues against prolonged cardio like jogging and makes some very convincing arguments against it.
4. Lift Heavy Things - Makes sense.  Challenge your muscles and build a better body.  This one I agree with and I like Mark’s emphasis on natural, compound exercises like squats and lunges.  The primal blueprint recommends explosive, all out efforts rather than slow and gradual by the way, something I’m not sure I agree with.  However, that’s a minor quibble.
5. Run Really Fast Once In A While - Rather than prolonged cardio, Mark believes in the occasional all out effort.  Sprints are a great example of this.
6. Get Adequate Sleep - No argument here.  This is one of the basic rules of healthy living.
7. Play - Again, no argument.  If you can combine physical activity with fun, you’re doing great.
8. Get Plenty of Sunlight - Just not too much!
9. Avoid Stupid Mistakes - Which basically translates to “don’t walk into traffic”.  Not sure how Mark reconciles this with his snowboarding but hey, it’s definitely a good rule to follow.
10. Use Your Brain - Great last rule to finish with.  Fitness isn’t just about the body.  We need to pay attention to the most important muscle of all, their brains.  Use it or lose it folks!

Is the Primal Blueprint Worth Reading?

Absolutely.  Even if you disagree with some of what Mark says you’re still going to find a lot of worthwhile information here.  Plus the Korg chapter alone is worth the price of the book because it shows us just how unhealthy our modern lives have become.  However, there’s a more important question here.

Is the Primal Blueprint Worth Following?

That is, is this a healthy way to live?  For the most part, I think so.  I agree with Mark on 80% of what he says.  Still, there’s a lot that seems off to me.  Whole wheat is bad?  Jogging is bad?  Cavemen are healthier than modern men?  Mm…  Still, I’m an open minded person and I feel odd rejecting this idea out of hand.  After all, there’s a lot here that makes sense.  So

The 60 in 3 Primal Blueprint Challenge

For the next couple of months, June and July, I’ve decided to adopt the Primal Blueprint in its entirety and see what kind of a difference it makes in my life.  That means the following:

• No more jogging.  Trading this in for occasional sprints and more hiking and walking.
• Eliminate those poisons.  No more breads, pastas, rice, caffeine, sugar and the rest.  Yes, even whole wheat.
• Add a bit more protein to my diet.  Yes, that means eating more meat.  I’ve already found a local farmers market vendor who has great organic beef, chicken and venison plus another vendor who sells fresh fish.
• Focus on vegetables, fruits and nuts for my other nutritional requirements.
• Change my weight lifting routine to be a bit faster in line with Mark’s recommendations.

I’ll blog about my progress here in a series called The Primal Blueprint.  At the end of July, we’ll see how I feel.  That’s when I can tell you if the Primal Blueprint makes for a good lifestyle and not just a great book.

###

Mark’s site can be found here: Mark’s Daily Apple

Mark’s book can be found here: The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram Your Genes for Effortless Weight Loss, Vibrant Health, and Boundless Energy

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Am I Getting Enough Protein?

Since I eat a primarily vegetarian diet but I still work out a lot, I often get people who ask me if my training suffers due to a lack of protein.  They ask me if I use a protein supplement and if so, which one would I recommend.  Now I know that my diet includes enough protein, but I wanted to show all of you something interesting.

How many of you know how many grams of protein are in a single serving of chicken or a glass of milk?  How about an egg?  How many of you know how many grams of protein the human body needs?  My guess would be very few, which is not an accusation by the way, I didn’t know myself until I started 60 in 3.  Which is why I think a lot of these protein supplements companies are making money when they really shouldn’t.

The Advertising

We’ve all heard the advertising.  It’s unavoidable on TV or at the gym.  Buy the supplement and like magic, your muscles will tone up.  You’ll be ripped and toned within a week, all thanks to this wonderful protein shake or powder or bar or whatever.  Yah, right, if only it was that easy.

First, How Much Do We Need?

The human body needs about .8 to 1.8 grams of protein per kg of body weight.  I would like to emphasize that this is per KILOGRAM, not per pound.  For those of you more comfortable with the English system, a kg is 2.2lbs.  So your protein requirements could also be expressed as .37g to .82g of protein per lb of body weight.

That’s a range because some of us need more and some need less.  The more you use your muscles, the more you need because protein is used to repair all the damage you do to your muscles when you move.  So if you’re a serious body builder, you need .82 grams of protein per lb of body weight.  If you’re a serious couch potato, you need .37 grams of protein per lb of body weight.  If you’re somewhere in between, you’re going to need to judge for yourself.  As for me, I work out 5 days a week and I’m active on the weekends, so I’m going to assume .7 grams of protein per lb of body weight.  All of these numbers are per day by the way, so since I weigh 220lbs, I need 154 grams (220lbs * .7 gram per lb) per day.

Second, Are We Getting Enough?

That glass of milk I drank this morning?  8.4 grams of protein.  The 2 egg omelette I had with it?  14 grams of protein.  So it’s 8am and I’ve just had 22.4 grams of protein.  4 ounces of cottage cheese with my salad for lunch?  14 grams of protein.  2 slices of cheese for an afternoon snack?  another 14 grams.  A cup of tofu with some stir fried veggies for dinner?  20 grams of protein.  By the way, these are small servings.  At the end of the day, I’m at about 100 to 120 grams of protein.  Which leaves me around 30 to 50 grams short of my daily goal.  So yes, I drink a protein supplement with a bit more milk.

However, what about you?  Are you vegetarian?  If not, you may be surprised at the amount of protein you’re getting.  One burger patty?  22 grams of protein.  1 cup of chicken breast pieces scattered over a salad?  43 grams of protein.  That’s FORTY THREE!  Think about that for a second.  If I take my vegetarian diet with its small portions of dairy, tofu and eggs and add just a little bit of chicken on my lunch salad, I’d be getting my 153 grams of protein.  For you serious meat eaters, a 9 ounce sirloin steak has EIGHTY ONE grams of protein.

What am I trying to say?  Well, unless you’re a serious vegetarian or vegan, you do NOT need a protein supplement.  Yes, that’s true even if you work out a lot.  You’re getting more than enough protein if you just eat a healthy, balanced diet with a small amount of lean meat.

One Last Thing

For all of you who see these commercials, I want you to remember one more thing.  protein doesn’t build muscles.  Protein is the raw material that your body uses to build muscles IF you give it the incentive to.  If you eat a lot protein without working out, all you’ll get is fat. There is no magic in that protein supplement that will get you toned and ripped without exercise.  Protein will only help if you’re willing to do the work.

###

Save your money and your calories.  Avoid the protein supplements and focus on working out and exercise.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Which One Is Better, Low Carb or Vegetarian Diet?

ahh yes, the messiahs of the nutrition world.  You’ve heard them, right?  They’ll preach to you all day and night about their diet of choice.  Sometimes it’s something obviously nutty, like eating nothing but cabbage soup.  Sometimes though, they seem to make sense.  They’ll tell you to eat low carb like our primitive ancestors did or eat vegetarian to minimize your impact on the earth.  Problem is, they seem to make sense.  So of these two very popular lifestyle diets, which one is right?  Should you be a meat eater like your stone age ancestors or a plant eater like your modern, environmentally aware friends?

The answer is, a little of both.

Trick Question

First of all, this is a bit of a trick question.  Both diets can be healthy or unhealthy and both can be environmentally conscious.  Sure, you can eat nothing but bacon wrapped steaks and claim to be low carb but that’s neither healthy nor good for the environment, especially if you’re eating factory produced beef.  At the same time, you can munch on nothing but oreo’s and mountain dew and claim to be a vegetarian, but that diet is  neither good for you nor the planet.  So before we judge these diets, we have to define what a healthy version of each looks like.

Healthy Eating

Healthy Low Carb (Paleo) Diet

• Lean protein sources like fish and chicken
• A good amount of leafy vegetables like spinach
• Some other fruits and vegetables with a high nutrient load like tomatoes, oranges, apples and so on
• Healthy fats from things like nuts and avocados
• Some other protein sources like dairy and eggs in moderate amounts
• No processed foods
• Minimal amount of grains
• An emphasis on organic

And now, the healthy vegetarian diet

• A good amount of leafy vegetables like spinach
• Some other fruits and vegetables with a high nutrient load like tomatoes, oranges, apples and so on
• Healthy fats from things like nuts and avocados
• Some other protein sources like dairy, tofu and eggs in moderate amounts
• No processed foods
• Minimal amount of grains
• An emphasis on organic

Look at that, not that different.  Really, the only difference is that the paleo diet adds in meat as an additional source of protein where as the vegetarian diet will get a bit less protein and most of that will come from dairy, eggs and things like tofu.  Otherwise, both diets focus on healthy, organic sources of food with a lot of leafy greens, fruits, vegetables and nuts.  Amazing!

The basic takeaway here is that the base of any healthy diet is essentially the same:

• A good amount of leafy vegetables like spinach
• Some other fruits and vegetables with a high nutrient load like tomatoes, oranges, apples and so on
• Healthy fats from things like nuts and avocados
• No processed foods
• Minimal amount of grains
• An emphasis on organic

Once you have these things, you can modify to suit your needs.  You definitely need a source of protein here and you can get that from fish, chicken, tofu, dairy, eggs or other sources.  By the way, there are certainly other healthy meats like venison, turkey, grass fed beef and so on.  Just be careful of how much meat you eat since some meats are a bit high in fat.

So stop worrying about paleo vs. vegan.  Just focus on the basics.  If you get those right, you’re already ahead of the game.

###

By the way, my diet is mostly vegetarian but I do occasionally eat meat.  So am I a vegetarian or a paleo?  Who cares!?!  I’m healthy! 

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Recipe - Sausage Salad

Today’s post is one of my favorite quick meals to prepare.  It’s fast, tasty and very nutritious.

Needed Ingredients

• 1 tomato
• 1 cucumber
• 1/4 onion
• 1 cup of fresh spinach leaves
• 1 cup of mushrooms
• 1/4 avocado
• 1 red pepper
• 2 sausages
• a bit of olive oil

Note, the ingredients matter.  If you want good flavor, you’re going to invest in fresh, organic produce and non crappy sausages.  I usually buy venison or rabbit sausages at the farmers market but you can find decent stuff at the supermarket too.  Just don’t go with some crappy factory produced sausage filled with god knows what.  Even with the extra cost of good ingredients, this is still cheaper than eating dinner in a restaurant by the way.

Preparation

Chop up all the vegetables except the onions and mushroom into very little pieces.  By little I mean no bigger than 1/4 or 1/3 of an inch (or 1cm for you metric folks).  Pour them into a bowl.  Now chop up the onions and mushrooms into similarly small pieces and pour into another bowl.  When you’re done crying from chopping the onion (which usually takes me about 10 minutes), chop up the sausage into small piece and toss into a frying pan with a bit of olive oil.  Start cooking it and, about 4 to 5 minutes it’s done, toss in the chopped onion and mushrooms.  Continue cooking for a few minutes, making sure to stir everything well.  When the sausage is cooked, pour everything out into your other vegetable bowl, mix well and serve.

Notes

• You do NOT need dressing for this.  Believe me, the sausage, onions and other vegetables have enough flavor without you drowning them in ranch sauce.
• You do NOT need a side of french fries, mashed potatoes, rice or any other silly calorie laden dish with this meal.  It’s perfect just on its own.
• Glass of wine is fine, I’m told by my local butcher than reds go well with this meat, but really, there’s nothing better to drink than water!
• You may want to adjust the quantity of meat to vegetables to suit your own tastes.  This ratio works well for me since it’s one of the few meat dishes that I eat.  However, 10 sausages to 1 tomato is probably not a good ratio.

###

Anyone have their own favorite quick and healthy recipes?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!