43:18 & Primal Eating (Warning: Long Post)

43:18... Getting a little better each time.  I think I'm about hitting my limit though.  It was really tough pushing through last night but I think my gym is still having some air conditioning issues because it was REALLY warm on the second floor.  Since it was rainy and nasty out yesterday and people in AZ seriously can't drive in the rain, I considered skipping the gym and doing it at home.  But we've discussed the whole "working out at home" thing before and I decided I was just making excuses so I went to the gym and kicked its ass.  So there!  I ate better yesterday...the only thing off plan was a small handful of chips.  Going to try to avoid unplanned snacking today. 

To answer Lisa's question, Kings Speech isn't out on DVD yet.  I got a special viewing from a less than authorized source.  That's all I'll say about that.  LOL.

For some who may have joined my little narcissistic blogfest a little late, my hubby has been in the process of getting banded.  He needs to get his BMI a bit lower before the doctor will operate.  Many of my longtime followers may recall that he was approved before I was for the surgery.  Well, a little update on him and what he's doing.  He was doing the pre-op liquid diet indefinitely until he got his BMI down.  Well, needless to say months of that plus family drama derailed the effort.  We had a rough spot over Christmas where we got off track and we changed insurance companies at the New Year so all his paperwork will have to be resubmitted but we're still confident he'll get approved.  Currently, he's down over 80 lbs and has embraced the Primal Blueprint. 

What is Primal Blueprint?  So glad you asked!  Now, I haven't researched this but my hubby has been doing it for several months now and it does make a lot of sense.  Basically, you eat the way a caveman did.  The guy who came up with it, Mark Sisson, basically believes the Food Pyramid is a joke and grains (even whole grains) cause inflation and all kinds of problems in your body.  Sisson believes that if you live like Grok (the fictional caveman he uses in his examples), then you'll live a healthier lifestyle, have more energy and generally be on your way to wellness.  The point is to eliminate all processed food from your diet...the stuff with chemicals, flour, breads, dairy, prepackaged stuff, etc.  Essentially, by default, you become low carb.  The difference is you can still eat potatoes, carrots, mangoes, etc.  Most low carb plans ban these types of food because of the natural sugars in them.  This plan doesn't ban those things as long as the sugar is from a natural source (they're even OK with honey) but my hubby eats them sparingly, if at all, since he's trying to lose weight.  This plan isn't about losing weight, it's about being healthy...they figure losing weight will just naturally follow suit.  Sisson also believes in the 80/20 rule.  If you can follow the rules 80% of the time, you'll be alright.  My hubby is an all-or-nothing kind of guy so he doesn't really buy into the 80/20 rule (he does, however, put cream in his coffee - bad caveman!) but it's the only way I can do it.  Mark Sisson has a blog and a forum which goes into far more detail than I can.  Here's the link to the blog and here's the link if you want to purchase a primal blueprint book or read more about it or whatever.  No, I'm not being sponsored yet.  Anyway, the way I see it...the plan makes a lot of sense.  He goes off about different things regarding exercise which I may get into a little later.  I haven't been following the whole exercise guide part of it and neither has my husband so maybe if we get more into that, I'll expound on my thoughts regarding it.  Now, here's my disclaimer...this guy has a gazillion books and products he wants to sell you and he's totally into it for making money.  I'm not delusional but I like where he's coming from. 



Click for larger picture - basic plan laid out

 Anyway, I really like the idea of living more naturally.  Not only are prepackaged foods loaded with perservatives, they're usually higher in sodium and sugar than if you just made something similar yourself.  Most of us have probably tried the low carb diets before too (Atkins, South Beach, All-you-can-eat-bacon diet, etc.) and found we lost weight.  My theory is it's because you're getting more protein in and lots of green, leafy veggies on these plans.  That's basically what the primal thing's about but it takes a less all-or-nothing approach that I can live with.  I don't want to have to worry about natural sugars found in watermelon, bananas or other tropical fruit.  Seriously, have you ever seen a really fat monkey?  Probably not.  And what do they eat?  Bananas.  I'm convinced that no one ever got fat off eating bananas.  But I bet lots of people got fat off eating pasta, bread, and macaroni & cheese.  So my hubby is really gung ho and in order to be supportive, I've tried to cook things that I know follow this plan (I use more dairy than he'd probably like but se la vie) and I've found that cooking stuff with fresh ingredients and using fruit more in my cooking actually tastes pretty good.  My girls like most of it and it still has some flexibility.  If I make pasta and sauce for the girls, I just pour the meat sauce over steamed vegetables for hubby.  But what I'm finding more and more is that I'm tweaking less and less and just eating primal with him and am feeling pretty good.

So why I am going into all this?  I have no idea.  I just wanted to give everyone an idea of how we're eating these days, give a little update on my hubby (some of you ubersweet bloggers have asked about him) and let you in on what we're trying to do food-wise.  We're trying to get as natural as possible because it seems that a lot of the health problems people have today weren't as predominant back in the day when people ate locally grown stuff and cooked at home a lot...before hungry man dinners and boxed casseroles.  Maybe it's a longing for a simpler time when there didn't seem to be as much to worry about (other than that whole WWII and Cold War stuff...ya know...the basics...LOL).  Maybe simplifying my life can start with something as simple as food.  Happy dining.