Sorry the updates this week have been late, I’ve been on vacation up in Cape Cod and decided sleeping in was of the utmost importance. Regular updates around 8AM will begin again next week. I hung out with my buddy Saint yesterday (the programmer who lost 33 lbs in 12 weeks), and he told me that although the first 33 pounds came off quickly for him, the last 15 he wants to lose have been a big pain in the ass. Ultimately, he wants to weigh around 185-190 lbs, and he’s stuck at 205.
After reading The Paleo Diet on my flight home last Friday, I called up Saint and told him that I might have found the solution he needed it comes to getting rid of those last few pounds. A few weeks back I wrote an article on Primal Living, and I think I’m ready to take the plunge. I’ve read case study after case study about all the amazing side effects of just eating lean meats, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. For example, “…by eating the foods that we are genetically adapted to eat, followers of the Paleo Diet are naturally lean, have acne-free skin, improved athletic performance, and are experiencing relief from numerous metabolic-related and autoimmune diseases.” It’s going to be extremely challenging for me, but I figured if Saint and I are trying it together, even though he’ll be in Massachusetts and I’ll be in Atlanta, we’ll be able to motivate each other and stay on track.
Now, I do have quite a few concerns, so I’m going to take next week when I get back to Atlanta to get my ducks in a row before jumping in head first into a paleolithic diet:
- I’m trying to gain weight! Cutting out all of these high calorie grains might make that difficult.
- I love cereal. I go through boxes of cereal and gallons of milk every week.
- Spaghetti! I freaking love spaghetti and eat it every damn day for lunch.
- I don’t like a lot of vegetables, and fish isn’t my thing. Looks like that’s going to have to change.
So, as you can see I have quite the uphill battle ahead of me. I envision lots and lots of chicken, lettuce, asparagus, and frozen strawberries. I’m going to have to get really creative when it comes to using my blender. I’ll have to add enough healthy stuff in there and enough frozen fruit that I can’t taste the non-delicious stuff.
Why am I doing this? Well, I figured I can’t promote a diet on this site until I’ve actually tried it myself. Beginning next Sunday (Sep. 6th), I’ll take all of my measurements (weight, body fat percentage, etc.) and then give this thing a two week trial run. I hope I don’t lose too much weight, but my guess (and hope) is that I’ll probably lose 5 lbs in this experiment, but it will just be extra body fat (from all the carbs and gallons of milk I’ve been consuming all year long), and I’ll just be left with muscle. Although I put their picture up there, hopefully I don’t end up looking like Fred or Barney.
Oh, and I plan on picking up a pair of Vibram Five-Fingers next week to get me in the Paleo-Primal spirit. I figured if Mark from the Primal Blueprint, Tim Ferriss of the 4 Hour Workweek, my friend Kappy, and Saint all swear by these things, it’s time for me to jump on the barefoot bandwagon. I’ll be getting the Black KSO’s, because they’ll make me feel like more of a Ninja, getting me one step closer to my dream of competing on Ninja Warrior. Expect a full review soon once I give them a shot.
I’m both scared and excited. Leading up to Sunday, I’ll be writing posts on what I’m doing to prepare, and then I’ll start writing posts that update how I’m feeling through the whole process.
Anybody else interested in trying out the Primal diet? Have more questions about what you can and can’t eat? Do any of you have Vibram 5-Fingers, and what do you think of them?
Leave in the comments below.
-Steve
