Primal Journal - Owly page 2

[mandabear2010]

Oh, much farther west than that. We are north of Montana (well, the western half of it).

Oh darn ... oh well... still closer than most of Canada.

[mandabear2010]

Breakfast today: omelette (2 pastured organic eggs, crimini mushrooms, cream cheese), cafe au lait (fair trade organic shade-grown coffee, organic full-fat milk).

Oh, and I got dressed this morning and fit into my favorite jeans (Mission Playground, organic cotton, best fit ever). Size 8 jeans. Oh yes. What's weird is that I'm still weighing in at 180 pounds. Is my body composition really changing that much? At my height, that's still technically 10 pounds overweight.

This will happen more than you are ready for it. I swear my body changes daily and i look in the mirror and see something different yet the scale says the same thing. This is why I have learned to be less dependent on numbers and more dependent on how things make me feel inside and out.

So thrilled for you- +1 for fave jeans!

[Owly]

Lunch today: two hardboiled eggs (easy to transport to work), sweet beet soup (no sugar added, it's made with sweet spices like cinnamon--I get it from a friend of mine who sells her soups at the farmers market, all local ingredients, no weird stuff in it)
Afternoon snack: raspberries and blackberries, half cup of cottage cheese
Dinner: cheeseburgers (as in burger patties with pieces of cheese instead of buns)
After dinner: snap peas, strawberries, whipped heaven

I'm actually really pleased. We have my partner's nieces over for a movie night and sleepover this evening. We had some chips left from my partner's poker night on Wednesday (one of the guys brought them), and I thought the kids might finish them up for us because we definitely won't. I put out the chips, a big salad bowl full of snap peas, and some strawberries with a dish of whipped heaven for dipping. The girls didn't even touch the chips! The strawberries all vanished in a hurry, and the snap peas are almost gone too. I'm glad to see three preteens eating good stuff instinctively.

[Owly]

Breakfast today was some back bacon from a local producer and a couple of pastured organic eggs from my favourite egg guy. The nieces slept over and devoured their breakfast. Lunch was a bit of nibbled-on stuff from the fridge (a bit of cheese, the last couple of pieces of pickled asparagus, a couple of spoonfuls of leftover whipped heaven, and a few raspberries) as I was putting the leftover chicken bones from the other night's roast chicken into the stockpot. I threw in a bunch of random herbs, odds and ends from last week (parsley, basil, thyme), some amazing fresh garlic from the market this morning, some onion, a bit of celery, and some olive oil. It's merrily simmering away as I type and making my house smell fantastic. I'll strain it later and then add some more onion and garlic (I may caramelize them a bit first), zucchini, the leftover chicken meat I cleaned off the carcass, wild mushrooms, and maybe some sweet potato and bell pepper. This will be my first time making soup after going primal, so it feels odd to not put rice in it, but I think it should be pretty tasty.

We took the nieces to the farmers market with us today. None of the three girls had ever been to the market before. I was shocked--I grew up going to the market with my parents, so I found it strange that none of these kids had ever had that experience. When we got there, they were completely blown away by all the different things for sale. My partner told them they could pick one treat each. Of course, they went for the sugar stuff: one had a candy apple, one had cotton candy, and one had kettle popcorn. Still, they had fun exploring the market, sampling foods from different vendors, and petting the many dogs that were there with their people. I ended up spending too much, as usual. All the fresh, beautiful produce gets me every time.

Some notable scores this week:
Duck breasts, which I plan to pan sear and serve with chanterelles sauteed with shallots, garlic, and fresh tarragon (all also from the market).
A bag of mixed miniature squash (pattypans, teeny zucchini, some other little fat ones).
Fresh, amazingly pungent garlic.
Raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries--our local berry season is almost done, so I'm devouring them while I can!
Local wines: wine grapes don't grow here, so I buy from a local organic fruit winery that makes an incredible red using wild cherries. I picked up a bottle of that, and I also bought a bottle of their alfalfa wine (sounds weird, but it is really tasty).
Elk roast.
Plus the usual array of produce, eggs, bacon, and so on that is part of the weekly list. Sadly, we went later this morning than we normally do, so the goat farmer was all out of yogurt. I'll have to stop in at the organic grocery store and pick some commercial stuff up for this week, or I might just skip the yogurt until I can get some of the local stuff again.

[Owly]

I think the way the girls had never been to a market before is indicative of a fundamental disconnect in urban Canadian culture. So many of us have little to no idea where our food comes from, and we don't ever meet the people who produce it. I like being able to ask farmers about their practices, getting to know the rhythm of local food production, the seasons of my home region. In the grocery store, unless you pay attention, it's hard to identify seasonal food (except for some items like pomegranates, but those are an import). By going to the market, I begin to cook with the natural pattern of the season: the first spring greens, the glory of asparagus season, the abundance of summer, the fullness of autumn's root vegetables and sharp apples, and the long winter eating what can be kept in a root cellar, frozen or canned. I cheat a bit. There's a local greenhouse that has tomatoes all year thanks to some very expensive sunlamps to compensate for the midwinter darkness, and there are times that I crave that freshness. But even then, I know where that tomato came from.

Many of the farms also welcome visitors. We're planning a trip out to visit our favourite elk ranchers soon. They're a really nice older couple, honest farming people who always welcome us at their booth. We've got a group of friends together to go in on a whole elk. The slaughter is planned for September 9, then the meat will hang for about 10 days, so we should have it to pick up near the end of September. It's interesting to know my food on this level. I don't hunt, although my partner does, so I haven't experienced that level of intimacy with my meat, although I've seen most other parts of the process.

I wonder if that's part of our problem now. I know people who eat meat who are disgusted by even touching it raw. People are disturbed at having to wash dirt off their own lettuces. They don't ever feel the joy of producing a meal from the basic ingredients, knowing that what they produce will nourish the bodies and souls of those they love. It's all about the quick fix, the rip of the box or bag, the beep of the microwave. We don't know our food anymore.

[Owly]

So the chicken stock stayed simmering all night and all morning (last night's dinner ended up being chicken and rosemary sausage from a good local farm, baked sweet potato, and sauteed tomatoes). After I strained the bones out of the soup, I added in the chicken meat, about a pound of wild mushrooms, some more thyme (because thyme and mushrooms are soooo good together!), more garlic, more onion, and a lot of zucchini. It turned out fantastic. Simmering it overnight definitely made a big difference in the richness of the stock. I'm making sure we get some soup bones from the elk next month, and I'll be trying out making bone broth with them next.

I spent the afternoon clearing out my closet. A fair number of my clothes are now too big to wear, and I wanted to get them put away. I'm probably going to donate a bunch of them eventually, but I want to decide which are special favourites to maybe have altered. I took all my smaller clothing out of storage and put it in my closet instead. Some of them don't fit yet--the size 4 and 6 stuff from when I was training like mad is still too small--but some of them do, and the others are good motivators. Besides, it saves me digging them out in a few weeks, right?

I also put all my high heels in a bag to give away. I didn't wear them that often before, but after the wonderful break/sprain/MCL tear last year I haven't been able to wear them at all. I know that now that things are stronger, I could probably work back up to wearing them again, but honestly, I don't particularly want to anymore. I'll take them in to the office and see if any of my coworkers want them. Otherwise, I'll donate them. Some other woman can have sore feet if she feels like it.

[Owly]

I did my first regular CrossFit class today. My fundamentals course was awesome, but it felt great to get in with the regular group. I was nervous at first, but one of my friends goes to the same gym, and he was there tonight and walked me through things a bit, plus the coaches are all really awesome at helping you with anything unfamiliar. I was really pleased with how I did--my push press is not very heavy at this point, but my form is really coming together. I actually sort of rocked the tabata workout (20 on, 10 off, DB swings and situps, 8 rounds). I finished off tired but feeling fantastic. I get really giddy after working out, all blissed out on happy endorphins.

I also broke the 180 pound mark today, weighing in at 179 this morning. Obviously primal living agrees with me.

Oh, food today:
Breakfast: cottage cheese, berries with heavy cream, cafe au lait with whole milk
Snack: nectarine
Lunch: homemade chicken and wild mushroom soup
Snack: the leftover ham I brought to eat at lunch but didn't feel like eating then, also a whole milk cappuccino. I don't usually have more than one coffee a day, but I was out of the office this afternoon working and felt like having a second. I wanted it with whipping cream, but the coffee place only had it pre-sweetened, so I decided on the whole milk instead.
After workout, just walked into the house: a bit more of the leftover ham
Dinner: cream cheese and mushroom omelette

Eating today was a bit more random than usual. Following my appetite is leading to some interesting patterns for what I eat when.

[mandabear2010]

So proud of you Owly! glad you are likin the CF! and the PB! Both are extraordinary tools! Thanks for all the love! Keep on going!

[TAWFUNGUY]

Keep up the great work!

[Owly]

So last night's CrossFit included 100 pull-ups (with 100m sprints in between sets, except with my knee still recovering I did a couple of sprints and then switched to 10 lunges). I can't do pull-ups unassisted (thank dog for pilates bands). But I did make my 100. And I took photos of my hands:





And this is what I ate after--slow-cooked elk roast (it fell apart when I cut it), zucchini sauteed with butter and thyme, and a baked sweet potato: