Primal Pancakes: Breakfast for Dinner

Today I gave a little something a try that I stumbled on while surfing "teh interwebz." Making the transition to the Primal lifestyle is all well and good, but for many of us we have an emotional attachment to certain foods and don't want to give them up entirely. While I believe its perfectly fine to indulge yourself in a "cheat" meal every now and then, that isn't an option available to me during my 30-Day Challenge, and there is also something to be said for a non-Cheat alternative that satisfies the craving.

Enter the Primal Pancake!



Ingredients:

• 2 Organic free-range eggs
• 1/2 Cup Unsweetened Organic Apple Sauce
• 1/2 Cup Organic Nut Butter (anything other than Peanut...I used Sunflower)
• 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract

I heated up some coconut oil in a pan over medium-low heat and after mixing and beating together the above mixture, went about making a pancake the way everyone else does. One thing though...the consistancy is not quite the same, I found that they fell apart during flipping if I made the pancake too large, so stick to smaller pancakes. Also, they burn quickly! Don't wait too long before flipping. I made quite a few more pancakes than what ended up making it to my plate, whole and unburnt...however, I'm a bachelor living alone and my cooking skills are not what you would call exemplary.

Alongside the pan with the cakes, I was cooking up some nitrate-free bacon in a second pan with some butter. Once everything was ready, I scattered some blackberries and a SMALL amount of 100% pure maple syrup on the pancakes and had at them.

Review:

• Tasty, but you can really taste the sunflower butter
• The consistancy was not quite as firm as regular pancakes. It was a bit mushy
• I regret throwing out the burnt ones, because the more burnt ones were delightfully crispy and didn't taste bad
• I'm not 100% sure how well these would pass the "Kid Test." I have no children yet besides my dog, but I'm almost certain he'd gobble the whole plate down given half a chance.
• I"m not really sure I'll be rushing off to make this again in the near future. The total cost was fairly steep when you consider the sheer volume of nut butter! But it was tasty, fun, and its always good to have options.
  

Now, of course, my kitchen is a COMPLETE disaster. Maybe bachelors shouldn't be allowed to cook unsupervised.

For more on this recipe and for many others, check out the excellent site: www.performancemenu.com

Good News! You DON"T have to spend HOURS in The Gym!

The story of David and Goliath is the ultimate "Less is More" lesson, and there are many areas in our lives where we'd do well to apply this maxim. Michelangelo's depiction of David in deep contemplation before doing battle with Goliath also serves to illustrate an important concept in my training...imagine how much more worried he would look if he had just spent 2 hours working out before finding out he has to fight a giant?

Many of us put ourselves in this exact predicament several times a week, spending ourselves completely in the gym and then heading out into our regular lives to "recover" in time for the next gym session. If you are spending crazy amounts of time in the gym each week, can you satisfactorily answer the question, "why are you doing it?" I'd hazard a guess that for many it becomes circular...we work out so we can get better at working out and the time in between gym sessions is just recovery.

I was like that once. I knew I wanted to take my fitness and health to the next level, and I thought the answer was spending ever increasing hours at the local Globo Gym. I entered a contest held by a muscle mag in which I followed a cookie-cutter "mass building" program/diet for 3 months, submitting before and after photos holding the relevant month's issue of the magazine to verify the timeline. I can't speak for everyone's goals, and I don't mean to demean bodybuiding if that's your thing, but this approach was not for me! Volume-wise, I was doing an insane number of reps, sets, and exercises, and leaving the gym absolutely blasted. It was a four day a week split, and each gym session required a devotion of roughly 2 hours of my day. That isn't including the time spent sprawled out on my couch moaning about what a "great" workout that just was, haha.

I stuck with it for two months, and was seeing some results...but nothing to write home about. My results were far out of keeping with the amount of effort I was expending, and I realized I was really unhappy. My life had devolved into a cycle of working, rushing to the gym, sleeping, and repeating the cycle. And my workouts were leaving me feeling drained and worn out! What was the point? The goal of exercise and diet is to enhance your life and make it a more fulfilling experience isn't it? We workout so that we have energy, are free from frailty, and like what we see in the mirror. Some of us add goals of strength or athletic performance to these, but what point is all our effort if it doesn't allow us time to enjoy the benefits?

Since adopting a more Primal diet and lifestyle and using kettlebells to keep my workouts short, intense, and mentally engaging, I've spent much less time actually exercising and more time enjoying the results of those workouts. And the results have been better. A relatively minor, stress free adjustment to my eating habits, and a few relatively short intense kettlebell sessions has yielded me more strength, fitness, athleticism, and leanness than all those hours spent pumping iron and running on the treadmill. And after I finish a workout, I feel like roaring and beating my chest, not collapsing in a groaning heap.

I guess the point of this blog post is to keep the goal in mind in all things you do, and to scrutinize the steps you take towards that goal. If you joined the gym in order to get a great beach body...don't forget to go to the beach because you're too busy in the gym. Make sure whatever you are doing is enhancing your life and not dominating it.

The Caveman Experiment: A 30-Day Challenge

Today marks the first day of a 30-day experiment in Primal/Paleo eating and lifestyle. I already maintain a very strict diet and exercise regimen, but I will be the first to admit I cut loose a bit on weekends. I roughly stick to the 80/20 principal and strive for 80% compliance. For me that 20% translates to 3-5 cheat meals in which I pay NO attention whatsoever to what I'm eating.

I feel zero shame in these cheat meals because I feel it's good for my mental health to kick back with friends and to eat whatever I want. My lifestyle allows me to cheat to a certain extent because these meals average out with my usual diet resulting in no real difference in body composition, health, etc...I THINK. Hence the experiment. How much of a difference is that 20% making? My supposition is that the law of diminishing returns takes effect, and as you get closer and closer to 100% diet compliance your perceptible improvements become smaller and smaller.
However, there is a chance that my cheat meals have a more deleterious effect than I believe right now. What if my cheat meals are throwing off my bodies ability to cleanly switch to a preference for fat-burning for fuel versus carb-burning? We'll see 30 days from today.

The Rules

1. Meals will consist of mainly meat, fruit, vegetables, and nuts
2. I will allow myself dairy products in moderation, all from full-fat sources
3. I will implement Intermittent Fasting in a randomized/unplanned manner or in order to avoid a cheat meal when no alternative is available
4. The aim will be organic, all natural sources, however as a concession to modern day life this will not be an absolute rule. No non-Paleo food types, though.
5. Exercise-wise, I will continue working on the Enter The Kettlebell Rite of Passage
6. I will make sure to take at least 30 to 45 minutes to walk at a steady pace each day
7. I will make sure to get at least 7 hours of sleep each night.

Current Stats
Weight: 138 lbs
Height: 5'5 (yeah this isn't changing...but there's always hope!)
Before Pic: I've littered this blog with shirtless pics of myself, no need for even one more, haha. I will post an "After" pic in 30.

The inspiration for the 30 Day Challenge, and most of the info on the diet was sourced from Mark Sisson's work. Please visit his fantastic site at www.marksdailyapple.com for more info!