Primal Journal--Ancient (the wisdom is implied) ;) page

[Ancient]

I wasn't going to start my primal journey for a few days yet, but something has come up that demands that I begin immediately.

I have been in research mode for several months, not wanting to waste time on another fad diet that is not going to produce any real results. I've been down that path before: Weight Watchers, Calorie Counting, Nutrisystem (ick!), Isagenix, vegetarianism, to name a few. I'm a 32 year old, 250 lbs woman with an occupational endorsement in nutrition that has done me no damn good. I've read the Primal Blueprint, and have started devouring Wheat Belly. I also just downloaded Marks newer publication the 21 day TBT. I've been lurking on these boards for a few months absorbing information.

I have a high stress job running a wholistic health center providing medical, dental, behavioral and nutritional care to mostly uninsured and under-insured people. Recently I was promoted from managing the one practice to managing two additional practices on islands close to my home island. For the last month I've been on a small island in the Aleutians, population 60-ish. This island is dismal to say the least. The grocery store has no fresh veg and I didn't bring enough with me to last the whole trip. For the last week and a half I've been eating a lot of bread, pasta and processed crap. I eat a lot of that at home too, but not this much and for the last week my appitite has been out of control. More on that later. Just, the veg situation suck and I can't wait to get home to a real store so I can start this thing proper like.

Like I mentioned in my first few paragraphs something has begun that has elicited a need to begin immediately. It started a few weeks ago and I thought it was just muscle weakness because I've become so fat. I have back pain, between my shoulder blades and a little lower. Its like a burning, like muscle fatigue but different. Sometimes its in my sides as well. I was emailing back and forth with one of the providers on my staff and she asked me to take notice when it starts. I noticed over the last week that it comes on about 20 minutes after I eat a high carb meal. And it lasts until sometime after I go to bed because its gone in the morning. No amount of stretching helped or hurt the situation. It is not skeletal. There are no spasms. Just a constant burning ache.

Last night I had only pork and some green beans from the stores freezer section for dinner and there was no pain. Tonight I was invited to a potluck dinner celebrating Samhain at the local school and ate a dinner roll the size of my fist, some rice, pasta salad, and had pumpkin pie and pineapple upside down cake along with the proteins that were available (reindeer and halibut). I felt so awful and after about two hours my back hurt so much that I couldn't even stand or sit anymore and had to leave rather quickly. I even left my son behind and had him delivered home later by a friend.

Even as I sit here on the sofa, with a pillow behind me, my feet up and completely relaxed I am still in pain, all the way around my sides. I've over eaten before and nothing like this has ever happened. So I called the provider I was communicating with about this situation. She had me test my blood sugar, twice. It was 93 the first time and 98 the second time (two + hours after eating). She thinks its my pancreas, because the nerves for that are located where I am feeling pain. Commence freak out. She said, all the carbs I consumed probably created a huge insulin response causing my pancreas severe stress and causing the back pain. She told me to fast and rest my pancreas for the rest of the night, and most of the day tomorrow, at least 18 hours and then to only eat small portions of meat and veg until I get back to the other island and real doctors and medical facilities on Tuesday (the next available passenger flight).

So here I sit, freaking out, all by myself, 300 isolated miles from a medical facility with a lab, and doctors. There's a provider here, but her standing orders are pretty basic and she is basically eyes and ears for our providers on the big rock.

I'll type more later, I just wanted to get his journal and this journey officially underway. I'm Pagan, and when we start something we do ritual dedication to that endeavor. Consider this my dedication. I'm just not happy that it has stated in a crisis.

[zoebird]

I think you will be ok. Things are getting started at the right time, and it's pretty auspicious overall I would say. Definitely a fire festival is a good time to start things.

And, you have a great motivator to keep on track, so I think you'll see some good progress!

Looking forward to seeing you around!

[Pebbles67]

Oh my, I hope you can get enough meat and veg to last until Tuesday. Good Luck!

[Hedonist]

Fellow pagan here. Hopefully this will be enough of a wake-up call. Eat that meat and veg!

[Ancient]

So, I've been mostly primal all day aside from some red wine in the last half hour and I'm feeling fine. No pain. My provider sent me out some viscus xylocaine mixed with malox today on a freight plane to test and see if its stomach pain being felt in the back the next time it happens, just an attempt to rule out the possibility of ulcers.

So today's menu was: fried canadian bacon and scrambled egg beaters for breakfast, some frozen black berries and full fat greek fage yogurt (which isnt' as good when its frozen and then thawed...but its good frozen eaten like ice cream), red sauce made with ground reindeer and polska kiabasa. Not sure how primal tomatoes are, but, its not grains so I'm okay with them. I ate the sauce over canned greenbeans with some olives (again, are those primal?). My son is still hungry and asking for something else to eat so I'm going to make him a pork chop and maybe share it with him if he doesn't finish it.

I'm a stickler on sleep and getting at least 8 hours a night, its something I've always done for myself and demanded of my employees. I think sleep is really important and last night I did not get a lot. I worried late into the night and continued to read Wheat Belly. Then my Mom called me really early (I'm a hour behind her and she forgets all the time). I'm going to bed early tonight, I don't really care if its Saturday and everybody I know is going to party in the theme of Halloween. I'm kinda offended by the modern take on Samhain and I think the celebration of our ancestors and the welcoming of a new year deserve more reverence and less debauchery. Also, less chicks with no self respect dressed like hookers.

[zoebird]

tomatoes are primal, though they are nightshades so they do cause some people problems. olives are, yes, but green beans are in the questionable category (as they are beans, but. . . eh, we eat them).

there's a costume company that has a whole lot of cool empowered women designs for costumes -- athena, artimis, queens from around the world, suffragettes, and so on. very cool. i'll see if i can find it.

for me, the day of the dead -- which is how i see it -- is so powerful. it's such an important time for us to contemplate our lives and death's part in our lives, and those who have gone before us. i find it to be a very reassuring holiday. on the party side of it, i love the process of truly celebrating death/dying/the dead via being skeletons and stuff, and dealing with our fears around death with "frightful" activities (as far as one is inclined).

but, i live in the southern hemisphere, and let me be honest -- this is an AUTUMN holiday. pagans here DO celebrate samhain (et al) in autumn, NOT in spring, so they are totally separate from each other. And really, halloween is not celebrated much here, and really only by kids. So, it's pretty mellow all around. In fact, I would say it's very tepid.

ok, I'll look up that costume company. it's on my Facebook.

[zoebird]

Here we go: Take Back Halloween!

[Hedonist]

Zoe, fresh legumes are fine. Mark has explicitly said that.

[Ancient]

Well. these were some unprimally frozen beans, lol. Thanks for the link ZoeBird. Halloween these days always makes me so glad I have only a son and no daughter to scream at to cover her butt and boobs.

Today I have a carb cessation headache. Its getting on my nerves but I know the only cure is a few more days without many carbs or sugar. I'm packing today, YAY, getting ready to head home on Tuesday. I'm putting all my carby crap in a box and leaving it at the clinic to be given to anybody in need. Honestly I feel slightly guilty giving people what is fast becoming poison in my mind, but I remember a time when my son was very young and I was in a needy position and free food is free food when you have a hungry toddler to feed. At least I won't feel guilty throwing it away in a community with plenty of need.

I bought a bag of frozen broccoli a few weeks ago and I pulled it out to the freezer to make lunch today and it was pretty much a bag of woody stems. So gross. Really can't wait to get home. I'm going to drive from the airport to the store and strait to the produce section. Its only been 4 weeks out here on this island and I don't know how people can stand to live here year round with such little selection of fresh food to eat.

[zoebird]

green beans = "fresh legumes?" ok.

i guess that it's not technically "'paleo" but must be "primal" if "mark said it!"

but since i don't carry the book around like a bible, i have no clue what the man did or didn't say. I read the book once and passed it along to a family member, who read it and passed it along to a friend -- it's long gone from me now, so I don't know what he said.

but, i got the gist.

being primal is pretty simple: eat fresh, whole foods -- mostly veggies, some fruit, and meat and eggs. dairy is optional. stay away from grains of all kinds, pulses and legumes, and stay away from starchy veg depending upon your specific goals and needs. anything that might give you trouble -- eg, night shades -- avoid. but if they don't give you trouble, don't avoid.

i'm pretty sure mark would be cool with this simplification of his blueprint, since it's the major dietary take-away of the book. I don't itemize it "right, fresh legumes! but no other legumes!" It's easier to just go "no legumes" and green beans are that. So being a purist (and a paleo rather than primal), one might avoid it.

but i go even more simple for myself and go "hey, if it's a real food, and it doesn't cause me any specific harm, then i'm gonna eat it." and i'm defining food within the primal/paleo context, so grains and beans =/= food. but, green beans seem kinda more veggie-y to me than bean-y, and so i eat them.

regardless of marks approvial, because i don't seek it.