Sunday, January 5, 2014

Introductory Remarks

My name is Kevin McKenzie and I've decided to do a 30 day challenge in following the Primal Blueprint starting tomorrow, January 6, 2014. I have also decided to chronicle this journey as I go along because I think it will help keep me motivated.

Now, here are a few things about me. I'm 25 years old, I live in Ohio, and graduated from Kent State University in May 2013 with a B.A. in Political Science. My political blog can be found at http://www.mereliberty.net, but there will be no discussion of politics here.

I have been following the Primal Blueprint since February 2012. I became interested when many people in the libertarian movement began discussing primal / paleo and how it changed their lives. I didn't jump on the bandwagon, however, until I saw the physical transformation of prominent libertarian Lew Rockwell and professional wrestler Chris Jericho. Jericho had been out of action for a little over a year at this point, and when he returned he was in phenomenal shape. He looked better than he had looked in years, and he attributed it to following a paleo lifestyle. That was enough for me to take the plunge. I started on the 16th of February at 213 pounds, and by July of 2012 I was 40 pounds lighter at 173.

So why would somebody who has been following the Primal Blueprint for nearly two years need or want to do a 30 day challenge? Well, I've been a bit too lenient with diet and exercise for the past few months, and feel like I need to do something to get me back on track. Furthermore, I'd like to incorporate Robb Wolf's Autoimmune Protocol to see if that leads to any further improvements in my life. Let me just take this moment to say that the Primal Blueprint / paleo lifestyle has dramatically increased my quality of life, and has more than likely saved me from a lot of suffering down the road. I'm hoping the autoimmune protocol can make even more improvements. So with that being said I'll be eliminating even more foods from my diet than is typical for somebody who is primal / paleo. I'll be eliminating eggs, completely eliminating dairy, nuts, fruits, and potatoes for an entire month.

In regards to dairy, I have issues with dairy in the first place, so there wasn't that much in my diet to begin with but for this month there will be absolutely none.

So what will be featured on this blog? Well, everyday I will update you on what I ate, how I exercised, statistics on my sleeping using the Sleep Cycle app on my iPhone 5, and every Friday I'll do a weigh-in. I'll also discuss how I feel, my energy levels, my skin (I get pimples that I'm hoping will be addressed by the autoimmune protocol), any missteps or problems that occur (I don't expect to be anywhere near perfect, but I am going to try), and anything else that I think is relevant.

I expect I'll be blogging at night and give a recap of what happened that day. I hope you'll stick with me on this challenge and hopefully leave your comments of support and suggestions for how I can do better. Thanks for reading.

2 comments:

  1. Hey good luck! I'm on day 4 and haven't ever followed paleo/primal before so it'll be a challenge. No cheese and wine - eek!
    Looking forward to seeing your progress! :)

    Court - beatofthespirit.com

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    1. Well wine isn't against the paleo diet regularly, unless you're doing the autoimmune protocol then I would assume it's a no-no. I don't drink myself so it's never been an issue.

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