DW's primal journal

Discussion in 'Survival of the Fittest' started by ditch witch, Mar 7, 2014.


  1. ditch witch

    ditch witch I do stupid crap, so you don't have to

    I've been toying with the idea of going primal for a while. What's held me back wasn't the idea of abandoning pasta or bread or sugar. I never really eat any of that anyway. Sodas are a rare, once a month thing and I don't do processed foods. No sugar pop cereal, no frozen lasagna, no pizza. Ok, macNcheese but that's once or twice a month.

    It was the idea of adding fruit and veggies to the diet. I told someone the other day, Yard Dart I think, that I'm 100% carnivore. Gimme the steak, you can have the potato, broccoli, salad, whatever. My arteries probably look like string cheese. And I KNOW that the times I've forced myself to add fruit and veg to the menu I've felt a hundred times better. But it's like a nasty circle... feel like crap, eat fruit and veg, feel a lot better, go back to eating 100% meat, cheese, & dairy.

    I feel like shit and have for years. No energy, sluggish, zero motivation. A lot of it is attributable to chronic back pain, but pinched nerves don't explain why I can sleep 14 hours and still want to sleep more. I spend the bulk of my day on the couch, writing on my laptop.

    The Mr. is a reluctant participant. Take away his mashed/fried/baked taters, angel hair pasta, cherry Coke Zero, and he ain't a happy man. However, he's put on an extra 10 (*cough* 20 *cough) pounds over the holidays so he's willing to go along to a point. I'm sure he'll still be Sonic'ing for lunch.

    So yesterday was a banana for breakfast... lunch was green curry scrambled eggs with tomato, portobello mushroom, pak-choi, onion, bell pepper, and coconut oil. Dinner was a chicken, artichoke and fennel fricasee that turned out really well. And then the Mr. broke out a frikkin Edwards frozen Turtle Pie he'd picked up on the way home.

    Cue record scratch.

    Today breakfast was a banana and shot of carrot juice. Lunch was a salad of fresh picked Romaine, shredded cheddar, a chopped hard boiled egg, and a tablespoon of flax seed. Sea salt, cracked pepper, no dressing. Had another hard boiled egg for a snack, along with a mandarin orange. Dinner will be honey roasted beets, grilled boneless pork chops w bacon, and not sure what else. I have some bell peppers I need to use, may throw them on the grill too. The Mr. probably won't touch the beets... he fails to see the entertainment value in their aftermath.

    As far as exercise goes, yoga, pilates and free weights for now. I walk the dogs, but there's only so far you can make a Chihuahua walk and their run is barley a brisk walk for me, heh.
     
  2. Yard Dart

    Yard Dart Vigilant Monkey Moderator

    Welcome to the club DW!!! You will notice many changes including additional energy, better sleep and more motivation. I look forward to hearing how it goes for you and the Mr. I still miss many things and the cravings due take time to adjust to. Once you start hearing your body talk to you in regards to needing fuel in the tank....that is a great thing.
     
    ditch witch likes this.
  3. Sapper John

    Sapper John Analog Monkey in a Digital World

    We are happy to have you aboard DW! It will be worth every bit of the effort!
     
    ditch witch likes this.
  4. cdnboy66

    cdnboy66 Monkey++

    Attagirl!!,
    Imma live vicariously through you and the others for a bit yet....
    Because I have a slight addiction to potatoes ....:oops:
     
    Tully Mars, kellory and Yard Dart like this.
  5. ditch witch

    ditch witch I do stupid crap, so you don't have to

    I have a massive addiction to chai tea lattes... kinda forgot about that until this morning. :/ I make the concentrate myself, black tea steeped with cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, ginger, black peppercorns, cardamom, star anise, honey and cloves, so that's all ok I guess, but it's also got a chunk of palm sugar in it and I don't know if that fits in. It isn't refined white sugar but still sugar.

    Eating breakfast, 2 eggs (over hard bust the yolk) fried in coconut oil, a handful of sugar snap peas I picked out of the grow beds, and a mandarin orange. Put out some ribeyes to thaw... the Mr. gets them uncut from our butcher, dry ages the hunk 'o meat for 21-22 days, then cuts, seasons, and freezes 2 packs. They ain't grass fed, can't find that around here, but at least they were on pasture and not feed lotted or implanted.
     
  6. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    [fnny] You cracked me up with that one.

    Congratulations Ditch witch! Sounds like you are off to a great start. Your lunch sounded amazing.
     
  7. ditch witch

    ditch witch I do stupid crap, so you don't have to

    Moto, he not only ate them, he ate half the bowl. I wasn't sure why until I heard him snickering this morning on the way to work. Asked him what up. The machine shop guys work half days on Saturday but the office is empty. He was going to use the office ladies' bathroom as soon as he got to work, leave them a little horror show for Monday. (trust me, they deserve it)

    It's 10:30 am and I'm hyperactive and frigging starving, to be honest.
     
    Motomom34 likes this.
  8. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    Hyperactive?! Go for a prance LOL. The starving thing I can relate to. I altered my eating and was so hungry and depressed, maybe it was withdrawal symptoms.
     
  9. ditch witch

    ditch witch I do stupid crap, so you don't have to

    We're going to Amarillo as soon as the Mr. gets home from work. Get me out of the house before I go nuke some cheddar.
     
  10. ditch witch

    ditch witch I do stupid crap, so you don't have to

    Lunch was romaine lettuce w/ some leftover smoked chicken I forgot was in the fridge.

    Dinner tonight. Ribeye, dry aged 21 days, lightly smoked over pecan then cooked filthy rare. Mustard greens sauteed in bacon grease with onions and garlic, then simmered in homemade chicken stock with homegrown crushed red chili until cooked down. One mandarin orange.
    I did carve that vein of fat out of the steak.
    Steak mustard greens mandarin.

    I ain't posting weight... but if the scale starts to drop I'll post the minus.
     
  11. ditch witch

    ditch witch I do stupid crap, so you don't have to

    I been busy today. Actually felt pretty lively for a change. Whether that's due to change in diet or the sun being out I don't know but I don't care. Nice not to feel exhausted five minutes after I get out of bed. Cleaned the rabbit house, cleaned up the yard. Called my old yoga instructor who does private sessions at his house. He's familiar with my back issues. Spent some time with him working on rebuilding my core strength and focusing on spine flexibility. Ten minutes and I felt like I was going to puke.... remember doing too many situps for those Presidential Fitness days back in school? Yeah, like that. My abs are still grumbling.

    The Mr. is out of town as of noon today, off to Dallas with a bunch of his buds to watch a Stars game. Love the man, but he's a hell of a bad influence when it comes to food (and I'm a bad enough influence on myself so I don't need help), so for the next two days I don't have to worry about him eating a massive bowl of buttered popcorn next to me on the couch, or coming home with another frozen pie. Or Peeps. He'll be back late Tuesday night, and then Wednesday morning early we're heading for Colorado to pick up the still I bought last month. That is a whole barrel of headache in itself. Vacation for us means F.O.O.D. Eat out, snacks in the car, pub crawls, endless Starbucks lattes. I've gotten online to scope out the landscape, hoping to steer us towards places I can eat without being an asshole "Um yeah could you make that with butter? Does that have gluten in it? They aren't cooking with veg oil back there are they?" I'm going to make up some primal snackies to take along but our hotel doesn't have a fridge in the room and we won't have room for a cooler AND the still so a bit limited. I got us a hotel near downtown so the idea is we'll be walking everywhere instead of driving. Maybe that'll offset any bubble tea I break down and buy.

    I'm freaking hungry. A lot. I go to bed early so my stomach doesn't have time to demand late night snacks. I want my chai tea latte and my nuked cheese.

    Breakfast: 2 egg omelet with mushroom, bell pepper, onion, and leftover smoked chicken breast. 2 big strawberries and some blackberries.
    Lunch: I took a pic before I mushed it all up, prettier that way. 2 hard boiled eggs, 1 avocado, sprinkling of smoked paprika, pink Himalayan salt, and fresh cracked black pepper. 1 "primal biscuit", found on Pinterest. Coconut flour, coconut oil, little bit of shredded cheddar, baking soda, 4 eggs (damn I've been in the eggs today). Surprisingly good!
    Dinner: Roasted baby 'bella mushrooms with a garlicky balsamic vinegar marinade. Oven baked pork steak, just salt n pepper on that. I felt dirty eating that hunk of fat on the side, but it was salty, crispy goodness, heh.
    And a handful of snow peas I picked while messing with the grow beds.

    breakfast. lunch. Dinner.
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2014
  12. ditch witch

    ditch witch I do stupid crap, so you don't have to

    Scale says I've lost 3.6 pounds since same time March 5.
    I don't intend to go looking for it.

    Today I'm making road trip snackies, plus tomorrow's breakfast since we're leaving uber early and if I know my husband he'll be wanting to hit Sonic before we head out. Making a few of those coconut flour biscuits and fried up some bacon, and have some hard boiled eggs for in the morning. Going to make some sweet potato chips fried in coconut oil for car snackies, and take some strawberries and blackberries. I always take a gallon tea pitcher and tea bags whenever we travel, still need to pack that.

    I been hitting the bacon, heh. Yesterday started off with 4 pieces of bacon, some blackberries and some watermelon. Oh, and one of those biscuits I made the other day, the coconut flour ones. Lunch was an avocado, 2 hard boiled eggs, and another biscuit (next time I'm cutting that recipe in 1/4). Dinner was a left over pork steak reheated, with baby bella shrooms, bell pepper, and onions sauteed in bacon grease. And breakfast today is 4 pieces bacon, 2 strawberries and some blackberries.

    Food Pr0n!
    Breakfast yesterday. dinner last night. breakfast.
     
    Last edited: Mar 11, 2014
  13. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    Did you say you bought a still? o_O
     
    ditch witch likes this.
  14. ditch witch

    ditch witch I do stupid crap, so you don't have to

    Yeah I bought one from Mile High Distillery last month. They would have delivered it but we wanted to get out of town for a few days and Denver isn't too far to drive.
     
  15. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    Is moonshine on the Primal diet?
     
  16. ditch witch

    ditch witch I do stupid crap, so you don't have to

    I don't drink, actually. On rare occasions, like July 4th or New Years, I might have a margarita or something. I never developed a taste for alcohol, not beer, not anything. I drank a LOT in college, but the motivation wasn't the taste and as I got older and a lot less stupid, I pretty much quit.

    We didn't buy it for me.

    ******
    Posted 3/18 but somehow ended up on this older post. :/

    I knew I was in for a rough ride when I looked in the back seat and spied family sized bags of Doritos in multiple flavors, sackfulls of Slim Jims, a can of EZ Cheese, and a bag of Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies. Oh sure I had brought my own snackies, a hard boiled egg, some chopped avocado, a few handfuls of homemade sweet potato chips, but soggy chips are a poor substitute for taco flavored Doritos. Six hours of smelling and hearing the processed, greasy goodness being noshed on was more than I could bear.

    Which is why I took 2 Benendryl before we left. Oh I know, most people would man up and feel all smug and self-righteous eating their healthy snacks. Not me. Give me antihistamines. Sleep is the only coping mechanism I got when someone next to me is snapping into a Slim Jim.

    Fortunately the restaurants were kinder to me than my husband. From lime dill salmon with roasted red pepper and spinach to jerk pork I managed to stick to the plan for the most part and come back from our trip no fatter than usual. Scale says a pound lighter but I can get three different readings from that thing just by getting on and off it three times in a row.

    Today's menu started off with a small handful of pumpkin seeds and a slice of watermelon, followed by avocado egg salad for lunch. Tonight is pork steaks with roasted mushrooms and peppers. I actually mapped out the week's dinners.
    Tuesday - Pork steak with garlic roasted mushrooms and peppers
    Wednesday - Shrimp avocado tomato onion salad... in taco shells for him, straight up for me
    Thursday - Smoked chicken quarters w cheesy mashed califlower
    Friday - Corned beef w roasted baby carrots... and potatoes for him
    Saturday - Steaks
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2014
    kellory and Motomom34 like this.
  17. ditch witch

    ditch witch I do stupid crap, so you don't have to

    Been doing 20 minutes of yoga 2-3 times a week. I managed to pull a muscle in my back over the weekend doing it but it's finally easing up now. We were going to go walking at the high school track last night but dust storms made it impossible. Actually had emergency weather alerts for dust storms for the last two days, which is a first. The constant hunger has finally subsided. It's 10:30 am and I haven't eaten anything... just not hungry. :) I'm a lot more alert too.

    Breakfast: Tea
    Lunch: Salad, butterhead lettuce w/ hardboiled egg, bacon, little shredded cheddar, flax seed, no dressing
    Dinner: Lime shrimp salad
    Snack: pumpkin seeds

    Down 5.4 pounds since March 5.
     
  18. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    I am so proud of you. I admire how dedicated you are and that your were able to stick with your plan while Doritos were in the car.
     
    ditch witch likes this.
  19. ditch witch

    ditch witch I do stupid crap, so you don't have to

    Did ten min basic stretching and ten minutes yoga this morning. Actually shocked myself at how far backwards I could bend... two weeks ago I was lucky to lean back. Don't think I'll be doing back walkovers any time soon but it's a big, and welcome, improvement. I've got a DVD with a couple of 10 minute core strengthening routines and another one online that is specific for back pain relief. The goal is to do all three every day, first thing in the morning, noon, and late afternoon. The back pain one is pretty easy, the core building ones not so much.

    The Mr. went shopping yesterday before he came home from work. Briskets were on sale and he's been wanting to smoke one so he got one. He also got a lot of junk that we never keep in the house, including the lovely backdrop to my breakfast here.

    breakfastWTF.

    Spaghettios? Seriously? Who over 10 eats that crap? Just for that, he's getting mashed cauliflower for dinner. I *was* going to make him some mashed 'taters but that bag of nacho cheese Doritos demands the man suffers. I have zero interest in friggin canned slop but Doritos are second to Munchos on my list of cant-stop-snacking. It's why I never buy them. Guess I'm cleaning house today. Anything to keep busy.

    Tossed some chicken quarters in brine to soak for the day.
    brining chicken.
    Will toss them on the Traeger that's still in the garage (heh) to smoke 'n roast for dinner, and making this cheesy mashed cauliflower to go with it.

    Breakfast: 100g blueberries, 2 strips bacon, iced tea
    Lunch: Salad: 2c butterhead lettuce, 2 strips crumbled bacon, 1 chopped hardboiled egg, 1T flax seed, 1 oz shredded sharp cheddar, 1 avocado. iced tea
    Dinner: 1 chicken quarter (dark) WITH THE SKIN (omg oh noz!), 1 c mashed cheesy cauliflower, iced tea
    Snacks: roasted, salted pumpkin seeds

    Scale say down 1 more pound, which makes 6.4 pounds lost. Yes Moto I know, I'm not supposed to be obsessively hopping on and off the damn thing. I promise it gets hidden from me starting Monday.
     
  20. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    STEP AWAY FROM THE SCALE!!!!!

    :)
     
    kellory, ditch witch and BTPost like this.
  1. runswithdogs
  2. Dunerunner
  3. Ganado
  4. cschattner
  5. Yard Dart
  6. Dunerunner
  7. Ganado
  8. DarkLight
  9. 3M-TA3
  10. Ura-Ki
  11. GrayGhost
  12. runswithdogs
  13. runswithdogs
  14. runswithdogs
  15. runswithdogs
  16. AD1
  17. Bigfoot1986
  18. melbo
  19. hot diggity
  20. hot diggity
survivalmonkey SSL seal        survivalmonkey.com warrant canary
17282WuJHksJ9798f34razfKbPATqTq9E7