Jane – modeling the Primal equivalent of the thong.(Victoria’s Secret please note the lack of visible ribs on Maureen O’Sullivan. Thank you.)
For the month of July, I’m going Primal! (Every time I say that I want to yodel.) Basically, this means I’m going to eat, drink & be merry just like our pre-agrarian ancestors. Clubbing and hair dragging is optional I hear.
Mark & Co. over at Mark’s Daily Apple finally said the magic words to me: “We challenge you.” (What you thought it was “please”?). I’ve been toying around with pieces of their Primal Blueprint for about a year now and have been complaining – sometimes louder than others – that it doesn’t work for me. I’ve played the gender card, the vegetarian card, the cardio queen card and even the grains-are-the-staff-of-life card to which they’ve listened politely, patted my head and went on their ab-tastic way.
This is Mark, aged 54. The man eats fat like its going out of style, does no cardio and looks like this. Seriously.But the thing that keeps bringing me back (besides some of the smartest commenters on the web – second only to you guys) is that they just seem to make so much sense. There’s been a lot of research coming out on this type of nutrition recently and so when they threw down their 30-day challenge I figured – hey, it can’t be worse than anything else I’ve tried!
At first, since being a veg girl is one of my defining characteristics, I thought I’d try and do the challenge without eating meat. I’ll pause while the idiocy of that last statement settles in. The paleo/primal diet eschews all grains. So take out meat and I’d be left with vegetables and nuts. And we all remember where that leads.
To make it a fair experiment, I’m going to give their Primal Blueprint 100%. I’m eating meat for July. The things I’ll do in the name of a good experiment. But wait, there’s more!
Primal Food
No grains. Grains are poison. I think that pretty much sums it up.
If you want more detail, try to keep your carbs at or below 100 grams a day and get the majority of those carbs from a variety of fruits and vegetables.
Yes, please
Eat as many veggies as you want. Watch the starchy ones though so you stay under 100g of carbs per day. Eat loads of fish, seafood & meat. And don’t worry about it being lean. Suck the marrow out of the bones and eat the organs if it makes you happy (although I think I just threw up a little bit). Fat is your new best friend. And the primal folk don’t care about it being saturated or high in cholesterol either for which they have some science-y reasoning that you can read if you’re interested. Load up on nuts (but not peanuts as they are technically a legume and not a nut), fry your eggs in butter and go to work licking the steak grease off your fingers.
In moderation
Go easy on the fruit.
For the 30-day trial they recommend avoiding all dairy although once you are at a happy weight/body fat percentage then they say it’s okay to have a little of the high-quality stuff like cottage cheese or Greek yogurt every now and then. I had a little cheese going away party this weekend. As I discovered when I went Vegan, I can do without drinking milk just fine. I can also live without “chunk cheese.” But I will truly mourn the temporary loss of my Greek yogurt and double-creme brie.
Also, try to limit the beans. I know they keep you regular but they’re high in carbs and have something scary in them called an anti-nutrient, which might one of the awesomest pseudo-science words I’ve ever read.
No, thank you
No sugar. Oh come on, you knew that one was coming! It’s the simplest carb there is! And of course you know alcohol is a sugar, right? Also, no grains or anything made from grains. And by the way, corn is a grain and not a vegetable.
This Is Not Atkins
Besides the no dairy, the Primal Diet places an emphasis on eating foods as our ancestors did. It isn’t enough that something is “low carb” but it needs to be quality, real food. Atkins bars – big no, no. They are especially concerned with the quality of meat, urging everyone to eat grass fed AND finished beef, wild raised AND caught fish and, of course, organic fruits and veggies. Yes, they suffer from the same California delusion as the rest of that state so just do your best to keep things as natural as you can.
Primal Exercise
In a nutshell: CrossFit
According to the Primal Blueprint, cavemen worked out by walking loooong distances slowly
interspersed with the occassional all out run-ma-the-puma’s-coming maximal sprint. They recommend throwing in the low kind of cardio whenever you feel like it with the sprints 2-3 times per week for about 10 minutes. Grok, their moniker for the heavy-browed set, would also have heaved a lot of heavy stuff around. So do weight training but make it heavy and make it functional. Another great option is the Monkey Bar Gym.
The Gym Buddies and I will be sticking with CrossFit as it covers the weights and the sprinting so we don’t have to think to much about it all. But of course we will keep our Hip Hop dance class and Turbokicking. I’m sure Grok danced. Mating ritual, anyone?
Bonus!
Aaron, of The Daily Apple, has kindly offered his services to us as a Primal guide. He will answer your questions and even allow you to post your thoughts/struggles/successes and so forth on their website. So e-mail him at aaronprimal AT gmail DOT com. And don’t worry, for all of their chest thumping and massive pecs, they really are some of the nicest, most patient people on the ‘net. They have been putting up with me for a year now, after all.
So, who’s in with me?
Not with you in action, but I’ll be here on the sidelines, NOT talking about cheese.
Charlotte count me in baby! Can I still train for a marathon without heavy carbs?
OOOoooh, I read MDA every day, and am fascinated. I keep thinking about trying it, except I love my carbs, and I’m mostly vegetarian. But I’ll be curious how it works for you!
Interesting. I think I’ve already been practicing a somewhat “primal” diet already.. minus the meat. Would that be “Primal, Elephant Style”?
I’ve already got a MOnkey Bar Gym, so why not?
woo hoo!
cant wait to follow this one as I HEART M *and* his Daily Apple!
(shocking I know :))
MizFit
I have been fascinated by this diet from afar for ages now – I can’t wait to see what you make of it.
One point though: isn’t all that meat and nuts gonna be HELLA expensive?
TA x
I’ve been thinking about this whole primal thing and have far too many thoughts to organize them properly at the moment. Will be back, or may even need to post on this over at Cranky Fitness.
You are indeed brave for taking on all these experiments, and I”ll be really interested in hearing how it goes!
I’ve been on and off the primal/evolutionary wagon for months (years?) but never have been able to 100% it. So … I’m in. My month and a half of heavy lifting (old school Arnold style) and more cardio are NOT working and so time to change it up. I will do Crossfit and be Primal starting July 2! I’m finally on-board with you. Good luck to us. I just bought a sack of Pecan Granola that I now cannot eat. Probably for the best. 🙂
I’ll be watching from the sidelines with geekgirl, not talking about cheese or fruit. But I AM curious to see how this works out – it’s a variation of what my trainer sometimes recommends and I keep telling him that I don’t have the willpower!
From Mark’s blog…”Actually, I refuse to eat something that isn’t delicious, period.” (hope it’s ok to quote you Mark 🙂 This is my mantra as well, except I say… “Too much good food, too little time to eat crap.”
I strive for this lifestyle, although I always struggle with getting enough meat protein. I LovE seafood, but it is difficult to get fresh caught, wild stuff. I live on the Chesapeake bay in MD and grew up on fresh fish. We always caught it off the pier and ate it that evening. You can’t catch much from the pier anymore, not enough to guarantee dinner. Rock fish (striped bass) is to die for… but has a limited season to avoid overfishing, etc. AND you need a boat. MD also has one of the highest cancer rates in the nation and some speculate it’s from Bay pollutants. It’s wicked expensive when you don’t get it off the dock.
All this rambling to say that the diet I would love to consume daily appears to now be beyond my reach. Environmental damage and climate change, livingstyles, has made it so.
I’m always with you in spirit, Charlotte… I did pieces of Jullian’s workouts, have been pulling stuff from CrossFit (yeah Kettelbells!) and will adapt pieces of Mark’s wisdom as well. Guess I’m more ecclectic in my approach…
ROFL….run-ma-the-puma’s coming sprints.
Lori
cant do the whole elimination thing, especially my whole grains. fruits and veggies are simple carbs, i need the complex to keep my brain running.
crossfit is AMAZING though. my friends dad owns one in seattle, and its the greatest workout ever. hes a navy seal. he runs us through the drills he used to do. ’nuff said.
My diet and exercise is a mix! I like some of the paleo stuff, but I’m definitely on the low fat and cardio side. I can’t look as buff as Mark, but there is a photo on a recent column of mine about bikes that’s OK 🙂
Looking forward to seeing that 6-pack, Charlotte! (Don’t go blond, however:-)
Dr. J
hmmm, sounds interesting. that’s something i’d think about doing except:
a.) still living at home. hard enough as it is to eat well-roundedly (word?).
b.) tri in 35 days and i need me my cardio!
Charlotte – you need to come stay with the Bag Lady for the month. We eat our own all-natural beef (grass fed AND finished), veggies from the garden, and work in a similar fashion – lots of walking, occasional sprinting for your life! 🙂
Haying season is coming, and, if you really want a good work-out, I might convince the Cowboy to put up some square bales for you to stack!
I’ll be watching eagerly from the sidelines for this one. Marathon training starts next week and I don’t know that 100g of carbs/day will help me bust out the high weekly mileage I need. And while I know it is not Atkins, I with Kelly T in being over the elimination diet thing. If it isn’t something I could maintain long term I am hesitant to try. Am insanely hot and bothered to try CrossFit though! A location is opening up close to my house soon and I will be all over that.
This primal lifestyle resonates ‘true’ to me. I’ll be interested to see how it turns out for you.
I don’t think I would ever be able to do it though, I don’t have that much willpower.
hearing you say “i’m going primal” (yes,I am blessed with the rare talent or heareading) makes me wanna growl and gnarl a huge chunk ‘o meat! Grrr! love it!
you go Charlotte!!!
I’m excited to see how this goes! Like others, I’ve been doing the primal thing for a while, but have recently gotten a bit lazy about it (both the diet and the exercise).
On the plus side, cooking a paleo-style meal is EASY. Veggies + meat + frying pan = yummy paleo glop. I’m personally a fan of spinach and beef, with some chopped up peppers or onions thrown in.
I think I love bread too much. And my homemade yogurt. (which I also put in my bread).
Plus, I’m not a big meat eater- that will be interesting to going from no meat to lots of it. (I did find some nitrate free chicken sausage dogs at costco that were pretty good- the kids thought they were “too spicy” though).
That is so awesome. I really like the idea of eating what our ancestors ate (hence my persistence to eating real food), but I couldn’t go without my peanut butter. Can I still eat peanut butter if I do this? PLEASE?? 🙂
Also I know both sides of the argument when it comes to calcium and dairy, but how do you plan on meeting your calcium (and vitamin D) needs without the dairy?
My doctor actually recommends this diet to all of his patients. I haven’t had the guts to try it, though, because I’m not really into flesh right now and I LOVE whole grains! But I’ll be here cheering you on!
I’m glad to hear you will be taking the challenge, Charlotte. I encourage all of your readers to do so as well. At the very least participants will learn something about the Primal Blueprint and themselves. Everyone should feel free to contact us with any questions they may have. Good luck everyone!
Cheers!
pumas don’t populate kansas city… and i need endurance training. Maybe I’ll try the eating plan 🙂
I’m about as “primal” as Hello Kitty, but I’m still very interested to see how you get on with this experiment!
yikes – no fruit or grains? in summer, when watermelon and grapes and berries are in season? Can’t do it. Maybe I could fib a bit come winter and say I’m a tiny bit interested but I just can’t eliminate two food groups. Maybe for a phat meal (steak and lobster chased by a martini) but that’s it. I’ll think of you when that meal comes,tho!
good luck!
leslie
Oh Charlotte. I have been vegetarian for 7 months and just can’t imagine eating animals at this point. I don’t have as much a problem with seafood, besides the fact my budget is stretched far enough as it is. Any suggestions? I would love to do this with you. Maybe I’ll just have to watch for now.
Well, this will be quite a change for you! I look forward to seeing how it goes and hearing your feedback.
I’ve heard plenty about primal diet before, but never really looked into it (I heart grains). I can’t commit to it, but I’m definitely going to do some reading.
Leaving on a trip and doubt I can participate 100% while eating out (but will eat as clean as possible). It will be interesting to see if you have any of the side effects that I did when doing real Atkins (old-style, no bars, etc) a few years back – my muscles twitched from lack of potassium – I found that supplements helped alot.
Alright, I’m in! Starting tomorrow, since I already ate a cupcake. Can we drink coffee? I also wanted to you to know that I just stumbled in on your blog a couple days ago thanks to MDA, and I absolutely love your writing. I can relate on the ED recovery front, and have been captivated with your blog ever since. I have years to catch up on! And I’m looking forward to it.
Ooh, I have to say I’m not liking the presence of another Cara on the blogosphere…I like to pretend I’m unique.
I tend to have such success when I sacrifice my beloved carbs for such a lifestyle, but it’s so short term and when I fall back on the carb-bandwagon, I fall hard.
Also, I tend to find it difficult to get enough fibre in my diet.
Still, if I were allowed some fruit, even just apples and strawberries, and oodles of veg…I’ll have to get rid of all the carbs this week and see how I feel Monday. I’ll be following everyone else’s progress this week anyway!
I am totally in as well and started on Sunday and will go through the end of July. Wow, you are amazing doing this and eating meat! Color me impressed!
Its big sacrifices here without dairy and my precious whey protein powder that I use for convenience and some yummy recipes like my flax muffin! No more sf jello w/cream and the biggie truly is the no artificial sweeteners that are in gum that I chew ALOT and flavor packs to get water down tasting yummy!
Back to basics. Ready and prepared and will enjoy watching you and others too!
Good luck! I love challenges and would have never gone PB without this!
Christi
Thank you for the warm welcome thatwasmyveil, aka Cara #1. 😉 I’m sure you are still unique, even though someone else in the world shares your first name and likes exercising and watching fellow masochist’s suffer (would that somehow make me a sadist as well? ;)).
I read MDA and thought that would be a great challenge but I have a marathon at the end of the month that I am training hard for. Perhaps next month when I will be training for ultramarathons and long adventure journeys.
As a compromise I am cycling two days low-carb, 1-2 days high carb-low fat (days when I have long runs or long run workouts). Doesn’t fit into the challenge but the closest I am willing to do at the moment.
I’m in. I’ve been toying around the edges of primal dieting for awhile now, but am ready to be more consistent. Letsee how it goes….
To all you carb/grain lovers out there: primal blueprint is very DOABLE. I was the same way – aren’t we all? That is what society tells us and sells us.
I’ve been messing with Evolutionary Fitness (De Vany) / Primal Blueprint since the winter. I’m not 100% on yet – I still like a little no fat feta on my eggs for flavor and no fat cottage cheese is easy to use when I am in a pinch, but I am mostly meat + veggies + fruit + nuts/oils. After a while, you don’t miss bread/grains at all – they have become “cheat” food when we go out to restaurants or whatever.
If 100% primal seems impossible, then baby step it. Start by removing a bit of processed carbs here and there, or try restricting starchy carbs to post workouts. Soon, you won’t need them at all.
Dad Rewrite
To be clear, fruits aren’t totally off limits. We enjoy low carb fruits which includes berries. As long as you can keep your carb intake within reason (around 100-150 grams per day) fruit is ok. Also, part of the Primal diet is what we call Sensible Vices (look it up on my blog). Sensible Vices include cheese, coffee, wine, chocolate and others. So part of being 100% Primal is enjoying sensible vices from time to time. I hope this helps some of you make the decision to take the challenge. As jumpow said, it really is doable.
wait… As someone who studied (and continues to study) anthropology (socio and archeology) I’ll skip the comments on diet and go to the silliest thing, what exactly do they think early and pre-humans were lifting all the time? Sure there were the monoliths which are amazing but came later, after agriculture. Nope pre and early humans would have spent a lot of time walking and a LOT of time jogging as they traveled from one place to another searching for and following food and the seasons. And BTW the neandertal which is so often used as an example of how we should eat? Is not likely to be a direct ansestor and is believed to have gone extinct due to their inability to adapt to the changing food sources.
Elissa – very interesting comment and one I want to hear more about. The issues you’ve mentioned are a hot topic over at MDA. They’ve got all kinds of anthropological studies that refute your claims and yet I’ve always believed what you said. Me, not knowing anthropology from my left shoe, have nothing intelligent to contribute to the argument so if you got data, girl, SHARE IT! I’m serious – e-mail me studies, links whatever you’ve got and I’ll send it on to them. Or skip me as the middle man (girl) and e-mail them directly. They will respond:)
Thanks for your comment – hope to hear more from you!