Going Primal

This year is rapidly coming to a close.  It has been interesting to say the least.  As far as things that have occurred that I will discuss here, I have lost over a third, or about 35% of my total body weight in a year.  As it stands now based on body fat percentage, I plan on losing about another 75 pounds or so.  As I first began it was common sense things, then a bit of trial and error in trying new things to see which resulted in weight loss, or stomach upsets (My doctor and I suspect I may have Irritable Bowel Syndrome), or weight gain.  One of the biggest factors in deciding how and what I will eat revolves around me being a Type 2 Diabetic.  I was diagnosed in 2004 and frankly paid little attention to it until this year.  One of my goals recently has been to cut out as many of my medications as possible, so I have tried to keep my sugars under control.  And the best way I have found to do that is by eating low carb, and I recently have been busy researching how to continue to do this.

Part of this research has brought me to my first challenge of 2012.  I plan on, for at least the first 30 days, following a Primal Diet.  for those of you who may not know what that means, it is basically eating what a cave man would have eaten: lean meat, eggs, veggies, and a little fruit.  A few things you might find surprising is that beans, legumes (including peanuts) and most dairy is to be avoided (some types of hard cheese seem to be ok in small amounts by some, other say no way.), along with grains and sugars.

According to Mark's Daily Apple, a Primal Blog I have being following for some time, to lose weight you need to stay between 100g and 50g of total carbs a day.  That is an amazingly small number for most people.  A one cup serving of plain oatmeal has a little over 20g of carbs in it.  So does a medium apple.  Eating both together would essentially take up all your carbs for a day on this diet.  For those of you who are curious, a large McDonald's french fry has 63g of carbs.

I have found that the fewer carbs I eat, the lower my fasting blood sugars, so I am going to give it a go via the Primal BluePrint, which is basic guidelines like move, lift, and run, as well as eating per the Primal Diet.  I plan on subbing scrambled eggs and veggies or leftovers, as I do many mornings anyway, for my mornings meal, and a green salad with protein for my daily lunch of beans and salsa.  Instead of another green salad for dinner, as I normally do now, I am going to have a protein and cooked veggies (brussel sprouts for the win!).  Snacks are going to be nuts and veggies, and possibly a high fiber fruit, like an apple, or ounce of hard cheese, about the same as now.  The only thing that I worry about is that in doing this I am trading out 300-500 calories a day by omitting my quinoa/oatmeal and beans depending on my protein choices, so I am going to have to increase my amount of veggies I eat to make up my calories, as I could easily fall under 1000 calories eating this way.  Many Primal Dieters don't count calories as they say only the carbs count in weight loss.  It is not that I don't like meat, I just don't typically crave it and many of my favorite foods lack it, so I don't see myself grabbing another pork chop or slice of steak to fill up, but rather reaching for broccoli or green beans (which I have read may be ok on the Primal Diet if you eat the green pods, not the mature beans).  In fact when I order Chinese food I often pick out and eat all the veggies before I touch the protein.

One other thing I find interesting is that the Primal Diet encourages fat.  The reasoning behind this is that by severely limiting carbohydrates, which easily broken down into sugar (glucose to be exact) which is what fuels your body, you force your body into breaking down fat into glucose, which is a little harder for your body to do.  Doing this, you are less likely to store fat, as your body will be looking for fuel to use now not fuel to store for a later date, which is what normally happens to fat you eat.  So that means not more fat free cheese, which frankly, I hadn't been using since I find it disgusting.

My exercise goals also include working in 20-30 minutes five times a week of cardio, and 20-30 minutes three times a week of core exercises, in addition to my weekly hike.

So January is going to be an interesting month.  Not only will I be starting my new job, I will be going carb free, which means no stress snacking on my carby go-tos like pizza and fried chicken and pintos and biscuits from Doug's Place. I look forward to updating you on how it goes.