The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health and boundless energy (Primal Blueprint Series)

CUSTOMER REVIEW



My husband can't eat gluten and I ran across this book while doing my endless research on grains, inflammation and diet. This book is wonderful in many ways, but I'm going to focus my review on the information the book covers on grains and why we shouldn't be eating them. Give it chance. Don't immediately think this is the Atkins diet only with organic foods. Don't roll your eyes and think that this whole "gluten-free" thing you keep hearing about is some trend that the celebrities are talking about. This book spells out what grains do to us. Even though we had removed wheat from our diet, we had really just replaced it with a lot of corn products and other seemingly "safe" grains. We were overweight, always hungry, and my husband had a lot of pain throughout his body - just mysterious aches and pains everywhere. I was beginning to think we needed to get to a fibromyalgia specialist or a pain management doctor. I kept hanging onto this book and after several weeks of prodding, I finally got hubby to agree to give me a month on this diet. It was not an easy sell because he had already given up so many favorite foods by going gluten free, but I finally got him to say "yes." I cleaned out the pantry, made a shopping list, bought the food and we started in mid-January. Now we are in early March and we've both lost about twenty pounds each. Attention Ladies - the belly fat came off -six inches worth off my waist (I'm 49-not easy to do). But that is not why I love Mark Sisson and this book - not at all. I love it because the body-wide pain my husband had is nearly gone. He said he feels better than he has since he was a young man. I am so grateful to Mark Sisson because I was days away from looking into prescription pain relief for my husband as he deteriorated before my eyes. I hope some day I can meet Mr. Sisson and shake his hand. This morning as I left for work, my husband was bopping around the kitchen, making breakfast and looked happy and healthy. A few weeks ago he was hobbling around like an old man. His mother called me crying when she saw him walking from his car into her apartment building because she said he looked 80 years old.

Do yourself a favor and give it a month. Many people say the foods on this diet are expensive, and it is a shock to buy organic produce and meat, but a week or two into the diet, you are just not very hungry and I have found that I actually spend less on groceries. I buy grass-fed ground beef and large packs of organic chicken from Costco. We eat loads of organic salad, broccoli and kale. If we have a sweet craving we eat a little dark chocolate. Even if you can't buy totally organic - just apply the principles in the book and avoid the sugar and grains and you will feel like a new person.

Bottom line - we both feel great and my husband's pain is soon to be a thing of the past. It's great to have smaller pants, but it's even greater to have our health improved in such a short period of time.

UPDATE: September 2012 - my husband and I continue to shrink. This is the first time I have ever lost more weight than him (40 pounds)and that's just because he eats more fruit smoothies than I do. The big news is that my husband's bloodwork has completely changed in the time since I wrote the original review. Cholesterol dropped over 40 points, good cholesterol went up and triglycerides went down. CRP (inflammation) went down under 1 which means my husband is out of danger in terms of cardiac risk. This time last year my husband was in daily pain, couldn't remember anything and was being treated by a cardiologist. My husband's doctor told him he would never be able to turn his cholesterol around without statin drugs. This month, when the doctor reviewed my husband's labs he was amazed. He said, and I quote "what was the name of that book again?" This way of eating has changed our lives in ways I could not have imagined - we have so much more energy, brain fog is gone, more new pants for me, more inches off my waist, and people who haven't seen us for a while say we look 20 years younger. This plan takes commitment, but if you truly clean out the junk foods (grains) in your house and hang in there to get through the initial cravings, you will never look back. It is such a relief to never be hungry and not have to always think about food. If you are heading down the heart attack path of high cholesterol and your doctor is saying you have to get on statins - do this instead. If you have pain from arthritis or fibromyalgia, try this. It is truly life changing.