Primal Journal - ravingkiko page

[ravingkiko]

What follows is my meet&greet post from August 2011. I copied it here so the journey is complete in one location. This seems like an easy place to journal my experience. I will likely post in spurts. I may try recording what I eat, I keep a handwritten log in a notebook now, but only if the MDA forum can replace my notebook (which is really handy).

Anyway, here's my post from 8/11:

Your location: Seattle

Age (If you want): 59

How Primal are you: This is day 1. Planning for no grains, sugars, legumes, processed foods.

Do you consume dairy: I think I will hang on to dairy until I get some recipes in rotation and a calcium vitamin D supplement. After that I don't have any strong feelings about it.

Do you drink coffee or tea: I love sweetened iced tea; that's gotta go.

Motivator for switching to Primal: Body by Science pointed to the program. It makes sense from what I've read. I hope to clear up overweight, allergy, sleep and headache problems.

Favorite exercise: High intensity weight training.

Favorite Primal food: I'll let you know, but who doesn't love eggs, rib-eye and olives.

Best part about being Primal: So far, my kitchen got a good cleaning out.

Worst part about being Primal: I'll let you know.

[lopisheep]

I like your first day whether August or March. If you have any trouble getting grass fed meat up there, baronfarms.com delivers grass fed to Seattle. They also have no sugar bacon ends, I found out recently.

Dairy was my last thing to go. There are just so many cheeses out there, not to mention ice cream:-)

I'm trying the one primal meal a day right now to try to kick butt on some of the weight loss.

Enjoy MDA and all the forums and WELCOME!

[ravingkiko]

It's been 7 months since I started primal eating. The first three months went really well. I jumped in with both feet and in a couple of weeks it just felt natural. I felt so much better - joint pain improved, sleeping better, fewer migraines, happier.

I did very well through Thanksgiving. The biggest hit of Thanksgiving dinner was the curried goat and yams from nomnompaleo.com. I was about 70/30% through the month of December; I kept finding myself wanting something sugary.

Since the beginning of the year I have been eating really poorly. I seem to need to be 100% on target; a little bit of sugar/grains/starch is a slippery slope (think bobsled run) to a potluck at Ben & Jerry's house. So I'm going to jump back in with both feet and try to remember what a little bit of s/g/s can cause to happen. I seem to tolerate berries and yams really well so I will keep my sugar intake to that and dump grains/starch completely.

[lopisheep]

Do you eat any fruit besides berries? I'm wanting some oranges and raisins in my salad dressing. For some insane reason, when I eat meat I want fruit. Like they want to balance each other!

[ravingkiko]

For a few weeks at least I'm going to stick to what I know works. Eggs, avocado, olives, ground beef fry-ups from Well Fed, LOTS of greens (I love greens) and other veg, and bags of frozen berries, plus coconut oil, ghee and chai tea from whole spices with coconut milk. It was easy to get on board when I first started because I kept it so simple.

When I broaden my fruit and snack menu I'm going to try to add things one at a time so I can judge how I react. A major downfall for me was chocolate, even though I was eating an 85% bar. I was eating a lot of fruit and think it may have contributed to the bad times. I'm just not an 80/20% kind of person, at least not yet. Maybe I'll get to that degree of flexibility down the road, but for now I'm going to be pretty restrictive.

breakfast: assam tea, coconut milk, eggs, coconut oil
snack: olives
lunch: ground beef, onions, mustard greens, green beans, egg, coconut oil, Primal Palate taco seasoning
dinner (well, sort of): strawberries, apricots, chai tea coconut milk

[ravingkiko]

Here's what I plan to eat today:

Lunch (slept in, no breakfast): chai tea, coconut milk, eggs, coconut oil, BRGY*
Snack: Boysenberries, apricots
Dinner: ground beef, onions, coconut oil, kale, broccoli, bone broth, Tsardust Memories, Alleppo pepper

I love Penzeys and World Spice Merchants spices. They both have retail stores within walking distance of my home and I love going in and picking up something new (it's better than shoe shopping). I just did a big cook-up (freezer is stocked for the week), and I set aside all the spices I used this week so I have to use something else next week. I get in a rut with the spices I love. I'm not much of an herb cooker; spices seem easier to work with.

Back to Penzeys and World Spice Merchants, their spices are not organic (at least they don't say they are, and if they were I'm sure they would say so). I just read yesterday about how spices entering the US from certain areas (like the spice growing areas) have to be sterilized and the methods used to do that (fumigation and irradiation for non-organics, steam for organics). I'm going to do some more research, but I'm probably going to be looking for an organic source for spices. Right now I'm pretty well stocked and plan to use what I have.

*BRGY? I sprinkle it on everything. It stands for Black, Red, Grey, Yellow.
1 Tbl Penzeys Black & Red, 1 Tbl Penzeys Grey Sea Salt, 1/2 Tbl Turmeric.

How did I do? Followed to a T except I grazed on some goat meat from the bone broth I was cooking. I think that's OK.

[ravingkiko]

I bought an ebook to read and joined a forum group that follows the book. I think it's going to be a big help. Rather than just read through the book quickly I'm going to try to read it slowly and adopt the principles one at a time. I'll be writing about it here. It will surely help with the learning if I journal it. The group has a great thread for recording goals; I'm going to use that too.

[lopisheep]

Food looks yummy! Certainly ought to do the trick. Enjoy! Lot of fun journals and threads on this forum, yes?

[ravingkiko]

First, what did I eat today?
breakfast: water
lunch: ground beef, onion, coconut oil, taco seasoning, chipotle pepper, bone broth, mustard greens, green beans, apricots, raspberries, blueberries, marionberries, strawberries, chai tea
dinner: ground beef, onion, coconut oil, galangal, grey sea salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, turmeric, collard green, carrots, green beans, broccoli, bean sprouts, bone broth, chai tea, coconut milk

Did great! Didn't plan on skipping breakfast, but I hit the snooze alarm too many times, and there you go. I was hungry by lunch, but not light-headed or shaky.

The first big thing for me to tackle (outside of food choice, which I currently have under control) is SLEEP and the use of electronic devices in the evening. I want to get up by 6:30, so must get to sleep by 10:30. That means I need to start getting ready for bed by 10 and I should have my electronic gadgets turned off by 8. Well clearly, that didn't happen tonight, as here I am typing away. Why didn't it happen? I was so tired when I got home from work that I laid down and didn't get up until 7:30.

So what am I going to do tonight? I will (1)finish my journal entry and post my goals on the S.P.E.E.D. forum, (2)turn off my computer (may even hit the circuit breaker as reinforcement) and (3)start getting ready for bed at 10. (4)I will set my alarm for 6:30 and (5)I won't hit the snooze button when it goes off. (6)When I get home from work tomorrow, I won't lay down.

I can do that.

One of my goals was to collect some information about myself. Here's the gruesome truth.
Current weight: 190 lbs
Goal weight: 107-163 lbs (when I get to 163, I will adjust this)
Current BMI: 33.7
Goal BMI: 19-29 (hence the wide weight range)
Waist circumference: 42.5"
Goal waist circumference: <32"
Body fat %: 47.1%
Goal body fat %: <28%
Lean body mass: 101 lbs
Macro-nutrient needs, based on a 1400 calorie weight loss plan (don't worry, I'm not obsessed, I just wanted to write this down somewhere. I don't even weigh or measure my food.):
Protein: 71 grams, 284 calories
Carbohydrates: 50-80 grams, 200-320 calories
Fat: 88 grams, 916-1080 calories

[ravingkiko]

I want to make this quick. I'm going to try to do the evening wrap-up and read others' posts in one hour. That may seem like plenty of time, but I can spend a ton of time on the boards. If I want to spend more time, I'll just have to get up earlier in the morning to do it. I'm having problems sleeping so I want to maximize the strategies to encourage good sleep. Toward that end I set an alarm to go off in 55 minutes and will give myself 5 minutes after that to log off the computer. That means no more computer or TV for the rest of the night. If I want to watch TV I can do it on weekends.

The food side of things is going well:
Breakfast: None, hit the snooze alarm 5 times this morning! That has to change. I wasn't hungry before work, but was really ready for lunch.
Lunch: Ground beef, onion, coconut oil, galangle, grey sea salt, black pepper, red cayenne pepper, turmeric, collard greens, carrots, green beans, broccoli, bean sprouts, bone broth, apricots, raspberries, blueberries, Marion berries, strawberries.
Dinner: Haven't eaten it yet, but it will be ground beef, onion coconut oil Tsardust Memories, Aleppo pepper, kale, broccoli, bone broth, eggs.
My food log is probably going to be pretty boring during the week. I like to keep it simple and just vary the veg and spice. I'll try to come up with something exciting for the weekend. Probably something in the slow cooker, hopefully goat. Mmmmm....goat...

It is so cold here! I am in walking distance of work (less than a half mile) but am taking the bus. I belong to a gym and like to go there after work to listen to books and use the elliptical machine, but until I get this sleep problem under control, I'm not going to worry about it. I am just going to ask myself to develop effective sleep habits and keep eating 100% primal for now. When I start getting a good night's sleep, I'll take up the next project.

I need to plan ahead for Sunday brunch. It is a friend's birthday and we are going out. I need to make sure I keep my menu to eggs, meat, fruit, veg and a virgin Bloody Mary. If I walk in with a plan and good food to look forward to I'll make it.