Living Primal in Vermont

Aside from the fact that I feel like I ate way too much food yesterday, I'm very pleased with how I fared. I stuck 90% to my plan for the day. Today I'm taking it easy. Two pounds down on the scale too....but I'm not counting on that continuing, if it does, Bonus!

Breakfast:
tea and water

Lunch: (noon, so 15-16 hours of fasting)
2 cups greens
1/2 large cuke
1/4 cup chicken
1/4 cup pork cracklings
1 tsp each balsamic and olive oil
1/4 cup blueberries

Snack:
Scotch egg if I'm hungry

Dinner:
leftover pork shoulder mush (I thought this was gross) simmered down in a pan for a while. Side of cauliflower with butter

Snack: 3 strawberries
couple of russell stovers sugar free chocolates. :-(

It's snowing here this morning. Light snow all week. JUST enough to make the roads snotty, and make those flatlanders put on their tires of invincibility.....which in turn allows the locals to anticipate around every corner, seeing said flatlanders on their roofs in the median

i am very happy this morning, optimistic, and motivated.

**update: Sad face. Just returned from Chiropractor for some nagging back pains and an irritated nerve in my neck. She said my entire upper body, neck, ribs, shoulders, back is tight tight tight. she worked on me for a half hour. she told me to do absolutely no exercise except for walking while swinging arms...and of course, lots of gentle stretching, ice, heat, herbal muscle relaxers, and more visits with her. I really need to figure out the BEST posture for standing up at my desk. SLouching will defeat the purpose.

*sigh* One more hour left of IF. I'm QUITE hungry.

Pretty tough day today. Soreness abounds. I came home and hopped on (read; gingerly climbed on) the treadmill and did 1.7 miles, half an hour.....till my back really started to tighten.....thought it best to not push too much...i did plenty of dance walking...some of those tunes, I just can't help myself...*L* I must be quite a sight.

Ive soaked in a hot tub, and now I'm snuggled up in hubbies bathrobe (he's not in it) and getting ready to watch my shows, early bedtime with a valerian/advil cocktail.

:(

day 2 with chiropractor. still sore, still super tight, still moving around most of the day...not sitting a whole lot. She is looking into testing my adrenal function.

Didn't eat much today, wasn't that hungry. I binged tonite. I don't even want to talk about what I ate. Since my adjustment with Jill this afternoon I have felt on the edge of tears....sometimes moving that stuff around in the body triggers and emotional release too I guess. IDK. Maybe I just need a good cry. Sometimes I think I need to get all of that crap out of the house. If that's the case, then I also need to not ever go into a store. I feel like a pretty big weakling, and I don't know what to do other than to pick myself up by the bootstraps and start fresh again right now. I just don't want to keep starting over.

My husband says I should be very proud of how far I have come, and the determination that I have to keep going, so I'm going to try to focus on that.

G'night.

Stepping back for a few....
Two days ago, I was having a rough time of it. My back has been hurting, and I’m working with my chiropractor to straighten it out. I’ve been forbidden to do anything other than walking and gentle neck/back stretches until further notice.


Enter PMS.


I feel like I really just need to sit down and have a good cry. I still haven’t done that, but I’ve been doing lots of “navel staring” as my friend Kate would say. I decided to step back from my two frequently visited forums related to nutrition, lifestyle, etc. I decided to just spend a couple of days eating whatever I wanted.


Something really interesting has happened. When I'm not in that rebellious, eatwhateveridamnwellplease frame of mind, I make, some really healthy choices.


I still can not, will not, touch a slice of bread, an English muffin, cold cereal potato or pasta. I just can’t do it. The foods I can eat, and will eat with reckless abandon, are crackers, chips, cookies, brownies, chocolate and fruit.




In the past few days, I’ve eaten the following: Cadbury Crème Egg:Fig Newtons: Peanut butter sandwich cookies:French fries a Cosmic Brownie & pizza. Oh, and a foray back into the world of diet soda.


This is what I learned: Diet soda makes me bloat. The French fries tasted awful, I don’t even LIKE potato. The pizza was “ok” but I had killer heartburn all.night.long. The cosmic brownie fell into my gut like a brick, and stayed there. For hours. The fig newtons? I’d honestly be happier with a date rolled in unsweetened coconut. I AM NOT MISSING ANYTHING by NOT EATING THESE THINGS!!!!!


This morning I woke up ready and raring to go back to induction or something. Then I reminded myself, that I made a deal with my inner skinny girl, to eat whatever I wanted , through Friday. Here’s what I packed for lunch today: Spagetti squash casserole. (Ground turkey, tomato, red pepper, spaghetti squash, tiny amount of cheddar cheese) a small 2 cup salad, a cup of Fage greek yogurt (highest fat I could find) and a ¼ cup of blueberries. I also brought a tbsp of coconut oil, and a jar of almond butter. Those are smart choices, those are things my body and my mind want to eat. THis is how I need to live my life, and really work on not giving a fiddlers fart if the scale moves. For that matter, I kicked the scale under the clawfoot tub for a few days.


Last night I roasted some beef bones, and then put them in the crock pot for a 12 hour simmer. This morning at 6 am, It had two hours left to cook. I REALLY wanted some beef broth….like NOW. I settled for a scotch egg and an egg square (egg, parmesan, swiss chard, green onion and sausage, YUM) Unfortunately, here are at 8:49AM and my tummy is growling. I’ve had a cup of tea with coconut milk, and 16 oz of water to drink this morning….I’m working on 16 more ounces, but I’ll most likely brew another cup of tea or coffee with coconut milk and splenda.


What does my gut tell me to do? My gut tells me to live a primal lifestyle. Eat meat, eat fat, eat vegetables, eat fruit, eat eggs. My brain just hasn’t caught up to that theory yet. I really need to work on that, if only I knew how.

This post was kind of all over the place, but hey, deal. Yeah. Deal.
Good day.

Friday February 3, 2012

Marie has a meltdown.

Every other friday night, our kids are home. Mine, and his. Every other Friday night has become my night to meltdown.
Let me give you a description of my night tonite.

2:45, Chriopractor. She has mad mad chiro skills, but when she began working on my left arm, I started to cry, the pain was unreal. I didn't even know why it hurt so much. Turns out I am holding all of my tension in my shoulders, chest and arms. Sweet. She moved up to my shoulder, found a tendon she could strum like a guitar, and said rather cheerfully... "Oh! You have some tendonitis in that shoulder. Better ice it. " Once again, Sweet.

5:15 sons basketball game......I walk into the gym and receive a text message from husband that the oldest dog has pooped all over the house. She'd eaten a beef bone that was cooking for 24 hours....her poop was powdered. Next....game clock is broken at the high school gym. Nice. We kept the whole game with a cell phone stop watch. Needless to say, it wasn't over till 7pm.

7:15 I get home, and see the vehicles of two of the stepchildren parked in the street. I instantly bristle. Why? Because they will be sprawled out in the living room on their computers. Joy. Before.I.EVEN.......get out of the car, I get a text, again from husband, saying, I kid you not... "I'm hungry". Mmmmmmk.

I walk into the house, set down my things, say hello to my daughter, and I hear a conversation from the living room revolving around whether or not my son had cleaned off his futon to make room for the stepson, home from college for the superbowl. Tension rising. I didn't tell him stepson was coming home. As I recall, stepson's room was a pig sty when he lived here. He.can.suck.it.up.

Not able to take anymore, and not wanting to unload on the fam, I go to my room, put my head in my hands and tap my feet really fast on the floor. Not sure why, but it helps. Husband comes in, asks me why i don't chil out...don't I know he's just joking? My response was, don't try to joke with me on a Friday kid night. It wont' be received well.

Now I gotta make supper. I had planned tuna melts. I make tuna melt.s When I take them out of the oven, I serve them u, and promptly grab cookie sheet with my bare hand. Sweet. Here come the tears. Both of my kids are flanking me. Son gets the burn gel, daughter rubs my back.

*sigh* I think I just need to call it a night.
I'm so effing hungry, but I do NOT feel like making supper, or eating supper.
I just want to go to bed, have a good cry, and try this again tomorrow.

Friday FAIL. Yes, call it a night! I hope your burn goes away fast - I've done the same thing without thinking.

Hello from Brandon , Vt

Wow. January?
I've been struggling in the sugar and wheat abyss for MONTHS.
Recently I decided to go Whole 30 Cold Turkey..LOL Today is day 2.
Day 1 wasn't a total success nor was it a total failure.
Here's what I did.

Breakfast:
2 backyard eggs (one was a double yolker)
6 Cherry tomatoes from my garden
1 cup peppermint tea
1 handful coconut flakes

beef patty
andouille link
small cucumber

taco salad (here's where the lack of success comes in)
taco seasoning (sugar)
cheddar cheese (total weakness)
sour cream (felt it was a better choice than any dressing I had in the house)

1 pluot
5 cherries
1 cup Tahitian Vanilla Hazlenut tea with heavy cream
I pondered this for a long while. I wasn't 100% Whole 30 legal yesterday, but I had ZERO sugar and ZERO wheat.
My stomach is already half as bloated as it was, yesterday was a really.hard.day. I had constant conversations with myself about not reaching for the Little Debbies or the homemade zucchini bread, the cold cereal etc. etc.

Todays eats so far:
coffee with heavy cream
1 cup lemon ginger tea
2 eggs
3 turkey sausage (again, not totally legal because the nutrition info says 0 sugar, but the ingredient list says "sugar" and corn syrup solids" Hmmph.)
1/2 large beefsteak tomato



I spent this morning making vegetable soup and canning it.....It's a gorgeous day here....but I'm hungry and it's nearly lunchtime, so I have to make some better plans to avoid the taco salad trap again. It was late, I was hungry, and it just all got piled on. At least I didn't eat the taco shell!!!!!!!!

It's good to be back, this place inspires me, I'm not sure why I stopped coming here.

Cheers.
Marie in Vermont (technically on day 2 of a 32 day Whole 30 since the first two days werenot 100%)

update:
lunch:

2 cups cubed leftover roasted chicken
mayonnaise
mustard
curry powder
crisped chicken skin
1/2 sweet potato fried in coconut oil (chips, creamy and crispy at the same time...does it get any better?)

dinner:
drumsticks
spagetti squash fritter
zucchini/summer squash sautee

4 olives (*IHATE OLIVES*)
handful coconut flakes

went to bed hungry

......woke up famished.

brkfst:
1/4 sweet potato grated and fried in coconut oil
2 eggs
3 turkey sausage breakfast links
peppermint tea

3 drumsticks
zucchini summer squash sautee
hard boiled egg
mixed berry/coconut milk smoothie

andouille, spinach, red bell pepper "stuff"
tahitian vanilla hazlenut tea with heavy cream.

down 3 lbs since starting whole 30.....still trying to weed out hidden sugars..without wasting food, because we are poor....I'm feeding a family of anywhere from 4-7 on $200 every two weeks.


*pretty hungry by lunchtime*

Sweet potatoes grated and fried in coconut oil! That sounds great! I'm trying that tomorrow. Thanks!

Let me know how you like it.
My intention was a hash brown, but i was in a hurry, so i poured in some scrambled egg to help hold it together. On a weekend I'll go for the hash born effect again. :-)
MG