Primal journal : Coll page 5

[Coll]

BeachTeach, I grew up in South Africa- born and bred So the USA is my cross cultural experience. Though I have lived here long enough that I don't fit in properly in SA either anymore I do recommend living in another country, it does wonders for your perspective! There are things that used to upset me long ago that really have no impact on me anymore. I also find that many Americans are very ethno-centric and I think because this country is so big they can forget that there is a lot more to the world than just the USA. Don't get me wrong - this is a wonderful country and I enjoy living here in many ways. I have been astounded by some people's ignorance about other countries though! Oh well, I am sure I was also ignorant before I had more international exposure

I am having scale withdrawal this evening! Not that I usually weight in the evening - I feel like I can't gauge how I am doing without the scale. Feel like the weight is going to sneak back and get me while I am not looking! I felt discombobulated today - feel like it would have been better for me to fast than eat but I ate all day long! I am wondering if I should go ahead and fast tomorrow - but I have been doing the leptin reset ... will it be bad to skip breakfast and lunch and only eat dinner? Have a potluck we are going to tomorrow night and I have NO clue what on earth to take... maybe I'll do a fritatta. (and DS will have a boiled egg and some raw veg)

Breakfast: 2 thick slices of salami, 2 1/2 fried eggs, 2 strawberries, tea with cream and stevia. (decided to try and stick to just butter and cream for the dairy for now)
Lunch: Salami, 1/2 apple, sliver of cheese, (blew it already on the dairy!) celery and almond butter, tea with cream and stevia.
Snack: mushroom and a macaroon, tea with cream and stevia
Dinner: scrambled eggs, hotdog, veggies and tried the fermented cauliflower... it is awesome! AND DS likes it!!! He had 2 tiny little florets (unheard of with new foods!) Started with one and then asked for another! I tried hard not to fall of my chair or let my mouth hang open He also requested plain sauerkraut so I will be making that in the next day or so, along with some more cauli-kraut

Looking at my food choices for the day it seems to me that I did overeat... I didn't feel ketotic today ... Plus the macaroon is unnecessary... in fact I was not hungry at lunch and I still ate. Seems I may be doing some emotional eating - hmmm, why am I doing that?

I have not tried the kids on 50% chocolate yet. I am still trying to warm up to the dark chocolate myself. I used to make fruit leather - just haven't gotten around to it with all the moving etc. I hadn't thought of doing the shapes though - I never did bake cookies, have never really liked baked good very much. But I could cut shapes with scissors, nice idea! The kids will eat things that normally have no real attraction if I make shapes and designs and faces with their food. Going to try that.

I feel as though the sinus stuff is related to allergies with spring pollens everywhere and I think I am fighting off some kind of infection. I'll feel pretty good and then suddenly I have that incredible pain in my jaw and teeth, and then a few hours later it is gone. I am interested though if the dairy is having an affect since I am not able to afford the raw stuff.... It is so hard to not have dairy - I have a love affair with dairy... Maybe though it will be good to quit it totally for a while and then when I can afford the good stuff try it again. I will have to think long and hard about this though ...

My arm is mostly better but it seems that some of the lesions are already coming back - yuk! Still can't properly see as there is overpigmentation and still some flaking of skin - just can't see well enough yet. But it is presently about as bad as it was pretreatment as far as how dark they are - so I am hoping that once the healing is complete that it is going to be much lighter than before. The jury is still out on this one. At least no pain at all anymore.

Well, so much for exercising today... guess I lost my big girl panties and went back for my wimp panties instead. I REALLY need to do some LHT but seem to be very skilled at putting it off. Pretty pathetic I must say, sigh. I guess I will just try again tomorrow. I can so sympathise with the cheese being hard to resist Shamia. I think I must try to go at least a week completely dairy free. I think I can do a week if I really put my mind to it. I need to get myself some coconut milk to try in my tea before I go without cream etc.

BT, you made me laugh at the killing bamboo thing! You might need to start with remedial gardening 101 if that is the case Or just stick to your strengths and leave it to those who want to do it.

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DH hasn't hidden the scale or battery yet so guess what - I weighed myself this morning. Honestly, I wonder if someone knows where I can get a little maturity and patience. That just shows me how much I need to be shot of the darn thing! DH said he will hide the battery for me. It is kind of embarrassing that I can't let more than a couple of days go by without running to the scale for verification that I am doing ok! Anyway, my weight was 210 lbs. Lowest I have been for a long time, at least a couple of years. Yesterday I tried some of my next size down jeans on - they fit perfectly!! Kind of sad when you are this excited about fitting into a pair of size 20 pants.... I do wear my clothes loose so I could have conceivably worn them when I was at my heaviest but I have a real thing about feeling like an overstuffed sausage. You want to see what an angry momma bear is like - just put me in tight clothes and see the rage! Better for everyone if I just wear a size bigger

BUt now I am inspired to pull out some of my smaller clothes and keep trying those on. Some of them have not been worn for close to 11 years! THat will be a BIG victory if I get to wear some of those jeans etc. Who cares how fashionable they are - I will feel fantastic just to be in them

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A pretty good day overall. Nice and ketotic today. I decided to skip lunch as I wasn't really hungry anyway. Went to all kinds of trouble to get the potluck food ready only to discover that I had the wrong time and we couldn't go afterall! Sigh...

Breakfast: 6 slices of bacon and 2 1/2 fried eggs. Black tea with cream and stevia
Lunch: 1/3 glass of raw milk as I had just completed my LHT and was feeling positively shaky. Black tea with cream and stevia.
Dinner: Bowl of chili (with beans unfortunately) and grated cheese and chutney (tomato, garlic and jalapeno)

I am thrilled to announce that I actually got enough gumption to do some LHT this morning. It was better than the first time - but not much! I guess it helps that there is less weight to lift and push around! I also took a chair and put it under the tree branch outside and did my 2 leg chair assisted pull-ups out there! Takes a bit of courage to get out in full view of our neighbours and all the people cruising by on the bike path and do something like that. BUt I just consoled myself that one day I'll be able to do a real pull up and then I'll be the one laughing. It was pretty torturous trying to do pull ups with tired arms and legs... I mean, those arms had just been trying to hold me up in a plank or two, I had done push aways and there I was trying to use them again to pull myself up! And my legs were of limited benefit as they were rather wobbly after the wall squats (which I find difficult to get right as my wall is rather sticky and I also found a nail (that needed to be hammered in more) with my butt. Ha ha ha! I am nervous of doing the wall squats against the wood paneling, as this is an old, rather shabby place and I can just imagine me picking up some nasty old slivers in my butt

Had a bad nights sleep last night as DD had nightmares and woke me up 2 or 3 times. DS woke me up as well with a bleeding nose somewhere in the middle of all that and I had to pinch his nose while 99% asleep! I really need a good sleep - it seems in short supply nowadays. I was sleeping so well when I had all the interruptions. Oh well, will try again tonight.

[Shamia]

Good for you Coll! All that exercise! How'd the pull up go?

(ok, and I did laugh about the finding a nail with your butt. Sorry!)

I got my dehydrator yesterday. It's massive
I could easily fit 5 pounds of beef in it (all sliced up with the grain, in neat, even slices)

Maybe you can fit in a nap somewhere today? Naps are very primal

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Which kind of dehydrator did you get Shamia? I have an excalibur that is so big that I haven't been able to afford enough meat to fill it! I look forward to the day when I can make loads and loads of biltong. Need to get DH to help me figure out a shelf to set it on and then I can get it going again.

The pull ups were pretty pathetic looking I am sure but they certainly worked both arms and legs I don't know about a nap ... I have never liked naps - I feel awful when I wake up. But I do love to flop on the bed with a good book or lie in the sun for a little while... yesterday I spent about 20 minutes watching the chickens. Very entertaining and relaxing

The sinus headache issue is gone, there is a bad flu/ sinus thing going around here and I think it was unable to take hold in my now sugar free body

OK, here is the biltong recipe: (this is very flexible so you can make it once and then you can tweak it to suit you)
Meat to use: Silverside (London Broil) topside, flank, eye, fillet etc

If your meat is not from a reliable source I recommend freezing it for at least 2 weeks to kill any parasites that may be lurking.

1.Cut meat into strips about 6 inches long The length really does'nt matter except that it is easier to handle at this length or longer (15 cm +/-) and about 1 1/4 cm thick.
2. liberally sprinkle with rock salt on both sides of meat and let it stand in a dish for about an hour. (the longer it stands and the thinner the meat the saltier it gets. I do it right around an hour if I have it 1 1/4 cm thick and less the thinner I cut it)
3. After an hour scrape off the extra salt with a knife.
4. Put apple cider vinegar in a bowl and dip the meat in the vinegar for about a second or two. Let the excess vinegar drip off.
This is the time to add other flavourings like worcestershire sauce, tabasco sauce, etc Use a basting brush to brush these on after doing the vinegar.
5. Sprinkle ground pepper and coursely ground coriander seed all over meat. (I also like to put some garlic powder on...)
6. Spread in dehydrator so each piece is not touching the others and set it on the coolest setting you can. Jerky calls for a much warmer temperature but part of the point of biltong is that the meat is preserved raw ... very healthy.
7. If you don't have a dehydrator hang on a line in a cool dry place and let a fan blow over it. This will take some days depending on the humidity where you live. (4 - 7 days depending on the variables) We used to hang it on a washline in our basement I used to poke a hole in one end and tie butchers string through the meat and over the line. I put newspaper or plastic under the meat to catch the drips. Keep your dogs and cats away - they LOVE this stuff.
8. Biltong is ready when it is quite hard, but still a little moist inside. (this is also a personal preference thing - some people like it pretty wet and others really dry. I like leaving a layer of fat down the one side to 'nom' on - caveman style gum ) You can slice a piece off the end of one and try it. If the biltong turns green it is spoiled. In the years I have been making biltong I have never had it spoil. Whatever else you do the salt and vinegar steps are essential to preserving the meat and stopping the growth of bacteria etc. With the dehydrator you will just have to watch it and see when it seems ready... still depends on the humidity in your area to a degree. Since the dehydrator warms the meat it helps to cool a piece off and then see how brittle it is, as it cools it gets stiffer.

Our favourite way to eat it is just sliced across the grain into thin (or not so thin slices) You can also grate it and add to scrambled egg, babies cut their teeth on a stick of it, and you can be sure it will not last long. If it is going to take a long time for you to eat it freeze it, otherwise a plastic bag in the fridge works fine for us. Once the meat is out of the fridge don't put it in plastic. Eg. if you are going backpacking wrap it in brown paper or it will go mouldy.

Let me know if you try it and if you like it, it is a huge delicacy in South Africa and costs an arm and a leg to buy!

[Shamia]

We got a Stockli (the excalibur is way too expensive for us ) photo: Droogautomaat Stockli met 3 kunststof roosters en timer - image
you can set it from 30C to 70C and there's a timer.
Also bought some lean beef today (so expensive.. $26/2 pounds and no, that is NOT fillet or something nice.. it's stewmeat) to get a marinade started. Found out that the marinade just needs 3-6 hours, so into the freezer with the meat. Oh wel I'll definitely try the biltong, it sounds nommy! Bummer we don't have a basement to hang it to dry naturally, it'll just have to do with the dehydrator.
I'll let you know how it turns out! (funny coincidence: I never heard about biltong before you mentioned it.. and now at the (specialty) store, they had a pack hanging! Didn't buy it, too expensive for the amount of chemicals in it, but still!)

[Coll]

Man, it annoys me so much when they load something like biltong with chemical preservatives etc! The whole point of biltong is that it is preserved. The pioneers used to make it back in the days of the wagons and no refridgeration.... salt and vinegar is what keeps it good. Jerky and biltong are so expensive to buy and they have usually sneaked something undesirable in. Best to make your own! It sounds like you need to get a few animals for your backyard so you can eat more meat without going bankrupt!!! Could you raise a beef steer in your backyard (kidding lol)

[Coll]

Okay, today was a pretty good one. I have found the last few days that I am more 'with it' than I have been for ages. I have been so fuzzy brained for so long and it has been so hard to get organized with homeschooling and everything else that goes on in my life. But the last few days I feel as though things are starting to come together again. We moved across the country from South Carolina almost a year ago and then moved to another town in the same area just before Christmas. I tell you! All the stress and adjustments were hell! We also started a new business when we moved here and it has been real stressful trying to get that off the ground! I feel as though everything is starting to settle at last. Now just to find some friends nearby ... so hard for the kids with no buddies and having to adjust to living in other people's places and having to get used to being restricted to a backyard after having 9+ acres of forest etc. We had a whole orchard, lots of chickens, a wonderful property ... I miss it so much!

Breakfast: 4 slices of bacon, 2 fried eggs. Black tea with cream and stevia.
Lunch: Black tea with cream and stevia
Snack: (just before dinner) slice of delicious Welsh cheddar
Dinner: Chicken drumstick grilled, salad with homemade dressing. I have had not a single issue with my sinuses today but within seconds of eating some salad my nose plugged up. I couldn't figure it out but then had the idea to check the vinegar I used. sure enough it is not organic and has sulfites added! So that vinegar is out ... tastes so good but I don't like the effects!

DH got 'rid' of the scale's battery and I have to say that it is a lot less stressful not having that option hanging around all the time. I just focused on eating well and not eating if I was not truly hungry. I pulled out a t-shirt I haven't worn for some time and it fits me just fine Sad thing is it wasn't all that long ago (maybe 8 months) since I was wearing it and if I had gotten on track with the primal lifestyle then just think where I would be now. Oh well, that is all water under the bridge and no use worrying about it. I am waiting and looking forward to hearing someone say something about my weightloss. I know I still need to lose more for it to be noticeable to others but I am on the journey and feel that I have good momentum at the moment.

The landlord has just been away on an international business trip but it looks like this coming weekend we may all get together to build and start the garden area. Exciting indeed. We are having a strange spring ... seems that we have just skipped the usual March weather where one day is warm and then the next day is a snow storm. I am wondering if I can get away with planting some of the cool weather plants like cauliflower and cabbage soon... it is always a risk but I am concerned that if I don't do it soon I may have weather that is too warm for these crops too.

I am really pleased as the two cherry trees (that looked mostly dead when I pruned them recently) are showing some signs of life after being babied and watered and fertilised. Am so not telling the landlord that we are using grok style fertiliser - liquid gold, otherwise known as urine I can't use much but it is free and can give the tree that little bit of oomph to get going after being neglected and dried out! I have used this method before, with a fig tree that nearly died after being ringbarked by voles, and it came back beautifully. Grok would be proud of me I think sneaking outside with yoghurt containers of liquid gold - hee hee hee.

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It has been a very busy day, and I haven't kept my notes on what I ate as I ate it today. So here's hoping I can remember what I ate. I did decide to do a slightly higher carb day just for a change.

Breakfast: 2 1/2 fried eggs, 1 tin of kippered herrings, 1 square of dark chocolate. Black tea with cream and stevia
Lunch: 1 slice of bread (primal bread) with a good smear of butter, a handful of almonds, 1 small apple, 1 chicken drumstick, 1 slice aged cheddar. 1 square of dark chocolate. Black tea with cream and stevia.
Dinner: Salmon, grilled with butter, bowl of salad with homemade salad dressing, bowl of strawberries and cream.

I bought a slab of dark chocolate the other day and have been very nervous about trying it as chocolate has always been one of my main trigger foods. But after reading about the 85% cacao content and the benefits I decided to try it and see if it provoked appetite and cravings. To my huge relief there were none of those at all. I have never liked dark chocolate but I was surprised to find that, while it was very different, I actually kind of enjoyed it! Maybe that is why it didn't trigger any cravings, firstly, hardly any sugar, and secondly, it is so different from the milk chocolate that I used to down by the ton. It is like a different food and I felt just fine with a little of it. I was also impressed that one square was sufficient. I never used to be able to eat chocolate one square at a time, if I got a bar it was gone in no time and I was groaning privately and feeling horrid.

I felt really heavy and a little indigestion after the 'bread' at lunch time. While it is still primal it just didn't feel to good in my stomach. There is arrowroot powder in the recipe - could that have that affect?

I feel strange not having a scale to get on tomorrow. I am worried that I am going to gain weight and lose momentum. Taking deep breaths and trying to relax.

I am on our family reunion committee this year and I have been assigned the task of trying to figure out a menu that will work for everyone!!! WOW! There are vegetarians, low fat, high grain types all around and then there are us, who eat primal. Everyone loves the Italian food and there is always loads of grains. I am wracking my brains trying to think of some meals that will include something for everyone. I think we will have a barbeque the one evening ... with all the various 'meat' options for everyone. The other night is the hard one ... I keep thinking of meat dishes and what I call scrumptious will be horrifying for most people there! I think there are a few that will do eggs and bacon for breakfast, but there has to be cereal and lowfat milk/ soy milk etc. Bread at every meal... I think I am going to have to accomodate everyone else since they all have similarities and then just take some real food with us for our family. (think biltong, butter, veggies, almonds, maybe some greek yoghurt)

Oh well, I am sure I will come up with something. Too tired to think straight now though. Full day with school and laundry and cooking and dishes and cleaning the house, watering the trees, cleaning the dogs crate that was very stinky (buried an old egg shell under her blanket where it stank everything up - phew!

[BeachTeach]

One thing to ponder: you will or won't gain weight whether you weigh yourself or not. The scale has no bearing on that. What I hear you saying is that you don't trust yourself to know what works for your body, how your clothes are fitting, and how you're feeling. And yet, you ate the primal bread and noticed you felt ewwy. You ate the dark chocolate and noticed how it didn't trigger cravings. You put on the old t-shirt and noticed it fit again.

Trust yourself.

If you really want any kind of metric to track, take a tape measure and measure yourself every 3-4 weeks. Inches are better indicators than the scale.

Glad you enjoyed the dark chocolate! It is a different taste, but as my tastebuds have adjusted, I find it quite sweet and delicious. Can't stand any of the high sugar foods anymore, it makes me sort of ill. Right now I've got a bar of Lindt 90% Extreme Dark cocoa in my desk at work, and it's taken me about a month to go through it. When I first started eating it I thought it was really bitter and perhaps too far for me, but now I really love it. I usually break off a piece after lunch and really savor it.

Enjoy!