Primal journal : Coll page 57

[Candy in Wonderland]

Hi Coll, wow those pictures are beautiful! Keep them coming .
Good luck on your FFF!

[Judg]

Journaling your food intake makes any diet work better.

Do remember that excess protein gets converted into fat too. Somewhere in The Primal Blueprint they had a section on figuring it out. I found I had to cut back even further, because of my age and lack of activity. I'm not telling you you're eating too much of it, you understand, because I am very under-qualified to tell anyone that and I honestly have no idea. Just saying that it's something you might consider in your tracking. If I remember correctly, Mark included too much protein as one of the things that could be sabotaging weight loss.

[Coll]

Judg I really appreciate any input and ideas - sometimes you just can't see the wood for the trees and a comment from someone else can get the brain working in the right direction. I think you might be spot on though ... I think I am eating too much overall. Part of it is that I am much more sedentary at the moment with no outdoor work to do and it is very interesting to me that too much protein can sabotage the weight loss too. (I mean, of course!, but I hadn't really put those two together)

The last two days have been incredibly busy and I honestly have no idea what I ate. It was DD's 10th birthday today and yesterday we had guests over for dinner. They stayed pretty late and we drank red wine and ate stew on cauli rice. I have noticed I am feeling really bloated today and I know part of that was the lack of sleep. Can't wait to hit the sack tonight - the kids are almost asleep and then I am into the shower and bed too! I have to say that since I have cut back a bit on the carb intake I have more energy ...

Made primal chili for dinner and primal chocolate cake. DD loves it, I have never liked chocolate flavoured anything really so this is not a temptation for me! If it was a slab of chocolate it would be a different story as you all know. We went to the butterfly pavilion this afternoon and that was a lot of fun. Butterflies flying over and sitting on your head, arms etc. The kids loved it. And I held a tarantula on the palm of my hand today - never in a million years would I have ever thought I would or could do that!! I always used to be so afraid of spiders and yet, today, when I looked at the spider it just looked cute and fluffy to me!? I have very warm hands and the spider didn't want to get off my hand because it was enjoying the warmth - that would have freaked me out before ... I was amazed at how light and soft it was!! Quite an experience for a person who was previously freaked out by spiders!! Pretty cool.

[Sabine]

And I held a tarantula on the palm of my hand today - never in a million years would I have ever thought I would or could do that!! I always used to be so afraid of spiders and yet, today, when I looked at the spider it just looked cute and fluffy to me!? I have very warm hands and the spider didn't want to get off my hand because it was enjoying the warmth - that would have freaked me out before ... I was amazed at how light and soft it was!! Quite an experience for a person who was previously freaked out by spiders!! Pretty cool.

Wow! I am VERY impressed.

[Coll]

LOL Sabine, me too

DAY 1
I have done a lot of thinking this morning and I think I need to rethink my strategy - what I have been doing is not working at all. I do think that I have been a little confused with the encouragement from various sources to eat huge amounts of protein and I really think that Judg nailed it last night when she said that too much protein (and fat) can end up as fat if it is more than you need. For me that has come as somewhat of a revelation - obvious, but for some reason it has not added up until now. It just feels like one of those 'ah ha' moments.

So I am pushing the reset button and am going to restart my FFF (Furiously Focused Fourteen) today. My main goals here are to cut out snacking (doing reasonably well with that), eat a bit less protein and fat (I have never had trouble eating enough of those!) and vastly increasing my veggie intake. Quite honestly, I crave them most of the time, but am very lazy and uninspired when it comes to getting them onto my plate. I am going to track every bite that goes into my mouth for these two weeks and we'll see how things go. Yesterday was not a good day in some ways. Specifically, I felt bloated, my jeans (that a few weeks ago were really loose) were starting to feel uncomfortable to me, and I was quietly freaking out. This morning I weighed in at 196.5 lbs!! Sigh, not doing well as we all can see. So time to rethink and try again. No point carrying on the way I was - the plan is to lose fat not put more on!! I think I also need to drink more - with the change in weather I have dropped my fluid intake a lot and have turned to more cups of tea with cream, which while certainly not bad, is also a lot of fat over the course of the day. So I am going to cut it back to one mug in the morning and then really go for the water and herbal teas. If I have another cup of tea it will have to be a small one with just a dash of cream. I think I need to cut back a bit on my stevia too - I am making my tea too sweet and while I know the actual stevia is not bad for me, I need to kick the addiction to sweet. I want to get the level of sweetness to a point where the flavour is balanced - a hint of sweet with the rest of the delicious flavours all showing through instead of being overpowered by the sweet. So this morning I am going to start weaning the stevia off until I find a good amount. Nuts are definitely a no-no for me at the moment. One leads to many more!

So folks, pray for me please, that I can get moving in the right direction again and that I can figure out what my body needs, and then do that! I am feeling rather fragile this morning - but not giving up, no way, NEVER!!

[Sabine]

Good luck on your new FFF, Coll. Prayers coming your way.

[Judg]

You can do this, Coll. Depending on how you're hard-wired, cutting things drastically can work, or gradually easing back can work. The latter works better for me most of the time. So my goal with sugar was to cut it when I would still enjoy the tea or whatever, and cut back when it was "essential" and train my tastebuds to like something different. Then I would cut back a little more. I understand what you're saying about stevia; if we're piling it in everywhere and keeping our taste for very sweet things going strong, it is leaving us vulnerable. Better to rework our tastes. So an alternate plan is to keep drinking your teas, but with as little stevia as you can still find enjoyable.

Protein means "first thing". It was named that because protein is essential. Adequate protein intake is essential, no matter what philosophy of eating we subscribe to. But too much is too much. The body will use what it needs, and put the rest into storage. With all the vegetarian thinking going on, it has to be emphasized that there's nothing wrong with meat per se. But while we shouldn't be obsessing over it, portion control still matters.

I remember hearing the testimony of a couple who lost a lot of weight many years ago and they emphasized how important stir fries had been to their success. They had been very hearty eaters, and psychologically, it was very important to them to have a nice full plate. Filling it up with mounds of veggies was their answer, and it worked very well for them. We can add some fat to our veggies, and feel even more satisfied. And at the same time get a lot of crucial nutrients.

So yes, by all means, cut back on your meat and cheese and eggs. Ramp up your veggies. It sounds like an excellent strategy. Develop a taste for herbal teas or whatever beverage strikes your fancy that won't be packing calories on. If you keep drinking cream in your tea, just put a little less fat elsewhere. Eat your fat where it matters most to you.

If you're hungry, go ahead and have a snack. Even better if you've thought it out ahead of time, so you know what you want to reach for and how much. But don't snack just for the sake of snacking. Wait till your body tells you it needs it. And don't believe it at the first pang. It's amazing how often hunger goes away after just a couple of minutes if you're too busy to attend to it. You know how sometimes you don't do what your kids ask the first time they ask, because you're quite sure they don't really care that much and besides, you're busy. When they come back and ask again and again, then you know it matters to them. (Come on, we all did that...) (Which is not a bad thing.) Well, treat your off-schedule hunger the same way. It will often sulk off and not come back for hours.

[Siobhan]

You've got all the tools and we are rooting for you. I'm with you on the stevia - I know myself so well. Sweet tastes, even primal or 'safe' ones, just lead to more cravings for me. I've cut back drastically, from using it three times a day to maybe twice a week. Hey, I'm saving lots of money, that stuff is expensive!

[Coll]

Thanks so much everyone for the words of encouragement! You are all such a blessing to me!

Today was a pretty good one overall. I had a mug of tea with cream and stevia - about half the stevia I was having and it was still sweet enough to be enjoyable. I then had lots of water to drink today. Lunch was two pieces of bacon and three breakfast sausages, 1/2 an English cucumber, half an apple, thin slice of birthday cake. I had another mug of tea just before dinner, also with cream and stevia, slightly less cream than I usually have and less stevia too. And we all had a piece of string cheese too on the way home from the store. Dinner was a 1 1/2 burger patty on cabbage leaves with tomato, onion, and mustard and some raw veggies on the side, 1/2 avocado. Felt satisfied, but not full. I feel as though I could eat something now - but it would be pure appetite. I have stocked up on a few more herbal teas so that I have more options. No nuts today, though I did come pretty close while making DS some yoghurt, he likes a few pecans and almonds mixed in with honey and vanilla. It looked really good ... but I wasn't hungry and managed to stop myself from eating. Close call there.

Arrived home after being out for a few hours and buying a Christmas tree, only to find the landlord had managed to sever the water line as he didn't bother to get the pipes mapped out before digging holes for a 'new' fence. So, dinner was a lot later than I had planned as we did not have water and I was not going to mix hamburger patties with no way to wash hands afterwards. Spent the evening decorating the tree ... the kids are ecstatic. DS says to me, "I feel almost as if I might cry it is so beautiful!" How sweet is that? Today DD was tearful because her best buddy back in the Carolina's fell and broke one of her adult teeth and knocked another out DS was sitting in the back of the car with his arm around her shoulders comforting her as best he could. Some days kids just blow you away with how sweet and kind they can be. Just precious!

[Coll]

Well, today I am back down to 194.5 so that is at least a move in the right direction. I know it was probably just water but thank heavens it is going away! Now to just keep focused and disciplined. Tons going on and not enough time to get it all done!