Still craving pterodactyl...Kate's Primal Journal page

[Kate Ruckman]

So, not sure if that's how you start a journal, but giving it a shot...I've been doing it this time around since July, Paleo a few years ago and then drifted off.

A friend of mine who is brand new to Primal asked me to describe my typical day...so here's what I wrote to her:

I’m almost never hungry in the morning, so it’s close to noon by the time I eat (or after.) Sometimes organic Greek yogurt (eep, dairy!<G>) and wild Alaskan frozen blueberries, sometimes eggs and nitrite/nitrate-free bacon or sausage, sometimes just leftovers. Chicken, steak, salmon patty, whatever. I don’t have to have a breakfasty breakfast!

Probably a few prunes…maybe an orange. Sometimes tart apple and sharp cheese.

IF we also have lunch, then maybe chicken salad, tuna salad, leftover meat on a big green salad. Or pickup food from leftovers…

Dinner, if we’re going simple, a meat (poultry, pork, beef or fish/shrimp) and a vegetable…we seem to eat a lot of broccoli because we both love it. Or Brussells sprouts, sometimes sweet potato, or greens, or whatever. I sometimes make an onion pie (quiche without the crust) and leftovers are great for breakfast. We eat soups, chili, lots of stir fry, sometimes ratatouille.

I try to get wild-caught fish/shrimp, and when we can, grass-fed beef and sometimes free range chicken, but that’s pretty expensive, so we go for hormone free.

I do eat a little too much chicken (the skin has too much Omega 6), but often get skinless breasts we do a lot of stuff with. If we get a whole roast chicken, of course we eat some while it’s hot, then make chicken salad or chicken soup, boil the bones and all that.

Last night it was brats from Trader Joe’s (no nitrates or nitrites), sauerkraut and onions, LUSCIOUS. I thought we’d have leftovers, but we both plowed right through it!

We got beef bones from our butcher, and I boiled and boiled them for bone broth. Rendered the fat to cook with, and it’s delicious…slightly beef-flavored fried sweet potatoes are to DIE for!

AND I’d lose faster if I didn’t snack on so many sunflower and pumpkin seeds (and cashews, the only nuts I can eat, with my allergy). Some people say seeds are poison, but oh well. I love my salty/crispy and I’m not doing crackers or chips any more. I’m trying to crank back on those a little…

I had a tough time getting past the taboo on animal fats, since I’d been brainwashed to believe they were bad, but lots of research seems to suggest otherwise. Dowanna get gallstones or gout, of course, but I do sauté with butter or that yummy beef fat, and butter my veggies happily!

The other day we ate out at the Blue Nile, where you’re not given utensils but a sort of soft, damp, fermented pancake you pick up the food with. It’s (ick) wheat, so I just licked the stuff off of it.<G> OK, I might have gone for the 20 part of the 80/20, there, if I’d wanted to, but it was a challenge!

I'm losing slowly, feel much better, and have more energy/less moodiness, so I'm good.

I even am developing some skinny little-old-lady muscles, from using my Thera-band!

[Kate Ruckman]

Still not sure how the journals work...for a new entry in my own, I just reply? Old dog trying to learn more new tricks, here...

Anyway, made it through Christmas pretty well, considering Mount Temptation on the groaning board the other night! The chowder had flour in it, oh well, I have NO idea what was in the dips, and I did eat one cookie...but other than that, primal all the way. Lots of carrots, celery, and the middle out of Joseph's muffalata sandwich. I ate around the bread!

[namelesswonder]

Yeap, just reply! You enter in the Quick Reply at the bottom of the page, or you can click on the "Reply to Thread" button at the top or bottom. Hooray for making it through Christmas with minor transgressions!

[Kate Ruckman]

Thank you! Mark had said something on the sticky at the top of the journal page to make your journal public...I didn't see any options to do anything different, and I'm fine with that, but it made me wonder if I was doing it right...

And thank you! I'm just not really tempted any more...of course if I went to Red Lobster and they brought cheese biscuits, I might have a problem!

[namelesswonder]

It's funny how sometimes the cravings we have for things that we used to eat can actually be narrowed down to something more specific. If you could just eat the cheese from the biscuits, would you be happy? I don't crave grains, I crave what goes with them. The gooey center of the cinnamon roll. The thickly applied butter on the bread. While I probably should have the sugar from the roll, I can still have the butter or some other kind of fat If I could just have greasy cheese, I'd prefer that over pizza!

[Kate Ruckman]

You're right! It's the cheese and butter! And I DO still eat cheese, though not as much, and butter's just fine with me. We had a heavenly brunch of broccoli (for which we had to ask for butter!) and grilled shrimp with roasted garlic. It was on a bed of "wild rice," by which the restaurant means a little wild rice and a lot of regular rice, so I just fished a few bits of wild out and left the rest. We passed on the hot bread...didn't even want it.

[Kate Ruckman]

Gotta tell you, I've spent a lot of time in a doctor's office lately, with my husband. He had a couple of iffy moles removed and now doing endovenous ablation (varicose vein laser surgery), and they have an ENDLESS loop of ads for services going in the waiting room. Botox, Restylane, dermabrasion, spots on your hands, wrinkles, GOOD GRIEF. We are SO obsessed with youth...makes me crazy!

I came home and got out my sparkly iridescent eye shadow, which I use below and beside my eyes, to play up those smile lines and weathered wrinkles. I LIKE THEM. It's patina, I earned it, and I am going to by God celebrate it!

Meanwhile, I don't mind a bit losing weight, getting stronger and feeling better! But ya know, I'm 69, and that's FINE with me. It's been a great ride, and I plan to enjoy the rest of it!

Mutter, mutter...

[namelesswonder]

Hehe. I've never though to use "patina" to describe a person, not a car. I like it!

[Kate Ruckman]

Hehe. I've never though to use "patina" to describe a person, not a car. I like it!

Thank you! I have no END of patina!

[Kate Ruckman]

I KNOW it's not about the numbers, and I KNOW it's about feeling good, but I have to say, I feel good that I'm below that next decade on the scale this morning. I LIKE those numbers!