So yesterday was officially my last day of the 30 day primal challenge.  How did it go?

Pros:

1. Using the 80/20 rule gives you room to eat favorites or when you aren’t in 100% control of the menu without feeling like you failed.
2. NO calorie counting!  Some days I did journal what I ate just for a check, but I like just writing down items instead of item + number.  Something is very freeing about that.   And I don’t get into headcase mode.
3. You don’t really need a list of foods to shop.  Literally, sticking to the outside of the store means you are about 95% likely to buy all primal goods.
4. Lots of energy, better sleep, and generally feeling really good.
5. It’s nothing but real food.  No HFCS, no gluten, no crap chemicals.  It’s not going to mess with your hormones or your body chemistry.  I also learned about what my body does and does not like in the mornings.  When I had a meat or egg breakfast, I was hungry again in like an hour.  When I had a Green Monster, I was alert and fine for HOURS.

Cons:

1. No calorie counting.  I’m trying to get out of it because mentally, it messes with my head.  But when I’m out and not able to eat primal (dinner parties particularly), I felt a little lost after so many years of eating off a list or by number.  I guess this could be better over time, but I did feel a little lost.
2. Expensive.  I’ve spent a LOT more on groceries trying to get grass fed/finished meat.  It’s literally 2-3x the price.  Now that the Farmers’ Market is starting to have more fruit, I probably could offset at least half the cost with the savings in fruit and vegetables over the grocery store.  But it was hard some weeks to stay in the grocery budget and get good meat.
3. Eating outside of the house.  I did not attend a SINGLE social event that was primal friendly.  People just don’t make plain or primal friendly marinades for meat, plain salads, or carb-free side dishes.
4. If you don’t do all the cooking at home, be prepared with backup meals.  Often I had to make something else for dinner because the man made a dinner that was 100% not primal.  Since we depend on leftovers, it would suck for DAYS.  This contributed to the higher grocery bill.

The freedom rocked and knowing that I had a green light because it was a primal food was great.  The primal list isn’t gimmicky and I like that I was cutting out HFCS.  I even bought organic ketchup w/ no HFCS when I was out of my precious Heintz.  FYI – do NOT get the low carb/reduced sugar heintz.  It is DISGUSTING.  I got the cheaper, Wegmans Organic Ketchup, and it is fabulous.  It’s thick and tomato-y and tastes really good.  No chemicals, no fake crap.  All deliciousness!  I hated the way I anticapted social situations, although I even felt that way on WW a little.  The difference was that on WW, I could use flex points and earn activity points while on primal, it’s either good or off the list.  There is no medium.  If there is a lot of social stuff to do, you will be below 80/20 on average for a week unless you are lucky enough to have primal friends.  Low calorie diets have a lot more of the chemically stuff that primal tries to avoid, so it’s not a good mesh.

I also gotta say – it’s hard being primal in a modern world.  My fiance’s diet is based on the book The Flexitarian Diet, so he only really eats the meat the I cook for dinner.  His dinners tend to be full of veggies (great), whole wheat pasta (eh…), and fake meat aka soy (oh noes!).  In the real social world, people tend to eat a lot of processed stuff.  Chances are if you aren’t at home, you aren’t primal.  Obviously at a restaurant, you can ask for stuff on the side or not at all, but at your friend’s house, you aren’t going to ask them to make a special dish for you just because you are trying to eat primally.  I really believe this is why the 2nd half of the month was harder and resulted in siginifcantly less weight loss than the first half.  I had a lot more social outings and I paid for it.

So anyway, the numbers.  I’ve lost about 12 lbs.  I have gotten a LOT of compliments that I look leaner and slimmer, so I take that as a big YAY!  My clothes fit nicer and I feel energized.

From here on out – I don’t know, lol!  Actually, I do. I’m still going to eat primal.  The benefits outweigh the cons IMO.  The biggest challenge I have is learning to say NO at social situations.  I never ever really was good at saying no to food when it looks good, and I still am not.  I also need to learn how to pack food on the run.  My busy days are still really hard for me food wise.  I do think I will allow *some* whole grains, but I will be very selective and still watch them.  When I go for a long time w/o dairy and gluten my stomach is amazingly settled.  Having a little of either, or both, and my stomach is very unhappy.  I’m very serious about getting rid of HFCS and other chemicals slowly out of my diet.  I even have the man selecting more foods from the organic section instead of the regular aisle at the store.  I don’t think it’s a coincidence that obesity started to rise when our food became more chemicals and preservatives than actual real food and I absolutely know that I want to feed my kids an organic diet.  I’ve really become a convert in that area for sure!  I used to think that organic was code for tree hugger, lol!  Now I have come around to the other side.

Anyway, time to get out of here!