Aila's Primal Journey page

[Aila]

Hi all,

Introducing myself: I am a 46 year old single mom, longtime vegetarian, who started my primal journey on 12/1/10. I learned of MDA a little over a year ago and have been a lurker, trying the plan/lifestyle little by little, and have now completely committed. I look forward to sharing my journey with you!

I grew up small and strong, and look forward to finding that me inside again. I've been committed to health and nutrition even as a child, but the stresses of life, parenting, work, and too many ostenstibly healthy grains have turned me into a person with a body I barely recognize. I have a family history of obesity, hypertension, diabetes and cardiac problems, and have gotten the warning talks from my doc, so it is time.

3 weeks into my journey, I feel markedly better, and have lost almost 11 lbs. Feels like nice, steady loss. I'm eating eggs, bacon, chicken, pork, beef, some veg, some fruit, cream in my coffee in the morning, cheese and nuts occasionally, the best quality I can find. For movement, I'm just trying to move more at this point. I downloaded all the freebies and really appreciate the PB workouts "stages" for people like me who need to work our way up! Also working on getting more and better quality sleep.

I know I'm a "junior member" now, but I am going to stick around, and keep posting because I know that keeps me accountable to myself, and hope that eventually I'll connect with some of you!

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PROGRESS PICS on Page 7 http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum...tml#post394523
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[Jenny]

Hi there! Hope this works as well for you it has for many others. You sound pretty happy so far -- do you feel like this will be sustainable long-term as a way of life?

Don't sweat the "junior member" thing. "senior" just means chatty, heheh. People are generally friendly and supportive, and there's tons of good advice to be had in both the main forums and also in other journal threads.

[Hedonist]

Good for you!

[Aila]

Thanks, Jenny!

Yes, that's surely my hope, that this will be sustainable and a way of life. It feels entirely possible. I really love that I am not hungry that much, and have way more energy.

Congratulations on your new little one!! I'll look forward to reading your posts!

Hi there! Hope this works as well for you it has for many others. You sound pretty happy so far -- do you feel like this will be sustainable long-term as a way of life?

Don't sweat the "junior member" thing. "senior" just means chatty, heheh. People are generally friendly and supportive, and there's tons of good advice to be had in both the main forums and also in other journal threads.

[Aila]

Thanks, Hedonist!! To pleasure!!

[Aila]

Checking in... Christmas festivities went well. I successfully avoided all non-primal food items prior to Christmas Eve, without too much trouble. On Christmas Eve we went to a small get-together and I decided to consider that a 20% evening, which went pretty well. Just a glass and a half of pinot noir, a little lasagne, and some tiny treats for dessert. I swear that one of the most amazing things so far is how I am not hungry and can't eat very much a lot of the time. I feel like I am moving much more toward how humans are supposed to eat, that is, when they are really hungry, not just when responding to blood sugar spikes and dips. Anyway...

I prepared a moderately primal Christmas dinner, with ham and some good veg offerings, and was only able to eat a small plate. Still this morning on the scale I had gained 3 lbs! I'm not freaking out about that, though, but rather chalking it up to the ups and downs in general. As long as the overall trend is downward, I'm okay.

I bought a withings scale a few weeks ago, so I've been weighing myself daily, again contrary to CW, but mostly because it has been fun (and I love being able to have such ready access to the historical data). But, I designated Wednesday as my official weigh-in day, so that's the weekly one that I really count. Also, I took pictures on 12/1 and plan to take them on the 1st of each month, so that eventually I can post in the Before and After thread!

Santa was very, very good to us this year, and brought a heated mattress pad and a dawn simulator, both to help improve my sleep. And, I will be starting a "gentle yoga" style class in the new year. Also, I've downloaded a really good meditation DVD and intend to practice daily (I've been an on and off practitioner almost my entire adult life, and the benefits of a regular practice now seem so clear to me that I am going to make it happen).

Oh! And also, starting Christmas Eve I've had a bit of a virus, waves of fever and a bit of congestion. But, notably, it has *not* developed into anything raging, which I credit to having eaten really cleanly for the last several weeks. But it may be related to the slight gain...?

Feels good to be committed.

[Jenny]

Holiday challenges... sounds like it went well! And more importantly, sounds like you had fun.

As for the 3 pounds, to quote from another thread, that's like a good dump. ;) Don't sweat it.

I have to say I'm with you, I enjoy frequent weighing. For me it helps because then I know all the time, from experience, that weight can vary quite a bit. But by tracking it weekly, I can still see the overall trend.

Great idea with the monthly pics. I'm about to get officially started myself with before and after pics, now that baby is out. :D

We all have colds right now -- hope it goes more smoothly for you!

[Aila]

Happy New Year Everyone!

I was out of town for a few days, but very proud to say that I stayed primal the whole time! Even though I wasn't preparing my own food, I actually had a pretty easy time asking for and getting good primal choices. I didn't even want any of the (many, many) grain-y options or sweets. YAY!

Unfortunately, my cold took hold and I've felt under the weather, congested, waking up coughing, etc. Today I think I'm seeing some improvement.

Really looking forward to a fabulous, transformative 2011!

[Jenny]

Congrats on resisting grain-y temptations! Hopefully that has helped your cold be less bad, too. Hope it wraps up quickly for you. Our colds are gone now, mercifully.

[Aila]

Hi All,

So, here's what's new: I'm down 8 lbs since I started, and 3.5 lbs lost in the past 30 days. Doesn't sound like much, but I am staying focused on the fact that it's DOWN, and that I feel much better overall. Well, except that I am still sick, in fact yesterday went to the doc and am now on antibiotics as it appears my cold turned into an infection.

BUT, on the upside, I have stayed really, really clean in my eating, totally primal, eating lots of good things to chase a cold away (Thai soup with coconut milk and chicken!). I've just not been moving a lot. While waiting for my prescription to be filled last night I was wandering around the grocery store and all of a sudden I realized that I did not at all feel pulled to eat bad stuff, but instead kept moving around the aisles for the 40 mins it took for my scrip to be filled. That's something!

Really loved Mark's post about ways to improve sleep. Looking forward to feeling better and putting some of those into practice.

Hope y'all are having a good week!