Primal journal : Coll page 8

[Shamia]

Do you like bananas? I eat a couple every week for potassium and that prevents leg cramps.
(also, did you see the part about the cilantro for mercury poisoning? I was so excited for you when I saw that!)

How's your son doing? a bit better already? Good that his fever got down! Poor little fella.

I'm sure they just summed up a couple of difficult words to make your lesions sound interesting and very complicated, just because they didn't know what the heck to do with them! Well, I hope that PB fixes it, then you can rub that in their faces! (not literally, unfortunately..)

I cooked up a storm today, thought you might like the recipe:

A lamb shank per person (they are awesomely cheap now, it's lamb season!), carrot, onion, celery, pepper, salt, stock, red wine, thyme, rosemary, garlic, tomatopaste

Roast the peppered/salted meat in a hot dutch oven with cocofat until nicely brown, take out of pan, toss in veggies, add pepper/salt. Add tomato paste, cook that for a bit. Toss back meat, add stock (or... stock cubes.. I did that..), herbs, half a bottle of red wine, water to just put them almost under. Cook until falling off the bone, about 3 hours (on low).
Serve with celeriac mash. And some veg extra, if you want.

And, you can drink the broth as a soup later! The alcohol will cook out of it, so even the kids can eat it
(I saved a shank just to put the meat in the soup.)

[Sabine]

Coll, thanks for telling us about your fast. I have been thinking of doing a three-four day one, sort of working up to it in my mind, so I am very interested in other people's experiences. I have been low-carb and in ketosis for a while, so I am hoping I could skip over the adjustment phase, and just start feeling fantastic (a girl can dream). I think the main thing I am worried about is food longing, not hunger.
(Oh, and thanks for stopping by my journal! I love guests.)
I have had a few health problems clear up through primal living, and am sure there are other things inside getting better and better- I hope for the same for you.

[Coll]

Today was not the best ... hardly any sleep last night again! DS miserable all day with an irritating cough ... not feverish but also not right yet. After being unusually hot for ages this spring we are 40+ degrees cooler today! SO nice to put on a jacket again and feel my toes all chilly. I love the cold weather and grey days are some of my favourites I love sunshine too but there is something special for me about the overcast sky and the smells and the way the colours work under the muted light.... great for photography esp. portraits. Course my camera is broken (the screen broke after being slammed in the car door!) so no pics today.

Shamia, thanks for the mention of cilantro's effect on mercury. I wonder if it has to be fresh cilantro or if the seeds have a similar effect (coriander). I do take chlorella which is also supposed to bind with heavy metals and aid in removing them from your system. I have heard however that there is very little point in doing a major detox when you still have the fillings in place as the mercury just rushes in to replace what you have removed. I really need to get the mercury fillings out - once we actually have enough money ... that is a pricey little escapade there! I am pretty paranoid about heavy metals as I know I have a boat load on board... we only drink reverse osmosis water with minerals added as the thought of adding fluoride to my woes doesn't get me excited.

I have not been eating bananas ... they are not my favourite fruit, never have been, just too sweet. However I did add 1/4 of one to my bowl of berries and cream tonight just for a treat. I have eaten too much today... nothing bad, just too much. I am so overtired I think and I have a feeling that I may be headed for us ladies favourite monthly episode. I tend to want more carbs then and being so tired I guess I am trying to give myself an energy boost by eating more - not happening though.

Can't remember what I ate today - too sleepy to recall.

Sabine, I would think that if you are already in ketosis and have gotten over any carb flu you should be absolutely fine! If you make sure to fill your day with interesting things at the times where everyone else is eating you don't notice missing the meal too much. I would take a few minutes to go for a walk, write in my journal, read a good book, lie in the sun, listen to some favourite music, play some music if you like to do so, write some poetry or prose, climb a tree etc etc. I think you may enjoy it. Just take it in small 'bites' and there is no law that says you have to do it for a certain period of time - just see how you go.

Thanks for the recipe Shamia, I LOVE lamb. Just the thought of lamb gets me drooling! It is so expensive here and unfortunately it is raised in feedlots here. Once in a while we buy a big leg of lamb roast - the best! We do roast lamb for our special meals like Easter and Christmas and Thanksgiving .... You can get New Zealand lamb here sometimes and I enjoy that. But I miss the Boland lamb we used to get in South Africa - raised in semi-desert browsing on small drought tolerant shrubs etc. and the flavour is exceptional!

All this talking about a fast makes me think that it might be a very useful thing for me to do too. It has been a long long time since I did more than a meal or two. But now that I am over the carb stuff I think it could be an easier transition... guess we'll see. I'm going to hit the sack folks!! PLEASE let me have a good nights sleep tonight!!

[Candy in Wonderland]

but I was shopping for the least toxic chocolate for the kids for Easter and didn't have the urge to buy any for myself. I have their chocolate stashed in my dresser and have not the slightest urge to go and sneak some for myself (which I used to do and then would have to buy another bag etc to cover my tracks and so on until at last Easter was over and the candy was no longer in the store!) How pathetic huh?! It is the most liberating feeling knowing that the chocolate is sitting there and I really don't care WOW is all I can say... this is many, many years of struggle and now I don't even want the stuff... you have no idea how long and hard I have prayed for a breakthrough in my addiction to candy and especially chocolate!

Hi Coll, this is awesome, isn't it! DH brought home chocolate eggs form his work last week and the kids only had one each and the rest of the bag is sitting there, in full sight (!!) and I don't even feel like having a piece!

I admire how you got your children and DH to join this as well! I'm working on it and am starting to get them in "my new lifestyle" (spending more time together, doing activities together) and off course they eat what I cook, but still eat bread ad breakfast and lunch (and rice, potatoes and pasta for dinner, although pasta and rice only once a week each). Especially my youngest son is a bread addict. I am making my own sourdough right now, and am planning to bake good bread (as healthy as possible, with spelt meal and no junk or sugar in it), so at least I know that if they have bread, at least it's the least harmful as possible...
So, I'm off to read the rest of your journal

[Candy in Wonderland]

OK, gone through it all now and I've subscribed. Looking forward to seeing you change to an even more beautiful woman!

[lopisheep]

Sabine sent a bunch of us over here:-) What a great journal. I enjoyed it so much. Had it with my morning kombucha! Love to see a paragraph of your journal in Afrikaans.

Isn't homeschooling great? I'm in my last year with my youngest son. He did the GED ages ago, so we are calling this year college homeschool as we both wanted one more year. Now we're doing mostly drawing with a little German and literature. Hmm! Yeah, mostly drawing. He can do it fourteen hours straight.

Yeah, I'd say definitely nix the nightshades. Made a huge difference for me. I tried magnesium and chocolate for the muscle cramps; then got annoyed at taking another supplement and stopped. They went away. The primal nutritionist at Whole Foods said it WAS from losing weight so fast. Interesting, eh?

Wow! 18,000 IU of D3. I've been doing 4,000. Maybe that's not enough -- especially since we rarely see the sun up here.

Yep, love those loose clothes.

I found milk and yogurt seemed to affect me, but not the healthy cheeses (no colorings, no junk, raw when possible) ones. Just as another experience to take a gander at.

Had the deer issues too. We had goats, so deer -- carriers of foot rot -- were definitely not what we wanted.

Do you still have your lovely 9 acres of woods and such to go back to someday. Sounds beautiful.

Hope DS is all well and thriving. Amazing the things kids can get sometimes.

Thank you for an enjoyable breakfast with your journal and have a wonderfully primal diet with ever looser clothes!

[Coll]

It has been a not so good day again ... DS is much better and I found a wonderful homeopathic cough mixture that really works very well and I don't have to worry about all the other junk that is in most of the over-the-counter meds. I was appalled the other day while looking for something for DS to see all the KRAP that is in the meds you are giving to someone who is ill already! Dyes and sugar and chemicals etc!! Horrifying! ANyway, DS slept really well last night except for one dose of cough meds when the other lot wore off. The other awesome thing about the cough mixture is that DS can drink it without flinching or puking! This is a BIG deal as he is extremely sensitive to taste. SO, since DS slept and DD slept, I got to sleep too! I woke up feeling kind of yuk, a little achy and slight sinus pressure, slightly scratchy throat. So, fermented garlic down the hatch, kefir down the hatch, zinc and all my usual supplements. Feel better again this evening... really hope I can have a good nights sleep again and then hopefully I can kick this bugs butt once and for all.

Breakfast: 1 1/2 sausages, 1 bell pepper, a few macadamia nuts. Black tea with cream and stevia
Lunch: Fritata made with left over steak that was too chewy for us all, onion, garlic, cauliflower, broccoli... 2 squares dark chocolate. Black tea with cream and stevia
Dinner: Left over sausages, asparagus, 1/2 avo, bowl of berries and cream + 1/2 banana

I think I am heading for my period - feeling a little bloated, I don't know if it is just a feeling or fact. Lopisheep, I have been toying with the idea of getting the nightshades out of my diet ... so far I have eliminated grains, sugar and legumes. I am wondering if the bloated feeling is maybe partially related to the bell pepper for breakfast. I really think I need to chuck the nightshades - at least for a while and see what that does. A lot of my immediate family (and I) have auto-immune issues and I think it would be worth my while to take this lectin elimination to the next level. I would give a lot to see my skin clear up! I do enjoy nightshades but they are not a passion of mine ... OK, from tomorrow, no nightshades. Will give it a week to start out with and then will continue if they show up as a concern.

With all my moving my poor kombucha SCOBY is rather neglected. I need to check whether the latest batch is ready and drinkable. The SCOBY had been in storage for about 8 months before I put it back to work. It seemed perfectly healthy so am hoping it will be ok. Our house is really chilly in the winter (though not as much as I would prefer as we don't have any way to heat other than the furnace ...) so it has taken it a long time to get close. Hopefully I don't have a jar of vinegar

Thank you to everyone for your kind words and for stopping by to chat! So lovely to meet more nice people who are also on this journey! This forum is fantastic for encouragement and support! I feel all bouyed up again and ready to attack this lectin thing on a new level.

Our landlord has been totally taken in by the local soil scientist and now is totally overwhelmed by the vast amount of work and money required by CW to get his garden up and running. Poor guy is now thinking of giving up his dream of a garden when it is really within his grasp if he would just let go of the whole CW thing. Oh well, he is a big boy and is going to have to go through his own learning curve! However, we have permission to put whatever gardens we want in our yard area... very nice. Hopefully he'll be able to see our efforts and results and get inspired to try it the simple and easy way. EIther way, at least we'll be able to grow something.

Lopisheep, our land is sold - so sad it was too. All our love and hard work is benefitting someone else now. We try to be good stewards of the land and leave it healthier than when we arrived there. It has been rather depressing living in rentals as the condition of the places we can afford at the moment are not good and we spend ages just picking up the trash and fixing up other people's messes so that it is pleasant and safe for us and our animals to be here for this time. We long for the day when we can get our own place again - just have to be patient and try to make the most of where we are right now. We have decided to really enjoy not having our own land in the sense that we have time to go camping and we live close enough to the place where I can get free bagpipe lessons that I can go and make progress. I know that once we find a property we will be flat out trying to get everything up and running the way we want it. It has been so hectic moving out here and starting a new business and trying to just keep on top of normal life! It will be good to have time to go camping and enjoy each other and the gorgeous Colorado countryside (even though I still wish for our own place with every breath)

Lovely to hear that your son enjoyed homeschool so much that he is taking extra time with you! Awesome! My daughter is a draw-a-holic too. She can spend most of the day drawing and does seem to have an unusual ability to see things in a different way. I am hoping to start doing the "new drawing on the right side of the brain" with both of the kids (and me) as I have always wanted to draw and DS is totally intimidated by his sister's abilities and so will not even try to draw. As far as the D3, I usually do about 8000 iu - though I can miss a day here and there and have not been getting much sun for months. I will probably drop down to 4000 iu once I am getting out in the sun more often.

Candy in Wonderland, thanks for your comments - yes, freedom from chocolate is heaven!! I just hope my kids will get there too. DS is pretty good with just saying no thanks if he doesn't feel like some, but I taught DD to eat for comfort (that is what I did) However they are both pretty good at listening to their own bodies and putting on the brakes. I don't think I am ready to leave chocolate on the counter though - and certainly not with this nasty 'germ' floating around our house! My hubby is very interested in the whole primal way of living but is so overwhelmed with work at the moment that I just tell him what he can and can't eat until such time as he can read it all up himself.

Oh well, need to take myself to bed again - you all got me jabbering away here and I should be sleeping Luckily, since it is my journal I can ramble all I like huh!? Oh, last thing, I measured myself and wrote it all down - so now I can do my own tree ring
I was happy to see that my belly is still smaller than my bust and butt Even though I am still hugely overweight - I have always carried the fat pretty well spread out over my whole body so people are surprised when they find out how much I am overweight. I am not - I know what it feels like to be slim and lean and I am SSSOOOO far away from that. At least 70 pounds still I think. But that is better than 90 now isn't it

[Candy in Wonderland]

When I started on my diet last year and told people how much I weighed (97,5 kg - 215 lb) they wouldn't believe it either. And I'm down to 70 kg - 154.5 lb now and feel so thin I can hardly believe it . You will get there too!!!

[Shamia]

Hiya Coll! I think it's the greens that do the trick mostly, but maybe you can get the koriander to sprout? Hope you do get a good night sleep and that aunt Flo arrives soon - then your carb cravings will be gone again. I'm so not fond of that part of being a woman. Just give me an on-off switch for pregnancy and be done with it! Who needs that whole monthly ordeal anyways!

Definitely designed by a man.. lol

I was in gorgeous Colorado two years ago. Apart from Texas (don't ask why.. we don't know either! Just feels like home), we'd move straight up to Colorado if we were to move to the US. It's such a wonderland! And I love mountains
You are one lucky lady! Apart from the lack of sleep and the rental property..
It would be really cool if the landlord would totally turn away from that CW once he sees your crops!

Sleep well

[Coll]

Candy - I can hardly even imagine what it would be like to lose that much weight! I have about 70 pounds to go! I want to weigh myself - once Aunt Flo has left town that is ... not a good idea to weigh now as I am definitely a bit bloated right now.

Shamia, I would have enjoyed the on/ off switch a lot, but it may have been on more than off and where would I be now - probably have 8 kids around my feet if I had been able to control that stuff I always wanted a bunch of kids and then got married really late, first kid at 37 years old and second at 40 with two miscarriages in between. I have wondered if it was my horrid diet that affected that whole scenario and have crazy thoughts of having another kid if I can get healthy. Or adopt one or two if we could ever get our finances situated enough. I hate that it costs so much to adopt children when we would give just about anything to have more kids. It seems to me to be almost as if you are buying a child - doesn't sit well with me somehow.

I decided this morning to fast until dinner time but not in a guilt ridden way. Just decided to not eat or drink anything aside from water - so it was about 24 hours without food. Usually in the past, I would have felt pretty rough - but I felt fine, a bit hungry but not at all bad! I ended up having a cup of tea with cream and stevia while I made dinner. Yum. The sad thing is that my favourite tea is out of stock at Amazon.com and I am having to drink another type for the moment. It is nice but it just isn't the same as my Welsh tea...

My clothes are feeling fractionally tighter at the moment. These are the times that I feel panicky ... that old well known voice is trying to tell me that I am going to gain all the weight I have lost back. THat I am the exception to the rule and I am going to fail at this effort to get my health back and that I am destined to be fat and unfit for the rest of my life. Pretty pathetic huh!? I know very well that my hormones are influencing things a lot right now - but my emotions don't care! Funny, I don't usually get much in the way of PMS but maybe from the lack of sleep and all the stress lately everything is more out of whack. Sigh!

Shamia, CO is beautiful! So very dry though, which makes gardening a challenge, unless you have good water available. A lot of people do xeriscaping here. However I grew up in Natal in South Africa where it is very humid and hot and I love flowers and lots of greenery. Fortunately here the landlords have unlimited water rights so we can water as much as we like. Unfortunately, they don't have a way for us to access the water ... we have contemplated buying a small submersible pump for watering the yard, it would be sure to come in handy once we find a place of our own. I do like to dream that the landlord might just get an inkling of the possibilities if we go ahead and do a simple and quick raised garden or two.

DS is much better today - though still very grumpy and out of sorts. But the cough is subsiding and he spent most of the day up and about, instead of lying on the couch or his bed all day. I think he fell asleep in about 20 seconds this evening! DD is still popping in and out of bed. And the dog has been stuffing herself on dandelion flowers again today and so has to go out to pee every few minutes - and I have to take her out on a leash during the day because otherwise she'll be eating our chickens......... Gosh, I do wish DH could have a little time to finish the coop! It would make it so much easier without having to constantly manage all the various creatures during the day. In the morning we have to carry the whole flock out (only a few birds but still, one at a time) and put them in the outside runs, food and water too. Then we repeat in the evening. The dog has to be walked on leash through the day until the chickens are back in the shed and then she can have the backyard to herself! The one hen has started eating the other hen's feathers and so I have had to separate them from each other. Unfortunately the little 'cannibal' is our son's darling little pet who he has had for about 4+ years. She is fantastically tame, just being a meany with the other poor little hen. Chickens can be a big pain in the butt when they are not getting on with each other. This was supposed to be really easy and streamlined with the one hen hatching a bunch of eggs and no hassles with integration. Of course she waited until the hatching eggs arrived before deciding to blow off being broody (this from a hen who is part silkie and therefore permanently broody!!!) I guess life interfered and now I am trying to get everyone to settle down and tolerate each other. Just not happening right now.

Sorry about that rant - too much information I am sure... oh well.

Dinner: a stew concoction I threw together. Bacon, stew meat, minced beef, celery, carrots and green peas and various seasonings. Also brusselsprouts. I am feeling bloated after dinner - I actually am wondering if the brusselsprouts don't agree with me - I love them but I seem to get an upset tummy after eating them .... I never used to eat them at all, hated them in fact. I tried them steamed for a short while and then fried in butter with salt and pepper - totally delicious. But I have had them about 3 or 4 times in the last couple of months and I get a very bloated feeling and my tummy churns and cramps etc. I had thought previously that I had eaten too many or too quickly. But this evening I definitely did neither and still feel like someone has attacked me with a bicycle pump!

Sleep well all you special ladies - here's hoping Aunt Flo arrives tomorrow so that I can be done with her soon!