Pass the Meat! Losing weight (and livin’ healthy) “Grok style”
If you are a regular visitor the site, then you know I mostly talk about my hounds…and occasionally blather on about my latest fitness or diet goals. Well, here’s another one. 
In my list of other sites I link to, you’ll see Mark’s Daily Apple – a great site that I’ve used over the last few months as a resource to gain a perspective on health, fitness and diet that differed from Conventional Wisdom (you know, high carb, low fat, lotsa fiber, lotsa water, lotsa exercise to lose weight and be healthy). I also frequent the forums on LiveStrong.com (where I track my food and exercise) and have learned quite a bit from the folks with the body compositions I’m working towards…I started to notice a trend. A lot of the things they were saying were the same things I was reading over on the MDA blog. And they fly in the face of Conventional Wisdom.
I decided, what the hell, reading a book never hurt anyone, so I ordered Primal Blueprint (the book written by Mark of Mark’s Daily Apple 
). All I can say is: Wow. This book has 
changed my life. It’s one reason I’ve not posted very much recently on my own blog…reading the book and delving deeper into the MDA blog posts and forums has been pretty time consuming. The more I read, the more sense this “Primal Lifestyle” made to me – not just about what you eat, but how you exercise and live your life.
The idea is simple – follow the 10 basic rules that “Grok” lived by (Grok is the Primal Blueprint persona of an early human from 10,000 years ago/pre-agriculture) and you will build the healthiest body possible. A healthy body leads to a healthy mind and enjoyable life. Mark says it much more eloquently in his Primal Blueprint Definitive Guide! In a nutshell, here are the 10 rules:
- Eat lots of animals, insects and plants. (insects optional for modern Groks)
- Move around a lot at a slow pace.
- Lift heavy things.
- Run really fast every once in a while.
- Get lots of sleep.
- Play.
- Get some sunlight every day.
- Avoid trauma.
- Avoid poisonous things.
- Use your mind.
Sounds simple! And the beauty of it is that they are simple. Note that I didn’t say “easy” The first thing I did was to totally remove grains and sugar from my diet. And after a week of mental fog and little grumpiness, I am emerging from that carb-dependent state eating about 50-70g of carbs per day from fruit and veggies and my energy is already more steady and consistent throughout the day. I’m not a slave to my “6 meals a day” and the increased fat in my diet means I can go longer without feeling hungry. I eat when I’m hungry. And when I do eat, it’s meat & veg, which is incredibly filling and satisfying. My body is learning to use stored fat for energy between meals, rather than creating a craving for flashes of energy from carbs…which creates a rush of insulin and lots of other bad news for the human body. We are designed to run best on primarily fat and protein…10,000 years ago and today.
I’ve gone Primal. And it feels great! (and as a side note – the inches of fat are falling off… in just two weeks, I’ve lost more inches than the previous several months of calorie restriction and processed carbs/low fat). I’ll probably be blogging about my Primal transition and lifestyle a lot…mostly because I’m so excited about it and it’s almost unbelievable how Americans have been led astray by Conventional Wisdom. It’s no wonder we’re a country of overweight, lethargic, tired, cranky lumps that are little more than heart-attacks and diabetics waiting to happen. Put down your bread. Pick up a drumstick. Your body will thank you for it.
But don’t wait to read it here. Dip your toes in the Primal pool over at MDA…and then order the book (I ordered mine from Amazon). If you’d have told me a year ago that I’d willingly be reading an entire book on a special diet or exercise program, I’d have thought you lost your mind. Snooze. Boring. Ugh. But this book isn’t any of those things. Even the scientific information is very approachable and the overall tone is light and humorous. I wouldn’t recommend it if I didn’t think it was a great read for everyone (I’ve actually read a couple other other fitness/nutrition books in the last few months and you haven’t seen me touting them here!
Grok on! 
