DW's primal journal

I have family that raise for Tyson's ... they dont use hormones, the antibiotics they are guilty of but not hormones.

 

I stand corrected. Selective breading got a 400% growth over 50 years

The Truth about “Hormone Free” Chickens | The Truth About Agriculture

I agree with DW about the factory farm conditions.

 

Alright, where are you!? Need to see some activity of your fingers on here too.

I have a recipe for you from Mark Sission's Primal Blueprint cookbook; Quick & Easy Meals. Yes, I bought all the books and have been using them. This is one of our favorites:

Spice Rubbed Pork Chops
3 tbsp butter
1 tsp ancho chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 1 inch thick pork chops
8 carrots, peeled and cut in half lengthwise

Heat grill to medium high heat

Melt butter and mix in spices and salt. Drizzle half the butter over the carrots, tossing the carrots with your hands to make sure they are thoroughly covered. Brush the remaining butter over both sides of the pork chops.

Char pork chops and carrots for five minutes on each side, then move them away from direct heat (with charcoal) or turn the heat down to medium (gas grill) and cover the grill for an additional three minutes. The carrots are probably fairly tender at this point and can be removed from the grill. The pork may need a few more minutes.

Sprinkle pork and carrots with sea salt to finish.

I usually do this on the stove and pan fry the pork chops. My wife isn't a fan of carrots so I don't usually make them at all but I like carrots and think this would be a good pairing. We have made these regularly since our first try over a year ago and the combination of cumin and cinnamon is a surprise. I would never have thought to mix these two. I have altered the recipe to pan fry by patting the chops dry and sprinkling the spices on 30 minutes in advance of cooking. (I don't use any salt.) I pan fry with either olive oil or a little butter and take it slow so as not to burn and will cover between flipping the chops. I figure you could throw the carrots into the pan with just a little more butter while cooking the chops and they would finish together. I remove the cover from the pan and finish a few minutes uncovered to cook off the liquid. These have become one of our favorites, especially in the winter when the weather makes it tough to grill.

 

I was in self-witness protection, hidden away from mirrors and potentially unzippable clothing on a remote couch with a PS4 and an endless plate of natchos. Let's just not talk about what that's done to me.

Since I cannot get any sort of motivation or cooperation from my decidedly worse half, I have enlisted the services of a whip massa, aka "Personal Trainer". The suffering begins just as soon as I get a membership to the gym she uses. This woman does chin ups with her 4 year old daughter hanging off of her legs, and pushups from a headstand position. Her abs look like a row of middle fingers, all aimed directly at me. She specializes in "functional fitness", which looks like a lot of tire throwing and jumping on top of things, and no doubt will leave me in the fetal position after the first session.

The Mr went shopping and came home with rice krispy treats, pretzel chips, some sort of chex party mix, popcorn, white bread, baloney, hot dogs, and defiance. I may be single before the month is out. Or facing homicide charges. Place your bets now.

This is on my menu for tomorrow night. IDK what tonight is, probably a big bowl of regret.

 

I can't move.
10 am. Personal Trainer. Big ropes and a sled that she gleefully added more weight to after the first time I shoved it across the room, and squats on boxes, and a heavy ass ball.
Crawling to the couch now.

I had planned to grill a turkey breast and some asparagus for dinner. Wonder if the Mr will bring the grill to the couch for me...

 

Only you @ditch witch would hire the toughest personal trainer to start with. You probably should have started with prancing first... Hahaha....

 

Your day sounds like the start of some of the training days the cute little ladies we had as aerobic trainers in the Marine Corps would come up with. Bowling pins? .. really? Is that all you've got? By the time they were done with their routine all of us big tough Marines could barely lift our own arms, let alone the bowling pins. The cute little ladies transformed before our eyes from average looking attractive young ladies into some sort of primal amazon women with no neck, flushed red skin and knotted muscle with veins popping out all over them.

Is this the look you are going for with this personal trainer?

My routine today was grueling enough. 0510, turn off alarm. Repeat at 0515, 0530....and 0545. 0550, hop on the scale. Still two pounds over normal max. Maybe the extra incline/decline push-ups? Make my buttery Primal omelet with cheese, sausage and too much onion. Hit the shower. The mirror is telling me not to sweat what the scale is saying. Report to work at 0800. Get more coffee. Start work about 0815. Oh, it's lunch time already? Plenty of heavy work all day... they should pay me more for my magic touch. This habanero cheese is for kids. Hair cut, none off the top, please. Whew, what a day...I'm exhausted! Sitting on the porch contemplating planks or squats and wondering how much protein there is in a June bug? Maybe I can limp inside and get another beer.

Hope you recover quickly.

 

It has been 24 hours since she crawled to the couch.....

@hot diggity Excellent post, I love the energy you have. That omelet sounds really good. Have not made one in ages. Thanks for reminding me how good they are for you.

 

@hot diggity , yeah, pretty much.

I wasn't sore this morning, but I am now. I thought a 9:40 AM yoga class would help work the stiffness out. It did, until they had us do 20 minutes of squatty poses IDK the names of. Prob not the best choice after the squat fest of 4-27. Doing nothing until 10 AM Monday.

Grilled grass fed ribeye steaks and diced up some zucchini, sautes in butter, for dinner. Going to make a turkey meatloaf with a cherry glaze tomorrow night. Hoping it turns out good because the Mr loves meatloaf but I'm trying to get away from the usual sugar filled BBQ sauce-y glaze he's used to.

 

So I didn't make the meatloaf last night. Will do it later this week. Made salmon w parsnips and asparagus with a lemon caper sauce instead.



Pretty simple to make, actually. Posting the recipe tho I learned from a previous making that the instructions give you ok parsnips and overcooked asparagus and salmon, plus I do it on the pellet grill so oven results may be different. I put the parsnips in @350 for 10 minutes, then add asparagus, set salmon skin side down on top of veg, add sauce, give it another 15 minutes. Done. The recipe is also made for 8 servings, with extra salmon for leftovers the next day so adjust accordingly.


Meet with trainer tomorrow morning, 10 am. It's snowing outside ATM so just chilling out today with my besties, couch and playstation.

 

Snowing yesterday. 75F today.

30 minutes with, as it turns out, a former marine. Ahh, that explains a lot.

I am my own worst enemy. She has me do something and then is like oh that's much too easy for you so move your feet/arms/body this way so it feels like torture! If I were smart I'd pretend to be struggling to do anything at all. My pride/ego will be the death of me.

Afterwards I went to the pool for a "Water Wellness" class which is mostly old people, including one who gets there in a scooter. Which, hey, good for them. I wanted the class to help stretch out after being wrecked with the trainer. Five minutes in I'm surrounded by well meaning old ladies telling me how to lose weight (drink vinegar, don't use salad dressing, never eat after 5, in case you were wondering) and how I'll really feel this water class the next day. LOL ladies, I just lunge walked up and down a room while holding a big weight over my head, followed by a rowing machine, then steps up and down on an uncomfortably tall box, then overhead lifts, then something like reverse pushups on some strap handled abomination, then all again, and again. Pretty sure it's not this floaty class that's gonna kick my ass in the morning. That plus whirlpool, I'm feeling pretty good ATM. Tomorrow will no doubt tell another tale.

Brekkie was a cup of just made bone broth, a small avocado, quarter cup blueberries, and coffee w cream.
Snackie was a peach and half a primal kitchen dark choco grass fed collegen bar (I'd eat the whole thing but they beez $$$)
Lunch about to be a salad with 2 hardboiled eggs included
Dinner is bacon apple smothered porkchops from NomNomPaleo... made them before and they're awesome.
Bacon Apple Smothered Pork Chops - Nom Nom Paleo®

six hours later
Dinner is served... there's a big honking pork steak under all that.

 

The kitchen floor is littered with assorted spoons and forks, a spatula, a dish towel, and my pride. Bending over has never been my strong suit due to back issues, but thanks to yesterday my ability to squat to the floor is now compromised as well. Just getting up into the 4x4 proved a challenge. My hamstrings and butt are spitting four letter words like drunken sailors outside a shuttered brothel. It seems what hits the floor will have to wait until the Mr gets home coz I'm wrecked.

I'm also not particularly hungry.
Breakfast: coffee w 1.5T cream, 1c bone broth
Lunch: piece of cheddar, the salad I didn't finish yesterday
Snack: cup of broth, 1/4 pepitas
Dinner: zucchini n chicken with a basil avocado sauce. Recipe below.



Scale says down 8 pounds... since that's 8 pounds I'd put back on while being laid up and screwing around I'm not counting it towards the overall total which was 72. *sigh*

 

Woke up at 5 am and was wide awake so no hope of going back to sleep. Sitting here now with my iced coffee and arguing with my between-shoulders that if they'd had complaints they should have voiced them yesterday and not waited around until this morning. I'm off the hook until 10:30 AM tomorrow so hopefully everything will suck it up before then. For now, I'm sitting here dreading the strenuous act of bending over to pick up dog food bowls that is scheduled for 9 am.

@Dunerunner posted a sloppy joes recipe a while back but mine's a tad different so I'm posting it now. It makes a bunch, so I put it into a 1 cup measuring cup, then turn that upside down onto a foil lined cookie sheet. Pop into the freezer to freeze, then vac seal into individual pouches. The Mr loves it so it's perfect for packing his lunch, or a quick reheat lunch for myself. Plus it's slow cooker so it's a set it n forget it thing.

Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes
2 lb ground beef ................................1 medium onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped ..................... 1 1/2 c mushrooms, sliced
3 c tomato sauce .............................. 6 oz tomato paste
1/2 T balsamic vinegar ..................... 2 T coconut aminos
1 T Dijon ........................................... 1 T chili powder
1 T apple cider vinegar ..................... 1 clove garlic minced (I use 4, heh)
sea salt/black pepper

Skillet over med-high heat, brown ground beef, add onion and garlic. When the meat is mostly cooked through, toss all into the slow cooker. Add everything else. Mix well. Cover, cook on low 4-6 hours.

Today's plans hopefully include a nap.
Breakfast: coffee, 1.5T cream, 1/4 apple (that apple was huge)
Lunch: bunny leg, pan seared with red wine and onions, and grilled zucchini
Dinner: liver w peppers and onions over cauli-rice


5:50 PM later....
Around 8 AM I got the bright idea to go to the gym and just do flexibility and stretch stuff in the workout pool, then hit the steam room and whirlpool. Figured it'd loosen things up. Everything was going swimmingly (see what I did there ) until I got the bright idea to do some water jogging in the lap pool. Having never been IN the lap pool, I did not realize it was 7 ft deep until I got over to it.

This is where my self destructive ego kicks in. Rather than walk back like a dumbass, I thought, no big, I will just swim a few laps. I mean, there's old people in there swimming like nothing. I can too, right? RIGHT?

After the first lap it was painfully obvious I belonged in the kiddie pool. However, rather than hitching up my dripping spandex and skulking back to the shallow area, I kept going. Couldn't get outdone by grampa in the next lane. Kick back for another lap. And another. And... another.

At this point I'm suspecting grampa is Michael Phelp's grandad. He's not slowing down. OTOH I look like could use some water wings. I wasn't that great of a swimmer when I was in high school. Now I could take lessons from a Corgi. I finally accept that absolutely no one in the building gives a crap if I swim one lap or fifty and return to the warm shallows of the workout pool.

Got home, took a nap, woke up to screaming pecs and lats. On the plus side, my legs finally fell silent, perhaps terrified they too would be subjected to whatever witchery I inflicted upon my upper half. Barely able to pick up my phone, I sent my trainer the text of shame.

I need to reschedule.

Friday. 10:30 am.

 

Last night's dinner turned out pretty good. I never liked liver, so was surprised I liked this. Won't be a regular on the menu, but probably do it a few times a month.

Today
coffee w cream, half an apple
chopped carrots/tomato/broccoli/red bell pepper salad w braised rabbit leg
chicken w garlic broccoli for dinner
couple hardboiled eggs and a piece of cheddar for a snack

Had all my slow cookers making bone broth, just strained off the beef one and the chicken one. Still have one pot full of roasted pig feet making pork broth, will strain that one off tomorrow and have enough broth for a few weeks.

Didn't do anything physical today beyond cleaning the kitchen and laundry. Crossfit tomorrow morning.

 

Yesterday...
The Whip Massa was feeling cruel yesterday. 2 dumbells for squat to overhead dumbells back down to squat back up, you get the idea. 10 each. Then 10 pushups. Then a 2 minute eternity on this medieval torture device called an "S Trainer". 10 more squat to overhead dumbell presses. Then 10 kettlebell swings. Then the S trainer. Then lunge walk the length of the "performance room" and back with kettlebells in each hand. Then S trainer. Round 1 complete. On to Round 2. And Round 3. 30 minutes of this.

The S trainer looks deceptively simple. A manual incline treadmill with some sort of padded bungie cord rigging on it. It wasn't until I stepped on it that I realized how badly it was gonna suck. There's no way to walk on the thing without pushing against the rigging, and since it's not a power treadmill, you're walking uphill while something tries to push you back down. One minute into this Sisyphean task, we go from walk to jog... a speed I'm not entirely familiar with. Thirty seconds, then back down to walk. Another minute, then up to a run. Thirty more seconds, then stop. The activity requires lungs the size of a Budweiser Clydesdale and I'm packing styrofoam peanuts these days. No worries, the Whip Massa assures me. Even the hardcore athletes HATE the S Trainer. "You'll never, EVER see anyone on these unless their trainer is making them get on it," she assures me. I do not feel very assured by this, but don't have the capacity to breathe and complain at the same time.

After 30 minutes of this abuse I staggered off to a quick shower, then into the pool with the geriatrics for another Water Wellness class. After an hour of that, I stayed in the pool for another 15 minutes just running laps around the edges. My knee and hip are on board with water exercise so I figured I'd take advantage of it.

Yesterday's dining included coffee, a quarter of a huge apple, half a dark chocolate grassfed collegen primal kitchen protein bar, 2 cups of bone broth, half a head of cauliflower lightly swabbed with ghee and salt/pepper/garlic then roasted in the oven, a ribeye steak, a piece of sharp cheddar, some roasted parsnips, a few almonds, and probably another piece of cheese that I'm forgetting about.

----------
Today, steak/mushroom/onion/sweet pepper/bacon omelette, coffee breakfast. IDK rest of the day. Mr got a rack of pork ribs about to go on the smoker. I have a lot of leftovers that need eating. Going to weed eat the back yard, clean the house a bit, and then chill. Whip Massa headed to Vegas and won't see her again until next Thursday.

Haven't stepped on the scale. We're not on speaking terms ATM.

 

I am so f-ing tired

30 minutes with trainer. Drag one end of a big ass rope down the length of the room, then pull it all to me... think dragging out and yanking back a 25 pound, 50 ft long garden hose. Hold a heavier-than-last-time medicine ball high over my head, slam to the ground, squat and catch on the bounce, repeat 10 times. Drag the rope to the other end of the room, pull it all in. Pick up a heavier medicine ball, squat, stand up and toss against wall over my head, catch, drop to squat, 10 times. Drag the rope, pull the rope in. Kettlebell swings x 10. Drag the damn rope some more. Bent over dumbbell rows, 20#, 10 each side. Round 1. Times 3.

60 minutes in a water aerobics class, another 20 minutes just running laps in chest deep water.

Had coffee, bone broth for breakfast. Primal Kitchen protein/collagen bar after the gym. Made a salad when I got home around 1, baby spinach, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, piece of bacon, 2 hard boiled eggs, small avocado... ate half. Will finish rest for dinner. Roasting some garlic/salt/peppered oxtail on the grill to go with.

 

I'm rather new on here and just happened on this thread. Thoroughly enjoyable! Informative, educational, hugely motivating and often downright hilarious! Well done and best of luck on your Primal adventure!

 

The Mr is off to a baseball game with his friends so I have the place to myself for the weekend. Going to try some recipes involving food I normally reserve for litter box burials, like brussel sprouts. I feel totally fine after yesterday's workout and the Whip Massa commented that my cardio was hugely improved from our first session 2 weeks ago. Granted that was a low bar, but I'll take it. Next session, Tuesday 10 am. Meanwhile I'm debating if I want to make the 1 hour drive to the gym tomorrow for some pool time, or just fiddle around at home until then.

I do feel a lot better already, whether it's due to eating right again, or the dramatic increase in physical activity, IDK. My skin looks a ton better as well since I started drinking bone broth again. I also picked up some grass fed collagen powder from Thrive Market and have been adding a little of that to my coffee.. sounds horrible but it's tasteless. So much better that I haven't needed to use lotion this week. Between the gym and pool I've been showering 2x a day and that usually dries my already-dry skin out something terrible, but it looks great.

Making Maple Balsamic Roasted Brussel Sprouts tonight.
Maple Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Had coffee with cream and some collagen powder for breakfast. Lunch was a piece of cheddar, a hard boiled egg, piece of bacon, some sauteed zucchini with mushrooms. Have some liver soaking in lemon juice ATM but maybe do that tomorrow and just grill a pork chop or something for dinner. About to get a cup of broth.

FOOD PORN

My cauliflower from the other day. Rubbed with ghee, sprinkled with garlic/pepper/salt, on foil covered cookie sheet @400F for 45 minutes or until it's browned and the florets start to separate. I'm liking the roasted cauli... doesn't stink like the steamed cauli does.


Pan seared bunny legs w mushrooms and onions and some sliced broccoli stems, sauce is ghee, Caprock Winery's Knuckle Bump (red blend), bone broth, and some tapioca starch to thicken. Then a side of broccoli/tomato, carrot salad. IDR when I ate this, was a few days ago.


One of my broth crocks about to get going. Which reminds me, I need to go feed the chickens...