DW's primal journal

I thought Moto told you to go play in traffic?

 

My absence of abs are killing me today thanks to my pitiful attempts at planking yesterday. The pain is eased somewhat by the fact that I got into the jeans I was wearing when the Mr. and I first started dating. Didn't zip 'em... but I could have! Another 5-7 and they'll fit perfectly.

Last night I stayed up too late watching Netflix. It seems like the minute the clock hits midnight, I want to snack. I'm not hungry, but in the quiet of the night I hear the voices of things best not eaten. Things like microwave popcorn, the bag of shredded pepper jack, the entire jar of Nutella. As the midnight hour draws near, methinks it is best if I get offline and get to bed before the voices from the kitchen start up again.

Breakfast: 2 oz Macadamia nuts
Lunch: Salad - 2c mixed lettuce, 1 hard boiled egg, 1 tsp flax seed, 1/2 tomato, 1 oz sharp cheddar, 3 slices bacon, and balsamic vinegar and olive oil for dressing
Dinner: smoked chicken leg 'n thigh, salted avocado

 

Satchmo and I are walking about 30 minutes a day now. He's lame in a front leg so that's about all he can handle, and afterwards he's asleep until his dinner time. Meanwhile I've been adding in random exercise throughout the day, the likes of which I won't explain since it leads to Kellory fantasizing about Jennifer Beals and buckets of water.

Yesterday was the same as the day before, except I had a cashew milk/strawberry/flax seed/coconut oil smoothie for breakfast instead of the nuts.

I'm using an online calorie/fitness calculator/journal to track what I'm eating. It's one of those things I have to do, otherwise I get to snacking and forget about what I ate and then wonder why my jeans won't zip. Sometimes finding the right thing is a pill... an 8 oz ribeye steak can be 200 calories or 780 depending on which entry you click. People can make their own entries, and I guess some think if they enter carb-free potatoes then they magically become that way in real life. You can make your own foods and recipes so you don't have to search the database, which I use for stuff I make frequently.

I don't want to be "that girl", the one who obsesses over every thing that goes into her mouth and prattles on about the evils of bananas, but clearly being the one who didn't wasn't working for me so at least until I get a better grasp of what I should be eating, this thing is a huge help.



I should add I have this thing set for a 1000 calorie a day deficit too.

 

Hey, I don't need to stay here and take this kind of abuse....I can get this kind abuse anywhere.

 

And 10:1 you're fantasizing about Jennifer Beals and buckets of water anyway.

 

Yabbut he's seeing her in my shoes, and that's just creepy.

 

@DarkLight, are you speaking to me or DW?

@DW, your shoes are all we see.

 

April 6 will mark one full month doing Primal. Things I have noticed improvement on.
1. The numbers on the scale. Down what, 12? since March 5, and down 17.8 since this day last year.
2. Overall mobility. Yes I've been doing yoga but it isn't just that. The constant, never ending pain in my back has decreased by half. I'm not rolling off the couch and moving around like I have a steel rod up my butt for the first half of every single day now. And yeah, couch. I haven't been able to sleep more than a few hours in a bed in years. Except for last night. Made it from 11 pm to 4 pm, and I only got up then coz I drank too much tea before bed. That right there is worth the price of admission. The only thing I can figure is the removal of grains has decreased the chronic inflammation around my spine.
3. Alertness and energy are way up. I actually find myself wanting to go outside and do stuff, whereas a month ago I was having to force myself to.
4. I get to eat a lot more bacon these days, which is like having a bowl of happiness served up every morning, heh.
5. I'm not hungry all the time.

Of course there's always some downsides to everything.
1. Cost. It's a lot more expensive to eat this way. I can buy a 20 pound bag of wheat flour for less than 2 pounds of coconut flour cost... and the same price as 1 pound of almond flour. Bacon isn't cheap, nor is real butter. Red bell peppers are $1.47 each here, .99 each on sale. The cost of buying has really lit a fire under me to make sure we grow tons of what we can this season
2. For those of us in rural areas, it can be hard to find. The local supermarket does carry grass fed beef... in 1 pound ground packs only, and it's $7 for 8 oz. Their gluten free stuff is mostly prepackaged box mixes for gluten free brownies and cookies. To get any real options I have to drive an hour. Which is ok for us since we go to the city every weekend anyway.

The pros far outweigh the cons for me.

I haven't really given up anything. In the past I fixed potatoes and rice and cornbread with beans, but it was more for the Mr. than me. Only drank a soda or two a month. I didn't really care if we had it or not, and I don't miss it now. What I did take the axe to was dairy, and that DID hurt. Milk and cheese are my kryptonite, and I can't do moderation with either if they're around. So, the glass or two of milk a day, gone. Milk has been replaced with coconut or nut milk in the fridge, neither of which I like enough to binge on. Mac'nCheese with cheese packet plus two handfuls of cheese, gone. Plateful of shredded cheese nuked until it's one big crispy cheese crunchie, gone. No string cheese, no Mini Belles, no smoked beer cheese. I only keep enough in the fridge for an ounce or two a few days a week. Rest is in the freezer, and since I hate thawing stuff that's where it mostly stays.

So today is up in the air. Meeting the Mr. for lunch, who knows where, and then after work we're heading to the city to meet up with a brew club and I have no idea where we'll eat there.
Breakfast: coconut milk smoothie with 50g banana, 50g strawberries, and 4 pieces of bacon.
Lunch: Who knows?
Dinner: Who knows?

Scale: sitting still for now.

 

OH YEAH I HAD THIS FOR DINNER!



Two grilled quail stuffed with cheddar, red onion, jalapeno, and BACON!
I did not eat the onion strings. It came with a baked potato... and the other sides were steak fries, mashed taters, another potato something, spinach, broccoli, and macNcheese. The waitress was awesome and told me I could get any of the appetizers except for a shrimp one instead of the tater, so I got fried okra. Yeah it's fried in cornmeal and corn oil most likely. I ate a couple of them, but my eyes were fixated on the cheesy goodness wrapped in crispy quail. My gawd I'm ready to raise quail just so I can stuff them full of cheese and gnaw their tiny bones.

 

First of all, I would like to flaunt this 10 pound slab 'o pork belly I just brought home.

The Mr. and I have to narrow our cure choices down to three, and then we'll get it divided up and into the cures tomorrow. Got hickory, maple, and apple to smoke it once the cures are done.

The scale is not only not going down, it's creeping back up. Which, how the F? I haven't cheated, haven't eaten anything I shouldn't, my carbs have stayed below 40 grams, and my sugar stays between 5 to 14 grams a day. The calories haven't gone over 1400, most of the time they're closer to 1200. Fine, I'll lower the carbs under 20. See what that does.

Yesterday I diced a tomato, added 2 slices of chopped bacon and some sharp cheddar and heated until the cheese melted. It was GOOD, like a BLT without the bread. Or lettuce. And with cheese. I've also been turning to canned tuna a lot, which is funny because while I stockpile it like mad, I never really eat it. Add cheese, bacon, avocado, chopped hard boiled egg, whatever, plus a little olive oil and kosher salt, and it's great.

Breakfast: supposed to be an avocado but it's 10:30 and I'm not hungry yet. May eat it for lunch.
Lunch: Salad with baby spinach, bacon, eggs
Dinner: Carne Asada with an Avocado Tomatillo Salsa... found that on primallyinspired.com. My butcher talked me into trying the cheaper skirt steak insted of flank, so we'll see how it goes. It's marinading now and smells amazing. Will have to add some spanish rice for the Mr.

 

Doubtful, I'm not doing anything that would add muscle. Tone and tighten at best. I put on muscle fast, so I've deliberately ignored my free weights for now.

 

One advantage of living in a really small town (village is more like it, and according to those who know me it is not missing its idiot) is that everything is within walking distance. This is not something I've ever taken advantage of, but I'm trying to change that. Yesterday I walked 16 blocks round trip to the butcher shop to score some curing salt for the bacon I'm curing today. Beautiful day, though the wind was up enough to ensure I spent the whole trip there and back pulling my hair out of my mouth, eyes, and out from under my arms. Next time I put it in a pony tail. And wear a backpack. Felt kinda silly walking home with a 2 pound bag of cure salt in my hand, plus I kept envisioning it slipping from my grasp and me on my knees in the street scraping up usable salt like a crazy person. On the upside, I had to keep hitching my jeans up. They're definitely baggier now. Today the plan is to walk to the post office to get the mail, which is about 12 blocks away. The latest pair of shoes I ordered should be in today.

I figured out I was eating about twice as much bacon as I thought I was. Finally found bacon nutritional data by weight instead of "2 slices", and nearly choked. SoOoo, between cutting back on bacon and dropping the carbs further, I should see some better results.

Breakfast: 1 avocado mashed with 1 tbsp salted sweet cream butter, 28g nuked cheddar
Lunch: baby spinach, 1 hard boiled egg, 1t flax seed, 20g bacon, 28 g cheddar, 1 tbsp mayo
Dinner: bacon wrapped sea scallops and opie crab legs, 50g roasted baby carrots.
Snack: chocolate fat bomb

Scale: -1
Total: -13.2 pounds

 

Went for a walk to nowhere this afternoon. Sun was out, beautiful 74 degrees, wind only up to 15 mph. Finally found some earbuds that both stay in my ears and don't hurt, so I plugged into my phone and turned on Pandora for a half hour walk around town. I took my usual loop and added in going up and down each individual street thinking I'd double my distance, but despite dragging into the house convinced I'd been out an hour, it had only been 30 minutes. Either I'm walking faster or one of the dogs has learned to roll the clocks back to screw with me. I suspect the larger Chihuahua, who clearly holds resentment over my refusal to serve her dinner a second before 5 PM.

It occurred to me today that I've not taken anything for my back since we got back from Colorado mid March. Not even a single OTC acetaminophen. If I think about it, I feel a dull ache back there, but if I'm not paying any attention it isn't even noticeable. Now if the newly formed blister on one toe will get lost, I'll be golden.

My go-to breakfast these days is a small avocado smashed up with a tbsp of salted butter and a dash of creole seasoning. The only downside is the avocados go bad so fast. I buy green ones, and the next day they're black.

Breakfast: Avocado w 1 tbsp butter, 2 choco fat bombs
Lunch: canned salmon salad. I can't buy wild salmon here, but the canned stuff is wild caught at least. I made up a few days worth of this the other day, with hard boiled egg, bacon, green onion, mayo and flax seed
Dinner: throwing pork steaks on the grill, then some red pepper and baby spinach sauteed in olive oil with kosher salt

Scale: -1.4 (apparently carbs under 20 ended the stall)
Total: -14.6 pounds lost. I now weigh what I did the day I got married. Next goal is what I weighed when we first met.

 

If I make it back into my college jeans I'm going on a bender, heh.