While on vacation, I saw a copy of Primal Blueprint in a random clothing boutique.  As a CrossFit dropout, I'd been exposed to the Paleo Diet (a.k.a. "Caveman Diet"), and even briefly considered giving it a try, but never I never got serious about giving up grains, starches and sugar in my diet.  I don't know what it was about seeing that book in that store - it was totally out of place among the home-made Christmas ornaments made of recycled materials and faux-hippie throwback clothing - but I decided starting that night, I was going to give the book a try.

The book is a revelation.  Sisson challenges so much that we take for granted about eating healthy and exercising properly, in a well-researched, well-reasoned manner that it's hard not to concede that he may have a point.  I'm a chronic skeptic - when people I knew were going Paleo, I scoffed at the notion that forgoing grains, starch and sugar was the "appropriate" way humans were meant to eat.  (I also have a economics/politics based criticism - which is that grain production is the way the vast majority of the developing world derives enough calories to survive, but that's a different issue).  But after reading Sisson's book and giving it a try, I'm more convinced that there may be something to this.

Since giving up grains, starches and sugars, I never feel bloated or over-full after eating.  I don't get food coma.  My energy levels are steady - no energy spikes or crashes.  The one time I did eat some carbs in the last week (rice noodles at a chinese restaurant) I felt pretty bloated and gassy afterwards, and my body was making weird noises.  Granted, I've only been eating primally for a week, but I have to believe this is more than just a placebo effect.

The exercise regimen proscribed in the Primal Blueprint is eye-opening as well.  Thirty minutes of strength exercises only twice a week, one weekly sprint workout, and 2-5 hours of just moving slowly (walking, hiking, light jogging, etc.) a week.  Having dabbled in CrossFit, I see this as "CrossFit lite", and I think it will be relatively easy for me to ease into incorporating this into my lifestyle (and thankfully not feeling pressure to workout all the time).

I think the most appealling aspect of all of this to me is that this isn't just a program, it's a lifestyle change, and one that isn't too disruptive to everything else that's going on in my life.  I highly recommend people check out www.marksdailyapple.com and also give the book a try.

I'll tell you what it means. It means my tennis mechanics need some serious help.

Tomorrow, November 6, 2010 is the NYC Marathon!

I'll be using a service called Instamapper to allow folks to track my position during the marathon tomorrow.  The map below should show my progress live with a good level of accuracy, and should be much improved over my failed Google Latitude experiment during the 2009 NYC Marathon. (One of my friends reported that at one point he looked at his map and it reported my location as being somewhere in the middle of the Hudson River.)

My start time is at 9:40 a.m.

If you're going to be out and about and have a mobile web browser, you can use this link to track my progress on your phone.  (If you're following me on your mobile phone, you'll need to manually refresh the page to see the most updated position.)

GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com

The title of this post feels like a bad CrossFit workout.  This isn't the first time I've tried to work out after drinking. Somehow, I didn't learn my lesson the first time. My performance wasn't disastrous, but I definitely wasn't having fun.

My stomach felt both shaken and stirred. Urp.

Shins are a little happier now. I'll probably start running again this week.