Primal Journal (sbhikes) page 70

[mommymd]

I have been eating like a horse lately. A lady at work gave me 5 Lindt chocolate bars and in a week's time I have eaten 4 of them. That's more than half a bar a day. I've eaten some monster steaks this week. But my waist is 29" and my clothes feel loose.

I found a good resource online that said instead of counting calories, do this at each of your three meals (if you are a man, double it):

- Palm sized (I guess that excludes your fingers) piece of meat
- Fist sized pile of vegetables
- Cupped hand sized starch if you need more calories
- Thumb sized amount of fat or nuts

I bet I could do three meals a day of this and be stuffed. It might work better to eat more regularly if I'm going to be weight lifting. It makes me really hungry and I end up in this state where I am starved so I eat BIG, then I'm stuffed and go a long time without. Or maybe it doesn't matter much. I don't know.

A 29" waist. Well all right!

Keep up the terrific work. You inspire!!!!

[sbhikes]

Weightlifting makes me eat like a horse but get leaner. It really does affect the body differently than lighter weight strength training or cardio. Serious bodyweight training can do the same. I used to do intense bodyweight stuff at TKD training (handstand pushups, pullups, stuff like that) and ate tons then too. It's fun to freak out servers in restaurants when you down a huge amount of food as a leaner woman.

How are you finding your recovery?

Also, I am totally envious of your chocolate.

I feel bad about the chocolate because the lady who gave it to me gives me chocolate now and then as payment for me doing a part of her job for her that she doesn't understand. It's my job to provide this service to lots of people, but her boss wants her specifically to learn it. So I try to tell her she doesn't have to give me chocolate as payment, but she keeps giving it to me anyway.

I find that I recover better from the weight lifting than from the core fitness stuff. And if I am a little sore still from the lifting, I can still do stuff without being a total cripple, including more weight lifting. I'm doing it 3x a week for now.

One thing I loved about hiking the PCT was shocking people with how much I could eat. I'd get a big huge pancake, egg and sausage breakfast, order biscuits and gravy on the side and then when the waitress brought the check, sometimes I'd order another breakfast, maybe something small like oatmeal with raisins and walnuts. I don't eat that much now, of course. Or those foods, either!

A 29" waist. Well all right!

Keep up the terrific work. You inspire!!!!

Thanks. I don't think 29" is all that great since I'm pretty short. It used to be smaller when I was younger and had more female hormones. Forget Low "T". I've got low "P" and "E".

I bought the book Starting Strength on everybody's recommendation. Wow, way too many words. It's very boring and complicated. I guess some people like to geek out on all the mechanics. At least the pictures are helpful. If the book was JUST the pictures it would be a lot better.

[sbhikes]

Last night my boyfriend brought home P90X movies on his computer. I guess all the guys at work are doing P90X in the gym at the office. He wanted to watch them with me. I guess I'll see if I can do that later.

I also observed him putting a ton of butter in dinner last night. Here I am being all careful not to poison him with butter and use only olive oil. I think I'm maybe having an effect on him and he's just afraid to admit it.

[sbhikes]

Went for a really nice hike today, a really beautiful day. I brought a homemade protein bar for lunch: a steak. Ha ha! People teased me, but one guy said he was actually kinda jealous because it looked really good. After I ate it I felt hungrier than before I ate it. But once we started hiking back down the mountain, the hunger went away. I smelled ketones on myself when I took my shower later. Ever since starting with the weights, I have been eating way more starch and carbohydrates (potatoes mostly) than I used to. I am just hungry for them and want them. It is good to see that my body can still remember how to use fat for energy when it's needed.

I just feel so amazing and healthy lately. I was asked a rude question about if I was having a mid-life crisis, as if that would explain why I'm so physically active. Instead of just laughing it off with a joke, I actually answered the guy's question. I told him about the paleo diet, about how it has changed my life, and how since I feel so healthy I just WANT to move more. I'm not going to keep so quiet about this anymore.

[sbhikes]

I went to work early so I could use the gym. I'm so happy I've started this weight program. It really feels good. I love how hungry I feel afterwards, too.

I had a few minutes extra after I got through all my exercises so I did another round of squats. I love the squats. I really want to put weight on the bar next time.

I think the Rippetoe book has helped even though I have had to skip through all the boring stuff. The little tips like looking at the ceiling when doing bench press is helpful.

We ran out of wine sometime early last week. I haven't noticed the absence of wine at all.

I've been eating lots more meat. I think I found the secret to happy, healthy, food-obsession-free living for me: Meat or meat and veggies or meat, veggies and potatoes at any meal. Other stuff maybe for a snack, but those basics are enough to keep me satisfied, obsession-free and feeling strong, energetic and happy.

I ordered a couple t-shirts last night. One (pink) says "They Are Happy Because They Eat Lard" and shows a 1950s family. The other (yellow) says "Bacon is Meat Candy" and has a cute little piggy. I'm not a huge bacon fan, but I thought the shirt was cute. I can't wait until they come. Pink sorta sucks but I don't do blue.

[Owly]

Metabolic flexibility rocks, doesn't it?

I got home from the gym last night and started cooking some bratwurst (good ones from the farmers market) but had a craving for eggs, avocado, and salsa. So I scrambled up four eggs, topped with salsa and a whole avocado sliced up. I devoured that but still felt a little hungry, so I are one sausage and it was perfect. Being able to eat like that and not gain fat is fun. I joke that half the reason I lift is because then I want to eat more. It messes with people's heads when women lift and eat like that.

[mommymd]

I too have been asked if I'm having a midlife crisis. Maybe. I only wish I knew about this 20 yrs ago so it wasnt necessary!

[sbhikes]

Metabolic flexibility rocks, doesn't it?

Absolutely.

I hate the term "mid-life crisis." I've been having a mid-life crisis ever since I was 14 years old and they told me in high school that if you didn't know what you wanted to do for a living you were doomed to fail. I still don't know what I want to do. Ha! I want to do everything.

[sbhikes]

I saw a video on how to do pullups under your kitchen table. Hey! I could try that under my desk in my office (I have a private office, lucky me!) Well, yeah, operative word is "try". As in try not to slip my hands off the edge of the desk and bonk my head on the tile floor.

It occurred to me that if I brought in my camping foam pad, I could do a bunch of exercises in my office. I could set a timer or something and do them every hour or so. With just a foam pad or nothing at all, I could:

- Do pullups under my desk
- Do bridges with my feet on my chair
- Planks
- Squats
- Dips and pushups against my chair (I've been doing them against the desk but the chair is lower, and there's a second chair even lower)
- Real pushups if I ever am capable of them

Then I don't have to do any of this crap in the gym and save the gym just for weights.

Does anybody else do this?

[Owly]

I tend to do quick sets of some bodyweight stuff after my lifts, but I would generally only do one or two exercises after my main lift and accessory work. I try to be in and out of the gym in under an hour including warmup, main lift, accessory work, and maybe some bodyweight/skill practice. I don't believe in long, overcomplicated gym sessions.

Are you doing all those daily?