Wed. March 3

"Barbara"

Five rounds, each for time of:
20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Squats

Rest precisely three minutes between each round.

Post total time minus rest (12 minutes)

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HOW TO DRINK IRRESPONSIBLY, YET PRIMAL

Article courtesy of Son of Grok

During my recent “lets get serious” post, a lot of people talked about struggling to stay primal due to consumption of alcohol. Being a health blogger, I can’t straight up condone the heavy consumption of booze but hey… lets all be honest with ourselves. Booze is nice.

While only shown to be healthy is very small quantities (so I wont make that argument yet again here), booze can just plain be fun. It can be relaxing, it can loosen you up and it can enhance a good time. I myself drink booze fairly regularly and occasionally heavily.

Part of the danger of booze is that whole “loosens you up” part. You drink a little.. then you drink a lot… then you start the munchies… then you “head for the border” at the local taco bell at 2:00 in the morning. Until you can get in the habit of being Primally responsible while partying it is always good to go in with a game plan.

Here are some game plan tactics:
1. Know your drink.
Know what you are going to be drinking and stick to only that for the whole night.
2. Carry emergency reserves.
Have primal snacks like nuts or pork rinds with you. Whether in the car, your purse or jacket pocket having snacks like this will help you from straying to the tortilla chips or loaded potato skins. You just need something to hold you over until you get home and can heat up some primal left overs. If you are going to a party, bring the vegetable tray or bowl of nuts. If you have something primal there, you will be less likely to crack.
3. Have food waiting for you at home.
No drunky wants to cook anything more complicated than a frozen pizza (which usually gets left in the oven and burnt anyways). Whether it be leftovers or a purpose prepped meal, make sure you have something easy to grub when you get home and late night taco bell or dollar menus cheesburgers wont seem like quite as much of a necessity.

Now lets cover the drink choices. Everyone knows from the USDA approved food pyramid that alcohol can basically be broken into three basic booze groups (maybe I should have studied harder in high school?).

1. Wine
Wine is delicious, it is sofisticated and it can be quite enjoyable. Wine has even been shown to be healthy in small quantities (darn I just said it didn’t I?). Wine however can be very hard to drink in mass quantities even though it can be done (just ask roger de rok or me). When drunk in mass quantities, wine also has the tendency to roll over in the morning, look at you lovingly… and then kick you right in the temple. Hangover city. Wine is very calorie intensive as well and if drunk in large quantities frequently does have the ability to sabotage your gains.

2. Hard liquor
This is the primal party animal secret weapon and party piece. Toss the sugar filled mixers to the side and take a page from the alcoholics handbook. Find a strong, hard, un-fooferated liquor (at least 80 proof) that you can stand on the rocks and drink to your hearts content. When I want to get my swerve on this is where I go. My poison of choice is a glass of top shelf vodka on the rocks with lime. Roger de Rok’s personal favorite is a gin on the rocks with lime (bleh). You may have to start with sipping but once you adapt to the flavor of your booze of choice, you will be able to put it back no problem. Even though hard liquor is not exactly “primal per say” you can through it back almost limitlessly with next to no calories and virtually no guilt.

3. Beer
Beer is just bad m’kay. We have this belief as Americans that beer is just… well American. The big three beer companies have spent billions.. yes billions of dollars ingraining in us the importance of beer. From High School parties to College to middle aged bars we are taught that beer is the drink of choice. A beer here and there wont kill you but beer is a sure fire way to sabotage all of your progress. There is a reason that they call it a “beer gut”. Beer is light on alcohol, heavy on calories and heavy on grain. Many beers still have the stuff floating in it for goodness sake. There is always light beer but it is flavorless, over filling and well… crappy. Beer can leave you feeling bloated and crappy and leave you actually physically bloated and crappy. Get over your beer addiction. Once you start enjoying fine wines and well crafted hard liquors, you really wont miss the stuff. Some studies have shown that a single glass of beer can give health benefits so if you are going to drink a beer, have a glass of the good stuff you really enjoy (a finely crafted, dark, hard stout would my choice but I don’t even crave that anymore).

Now that you are armed with a game plan and a primally wisened selection of booze… get out there and partay!