A New Year's Primal Challenge: Day 2

Day 2:

How are you feeling after Day 1? You might not feel very energetic and/or have a headache. This is normal after coming off of the american high carb/sugar diet or, as Mark Sisson refers to, the SAD (Standard American Diet). During my last challenges, almost everyone who participated said it took them about 4 days to get over these side effects and then they started to feel "great" and "energetic"! So, hang in there. It will only get better:)

Agenda:

1. Continue daily movement today and throughout the rest of the challenge: park farther away from work, take the stairs instead of elevator, take a break every 30-60 min. from your desk job, or take your dog for a walk.
2. Complete a maximum repetitions workout. At the end of the challenge you will do this again to see how you have improved.
3. Eat primally {this is obvious, so I will not put this up on the agenda anymore...it's a given!}
4. Lastly, take a cognitive ability test HERE to compare with at the end of the challenge. I always feel so dumb when I eat sugar/grains and alert when I eat primally, so I am anxious to see my results, too {I indulged in holiday sweets and am feeling a little "dumb" again!}

Take about 5 minutes to find your maximum repetitions of:

• Pushups (Keep body in straight line, hands shoulder width apart, hands and toes on floor, touch chest to ground. To modify, keep knees on floor along with toes.)

• Sit-ups (Put a rolled up towel lengthways or pillow beneath buttocks and back. Put bottom of your feet together to make a diamond with your legs. When you lie back, reach back as far as you can with your hands and then crunch forward reaching as far as you can with your hands to your toes.)

• Pull-Ups or Chair Dips (Unlike the above picture, grip the pull-up bar with the top of your hands facing you, wide grip, pull your body up until your chip is above the bar. For chair dips, take a chair and sit just in front of it by gripping your hands on the edge of the chair. Your body will be in a sitting position just in front of the chair. Dip down as far as you can and then push yourself back up.)

• Plank Holds (Get into the pushup position, hold this position for as long as you can.)

• Squats (Stand shoulder width or a little wider if you have long legs. Keep your arms stretched out in front of you and lower yourself down by pushing your buttocks back, keeping your back flat, and keeping your knees behind your toes and going outward rather than inward. Go as low as you can, preferably below parallel.)

Meal/Snack Ideas:

Breakfast- egg frittata with peppers, onions, and spinach; stuffed squash blossoms; baked stuffed peppers with eggs and bison meat.

Lunch- leftover dinners; cubed avocados, sweet peppers, celery, onions, tomatoes tossed as a salad with lemon juice, olive oil and sea salt.

Dinner- baked salmon with lemon and seasonings of choice (if it's a big salmon, save half and keep frozen to use later for salmon patties); bison meat patties with cooked egg on top.

Snacks- coconut milk, banana, spinach, and berry smoothie.

Don't forget to document:

-how you increased your daily movement
-relaxation techniques tried
-energy level {POOR, AVERAGE, GREAT}
-satisfaction level with meals
-hunger level between meals
-struggles
-benefits

If you haven't done so already, take a 'before' picture and if you are really looking to lose weight, take body measurements/weigh yourself.