I finally broke down & measured myself. I still have measurements from 2008. Its not pretty. I have gained almost 4 inches on waist & thighs & a little over 7 inches on my hips! What an eye opener.


Waist-32.5
Abdomen-34
Hips-39.5
Thigh-22
Calf-12.5
Arm-10

Good morning!

I'm anxious to see befores and afters of Bob too.

Tymaboy ... you'll be so glad to have those measurements for comparison!

Just back from the gym and a little shopping spreeeee!! I had to buy size 6 pants ............so happy with that... an NSV for sure because the scale barely moved....

Finally I have a minute! Whew, busy day yesterday, I had 2 houses to clean then hubby and I had a nice Primal anniversary meal, some shrimp, veggies and red wine.

So June was not great for my numbers...5 Lbs lost, 1" in my hips lost.
I think the lack of exercise and the abundant amount of coconut milk may have been my downfall. I am happy with the weightloss though and I fit into smaller clothes and still have more energy than I know what to do with!

July is going to be good though...I am implementing more fasting(thanks to Bobs links)and I started today. I had a large breakfast and am fasting until breakfast tomorrow or lunch. I also am going to get back to my exercise on a more frequent basis, since my DS got out of school our schedule has been off track, so I'm thinking how to fit my exercise back in this month. I'm shooting for big numbers for Aug 1st!

WAY TO GO BOB!!!!!TRUELY INSPIRATIONAL WHAT YOU'RE ACCOMPLISHING!

Kara, ...IMHO I don't think the coconut milk hindered your weightloss at all .... those are great numbers

I forgot to mention that last week I did some IFing... I ate supper at 5 or 6 then would have lunch the next day at 11-12, so 18-19 hours of fasting... it was easy peasy...

Ok,
I'm starting today and my measurements are as follows:
weight=181
chest=43
waist=38
hips=45

Boy is that depressing.....oh well hopefully in August I'll have something to show for my efforts.

I figured if I posted this, it would keep me accountable.

I need to read all that info you guys have posted. You are all so knowledgeable. I love this primal way of living because I feel so darn good on it (no stomaches or headaches and I can sleep!) and all the health info is just interesting to me. Plus the food is so satisfying it's almost too easy. Of course I haven't kept good track of my carbs and I'm starting today. That's going to be the hardest part for me. I hate to track everything I eat because I cook alot of what I eat and it's a pain.

I appreciate all the info you guys share and your food/recipe ideas. It really helps and motivates me.

Also I forgot to mention my goals.....I'd like to exercise more. I go to the gym 2 times a week and on the other days I walk/swim/bike etc.

I have so many opportunities to exericse. I have a 5yo boy who just learned to ride a bike and we live on a bike trail! Also we have a pool and I have numerous things in my house that can provide exercise (ex bike, treadmill, wii, exercise dvds, etc.) So really I have no excuse NOT to exercise more.

SO I'd like to exercise for an hour 6 days a week.
Also I'm intriqued with the IF. I'd like to start doing that at least once a month, maybe more if I can do it.

Here's a poor quality before pic.



And here's a story that really motivated me. That pic is April 28th in Staples Center, $350 seats for a Laker playoff game. Man, I hated going to games last season, so fat! I'm wearing black short in the pick. You can see a piece of my leg. What you cannot see is my knees are literally jammed into the seat in front of me. It was painful and made me squirm. When I squirmed, I bumped the back of the chair enough that the guy sitting in front of me got sick of it. Sigh, I felt awful. The seats next to me are empty because the person from one side was taking my pic, and the other was not there yet. A nice couple showed up a few minutes later and the husband had to sit on the end because he had a cast on his foot. His wife was next to me, and I could tell immediately she wasn't to pleased to pony up 3 bills for to be crowded into a seat. It was easty to see the disappointment in her eyes. I asked her about it. She said she felt claustrophobic sitting next to me. Ugh. Don't judge her though. She would have just kept her mouth shut and been miserable if I didn't start the conversation. So I switched seats with the guy who took the pic, a 150 pounder. And I crammed in next to him and my sister, who is to the right of me in that pic. I was wedged into that seat and the unforgiving steal sides hurt my hips for two and a half hours. This happens at amusement parks too. I wanted to do a ride with my daughter last year at Disneyland and the harness wouldn't latch. Crap. Stop the ride! Make a scene. Must remove fat man from seat. Sheesh, embarrassing for me and my kid. Let's not talk about airplanes. It's miserable being huge. Right before signing up here at 3FC I had company over for bbq. As dinner was served, I sat in the "head of the table chair". You know, one of the two with armrests. I had stopped sitting there because it was tight, but with company and all, I took the head seat. My *** wedged the armrests apart and that chair exploded beneath me. Sigh, so embarrassing. I have a huge head, XL hats are usually tight, but in that pick it looks undersized compared that "body" beneath it. Anyway, this is the type of stuff that made me decide to do it, do it fast, and whatever works has to be the way I eat forever. I was prepared to be a raw vegan or just not eat, if necessary. I would rather be lean, comfortable, happy, not embarrassing to myself or my daughter, not in pain every morning, able to buy clothes with no worries, enjoy Disneyland, Laker games, BBQs and so much more; than eat.

The early September post winter pics will be better quality but I despise fat porn. God why do they do that!? Strip some 350 pound embarrassed person down to his or her undies and show the world? Not cool. I hate the Biggest Loser and all the fat porn copycats. I am taking pics in an orange shirt on the first of each month. I deliberately picked a very tight shirt that is not very tight now.

Also, my brother lost his job today and will be moving in with me again. He is the ultimate junk food SAD eater. I am serious. He will eat donuts for breakfast, McDonalds for lunch, and whatever for dinner always followed by a big dessert. Boxes of cookies disappear around him daily. He is 5-11 and 185 pounds and can't gain weight. I am not looking forward to this, but his company is always welcome. That's him next to my sis.

Edit: Just got off the phone and it appears bro is going to stay in LA. Whew!

Hi! Wondering if I can join your thread! I have the Primal Blueprint book and am looking to really get serious. I've been in denial about grains hands-over-ears lalalala for a few years now. But I'm ready since nothing else has worked. Lost a few pounds just by giving up on coffee and going mostly gluten free so I am going to stick this out. Dh says I look better and smaller and I haven't even done much!

I have about 85 lbs of lean muscle mass--should I be getting around 85g of protein per day? It's hard to figure out what to eat since I am so short and don't need much.

Nice to meet all of you!

Welcome kameesennin! I think on the protein side you are aiming for .7-1g per lb of lean body mass, so 85g or a bit less is good. Sounds like you are ready, you will most likely notice tons of body recomposition as your fat starts burning. Just remember, fat is a good thing now, its hard to get used to, but butter/coconut oil/olive oil/fats from meat are okay...I still have to remind myself that fats are good and not to be scared of them.

Bob- So glad you shared that photo and story with us, really puts things in perspective of where your journey started. Good idea about the orange shirt, you will swimming in it soon enough.

Thanks Ilene...5 lbs is good, it just pales in comparison to my April loss of 24lbs. Of course that included lots of water weight, but I'd like to get at least 10 for July.

I just drank a cup of coffee so that ended my 24 hr fast, although I won't be eating food until 12-1ish. Still in fat burning mode, I have penny mouth and my sweat is ammonia smelling, can't believe thats a good thing, yay for fat burn!

In a hurry again. Going to the airport to pick up bro, and trying to leave early enough to hit a good farmers market. BUT, Kara? 24 hours? Are you nuts!?

I have more to say (and encourage) about the combo of intermittent fasting and primal eating. There's some great online sources like Eat Stop Eat that you have to pay for unnecessarily. The body building "cutters" have discovered it and their unforgiving attitude toward fat people makes the sites a little disturbing. Funny the multi meal frequency dogma came from them. The "gainers" are doing great with multi meals, but the cutters didn't have much luck after some 20 years of bogus metabolism acceleration.

A retired MD, Dr. Herring, put together the Fast 5 lifestyle in a free e-book I highly recommend. Just incorporate the foods we believe in to his schedule and the combo is life-changing for me.

There are certain people, hypoglycemic and known eating disorders, who probably shouldn't do this. I also think it is nutty to do without nutritionally dense meals, Primal Blueprint style. Primarily because Mark advocates the bulk of your diet being veggies. Many paleos lean carnivore. I think intermittent fasters need every micronutrient provided by healthy veggies that they can eat. Fat and protein are easy peasy for me.

Also, you will find what Ilene did, 16-18 hours works very potently for some that don't make the 24 hours comfortably. My 30+ hour business is just maximizing the fat burning period that starts around 10-12 hours. My long term plan is one big healthy satisfying meal a day for maintenance. I just have to survive this primal winter first!

Welcome aboard. We are always happy to see new faces!

I have a question.......So according to the Primal Blueprint or this Fast Five technique, is it a good thing or at least an ok thing to skip breakfast all the time?

I'm not hypoglycemic and I am almost never hungry for breakfast. I think I could fast at least 17 hours everyday and more if I skip lunch.

I just got into a habit of eating breakfast because it's been pounded in my head via the media that breakfast is necessary. In my heart I never thought it was true.

Just wanted to know what you all thought about that.....