< 200

Today was a pretty major milestone for me.  My weigh-in put me under 200 lbs for the first time in several years (actually, almost a decade!).  I think I will celebrate today at lunch with a chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and chocolate cake!  Just kidding.

I've weighed somewhere north of 200 lbs since graduating from college almost 10 years ago.  The exception was during my Marathon training in 2005-2006 when I got down into the 190s, but even then I was still eating poorly.  Post Marathon burnout let all my fitness gains slip away and my weight climbed right back up to where it had been.  Too bad I didn't know a little more about the Primal Blueprint back then.  Oh well, hindsight is 20-20.

At least now I'm heading in the right direction...with 20-20 foresight!!

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Food Log

Since starting this experiment, I have been keeping a detailed food log.  I use it as a measure of accountability for healthy eating.  In the past, a poor food choice could easily be overlooked.  With no means for tracking my food intake, it was too easy for that basket of chips to go from the table to my mouth to my waistline.  Sure, I knew it was bad, but until you see some hard numbers, it's easy to talk yourself into making small compromises... but over time those compromises add up to a larger pants size!

I keep a small notebook in my desk where I simply jot down what foods I eat during the day.  I typically don't worry too much about being exact on quantities.  I know a piece of meat the size of a deck of cards weighs approximately 3 oz, so I guestimate from there.  I do have a kitchen scale that I'll use sometimes when I'm home, but for the most part, I feel a reasonable guestimation is accurate enough, especially when I'm eating the right foods (more on that in a minute).

After a day or two I will take my notebook and input my food intake into an online tracking log like the ones found at Fit Day and My Fitness Pal.  (I am currently using My Fitness Pal because they have a free iPhone App that interfaces with the website.)  Once entered, the log gives me a breakdown of my daily caloric intake, broken down by nutrient type.  I then take these numbers to my Food Summary, where I can see my average intake over time.

So, what does all this mean?  What is the end purpose of keeping track of everything that I'm eating?  My food log helps me in a number of ways.  Per the carbohydrate curve found at Mark's Daily Apple, I'm trying to stay in the range of 50-100 grams of carbohydrates per day.  I am also trying to eat between .7x-1x my lean body mass in grams of protein per day (in my case approximately 112-165 grams).  My food log and summary help me to zero in on these goals.  Daily intake may fluctuate up or down, but it's your average intake over time that dictates how successful your weight loss efforts will be.

Since I'm in the habit of eating healthy and natural foods that fall within the guidelines of the Primal Blueprint, hitting these daily goals isn't really a problem.  But here's the second area where the food log really helps to open your eyes.  I ate healthy all day.  I'm in range of my intake goals.  That piece of chocolate cake and a tall glass of milk won't hurt too much...will it?  Prior to keeping a food log, I'd have probably simply eaten the cake.  But now that I'm keeping a log, I know that eating the cake (or chips, or pasta) will likely double or triple my daily intake of carbohydrates, thus undermining my overall goals.

I should say that I am NOT using the food log to dictate how much I eat.  As long as I'm eating healthy meats, vegetables, fruits, etc., I eat as much as I want whenever I want.  I simply use the log as a tool to look back on my progress and to help make decisions when the temptation arises to eat something that's not on the healthy menu.

As a final note, I do think it's sometimes ok to eat that piece of cake.  Giving in to an indulgance every once in a while won't ruin your overall progress, and can even help you to stay on track.  Just make sure that your indulgances are the exception, and not the rule.

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What's for Dinner: Primal Chili

There's nothing better on a cold day than a hearty bowl of chili.  Yesterday was cold and rainy, so this pot seemed twice as good.  Chili is really easy to make; just cut up some ingredients, throw them in a pot and cook for an hour or two.  Done.

This recipe is called Primal Chili, and I got it from Mark's Daily Apple.
Note: this recipe is copied directly from Mark's website with a few minor substitutions/omissions.  All credit for the recipe goes to him.

Primal Chili

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 onions, diced
3 pasilla peppers, seeded and diced (can't find pasilla peppers, so used poblano)
1 red pepper, seeded and diced
3 pounds beef chuck, cut into 1-inch cubes (I used course ground chuck)
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 cinnamon stick (Have made with and without, can't tell difference)
2 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes, crushed
1 dark beer, such as a porter or imperial stout
2-4 tablespoons canned chipotle chile, diced
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (Have made with and without, can't tell difference)
Grated queso fresco, for garnish
Cilantro leaves, for garnish
Lime wedges, for garnish

Method:

Heat a large heavy bottomed pot over medium heat; add 3 tablespoons olive oil, the onions, pasilla peppers, and red pepper. Cook until everything is soft and the onions are beginning to caramelize, about 10 minutes.

Pat the beef dry and season it with salt and pepper. Add it to the pot and cook, stirring frequently, until it has browned on all sides, about 10 minutes.

Add oregano, paprika, coriander, cumin, chili powder, garlic, cinnamon stick, tomatoes, beer and chipotle (add as little as one teaspoon to the whole can depending on how hot you’d like your chili).

Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Remove the meat and shred it with a fork. (If you use ground chuck like me this shredding step is unnecessary.)

Return it to the pot, and cook for another 10 minutes, uncovered, to thicken. Right before you are ready to serve add the red wine vinegar to the pot and stir. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve with the queso fresco, cilantro, and lime for garnish.

Serves 6-8.  (Makes approximately 16 cups.)

Thanks again to Mark's Daily Apple for the recipe.

Enjoy!

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Cleaning Out The Pantry

I've eliminated almost all sugars, high carb, and processed foods from my diet, but I hadn't eliminated them from our home. Our pantry was still full of chips, pastas, beans, rice, cornbread, cereal, pancake mix, cookies, candy, and donuts...all beckoning me to fall off the wagon and plunge back into my unhealthy habits.

Last weekend was Super Bowl Sunday, and while most of America was chowing down on pizza and wings, we cleaned house...or rather, cleaned pantry. We pretty much got rid of everything in our house that isn't primal. It was sure hard to box up all those foods that have been a part of my diet for so long.

But that's just the problem - the reason I'm doing this experiment in the first place is because all those foods have been a part of my diet for so long! If I hadn't been eating chips and cookies forever, I probably wouldn't need to lose weight, I wouldn't need to clean out my pantry, and I doubt I would be writing this blog. But, here I am, and this is just another step on this long road.

In case you're wondering, all the food collected from our pantry was either given to friends or donated to a local food bank.

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Weight Log

When most people take on a new diet or exercise program, they probably use a scale to measure their overall success. Seeing a few lost pounds can sure be a nice motivator, but there are a couple things to consider.

First of all, your weight can fluctuate by sever pounds over the course of the day. Weighing yourself in the morning one day and after dinner the next could show exaggerated differences. These fluctuations occurs over the course of a couple days too. Many things factor into these fluctuations, like what you've eaten, how much you've exercised, how much you've had to drink, or how much sleep you've gotten. Most fitness professionals recommend weighing yourself no more than once a week, which will give all these little fluctuations time to even themselves out.

Also, a simple scale won't tell you what you actually want to know, which is your percentage of body fat compared to your fat free mass (FFM). You might work out hard all week, resulting in a 2 pounds loss of fat and a 2 pound gain of muscle. If you simply weigh yourself and see no change, you might become frustrated and give up your exercise/diet routine thinking that all your hard work didn't amount to anything (when in reality you did a tremendous amount of good!).

For the sake of this experiment, I'm weighing myself every day. I'm tracking my results in a Log because I want to see all those little details over time. I don't get caught up in all the little ups and down due to those daily fluctuations because I'm more interested in the overall downward trend, displayed by the graph(s).

I'm using a Tanita Scale, which measures not only my weight, but my body fat percentage and total body water (TBW). I realize that it may not be 100% accurate, but it will give me a relative point of comparison from day to day. For a more detailed explanation of how a Tanita Scale works, read this article from Livestrong.com.

I try to be as consistent as possible. I weigh myself every morning after I wake up and take a shower, as I figure this is by far the most repeatable moment of my entire day. There have been a couple times when I weighed myself at other times of day and I've gotten some weird spikes in % fat (see 1/31/10).

My long-term goal is to be able to look back at my weight log and compare the trends to my food summary and workout log. This will be a nice "at a glance" way to see what's working and what's not (hopefully more is working than not!).

As of this post, I've been eating right and exercising for about 5 weeks. According to my Tanita, I've lost just over 13 lbs. of fat (4.8% of body fat), which equates to about 2.5 lbs. lost per week. I've very happy with this progress, and hope to keep it going. I can't wait to look back at this six months or a year from now and see how far I've come. Stay with me (or better yet join me!).

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