DW's primal journal

You had me until the pot of chicken's feet.
More power to ya DW, I really am pullin for ya, but ain't no way I'm eating or drinking broth made from chicken's feet

 

Where do you get all those chickens feet? I have never seen poultry feet so clean. They look abnormal like that.

 

There's an Asian market in the city, sells chicken feet $1.49 a pound. You would not believe how well that stock jelled up after it cooled! Also pig feet cleaned and cut in half, $1.99 a pound, and split beef shank and knuckle bones for .89 a pound. Yeah, I know, ain't grassfed, but grassfed marrow bones are $10.99 a pound here and I just can't spend that for soup bones. They also had wild boar chops the other day. Never saw pork that dark red before.

@Tully Mars you've probably swallowed spiders in your sleep. What's a little chicken foot soup gonna hurt?

About to head to the gym to hit the pool, just as soon as I finish my coffee.

 

My trainer had surgery on one of her feet last Friday, and just texted me to see if we could just reschedule for next week. Apparently the pain meds have her knocked out most of the day. No problem, I'll just hit the water aerobic classes and then the lap pool afterwards. I could say I'll go in the crossfit room and workout with the battle ropes and kettlebells and medicine balls but I'd be lying, ha.

The maple balsamic glazed brussel sprouts I made the other night were meh, but considering the smell of sprouts steaming used to gag me, I suppose "meh" is an improvement. I'm told I did not bake them long enough and that I needed to let them get more crispy. I still have a pound left, so will give them a go tomorrow night.


Tonight I made a "20 minute shrimp n sausage" something or other. Super easy to make and turned out great.
20-Minute Shrimp & Sausage Paleo Skillet Meal Recipe | Paleo Newbie


The powdered gelatin I picked up at Thrive Market is awesome. I've been tossing a tablespoon into my morning coffee, and another into my bone broth. My skin looks a million times better. With the exception of my hip (which I think is nerve damage, not joint issues), my joints feel great, including my one knee that has been loopy for years. I think my nails are growing faster too. I don't get a kickback if you get any, just including the link for anyone who is curious.
Collagen Hydrolysate (Beef Kosher)

Still holding at an 8 pound loss for the past 2 weeks. I'm not unhappy with that. Need to start drinking water again.

 

A trainer having pain issues?
That makes me sad...

Thanks for the Shrimp and Sausage recipe!
Sounds good enough for us fatasses to enjoy!

 

I took the Bruiser for a walk this morning.

While I'm not overly fond of walking for the sake of walking, I figured it'd be a good way to get some extra activity in today as well as burn some of the big boy's energy off. It was 53F and windy when we headed out, which proved a fine incentive to keep up the pace. Once upon a time I had a Dobie I ran with, and perhaps some day I'll run with this guy, but for now we settled for a slower pace around the neighborhood. I need to make this a regular thing. He loves to go out and while he's a gentleman on the leash, he makes it clear he'd appreciate it if I'd get a move on so he can get out of first gear. Took my phone in my jacket pocket, and according to it we were out.... 14 minutes. 1688 steps. Well.... that's unimpressive. Guess we need to go around an additional block next time. The 20 pound ball sucks. The one at the gym bounces a little if you slam it down hard enough, so you can catch it as it's coming up. This one has sand in it. It no bouncie. I slam it down, and then have to squat all the way down to pick it up off the ground.

Cold, windy, and truck is low on diesel, plus trainer still in recovery, so I'm not going to the gym until next Monday. In the meantime I picked up a kettlebell and some 12 and 20 pound medicine balls. Already had sets of dumbbells 5/10/15/20. Just finished 3 sets of 10 lunges with 40# worth of dumbbells, 10 kettlebell swings @25#, 10 20# ball slams (that sounds almost dirty), 10 box step ups (think putting one foot on a box that's knee high, then raising yourself all the way up and then back down without letting the other foot touch the box) each leg, and 10 one arm dumbbell rows @20#. Taking a water break, then will go for 3 sets of flies, shrugs, curls, and overhead extensions, 20# dumbbells except for overheads @15#. I should probably work some planks in there at some point but IDK. For now I think I will go stand outside in the cold and cool off. I'm sweating like a rented mule.

Just now noon, so far just had a bottle of water and coffee w cream, but am hungry so lunch will be a salad: baby spinach, tomatoes, diced carrots, hard boiled egg, with DIY mayo. Cup of bone broth with a T of collagen powder. Thawing some ribeyes for dinner, and will roast a half a head of cauliflower for myself. The Mr will want a baked potato and an ear of corn to go with his.

Last night I did pork steaks on the grill, with mashed potatoes and some peppers/onions/mushrooms sauteed in butter and balsamic vinegar.

 

Have you ever made sauteed brussel sprouts in bacon? I just had some and they were amazing.

 

I did the next batch soaked in bacon grease, maple syrup, garlic salt pepper. Roasted. Meh. Honestly not interested in buying any more in hopes I'll find a way I really like them. Too many other things I can fix instead. I'm of the opinion that if it requires being wrapped in bacon or doused in some sort of sugar to be worth eating, I'll just eat the bacon by itself and call it a day.

Trainer was back in action yesterday, using one of those weird little scooter things that you rest your lower leg on and push about on. It had a basket. I'm going to get some plastic flowers for it, heh. Maybe some sparkly streamers for the handle bars too. 30 minutes of curls, overhead presses, some sort of squat where you squat, come halfway up, back down, then all the way up while holding 30 pounds chest level. Pick up 2, 25# kettlebells from a squat, then walk down to the other end of the building to squat and set them back down, do another exercise, then pick em up and walk back to do something else. TRX suspension thing for idk what you'd call it, hold on, lean back until you're at a 30-40 degree angle to the ground, then pull up like a reverse pullup. S-trainer, which sucks as much as it did the last time. Then 1 hour water aerobics, followed by 20 minutes water running. Then drove an hour home and took an hour nap. My hip still isn't happy about all of this, but it's gone from Dexter to Grumpy Old Men so am thinking the rehab exercises I've been doing in the pool are helping. Finally. Been dealing with this for 2 years and it's worn out its welcome.

The Mr took pity on me and fixed dinner, heh. An obscenely large ribeye of which I was only able to eat half of, and canned french cut green beans w bacon and red peppers.

I need to walk today or do something active, but not feeling particularly motivated this morning. Breakfast was coffee w cream, a hard boiled egg chopped up with some extremely sharp cheddar and a little homemade basil mayo mixed in. Prob a salad for lunch. I have cubed chicken thawed, a pineapple that needs to be used, and a bell pepper, so thinking I'll skewer all that and toss on the grill tonight for dinner.

Scale down 2

 

You are going to pay for that..... feel the burn.

Congrats on the continued loss.

 

Ooh found this for my pineapple n chicken. Will do this tonight.
“Peanut” Pineapple Chicken Kabobs + Best of Paleo Ebook Sale!

Growing up in a cooking impaired home, I graduated to adulthood with a hardened resolve to never eat anything green, leafy, or otherwise not out of a box. 18 years of boiled or baked to death, seasoning-free food will do that to you. Thanks to Food Network I eventually learned how to cook out of the box, but it's only in the last 8-10 years I've set aside my bias towards the vegetable world, and only VERY recently that I've decided to give once hated foods a second try.

So far turnips and brussel sprouts are the only ones to remain on the Do Not Eat list. Former enemies such as liver, broccoli, and cauliflower have now earned permanent spots on the menu. Rutabaga has been made passable, if not particularly palatable, and while I still think spinach is best served in dip I regularly use baby spinach leaves in salads and the occasional saute. No one is more shocked at this turn of events than I.

On an amusing note, my trainer is horrified at some of the meat I eat. The recent grilled oxtail sent her eyeballs rolling to El Paso and she asked if she needed to bring me food so I'd stop eating "all that weird shit". I swear, that woman makes me want to go buy things like hearts and tongues just so I can send her photos of the aftermath.

 

"Ladies do not sweat, they get dewy."
Thus said my paternal grandmother, and so it must be true, tho my soggy, post-yardwork t-shirt protests to the contrary. Then again, no one ever accused me of being a lady. Or dewy.

Eight spent batteries and a gallon of sweat later I retire the weed whacker to the garage and wonder if my arms will lift again by tomorrow morning. They'd better. I have a 10 AM appt with the grim reaper. You'd not think weed eating would lay waste to my arms this badly, but I'm too short to just dangle the damned thing at arm's length and must lift it up the entire time. Around here, the entire time is several hours. The yard looks great, but my upper arms are jello and I shake just holding my no-longer-morning coffee. The hedge trimmer is waiting, but I think it will have to wait a bit longer.

As always, there's an extra large crockpot simmering some grassfed beef bones for bone broth. I wonder if I will ever get the smell of soup out of this house. All the windows are open and now the neighbor's cat sits on the window ledge mewling for a taste.

Lunch will be a salad w grilled chicken breast, baby spinach, cucumber, carrots, the last of my broccoli, and maybe a hard boiled egg or two. Dinner is up in the air. I have a pen full of rabbits in need of butchering, as well as an obnoxious hen who escapes the coop on a thrice daily basis to beeline for my garden and rip it to shreds. How she gets out we have no clue. We've watched for days. Rather than set up a web cam to discover her secret, I'm going to put her in the freezer. Let's see her get out of that. If I get my murder spree on today, then rabbit or chicken will be on the dinner menu. If not, I may just thaw out the last of the beef liver in the freezer and fix that up with some onions and peppers like last week.

Last night's pineapple chicken was a hit, tho I modified it a bit. The chicken and pineapple I had cut up wasn't large enough to really go on the skewers so I just threw them into a cast iron skillet with some coconut oil and chopped up bell pepper. Once they were done, I added the reduced sauce to that and tossed cashew bits and chopped up green onion over the top. Turned out awesome.

 

My legs certainly glow. Mostly in the dark.

Wednesday's dinner and yesterday's lunch. Little bunny froo froo will not be bashing anyone's brains in now. Or eating my pepper plants....



I dredged the rabbit legs in tapioca flour that had salt/pepper/garlic mixed in, then cast iron skillet fried it in butter. Tapioca flour makes a nice wheat flour substitute for this kind of frying, except for one problem. Any flour that doesn't fry to crispy will have this kind of gluey snot texture. It tastes ok, just looks like someone's toddler sneezed on your food. I use it all the time for meat that's cut into chunks and never a problem, but the legs had a few gunky spots.

Yesterday's torture involved dips, shoving a sled (holding the bars that are barely a foot off the deck, resulting in my torso being parallel to the damn ground for the entire shove) loaded down with weights to one end of the building, then dragging it back by a big rope, lunges with a 25# kettlebell in each hand, Russian twists holding an 18# kettlebell, some bastardized pushup called a pushup dumbbell row w/ 15# dumbbells, and one other thing I've mercifully forgotten. Plus an hour water aerobics, and 20 minutes water running. I'd have gone for 30, but school let out at noon and by 12:15 the cannonball crowd was making a run for my head.

I'm used to traditional weight lifting, where it gets easier as you muscle up, and then you up your weights a bit, but this... this offers no reprieve. Midway through the third set of russian twists I complained that I suck and it felt like I was getting friggin weaker. My trainer cackled like an evil crone and said it would NEVER get easier, that she was going to make it worse every time I showed up. And I pay for this. #firstworldproblems

Tonight I made leeks with chicken and bacon and sundried tomatoes and it turned out awesome.

Easy peasy. Dice up the bacon and fry in cast iron skillet. Add chunk cut chicken, then when it's browned add the leeks. Salt, pepper, garlic powder, and I tossed in a few chopped up sundried tomatoes. When the leeks are soft, it's done.

 

Did not sleep real well last night so this morning came way too soon. Grabbed a hard boiled egg, a handful of almonds, and some sliced red bell pepper on the way out the door, and got to my 10 am torture session with only one eye open. This morning included time spent with the TRX straps, the S trainer, a tire, and a bar. Not the sort of bar I would have liked to pull up to either.

I googled the S trainer. Apparently it's designed to simulate pushing a sled uphill while dragging a parachute. I'd say they achieved their goals for the damned thing. The bar was just for overhead presses. Once again I forgot to pretend it was harder than it actually was. I suspect that bar will be a lot heavier next time. Low rows on the TRX.

The tire involved squatting to the dirt, then heaving it up and over, then squatting to grab it and heave it up and over again, all the way to the other end of the building. Then get in the center, pick it up, and walk all the way back. No problem, I thought as I saw the 60 on it. Then I realized that was kilos. 132 pounds. My legs didn't mind at all, but my heart and lungs were dialing a domestic abuse hotline by the third round.


Today's lunch is one anyone can easily make for themselves, with zero effort.


Dinner is going to be leftover ribs and then I've got a cauliflower head I need to use before I head to Dallas on Thursday so will just butter and roast half of it for tonight.

 

Survival of the fittest will be put to the test this weekend as I head for Dallas to wrangle an open house for my dad, and meet his new internet girlfriend.

Let me back up.

My mom died last November. Without her to write up endless lists of what my dad was allowed to eat, drink, participate in, or think, he has developed adult onset ADHD. One month he was going to sell everything and check into a nursing home. The next he was going to move to Oklahoma and preach at some church up there that his buddy is a preacher at. Then he decided he was going to stay home and study, because AT LAST he was able to do the only thing he ever really cared about, which is read the bible and teach Hebrew. This is an 85 year old man who can't make a decision on what to have for breakfast, so we never know what he's going to do next. If he runs off to Fiji to go fishing, it will not surprise me.

While this is all going on, I am tasked with cleaning up the epic mess my hoarder mother left behind. Drawers full of used tin foil, broken eyeglasses, and paper towels, closets filled floor to ceiling and spilling out into the adjoining room with old clothes, shoes, assorted boxes of nothing, and trash, cabinets crammed to bursting with a million different vitamins, herbal supplements, and quackery (most of it very, very expired). And sex toys. Because what person doesn't want to be the one to discover their Holy Hannah mother's stash of 12 inch super veiners? Well, apparently none of my 3 brothers because none of them darkened the door to help.

Anyway. Once equipped with a totally renovated, spotlessly clean home, my dad decided he needed a wife. First he told us all he was getting married to my mother's best friend. Who lives on the east coast. With her 60 year old crossdressing son. Who had ZERO intention of leaving everything behind to come wash his dirty underwear. We thought he'd move on to another interest, but then he found online dating. Christian Mingle. Being a shallow old fart, he immediately homes in on the women who are WAY too good looking to be in their 80s, and starts trying to arrange hookups. One turned out to be using actress Julianne Moore's photo as bait, and then told him she had to go to Dubai to collect an 800,000 prize she'd won. Another told him she'd only have sex with him if they prayed before hand.

I wish I was making this up.

I called last night to let him know I would be headed his way this morning, and he told me that I could meet his new "girlfriend". He's never met her, only exchanged a few emails, but he's already talking about moving her in. Oh, and viagra. I have heard more about viagra and his wilting manhood in the last 5 months .... According to him she will be shacking up with him this weekend, so my sleeping accommodations for the weekend are probably going to involve relocating to my brother's house. IDK if I can handle hearing a pair of 80 year olds getting it on upstairs. To be fair, she may not have a clue she's expected to spend the night. Or she may be a psycho. Or she may not show up, which will mean I have to deal with the fallout of him realizing for the first time that the internet is full of scammers, players, and fakes.

Moving on....
I had another session with my trainer yesterday so I could get in 2x this week. Needless to say I'm pretty friggin stiff and sore this morning, and carpal tunnel in my right wrist is so bad I've been wrapping it boxing style in order to use it. Yesterday we had to keep changing what I was doing to accommodate, so I did a mix of kettlebell swings, wall ball throws, wall sits that sorta worked like russian twists, then russian twists on the floor coz the wall hurt my back bad, dumbbell curls with squats, and deadlifts @95#.

Taking a salad w chopped egg, pepitas, broccoli, assorted lettuces, bell pepper, tomato, bacon, and homemade basil mayo on it with me to eat on the way. Tossed my medicine balls, 15# and 20# dumbbells, 18# kettlebell, and a yoga mat in the trunk of the car, got my swimsuit and aqua sox (there's a pool at his HOA), so the plan is to get in a workout on Saturday. Got both wraps to wrap my wrists so they don't get worse. Will hit the store after I get there to pick up some stuff for meals while I'm there, since he lives on friggin bread, cereal, more bread, oatmeal... you get the idea.

Place your bets on who survives this weekend.

 

Umm, WOW. Just wow...

So I assume that the Mr. at least is wearing a big smile this morning??

Sorry D, but you kinda left yerself open on that one..

All kidding aside, sorry to hear about all the drama.

 

This all reminded me of my 80 yo Dad and his girlfriend. Who he denies having any carnal congress with. Still shacking my head and chuckling!