Today was a big day for me! I interviewed Mark Sisson, author of The Primal Blueprint, for the podcast! He has a new book coming out in October called The Keto Reset Diet.
His team sent me a copy in advance of our chat today and I fell in love with the balanced approach to doing keto right (as opposed to all the crazy marketing-hyped fad diet approaches to doing keto wrong).
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, click here.
I was inspired by the book & fired up by the opportunity to chat with Mark and found myself saying, “I’m going to do it, Mark. If you say it’s the next level of primal, I’m ready to try!”
I love trying new things and seeing how my body reacts to different approaches and I’ll be sharing the journey with you. This is not a diet. This is not a hack or quick fix.
This is an opportunity to learn and improve my metabolic machinery.
My episode with Sisson will air this week and the approach will probably make more sense then but I’ll do my best to explain here.
First, pre-order the book. I read a lot and don’t recommend most of the books I read but I highly recommend this one.
Second, understand that the book recommends at 21-day primal eating phase before anyone transitions into the keto reset. Since primal is the way I consistently eat, I’m going into the keto phase. Please don’t do that without a primal phase if you aren’t already consistently eating primal. Okay? I’m so serious here.
I will be limiting my carbs to 50 grams per day. This is a total number, not a net number. I’m not subtracting out fiber. That 50 grams includes fiber. Nothing is “free”.
I’ll be eating 0.7 grams of protein per pound of lean mass. This is not 0.7 grams of protein per pound of total body weight! It’s just lean mass. For me that’s a little over 110 grams per day. He recommends less protein for people who are not active. Since I do CrossFit workouts 5-6 days each week, I’m going on the higher end of the protein spectrum.
The rest of my daily energy intake will come from fat. Yes, it’s a lot of fat.
I won’t be frying cheese or consuming artificial sweeteners – I think the “hacks” to make keto junk food are just that – hacks.
I also don’t have a daily target for grams of fat – I’ll let my hunger and energy dictate that. My fat intake will come from avocado, macadamia nuts, eggs, bacon, meats like salmon & beef and some convenience products like Primal Kitchen Chipotle Lime Mayo. (Yes, that’s one of Mark Sisson’s products, no I don’t get paid to promote it.)
I’ll document the journey here – sharing what I eat, how it impacts how I feel & what I notice in terms of physique changes. I’ll also be really candid about my struggles or choices to eat something that isn’t aligned with the standards I just described. I’m not married to perfection, I’m here for progress & learning.
I’m really excited about the process.
Let’s talk about today! I didn’t make it to the gym today (hate that!) but I did 100 kettlebell swings for time and a 15-minute Airdyne bike EMOM. I was away all weekend and had some major deadlines to hit today so I chose to workout at home instead of at the gym.
On the food front:
I’m gonna miss the cabbage salad bowl during this experiment but I’ll have to either make it smaller (less cabbage) or use a lighter green like spinach or arugula. I’m cool with that though. This morning’s cabbage salad bowl was cabbage, 2 eggs, 2 slices of bacon and a tablespoon of Primal Kitchen Chipotle Lime Mayo.
Lunch was leftovers from last night’s fajitas. Steak and veggies, eaten cold. Easy peasy!
For dinner I’m making up a big bag of cauliflower rice to go along side a burger without the bun, topped with avocado.
The Keto Reset bonanza will begin tomorrow. Can’t wait!
For more on Mark Sisson’s books and products, check these out. I highly suggest getting his nutritional products from Thrive Market because the prices there are by far the best.
In October 2019, our relationship with Thrive Market changed. They decided to put their marketing dollars in avenues outside of podcasting but we still think they’re a good choice if you’re looking to save money on health & personal care products.
My favorite Primal Kitchen products include:
Primal Kitchen Chipotle Lime Mayo
Primal Kitchen Sea Salt Macadamia Bar
Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil
Others include:
Primal Kitchen Salad Dressings
Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil Mayo
You can find them on Amazon here if Thrive Market doesn’t deliver in your area.