Real Life Fitness – Getting Fit With Brent

Being 9 days into P90X and Primal eating, I’m learning a lot.

I’m learning that veggies are meant to be abundant, and that I’m probably not eating enough.  I read once where I should be aiming for 9 servings a day.  9 cups of veggies!  That’s a lot of stinkin’ salad!  Just kidding, but I know I have a lot of room to improve here.

I’m also learning that it is possible to function quite well on a limited carb intake.  I’ve kept mine successfully between 50 and 100 on average over these 9 days without suffering any major negative affects.  Sure, I’m still a bit edgy at times (my wife would say “most times”) but not nearly as bad as I expected.  I have plenty of energy to get through my day, do my workouts, spend time with my kids, help around the house, and not feel like I am going into a coma.

What else have I learned?  I’ve learned a lot about nutrition in general from the other end of the spectrum.  I’ve learned a lot about proper Omega 6:3 ratios.  I understand more the importance of fish in the diet, although I do not eat any.  I understand why grass fed/free range is healthier, even if not certified organic.

And I’ve learned that I LOVE eating like this, even if I’m not eating enough veggies.

What’s great about this diet is this:  I’m not counting my calories.  I’m not even measuring my portions.  I’m just eating until I’m full, eating when I’m hungry, and if I’m hungry and it is not time to eat, I don’t eat.  Pretty simple.

Combining that with my P90X workouts, I seem to be doing well.  Obviously right now I’m not doing all of P90X because of the pesky shoulder issue, but still doing abs, plyo, kenpo, legs and back (and I hope to add in shoulders and arms soon).  In one month the results will not lie.

Speaking of P90X….

I miss the heavy lifting.  I know I need to diligently rehab the shoulders, but I miss pumping out push-ups and pull-ups on Chest and Back day.  I miss the upper body work in Shoulders and Arms.  I love those two routines…they incorporate my favorite areas to work on overall.  And the shoulders are getting better, and the intensity of rehab is increasing (slowly), but I’m ready for the X again.

And then I’m ready for P90X2.

So those who are doing P90X currently, enjoy the upper body routines for me, will ya?

By the way, the picture above is from FitBomb.com.  I saw it some time back and though it was cleaver.

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating P90X, p90x chest and back, p90x2, paleo diet, primal blueprint

Anyone who knows me and my philosophy on fitness and body composition knows that I believe weight to be a “high level watermark” only and not something to pay a lot of attention to.  My opinion is that your body fat measurement is the key indicator of your health along with your measurements, in particular the waistline in males.

But, I do track my weight.  I use it to get  a quick gauge of progress.  If I stop losing, then I go to body fat and inches measurements to make sure I’m still progressing.  And I do this for one simple reason:  It takes more time (and another person) to measure my body fat and inches.

With that being said, I’ve been paying attention to my weight after this first week of primal eating and P90X.  And in the first week, I’ve dropped a tad over 9 pounds.

9 pounds!  Are you kidding me?

Of course, disclaimer:  I’m the first to realize that most of that is holiday bloat.  After all, I went on a cruise where I ate (a lot), came back to Christmas where I ate (a lot), and basically sugar binged for nearly two weeks.  By the way, I love sugary foods, which does make keeping accountable to plans like this tough(er).

But, I have noticed less bloat in my stomach.  I am going to wait until next week to measure inches and body fat, and then will measure at week 4 of P90X and take a set of one month pictures.  Well, technically day 28 pictures, but whatever…

After eating like this for just over a week now, I’ve learned a lot about eating primally:

1.  It is easier than it looks.  Giving up grains/carbs is not that difficult.

2.  Giving up sugar is harder.  In fact, I’m looking for primal diet friend recipes to satisfy the “sweet tooth” but keep me within my goals of primal eating.

3.  But even giving up sugars, I have not had any major cravings.

4.  Energy level dips at time.

5.  It is nice not counting calories, but sometimes tough keeping an eye on carbs (in particular, making sure I’m getting enough most days).

I’ve kept this plan fairly simple:  Eat when I’m hungry, don’t when I’m not.  If I get hungry and I do not have anything on hand to eat, I just do not eat and deal with the hunger (after all, would Grok have done the same?).  Only once have I felt hungry, and I simply ignored it and just drank more water.  Once the hunger has subsided, my energy level actually increased somewhat.

Now, I have also learned a few things about doing this plan with P90X, even as altered as my round is so far.

For starters, keep sweet potatoes on hand.  You’ll need them for post workout nutrition.  I usually use mine for breakfast.  It’s not that I’m trying to quickly replenish muscle glycogen, but rather just get some good carbs into me so that process can begin (even if it is slower because I’m taking in fats and protein…the body will work it all out).

Also be aware on days you need more carbs/less carbs.  If I had my choice, I’d take more carbs in on the lifting days, if I were lifting heavy.  Instead, I take in slightly more carbs on Plyo days and my Legs and Back day, since these are the hardest two workouts I’m doing as far as force and power.  I try to hit right around 100g on these days, and keep a bit above 50 on my other days.

What is my overall impression after a week?  This diet is easily maintainable while doing P90X.  If you are doing a full round, you may take your carb intake higher than mine (I suggest either sweet potatoes or Shakeology…preferably the Shake, but some Primal types want to lean towards chewable foods only).  But in a week or two, I should see a significant reduction in body fat, and I’ll post my results then.

On another note, I miss P90X Chest and Back and Shoulders and Arms routine….very much!

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating P90X, p90x and paleo, p90x and primal diet, paleo diet, primal blueprint

Short post tonight.  I’ve had a productive (but busy) night working with people on their goals for fitness, weight loss, building a business, etc, so I’m behind in my normal activities.

Today, I increased carbs.  Only to around 108g total.  Tomorrow, though, is a long day for me.  P90X Legs and Back and then PT in the afternoon.  I knew I would need more leading into tomorrow, and I know I’ll need more tomorrow to recover, so expecting another high carb day (I see a sweet potato in my future).

Today my eating was still spot on as far as what I wanted to accomplish.  I’m finding it easy to avoid the grains, but I’ll admit that when I saw an almond bark covered pretzel, I kinda missed the taste.  But, focused!  I skipped it.  Did Ab Ripper X in the morning (got through more reps), physical therapy in the afternoon.

Meals today:

Breakfast – Shakeology with coconut milk, almond butter, and a banana.  By the way, this kept me full for a full 3.5 hours.  Very impressive for only 480 calories.

Lunch:  Big salad.  3-4 cups romaine, a whole tomato (on the vine variety), half a cucumber, some scallions, around 8oz or so of pot roast left over from earlier this week, some of the veggies left over from last night, and my homemade salad dressing.

Snack:  Apple with almond butter.

Supper – Chili with some cheese and just a few pork rinds (not nearly as many).

So on track still.  Check in tomorrow and make sure I don’t pass out during the two workouts!

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating P90X, p90x ab ripper x, paleo, primal

I’ve been asked this a couple of times now:

Are you watching your cholesterol with this new diet?

It’s a fair question.  In fact, I’m glad that people are concerned about me enough to ask if this is going to hurt me or not.  But I’ve done a lot of reading from Mark’s Daily Apple and other sites and have come to this conclusion:

Fatty foods do not raise cholesterol.  Carbs do and high levels of Omega 6′s do.

The SAD (Standard American Diet) would have you believe that fat from most sources is bad for you, especially animal sources.  They also want you to believe oils like Canola oil are good for you. They have it backwards.  Animal fats are good for you, and even better for you if they are raised in a natural way (grass fed and grass finished, and not in large feed yards where they eat nothing but grains and stand in their own feces).

The problem is, so many of our fats contain a higher ratio of Omega 6′s and not the heart healthy Omega 3′s.  The more this ratio is out of line, the more likely things will go wrong (such as a higher cholesterol profile, bigger risk of inflammation, heart issues, etc).  Thank you conventional livestock raising!

But grass fed meats and pastured, free range eggs contain a roughly 2:1 ratio of Omega 6/3.  With some basic fish oil supplements, you could easily achieve a nearly 1:1 ratio of Omega 6/3 which would be near optimal and pretty darn good for you.

Ok, so you’re probably wanting my sources.  I’m going to link some articles from Mark’s Daily Apple, and he has a lot of other references there.  Do the research, do the digging, and you’ll see that I’m not crazy for doing this diet.

The Definitive Guide To Cholesterol

Mark Sisson Is Not Afraid of Fat

Rethinking Diabetes and Cholesterol

The Definitive Guide to Saturated Fat

You can do your own digging from these sources.  But go back and also review some of the success stories from his website and see people’s physical reports.  You’ll be shocked how a diet like this can actually improve your numbers.

Brent Nutrition And Diet, Primal/Paleo Eating cholesterol, paleo diet, primal blueprint, primal diet

So I’m settling into this diet more and more and starting to feel less of the effects of low carbs already.  I’m not completely over the hump yet, but compared to day 2, I’m much more awake overall, feel less crabby, and generally feel happier.

No, I’m not perfect yet, mainly because I’m still struggling with variety of food choices and figuring our what is best.  Lunch will always be the hardest meal for me since I prep my meals and take them to work with me (the disadvantage of where I live is it is too far to drive home to cook lunch).  Breakfast variety must get better.  I cannot eat eggs everyday and expect to stay sane!

And today was definitely an exception-to-the-rule type of day.  I overslept.  As in, my alarm was set for 5:30am, I don’t think I heard it, and slept until after 7am.  That’s never a good way to start the morning, much less when you have food prep to do.  Needless to say, my P90X yoga session had to get put on hold until the afternoon.

But I survived and got things pull together well.

After yoga this evening, it was time to do something I’m trying not to do:  Track calories.  But more than tracking calories, I needed to see where my carb in take was.  The Primal Blueprint calls for 50-100 for “effortless weight loss” and 0-50 for faster weight loss on a limited basis.  I figure I’ve been playing near the 50 mark and possibly below, but wanted to make sure.  So I tracked.  Here is what all I had today:

Breakfast
4 slices bacon, crumbled in a 3 egg omelet with onion, bell pepper, fresh chopped cilantro, some cheese, topped with salsa.  Had about 1/2 cup of strawberries to go with it.

Lunch:  Around 3 cups of homemade chili with 1/8th cup of cheese, and somewhere between 1-2 servings of pork rinds.

Snack:  1 gala apple with around 1 tbsp almond butter

Supper – 9 oz ribeye with a cajun butter sauce on top, with some veggies cooked in a bit of butter (pictured at the top of this post)

My totals look like this:

January 4th Food Diary

So, 59g of carbs falls well into the range.  I was shocked at the protein intake of 176g.  My goal for protein should be much lower (.7-1g per pound of lean body mass, which means 152g should be my max).  I guess 24g over is not too bad.

There is still one major obstacle I’m going to have to face:  Kicking my workouts up a notch.  Sure, Plyo X was tough, and it took a toll on my with my second day of low-carb.  But I’m going to have to work harder overall on getting more workout in (with the blessing of my therapist, of course).  Tomorrow is a therapy day, and then Friday will be a doubles of sorts (Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X in the morning, therapy in the afternoon).  I’ll up my carbs slightly that day, and probably increase my overall intake as well.  I may need around 2,300 calories that day to make it.

Until tomorrow…

Got a question about Primal eating and/or P90X?  Ask in the comments sections below!

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating P90X, p90x yoga, paleo diet, paleo eating, primal blueprint

So one of the difficulties I have being a Team Beachbody coach and going Primal is how to incorporate Shakeology.  It has some ingredients that are not necessarily “primal” friendly, but the overall content of the shake is just too good to let 2 or 3 small amounts of ingredients ruin the entire usefulness of the shake.

So in thinking how to make this shake more Primal friendly, I had to consider the following:

1.  I have to keep carbs low.  17g in the shake alone is a huge chunk to take at one time.

2.  I have to increase fat content.

3.  It has to still taste good.

Enter the coconut milk.  I love the taste of coconut and wondered how this would end up.  So I did the following:

1/3 cup coconut milk
2/3 cup water
1 scoop Shakeology
1 banana (more on this in a second)
1 tbsp almond butter

Now, this ended up with over 40g of carbs, which is high for one meal.  In fact, it is WAY to high for what I wanted to take in first thing in the morning.  I had planned on using only half a banana which would have taken the total carb content down to around 30g, and that would have been more in line with that I wanted.  However, the last two nights I have had severe leg cramps in the middle of the night, so I thought the extra potassium may help.

But, in the future, I think I’ll go sans banana.  The shake was very delicious, and the banana did nothing for the flavor.  So there is a 22g carb savings.

The only saving grace is that the rest of my day was very low carb.  I definitely kept in the 50-100g sweet spot today.

Meals:

Breakfast – The shake, 3 slices bacon, 2 eggs over-medium.

Lunch – Leftover chicken fajita mix on top of a bed of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, and salsa.

Supper – Primal friendly chili (no beans) with some….pork rinds!

I actually had to do some reading on the pork rinds.  Pork skin cooked in lard (pig fat).  Sounds primal enough for me!  It’s actually considered a sensible Primal/Paleo indulgence:  5g fat, 9g protein, and 0 carbs in each serving.  Granted deep frying probably is not the best thing, but it could be worse:  I could have consumed crackers!

For my exercise, I did Ab Ripper X this morning and then 50 minutes of work with my physical therapist this afternoon.  I could tell a bit of weakness from the diet during PT, but I expect this to get better.

I’ve also adjusted back to my normal routine:  Up early, exercise, breakfast, work, evening activities.  I woke up at 5:30 this morning and plan to push back to 5:15am from here on (reserving the 5:30am mornings if I need the extra 15 minutes of sleep).  That is one area of the Primal Blueprint I’m looking forward to eventually completely fulfilling:  Sleeping until I wake up naturally, and then considering afternoon naps!

Tomorrow is Yoga X with P90X.  Two things I’m going to be interested in seeing:  How the shoulders feel, and how much energy I have to get through it.

Got a question about P90X and going Primal?  Post comments below!

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating P90X, p90x ab ripper x, p90x paleo, p90x primal, paleo diet, paleo shakeology, primal blueprint, primal shakeology, Shakeology

Day 2 of following The Primal Blueprint and it hits:  The wall.

Now, I will admit this:  I’m not counting calories.  I’m not logging what I eat.  I’m simply being aware of carb intake.  I keep a rough count in my head and an awareness as I try to hit the sweet spot of 50-100.  I don’t want to go over, and if I am a bit under, I am okay.

With that in mind, I know I under-ate yesterday.  I’m not sure how much under, but I doubt I hit near a 2000 calorie mark.  And I’m okay with that.  I’m more focused on eating until satisfied than eating to meet a number.  But, when you wake up and do P90X Plyo X fasted, and after a low carb and low calorie day, you should expect the wall to hit.

And it did!

I’ll say this:  My energy has not been too bad.  In fact, it has been better than what I thought, although I expected the toughest time to be days 4-10.  With all of this though came a massive headache.  It almost felt like eye-strain and very well could be (I’m in contacts that are underpowered as my doc did not have my Rx in stock).  I’ve managed to shake it for the most part though.

I am a bit grouchy.  I was warned of this.  I’m trying to control it, but with three young kids at home all day with you, the fuse has been a bit short at times, mainly around the not listening and mild tantrums they like to think they can get away with.

The good news is, I ate well today.  I probably still did not eat enough, but oh well.  That’s part of getting adjusted to it.  The big problem I had was not snacking here and there.  I needed to take something in that would help offset how I was feeling and did not.  I did, though, snub a major temptation.  As part of a potty-training award, I took my youngest for frozen yogurt with the entire family.  I chose not to indulge.  And I LOVE fro-yo!  But I never fix it healthy…

So a recap of food today:

Post Plyo X – 3 slices of bacon, a sweet potato hash cooked in the bacon grease (sweet potato, onion, bell pepper, scallions), 2 eggs over medium.

Lunch – Salad with romaine, tomato, cucumber, cheese, left over pot roast, and a homemade honey musturd based dressing that I whipped up (tasted good, too…quite proud of myself for that one!).  Had about 1 cup of grapes after lunch.

Supper – Chicken fajitas in a romaine lettuce wrap.

My biggest obstacle:  I’m using a bit more cheese than what I’d like overall.  Not that I’m anti-cheese (nor is The Primal Blueprint), but I’m finding myself adding it just to squeeze in some extra calories/fat.  If I am going to continue to include dairy I’m going to move to using cottage cheese (full fat) as a snack.  I’m still thinking through that one.

Tomorrow is a more laxed day for exercise…somewhat.  I’ll do Ab Ripper X in the morning, and then have PT in the afternoon.  We’ll see how the body reacts.  It is also my first day back to work since the change in nutrition, and will be a welcome return to my normal routine!

Got questions on Primal nutrition or how I”m handling it?  Post a reply below!

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating P90X, paleo diet, plyo x, primal blueprint

Greetings all!

If you’ve read any of my post over the last little bit, you’ll see I’m making a big change to eating via The Primal Blueprint.  Honestly it is something I’ve considered and planned to do for nearly 2 months and I’m excited to jump in feet first (or mouth first, in this case).  It’s a daunting change and day one proved to be fairly easy to handle overall.  I’m probably a ways to perfection, but I can honestly say I ate well!

Of course, the entire concept of eating Primally is to eat similar to how Grok did, which may mean you do not eat 3 times a day.  And while I ate three “meals” (or just 3 separate times), they all occurred between the hours of noon and 8pm, a very similar schedule to an intermittent fasting regiment.  Intentional?  Nope…stayed up too late last night from New Years Eve, slept in this morning, and just could not squeeze breakfast in by then.

I started out by exercising:  P90X Kenpo X.  Having not done this one in a while, and exercising in a fasted state, I was pleased that I had enough energy to complete.  Not a problem.

And then, it was time to start eating.  Three egg omelet with onion, bell pepper, some cheese, topped with homemade salsa, and a few strawberries.  A great primal start (and a tasty one too).

That was a fairly small meal.  It was very, very low carb.  So for an afternoon snack, I had to concoct something with Shakeology.  I knew I needed the carbs, the shake has 17g of it (all healthy carbs), and I had plenty of wiggle room.  So I did a shake with 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, 8oz almond milk, and 1 tbsp almond butter.  It was very good, but I do not like the taste of sucralose in the whey protein.  Time to order some of Beachbody’s whey with fructose (slightly more carbs, but anything is better than chemical sweeteners).

For supper, it was time to dine well.  We decided to do a beef pot roast (more specifically, it was a eye of round roast).  Potatoes were off limits to me right now, but we cooked some in there anyways.

We made the mistake of not thawing the meat well, and with as tough as this roast was made us think of ideas to tenderize the next one.  I’m leaning towards greek yogurt or buttermilk with spices….

Plus, since it thawed late, we did not cook it on a slower cook temp.  So while the meat tasted fine, it was a bit tough.  Lesson learned with the beef roast (we usually do pork roast, but this came in a rather large meat package we purchased).

Along with the roast and the veggies with it (potato, carrots, and onion in with the roast), I took some butter and a veggie meddly and sauted it all up (had broccoli, cauliflower, zuchinni, squash, and carrots).  But for the experiment, I made a gravy….primal style!

This was quite an interesting event.  The basics were all the same:  butter and broth.  But, the problem was avoiding flour.  My wife makes awesome gravy, but it has the white grain powder I’m avoiding.  So I used some arrowroot instead.  It worked wonderfully!  The viscosity and consistency was a bit like egg whites, but it coated the meat well and was very tasty!  Now that I know I can do it, it will be a staple in the diet.

Now, I can tell I’ve eaten less overall.  And I can tell I’ve had much less carbohydrates today.  I did have one piece of 90% dark chocolate and one strawberry post supper for dessert.  But my overall calories are in check, my carbs are definitely in the Primal Blueprint 50-100g range, and I feel fine.

I expect the wall to hit around day 4-5 though.  I’m mentally prepping myself for it (my wife is bracing for me to go through it too).

Speaking of all of this, admission time (I don’t mind telling on myself):

I gained quite a bit of weight back over the last 3 months.  Actually, I gained a LOT back. Most of it came within the month of December.  Cruise, Christmas, parties, just a bad thing.

But more than anything, I ate grotesque amounts of sugar laden desserts!  I knew coming into today that not only the reduction in carbs would be hard (as well as weening myself from caffeine drinks again), the detox from all of the sugar would be a pain.  So far, no major issues.

But, before measurements were done, pictures taken, and I hope that the combination of P90X and Primal Eating will produce some great results over the next 3 months.  A lot of people notice changes within the first 30 days of Primal eating.  I’m on day 1.  29 day days left!

Grok on, and BRING IT!

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating P90X, paleo diet, primal diet, the primal blueprint

Last year when I was following The Abs Diet from Men’s Health Magazine, the one thing that was always encouraged was a “cheat meal.”  In other words, focus for 6 days a week, and on the 7th, rest…er….cheat, but just one meal.  I loved this rule!  I love the thought that I could eat on a strict plan for most of the time, but then take a cheat meal.

Of course, leave it to me to screw up the concept of the cheat meal.  I often turned it into a “cheat gorge” where I’d eat a big, greasy cheeseburger and fries, often well over 1,000 calories in one meal.  Now, I still lost weight (7 pounds in the first 4 weeks of P90X using a cheat meal) but then it started slowing up.

As I’m sitting here evaluating how to do things differently in the new year, I find myself revisiting this thought of a cheat meal.  And I’ve come to a conclusion:

I had to have a cheat meal because most of the foods I ate where fairly bland and not mentally satisfying.

Sure, I ate well.  When you eat “healthy” (or the mainstream version of healthy) you eat a good portion of food.  4oz of chicken is only around 110 calories.  You could eat half a pound for only 220 calories, and that’s a lot of protein!  Of course, veggies have little calories, and little flavor.

I love cheat meals.  I looked forward to them.  They were my “reward” and something I had a hard time not doing.  If it was not a burger, it was pizza.  Those were staples.  There were two burger places here in town I visited frequently for these meals and enjoyed every bit of it.

Of course, I can now ask if it hurt my progress, and my answer should always be yes.  And looking at Primal Blueprint eating in 2012, I have to wonder what a “cheat meal” would look like?  I’ll explain in a bit…

The other philosophies around this are the thoughts of 90-10 or 80-20 eating, or just 80-20 in general.  Tony Horton of P90X fame talks about a progression to healthy eating that involves starting 50-50, moving to 70-30, 80-20, and finally 90-10 as the ideal sweet spot (although Mr. Horton would be the first to tell you that 95% or better is ideal, especially during P90x).

But how does all of this fit into Primal eating?

First, let me talk about the cheat meal.  I do not feel I’ll take any cheat meals.  I’m not saying I will eat 100% primal, but there is no real “cheat” that makes sense on this diet other than a dessert.  And even with desserts, there are plenty of options of making primal style desserts without sacrificing the premise of the plan.

Nor do I see myself thinking of 90-10 or 80-20.  Mark talked about the idea of 80-20 being “aim for 100%, you’ll probably hit 80-95%.”  I like this theory.  It’s near impossible to be perfect unless you have unlimited time and deep pockets.  For instance, condiments will fall into a gray area for me.  I do plan on making my own Primal BBQ Sauce and possibly my own salad dressings, but mayo is a harder thing to avoid.  So I allot for it.

But when I would follow 90-10 before, it was literally 90% healthy calories, 10% whatever.  When my food was restricted to whole grains (near tasteless), low fat or no dairy, lean meats only, very selective fats, etc, that 10% of whatever became cherished.  It was what kept me sane.

On the primal plan though, my goal is closer to 100% than 90%.  I get to eat things with flavor.  I get to experiment more.  I’m finding more and more recipes that I am wanting to try that fit well with the primal lifestyle.  All of the sudden, I’m not thinking how I’m looking forward to that cheeseburger (which, is primal, once I ditch the bun).  Instead, I’m more looking forward to cooking my own food, using ingredients I select, putting as much flavor in as I can.

And amazingly, the Primal/Paleo community is HUGE.  Need an idea for a recipe?  Simply Google and you are likely to turn up something.  Think you have something that sounds good?  Make it!  My brain has been spinning with different sautes and sauces to make for various meals.

I’m not saying that cheating is wrong.  If it keeps you accountable and focused more than not, by all means do it.  I did it and still lost weight.  But be willing to find ways away the cheat meal.  Go primal.  Find ways to eat within your nutritional plans and make things that will satiate you.

(Shameless Plug for a friend:  See the burger posted at the top?  That’s from Wimpy’s Burgers and Fries in Conway, Arkansas.  My good friend Cotton is one of the owners.  Great cheat meal location.  I’m able to get a bunless burger there, so it is not off limits!  And if you really want to cheat, get the onion rings and milkshake….best around!)

Brent Primal/Paleo Eating cheat meals, paleo diet, primal blueprint

This is hard to see, but this is my freezer.  It is packed full of meats:  Ground beef, steak, pork chops, chicken, and bacon!

This is just one part of my Primal eating strategy that I started talking about a while back.  If you have not had a chance to review what Primal eating is, I encourage you to check out The Primal Blueprint and Mark Sisson’s website.

This is a medium amount of meat.  My goal is that between this, Shakeology, eggs, veggies, fruit, and some whey protein, I have about 2 months of consistently Primal food intake.

So with all the food in place, now I had to think about what I was going to do for exercise.  I’m still doing quite a bit of physical therapy, but the sessions there are starting to resemble workouts and not just therapy.  The shoulders are getting stronger and impinging less, but I’m not quite released to do a full round of P90X or what I really wanted to do first, P90X2.

But, this presents an interesting scenario:

Part of Mark’s Primal Philosophy is that exercise should be fairly moderate overall:  3 days of lifting (P90X has it), 1 day of sprinting (can you say Plyo?), a few days of moving around or just resting.  The issue you can run into with P90X is the intensity and length of the exercises could cause you to deplete glycogen, forcing you to have to take in more carbs such as yams or sweet potatoes.  My goal is to stay under the 100g/day for the first 2-3 months and train my body to care more about burning fat than carbs, so I do not want to force my body into needing more than necessary.

But, with the use of PT in my P90X routine, I should only get close to depleting glycogen on Plyo days.  And that can be combated via a little pre-workout nutrition (half a banana, for instance).

So the plan is this:  P90X with the upper body days (Chest and Back, Shoulders and Arms, Chest Shoulders and Tri’s, and Back and Biceps) to be subbed in for the sessions with the therapist.  I will still do Legs and Back separate with the knowledge that all pull-ups will be done using an assist and will not be through the full range of motion at first.  The goal there will be to just engage the lats enough to cause muscle growth, but not torque the shoulders.

I’ll still follow the recovery week protocol, and will still do Yoga (I’ve learned to modify the vinyasas to not bother the shoulders too much).

The idea is that as soon as the therapist releases me, jump in to whatever week I’m on with the normal routine.  If it is week 6, jump in to CST, B&B, etc.

And really, P90X is a great Primal exercise routine and can be modified down to not deplete glycogen (hence the need for the recovery drink, but at 32g of carbs, in a weight loss phase that is just way too much for me).

So that’s the plan for now:  Eat lots of flavorful meals, do a modified P90X, act like Grok.  And enjoy life!

Got questions about incorporating Primal eating into your exercise plan?  Drop a comment here!

Brent P90X, Primal/Paleo Eating P90X, p90x2, paleo, primal blueprint, primal eating