My Story

Hi, I’m Randall.

I’m a husband to my best friend, Kristi, and a father to three daughters.

If you are looking for a chef with a culinary degree, you’re in the wrong place. I’m a graphic designer by day. I might hold my knife wrong, and I definitely chop onions slower than the pros.

But I have been cooking this way since 2011, and I built this site to share the practical, family-friendly recipes that keep us healthy in a busy world.

The “Before”: Desk Jobs & Honeycomb

My Primal story started in December 2011, but the trouble began a few years earlier.

When I got married in 2009, I transitioned from an active college lifestyle (skateboarding everywhere) to a sedentary desk job. My diet didn’t adjust to match. I was fueling a sedentary body with spaghetti, fast-food burritos, and massive tubs of Costco pretzels.

I was a sugar addict. I grew up hating scrambled eggs and preferring three bowls of Honeycomb cereal for breakfast.

In just two years, I went from a skinny 150 lbs to a soft, sluggish 180 lbs. I was experiencing what Mark Sisson calls “insidious weight gain”—it happened so slowly I didn’t notice until none of my clothes fit.

The Turning Point

At the end of 2011, my wife decided we needed a change. She logged onto Amazon and bought a cookbook: Primal Blueprint Quick and Easy Meals.

When it arrived, I picked it up out of curiosity. That led me down a rabbit hole. I bought Mark Sisson’s guide, The 21-Day Total Body Transformation, and decided to commit for just three weeks.

The results were undeniable. After 21 days, the brain fog lifted. Six months later, I had dropped 30 pounds, returning to my college weight of 150 lbs.

I didn’t lose the weight by starving myself. I lost it by reading Mark’s Daily Apple, understanding the science of ancestral health, and swapping processed junk for real food.

“Are You Still Primal?”

Friends still ask me this question constantly. It’s funny to me because I don’t look at Primal as a “diet” anymore. It’s just how I live.

Once I understood how industrial seed oils, processed sugars, and gluten caused inflammation, the idea of “stopping” never crossed my mind. I don’t have Celiac disease or an autoimmune condition; I just prefer feeling energized over feeling sluggish.

Today, 14 years later, I am still 150 lbs. I still prioritize sleep. I still get out in the sun. And yes, I still eat this way.

Why This Blog Exists

I created That’s So Primal to organize the recipes that actually work for my family.

It’s a collection of my favorites—some are tweaks on classics, some are family experiments. My goal is to show you that you don’t need to be a gourmet chef to feed your family nutrient-dense, delicious meals.