Primal Journal ~ Jadeocean page

[jadeocean]

Hey everyone! I'm staying focused this July! and after. I have been Primal since March 28th and loving every last minute of this new lifestyle! I have been 80/20 most of the time, some weeks more 95/5, some 70/30, I am making a big leap in July and trying to stick to 95/5, the 5 being my cream for my coffee and my occassional Greek yogurt and goat cheese. The changes in me have been so drastic since April, I am down 38lbs and about 15 inches between my waist,thighs,hips and arms. Prior to doing PB I did the CW way of "healthy living," I ate my fair share of brown rice, ww pasta, and all the other "healthy carbs!" It took me finally saying enough was enough and that way of eating just wasn't working for my body and doing my own research to stumble onto MDA and have the first moment of clarity, "so this is why I can't get healthy!" My body really does not handle grains or sugar, I knew about the sugar, I have been a sugarholic from way back but the grains was completely foreign to me. Of course like most people on MDA, after I dropped the grains its as if my body started working properly and stopped fighting me. On CW diet I thought I was just fat and starting to get older and that was the reason for the aches and joint pain, I never even thought the grains could be the reason.

So...life has been good since going Primal and for July I really want to push myself a bit further. During June I struggled getting myself to the gym as frequently as I did in April and May, mainly due to my son being out of school and my month was busy with play dates and swim lessons,etc. I have talked to him and 3x a wk he is going to be staying in the gym play area with his little sister(11m old) and I'll be able to do my much needed workouts. I have had a lot of success with a CrossFit routine that I found online, so I'm sticking to that. I'll post it later. I am also cutting back on my dairy this month, giving it ip didn't work last month, I just wanted it more, so cutting back seems fair. I have been using too much heavy cream in my espresso, so I'm switching back to coffee for a while and going to a splash of cream and coc. milk, it worked out good this morning.

I still have A LOT of weight to lose. I am 31, mother of 2(6 yr old boy, 11m old girl)At my highest weight after I had my son in 2004, I was 375ish and I got down to 292 in 2008 through weight lifting and Body for Life style eating, then I got sick for about 3 months and afterwards started gaining back up to 330. We had our daughter last July and I maintained my weight pretty much and only gained 15 lbs and lost about 20lbs slowly until I came to the PB way on March 28th and like I've said, have loved it!!!!! I'm at 286 right now and want to lose another 100 lbs before I evaluate my final goal. I'm 5'10'', and pretty muscular, I was a swimmer all through school so I've never had a problem with fitness or training, I love every aspect of it, I've just had a problem with portion control, especcially when it came to grains and sugar. Since PB I've only had a handful of slip ups and gotten right back on track. The energy level I've experienced is enough for me to not want to go back to my old ways.

I'm hoping to post everyday to keep myself pushing hard this July! (other than 10 days when I'll be MIA at the beach, still Primal, no posting though)

Yesterday was Day 1, it went well. My husband and I celebrated our 10 yr anniversary and we made a shrimp and veggie dinner and indulged with some red wine, which btw I have not had alcohol in at least 4-5 months and 1 glass of wine had me stumbling...Good times!

Today I'm IFing, ate a 2 egg veggie frittata for breakfast and coffee with cream+coc.milk and I won't eat again until tomorrow at either breakfst or lunch, I haven't decided yet. I have to get to the farmers market early tomorrow, so I'll probably skip breakfast and maybe just grab some coffee to end my fast and then wait until lunch for a big meal. We will see! I've done a 24 fast before, but I'm going to experiment with a 36 hr a few x a week this month. MDA member Grol has had tremendous success and has a lot of weight to lose as well, so I''m taking a que from him this month and seeing what it can do for me.

Time for some water!

[jadeocean]

Today has been good. Its amazing to me how easy IF is at this point, I never would have been able to not eat for more than 5+ hours in the past but now its just feels natural. My husband has not been primal even 80/20 for a while and I've been nagging him some to join me, so today I asked him to just do breakfast and not eat the rest of the day so he can identify what true hunger is, normally the clock dictates his hunger. He called me this morning complaining he was going to break down and eat, I told him if he felt truely hungry, then eat, but if he wasn't then he needed to push through and give it a chance. So he did have a cup of coffee today but as of now he's had nothing else and I'm so happy that he did it. I think once he recognizes true hunger then it'll get easier.

He just came home and says he feels so good and feels like he's lost 10 lbs! Of course he hasn't...but now he knows how good it feels to not be weighed down by meals that he really didn't need!

[jadeocean]

Ended my fast about 8am with a cup of coffee, I guess thats considered ending it. We just ate a BAS, I had to take a picture of it was so beautiful! Finally we ventured to the local farmers market and got 2lbs of beef, 2 lbs of sausage, 1 lb lamb stew meat, fresh cream(finally cream w/out preservatives), whole milk yogurt. The veggies were over priced in comparison to the farmstand a few miles from our house, but everything looked good.

I'm planning on making stuffed aztec peppers tonight with some goat cheese and beef probably, then some berries and cream before the fireworks. I'm planning another fast tomorrow after breakfast and I'd like it to be 36 hrs.

We are heading to the park in a bit for a 3.25 mile hike, its finally under 90 degrees so the walk will be less agonizing.

[jadeocean]

So I fasted all day yesterday after breakfast and ended it at 24 hr mark this morning. I wanted to go 36 hrs but after waking up at 3am to clean up my dogs "pork fat disaster" and then waking back up at 5:30 with my 11m old, I was really wanting some coffee to wake me up and my husband was dying to try our pork sausage from the farmers market, which was absolutely the best sausage ever! Guess we'll be stocking up on it on future trips. I took the kids on a mile hike yesterday and I'm thinking of going to the gym tonight to jog on the treadmill and do some weights, I'm having deadlift withdrawl, its been over 2 wks. I'm making some primal candy and after I snack on that I'm fasting again. I'm really pushing myself since I have so much weight to drop. But really...I don't get hungry on the fast until the very end as long as I've had a good last meal. We leave for OC, Maryland on the 16th and I'd like to be more comfortable in my bathing suit. I did have to buy a new suit this year and I actually don't mind looking in the mirror or walking around without a coverup, that is unusual for me. My mom will be going on vacation with us and she has a very judgemental eye, even though now we're only about 1-2 sizes apart, to her I'll always be the fat daughter I think. She doesn't even recognize I've lost weight unless someone else in our company says something and she'll agree. It took a long time to realize I don't need her approval for anything anymore, I am doing what is best for myself and my family!

[jadeocean]

So I made it to the gym, jogged 1 mile then did some deadlifts and bent rows. It can be so intimidating there when all the muscle heads are in there at night bonding over their metal weights...but I squeezed my way in and did my thing, I never would have done that 6 months ago, even though I could lift then I didn't have the security. I'm starting to think Primal has changed me more than I realized, all that carb fogginess is opening new sides to myself. I also had some great news related to my business today, its a booming! I'm very excited about life right now and I owe a lot of it to the energy Primal living has given back to me.

I'm weighing tomorrow and hoping for a 1-2 lb loss, we will see! Tomorrow will be the start of a 24 hr fast after my coffee and breakfast.