Well, my Precision Nutrition package arrived in the mail quite quickly. I spent the weekend reading the materials, learning the “habits” involved, reviewing the recipes, and generally being overwhelmed. This is a nutrition program, so it’s all about what to eat (and when to eat it). Lots of veggies, not much carbs. Luckily, they do include a shopping list in their Quick Start Guide, so my weekend included a trip to the farmer’s market.
I decided I would start “officially” on Monday this week (yesterday), and only spend the weekend experimenting a little bit with the foods and rules. I think that was a good idea, since it gave me an idea of what’s going to be involved in sticking to the plan, without the guilt of not sticking to it. (It was also a good idea since we went to Udupi Palace for lunch on Sunday.)
flickr: Ikayama
The cooking is going to be a challenge. The plan recommends 5-6 meals a day of protein, veggies and healthy fats. I’ve been eating 5-6 times a day, but not real meals – some of my “meals” were really just snacks that didn’t include all of the required components. They suggest cooking up multi-serving batches of things so that you can just grab what you need each morning and take it to work with you. This is sensible, but already, I seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time on food preparation. I imagine I’ll get the hang of it soon, streamline my processes and get more efficient.
The plan includes many recipes, which is great. I’m not terribly creative, and I never know what to add to the basic foods to make them actually taste interesting. So far, the recipes I’ve tried have been great (including the shake with kale in it, believe it or not).
flickr: Salim Virji
Measuring progress is an important part of the program, so I’ve ordered a set of skin-fold calipers. We’ll see how that goes when they arrive.
I guess the final step is to get involved in the accompanying on-line community. The plan includes one year of access to their forums (as well as other member-only resources, like exercise videos, articles, etc.) They strongly encourages members to become involved in the discussions, to post about progress, to ask and answer questions, to encourage others, and to benefit from the encouragement of others. I think this might be the biggest challenge for me. I’m not much of a “joiner” and I don’t usually get involved in personal discussions with strangers on the internet.
But, you never know. I’ll give it a try…