Complement to Primal Book

[ninja tuna]

I have read a book recently that I think complements Mark Sisson's primal book quite nicely.  The book is called  " Fat Loss Happens on Monday" by Josh Hillis and Dan John.  Josh Hillis looks like McLuven from Superbad.  And Dan John is a great strength coach.  I have read several of his books and listened to some of his podcasts and he has some great information. Especially for the aging athletes in all of us.

I am writing about this because it helped me get through a plateau in leaning out for myself. And getting through it quite easily.  I now know how to get rid of several extra pounds from a wild weekend quite easily now too.

The reason I think this book is a good complement to The Primal Blueprint is this. The PB book tells us all about what to eat and the science behind it all. It should be fairly simple to follow what the PB book says in terms of doing.  Some people can go straight at it, cold turkey and change everything. Other people start it, lose some weight, feel better, and then slack because of boredom, work or whatever. I think the former is more rare than the latter.  This is where FLHM comes in to play. The premise of the book is on changing habits.  There is no prejudice in the book about how fast you have to or how slow you want to.

The title is based on every Monday everyone always wants to start the week with strong workouts in the gym and fades by the latter half of the week.  He starts it with the first workout of your week should be shopping and preparing for your food for the week.

The book has  the premise that for the beginner wanting the lose weight there are 3 factors:
1, quantity of food
2, quality of food
3, macronutrient ratios

and for the advanced weight loss person also;
4. macronutrient timing (otherwise known to us as refeeding)

The book breaks those down as
Quantity of food = scale weight
Quality of food = body fat percentage
Ratio goes more in depth in terms how certain foods make you feel. Do fats, proteins, or carbs make you feel better or worse. Sleep better or worse.

You track all this by keeping a food journal and noting things like this. The book goes in depth about keeping a food journal. I did this and it was very eye opening to me. I went a step further and made an xcel spreadsheet that made this very quick and easy.  I made the first page every food I would eat. I kept adding to it anytime I ate something that was not on it.  Made several columns for fat, calories, protein, and carbs per serving.  For each day I just opened up a separate tab in xcel and copied and pasted that food over.  I put in a formula for the number of servings for each item to cover multiple servings.  I can add that to this thread later if anyone wants to see and example.

I eat quality food for the most part. What this did was let me know I was eating A LOT of quality food.  It also let me know how certain foods made me feel.  I noted sleep patterns and workout patterns and whether I felt full or was really hungry that day.

I did all of this for about 2 months and lost about 10lbs. This was while working 6 nights a week, working 12 hours a night with minimal workouts 2-3 days a week.   It has allowed me now to be a better judge of how and what I eat.  I do not think it is something you need to do all the time in terms of the journal, but  I have used it as a guide to start with that I can now follow. And if needed can jump right back into if I slack too much to get back where I want to be fairly easily.

[supthecreek]

Thanks ninja-T, I need some inspiration now.
After 6 + weeks on various road trips this fall, I gained 15 ugly lbs that sat right in my stomach.... I look like I gained 50 lbs

When I was fully into Primal weight lss mode, I took a picture of everything I ate and did every day, then made an Iphoto book of each month.
This helped 2 ways....
1 - it made me "own" what I ate
2 - it gave me a great reference for what was working, because weight was on every page as well.

It was fun to flip through the pages and see the month in review.

Then Iphoto crashed and reopened with all pictures and books totally gone.

You do look at each food choice through the lens of  "What can you do for me?"

By the way NT..... you already look like Tarzan, so an improved you, will be formidable indeed!

Maybe you would like to post page 1 ?!?
I am always looking for good food source suggestions!

[ninja tuna]

Hey Creek,

I forgot about this thread.  The page one to post. my page 1 or from the book?

[supthecreek]

Your food list NT, I am always looking for good, simple ideas

"I made the first page every food I would eat. I kept adding to it anytime I ate something that was not on it.  Made several columns for fat, calories, protein, and carbs per serving"

[SUPflorida]

Thanks for sharing. Your timing is impeccable ... I needed the reminder...went from 184 to 147 Held at 150-152 for almost a year then let carbs start slipping in...right now 162.8 need to turn it around. If I ever had any doubt about starch & sugar there gone. Amazing how fast the weight comes back when crappy carbs are re-introduced.

I did the custom spreadsheet for awhile but my daughter turned me on to Myfitnesspal. It did everything the spread sheet did and so much more. I love it syncing to my Fitbit and map my fitness, tracks food progress...really lets you keep track of all your fitness and eating in one place with a lot less effort. But that said sometimes finding your own method that works is what it takes to keep motivation
Keep up the good work!

[ninja tuna]

Hi supfla, I am glad you are liking myfitnesspal. My experience with it is nothing like yours. I do not like that site at all.  My thing is I only care about my food intake numbers. Nothing else. I am not worried about tracking my exercise. I know I get way more than enough.

I hope the attachment thing works.

I do my excel sheet in 1 week blocks.   This was from November when I was working nightshift (7 days a week, 11 hrs a night).  I started this excel sheet in September and added any food I ate along with the quantity. So Some stuff was eaten quite regularly and some stuff was not.  And all of this was done while I was working through the fall while I was at work.  When I am working things get very mechanical without too much variety. But that makes things easy.  This sheets takes me literally about 5 minutes a day to update, provided most of the food is on it.

Since December I have not followed this but have only eyed things.  I did use a scale when I started this and will when I am working again.  I found it to be eye-opening at what quantities were and made it easy for me to eye things now.  At home, I pretty much eye things.  I do not claim to be any kind of primal guru  but I get results for myself while still indulging. I can also see when things are going the wrong direction and bring them back at will by doing this. I have read about people stressing over all of this and I have experienced none that. I just enjoy the process and the  results.