Weights

Run all you want, but nothing changes the shape of your body like lifting does.  I haven't lifted in a long time.  Mostly, I don't love doing it.  And it always seems as though I can burn more calories doing aerobic exercise.  Sure, sure, there are articles saying that if you add muscle, you will burn more calories at rest than if you don't add muscle.  But there are articles that point out that you'd have to add A LOT of muscle for that to make a big difference in your metabolism.  But there are benefits.

One is to maintain the muscle you have.  It's easy to lose muscle if you are losing weight.   This is partly because your body doesn't need muscle to support fat that goes away.  Part of it is that if you eat too little, your body will consume muscle faster than fat, because it requires a lot of care and feeding, and fat does not.  (Shock, right?)

But lifting sure makes everything hang better.  My clothes are looser, even though I'm not down much.  I mix it up, and I like about a 15 or 20 minute warm up on the elliptical before I lift.  Then another 25 or so minutes of lifting.  I am getting stronger (I'm keeping track).  And it feels as though I've done something, which I like.  But the clothes!

So, follow the experts' advice.  Do some lifting.  You won't get huge (unless you want to, and that takes work).  But you will look better.  I heard this:  Be thin to look good in clothes.  Be strong to look good naked. 

Primarian

So after several days, nearly a week, here's what I have to say about eating Primarian.  I am rarely ravenous.  Mostly I get hungry enough to realize it's dinner time.  This is good.  I don't know if I feel better physically by getting rid of most flour-based carbs.  Stay tuned for that.  What I do know is that it's really, really hard to get enough calories if you're a large person, as I am.

I believe that you should eat at least your BMR.  Mine is around 2600.  If I were in a coma, the hospital would give me 2600 calories of something, just to keep me alive.  This week, I have eaten a lot of protein, fruits, and vegetables.  At least 1.5 ounces of walnuts and/or almonds a day, too.  And frozen yogurt with frozen fruit (so glad to have rediscovered frozen fruit.  I have had a very hard time hitting 2600.  Other than that, I'm good.

I don't want to lose more muscle than necessary on the way down.  That only compromises one's metabolism.  But I do want to lose.  I've seen some movement on the scale.  It's up and down within a week, but it seems to be on the low side.  This is good.  I've sort of revised my goal to losing another 20-25 pounds before the babies come.  I can do that, right?  August?  That would get me solidly in the xxl range.  I would like this.  It opens up a whole new set of options for buying clothes.  Most mainstream places have xxl clothes for men.

The thing I've decided to do is eat more dairy than would constitute a strictly primarian diet.  Milk is part of farm culture, and there's pretty good evidence that adults shouldn't be drinking or eating dairy anyway.  But it's a decent source of decent calories, so I'm going to stick with it.  Low fat versions, of course, to stay away from saturated fats.  But yeah, I'm keeping that. 

This week I've been around 2300 calories a day.   We'll see how that goes.  My fantasy is that all this protein combined with some weight lifting will keep my muscle where it is.  Cross your fingers.