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.......