Reddit reviews The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy (Primal Blueprint Series)
We found 6 Reddit comments about The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy (Primal Blueprint Series). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
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Greetings. I would skip on the personal trainer from the outset for economics sake. Well, I guess asking for help here sort of makes someone who answers a personal trainer, so consider this a free session. I think the most important point is that you have to become EDUCATED. Maintaining health is a learned skill not taught in schools and not everyone is lucky enough to have friends/family who practice either. I would shift the majority of your focus to diet; the biggest contributor to excessive weight. If you eat clean and don't exercise, you will lose weight. If you eat crap and exercise, you may lose some, but it won't be as likely or as fast. This is an observation from my personal experience. With weight loss will come the physique you are seeking. The general theory you will find out in the world is that losing weight is 80% diet and 20% activity. I think you are more liable to get injured if you start throwing around you body weight when not being primed through healthy eating first. So, what do you eat?
I find the paleo or caveman type diet to be best, but it's easy to become intimidated and can be annoying by people who preach it. If you're not familiar, just google search or find a subreddit. It's really simple though; eat plants and animals, more of the first. That's it. You don't know what to eat or how to cook? Great, there are a ga-jillion blogs and websites that will help you for free. I like marksdailyapple.com and nerdfitness.com. Again, get EDUCATED. Cooking will become fun, chicks dig it, and you are lucky enough to live in Atlanta where there are many farmers markets.
Still, with eating (and life), its about building healthy habits from the choices you make on a daily basis. For instance, if you eat a shitty meal, forgive yourself and make sure to follow it by a healthy meal no matter what. Then try to see how many healthy meals you can eat in a row. Whilst doing this, weigh yourself everyday and log it; WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS IMPROVED. You'll notice the more consecutive healthy meals you eat, the more rapid the weight loss. You can do one better by writing down how you feel mentally and what changes you are noticing in your body. You can do another one better by setting a goal like 3lbs a week, which is totally feasible. Here are some initial tactics:
Limit snacking and processed foods--If I have to snack, my choice is some type of trail mix with nuts, dried fruits, and dark chocolate. Trader joes has packs that come individually portioned to keep you in check.
Eliminate soda, juice, sugary drinks--this is a tough one because almost all drinks are sweetened with sugar. Fine, drink a coke, but follow it with equal parts water. Limit alcohol intake and do the same.
Make breakfast your biggest meal. This morning I had a green smoothie, 3 eggs and 5 pieces of bacon. I haven't eaten lunch and don't feel the need too. A great nutritionist said "eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper." Which brings us to...
Try not to eat after 8pm. If you must, make it a paleo meal. Eating a burger with fries and zonking out takes your body longer to process because there is no activity while you sleep. If you have a lapse, I would make sure to drink lots of water and probably skip breakfast the next morning.
While doing this (stay with me here), use little windows throughout the day to get exercise. From the outset, I recommend walking, seriously. Wake up earlier and go walk around your neighborhood for 15 minutes. But it's too cold...You're a man now, lace up and go do it. At lunch, do the same, walk after eating for 15 minutes. This will help productivity in work and school as well. At night, you know the answer already. Walk again for 15 minutes. That's 45 minutes of exercise which is easier than doing 45 minutes of consecutive at a gym when you have no clue what you are doing yet. If the walks are getting boring, ask a friend to join or go to a park. Throughout the rest of the day you will have another 15 minutes of accumulated movement which brings you to the magic number of 60 minutes of exercise per day. Too busy? Use the time walking to do things you would otherwise do when sedentary like checking email, making phone calls, listening to music, planning for tomorrow, etc. Just stop making excuses.
If you insist on going to the gym, you are close enough in edgewood to the Decatur YMCA. I highly recommend this gym, and no, they won't push Jesus on you. They just renovated it and they have a pool. Spending time submerged in water is one of the best ways to lose weight. They have fitness classes where you can do this. Your body burns more calories underwater to keep your core temperature up. This is why swimmers are some of the most cut at the Olympics and Michael Phelps can eat 15,000 calories/day when training. Their out of water fitness classes are great for beginners as well. I would shy away from lifting weights from the outset without further research and guidance. Watching people at the gym can be dangerous, since many have no clue, and have just watched others who have no clue before them.
One final thought is to actually stop thinking about this as "weight loss". It's more like "weight, work you ass off". Losing things like your keys, socks, or thoughts are easy. It happens all the time. You don't just lose weight though, you work it off. A personal trainer can't do this for you. Establish this mindset and you will see results. The first two weeks of changing your habits will be very challenging but you're strong, plow through it. If you have the time to read, I recommend this book starting out http://www.amazon.com/The-Primal-Blueprint-Reprogram-effortless/dp/0982207786. Better yet, get the audiobook and listen to it while walking. It is the impetus to the first blog I mentioned and helped change my life. It's not all your fault since we have been mislead by shady food companies and fed bunk science about food for a long time so get over it. Thanks for your post as it helped me reiterate to myself things I should focus. Godspeed on your journey!
If you want to learn... I suggest these books:
After reading The Primal Blueprint, I decided to give primal/paleo a shot for a month. Six years later, I'm still doing it. Although I have increased the amount of safe carbs I eat after reading The Perfect Health Diet, which is the most well-researched and well-cited diet book I've read.
Kev, we all try different paths to get us to where we want to go. If this works for you that's great, but for me it wouldn't be sustainable long-term. HcG just seems a little scammy to me, however if you're committed to it, I would throw in some vitamin D too. Breaking 500 is a great first step (it is nice to see the numbers drop!). I do worry that you're not getting enough real food with this diet.
I started well above where you are now so I know where you're coming from in wanting to get it done with (I still don't like to tell others how bad I got). I've tried most of the diets and fads out there, but what finally turned me around was reading Tim Ferris' 4hr body, Gary Taubes' Good Calories, Bad Calories, Rob Wolff's Paleo Solution, Loren Cordain's Paleo Diet and Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint. I've culled what works for me from these and have been eating pretty much Paleo/Keto since November. I've dropped over 50lbs since then at about 2000-2200 cals day. I know it's not biggest loser territory, but slow and steady wins the race. Most of all, it's something I can live with long term. So far my only exercise has been walking and some stationary bike.
What made the change easier for me was I found a lifestyle rather than a diet to follow. That's not to say I haven't had the occasional setbacks (god I miss pizza and beer), but I'm getting there and you will too. Best of luck on your quest...
tl/dr - Plan's not for me, don't be afraid to try something else. Knock em dead kid!
The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy by Mark Sisson.
Since you're just getting started, instead of jumping into one of the extremes of the human diet, perhaps a more measured approach that focuses on a sustainable eating strategy you can employ for the rest of your life might be a better way to begin. If you want examples along those lines I'd suggest The Primal Blueprint or The Wild Diet