My Journey from Sugar Burner to Fat Burner - jenn26point2's Primal Journal page 124

[jenn26point2]

Reading this thread: Paleo For Women | Protein, Cortisol, and GABA: Why Moderating Protein Reduces Anxiety (and Lengthens Life) I am learning that high protein can contribute to high anxiety... guess I'll be dialing the protein back!

[namelesswonder]

I'm starting to wonder if high protein is part of my constipation issues. Honestly, if I don't eat protein, I don't know what to eat. I'm still low carb and I'm hesitant to add anything back until I know that's not going to mess me up more. I guess I should try to peruse the "moar fat" thread, but it's so big already

When I went primal, the protein increase helped get rid of my anxiety. I don't think excess protein has been a mental factor for me, but who knows.

[tomi]

the Moar Fat thread has morphed a bit - all the pertinant info is in the first several pages. I'm doing the higher fat, mod. protein and VLC. I'm feeling really good, and I'm losing weight - but I'm keeping my calories right around 1200. I'm also walking an hour every day - well last week it was 6 out of 7 days.

Jenn, I was tested for the cortisol thing. I was really high in the morning (answering why I would wake up and start worrying about everything under the sun), and not low enough in the evening (why I had a hard time falling asleep). To help she gave me two different supplements, I take one at night and the other in the morning. Seriphos at night - one pill. Priority One (brand) Anti-stress B and C with Adrenal. Its supper high b vitamins plus other stuff I have never heard of to aid the healing of the adrenals. I am feeling better!

I think you really need to work on getting your kids to sleep in their own rooms and sleep through the night. YOU need your rest too. Its important for the entire family ---- you know what they say, "when momma's unhappy -- the whole house is unhappy" Is the music in Brady's room not helping now? Purhaps he needs a different kind a music. I've read studies about how classical music is soothing to little ones. Something very mild maybe?

Thinking of you.......... I know how frustrating it can be to not get a good nights rest.

[jenn26point2]

Last night was another bad night. Kids needed tended to from 1 am til 3:30 am. By that point, I was frustrated, annoyed and likely angry and unable to go back to sleep. Finally did and Brad's alarm went off. I got, at the most, 3 hours of restful sleep. I got up, literally, 10 times between 1 and 3:30 to tend to the kids. Brady started his "I'm lonely" stuff again. I told him that I was not going to lay down with him and that if he doesn't want mommy to be crabby he needs to let her sleep. This was at 3. When I checked on him at 3:30, he was still awake. He seems to think I need to play DJ in the night and turn the ipod to his favorite song if he wakes up. The song has helped him fall asleep in the past, but I won't play DJ at 2 am... and told him he can just deal with whatever song is playing and go back to sleep. I might need to find different music, but it'll have to wait until I have an extra $10 or so to get a CD.

Daughter was just as troublesome last night. She kept kicking her blankets off and would start fussing. I'd cover her up and 20 minutes later be back in there to cover her up again. At one point I had to change her diaper. It was NOT a restful night at all.

I was going to get up at 5:30 for a nice long shower and to make breakfast, but because the night sucked, I chose to sleep instead. Maybe tonight will be better, and then tomorrow will be better. I hope.

Brad wants me to experiment with making tortilla-free breakfast burritos. Will have to play around and see what I can come up with.

Tomi, I am already taking a Stress-B + Iron supplement for adrenal health. Also take 250 mg of magnesium nightly. And I take a 1000 mg vitamin C daily. I will look for the Seriphos you mention.

I need to find a way to reduce my protein but keep my fats high. I will continue with low carb. I read on Paleo for Women that protein promotes anxiety in women, and read in Primal Blueprint Primal Mind that too much protein is turned into glucose and spurs and insulin response. Excessive insulin causes insulin resistance, which promotes cortisol production... It seems there is such a delicate balance. So, time to tweek. Like Nameless said, not sure what will be left to eat after I cut protein down... bacon grease and veggies, i guess... lol

[Sabine]

Isn't it interesting that as women go higher on the authority/status ladder they are more pressured to wear heels, which emphasize sexual characteristics as well as physically hobbling them.

Is it society's way of dealing with power and women?

'See, I may have responsibility but I also have a round butt, and it wiggles when I walk!'

Are women only allowed to have power if they placate?

This drives me crazy!

Sorry for the rough nights. That's something I don't deal with very well, so I hear you.

[jenn26point2]

Did some more budget work. Starting to feel more confident about our financial situation. We don't have any extra money to spend each week (well, not much - like $50-$100 a week), but our bills are getting paid, balances are going down, and we'll have our emergency fund and Christmas fund completely funded (lots of "fund" in there) by the end of December. Christmas money will be completely collected by end of November and Emergency fund completely filled by end of December. Then we can start our snowball again.

Next week we'll have some money set aside to get the kids some cool weather clothes. Lil Miss Grows-Like-A-Weed has no long sleeve shirts that fit her. Super Chunk also has no long sleeve stuff that I can think of. Plus, they'll need new coats (sweatshirts are doing just fine for now) and the Chunkster needs new shoes. I have $300 set aside, and that won't be enough, but it'll be a good start right before Christmas rolls around. And Brady's birthday is in January, so more clothes can be added then if necessary. Brad also needs shoes. I'd like to get a pair of shoes for work as well, but as long as I can get some fast flats, I'll be ok. I can wear runners from the car to the office and car to house, etc. Once the snow starts to fly, those will be enough for me. Speaking of snow... kids need snow boots too, probably snowpants as well. Brady will at least for school.

Man, kids are freaking expensive!!!

[namelesswonder]

Geez, I bet! Know anyone with older/larger kids that might be able to share? I don't know how you feel about thrifting, but I'm sure you could find some coats in decent condition at Goodwill or Salvation Army. My mom always got ours as hand-me-downs or at TJ Maxx or Marshall's.

I had a happy budgeting realization this morning: we are likely to get an end of year bonus (we did last year). I can either use that to relieve some pressure on keeping the oil tank filled, or put it towards one of my student loans (the one that I had hoped to pay off this year, but looks like I won't get to).

[jenn26point2]

I am not opposed to 2nd hand clothes. Most of what my kids have worn in the last few years have come from a store called "Once Upon a Child". They have a lot of neat stuff in there. If you're into name brands, you can usually get some brand new name brand stuff for a couple dollars, with tags still attached. I also shop at Old Navy b/c Old Navy is grossly cheap. Much of Makenna's summer wear was Old Navy - tanks, shorts, capris, flip flops. She had a lot of stuff from Walmart and Dollar General too, but most was from Old Navy. All last winter they wore "Once Upon a Child" stuff.

Brad used the system at work to 'estimate' his check. You can put in your hours and it'll calculate tax and what not. If he works a full shift on Saturday, he'll bring in $600 in overtime. That'll bump our clothing budget up to $400 and allow for $100 to be spent on service for his truck. He told me not to budget it yet b/c it might change depending on whether or not they work a full 8 hours on Saturday. If not, I'll just take whatever out of clothing. Again, Christmas is coming so we only need to get the bare necessities for now, and if I go to Once Upon a Child, that money will go VERY far! I've gotten HUGE bags of clothing for less than $100 and outfitted the kids with more stuff than I can keep clean before.

I think we're going to go back to the cash system. I say that all the time, but I'm serious. I've been holding onto a check because we keep overdrawing our check register and if i were to send this check, we'd overdraw our checking account. Those debit cards are too easy to use. I downloaded a grocery app onto my phone. I used the barcodes on things in my pantry and refrigerator to scan them into the app and then used the receipts to enter the prices I paid for the items. Now I can go through the pantry and fridge every week and know exactly how much I'll be spending on groceries and as long as I don't pick up any unplanned items, the cash system should work very well. Last week I know I went $30 over on groceries and $30 over on non-grocery items (diapers, etc) that weren't planned. And I'm going to have to start bringing stuff for dinner on class nights. Presently I'm spending about $30 a week at Village Inn. Luckily they're really good about making the food with no oils, margarine or cooking spray and using dairy butter instead.

Anyhow... I'm feeling better about our money situation, but we are SO far from out of the woods still. Once Christmas is over, things will lighten up a lot.

[jenn26point2]

So, twice this week I have run a 10 minute mile. I think I forgot to mention it on Monday. Monday was my first 10 minute mile in probably 7 years. Today I ran a 10 minute mile for a second time. I am stoked. I haven't been able to run that fast (slow to some, fast to me) in soooo long! And I love it. I don't think it's a full on sprint b/c my breath is still well controlled, but there is no way I'd be able to sustain that pace for anything longer than probably a bit past a mile. I don't know... maybe I could. But right now, not supposed to run longer than 10 min per doctor's orders, so I'm obeying. I see her tomorrow and will share with her and get her opinion. Maybe she'll let me run longer next week.

[tomi]

He seems to think I need to play DJ in the night and turn the ipod to his favorite song if he wakes up. The song has helped him fall asleep in the past, but I won't play DJ at 2 am... and told him he can just deal with whatever song is playing and go back to sleep.

Here's a thought.......... burn the song to the CD and put the IPod on constant repeat. That way, everytime he wakes up he'll be hearing his favorite song!