Primal Journal (Ecks) page 6

[lopisheep]

Hey, Eck --

You must be more than slightly upset. That is NOT fun. I was thinking when you told me about the samosas yesterday that those delicious nut flours wouldn't have worked for me -- even though I really wanted to taste one of yours when you had the dough how you liked it. It seems like cutting out fruit, dairy, and nuts almost totally is what I'm reading for those stalling on weight loss. What if you just kept those wonderful recipes you create with lots of meat and vegetables and coconut oil and coconut milk and then no snacks for a week or so -- gosh, I know that sounds terrible -- but just to see what happens. You are only eight pounds from your next goal. Lots of goat curries, baked chicken, steak, tons of vegetables. I mean, you could make a cookbook of the wonderful stuff you make. Idea: What about huge cups of rooibos or honeybush tea when you're starving for snacks. The Leptin thing could work, but for me, the bigger the breakfast, the hungrier I am the rest of the day. I need to look forward to each meal. Also, I've noticed that if I have plenty of fat with each meal, I make it to the next one. I hope you get even more options, so you can pick one that would work for you. Hang on in there. This next week has to be better, and you've made wonderful strides already. I do think snacks have to go. Giving the body a rest between meals so it can do its thing does make so much sense. Hey, how about a tablespoon (teaspoon) of coconut oil when the going gets rough. Just ideas. Coconut oil does help with weight loss. You can do it. Stay away from those scales this week. Griff suggests throwing them away:-) How about just putting them far away. I'm with you all the way and sending positive thoughts all the way to you in Ottawa:-)

[ecks]

Hey! Yeah the samosa dough didn't turn out so I made buns out of them... which also didn't turn out- I ate a 1/3rd of one and I don't really want them anymore... You're the second person tormenting cutting down on snacking but that confuses me because the meal article on when to eat suggests eating when you're hungry is the proper way to go and that fasting when your body is hungry could be potentially dangerous. I usually only snack when I get home from work because dinner time is usually at 7pm or later (7+hours after lunch) which seems like a long stretch because there's usually only 5 or so hours between breakfast and lunch. Further thoughts?

[lopisheep]

Yep, okay. I'm with you there on the snacking for you. It's not supposed to be stressful. How about snacking on hard boiled eggs, meats, chicken, vegetables, goat curry -- I mean, stuff you'd eat at a meal but that wouldn't mess the sugar thing up. This is going back aways, obviously, but when I was a model I had baggies with roast beef and vegetables as a snack and, MAN, we were talking about a half pound being overweight! Mark says not to stress, so yeah, then, if snacks are important, I'd say have them, but have the non-sugary, non-starchy ones. How's that for a better plan? How about some of your goat with Himalayan sea salt, pepper, and lemon? Another idea. Do you like soup. How about making some to have on hand and then heating some up as soon as you get home to take the edge off before dinner. I'll keep thinking. I wish my grandfather was still around. He used to hunt and make me a HUGE cardboard box full of sun-cured venison jerky with nothing but a bit of salt. Most of the jerky out there has regular salt and sugar and who knows what else. I bet goat jerky would be heavenly.

Just thinking. Okay, I like to think:-) Are you using a good Himalayan sea salt? I'd say always, always, always avoid regular table salt. It does odd things including making one RETAIN WATER (= weight). And, even Celtic sea salts are not required to put everything on the packaging saying what's in them. Himalayan does.

[ecks]

That's the thing though, my snacks are usually meat, veggies and berries... Very much paleo. I don't eat anything with refined sugars and carrots are the extent of my starch... I really don't think the after work meal that I've been calling snack is the issue...

[lopisheep]

Skip the carrots?:-) Just teasing. I'm going to go through what you eat everyday and then get back to you again. What was the salt answer, BTW? The exercise seems like it's fine, especially if you are enjoying it.

Hey, I took your advice on the bacon. Decided to use good old side pork until I feel like researching the sugarless bacon. It exists, but then they put other **** in it. Yep, using my last bacon right now. I'll get back to you soon. Sounds like you're doing so well. I'm hoping we find something really little that will trigger the weight loss to continue full force.

[lopisheep]

Dang, putting aside the one cheat (wings and iceberg salad) and the mistake (tonic water), it really looks good, so if I nitpick (not my forte), I'd say that perhaps the bananas should go and maybe more fat. If fat is the key, some days you might not have had enough (chicken breast is low fat). I don't think the latte is going to break any deal, and, man, lattes are just so right sometimes. So, I might suggest nixing the bananas and trying for a bit more fat. I wish everyone could look at your week's intake and check the fat. Wouldn't that be funny if your just needed more fat? Well, it would be funny if you cut the bananas (I think the berries sound just great) and added fat and lost a bunch this next week. NaiadKnight and Griff might be good ones to ask. Griff might not answer but NaiadKnight might:-)

[Lex26]

That's the thing though, my snacks are usually meat, veggies and berries... Very much paleo. I don't eat anything with refined sugars and carrots are the extent of my starch... I really don't think the after work meal that I've been calling snack is the issue...

I think the cutting out of snacks has more to do with the detriment of the habit, not what you're actually eating. And the time between lunch and dinner is not fasting even if there's an hour where you're hungry waiting for the next meal, so don't worry about slipping into a fasting mentality on that. I know how much it sucks waiting for dinner sometimes! My stomach is on a sun clock, so whenever the sun goes down, I'm like, dinner time! And yet I'm two hours away from it, grrr. That's why I was snacking on some days. Other days I could easily skip snacks, though, because I ate enough at the meals.

The bottom line for me is that there was a week in January in which I did not snack at all and actually didn't do any strength training and still lost weight. And then the next week I cut loose with snacking more on pork rinds, coconut milk and kale chips. Not much - not huge portions - but they came before dinner or afterward a little too late in the day.

So we continue onward with this great experiment! This week there will be CERO snacking, four hours between dinner and bedtime and eight solid hours of sleep a night. February I'll also be more consistent with my strength training, so hopefully this plateau won't last. If it does, we'll just keep on tweaking - there might be something to that leptin reset stuff.

[ecks]

Pam and Lex! you two are the best. I'm going to keep a closer eye on things (and not be fooled again between the difference between tonic water and club soda... -_-') Food post in a moment!

[ecks]

Food for today (So Far)

Breakfast- 3 slices of bacon, 1 small pork buttchop, baby carrots, cherry tom's, and some blueberries

Lunch (Gets photos today!)- Speghetti squash with olive oil and pepper mixed in topped with a pasta sauce containing ground beef, green onions, garlic, green bell peppers, mushrooms, parsely, salt. And 1 scotch egg (first time makin them and DAMN are they good! I skipped the frying portion of the cooking though. 2 in the photo to fill out the image more but I only ate 1).





Got home really late last night from church so I didn't eat dinner. I did however take down a tbsp of coconut oil and 2 fish oil pills before bed.

[ecks]

So this is officially day one meal one of a lepton reset... Not sure how I feel about it.

Went a little overboard and I estimate that breakfast was around 59g of protein. Anyone have tips for scarfin down that spoon of coconut oil? I was gagging trying to get it down (before eating breakfast... thank god). I decided I couldn't do it on empty stomach so tried again after... Still no dice. Ended up melting it in the microwave then pouring it into a giant glass of water before suckin it back. Any tips would be appreciated.

Breakfast- Omelet- 2 eggs, approx 3 ounces of ground beef (grass fed of course), approx 2 oz of summer sausage, approx 2 oz of avocado. 4 Slices of bacon on the side.

Lunch (packed but not eaten)- 1 Scotch egg, speghetti squash, 2 cups mixed veggies (celery, cherry toms, baby carrots), 1 cup of berries, 1 tbsp of coconut oil.

Dinner- Curried goat, cauliflower rice. The left over berries and veggies from lunch! 1 TBSP of coconut oil. 2 Squares of lindt 90%. No snacking after.