The 4-Hour Body - 2 Weeks on, good progress so far
As some of you may know, I’ve been reading the book The 4-Hour Body, by Timothy Ferriss (ala The 4-Hour Work Week fame) and I have decided to get healthy and follow his research-based recommendations to eat healthy and loose weight. (eliminate crap carbs, eat plenty of quality veggies, animals, and legumes). I previously read his 4-Hour Work Week book, and while it sounds great, I didn’t think it was very realistic for me (or most people for that matter). But his recommendations in his new book are quite realistic. I especially like the alternative to conventional wisdom he presents (based on clinical research) on how Insulin affects fat storage and weight loss, more-so than Calories. To augment what I am learning from this book, I’ve started reading The Primal Blueprint (written by the guy behing Mark’s Daily Apple) which goes into a great more detail on body chemistry and how certain foods affect your chemistry and longterm weight gain, or loss. Like, for instance, did you know that Cholesterol, by itself, may not be all that bad?
“Excessive insulin is also now believed to be a central catalyst in the development of atherosclerosis. Insulin promotes platelet adhesiveness (sticky platelets clot more readily) and the conversion of macrophages (a type of white blood cell) into foam cells, which are the cells that fill with cholesterol and accumulate in arterial walls.” from The Primal Blueprint, Kindle location 1912
The biggest thing I’ve learned from these two books (they really complement each other) is how Grains, both processed and unprocessed, aren’t as healthy as we have been lead to believe. I began my “eating habits change” (I don’t want to call this a “diet” - because of the connotations associated with the term and high rate of failure) 2 weeks ago and have already seen and felt results. I am down almost 6kgs (at least, before yesterday’s cheat day!). I’ll happily stick with this and see how far I can go. My goal: 30 kgs of body fat in 6 months. Each day I feel a more consistant amount of energy throughout the day - most likely a result of bringing my blood glucose/insulin levels into more consistant levels with the sharp reduction of crap carb intake during the day. (Oh and an elimination of weekday beers). This is some of the awesome healthy stuff I’ve been eating: 
