Elessar's Primal Journey

Yesterday was another day of waiting for winter to end and the real estate market to begin it's summer feeding frenzy. I only hope the economy will support the sale of hobby farms in Central Kentucky.

Lunch: Apple, orange, pear, avocado, and a few nuts followed by a walk about town for almost a mile.
Dinner: 8oz baked tilapia and buttered yellow squash
Breakfast: avocado and a pear followed by a cup of black coffee

Weight: 222.0
Bodyfat: 29.8

I started a big pot of chicken vegetable soup last night and left it in the crock pot to simmer all night. I put it up this morning so it'll be waiting in the fridge for us for tomorrow night's dinner. Tonight I'm making chicken stir fry for dinner.

Let's get out there and make it a Great day!

 

Good morning. Any significant progress is slow and my weight seems to have followed the predicted rate of loss so I'm happy with everything. I feel great and am sleeping better than I have for years. I used to wake up four or five times a night and now I'm waking up only two or three times and have no trouble falling back asleep.

Lunch: Big Salad
Dinner: Chicken Stir Fry
Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs and an avocado

Weight: 222.6
Bodyfat: 30.0

Let's get out there and make it a great day!

 

Just curious, what type of yogurt are you eating? Looking at the store everything seems to be "low"/"no" fat. I was just wanting some "regular" yogurt, but I usually settle for the "low" fat kind.

 

kckndrgn: I have the same problem looking for yogurt. I have been avoiding all the fruity stuff because of the xtra carbs that are in there but I also have a hard time finding plain greek yogurt. I usually find 2% or 0% fat and wish I could find the regular, but I've given up searching after standing in the dairy isle for five minutes looking like a lost idiot. The last stuff was 0% from Kroger and the Chobani was 2%. Good luck with your search...let me know if you find any other brands that work.

Lunch: Left over stir fry, 3.5oz dark chocolate, yogurt
Dinner: Chicken Vegetable soup and two Ritz Crackers (oops) and a few cocktails
Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs, 1 cup black coffee

Weight: 222.4
Bodyfat: 28.6

I gotta quit drinking. Even after only a few drinks, I feel like crap the next day and it's not a hang-over. I just feel worn out and haven't slept well. I know it's the poison that I'm putting into my body that is disrupting everything I'm doing to live more healthy and every time, since I've started the Primal Blueprint, I find myself wondering, "Why do I do this to myself?" I feel so stupid afterwards and remember the line from True Grit, "I will not put a theif in my mouth to steal my brains." Whew! I'm really seriously thinking of giving it up permanently.

 

Thanks, I gave up, like you, then found a whole section of it LOL. It was the greek yogurt, plain, traditional. I forget the brand name, I'll try to get it tonight.
Here's the thing, it wasn't in the section with all the "fruity" yogurts. It was in one of those open top refrigerated displays in the middle of the isle.

I agree about the drinking, I gave that up along with my diet cokes, though I am trying to make some homemade black berry wine right now.

 

Crazy fun weekend at the gun show in Lousiville on Saturday and the ice/snow storm on Sunday. I did make it to the market before everything went bad so the fridge is stocked up.

Lunch: Vegetable Chicken Soup
Dinner: Chili with beans
Breakfast: three egg cheese omelet

Lunch: 6oz beef jerky
Dinner: Leftover chili (it was better than before)
Breakfast: three egg cheese & pepperoni omelet

Weight: 220.4
Bodyfat: 30.1
Let's get out there and make it a great day! (but watch the slippery roads)

 

Wow, 4-5 inches of snow and the state comes to a stop. Well, to be fair, there is a half inch of ice under the snow that fell as freezing rain, but, come on, it's winter.

Lunch: Big Salad - greens, cottage cheese, shredded cheese, shredded brocolli, shredded carrots, and a few drops of hot sauce
Dinner: Taco Salad - greens, cottage cheese, shredded cheese, shredded brocolli, shredded carrots, ground beef with taco spices, and a liberal dose of hot sauce
Breakfast: two hard boiled eggs and a cup of black coffee

Lunch and dinner look a lot alike because I was feeling lazy and fell back to an easy go-to meal. Hey, tastes great and allowed me to clean out the fridge of salad ingredients that were getting near their useful life limit.

Weight: 221.0
Bodyfat: 29.7

Let's get out there and make it a great day! And hope the sun hangs around for a while to melt the ice and snow, yah!

 

Up late last night shoveling snow and cleaning for the first showing on our farm that has been for sale for more than 90 days. It was exhausting; dusting, scrubbing, mopping, and generally straightening up things that get "out of place" because you live in a house instead of staging a show place. But, we did it. Now, I have to keep telling myself to breath because I've been "holding my breath" as the appointment time approaches for the showing. I don't have any way to know what the outcome will be, but I remain optimistic.

As a result of the labors of last night, we skipped a formal dinner so my added exercise of shoveling ice and snow to clear most of the drive way was a substantial workout.

Lunch: 1.5 cups Vegetable Chicken Soup, yogurt
Dinner: 6oz beef jerky and 2oz dark chocolate, 4oz almonds
Breakfast: Yogurt

Weight: 220.6
Bodyfat: 29.1

My, oh my, I hope we can sell the farm and complete our move to town. I am looking forward to down sizing and being three blocks from work. Let's get out there and make this a GREAT day!

 

Lunch: Avocado, yogurt, and a grapefruit
Dinner: Pan fried pork chops, mashed cauliflower, artichoke with butter
Breakfast: cupocoffee

Weight: 221.4
Bodyfat: 29.6

Well, the showing didn't go well. Enough about that negative stuff. Let's look forward to a great day!

 

The weather seems to be cooperating and we are moving forward with the renovation of the new house. Hopefully, we can get the siding guy to finish recovering the small section on the rear of the house.

Lunch: Avocado, yogurt
Dinner: Chili with beans (I had three bowls)
Breakfast: Grapefruit

I suffered a major breakdown in discipline two nights ago. I found a container of left over Hershey's Dark Chocolate Kisses and proceeded to eat 24 of them before I was able to regain control. Of course, they were gone when I quit, so I'm not sure how much discipline was involved in quiting.

BIG news with regard to my measurements: This is the first time I've been in the "teens" in more than two years!!!

Weight: 219.4
Bodyfat: 29.0

Let's get out there and make this a great day!

 

Congrats on breaking the "teen" barrier!

Don't sweat the set back, at least it was dark chocolate

 

I enjoyed a pretty good weekend with another showing on our farm for sale as well as a date with the woman that God has blessed me with as my wife. Of course, we had to vacate the house for the showing, but we did manage to get dinner and a movie at a very leasurely pace. Pretty nice...

Saturday
Breakfast: 3 eggs cheese omelet
Lunch: 6oz Macadamia nuts
Dinner: 10oz Grill steak and yellow squash w/butter
Snack: 3oz dark chocolate

Sunday
Breakfast: Leftover grilled steak
Lunch: none
Dinner: Renos Steakhouse (16oz Tbone) w/steamed vegetables (brocolli, carrots, zuccini, squash, asparagus)
Snack: I busted loose with a extra large tub of popcorn and a diet drink. Hey, it's not a movie without the popcorn...

Weight: 220.2
Bodyfat:28.6

I splurged a little bit this weekend and I not too worried about the little bit of weight gain. Sunday morning's weigh-in was 218.2 and I'm real happy with my progress. I've been working out very lightly and have managed to increase the time of my planks to 5 planks for 30 seconds each. I intend to re-read the chapter from Mark's PB book on exercise and get outside to walk a lot more. I believe that the winter weather we have been suffering with is about to break into Spring in a big way!

Let's get out there and make this a great day!

 

We're waiting for the next weather event that should come screaming in here on Wednesday to destroy the glow of the warm tempertures that we have been enjoying amist the "winter that will not end." Our high today should be about 72' so I rode my motorcycle to work for the first time this year. Normally, I ride all winter because our winter tends to be so mild. By tomorrow night, we will be looking at wind chill temps near zero. Blah!

Monday
Breakfast: two hard boiled eggs
Lunch: Big salad
Dinner: Squash soup with chicken (It was terrible so I won't bore you with the contents. I threw the leftovers away.)
Snack: 1 medium Avocado, 3oz dark chocolate

Weight: 220.2
Bodyfat: 27.8

Let's get out there and make it a great day!

 

I made a great dinner last night that I want to share with you. It's not such a big thing, but that's what makes it so good, because it's an easy twist to regular stir fry that I'm calling Hawaiian Stir Fry:

Three boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces
3oz brocolli slaw
3oz shredded carrots
1 onion
three celery stalks
1 carrot diced
2 tbsn corn starch
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 shredded coconut
3 tbsn coconut oil

I have a wok that I bought years ago that includes a lid that doesn't seal well, so this process works very well to observe the steaming.

1. Brown onion in melted coconut oil, added chicken and continue to stir while browning chicken. This took me about five minutes until cooked through and starting to brown on edges.
2. Add shredded carrots, brocolli slaw, diced carrots and celery with soy sauce and bring to boil
3. Cover and steam vegetables until you see steam sneaking out from the sides of the lid. Don't lift the lid and peak because you'll let the heat out that is cooking your vegetables.
4. In a separate mixing cup or bowl, blend 1/2 cup water with corn starch. I used a gravey shaker that I have...
5. When you see the steam escaping from the pot, remove lid and stir the contents to coat everything with the sauce.
6. Move contents of pot/pan to sides to expose the liquid in the bottom of the pan and slowly begin to pour the corn starch/water into the sauce stiring constantly. You may not need all of the corn starch/water, so add it slowly, while stiring. When you get to the point that the sauce is the desired consistancy like gravey, stop adding the corn starch/water and stir the entire dish together.
7. Remove from heat and serve hot. I like to top my plate with a pinch of shredded coconut to enhance the sweet/salty contrast of the soy sauce and the coconut.

This dish turned out very well and Laura requested it again. That's a big compliment to me. Hope you like it too.

Lunch: 3.5oz beef jerky, avocado
Dinner: Hawaiian Stir Fry
Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs, 1 grapefruit, 1 cup black coffee

Weight: 220.2
Bodyfat: 28.7

Let's get out there and make this a great day, dispite what Mother Nature has planned for the weather today! Hey, thanks for stopping by...

 

I've written about an observation that I made previously, regarding the level of success that seems to be displayed by participants of this program, and the time frame that seems to be common for people to lose motivation or withdraw from their individual program. I believe that I am in that "zone" because of the fail that I experienced last night.

I was tired and didn't feel like making dinner so I accepted my fate and fell back on a box of Zatarain's Smothered Chicken with Rice mix for dinner. It was good and the issue of what to make for dinner had been resolved. As I was tearing the box open, I heard this little voice inside my head say, "So, this is how it ends." Then a low rumbling laughter of Hahahaha...

I've wondered about the number of people that I've read about from personal posts or observations that begin a journal and the re-start their posts with something like, "I'm back," after having quit the PB for some period of time. I reasoned from reading these posts that the period of probable failure was from 3-6 months. I further postulated that the reasons for failure would be many including simply too lazy to work toward making the required effort in preparing the correct food/menu items.

So, here I am, about 70 days into my change of lifestyle and hitting the wall. My progress has been good and I'm very pleased with my results so far, but it's the work that's required to maintain the momentum that's getting to me. The big question that seems to haunt me, as I'm sure it does many of those who are on this same path, is "what's for dinner tonight?" I know what ingredients to purchase and I have the cook books to compose those ingredients into meals. It's simply the effort required to determine what to make and the making that begins to fade. Yup, basically laziness.

As a society, Americans especially, we are condition to instant gratification and following the path of least resistance. Taking the easy way, following the status quo, and simply caving into the lack of motivation that has been categorized as instant gratification. So, I'm up against the wall, and it's go time. This is wear the rubber meets the road, etc... You could form all sorts of metaphors for this point being a make or break point in my personal program. And, um, I failed last night with the Zatarain's rice mix. I caved into the quick easy path...

I'm not asking for a bunch of comments here about support or any of that namby-pamby BS that you might read on lot's of forums. I just using this venue for a place to stand and make a personal observation. You don't need to feel the need to pump up my ego with words like, "you can do it" and stuff like that...cause I know it's up to me. Basically, being an introspective sort of person, I'm using this opportunity to observe humanity through my experiences and make general observations about a large group of people based on a very small sampling of data. Pretty weak reasoning, overall, but, that's it. So, I'm still standing here at a very important point in my journey towards my life change. I have professed a strong level of commitment in the precepts of this plan and I it is my intention to maintain that commitment. I'm all in.

Lunch: Salad, 6oz macadamia nuts
Dinner: Zatarain's Smothered Chicken w/Rice, green beans w/butter
Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs, 1 cup black coffee

Weight: 220.4
Bodyfat: 29.3

If it is to be, it is up to me. Let's get out there and make this a great day!

 

I think you are spot on with your observations. The PB is my 3rd "diet"/lifestyle change. I did the metabolism miriacle a few years back, it worked, then I did Paleo, it worked to a point, now I'm on PB. The MAIN difference right now is that my wife is on board. So,if I suggest something that is now "banned" she says something, and vice-versa. The only "problem" we have now, is the kids. They don't always like what we are having so we resort to mac & cheese or pizza for them.

As far as "What's for dinner?". We have been keeping quick meals handy, and try to make bigger meals on the weekends so we have leftovers for the week. The leftovers serve as quick dinners and/or lunches.

Best of luck, You can do IT!

 

Thanx for the comments. I am very interested in everyone else's experiences and will be following along with your records to see how things are progressing. I did manage to jump on the eliptical for 20 minutes this morning before getting ready for work. I ususally work out in the mornings because I simply can't find time in the evenings. I have too many other things I want/need to get done. I can't wait for the better weather because I love to ride my bicycle and my motorcycle. While I admit one is more healthful than the other, they are both extremely theraputic for my head. Grok on!

 

Quiet night last night, except for the wind. Whew!

Lunch: Salad
Dinner: Venison Stew (venison suated in olive oil, carrot shreds, celery, new potatoes, parsley)
Snack: 3oz dark chocolate
Breakfast: 2 hardboiled eggs, 1 cup black coffee

Weight: 219.0
Bodyfat: 28.7

Let's get out there and make it a great day!

 

We enjoyed a quiet weekend until the ice storm moved in. The trip to work this morning was exciting, to say the least, but uneventful.

Saturday
Lunch: yogurt and a few walnuts
Dinner: 3 egg cheese omlet with jalapenos, 6 slices of bacon
Snack: 3oz dark chocolate, 4oz almonds

Sunday
Breakfast: yogurt
Lunch: Eggplant slices prepared like personal pan pizza
Dinner: none
Snack: 2oz dark chocolate, 3oz almonds, 1oz macadamia nuts

I used a recipe to prepare the Eggplant Pizza that I found somewhere. This was my first taste of Eggplant and it was, hummmm. interesting. I won't be doing that again any time soon. The recipe was something that I can work with but I found the taste of Eggplant wholly unimpressive. I think I'll try to use sliced tomatoes or yellow squash for the personal pizza idea. I believe they'll work out better. I also want to try fried green tomatoes.

Weight: 218.2
Bodyfat: 30.1

Let's get out there and make it a great day!