How to Guide: Making the Switch to Primal Living in 6 Easy Steps | Mark's Daily Apple

I have been very busy and have not had time to post lately. Here is a How to Guide I snagged from Mark's Daily Apple.
Good luck to you!


How to Guide: Making the Switch to Primal Living in 6 Easy Steps | Mark's Daily Apple

Primal Kitchen

What's in a primal kitchen?  Extra virgin first cold press olive oil.  Almond and coconut flour.  Coconut milk, butter, all types of green vegetables, carrots, beets, berries, beef, fish, fowl, eggs, onions, hard cheeses, feta, an assortment of vinegar, ghee and the former Ms. Kelly Korg. 

Meals this week included bacon and egg fritata's, cottage cheese and tomatoes, or beets or pineapple.  Lunch was celery stalks with almond butter or salad with leftovers or eggs.  Supper was more salad, broccoli, brussel sprouts, green beans, beets, sliced tomatoes and chicken, trout, steak or ribs. 

I drank at least a gallon of water and my reward was a complete loss of a Saturday.  I was so sick and dizzy all day Saturday and most of today.  I am going to check to see if this is common for anyone else.  I should have been all done with the "carb flu".  I have not cheated, so this is either something to do with being in ketosis or just plain vertigo.  I am on the mend now, and the good news is I did not eat much at all Saturday.  Weight loss will be tremendous at this rate. 

I am not going to stay in the state of ketosis long.  This week I will incorporate a larger variety of fruits.  I am planning to make some banana and walnut pancakes with coconut flour and use some honest to goodness maple syrup.  I am so looking forward to that recipe.  But I have not reached my weight loss goal so I am going to stick with portion control and very few "new" foods. 

Friday I bought some super cool Vibram five finger shoes. 

I am psyched about wearing them running tomorrow.  I've been wearing them around the house and I have to say I love the way they fit and wear.  It's been raining so the test will be getting down the driveway without feeling the rocks. 

I made it to the gym for two of my workouts this week.  I did my one long walk day driving the incline up and down on the treadmill to mimic hills, I upped the incline every minute for 20 minutes and lowered it every minute for 20 minutes keeping the pace as close as possible to a brisk walk.  That was a good workout.  I did my WOW in the gym for the first time and have to say there is a huge difference between being indoors and outdoors. 


Inspirations:  Planning to purchase a pair of skinny jeans, sleeping good all night and the knowledge that I don't need sugar. 


I'm feeling strong except for the dizziness. 

Week Three, 21 Day Total Body Transformation

 

Don't let the title fool you.  You may begin the 21 Day total body transformation, but I'd be willing to bet you won't end the lifestyle at the end of 21 days.

The third week was not easy, but it was definitely not as bad as week two.  I've more or less settled into the rhythm of hunting what I wanted for breakfast, lunch and supper and gathering the items.  My note to self about finding the freshest sources and shopping for them on one day was a good note, but I found that I had to spread out a bit much to make it all in one day.  It does help that my husband likes to shop for new foods.  He loves olives and cheeses, chooses pretty good cuts of meat and fish and will come home with  a surprise of two for me when he shops.   I think when I make it a habit of swinging by the fish market, the fresh egg lady, the curb market and the grocery store it will be just like any other day of running errands.   It helps to have garden fresh cabbage and grass fed, pesticide and hormone free cows right outside the door.  Yippee!!! 

I branched out into some new recipes.  I learned to make ghee out of butter, a very simple procedure involving melting butter and skimming the foam off the top.  Mayonnaise is another matter, I cannot get the consistency right and it may be the blades on my food processor that are to blame.  But the taste is good and I am sure I'll master the consistency if I have to purchase a better food processor.  I made crackers out of sesame and sunflower seeds and water.  I made bacon, red, green and yellow bell pepper, mushroom, garlic and onion egg fritatas.  A great break for me with the eggs.  I used muffin pans, made a dozen and refrigerated them. I pop two of them into the micro wave, add a handful of strawberries and blueberries (as close to local grown as I can find), and here is a breakfast that keeps me full for hours.  Oh the benefits from the antioxidants in the berries and peppers!

For lunch this week I finished off a roast by wrapping the roast, chopped onions, avocado and tomatoes with a little salt and pepper in lettuce leaves.  I could have drizzled some vinegar and lemon dressing on the mix but I like the flavor of the wrap without dressing.  I am keeping portion control in check.  One slice of roast about the size of the palm of my hand is sufficient.  

Snack is the same, a handful of almonds with a square of the 75% dark chocolate.  

Supper has been fun.  One night I prepared a roast with green beans and mashed cauliflower.  We both loved the texture and taste of the mashed cauliflower.  I'll give you the recipe at the end of this post.  I should remind you that we have not had any leftovers to throw out as we are committed to eating everything while it is as fresh as possible.  We had cornish game hens with spinach salad one night.  Steak and shellfish round out the menu with broccoli, left over cauliflower, green beans and salad.  Of course I am drinking water when I am thirsty.  I am also drinking about two cups of coffee with half and half and a glass of un sweet tea.  I don't know how caffeine shakes out on the nutrition scale, there are arguments for and against.  Right now I'm still on the for side.

Exercise has been long walks with a sprint workout on one day of the week.  WOW is still 50 squats, 25 pushups, 25 pullups and one minute planks for three rounds.  This week I added jumping ditches outside in the back pastures.  The sunshine felt so wonderful.   Wow, and I don't mean workout of the week.  You should definitely add jumping to your routine, calves and legs will LOVE you for it and the cardio benefits are outstanding.

Drum roll on the weight loss........ Eight pounds and two inches from my waist.  Even better than that, I am sleeping earlier and better at night.  I have plenty of energy to the point of getting back in the kitchen to experiment and trying to find something to wash.  I am not kidding!  I have not had any digestive problems this week.

I am grateful I don't live in Primal days like Ms. Grok.  I can imagine the hardships our primal ancestors endured on a daily basis if they did not get trampled by a mastadon or eaten by a jaguar.  I imagine their diet of fresh foraged greens, nuts and fruit gave them adequate energy to chase down their prey in search of a little meat.  Imagine their happy luck in discovering fresh eggs and catching fish.  They would surely have basked on the bank of the local watering hole after finding fresh mussels or other shell fish.  I can see them taking a nap in that sunshine, making up for the sleep they missed during the night while watching out for predators.  They must have been lean, mean fuel burning machines for surely they had to expend a lot of calories in search of food and possibly shelter from day to day.  Anthropologists have discovered that they had healthy teeth and bones and those that escaped infections or met their ends by accident or injury lived into their nineties as healthy as we used to be in our thirties. 

Inspirations:  Basking in the sunshine, listening to the wood peckers near the house, and putting on those small jeans and not just being comfortable, but strutting my stuff in them.  

Kelly Korg has not had a latte in three weeks!

Mashed Cauliflower

Ingredients:  Cauliflower head, salt and pepper to taste, butter, splash of whole milk or heavy cream, shredded hard cheddar cheese (optional).

Cook cauliflower in boiler of water on top of stove until fork tender.  Drain well, place in bowl large enough to handle a potato masher or mixer blades, place the cauliflower, add about 4 tablespoons of butter, salt and pepper or any other seasoning you desire to taste, a splash of whole milk or half and half.   Mash the cauliflower to the consistency you like, we always liked a chunkier style of potatoes so I use a potato masher and mash by hand.   It is easier than potatoes.  I add shredded cheese and put in a 350 degree oven until cheese is melted.  

Bon Appetit!

Week Two, Pantry Raid

I have a real refrigerator, hooray, I can now concentrate on the pantry raid.  

Out with the sugar, flour, cereal, oatmeal, grits, cornmeal, crisco, all oils designated PUFA's (polyunsaturated fats) crackers, pasta, rice, peas, beans, peanut butter (goodby dear friend), prepackaged snacks and corn.  If I had popcorn, pretzels, peanuts or any other type chip or snack it would have been given away too.

Part of clearing the pantry is going through the spice cabinet too.  Read every label.  We've weeded out anything with mono-sodium glutamate and any questionable herbs and spices.  We have been ordering Celtic Sea Salt, which is high in mineral content, from Amazon.  

 By the way, it can be less expensive and easy to find sources of whole foods on Amazon.  It may be worth it to you to join Amazon Prime.  http://www.amazonprime.com.

One cheat, before I cleared the cabinets I decided to have Irish steel cut rolled oats for breakfast.  I made a cup, added a teaspoon of locally harvested honey and some walnuts.  Very soon, my digestive system rebelled.  I was bloated, had indigestion and other digestive issues that had already disappeared.   The good news is I learned that even so called clean grains do not agree with my digestion.  It was not very difficult to give them up after all.

It was also Super Bowl week so I had a cheat on Sunday as well.  On the menu:  Raw celery, carrots, broccoli and ranch dip.  I skipped the dip.  Wings that I baked in the oven at 375% until done and crispy on the outside with home made wing sauce I made with hot sauce, garlic and butter.  Yummy!  We also had gumbo, which I skipped because of the rice.   Buffalo chicken dip my daughter makes that is so good I ate some on celery instead of chips.  Spinach dip, cheese dip, red velvet cake with cream cheese filling, I skipped those too.  But, someone brought home made chocolate cupcakes and yes, I ate one.  Again I felt awful after consuming the cup cake.  The good news is:  I get just as sick when I consume alcohol so I generally skip those harmful and empty calories.............Now to remember how I felt after the oatmeal and cup cake.  Two cheats in week two and if you ask me were they worth it I would say definitely.  I can say in all honesty that oats and sugar do upset my digestive system.

My mood was not as light as this post.  I was already tired of planning to prepare each meal.   Once I started the prep work I was okay, but not looking forward to all the time in the kitchen.  Note to self....Set aside one day per week for planning, another for running around doing the shopping and another for food preparation.  You will have a lot of dishes, but on the upside, the food processor and blender are starting to pay for themselves.  They had been sitting pretty shiny on the shelf.   I grumbled about bacon and eggs until I discovered that cottage cheese and tomatoes were a great breakfast food.  The thing about this plan is you are supposed to start thinking about fasting longer between meals and I had been making it to lunch, but the energy was not enough to get me through my workout.  I felt a little lazy overall.

 

Lunch is either celery stalks with almond butter or a salad with left over meat from the night before.  Supper is the same fare of either steak, roast, chicken, fish or shellfish.  The vegetables vary from salad to spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, green peas, turnip greens, cabbage and beets.  I still have a handful of almonds and a square of 75% dark chocolate.

The workout for the week was walking running up on the road in front of my house and the WOW is still 50 squats, 25 pushups, 25 pullup and one minute plank for three rounds.  My outdoor play was walking around taking nature pictures.

Inspirations:  Listening to Chevelle on my IPOD, remembering how the oats and sugar made me feel and again, comfortably wearing those small jeans.

Recipe:  Hot Wings

Ingredients:  Package of hormone free certified organic chicken wings, sea salt, pepper,  3/4 bottle of hot sauce, your choice and free of MSG, unsalted real butter, one or two cloves fresh chopped garlic.

Pre-heat oven to 375%.  Thoroughly wash and pat dry the wings.   Place them on a shallow baking sheet such as a cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper or any other seasoning you prefer.  Bake until golden brown and crispy, 30-40 minutes.  Pour the wing sauce over the wings and return to the oven for a couple of minutes.

Sauce:  In a heavy saucepan on the stove, sautee the garlic in a couple of teaspoons butter and add hot sauce.  You can add as much hot sauce as you like, but you want enough to drizzle over the wings.

Week One, Going Primal

For expediency sake I'll give you the week one, two and three abbreviated versions of my 21 day start to the primal lifestyle.  We started on Monday.

I did not clear out my pantry until about day three because we started this journey with a broken refrigerator.  With all the traveling from one room to another to save perishables, I was not about to tackle the pantry.  Good exercise with all the walking, bending and squatting, by the way.  Talk about bad timing!  We managed with the mini-beer fridge for about a week which turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  The blessing was we learned to use what was in the fridge quickly to make room for new things in the fridge.
 
The things I was allowed to keep in the fridge were butter, bacon, sausage, eggs, half and half and a small jar of mayonnaise.  Store bought mayonnaise is now off the list, but I did use the little amount I had left.  Having a very small crisper box in the small fridge the grocery store trip was a quick one.   One good thing to come out of having a small fridge and the lifestyle is NOTHING goes to waste.

One of the things I discovered is to shop the perimeter of the store.  Shop for locally grown fresh vegetables, fruits, honey, grass fed beef, wild seafood, shellfish, organic half and half or heavy cream, organic free range eggs, hormone and free range chicken.  This makes trips to the farmers market, earth fare, and online ordering a must.

Things you cannot have:  Grains, bread, wheat, pasta, sugar or refined foods of any kind.  No cereal, oatmeal, fiber bars, breakfast bars.  No peanuts, peanut butter or legumes.  No beans, no peas except for green peas. If you are a vegan there are exceptions to the beans.  The exceptions are listed in the book and on the website, http://marksdailyapple.com.  No mono-sodium glutamate, nitrates, or preservatives.  No processed prepackaged sandwich meat. No bottled salad dressing, you can make your own with vinegar and lemon juice.  Bacon is on that list, but it is a cheat food and one we decided to keep as a cheat food.  You will have to clean out your spice cabinet when you clean your pantry. 

Things you can eat and enjoy.  Try to get them as close to locally fresh as possible, hormone free, free range, grass fed, wild, etc. Oily Fish, eggs, poultry, beef, shellfish, cottage cheese, hard cheeses, butter, half and half and heavy cream.  75% or higher dark chocolate.  Almonds, walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts (Mark's favorite), sunflower seeds, and other nuts.  Homemade almond butter or other nut butters are allowed, but again, no peanut butter.  Cold pressed virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar are must haves for us. 
 All leafy green vegetables, lettuces, kale, turnip greens, collards, spinach, chard, broccolli, brussel sprouts, onions, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, avocados, limited sweet potatoes, cauliflower, beets, all bell peppers, hot peppers, sweet peppers, I could go on and on here about the fresh veggies in the produce aisle.  Limit the fruit to blueberries, rasberries, strawberries, kiwi, or other berries if at all possible the first 21 days.

I am sure I missed something but you get the gist and for a complete list you can purchase the Primal Blueprint book.  I purchased mine for my Kindle Fire through Amazon Prime for 8.49.  I will purchase the hard copy very soon.  

Now for the hard part. It's a good thing the only children in this house are my hubby and me.   Since we had a fridge problem, the first day we ate bacon and eggs with grated cheese on the eggs.  Coffee with half and half.   Lunch was celery stalks with Celtic sea salt, laughing cow cream swiss cheese and a handful of strawberries and blueberries.  Snack was a square of Ghiardelli 75% dark chocolate and a handful of almonds.  Water, water, water.  Supper was steak and spinach.  Portion control is still important, but I have to say I was hungry.

Day two was almost the same as the first day, but like I said, we were clearing the fridge.  Supper was grilled chicken and a large leafy green salad with tomatoes, onions, a teaspoon of grated cheese and homemade salad dressing, vinegar and oil.  I forgot we are supposed to have vinegar and lemon juice, but I figured we were still doing good.  Water, water, water.  And, I did finish off the rest of the sweet tea I had in the fridge.  Uh, oh!

The third day I was sick.  Headache, stomach upset, hips hurt, I felt like I had the flu.  I did, the carb flu.  It seems like a pretty common problem.   Many people have some sort of complaint of headaches and achy feelings.  Some people have no problems at all, but I think it depends on how much refined foods and sugar they eat.   I ate a handful of almonds in the afternoon.  Just water the rest of the day.  I cannot tell you what hubby ate, but this is right down his alley so I am sure the grill was in full use.
 
The next day I felt great.  I did want something besides scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast, but as that is all I had at hand........Lunch was a large salad with left over chicken, the dressing was red wine vinegar only as I found I prefer that to vinegar and oil or vinegar and lemon juice.  Snack was still blueberries, strawberries and almonds.  Supper was a steak and salad.  Of course I tried un-sweet tea.  Not too bad, really ;-/.

Okay at this point I was sensing a little validity in the part of the book that states you should gradually try to make times between meals a little longer.  That was fine with me, I could not look an egg in the face at this point.  I never did like bacon.  Skipped breakfast.  Ate celery with the cream swiss cheese and carrots for lunch.  Ate walnuts and a square of dark chocolate for snack.   After a trip to fresh market we had mussels and fish, beet salad and brussel sprouts for supper.  YUM!

The days are running together and I started skipping breakfast, although I remember one morning I mashed a banana and added walnuts and fresh coconut.  The coconut I bought in the attempt to make coconut oil.  I think I'll just eat the coconut since it took me a while to bust that thing open, scrape out the meat, grate the meat.  Note to self, order coconut flour and oil online.......The breakfast was good!  Maybe too good.  Definitely something to put off until the 21 days are over.

Now about exercise.  There are daily workouts, one sprint day and one workout of the week (WOW).
Three days of the week you walk for a long time at a leisurely pace, one day you walk for about 30 minutes and 20 minutes are all out sprints every other minute.  One day you have a serious strength training workout.
You have to incorporate playing, yes playing, outdoors for a while most days, nap when you need one and get plenty of sleep at night.

I walked for one hour most days, walked and sprinted the one day.  The WOW was 50 squats, 25 pushups, 25 pull ups and one minute plank, three times round.

I played in the yard in the flower bed and garden and actually put on my IPOD and headphones and danced up and down the driveway.  Don't try this at home unless you live in the country.  I am sure had anyone seen me dancing in my driveway they would have carted me off right away. 

I lost three pounds and felt great.  Turned off all electronic stimulus about one hour before bed except for my kindle which I read in bed.  I slept through the night most nights and woke refreshed in the morning. 

My inspirations:  This is about primal gene expression, defeating metabolic syndrome and being healthy while I wear my small jeans, welcoming that gleam in hubby's eye and remembering how great your skin looks when you drink lots of water.

I've put a beet salad recipe on the sidebar.  Very easy to make and so delicious. 

Next week coming up.......

Welcome to the Metamorphosing From Kelly Korg to Ms. Grok

As a personal trainer who has taken classes to better understand metabolism, exercise physiology, strength, fitness and endurance I never thought I would be posting my personal struggle with weight loss and feeling good.  I used to teach about sixteen classes per week in addition to working with my clients and those classes ranged from Yoga/Pilates to step class, spinning, aqua aerobics, you name it and I probably attempted to teach it at one time or another.

While the level of exercise I was practicing was wonderful for the outer physique, and I did feel GREAT, I did not have to practice what I preached with my clients concerning nutrition.  Don't get me wrong, I did not eat all that bad, rigggghhhht, but I was able to get away with my bad dietary habits due to all the exercise.  I was a lean, mean machine, but not so much a lean fuel burning machine. 

I burned out too soon, was injury prone and running around looking good but not functioning as productively as I thought.  I was seeing orthopedic Doctors for torn ACLS, ruptured discs, overuse syndrome, in short, a hot mess.  I lived on muscle relaxers and pain medication at night that left me fog induced and cranky for much of the morning.  I finally caved to the pain in my neck and had my C4, 5 and 6 fused.

The surgery and lack of exercise that came afterward,  a busy schedule as a Basketball Mom, home maker, chief cook, bottle washer and activist,  and presto- chango, added padding to the back seat.  I had great excuses for eating the food in the cafeterias in every private school in the area three days a week and sitting on bleachers, but soon found my clothes did not fit. 

I kept telling myself it would get better.  I did get exercise and a lot of pleasure working in our garden, so I was not completely a couch potato.  The fresh veggies were wonderful.  Being at home so much now I rediscovered two delightful hobbies.  Sewing and baking.  One requiring hours of sitting and the other sampling the goodies.  Great hobbies in moderation, but anyone who knows me knows moderation is not my strong suit.

I had to get back in shape!  I took a boot camp and engaged in a biggest loser competition and while my trainer was inspiring, wonderful and practices the very best example, I could not sustain my motivation.

Quite by the surprise of my husband deciding to "go Primal", I recently read the book The Primal Blueprint authored by Mark Sisson.  You can find it here:  http://www.marksdailyapple.com
The reason I read the book is, I, like a lot of people, am always looking for the newest shortcuts and trends to weight loss and wanted to see what my husband kept talking about.  If you know my husband you will know why I had to check that out.  I mean, he is a busy man, fairly fit, but anything that would pry that cold beer out of his hand during the Super Bowl is worthy of consideration and must be looked into immediately.

Something clicked!   I found I was like Kelly Korg, a character in the book to whom many modern day American women might relate.  Korg is Grok spelled backwards.  Grok is the primal character Mark brings to life in his book.  The lifestyle is more than another low carb tome that will temporarily allow me to reach a  weight loss goal.  It is one that will not only help me reach my goal, but will change the metabolic syndrome and return my body to the state of optimal gene expression.  The exercise program is consistent with every day functional movements that we have evolved away from in modern times.  We don't have to work very hard for food any more, or run from a mastadon in order to keep from being trampled, but we can take much better care of ourselves.

I am starting the blog late, as I have already done 21 days, but I will go back and share some of the triumphs and pitfalls of the past few weeks.   I will carry this blog on to reflect how the lifestyle change is changing my mind, heart and physique.

 Join me as I share my journey in the Primal lifestyle and I transform from the modern day Kelly Korg to a real lean fuel burning machine, like my ancestor, Ms. Grok.