The 2012 Making it Happen Challenge page

[cavewitch]

This year is my last year in my thirties. I will be 40 in 2013. I will healthier then than I am now. That's the goal.

I want to post what I eat everyday, what movement I did, and how I feel. I'll probably keep track of my sleep a little too, but I get WAY too obsessive about it. And this will be the year to play well with others. I've been traveling too much to build a face to face community.

And I will finally find the right winter shoes that are minimalist, well treaded so I don't slip on ice, and that I can hike for hours in. Cuz no all day bare feet make for a very long four months.

Deep breath. Here we go.

[Buzz71]

Nice one cavewitch! I turned 40 in 2011, I think its a great age to refocus and get your health back on track. Best of luck!

[Annana]

As I mentioned in another thread, these VIVOBAREFOOT | The original barefoot shoe | Barefoot Running | Barefoot Shoes | Brooklyn | Brooklyn Pull Up Leather Black are great winter barefoot shoes, if you're female. Very comfy, waterproof and really warm too. I love mine.

[chiaraosbat]

Hi Annana, I have them too, I bought them last year, but I don't wear them anymore because after 2 weeks they were stinking so much I had to keep them out of the house! A plasticky, nauseating artificial stink. And my feet got really hot and wet inside. Do you get that too? This year i bought EMU boots, in real sheepskin, i wear them everyday all day, without socks, and my feet are warm, dry and happy! no stink. When it gets really cold, i wish i could wear them to bed...
and they were half the price, too...
If you don't get that problem with the vivobarefoot, maybe i got the wrong model...

[Annana]

I've never had that problem with vivo barefoot, but I can see why it would put you off. I hadn't heard of EMU boots, but they look really nice.

[cavewitch]

wow...thanks everyone!

as far as winter shoes go, i already have comfortable warm shoes (i have my uggs which i love and i have a great pair of boots that keep my feet warm) but, i'm just not finding what i want as far as grippy off trail shoes. i searched and found the sodhopper mocassins which are a teeny bit out of my price range but they look like exactly what i'm looking for.

this will have to be short because aparently my cat sent out a memo saying that at this exact time, after a few days of completely ignoring me, is when i'm supposed to give him my full attention and convert my keyboard into his lounge.

so:

breakfast: 1 multi-greens kombucha and a big ol' hunk of local raw milk cheddar
treat (around 2:30): a locally, home made caramel marshmallow (yep, just one. it helped that i bought it at a fancy boutique and walked halfway up the street before i unwrapped it or else this day might have gone very differently)
late lunch (around 4ish): flash fried steak in butter (still raw inside), mashed turnips and carrots in coconut milk and thyme and some leftover greek salad from last night with some kimchi
dinner: chia seed, rosehip, cacao nib and coconut milk "pudding" and jasmine tea

movement today: i lugged 8 or 9 loads of firewood up from the outbuilding down the driveway. when i got to town, i walked to all my errands, including lugging the groceries several blocks back to my car. when i got home, after lunch, i did some vigorous, much needed car clean-up.

as far as sleep goes, i've been waking up naturally around 8 in the morning. i'd like to get that to 7.

also, every day i try to get some outside barefoot time. it snowed all day yesterday and today so around an hour ago, i made a mad dash to the car in my bare feet.

i want to take my measurements tomorrow and record them because poundage is irrelevant. also, i'm going to try and do a psuedo-fast tomorrow. just some nettle infusion, some tea, and maybe a clear broth for dinner.

[cavewitch]

day two of recording but actually day 7 of being back on the primal bandwagon and livin' la vida fantastic and i am BURSTING with energy. this is such a huge deal for me. i'm usually dragging by 2:30 in the afternoon but it's 9:45 and i'm still going strong.

BUT it is BEDTIME. well, okay...an episode of weeds and then BEDTIME.

today i mostly fasted.

i had my nettle/mint infusion, a big cup of green tea, a large cafe au lait made with half and half, a kombucha, a cup of jasmine tea, and i made a leek, garlic stir fry with thyme, lemon, wheat free tamari and fried an egg on top.

the one thing i wanted to do today was go for a hike and it just did NOT happen. so, lesson learned: if there's something i really want to do, do NOT put it off for later. get it done first thing. FIRST THING.

i'm also feeling quite virtuous because we're off on a family field trip. heading to the new england aquarium in boston tomorrow and i have both of our lunches packed. mine primal his not quite but he's a stubborn and picky 15 and it's just a battle i'm tired of fighting so i'm going to lead by example instead of wearing out my vocal chords.

i didn't get to my measurements...it's been that kind of day. that'll have to wait until monday.

all in all, feeling quite proud of myself.

[Buzz71]

It's a great feeling of accomplishment, you should feel proud

[cavewitch]

thank you Buzz71!

There's something about living primal (not just the diet/fitness, but the whole thing) that makes me feel so strong-reminds me that there's not much difference between people who do really great things and me. being human is such a grander and more powerful thing than sitcoms, conventional wisdom and popular culture try to get us to believe.

so, yesterday was a VERY full day.

breakfast: the last couple bites of a jar of kimchi, a bite of raw milk cheddar, and a kombucha
lunch: a chopped salad and horseradish mustard and thyme egg salad with a square of 90% dark chocolate by lindt.
dinner: cow tongue with salsa verde, steak with salsa roja, some fresh salsa and some guacamole with about 4 oz orange juice, mocha latte and 6 pieces of saltwater taffy (woops...but i was in boston.)

we schlepped through the aquarium for hours and i carried my back pack which weighed about 15 pounds. we didn't get back until 11 so i slept in quite late today.

i'm noticing that my desire for hot, sweet drinks is quite high right now. but they can't be too sweet. i got my mocha latte from an independent coffee shop and it was SOOOOOOOOOO much less sweet than the starf*(&cks equivalent. of course, as i'm typing this, i've got a hot chocolate at my hand. but, i could only take two sips and i'm done with it. i'm really, really losing my taste for sweet.

the taffy was more about the chewy texture than anything else. and, honestly, i just ate the fresh whipped cream off the top of the hot chocolate. that's what i really wanted.

i think today is going to be a rest day. it was a 14 hour day yesterday and that was a lot.

[cavewitch]

weird, i definitely had two other entries and they disappeared. whatevs.

i've been doing great overall. night before last, on the way home from a non-snowboarding day...i waited too late in the day and just didn't feel like it anymore, i drove through mcdonald's (i know...gross) and had a small fries and a "pineapple mango" smoothie. i forget EVERY DAMN TIME what this kind of food does for me. i could hardly get out of bed yesterday. my joints hurt so bad, i had a headache...i felt like crap.

so, instead of a downhill spiral that would normally happen and a binge and a throwing up my hands in surrender, i just had a really good breakfast. there are these grain free cracker things that i love and i had them with cranberry stilton cheese and a kombucha. that tided me over until almost 7 last night when i had a simple salad with mixed herb greens, raw sunflower seeds, herring, and avocado. i made a simple dressing of olive oil, horseradish mustard, and balsamic vinegar. then, had a couple squares of really dark chocolate.

did NOTHING physically active. i'm okay with that (i think). today, i've got a lot to do. i'm starting a new project where i get to renovate my friend's outbuilding into a living space in exchange for living there and helping her get her little farm going. i couldn't be more excited. and of course, there's wood to be brought in from the wood pile. tomorrow, i want to do a really long hike. part of the appalachian trail is right up the street and saturday is my fasting/hiking day.

i'm doing as much raw food as possible with steaks, liver, eggs, and fish thrown in. i'm learning to let my body be the authority and not worry about sticking to any dogma. i've had my fill of religion in all its guises. right now, i'm eating a raw and fermented breakfast, a salad, and then meat for dinner when i an hungry for it.

today, breakfast was a few bites of locally made kimchi. (i'll be so glad to have a kitchen soon so i can make all sorts of my own concoctions), a few fronds of dulse (which i LOVE), some raw goats milk cheese, a tangerine, a kombucha (i may need an intervention with these...i can't get enough!), and now i'm having some hot apple cider.

now that i'm really paying close attention to what makes my body and brain happy, i'm noticing that i'm just headed toward a high fat, low carb, high fermented, high raw, organ meat diet right now.

also, i downloaded a food diary app and when i was trying to set the personal nutrient profile, every time i tried to set the carb ratio to less than 50% of daily intake, it flashed in red letters a warning that i was doing something DANGEROUS. wow. the brainwashing is strong.

i sometimes wonder how differently my life story would be if i had found this way of eating 20-30 years ago. or more accurately, i had never left my innate childhood instincts for "health professionals" telling me how i should eat. honestly, i'm just going back to what i loved to eat when i was 6 years old. we are the wisest then, i believe. who we are at 6 is the purest, wisest us and we would do well to remember who we were then and learn from that person.

wow, i'm verbose today. anonymity certainly loosens the tongue.