30 day update on Primal Blueprint

 Low-Carb Lifestyle, Uncategorized, Weight Management  Comments Off on 30 day update on Primal Blueprint
Jun 032013
 

primalblueprintSo about 30 days ago I posted that I was going to make some pretty fundamental changes to my health and wellness plan. I researched quite a few different eating and living philosophies that meshed well with my low-carb lifestyle. I was pretty firmly committed to the concept that sugars spike the blood sugar levels causing fat storage, so I wanted to find an eating plan which supported that theory. Thankfully there has been a lot of progress on that front in the last few years. Gone are the days where the Atkins diet was the only alternative for someone seeking a low carb lifestyle. While I have enjoyed some success over the years with Atkins, I never could really get it to stick. I would lose the weight when I went into benign dietary ketosis, but then gradually would all come back as I introduced grains and refined sugars back into my diet.

It was also important that I find something that I felt was sustainable from an ease-of-use point of view as well as a food consumption point of view. As you know from my prior article, I decided to go with primal blueprint. This is very similar to the Paleo diet, but is slightly less restrictive when it comes to dairy.  There is also  an emphasis on organic foods, stress free living, and exercise which more closely resembles the type of activities that our ancestors would have been naturally enduring in the more primitive world.

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Power 90 Spring 2013 Day 1

 Power 90 (Spring 2013), Uncategorized  Comments Off on Power 90 Spring 2013 Day 1
Apr 282013
 

The last time I checked in on my weight loss log was August 2012.  At that time I was 168 pounds and 20 percent body fast measured using the US Navy Body Fat calculator at a height of 5’9, weight 168, neck 15 inches and waist at belly button of 35.  Since that time I have lost a half inch around my neck and gained an inch around my belly and gained 7 pounds, three of which are muscle.  That brings my current stats up to 22% body fat.  Needless to say this is not making me very happy, especially considering the effort I expend on a daily basis to attempt to remain fit.

So in the last few months I’ve embarked on a couple of different experiments in order to push my body fat percentage down.  I know of course that I can apply the techniques used in Lyle McDonald’s body recomposition.com and push my percent body fat down, but that technique does not support a lot of aerobic activity and since that is an important part of my life I’d rather not go that road.

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Blog change

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Feb 022013
 

I realized recently that the vast majority of my blog postings were details of my weekly training and that more interesting content was getting pushed down and lost amid the clutter.  I found a WordPress plugin that let me suppress my “Training Log” category on the main page.  For those of you interested in my weekly training you can just click the tab marked “Training Log” in the menu at the top of the blog.  I post everything I do every week in detail there with a history going back a few years.

 Posted by at 9:14 am

Road Races

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Oct 242012
 

I had a thought today about racing. All the training, all the miles and all the preparation serve to bring you to that one moment in a race. That one moment when your body demands that you stop. All you have to do is stop and all the pain will go away. All other animals on the planet would stop in that moment. Only human beings can override all that biology, ignore the feelings of agony pressing down on us and go on. Its all about that moment.

All of us are lucky that we have moments like that to overcome. So many people around us don’t have a clue. I come home from a race, plop my medal on the kitchen counter and go about my day. Every time I chat with a neighbor or answer the phone I feel like I am moving through a world of cutout figures who can’t see in three dimensions. I want to scream “I AM ALIVE TODAY”

 Posted by at 10:56 am