Primal journal : Coll page 25

[Coll]

Am still trying to get my head on the right way again. Getting more focused and more intentional... fitday and I are having sporadic dates and I am feeling a little more myself today (the new myself that is!) The Friday story was inspiring today - even more so than normal for me. I have been realising that my caloric intake is too much even though I am completely primal and very seldom have a carb intake over 100 and usually under 50 gms. I have a family reunion coming up on the 5 - 7th August and I DESPERATELY want to be a bit slimmer before then!!! So, time to re-evaluate my macros and I am going to aim to cut back the calories by about 200 and see if that helps. Aiming for about 1200 calories a day... we'll see if that is a realistic / helpful goal. I have also not been doing as much slow moving since the fire but want to get going more again. I spent about an hour this morning mowing the very bumpy pasture in front of the house. Including the cactus and yucca (baby ones)

I am at a bit of a standstill with my boxes - feeling very unmotivated to do any today. But I think I am going to try and get at least a couple done. Two less for tomorrow.

[Siobhan]

I have set myself a goal of emptying once box every day - so far I have exceeded my goal. However, it will become harder as I get down to the tougher boxes - the ones filled with every type of detrius that have to be sorted, and one with things I know I should discard but just can't. But I will worry about that when it happens.

[Coll]

I hear you Siobhan! I have hit the boxes you are talking about! The ones that have all kinds of things in that I am not sure what to do with! I ended up not doing any box stuff today, took a time out this afternoon and lay in the sun while the kids played in the kiddie pool and then made a decent dinner for a change.

I had two cups of tea with cream and stevia this morning. Lunch was two fried eggs and 1 slice of meatloaf, 1/2 cup frozen peas, 1/8 cup raw baby carrots. One square dark chocolate. Dinner was spaghetti sauce with meat on spaghetti squash, brusselsprouts fried in butter and topped with grated parmesan and seasonings! Delicious and satisfying. I have to be careful to chew the brusselsprouts carefully or I get terrible stomach cramps. I like them too much to give them up altogether so just take it easy on the amount and chew very thoroughly. I tried to take my time with my dinner instead of wolfing it down as I usually do - some bad habits still left over from my years as a nurse. We used to have to gobble our food if there was a break for a few minutes, otherwise you didn't get it. Can still inhale my food if not intentional about it. DH is good for me in this regard, he has always eaten slowly and that helps me slow down.

According to fitday my macros were:
Fat 96.8g
Protein 67.5g
Carbs 55.8g
Calories 1160

So we'll see how that sits with me. While mowing the front yard I burned my arm on the mowers carb! OUCH! But I am very pleased to say that the essential oil treatment is very soothing and hopefully it will heal without any scar. I have enough scarring and ugliness on my skin without adding extras! I was very impressed with how much the lavender and geranium oils helped with the pain too ... it was pretty sore until I got the EO on, even though I had run it under cold water and had an ice pack on it for a while. Now I just hope that I don't react to the adhesive on the big bandaid May just have to change it up and use a dressing tomorrow so that I don't have the adhesive on one spot for too long. We'll see.

[Sabine]

One of the things that impressed me the most about Friday's success story, was the change in her face. I expect bodies to get smaller with weight loss, but it is always amazing to me how faces can changes. I had never seen a picture of Paleobird at her top weight, only her avator, so I was amazed. You can see the hint of her new self in the old pictures. Makes me wonder what I will look like when I get there. And, wow! That stomach. I want that stomach!

[Coll]

AMEN sister! That stomach and those legs!!! Sad thing is I used to have that stomach when I was a teeenager ... I know it is somewhere in there buried under all the layers. Have you taken pics of yourself Sabine? I want to get a few more of me 30 pounds lighter to show the progression. I hope that one day I will have the 'after' pic that Paleobird has! I lost a pound yesterday after being more careful - didn't really feel much different than the day before as far as hunger. I think sometimes I don't notice true hunger until it is well and truly established. The other 'faux hunger' seems to nag at you all the time trying to convince you to eat something you don't need. Real hunger is delighted when offered real food - nothing else will satisfy it. When I am truly hungry I am not interested in junk - I want a fatty steak and a big salad instead. Going shopping on my own this morning - what a treat! Got to run to the store and stock up on food and then get home and water plants before they wilt.

[Sabine]

I have my 'before' pictures, but no 'in progress' pictures yet. Maybe once I hit the half-way mark. Only, my idea of my final goal weight keeps changing, so I'm not certain where 'half-way' is!

[Candy in Wonderland]

Hi Coll, I'm catching up with everyone's journals after some time off with my DH (just at home, the kids were on holiday with my parents). So glad to see you had some rain finally! We're still having plenty though so if you need some more just shout .

[Coll]

Hi Candy - I was wondering where you had got to! Glad you had a bit of time to yourselves - hope it was a good rest.
Sabine, take a few where you are at - you might be surprised to see the changes and that can be encouraging
Yesterday was a little crazy as we went out for lunch with BIL and SIL. Tried to pick a place that would sort of work for us ... we all ate some fries and DS and I did not feel too great afterwards. I am sure the result of sudden carb high. I also had a glass of port as a treat - we were celebrating one year in our new business and that it has taken off really nicely the last few months. But the port left me with even more of a sugar high and flushed as can be - and it was about 100 degrees outside! Not a good time to be flushed with alcohol! Next time will have a glass of red wine and call it good. Food was ok, but honestly I prefer to eat at home nowadays. I don't like spending so much on food that doesn't satisfy me and in fact usually has me feeling yuk afterwards. Had a salad with smoked salmon and the dressing was nice, but it was only lettuce and spinach and probably 1 or two ounces of salmon - definitely lacking in staying power. Had a slice of meatloaf and a few nuts and a peach for dinner as I was not really hungry - we bought chocolate with raspberries in, on the way home and I had about 6 pieces (yummy at the time but was way too much and left me feeling somewhat sick). The one good thing about yesterday was I slept well for the first time in ages! Feel like a new woman today. Spent about an hour mowing some of the yard. Busy watering it now and doing lots of walking around in the process. Going to attack my boxes because I have family coming over on Wednesday evening and that is great motivation to get the place sorted out. We need place to sit and have our meeting - family that we love but really don't get on with. Not looking forward to the meeting, as there is so much manipulation and control and condescension that gushes our way it is hard to keep your head above the water... oh well, hopefully it is the last befpre the family reunion. Then it is just the actual reunion to survive, and then a huge sigh of relief and our 'duty' is done for the next few years. So sad to feel this way about family Everyone thinks we are being difficult with our diet requirements even though I have told them that we will bring our own food so as not to force everyone else to eat the way we do. Of course the menu is 80% grains and 10% sugar and the rest fruit and veggies and meat. Everyone else is either vegetarian or strictly CW diet for heart health etc as they all have health issues. However we are the ones that everyone is horrified at how we are eating! Crazy world we live in huh?! The kids are going to struggle with seeing everyone else eating chips and bread and cookies and cakes at every meal. Any suggestions on really yummy primal treats to take with us? ( about a 5 hour drive to get there) One thing I will be taking is a primal carrot cake that we all love. Any cookie type treats you have tried and found your kids like? I think I am going to make up a bunch of burgers that we can cook on the first evening (BBQ meal) and then have for breakfast with eggs on the other two mornings. Even if I wanted to cheat and just go with the grains (I don't) our whole family would probably spend the weekend in the bathroom with severe gastric consequences and I am not going to allow that. The ideal thing would be to premake cookies and freeze them and we can pull them out once we get there. I will take a bunch of the chocolate the kids like - it is only 48% but that is as dark as DS can stomach, and they only have a piece or two once in a while. I figure they burn it off pretty fast especially as they are going to be in the pool a lot of the time.

I might need to make some fruit rollups, and beef jerky / biltong too. I'll take string cheese that the kids love for snacks, and butter for DS to nibble on.

[Sabine]

Okay, this is way out there, and may not align with your values, but...some kids are very motivated by money. You could sit them down and tell them that this will be a challenging food situation, and you really want them to keep on with their good habits, because it is better for their health, but you KNOW that this will be work because they will be surrounded by all these tempting but bad for you 'treats'. So you want to offer a reward/prize/incentive/wage/combat pay(whatever term you think fits in with how you want them to perceive this) to them.

Offer them a set amount of money, and any 'bad treat' they eat means a deduction of x amount. They can still choose to have a 'bad treat' but they have to pay for it (financially as well as physically). Kids love having control, and although I know you'll come up with great alternatives for them, this might be the extra they could use to keep them eating the good stuff. It is also a practical way of weighing the costs of something. Long term health might not be that important to them at this point, but an extra 50 cents? Oh, yeah!

Also, I would get your kids feedback, of what kind of 'good treats' they'd like to have available. They might surprise you.

Good luck with your meeting.

[Coll]

Thanks for your response Sabine. I love your idea of asking the kids what treats (healthy) they would like me to take. Also, they are trying to save up for some lego's they want and money might be a great reward/ motivator for them... will talk that over with DH and see if we can make this work for us. Sometimes it helps so much to have someone outside your situation share their thoughts - it is easy to get bogged down and lose perspective... thanks again!