The Chocoholic's Primal Road page

[sakura_girl]

Lindt 99...Ghirardelli Unsweetened Baking Bars...Green and Black's 85...I thought I would have to give these up forever in my quest to get fit and lose weight.

Hi, I'm Sakura, and I'm a current athlete recently graduated from college, and out in the working world while trying to maintain the same level of strength and sprinting power for my sport with a different sports team. For a little background on myself, I've always had a past of being really active and competitive. I was that girl that could beat the boys at dodgeball. I used to be one of the fastest 1-milers in my girl gym class without having to regularly exercise. I've always been above average at any new sport I tried out. But I never thought about my weight. Slightly chubby, skinny-fat, but not close to overweight at all.

Then college rolled around, I joined a sports team, and I started caring about weight in the obsessive way that many athletes do. I did a lot of cardio at that point, but was just skinny fat in my first two years and I was very nearly obsessed with counting calories while losing my period. I educated myself about weight training and got myself a six-pack. But sustaining on a meager low-fat diet, I took about 3 months to crack. I never got back down to that weight, and a bad period of depression/binging when I quit my team, shin splints that stopped my chronic cardio, a study abroad in Europe that involved way too many carbs + chocolate, casued me to grow to 150 pounds and 5'4" (can I at least say I grew an inch in college to make several of the pounds feel better? XD) I've tried only unsuccessfully to lose fat because hunger pangs would deter my progress.

After lurking around the forums and MDA site, a lot of the concepts made sense to me, including the way nutrition works in the foods consumed, and in terms of the exercise plan. I always knew subconsciously that certain details on nutritiondata back in SAD popped out at me more than the things CW focused on like fiber and calories. For example, I used to pay really close attention to the inflammation factor, tried to keep n-6:n-3 lower than 6:1 (was REALLY HARD when cooking when vegetable oil...), and never let my total GI go over 100. But I knew that high-carb and chronic cardio would not last me my entire lifetime.

During my first months on PB, but I abused the allowable chocolate and dairy rule, and instead of moderating them, chose to eat them every day for about 1/3 of my daily food intake. This allowed me to gain an extra 5 lbs.

Then, I began fasting for 24 hours 2x/week, and this only marginally helped me. My food choices began incorporating many nuts to compensate for my enormous appetite, although despite the fact that I was eating on average over 3,000 calories a day, I did lose a small amount of fat.

Right now I am focusing on reducing my physical levels by getting enough sleep and reducing mycotoxins and histamines. My emotional stress is currently at an all-time high.

On the exercise side of things, I am focusing mostly on improving my lifts, with short sprint sessions whenever I feel like it. I've worked down my twice-a-day gym workouts to 2-3x per week, with a moderate amount of walking, and sometimes hiking on the weekends. Stats below.

Pre-Primal on August 31, 2011:
Weight: 155
Size: 8-10
Deadlift: 95
Snatch: inconsistent, still mastering form, 45
Squat: probably down to 115
2-minute ERG: ~480m

Current on December 31, 2011:
Weight: 160 (my own fault for abusing the lenient rules of PB)
Size: 10
Deadlift: 215
Snatch: 65
Squat: 165
2-minute ERG: 550m

Current on December 10, 2012:
Weight: 155
Deadlift: 265
Snatch: 70
Squat: 175 (Ass-to-grass this time)

[sakura_girl]

Monday: August 22, 2011

Breakfast: 3/4 cup of almonds, 2 quail eggs, 1 tomato
Snacks: Almond chocolate bar, coffee with small amount of coconut milk
Lunch: Chicken hearts, sauteed spinach, and tofu
Dinner: Sauteed spinach and pistachios

Carb count: 160
Protein count: 130

[sakura_girl]

Thursday: August 25, 2011

I came down with food poisoning from the coconut milk that I left out, so I spent the last few days eating fruits and soup. Yuck =(

Breakfast/snacks: 85% chocolate bar
Lunch: Chicken hearts and sauteed bok choy with garlic, dry cappuccino
Dinner: Ground turkey with spinach in marinara, 2oz raw cheese

Carb count: 80
Protein count: 92

Then I had a moment of weakness and started snacking on a bunch of frozen blueberries and dried figs...I think I'll count that as maybe an additional 90 carbs...ahhhh...eat more fat next time

[sakura_girl]

Friday: August 26, 2011

Breakfast: Chocolate bar and coffee nibs
Snacks: Cream cheese frosting...and nibbled at some chocolate frosting too, pistachios
Lunch: Omelete with peppers, onions, and spinach
Dinner: Stir fried ground turkey with spinach
Post-dinner carb-up: About 100g sugar in candies o.O

Good thing I'm carbing up for tomorrow's sports practice xD

Carbs: 200g
Protein: 80g

[sakura_girl]

Saturday: August 27, 2011

Ran out of fats today, which you will see in my log:

Breakfast: none
Snack while at practice: Coconut water
Lunch: Grilled squid, small amount of pumpkin and shredded cabbage
Snack: 5oz goat cheese
Dinner: 2/3 pound of cheddar cheese, sauteed spinach
After-dinner snack: small nut and seed mooncake

Carbs: 44g
Protein: 142g

I bought olive oil today, so it should be a lot better with the fat consumption in the next week.

[sakura_girl]

Sunday: August 28, 2011

Wow, I had the hugest carb flu incident in the morning. Woke up with a huge headache and my body felt like it was on fire, even more so than my usual soreness after practices. Figured I didn't eat enough carbs yesterday, so had some today to make up for it.

Breakfast: grapefruit, omelete with shallots and spinach, coffee with whipping cream
Lunch: 1/3 pound cheddar cheese, sauteed amaranth leaves
Snack: Frozen blueberries with whipping cream, 85% chocolate, frozen edamame
Dinner: 1/3 pound cheddar cheese, tomatoes, and seaweed
Snacks: Frozen blueberries with whipping cream, sesame seed powder

Carbs: 180g
Protein: 180g

[sakura_girl]

Monday: August 29, 2011

Okay, so now that I am not exhibiting the flu-like symptoms, I'm going to try extremely low carb again.

Breakfast: 85% chocolate
Lunch: Chinese chives and eggs
Snack: 85% chocolate
After workout snack: raisins
Dinner: Tomato, ground turkey and bok choy stir fry with garlic,
Snack: Haw flakes and blueberries with whipping cream

Carbs: 190
Protein: 93

Okay that low carb failed. At least I don't have to eat any more of the dried fruits my landlady brought back with her from China for me since I ate a ton in front of her XD

[CandylandCanary]

Welcome from a fellow chocoholic. Greens & Blacks is the bestest.

You seem to eat all kinds of cool things. How are quail eggs? They sell them at the farmer's market here. And I've always wanted to try squid, but it always is breaded(!) and cooked in PUFAs at restaurants. I'm too chicken to buy it myself. Yet, anyway. But is it good?

Re: your carb flu.

I'm not an expert on carb cycling. But you're doing a whack of exercise. Maybe you just do need more carbs? I was reading some other posts on doing VLC for athletic performance. I think the idea is, that if you keep the carbs under 50g, you'll successfully get into ketosis and once you ketoadapt, you'll run just fine on fat. Either/or, I guess.

[sakura_girl]

Thank you! I am so happy to run into fellow chocoholics in this forum who appreciate the higher cacao and fat content of dark chocolates!

And quail eggs are super yummy! I think it has to do with the fact that there is a higher yolk to white ratio, but the yolk tastes better than regular chicken eggs to me too. More of a rich taste, and you can't really overcook the yolk and get that really bad chalky texture like with chicken eggs. I bought mine at a Chinese supermarket for $1 for 10 eggs. I remember loving the stuff as a kid in China, so I took a chance to buy some last week and it was delicious. You should definitely try it!

Squid is really chewy if you overcook it, but I think it is pretty tasty. I ate some grilled quid at a Japanese restaurant, and they prepared it fairly well. I've also only seen it breaded at other types of restaurants, so I think your best bet is either salt and pepper squid at a Chinese restaurant (which may be cooked in oils with PUFAs, unfortunately), or grilled squid at a Japanese restaurant. One thing about squid and octopus is that it's somewhat high in carbs, but it is a seafood that is very nutritious!

I realized that about my exercise levels, so I was doing a high carb for the half day before my sports practice, but it looks like I need to do one afterward as well. Next week I'll up my carbs on both Friday and Saturday and begin high-fatting it on Sundays. But I definitely want to get into ketosis as soon as possible to minimize my carb flu symptoms, so I am glad that you are giving me another opinion that is confirming my suspicions about my reaction. So thank you!

[CandylandCanary]

Huh. Chinatown is just ten blocks from my new place in Victoria. I may have to try those quail eggs out. Can't argue with that price.

There's been a whack of carb refeeding threads around lately. People there would know a lot more than me.

You're welcome. And seriously, who could NOT like dark chocolate? These are people who just think they're chocoholics, when in fact they are merely in it for the sugar. Tsk. Philistines.

More for us, though.