Wherein Erika tries to grok Grok page

[ErikaE]

So I'm starting a primal journal, despite thinking journaling in public is kinda weird. Partly because all the cool kids seem to have them, but mostly to distract myself right now so I won't end up walking to the store for a bottle of wine. God, I sound like an alcoholic. Let me explain.

I started eating primal 3 weeks ago. I definitely keep within the 80/20 rule, and I've been feeling pretty good since the carb flu wore off around the third or fourth day. I am, I admit, still eating dairy. 2 tbsp of heavy cream in the mornings with coffee, and around an oz of cheese some days, almost always the gourmet stuff that's all fat and delicious, delicious mold. I just can't give those treats up just yet, but maybe once the sting of swearing off noodles and rice...well, we'll see.

I also finally fleshed out my strength training supply a little more (I hate the gym), so I've been doing a mix of kettlebell workouts, yoga, free weights, and bodyweight exercises (pullups, pushups, pistol squats, situps, crunches and even backwards crunches on a fitness ball that kick my ass). I try to do some kind of strength training at least every other day, and I've been doing a few 100m hill sprints once a week or so.

But in yet more radical change, two weeks ago I resolved to stop drinking completely, to get my weight-loss jump started as several people on these forums suggested. And then, uhhh....last weekend happened. >.> Hey, there was a wedding, it would have been rude not to have a celebratory drink! Unfortunately, the groom's favorite drink was Blue Moon, which also happens to my favorite. Aaand so I ended up having 3 of them, plus one of the bride's mojitos (which was awful and syrupy. note to self: if you cheat, make damn sure it's worth it).

But! I've been very good since the 1st of August, and I'm determined to go the whole month without having a single drink. After which, I will slowly start incorporating red wine back into my life. And really, it's been a whole week now and I haven't missed it too much. But unfortunately, tonight's dinner was steak and stir-fried green beans and onion.

Well, actually, that was pretty fortunate. Tasted fantastic. The onions were soft and carmelized, the green beans were sweet and crisp. Plus, my husband "undercooked" the steak, to his chagrin and my delight -- medium-rare, warm and seared but deliciously soft, juicy, and deep, dark pink inside. Carnivorous perfection....but it did make me miss red wine. Normally I'd have a glass or two of merlot or carbernet with dinner, and that steak seemed to just be crying out for it, so loudly that half an hour later I am still craving a nice glass of red, but I am strong!

Or at the very least, good at distracting myself -- once I finish this post, I hope to get swept away by the dopamine from whatever's in my Hulu queue, and the endorphins from lifting in front of the tv. =)

[ErikaE]

Whoops, wrote that first entry up yesterday and then forgot to actually post it. Good thing my computer remembers everything my ADD wanders away from. Thank you, computer.

Anyway, I don't plan to use this as a space to record every detail of my diet and exercise (I use a Google spreadsheet for that, as I am a rather neurotic data nerd), but rather to try to see more general trends in how I'm feeling about diet, exercise, and life in general as I work towards my goals.

I'm already taking photos and measurements weekly, and eventually I'll start getting those to a place where they are accessible from here, because the best part is always the visual evidence of someone's success, in my opinion. And I figure I'll do better if, not only are my goals concretely defined, and Out There for everyone to see, but if I have some way of glancing back into the past and connecting the dots of things that help me or hold me back. So without further ado:

My starting state
5'4", 40" hips, 32" waist, 38" bust, 28" around the widest part of my thigh, and about a 2" roll of belly fat when I sit.
I can run/walk at about 70% heart rate for 2+ miles without really hurting.
I can bound up at least a couple flights of stairs without having to catch my breath.
I occassionally do 2 sets x 20 reps of with 8lb free weights and barely feel it the next morning.
I can walk for up to 6 miles in a day, or ride my bike 20 miles, without feeling like I seriously overdid anything, just got a good amount of exercise.
I can do 30-40 crunches/situps in one session.
I can do only 5-10 pushups.
I can't do a pullup at all, only slow my descent to a few seconds from a hang.

My goals, for right now:
Slim my thighs and calves. Get rid of that belly roll and the little blobs of fat that sit underneath the back of my bra and on my hips above my waistband.
Be able to do 10 pullups in excellent form without stopping.
Be able to do 40 pushups in excellent form without stopping.
Be able to sprint up 4 switchbacks around the lake (I think that's ~300m) in excellent form without stopping, once and then again after recovering on the walk down.
Be able to lift my straightened legs parallel to floor as I hang from my pullup bar, and hold them there for 60 seconds.
Be able to do a turkish get-up with my 45-lb kettle bell.

Recent progress:
Well, when I measured myself after the second week, I'd lost a half inch from my waist and my hips. I *think*. I need to make sure I'm measuring more accurately and consistently, somehow. My belly also *seemed* slimmer in the mirror but it's hard to tell how much of that is from being gluten free and the **whoosh** carb dump thing everyone talks about.

When I measured myself after the third week, I regained the half inch around my waist (and maybe I look it, hard to say), BUT lost another inch and a half from both my hips and my thighs. Is that even possible??? I must be measuring wrong. I didn't think I had that much to lose in those particular areas though maybe my ass is bigger than I think it is simply because I rarely see it full-on.

Anyway, after I recovered from that shock, I noticed that my upper arms look smaller, too -- a place I didn't measure because I didn't think of it as a problem area. I'm beginning to see "skinny-fat" written all over me when I look in the mirror.

Anyway, not only did I measure myself after week 3 the same way as I had weeks previous, I measured myself a new, hopefully more accurate way that I'll be continuing.

So, as of right now (and by my new measurements which may be why the numbers are so different from the starting ones I put up), I look like this:
37" hips
30.5" waist
36" belly lump
37" bust
24" thigh
12" upper arm

[ErikaE]

Oh, side note: I did not get scrumptous gourmet cheese today at the store. Reason: I was reading about the Diet Cure (can't get the actual book yet, a few people ahead of me on the library's hold list), and noticed that this month I am almost on some people's version of the Candida diet -- except for the dairy. And, some of the symptoms of candida fit. I figure this month, with no wine, is going to be the easiest to give up that mouth-wateringly moldy cheese, because I looooove them together.

I know that candida people say all dairy is bad. But I am keeping the heavy cream every morning. I'll try for a little less of it, but right now I feel like this commitment to health can only crumble so many of my cultural institutions. As a stereotypical Seattlite, coffee is, no hyperbole, the closest thing I have to a religion. And I will be damned if I will stop taking cream in my coffee.

[Knifegill]

They can take my coffee when they pry it from my warm, brown-stained fingers! I'm from Everett. Same emotions for coffee around here as well. I also still eat cheese, and the candida that was eating my leg is gone. But I only eat aged cheese with no lactose.

[tfarny]

Anyone who tells you that you can't have coffee with cream or a couple of bites of cheese and be PB is crazy - Mark has that every day. So do I.

[ErikaE]

They can take my coffee when they pry it from my warm, brown-stained fingers! I'm from Everett. Same emotions for coffee around here as well. I also still eat cheese, and the candida that was eating my leg is gone. But I only eat aged cheese with no lactose.

Do you eat moldy cheeses as well? I did read that harder aged cheeses like parmesan are okay while on a candida diet, but it's the soft stuff I love (triple cream bries, gorgonzola, camembert, etc) and my understanding is that those are a no-no for candida not just because of any milk sugar, but because the mold cultures used in making those stinky cheeses also encourage the candida.

Anyone who tells you that you can't have coffee with cream or a couple of bites of cheese and be PB is crazy - Mark has that every day. So do I.

Whoops, yeah, I know he does, and nobody primal told me that... sometimes I conflate primal with strict paleo since they are closely related, and I've been hanging out at r/paleo and r/keto for longer than MDA. Anyway, I think dairy might be exacerbating my hormonal acne and eventually I'd like to eliminate it for a month and see what happens, but one step at a time. I also hear dairy is bad for candida overgrowth (and I think I have might have that problem, perhaps in my GI but also in my throat/esophagus as I have feel unexplained aches and lumps there after eating, especially alcohol or high sugar stuff). Coffee is also bad for it, as candida is supposed to thrive in acidic environments. But again...give me a french-press of a freshly ground Sumatra blend or give me death!

[honeybuns]

Aberdeen here.

I found with wine that getting a small glass and only filling it partway I could gradually wean myself away from havung to have a couple of glasses a night. I measured the quantity that went in that small glass out of curiosity and it was 1/4 cup! That was totally doable and I did not feel deprived.

[ErikaE]

Aberdeen here.

I found with wine that getting a small glass and only filling it partway I could gradually wean myself away from havung to have a couple of glasses a night. I measured the quantity that went in that small glass out of curiosity and it was 1/4 cup! That was totally doable and I did not feel deprived.

Aberdeen! Not too far away from me. I actually live in Olympia right now, and will for at least another year while I finish my bachelor's. I still say I'm a Seattlite because I feel like a fish out of water, living away from the city, and I can't wait to move back.

That's awesome that you can drink so little and not feel deprived! I'm determined to get through the entire month without even bringing any alcohol into the house to tempt to me, I think my liver could use a break from it to help with the switch to better foods and higher fat metabolism. But I'll definitely be trying that once the month is up.

[supersellen]

Hi Erika! I am actually keeping a journal as well, and mine is focused mainly on my issues with alcohol. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread28185.html

Best of luck abstaining this month!

[ErikaE]

So after a string of awesome days, eating really clean, in keto, and feeling *great* about it, today I had a Jamba Juice smoothie. The smallest size, and I carefully looked at the nutrition facts pamphlet and picked the "Berry Fulfilling" one that had the least carbs and best ingredients. But it was still 30g of carbs in one sitting -- though I did spread it out over an hour of walking and shopping.

At first it was good. I felt like I'd made a healthy compromise -- indulged without completely losing my head. But as the afternoon wore on, I felt worse and worse, and as I gazed at the carb count after entering it on my DailyPlate, I was surprised at how apathetic I felt toward that smoothie. It hadn't been tasty enough for this. I wasn't even feeling guilt, really, just a disappointment. I screw up my macro ratios that much, and for what? *Less* energy in the afternoon to do the things that interest me? Ugh.

One of the things I love most about being primal is how much more control I have over my diet. Since being liberated from conventional wisdom, I no longer have to wonder what makes me fat and what makes me feel good.

But one of the things I hate the most about being primal is how much control I have to have over my diet to actually *be* primal and feel as good as I do when I am. There just aren't enough tasty and healthy food options that don't involve me making an effort in the kitchen, even if it's a small one.

I've always kind of disliked American food culture, but I am beginning to detest it. Sure, I eat better than 98% of Americans, but I still feel entitled to have the option to eat out quickly and effortlessly once in awhile. If only there were an off switch for that....logically I know that planning ahead shouldn't feel like an unreasonable thing to have to do.