Kongluirong (Ris) – Primal Journal (and background to wanting to be healthy) page

[kongluirong]

I've been following MDA for about a month and a half now and in the last couple of weeks have been watching the forums. Then last week I decided to join the forums so I could participate. Last night while falling asleep I decided that I needed to take responsibility for my decision to change. This is a great place for me to do that, so I'm going to have a journal here. (Warning, I can get long winded, especially since anyone I've mentioned "no grains" to doesn't support me. I need to get this stuff out.)


I am not overweight, nor do I have any major health problems. I am always searching for ways to be optimally healthy. It started when I was in high school and my parents gave me a book - "Holistic Herbal". After that point, I stopped using modern medicine as much as possible, only when it was truly needed. As a senior in high school I found out that I had ovarian cysts. My MD wanted to put me on the pill so they wouldn't hurt anymore. I didn't want to put hormones needlessly in my body. That was the summer right before I left for college.


During college I found a naturopathic doctor who said that I needed to think more about what I eat - try eating more veggies and fruit, organic; a lot more fish, wild caught; no red meat. I don't remember what she said about grains. She also put me on a hormone balancing regimen.


All this time I had been pretty active, I walked a lot. In high school we had an open campus with three buildings in a downtown area, so we used the bus or walked. I was also in Tae Kwon Do from 8th grade to 11th grade. My school was an arts school (all arts) so I was in modern dance as well. I did hurt my knee several times, once spraining it and once hyperextending it (the same knee no less). I kept off of it for a while, but finally started stretching and eventually went to physical therapy for it. Oh yeah, instead of using pain killers I used Arnica, homeopathically and in a creme (really great for healing bruises and swelling). Today it only hurts once in a while, mainly because I don't do as much walking as I used to.


As a college student I couldn't really afford organic, but I got it when I could. My college is also really small so no dorms, no meal cards. I worked at a restaurant for most of my time at school, one as a busser, the other sitting on my ass as a phone hostess, so I didn't always eat the healthiest - potatoes gratin, Caesar salad (better, but I didn't like it as much because the anchovies taste was too strong), fish and chips, quesadillas, etc. There were some salads I enjoyed and I learned to appreciate tastes and how they work together, which I think will help me in primal cooking.


Wow, this is really long. I didn't really start concentrating on exactly what I was eating until my husband and I started living in community. They were all about organic, eating from the earth which included rice, beans, and bread. But it also included a lot more veggies than we were used to. We had been to the point of going to a food bank because we were poor art students (he had graduated by that time but hadn't found a job). Oh yeah, there wasn't a whole lot of meat either.


So it has been more recently that I am concentrating on my health because I am almost done with school. My husband joined the Air Force so we are able to buy organic. At first we were really big on getting Kashi stuff because I thought that whole grain was better for you (something I had learned at the community). But I was feeling fatigued a lot. Part of it was that I'm flying once a week to finish school (long story for another time), but I also remembered a while back that I learned that fatigue can be caused by a lack of protein. So I googled "good sources of protein" and found MDA!


Continued in next post.

[kongluirong]

Finally, what you've all been waiting for!


I have slowly been incorporating the Primal lifestyle. I have been replacing non-primal foodstuff with primal foods. It's been about two weeks since I figure I myself have been quite primal in eating.


Last week I started walking most every day, although yesterday my knee (the one that had been hurt) started hurting in the back, so I walked all of six minutes. I always stretch before I go on a walk and I bring my techno dance music with me. If I so get the urge, I will start dancing in the middle of the street because dancing is a primal thing in my mind.


Eventually I want to add some weight training in because I do want to become stronger. I have yet to really delve into that part here on MDA, but I feel that I will be able to once I have a balance on the food and walking thing.


Another goal I am working towards is keeping my house clean. I'm not the tidiest person, but I feel like if I'm changing my eating and exercising habits, why not cleaning too? I decided this about a week ago when I was at my parents. It seemed so much easier to get up and go for a walk when the house was so uncluttered.


I really don't think I'm going to be doing a lot of counting of anything. I'll be able to tell when I eat anything wrong - we had the last of the brownie mix a couple of days ago. My stomach was not very happy that next morning.


So far I'm happy with the results:

*been less stuffy, I think overall reduction in inflammation

*feel more satisfied

*less acne problems


Except that I have been a little more mood swingy than my usual PMSing. And I have arguments with my husband about grains being bad. I still have to buy him bread for his sandwiches. It doesn't seem to be that much of a temptation to me.


Oh yeah, I'll be donating the flour and jar of peanut butter that we have left. I'm totally getting almond butter. He loves pancakes so I want to try almond meal too.

[kongluirong]

Great, now my husband is trying to get me to believe in the Blood Type diet. My blood type goes with the PB. He's saying that's why I'm so attracted to the PB But his says he needs pasta and stuff. *sighs* Well at least he won't worry about me any more - he was before. "It says I'm supposed to have lots of grains"


I guess I can't win this one. Now he will never think that his success is because of PB. He says he'll give up wheat.


I suppose that the blood type diet does make some sense, but still...*sighs again* I just don't like having to make more than one meal.

[Sharonll]

I highly recommend that you read Gary Taubes' book, _Good Calories, Bad Calories_. There are too many passages to quote that talk about the onset of civilized diseases correlated with grains. You're definitely on the right track, try hard not to get talked out of it.

[kongluirong]

Thanks Sharonll. There are a lot of books that I want to get on nutrition.


Last night...I had pizza. It feels like I have been having a lot of the 20%, although, it's just like one thing a day.


Today I was very proud of myself. I walked all the way to the store and back. I didn't have a lot to get so it wasn't that bad. I used to walk that much almost everyday when I first started college, So I'm glad that it didn't take too much out of me.


*warning* talking about female issues. Read at your own risk.


Has anyone else experienced a delay in their cycle? I'm usually spot on. That's why I went to the store today, to get a pregnancy test. It came out negative. I'm already two days late, and I feel like I've been more moody.

[kongluirong]

Someone was posting in the forum about people looking to get comfort for binge eating. They talked about people binging to the point of feeling sick. I don't think that's the case for everyone. Even after so little time, pizza will cause me discomfort in the middle of the night. It's not like I ate a whole pizza, only two slices. Someone else on that thread said something to the effect that they were tired of the people who were complaining. This is a place for support. Even though I know a lot of people probably don't read this, it's more for my own accountability and to see how I change on this journey.


I realized that I may be taking on too many changes at once. It takes 21 days to break a habit. I don't remember the amount it takes to build up a habit. Thankfully most of the non primal food is out of the house. For some reason the bread and pasta doesn't seem to be that big of a temptation. I think it's more the "junk" food, like candy and pizza. It might be the grease for the pizza and like foods...I've always like licking chicken grease. So today I have no access whatsoever to any tempting non primal foods.


I had some almonds before posting this and I'm currently eating eggs. For lunch I plan on having a salad with butter lettuce, dandelion leaves, arugula, boiled eggs, and avocado. Might throw in some kiwi and some other nuts (even though that guy says snacking on nuts leads to binging. Not for me apparently). For dinner, I'm up in the air. Maybe I'll get some more veggies and make a stir-fry with beef.


Fried potatoes used to be my favorite thing in the world...Now I'm partial to fried zucchini. It is SOOOO tasty.

[kongluirong]

Yesterday I stuck pretty close to what I said I was going to do, except for dinner. I didn't end up going shopping, so I fried up some sweet potatoes with the meat. It was so tasty, I licked all the oil off the plate. But today I WILL go shopping, after this post in fact. I definitely want to go for the zucchini. I need some more green peppers, maybe I'll get some red ones too.

It is easier for me now that I'm trying to just keep my willpower to mostly eating. I still to basic stuff to keep my house clean, but I'm not doing all the big projects I was planning. I think I'll get there though.

[MariaNYC]

Hi, sorry if I'm invading your blog! I just saw your female issue above, and wanted to comment on my own experience. First off, I've been on birth control (transdermal patch) for 6+ years. Last summer, I went primal, and did not notice any changes. I fell off the primal wagon after 6 months, then started again at the end of August. The week before my first primal period, I started spotting, which hadn't happened in like 10 years! My period was very strange that month, the flow was light and very dark colored (sorry if this is TMI!). Anyway, I started worrying and got a pregnancy test, because in all those years of being on the patch, it's never been weird like this. The test came out negative, so I just attributed it to the fact that my body must have gone into a sort of "shock" when I so suddenly cleaned up my diet. The same weirdness happened during the second month, and I took another pregnancy test! Anyway, by the third time, my period was totally back to normal.

So I'm guessing there is an adjustment or cleansing period, where your body is just reacting to this new way of eating. Good luck with everything!

[kongluirong]

Thanks for your reply Maria. I finally started! It was a great relief to me.


I had been worried about it to the point of being depressed. For three days I didn't do a whole lot, I tried to relax on the suggestion of someone. Even though I wasn't feeling well mentally, I kept to the Primal diet fairly well, except for the hot chocolate. I always crave chocolate as a sign that it's almost that time of month. It seems to have gone down since.


Note to self: chicken breaded is not good on the stomach.


On another note, my husband completely supports me in this lifestyle change now! He is totally onto the Blood type diet, which I have yet to look more into. But since my blood type just happens to be pretty primal, it's okay.


Have I mentioned how much I love fried zucchini?


Today I stretched after three days of almost no activity. It felt really good. I'm taking steps. First I'm trying to get my food straightened out. At the same time I think I'm going to try incorporating stretching every morning too. I found that doing a warm up of isolating/moving all the joints before gets the blood moving nicely. When I feel so inclined, I will go on a walk. So I am back on track...although I am having dinner at someone else's place tonight - Lasagna. Hopefully there will be veggies of some sort. However, I know that it's mostly gluten free stuff she makes so, at lest it won't be wheat, which seems to be the big sinus one for me.


It feels good to breathe again.

[kongluirong]

Today I tried some IF, which so far has been good. I had a little bubbly, the non alcoholic kind (aka by my standards (my husband is chastising me for getting the name wrong, even though I know it's champagne that's called bubbly) sparkling cider) and water. More water than cider.


It's not too difficult for me, I've done a three day lemon fast before. I also had rice pasta lasagna with cookies last night at my friends. I didn't even mean to IF today, I just wasn't that hungry. Then I was thinking that "Maybe after a day of having more carbs than usual IF is the way to 'combat' the negative effects?"


I also stuck to doing the stretching I did yesterday, it felt soooo good again. I love stretching so much. The eating part and stretching everyday is what I am concentrating on right now. Once I have those down as habits, I want to get walking in more. Then I want to add in some weight training. I was looking at some of the exercises and I am excited to start doing them. One thing at a time seems the best way for me to do this lifestyle change.