This stuff works -- 24 days in.

It's day 24 of my primal eating challenge, and I don't want to say

that it has been "easy," because that makes me sound smug about it and

I really don't want to sound that way because I am fully aware of some

of the absolutely nightmarish sugar and grain addictions that some

people confront as a part of these challenges. It's not quite kicking

heroin, but it can be a very big deal.

But for me it's been, at worst, moderately annoying at times. The only

things I have repeatedly passed up on that I would normally consume

are booze, dark chocolate and pre-workout protein powder (no, not

together...heh) ; oh, and I suppose the odd black bean here and there.

In other words, I really don't eat gluten anyway. This primal-eating

journey of mine has been a long slow burn that started last year,

rather than a turn-on-a-dime reversal of long-entrenched bad habits

just for the challenge.

It was also spectaularly well-timed, coming just after I got home from

two weeks in Germany with Jamie where we ate and drank gluten-y things

that we never would otherwise.

So what have I learned? A lot, actually.

Despite spending some of the challenge battling with (and fighting

off) a sinus infection/cold that normally would have had me way down

and out, I feel really effing good being this uber-clean about my

eating. My energy levels are higher and I need less caffeine than

usual to get through a day. I think my immune system is doing really

well, because I know a lot of people who got hit pretty hard with this

cold. I didn't.

I also learned that while dairy is often a great source of good fat

for me, when it is grassfed, I need to stay away from it altogether if

trying to battle a cold. As soon as I made that switch mid-challenge,

the evil cold-induced snot began to dissipate.

My Raynaud's, as I told you already, appears to be gone. When I drink

post-challenge, I need to be smart about it and do it in ways that

don't make it a giant insulin spike, which will trigger Raynaud's

again. I also need to see how that goes, and be realistic in my future

evaluation of whether resuming alcohol intake, even through "smart"

drinking, means the return of Raynaud's anyway. If so, some tough

choices may have to be made.

Likewise -- and this is one I haven't discussed here in a while -- a

lifetime of sometimes-on/sometimes-off acid reflux (GERD) seems to

have gone completely by the wayside as well. I hadn't been taking

Prevacid for much of the time since I went primal last year, just some

occasional antacids, but, in the three months prior to the challenge,

I had re-experienced some GERD and so I restarted the Prevacid, with

little effect, so I added a nighttime Zantac. Then, when I mentioned

it to my doc at a September physical, he had suggested trying *just*

the Zantac, since it is just an antacid rather than a full-on

proton-pump inhibitor (PPI). That did the trick, even amidst the beery

goodness of Deutschland. But then, when I started this challenge, I

skipped some Zantac, and found I didn't even need that. Apparently,

all that stuff about reevaluating alcohol in regards to Raynaud's

applies to GERD too.

I also learned some super-micro/tweak-ish things about eating. I

mentioned at one point that fruit ingested immediately pre-workout

causes the glycolytic demands of the workout to kickstart your liver

to use fructose as an energy source. That's good, and it works well.

While I miss my pre-workout protein shakes, I think that if I revisit

them post-challenge, I am going to keep eating fruit pre-workout as

well. I also am not going to eat much of it otherwise. I already knew

that fruits and veggies are not interchangeable, but I learned it

again this month. If I eat too much fruit in a setting other than

immediately pre-workout, it moderately spikes my insulin. That's bad

news, and it makes me crazy.

I also learned that good carbs like sweet potatoes and even

occasionally white rice are good for me all the time. Yeah, they are a

righteous bump toward recovery if ingested in the hour post-workout,

but for a guy like me, who is lean enough and doesn't want to lose

weight. I could eat 'em at nearly every meal and feel great. In fact,

I think I feel better when I do.

Additionally, I became aware of a strong preference I have for

grassfed ruminants (beef and lamb) over other meat sources. Yeah, pork

is delicious and I definitely eat some of it, and salmon is awesome if

wild-caught, but I don't think I ate chicken once yet during the

challenge, and I haven't missed it. Sure, I'll eat it sometimes, but a

steady intake of grassfed beef and, especially, lamb has me flying

high.

In the gym, I haven't been a rockstar lately, even by my own meager

standards, but I blame that on my cold hanging around just enough to

screw with my sleep. I've been fine, just not PRing alll over the

place. Hell, but even with the beginnings of a cold, I nearly PR'd my

"Helen" time (one effing second!!) and I have come close in some other

workouts, just nothing spectacular. But let's be serious, no one ever

used the word "spectacular" to describe my typical gym performance, so

even the ability to hang on through a cold with decent workouts has

been a really good thing, and a direct result of good eating. I am

curious to see how my post-challenge time comes in on a gym-specific

benchmark workout that we are all doing on November 14.

All in all, this challenge has been a very very good thing so far. I

have a week to go and am hoping for some more positive revelations in

that time. Let's go.