Primal Journal - Siobhan page 69

[Siobhan]

Home at last! And home and awake! House guest is coming after all. I did manage to sleep a little at work (shhhh) so I can get up now. Might try to shift some boxes around. Tubby cat is all better, thank goodness. He forgives me for giving him that nasty supplement and making him sick. Also thank goodness for vinyl floors.

Day is gorgeous, blue sky, wispy clouds, not quite so hot. I need to get outside and get some vitamin D. Also, I scored a jar of organic whole fat kefir at the food co-op, they haven't had it for awhile. Forgot how good it is, and it also illustrates how my tastes have changed. Now I adore the plain kefir and can't imagine that I liked the one with blueberries and maple syrup. Much too sweet. Not that I would rule out adding those things on my own, but in much smaller quantities.

Well, must eat some primal food -

[Siobhan]

House guest left this morning. Stayed primal! Had a great day yesterday. My friend has known me all through my plantar fascitis experience and he was amazed that I was able to walk around all day with no pain. We went to a seafood restaurant and had raw oysters, steamed mussels with lots of butter, lobster gazpacho, ribs (pork, not seafood ribs), and hard cider (no gluten). Quite a feast. I think I got enough protein. Later that night had sausages and salad with some dark chocolate.

Time to get ready for church -

[Siobhan]

Much cooler today, very pleasant. Had chix/bac/avo/bleu salad and some cherries for lunch. Right now cooking some cabbage with sausage to take to work.

Our minister of music did the entire service today, complete with sermon, as our pastor is on vacation. I got carried away and said I will sing in the choir in the fall - so now I have to do it. It's hard with my schedule. But it will be fun and very rewarding and really, really good for me. But the fall is still a couple of months away, thanks be to goodness.

Well, must go get some rest before work tonight. Back is talking to me a bit above a whisper, must calm it down.

[Judg]

You should just slap some sense into that back and tell it to shut up! I know, I know, I'm being silly.

Choir, eh? That is so much fun. It has been so many years since I've done it. I've accompanied the concert choir of hubby's college on their Italy tour a couple of times and they bliss me out so bad. At the same time, I am so jealous it hurts. I tell them to savour it, because it will never come again. And it won't. They are mostly music majors, and have to audition to get in. The caliber is way, way above what you kind find in a church choir, with very few exceptions. At one restaurant we ate at in Rome, the choir director had them sing their benediction song to the waiters. One of the waiters started cracking jokes and another one, who literally had tears in his eyes, hit him up the backside of the head. It was funny and immensely moving at the same time.

[Siobhan]

Our church choir is a great group of people, I have been wanting to join them and I am just going to do my best to work it out. Choral singing is very popular in this part of the world, we have several fine audition-only choirs that perform unbelievably difficult and lovely music. Of course the church choir is open to anyone (read: me). A trip somewhere is a possibility in the future, would love to do something like that one day. The choir in the next town just went to Portugal. We will see how it goes. In the meantime I had better fire up youtube and get out the hymnal.

At work with a heat pack on my back. It makes me very hot but soothes the unhappy nerves wonderfully. Also helps the spasms and loosens everything. Add in a handful of advil and I can make it.

[Siobhan]

Just had a nice concoction I adapted from the PB Cookbook. Cut up two sweet Italian sausages and fried them in butter, added shredded cabbage and some broth - cooked it for awhile. Very tasty. Too much for one meal, but not enough for two. Next time I will make a larger portion and have two meals. But the remaining portion will make a nice snack for later. Also had an apple.

[Judg]

Sounds nice. And simple, which is good.

[Siobhan]

Like so many things, the sausage/cabbage thing improved after a day - it was utterly delicious this morning for breakfast. I had made it very simply, but of course one could add onion, garlic, spices, etc. But I'm going to make a batch and just keep it simple again. What a pleasure to look forward to cooking and eating without any guilt or worries. I have three Italian sausages and a chicken sausage - they will all go in the pot. Hmmm, might add a couple slices of bacon. Caraway seed? Now I'm getting complicated!

Back is slightly better but definitely unhappy. I woke up quite early, after sleeping about 5 hours at best, but I felt good and wide awake. So I've been puttering about, rearranging, putting more things away. Now I'm going to get dressed and go into town, post office, shop, etc.

Last night at work I weighed myself on our schmancy scale. For the first time in ages, I was able to take that big weight on the bottom and slide it from 150 to 100 - what a thrill. Of course the top weight is quite far over still. I will be happier as it creeps to the left and lands close to the middle. My weight is stalled for now, I think. One reason is that I haven't been journaling my food as religiously - just haven't had time and the computer is not on very much. That really spurs me to eat in a way that leads to weight loss, which is oddly more fat. I lose track of fat and don't eat as much if I don't journal. I forget to put it into my smoothies, which makes them less satisfying although they taste just the same. But I can really tell the difference in how long it takes for me to be hungry again. But I'm not worried about it right now. I'm happy to hang out at this weight for a little while, then get serious about losing again when things are smoothed out. I own Cordain's paleo cookbook, and Mark's cookbook on loan from the library - must buy it. And the new journal is probably waiting for me at the post office. That will really help.

Can't believe I didn't get sunburned on Saturday. My hair is lighter, though.

[Siobhan]

Well, just had quite a feast. Chicken-bacon-avocado-blue cheese salad. Raspberries. Figs cooked in honey and butter. Mead. Whew! Also cooked up a great load of sausage/turkey hot dogs/cabbage. This will taste better tomorrow. Insane amounts of butter were used in the figs and sausage dish, at least for me. Of course it is many servings. Still, I have never used butter with such profligacy. Very full now, feel good!

My new home has a kind of weird propane burner cooktop that I don't care for. The adjustments are not precise and it is basically either on or off. Also, there is no pilot, which is good from a no-waste standpoint, but really a pain from a practicality standpoint. When I am cooking, I try very hard to turn down the flame, but it goes out 85% of the time and I have to relight it with a match or lighter. I don't like this at all. I am going to purchase a rather fancy induction cooktop from a chef catalog and put a large cutting board over the propane cooktop. This will provide me with a very nice burner and also pretty much double my counter space. I have very little counterspace, which is not insurmountable but since I hate the propane burner and already have the proper sized cutting board, I'm going to do it.

Anyway, I am going to wash up, relax, watch some kind of video and drink a perry. Kind of a carb frenzy today, but at least they are primal carbs. I am already at 150 carbs, which is more than I have eaten since going primal. 80/20, right?

[Pedidoc]

Sounds good, not all carbs are created equal. What if grok struck out hunting and only had roots and berries for dinner?