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.

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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

The Problems With Body Image

Over the next few weeks on 60 in 3, I’m going to write a series of articles about body image, what it means, how important it is, the kind of problems it can lead to if badly handled and my own struggles with it.  I wanted to start out this series with the following video:

It’s from the Dove evolution campaign and it’s a bit old (2006) but I think it makes an amazing point.  What we see today as the “ideal” body image is nothing but a manufactured illusion.  Take a look at this video and see the transformation this woman undergoes.

Some of this transformation was done through makeup, some through technology.  Either way, she is made into something that is impossible for her to achieve on her own.  This is a model, someone picked for beauty, and yet even she must be artificially transformed into something she could never be.  This is what we’re sold every day.  This is what our children see every evening.  This is what we’re told we should look like.  Women get more of this than men, but men get enough of it too.  One look at some recent action movies (300 anyone?) and we can easily see that men too are bombarded with artificially enhanced images of the “ideal” male physique that they must aspire to but can never achieve.

I’ve always said that looking good is a perfectly fine goal to use as motivation for being healthy.  However, like many things, this can be taken to an extreme which is both unhealthy and unrealistic.  That’s what I’d like to talk to you about in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, check out that video.

The Basic Equation of Life

I often get questions along the lines of “will this make me thin?” or “what do you think of this diet?” which make me believe that most folks don’t understand the basic mechanisms of our body.  So I decided to devote today’s post to a review of the underlying equation of life and weight.  Here it is folks, the theory of relativity for weight loss.

Calories In - Calories Out = Change In Weight.

If calories in are higher than calories out, you get a positive change in weight (you gain weight).  If calories in are lower than calories out, you get a negative change in weight (you lose weight).  That’s it, the basic equation.

A Bit More Detail

To understand how various things work, I’m going to expand the equation a bit into the following:

(Calories In * Digestive Efficiency) - (Metabolic Calories Out + Activity Calories Out) = Change in weight.

What does all this mean?

Calories In - This is an easy one.  Calories in are what you consume.  Eat a 300 calories candy bar and you’ve consumed 300 calories in.

Digestive Efficiency - Not exactly a scientific term but a good one nonetheless.  This basically represents how many calories your body actually derives from those calories in.  For example, some people are unable to digest certain foods.  So they may consume 100 calories worth of that food but their bodies don’t really get the full 100 calories worth.  For anyone thinking this is a good thing, spend some time with people who are lactose intolerant, they’ll set you straight.

Metabolic Calories Out - Your body uses a certain amount of calories per day just to stay alive.  Basic living activities such as breathing, pumping blood and maintaining temperature all require calories.  This is what goes under Metabolic Calories Out.

Activity Calorie Out - These are the calories you use on activities other than basic bodily functions.  For example, walking, running, lifting weights, dancing, hiking, having sex.  All of these activities require energy and that energy expenditure falls under activity calorie out.

So What?

So, now that we have our equation and our terms, what does this all mean?  Well, the basic lesson here is that anytime someone tells you about something that could help you lose weight, you want to make sure you understand how it’s going to affect your body.  That’s why it’s important to know this equation.

For Example:

Exercise - Well, that’s an easy one.  We exercise which means we increase Activity Calories Out.

Eat More Vegetables - This one is a little less obvious.  Vegetables are relatively low in calories.  So if we eat the same volume of food but make more of that volume vegetables, we’ll eat less calories overall.  That means less Calories In.  Note that “eat more vegetables” isn’t really the secret.  It’s “Eat Vegetables Instead Of Other Food With More Calories”.  If you ate everything you did today and then just added vegetables, you’d actually gain weight since you increased Calories In.  That’s the power of this little formula.  Once you understand, you can make sense of a lot of these diet and health tips.

Eat More Frequent Meals - Why?  Well, the theory is that our bodies spend calories more freely when they get food frequently.  Our bodies will behave like people who get 10 dollars every day instead of 300 dollars at the end of the month and they’ll be more willing to spend that 10 dollars right now.  Note that this only affects metabolic calories out.  That is, by eating more frequent but smaller meals, our Metabolic Calories Out increase.

Calorie Restrictive Diets - These are the diets that tell you to cut down your calories in drastically.  Sounds simple enough, lower calories in and you lose weight, right?  Maybe, but what other parts of the equation could these diets affect?  Well, as our bodies receive less calories, they also try to spend less calories.  Bodies do this by lowering the amount of calories spent on basic life sustaining activities.  For example, stay on a calorie restricted diet long enough and your body will shut off things like reproductive systems.  It will also start cannibalizing calorie rich tissue like muscles.  In other words, your body will compensate for the drastic decrease in Calories In by reducing Metabolic Calories Out.

Bad Ideas

As a general rule, there are a few bad things you can do:

Changes in digestive efficiency - This includes taking laxatives, forcing yourself to throw up and so on.  Most of these fall into the realm of eating disorders and if you’re doing them, please seek help.  As someone who’s struggled with healthy eating for many years, I can understand your pain, but this isn’t the way to solve the problem.

Artificial changes in your metabolic calories out - This includes things like smoking, most diet pills and other stimulants.  Sure, they cause you to burn more calories but at what cost?  Most of these things put a tremendous burden on your body and can cause many other health issues.

Drastic changes in calories in - Things like 500 calorie a day diets or week long fasts.  These aren’t healthy for you and, in the long run, they are not conducive to weight loss.  You’re just going to ruin your body by doing these.

Luckily, there are some good things you can focus on:

Increase in activity calories out - This is easy.  Move more.  Go out.  Walk, exercise, dance, swim.  Whatever it is, just keep moving.

Natural increases in metabolic calories out - This includes things like eating more frequent meals, lowering the thermostat at home (forcing your body to spend a few more calories on the proper temperature), building muscles (muscle tissue uses up a lot of calories) and so on.  There are a variety of ways in which you can tell your body “speed it up!” that are natural and good for you.

Gradual and healthy changes in calories in - For example, removing sodas and coffee from the menu.  Your body won’t notice the removal of most liquid calories so you can do this without sending your body into panic mode.  Also, doing things like replacing high calorie foods with low calorie foods like vegetables is good.  Your body will get the same volume of food but less calories overall.  That means your body still believes it’s getting a good amount of food and so it won’t start enacting emergency measures.

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Just remember that basic equation and try to figure out how various behaviors fit within it.  It will make you a smarter and more educated consumer of health activities.

Also, this was a VERY short and unscientific primer about the human metabolism.  People should educate themselves about their bodies in more detail than this.  It’s just as important as learning about your mortgage rate or how your car works.  In fact, it’s probably a lot more important than either one of those.  If you’re interested, I highly recommend YOU: The Owner’s Manual, Updated and Expanded Edition: An Insider’s Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger

Guest Post: Walling The Scale, by Roy Cohen of Emerge Fit

Today’s post is a guest article from Roy Cohen.  You can read more about Roy over at his site, Emerge Fitness.

Walling The Scales - (an unscientific study)

I speak often of how much I hate the scale for it’s cunning ability to deceive, discourage, and demoralize those who don’t use it correctly. The scale is the true serpent of fitness temptation.

The scale, like weaponry can be a great and powerful tool when used correctly. Also like weaponry, it can penetrate the fitness psyche with such force and abrasive consequences that a would be fitness success story never realizes her or his potential for the damage that is done to the inner fitness self .

I only recently purchased a scale for my studio, and at the request of a good friend and client. I have lived without a scale for the past 6 years because knowing my bodyweight or that of my clients has not been my concern. I can see my abs, I can still wear the same jeans I wore in high school, and I can run faster than my kid – why should my bodyweight matter? Still, the scale can be an effective tool when used correctly so I heeded my friend’s request and made the purchase.

Despite the presence of a scale in my studio, I have asked no student to step on it but one. It gathers dust in the corner and lives a lonely unused scale life — poor thing. I’m okay with that though. Again like weaponry, a forgotten scale is like a forgotten land mine — watch where you step.

With regard to accuracy, it’s a good scale I suppose – I paid nearly $200 for it, so it should be accurate. It’s nice too, my little scale. Aesthetically pleasing – lots of chrome, and an almost 1940s art-deco look to it, though it is digital. Chrome, and circular, the scale caught my eye quite a bit in the beginning. Still, I resisted the temptation to step upon it – I need not know.

After 6 months of passing it by and never being tempted, the metaphoric snake got the better of me, and I took a bite of the chrome apple in my studio – and several weeks ago I gave in to scale temptation; 172 lbs. I thought nothing of it because the last time I had been on a scale nearly a year earlier, I was 172 lbs. See? No need for a scale.

Well, a couple of days had passed and wouldn’t you know, I decided to step on my scale again to confirm my 172 lbs. – oops, 176lbs. Wow, whatta fat tub lard I am, huh? Four pounds in two days? It was on. Since I could think of no significant departures from my systematic eating behavior, a little more cardio would be in order until 172 lbs. was back in my command. I made no eating changes at all, simply wanted to get back to my 172 lb. home by burning extra calories.

Three days later I stepped on the little pedestal of temptation once again, and boom, 169 lbs. Wow again, a little extra cardio served me very well it seemed. Seven pounds down in three days? Very cool, this meant I could eat more to get back to my beloved 172. Carne asada burrito with extra guac, here I come!

And there I went, 175 lbs. Came and went for three or four days in this fashion; more food/less food, more cardio/less cardio, more bodyweight/less bodyweight. Then it hit me and I realized I was caught in the deadly rip-current of scale ebb and flow. To reason my way out of this, and support my commitment to a non-scale way of life for me and my students, yesterday I chose to weigh myself 5 times. Here we go:

6:00am: 171 — 10:00am: 174 — 2:00pm: 173 — 5:00pm: 176 — 9:00pm: 173

In a day, I gained and lost a total of 10 lbs.

Fluids mostly, and digesting foods. Sweat lost from hard cardio = weight lost. Forty-four ounce cup of coffee twice = weight gained. Food in/food released = pounds gained/pounds released. For these reasons, I will always suggest that should you choose to use a scale in your weight loss effort, weigh yourself no more than every 3-4 weeks. Allow enough time between weigh-ins to demonstrate real weight loss – separate and distinct from the 10 pounds which can be gained and lost in a single day.

My experience yesterday, above all other reasons is why I recognize how deceiving the scale can be. This is simply to serve as a non-scientific reminder that even an educated and disciplined fitness enthusiast can fall victim to the scale.

When it comes to the scale, it’s not what’s on the scale display which matters most, it’s who’s standing on the scale — and what they did to ensure improvement. Be well, and be well and clear of the scale.

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Gal’s Note - I completely agree with Roy.  As a little experiment, I have been weighing myself every day for the past few weeks and the information I have seen is pretty much useless.  Weigh in once a month if you must but daily weigh ins do nothing except mislead and demotivate.

Fitness Homework For This Weekend

Pick one of these five things and do it this weekend IN ADDITION to your normal fitness routine.  That is, these items are not replacements for something you already do.

30 Minute Walk

Grab your dog, your kids, your partner or your friends and go for a 30 minute walk.  You don’t have to hike in the hills, just take a left out your front door and keep walking for at least 30 minutes.

10 Minute Workout

Put on some gym clothes or just take off your work clothes and do some exercises.  You can do this in one ten minute stretch or two five minute breaks.  Maybe you could do this as you wake up on Saturday and Sunday.  Whatever the time, make sure to get as complete a workout as possible.  That means combining multiple exercises like lunges, squats, push ups, crunches and so on.

Replace One Meal With a Salad

Just one meal is all I ask.  Maybe instead of your Sunday brunch, Saturday breakfast or Friday night snacking.  Check out this Sausage Salad post if you want some ideas for really tasty salads.

Snack On Fruits and Vegetables For One Day

Pick one day, either Saturday or Sunday.  During that day eat no snacks other than fruits and vegetables.  That means no cookies, chocolates, chips, crackers or any other item that is not a fresh fruit or vegetable.  Note that I said FRESH.  That means dried fruits, fruit juices, veggie smoothies and so on do not count.  And no, this item should not be used as an excuse to eat more snacks.  Do not increase your daily intake of snacks, just replace them with fruits or, preferably, vegetables.

Try An Active Hobby

Go to the park and toss the frisbee around.  Go to the pool and swim for a bit.  Go to the local school and kick a soccer ball.  Whatever it is, try one physically active hobby and see if you like it.

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Remember, none of these items will matter if you don’t make them into a habit.  All I’m trying to get you to do is try something new and see if you like it.  If you don’t, oh well.  If you do, why not do it again next weekend and the one after that and the one after that…

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.

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Anyone have their own favorite quick and healthy recipes?