What a week!
Let me tell you the last few days have demonstrated to me the power of leverage and then some. I regularly talk to coaching clients about gaining leverage to hit goals or make positive changes in their lives.
Goal setting is cool, but if you don’t have the requisite leverage you’re either going to fail or make it a lot harder than it needs to be.
Let me be totally honest, without leverage I’d quite possibly have failed in my quest to stay on the Primal Blueprint this last week.
I’m terrible at keeping promises I make to myself. On the surface that sounds like a horrible confession (or a great one depending on your viewpoint) for a Life Coach to make, and one I probably wouldn’t have dared have made 2 or 3 years ago for fear of being thought of as a fraud.
However, I’ve come to accept that there are things I’m good at and things I’m crap at. I’d rather concentrate on making the good, great, than flogging the proverbial dead horse by trying to make the crap, mediocre. Which is exactly what I’ve done in the past.
Knowing, accepting and even respecting your weak points, means you can plan for them accordingly.
And that’s exactly what I did by blogging about the paleo/primal experiment. I hate to let other people down and will move heaven and earth not to break a promise to somebody else, so effectively, I made you my leverage, so I hope you don’t mind.
When all I wanted to do this week was have a rice and potato sandwich I thought of the promise I’d made to you. It didn’t mean my thirst for carbs disappeared, but it did mean I didn’t crumble faster than the Cheshire cheese I was drooling over and I stuck to the path.
I’m sure you’re wondering what it was exactly that had me wishing for 23 hours of each day I’d written a post on Mongolian Goat Wrestling last week, rather than committing to the lifestyle change that this ‘diet’ brings.
A number of people advised me to transition slowly off the carbohydrates and sugar to avoid any serious shock to the system. I laughed (inwardly) at their wussy advice and used the preceding week as an excuse to eat the kind of diet that would have made a Sumo wrestler weep with shame.
I probably ate more sugar and processed carbs in my lead up to the change than I had in the previous month, and no, I’m not joking.
Consequently my body has rebelled at the huge change and I’ve spent most of the week feeling crap and wishing I’d listened to the wusses.
If all this change offered were weight loss, then I’d not be at all interested because even though I’m carrying a little bit of excess weight round the middle, it’s probably no more than 10lbs and it isn’t a major concern to me and I’m relatively fit.
Having said that I’ve lost 5lbs some how or other and I’ve eaten a lot of high calorie food like nuts and meat, so go figure.
What Have I Been Eating?
Breakfast has been, as advertised, the biggest pain in the ass. I love fruit, but I’ve discovered I can’t stomach it before about 11.00am and anyway as you will read below it’s not ideal. I also love eggs, but forgot that I love them when I’m dipping toast in the runny yolk.
Consequently, breakfast has been either nuts or the previous evenings leftovers eaten about 90 minutes after I have got up. That’s not ideal, but I’ve been taking supplements as soon as I do get out of bed and I’m going to work on eating earlier.
Lunch has been almost exclusively salads consisting of mixed leaves, avocado, cucumber, peppers, scallions and sometimes broccoli and cauliflower with tuna or chicken as the protein. This really isn’t an issue for me because I love salad and living in Florida makes it always appealing
I miss ranch dressing, but it’s got all sorts of nasty unPrimal things in it that make it a no-no, so I’ve been using balsamic vinaigrette and I’m cool with that.
Dinner has been a real mixture and much better than I anticipated. Buffalo is surprisingly tasty and the sockeye salmon Bob Poole so kindly sent us went down a treat. My favorite recipe to date came from Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint Cookbook and was a Moroccan chicken. Absolutely fantastic.
What Have I Been Drinking?
This caught me completely by surprise. I’d not stopped to think that my drinks of choice, orange juice and milk, were now off the menu. I know that some dairy is ok on the Primal, but I decided to avoid milk.
I have nothing personal against water, after all, over half of me is made up of it, but it’s not the tastiest drink in the world is it? I’m not sure if this is part of the process of my body converting to a new way of doing things, but I seem to have been more thirsty than normal and been drinking lots of the stuff. Maybe I’m just noticing it more because it’s water.
I have drunk the occasional diet soda, maybe 3 or 4 all week and I am still drinking coffee with coconut milk.
How Have I Been Feeling?
Ok, so as I mentioned above this hasn’t been great. The two worst days were the Monday itself and Saturday evening. I had a full day of clients on Saturday and by the time I’d finished I was quite honestly, exhausted. Way more so than normal.
Then today (Sunday) things went completely tits up.
I got really complacent and forgot to eat according to the guidelines and took on hardly any fat which is an integral part of the primal blueprint. I had a little bit of frittata for breakfast and then some leftover chicken breast for lunch and a handful of almonds later on, so lots of protein but not a fat lot of fat.
Then I went to the movies to see Inception (fantastic movie btw) and felt a huge crash. I got clammy palms, went a bit light-headed and felt my blood sugar was dipping alarmingly, to the point where I thought I may pass out.
I was concerned enough to eventually go and get a normal coke and I don’t even like that stuff, way too sweet for me normally, but I really felt like I needed to get some sugar into me and that was all that was available.
I know this was me not thinking forward and taking on just protein earlier in the day. The coke worked although I’m irritated I had to do that through not planning ahead. When I got home I had a huge bowl of fresh fruit salad and started to feel better.
Then I posted what happened in the forum on Marks Daily Apple and apparently that was the wrong thing to do and will only prolong the time it takes for my body to adjust to burning fat rather than sugar for fuel.
The advice I got was to cut out fruit completely for a week or so whilst my body adapts.
Of all the people I’ve spoken to and all the reports I’ve read, I haven’t heard a single soul say they saw their energy levels drop, so I’m going to go with this even though it feels completely counter-intuitive.
Interview With Mark Sisson
After buying The Primal Blueprint I e-mailed author Mark Sisson and asked if he’d do a written interview. He kindly agreed so I want to ask you if there’s anything you’d like to know from the man that is leading the movement?
Make the questions as testing as you like because the one thing I’m getting from the book is this guy knows his stuff and has done an immense amount of research – unlike the person writing this post who really should have finished the book before starting the process!
Feel free to leave them in the comments or e-mail me at tim at a daring adventure dot com.
So what do you think, am I nuts? My old personal trainer and triathlete trainer Pete Swaile from the UK thinks so and I have a ridiculous amount of respect or him, but I do want to see what this brings and would be disappointed to quit now. Thanks for the leverage and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Tim Brownson is a Certified Life Coach and has been unsticking people and helping them reach their true potential since 2005. If you would like to know how he can help you
I haven’t read the Primal Blueprint but my guess on the water drinking is either your body is using that to help convert the fat to energy or you’re flushing previously stored toxins from your body as you lighten the load on your system. Slide backs and slip ups are to be expected and are learning experiences. But coffee with coconut milk? Eeewwww. Congratulations on a week completed; you didn’t choose the easy path.
It’s actually a blend designed for coffee rather than just pure coconut milk and it’s really delicious!
Hey Tim,
That doesn’t sound too bad. The salads sound fantastic. Must make friends with Bob Poole, too.
Could you have unsweet iced tea? Seems like it might be better for you than diet soda.
SO know that clammy, faint feeling. Not sure why I have such a resistance to planning to make sure I eat, after all I do it reliably for 6 other people on a daily basis. Whenever you remember to plan to eat you should also to remember to text me and remind me, too.
Curious, why does Pete Swaile think you’re nuts? I don’t know if I’d like this diet but it seems like you’d be able to get all the nutrition you need.
I guess my big question, which you could ask Mark Sisson or anyone else is: Is there some sort of organized army of paleo dieters that go out and comment on every single blog post I write about food lately to tell me I will get the inflammation and diabeetus from my potatoes and junk? It’s beginning to concern me!
Tracy recently posted..Sunday Afternoon Link Up
The two things on this planet I hate with a passion are bananas and tea, Literally any form of tea makes me heave, so that’s a none starter I’m afraid.
Pete probably thought I was nuts anyway.
But…but…but you’re English! I don’t know how to relate to you if you refuse to conform to national stereotype.
Tracy recently posted..Sunday Afternoon Link Up
I only have 2 teeth and one of those is bad and I’ve been watching cricket over the weekend, does that help?
I can’t help, but chuckle because I’ve been there. Lots of times. Told hubby about your experience and he nodded his head in agreement too. Now I’ve done it enough times (hopefully this current is the last time and forever time) that it doesn’t mess up me so badly. But I remember a few times totally convinced I was coming down with the flu the first few days. The detox is killer.
Also, you missed the pasta. That sandwich should have rice, potatoes, and pasta. And some kind of gravy too. That would complete it.
As for the low energy. Personally, I start bouncing off the walls after the 3rd or 4th day. As in, “I must get out and exercise or I will go insane”. But, to have low energy for more than 3 or 4 days might mean you need to get more fat and veggies/salad in. Especially since you don’t have weight to lose in the first place.
Anyway, I’m sure you’ve got it under control. Only you will know for sure what feels best for you.
Yay for you though! It’s uphill from here, promise. You’ll be so glad you did this, I’m sure. :)
Naomi Niles recently posted..Why am I doing this
Speaking of gravy Helen made a delicious jus last night to have with chicken. I asked her why we couldn’t have gravy (this was prior to eating it) and she just rolled her eyes.
Gravy is not allowed apparently.
Hi Tim,
Well done so far. Just looking at the comments above, Alison said eeewww to coconut milk in coffee, I was just thinking that sounded delicious.
Have just had a look through Marks website, so interesting…..I’m supposed to be working and have spend the last 45 minutes thinking, ooohh I’m going to try this! So thanks for making my Monday morning completely unproductive!!
Or the reframe is it was highly productive in finding you new menus!
Dear Tim,
the Paleo community refers to this state as “low carb flu”, search Mark Sisson’s posts for the term.
My experience says that it is extremely difficult to make abrupt changes to your diet, especially if you were addicted to sugar and carbs and you thought it was perfectly normal. Be easy on yourself. :)
For more geeky stuff on low carb, I recommend Kurt Harris at http://www.paleonu.com – it’s definitely worth reading every word.
Thanks mate and you’re right. The weird thing is I never really thought if it as an addiction, but on reflection it ticks all the boxes.
I think whatever happens with this in the long-term I am absolutely convinced I will never go back to eating some of the crap I was eating before because even though my body may disagree, on a conscious level I’m not really missing the processed sugar. The carbs are another matter ;-)
Hi Tim,
I’m sorry to say that I’m just not convinced about this. It seems that every life coach/self-development blogger out there is not complete until they start following some kind of ‘natural’ diet.
Raw food or natural eating plans seem to have become one of the ubiquitous ‘musts’ for anybody in the self-development community – early rising is another.
The danger for anybody associated with the self-development field must be that is that it’s easy to be seduced by the next ‘new’ trend that everybody starts writing about.
As you point out, everybody has good and bad points and rather than continue to work on your bad points, it’s easier to start something new instead.
This reminds me of that month-long detox you attempted a while back which I was recently reading about in the archives.
After a few weeks you had decided that you didn’t feel like you were benefiting from it, nor did you feel that there was any value in sticking to the public commitment you had made to stick out the month as you were comfortable in your own decisions.
To be honest, I’m kind of expecting a different version of that post to appear here soon with regards to your new diet.
You occasionally start posts with ‘I know I tell people to do this, but I don’t always do it myself’ and I’m wondering if perhaps looking into more of those kind of things would be better for your personal development than a totally new diet.
It’s much easier to try something totally different in the name of personal growth than it is to deal with the same old weaknesses and issues that we’re always carrying around with us – but maybe less beneficial.
I bet there are other PD fundamentals that, if you were assessing yourself as a coach, you would encourage yourself to focus on.
Maybe I’m projecting here as I’m the king of embracing the new and shiny and promising and sweeping the old, difficult and ongoing issues under the carpet!
However if, as I suspect, you share this flaw with me, I don’t think that makes you a bad life coach. I don’t expect Rafael Nadal’s coach to hit a better forehand than him or Usain Bolt’s coach to run a quicker 100m. However, I do expect those guys to be able to help their charges improve – something I believe you are definitely capable of.
Perhaps I’m speaking out of turn here and it’s always dangerous to think you know anything about somebody just from reading their blog. Nevertheless, you have said you are using the blog as leverage and have asked several times for readers’ views on this one.
In a nutshell, my impression as a reader is that you’ve been tempted to go down this path as a) lots of other coaches/bloggers are focusing on diet and b) because it’s new (and therefore exciting) and allows you to feel like your still on a path of personal growth without having to deal with the other ongoing issues that may be harder to conquer.
Sorry my take isn’t more supportive or enthusiastic about the paleo experiment, but I feel confident that your intention in asking for our opinions was to get genuine feedback rather than mere cheerleading.
Nevertheless, I remain a great fan of your blog and wish you well whatever path you’re following.
That would have made a great guest post Barry and there is absolutely no need to apologize.
I think the one thing I can be 100% confident about is this has nothing to do with anybody else. In fact I couldn’t name you a single other self-development blogger that has done this, not one.
I know SP did the raw food thing and a few followed that, but I was never interested in embracing that idea. I hardly read any other blogs (I actually only subscribe to 2) so I can become divorced on what other people are writing about.
I’d welcome links if you have them.
As a side, you may have noticed I blogged against the early rising phenomenon, saying that it simply isn’t right for some people.
You’re right I did attempt a de-tox in 2008 and blog about it and then stop short.
One thing I certainly do encourage clients to do is to use previous failures as learning experiences and that’s what I’m doing with that.
I think there is a case to be made that I was doing it for the sake of it last time and not really into it. That’s not the case here and you will not see that expected climb down this side of being really sick.
As for my own PD, there isn’t a day goes by when I don’t work on that.
Sounds like it’s starting a little rough! No worries though Tim, you will get there.
You definately want to eat earlier upon waking. Your body will quickly enter a catabolic state if you wait 90 minutes to eat. You don’t want that!
Also, I would suggest a good fish oil supplement. Biotest labs makes an excellent one. This will help you get your fats easier
Joshua Noerr recently posted..Engage In Your Own Life
I’m working on that and sat down to brussel sprouts, chicken and cauliflower at 8.00am this morning. Rather surprisingly I enjoyed it!
Thanks Tim for taking my comments in the spirit they were intended. You’re not normally one for following the crowd and have never been afraid of pointing out the emperor has got his tackle on show – I’m glad that remains the case with this experiment.
I suppose I’m definitely thinking more of the raw food thing than your paleo experiment. Yes, Steve Pavlina did it, but here are a few other places it crops up:
http://www.dragosroua.com/post-raw-food-diet/
http://sethigherstandards.com/2009/05/10/raw-food-challenge-day-11-update/
http://waynehoover.com/the-basics-of-a-100-raw-food-diet/
http://www.adversityuniversityblog.com/2008/10/12/raw-food-journey-lets-clear-up-some-myths/
http://selfdevelopmentedge.com/abraham-hicks-raw-food/
http://bluelotusliving.com/
My concern is that it’s one of those trendy PD things that it’s easy to think you *should* be doing. The problem with personal growth is that it can seem never-ending.
It’s not enough to learn who you are, define your values, make your passion your work, set enormous goals and generally conquer the universe – you also need to get up at 5.00am every day, be location independent, eat 100% raw foods and adopt polyphasic sleep patterns.
Whilst I’m generally in favour of all things designed to help us grow, I’m concerned that these fads reinforce a belief that most people are somehow ‘broken’ and need fixing (something I know that you’ve spoken out against in the past) and that some people get caught up in every new fad, instead of addressing the real issues that are making them unhappy.
What this rant now has to do with your diet, I’m not really sure! It’s certainly not your responsibility what other people think and obviously you’re entitled to live your life however you want.
Still, one of the things I love about your blog is that you always call it as you see it and aren’t afraid to go against the received wisdom if you don’t agree with it.
Please don’t stop doing that – and good luck with the diet!
That really did make me LOL when you mentioned being location independent because I hear that a lot from clients. I always ask “do you mean you want to move from city to city and country to country on a semi-permanent basis never settling in one place, or do you mean you want to be able to go on leisurely vacations once in a while?”
Other than Drogus blog, and I had no idea he’d done a raw food thing, I have never even heard of any of those blogs never mind read them, I may check them out.
It’s sometimes easy to see which bloggers coach and which don’t. Coaching gives you a completely different perspective because if you go into coaching with a one-size fits all approach you’re fucked and so are you’re clients ;-)
As Tim knows, I started this Paleo thing a few weeks earlier than him. I’ve been on it 4 weeks as of yesterday. I haven’t experienced the ups and downs like he has. However, my wife who likes her pasta and carbs has had some of it and was eating a lot of fruit at first.
I found myself missing cold cereal which I always ate with skim or soy milk only once. I do miss cheese and have to confess to having some this weekend when we hosted a small party. But, I also will admit I felt like someone had beat me with a cushioned ball bat the next morning. So, I’m back to Paleo today and as Joshua suggested, I’ve been using good fish oil supplements for many years. I think they also help.
I’m also 23 pounds lighter than when I began. Excess weight is a problem for me which is one of the reasons I started this. I made a video to discuss it more if you’re interested. http://tiny.cc/n3nok
Bob Poole recently posted..eBooks Will Never Be the Same
Interesting to hear that about the cheese Bob. I stopped to get some buffalo mozzarella this morning (except they didn’t have any in Publix) because I wanted egg plant parmigiana for dinner.
Apparently aged cheeses have little to no lactose in them, so what do you think it was that kicked off your reaction?
Are you saying leverage is accountability then? It sounds like you have poor internal accountability, but know how to get external accountability to make your goals happen – most people are like that :-)
When I think of leverage, I think of a mortgage or delegating – just semantics I guess.
Leverage is a financial term, but it works well for what I’m talking about and it is similar to accountability but not the same as leverage. I guess if I were to be pedantic, leverage is what starts momentum and accountability is what keeps it going in many cases.
Are most people like that? I dunno to be honest as I’ve only coached an few hundred and there are a few billion out there I have no clue about.
Besides the cheese it might have been the martinis before the grilled salmon dinner or the scotch after. Or, it could have been the fact that a 4-year-old who likes to get me up very early in the morning spent the weekend.
The Primal Blueprint ? Why I Haven?t Quit…
I found your entry interesting do I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog :)…
So, I’m about a month behind the article, but my intentions are good. I took notice of Mark Sisson when you first posted this, and I subscribed to his blog at that time. Since then, I’ve read quite a few articles there and just yesterday purchased his book, The Primal Blueprint. I have decided to take the 30-day challenge, and it will be my leverage or momentum to adopt the primal lifestyle.
I’ve found that my exercise already fits in with the blueprint, so that won’t be an issue for me. The diet changes will be a bit more difficult to implement. However, I was a vegan for three years, so I’m no stranger to the bodily adjustments that will occur as my diet changes. I’m looking forward to hearing about your progress, Tim, since you’re the front-runner. Hopefully your experiences will prepare me for the journey ahead.
I’m also still working through How to be Rich and Happy so there are some big improvements going on in my life right now. Be well.
Ian recently posted..The Primal Blueprint 30-Day Challenge
Thanks Ian, I’m hoping I’ll have something a bit more conclusive to post in a couple of weeks.