Primal Journal (Ecks) page 4

[ecks]

In so much pain!!! Yay dodgeball! Team's getting better but it's still hard playing strangers. The other team last night (1 man 3 balls) apparently is entering their 10th season as a team (seems crazy...) came in 2nd overall last year. Regardless, fun ensued! It was an awesome night... just sore this morning. Pretty sure I pulled a groin muscle...

Breakfast- Omelet (2 eggs, mushrooms, green peppers, cherry tomatoes), 2 slices bacon, turnip hash.

Lunch- Chicken thigh, Salad

Snacks (for throughout the day as usual)- 1/3rd cup of pecans, 1/2 cup raspberries

After work meal (planned)- 1 small chicken thigh

Ended up having guests over in the eve so all I had time for was scarfing down some beef jerky. Also made a shake- 1/2 can of coconut milk, some water, some whole milk, blackberries, banana, ice, cinnimon, coco powder

4 sections of black and greens organic before bed

[ecks]

Sorry it's taken so long to do today's log. (and finish up yesterdays). Work was nothing short of stressful as ever today and I just didnt have time to update.

Killer swim tonight... in spite of the mound of snow that got dumped on the city today I made it out to the swimplex. 26 laps x 22m = 572 laps. + 20 minutes treading water. Part way through the 13th lap I over extended my left elbow to the point where it hurt too much to swim... so i flipped over on my back and continued... Seemed like the right thing to do

Breakfast- Thinly sliced steak slices. 2 Eggs

Lunch- Chicken sausage, 1/2 cup of mixed green peppers and baby carrots

Snack- 1/3rd cup raw almonds, 1/2 cup blackberries

Post work: More steak slices, more chicken sausage

Pre swim snack- Some baby carrots

Post swim- Slice of Meatloaf Pizza (photo to follow soon)

[GoPrimalPast50]

Have you given FitDay.com a try yet (it's free)?

You plug in what you're eating and it shows you a close approximation of how many calories you're eating, and the grams of fat, protein and carbs. It's pretty cool and I was surprised to find out I'm eating less than 2,000 calories a day most days - without even really thinking about it.

[ecks]

I'm staying away from measuring anything... I eat when I'm hungry and I stop when I'm full. Part of going primal is taking the science out of eating. I should clarify though that the 333 was starting on Nov 22nd. (It's when I started my journey). I'll update my sig now to reduce confusion.

[GoPrimalPast50]

Still awesome. It took me 18 months to lose 120lbs. For me losing it slow was the only way to go - and keep it off.

I hear ya about taking the science out of eating. I didn't use FitDay until this year. I have a very good friend, who is obese, ask me how many calories I eat a day. I honestly didn't know, as I never kept track.

Like you, I eat Primal until I'm no longer hungry - then stop. Over time, the amounts have gotten less and less. Someone told me about FitDay and I used it a few times just to see how much I am eating. Like I said, I was surprised that it was less than 2000 calories, but also pleased to see that my carb intake is always under 100 grams. I probably use it once a week now on the odd occasion.

[ecks]

I'll have to check it out then. Just as a once a week thing as well. I'm pretty sure I'm eating just around 200. I've found that I usually don't finish lunch and often find that dinner is just whatever I didn't eat for lunch. Counting takes me back to my OCD weight watchers days... what a waste of time that was.

I'm good for sugars. Except for milk, I love my milk (bout a litre a week of whole organic milk. 3.8%ish). Other than that my sugar comes from veggies and berries.

Your Before and after shots look outstanding. And I bet you feel amazing!

[ecks]

Heartbreaker... This week was a plateau week... Same number different sunday. 299. I knew it was a stressful week at work (and I don't stress out often) so I was putting in the extra 10 percent on the exercise front. Besides eating some dairy this week I didn't eat anything else non primal- Even getting to the point where if there were no primal options around I just didn't eat. (saturdays are always the worse for that).

Oh well! Guess I'll have to work harder this week. At least it didn't climb back into the 300's so I can be thankful for that. Now! off to go make breakfast.

***Update

Food post time!... So I didn't make breakfast after this post. Ended up going to the earlier church service.

Late Breakfast/Lunch- I cheated... And I'll be honest about it so that I can stay accountable. I got restaurant wings and a salad... it wasn't even a good salad it was made with iceberg lettuce.

Snack- the leftovers from the late breakfast/lunch

Dinner- Veggie stuffed pork loin with a side of green peppers and baby carrots

Dessert- 2 squares of lindt 90%

[ecks]

Breakfast- 2 eggs 3 bacon

Lunch and dinnner- veggie stuffed porkloin.

Tired as sin today. started work at 6:30 am and finished at 4:30. I've gotta get my head back to sleep early if I'm going to be successful.

Oh and work was much better today. Less stressful. I work for BlackBerry so I'm assuming most heard about the fortunate change today!

Dodgeball is canceled tomorrow so I must create a WOD to fill it in. I'm thinking death by airsquat

[outlaw48]

Ecks,

Congratulations on your primal progress, you're doing awesome!

I came across your journal by chance read the whole thing when I saw where you're from. I grew up in the K-W area and I got nostalgic for home. I do miss it.

You food is fantastic, too, and I'm always on the search for kitchen inspiration so keep it up.

[Lex26]

The stress thing is unavoidable! I mean, it can be mitigated, but not completely avoided. Give yourself credit for not going off track. It's taken me a while to actually be proud of something that simple. In the past, I used stress to break all the rules but now if I just stay fairly behaved, I'm proud of myself. Besides, exercising can make you put on a little weight because of a)water-retaining inflammation or b)putting on muscle weight. And - I always feel like I need to plug this idea - if you really start struggling with cravings or losing more weight, stop eating dairy. That was one of my early primal/paleo realizations. I tried eating primal with dairy, but it just spikes your insulin so much that it's much harder to improve insulin sensitivity with it. Eating right ironically got A LOT easier for me when I took out dairy.