Stay Primal in July!
 

Good morning and happy Canada Day!

If you're wondering just what Primal means, here's a link to help you.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101/
Welcome to all!

Morning regulars! Well, how did June go? Got any thoughts and plans for July?

Ok here we go. I did a ridiculous amount of measuring this morning ;)

I lost 1/2 pound and 3/4 in in my hips. And I have massive calves for the size of me.

In an effort to find something else to track (since I'm pretty sure my composition is changing far more than my weight ever will now) I tried body fat percentage. Using my scale and three different online calculators, I'm somewhere between 21 and 24 % ... not bad for an old girl!

As for July ... I still haven't worked any lifting in with any consistency. I sound like a broken record ;)

Happy July! Today my hubby and I celebrate our 10 yr wedding anniversary! It's a good day!

I have a busy day so I'll be back later with some thoughts on June and changes for July.

Have a great day everyone!

koceank29- Happy Anniversary! Any special plans tonite?

Bob- is it the beginning of the month that you let everyone know how you did? Its sounds like you did a great job in June & am curious to how you did.

Susan- Better becareful we dont want you to wither down to nothing. I could not imagine being a size 2. I would be very happy if I was able to get that small. I was happy at size 5 as a teen & in my 20s.

I want to say THANK YOU to all of you here. I think this thread is just what I needed. I hopped on the scale this morning & it read 142. I have not measured myself which I know I should. I was staying right at 144 before Susan found me, I finaly got a loss. I do expect it to go back & forth between 143 & 142. I still have quite a bit of reading to do on the Primal Blueprint but I have been thinking I am having an easier time then what I was trying before.

Does anyone run here? My DS is a runner & would like me to start running with him. I cant run & have to work myself up to it. I am just wondering how I would handle the carbs if I try to run with him. Or can I run & stick to what I am doing?

I'm in a little hurry but the news is good and bad. The bad news is this nonsense is giving me insomnia. I am now 33 hours into a fast save a little coconut milk in my coffee. In those 33 hours I have walked 5-6 miles three times. So, I think once the body adjusts to infrequent meals that are large enough to include optimum nutrition, energy concerns and fasting are not an issue. Melatonin or Acetyl L Carnitine may be acting like a stimulant though. I just added them for the insomnia and other issues and I am charged up.

I walked to the docs to squeeze every pound out of this weigh in and....












:carrot:26 more pounds!:carrot:

Awesome!

:woohoo: BOBBERS !!!!! Way to go SO proud of you :bravo:

(btw we have a cat named Bob and his nickname is Bobbers)

Tyma -- I run 3x/week and this was a big fear of mine, almost a phobia that I would pass out even when I was eating carbs I was afraid I would faint for lack of them.... BUT I didn't and I won't, I only do 5-8kms, I've never had a problem. I think if you're an elite athlete, yes, you would need special needs for carbs, but not us regular recreational runners...

My stats lost 1 lb ... better than a gain I guess :shrug:

Weight: 154.8
Chest: 35.25 (+.75) :shrug:
Waist: 29.3 (-.25)
Hips: 39.5 (same)
Thigh: 22.75 (-.25)

Weird numbers ... but I feel good...

JUNE
Weight: 280
Chest: 54
Waist: 48
Hips: 56
Thigh: 32

JULY
Weight 278
Chest 55 (+1??)
Waist 46 (-2") :carrot:
Hips 55.5
Thigh 32.5

Only 2 pounds lost, but I am thrilled that it's two inches from my waist.

BibBob WOW!! :carrot::carrot:

I am not up for 40 hour fasts yet, but I might consider it looking at your losses!

Wow Bob! I'm so happy for you.....and the rest of you as well. I just had a hotdog (with bun) and french fries with cheese because i was out with a bunch of moms and their kids that I don't know well and I caved. I now feel like crap physically and mentally. Oh well.

Anyway, just wanted to congratulate you all on your progress!!!!

I think we should be happy that were not losing our boobs :devil: I've done that on a very low fat diet too!

Of all the crappy things out there ... I don't mind some fries once in a while. Maybe not primal but they're not grain, sugar or chemicals.

Good job Bob!!!

wildviolets- Its Ok it happens to all of at one point or another. You still have the rest of the day to make better choices & there is always tomorow.

I have a journal over at MDA. This is my post today if any of the information is inspiring. hehe I think that little compliment went to my head.

So as the winter deepens and food becomes more scarce, I'm going to fast every other day in July.

Here's a great link from Dr. Eades discussing my fasting program.

I also cannot help but think calorie restriction, despite it's bad name, may be the correct way forward for me permenantly. If I IF it just isn't that hard to keep my calories very low. The first half of Dr. Eades post and current and past experience have me thinking I just may be a candidate. I do intend to IF as a habitual lifestyle.

Here's a gal who did the exact every other day eating program. Her story is inspiring to me.

And one of the most cited studies.

I know I may be pushing it, but I'm not carrying this weight an y longer than I absolutely have to. My plan when I started was 100 pounds in 4 months. I'm 3 pounds ahead of schedule but the going will get rougher. We'll see how July goes with 15 all day fasts. My goal should have me around 290 at the end of the month. That is my old wall. I have plateaued there twice and gave up. If all goes well, August will be even more challenging, and I will likely break juice fasting out of the weight loss tool shed. Primal juice fasting. There will be no plateau.

I'll post before and afters when this winter idea is over.

Such great information Bob... I was jus thinking about before and after pics of you, can't wait to see them...

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 :woohoo: ............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 :bravo:

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.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4067/...56dcb885_m.jpg

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!? :D

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!

:wave:

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.....

wildviolets...eat when you want! Don't force breakfast on yourself, I also had that pounded in my head for so long and I pounded that into my mothers head and husband and son. I think the whole idea is that you eat when your body tells you to.

So I had a BAS for lunch about 12 and it was delicious! We went to the park for some exercise and fun and I just finished up my dinner, Aztec stuffed peppers breakfast style. I have a pork butt in the crock pot for breakfast tomorrow and then I'm pulling a 36 hr fast! I can't wait honestly. I feel so good when I'm fasting, so many years of feeling stuffed, the empty feeling in my stomach feels rejuvinating some how.

Have a great 4th to those that are celebrating tomorrow or tonight!

Well, I am off to a terrible start in July. On the first I came off a fast and celebrated the weight loss with a two feasts. On the 2nd I had forgotten a promised cookout, went ahead with it, and ate another huge feast. Today, I pick up my bro, who is starving when I get there, so we went to Red Lobster and I had scampi and crab legs, calimari and deep fried broccoli. Boooo.

I'm going for a walk.

Bob...eh, you'll bounce back with a fast I'm sure and the walk will help. I've never had deep fried broccoli, they deep fry everything now I guess.

I am finishing up my day of feasting yesterday and had slow-cooked pork butt and eggs for breakfast with 2 cups of coffee. I ate so much yesterday in comparison to my usual days, I ate tons of veggies some meat and splurged on whipped cream and greek yogurt mixed together, that should be illegal. As soon as I finish this cup of coffee I will be starting a 36 hr fast, I'm going to try to get some exercise in this afternoon during the 11m olds nap time and then we'll go to the park for a 2 mile walk, 2 miles is about all she can handle in the stroller before the screaming begins!

Oh, my husband finally is going Primal with me, he has been about 50/50 with it the past 3 months and finally I coaxed him to do it and he can't believe how good he feels. I'm happy for him, I'm waiting for the extra energy to kick in for him because I know then he'll realize how lazy the grains were making him and the sugar was just dragging him down.
Have a great day everyone!

Kara,
I'm so excited for you that your DH is joining you. My husband thinks I'm nuts but never says anything. I think he's just happy I feel better. I had been sick on and off for a year or two and that was upsetting to him.

I keep thinking if I would lose a significiant amount of weight (20 lbs?), that would get his attention.

And Bob, sometimes life interferes with our best intentions but we have to just keep on, keepin' on.

Hi everyone. I will take my measurements later, but just realized I have not lost one pound in June. I'm trying to think about it as "practice maintenance" but that is not really making me happy right now, arhghghgh.

Part of the reason is I'm away from home and cannot do much of my own food preparation. But that is no excuse.

So back to basics for July:
1. Log all food in my CalorieKing software.
2. Stay around 50 grams of carbs per day
3. Stay around 1550 calories per day
4. Go to classes at the local Y while I am away from home at least 4x per week
5. Take a walk every day, even if it's a short one

Happy 4th everyone. This will not be a good weekend for me. I already gained a lb. Hopefully it is only water, woke up with cramps this morning. Almost a week early :-( (sorry Bob TMI)

I wish my family would be will to join me in my quest. I think it would be much easier. I was almost really bad yesterday. I had such a craving for Beechers ice cream but by the time the craving got so bad we only had 19 minutes to get to Beechers for they closed. I had 1 smore instead - it was not the same.

Wildviolets: Thats what my husband would say too until recently, it does help when you're supported. I'm happy you're feeling better, it makes a huge difference in your quality of life probably. I got sick in 2007 and I'm convinced it was diet related, no one could ever pin point it though. My husband commented this morning he felt like his sinus problems have been going away this week, I let out a big I TOLD YOU SO!

CJ- it definitely is harder when your not in your comfort zone, but it looks like you've got a good plan! Where were visiting again? New England somewhere? How is it?

Tyma- It definitely is easier when family is supportive. Good thing Beechers was closed then, huh! Have you tried making the choc. truffle things, they are good for cravings so you don't eat sugar or grains and you can put different things in them before they turn solid. Heres a link:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum...olate+truffles

Hi all - I went out of town for a couple of days, so I'm catching up on reading.

First - Bob - WOOT!! Your progress is amazing... PLEASE don't beat yourself up over the little slips. Those are all part of the 80/20 and if you don't have a few little slip ups now and then you risk major binges (at least in my experience) - the seafood meal sounds like it was very primal except for the fried brocoli.

Tyma - I would chalk that ice cream craving up to PMS and put that s'more in the 20% too... just get back on track today. Everyone else - way to go -- it sounds like everyone has found some kind of groove. Let's keep it up!

My embarrassing confession: I did something I regret on Thursday night -- not sure exactly how it happened because it hit me unbelievably fast, but I had a heck of a lot too much vodka and ended up with a day and half hangover!! Oh, I felt so so horrible - this has only happened to me once in maybe 20 years, and I guarantee it will NOT happen again - ever. Anyway, Fri and yesterday I had no strength to exercise (not even walk) but at least there wasn't a lot of food involved.

We celebrated our anniversary last night with a meal out - I had ribeye and my husband had coconut crusted shrimp. We were going to split but the shrimp seemed heavily breaded with no coconut to be seen, so I mostly ate the steak (which was great). I did go non-primal by eating half an ear of corn and half order of the slaw that came with it.

Today is a new day -- making guacamole deviled eggs for cookout tonight, NO ALCOHOL will be involved, and I'll probably make due with a burger with no bun and hopefully a few veggies.

My weight has stayed the same this week, but for the month of June I lost about 6-8 lbs and feel great.

For July, I'm going to focus on upping the exercise, eating clean primal foods, and maybe throwing in an IF or two.

Here's to a Happy and Primal 4th and a healthy July for all of us!

I think I've mastered sausage gravy! Butter, sauteed sausage meat, milk, a smidge of chicken boullion cube and I thickened it with potato flour. It only took about a tsp. We ate it over scrambled eggs. It was great!

DH would like if I could dream up a biscuit for him;)

He's in this with me now too. It is much nicer. He had to make an announcement in church today and had to wear a t-shirt instead of his suit jacket etc. His belly is disappearing and his dress pants looked so baggy!

Hey Kara,
I made those Chocolate-Coconut things and they are perfect for a sweet bite.....not so good that I want to eat them all but good enough to be satisfying to just eat one.
Thanks!