Skinny girl to fat girl and back to skinny girl - for life page 20

[jenn26point2]

Is this Real Food Summit something you pay for? Like the Primal Con only done from home? I hope you get it figured out soon.

And hey! Amazon has a great deal on a book called Going Paleo. It's free on Kindle right now. probably says all the same stuff the other books say, but it's free, so why not?

[June68]

I think there is an option to pay that keeps the videos accessible forever, but I only signed up as a free viewer which means they are limited. Luckily due to an email snafu, the day-1 vids are open until tomorrow at 12 noon Pacific time.

Thanks for the book tip, I may snag that one.

Before I get to my busy morning, I'll wrap up yesterday.

No snacking at all and no PDD or wine with dinner. I have a feeling we will have wine tonight though since he's making some beef tenderloin and I know how he likes wine with beef. Ah well.

D | grilled drumsticks w/skin! | grilled red & orange bell pepper | brocolli | water | cherries

Slept reasonably well. Woke a time or two covered in cats (there is just the two of them, but I swear it seems like more at night!) Amazingly found myself awake around 4am which was perfect to head to the bog so I could photograph these -



They are horned bladderwort, a type of terrestrial carnivorous plant. They have tiny, thread-like leaves that are almost always subterranean and on these leaves are tiny bladders. Apparently they can suck tiny creatures up into the bladders where they are digested. Sounds like a tiny sarlaac! : ) Anyway, I'd never shot them before so when I saw them Sunday I knew I'd be back. Unfortunately the sundew are not blooming yet, but it's not like the bog is going anywhere. At least not in my lifetime. Eventually the water level will diminish to nothing as it has been for the last 6000 years.

Was starving when I got back so I had -

B | coffee | 2 fried eggs | 1 sausage patty | 2 bacon strips | berries
later - green tea

It's shaping up to be another great afternoon, so I'll probably quit processing photos for now and head outside. After I clean up the kitchen that is.

[June68]

I wondered why I was feeling so weirdly lazy. Forgot to workout at all today. So I just finished -

5 mins TGU w/20lb db
3 x 10 goblet squats w/25lb db
3 x 10 deadlifts w/34lb kb
5 x 10 swings w/34lb kb
3 x 12 chest press w/20lb db
2 x 10, 1 x 8 arnold press w/20lb db

I think it's time to move up to the 25lb dumbbells for chest press. Not quite there with shoulder press although doing those after kettlebell swings is murder. Also think I can probably move to the 25lb db for TGUs too. It feels like time. Eventually I'll switch out the 25lb db for the kb for squats, too. All good.

S | 1 HBE | cheese

[kalli889]

I love your photography and your workouts! I need to get a kettlebell. Your pictures are soooo pretty.

[June68]

Thanks kalli. Kettlebells are oddly fun if you like to move heavy things around. When I have a good swing or carry session, I feel it. Esp in my butt, abs and shoulders.

So no lunch yesterday. Just wasn't hungry for it. By the time dinner rolled around though, I was pretty empty.

D | grilled beef tenderloin tips | mixed veggies| mashed cauli | water

I was surprised husband opted for water over red wine with this meal. No problem though and I didn't miss it too much. No dessert. We eat so late that it sometimes seems foolish to have food like 1/2 hour before heading to bed. Oh well.

Slept ok. Woke a time or two, but not for long. Waking for good is coming earlier and earlier though and I don't know what to make of it. Today I was pretty much unable to doze after 5:30. In the past I'd have slept on and off for another hour or two. Strange.

Today I woke hungry, but limited myself to coffee before going out for a 5 mile walk. It's gorgeous out and I saw turkeys. Got back and made -

B | 3 bacon strips | 2 eggs | 1 sauteed mushroom | 8oz V8

That should hold me. Am planning to hit a farmers' market today and swing by my egg guy. Yesterday there were no eggs to be had. Luckily we had 5 left. Now, only one.

[jenn26point2]

Sounds to me that your cortisol levels are correcting themselves b/c of your improved diet. In "It Starts With Food" they talk about how for those of us with messed up metabolisms, our cortisol levels are REALLY low in the morning, which is why we literally have to drag ourselves out of bed through sheer discipline rather than leaping out before the alarms. Cortisol is related to insulin resistance and leptin resistance, so it sounds like your body is shaping up and doing it's job right. Kudos to you. I can't wait til I'm able to get up at 5:30 instead of snoozing til 6:30 most days.

[June68]

That could be it. I'll have to research, but as long as I can get better quality sleep, I don't mind that there's less of it. And ISWF arrived today along with The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living by Drs. Jeff Volek and Stephen Phinney. Husband's fault. lol.

Just came back from the farmer's market. Got some lovely stuff
tomatoes
kale
zucchini
celery - a HUGE bunch of it
a sirloin steak from a farm I've wanted to try
cucumbers

I've never seen celery at a FM before and so I had to get some. I've heard that celery and peppers have a lot of residual pesticide on them at the grocery store, so I'm psyched to try this local, organic stuff. It will be perfect with my local goat cheese I think.

I did have lunch today even though I wasn't that hungry.

L | 1 HBE | small salad | 1 celery stalk (crappy store kind) with fresh local goat cheese w/chives in it.

[June68]

Maybe rob some banks to get that apartment...NYC is expensive, isn't it? Hopefully it won't come to that.

I'm beat today. Something weird happened in my guts after dinner and I had the first and hopefully last digestive issue since going Primal. Strange. I ached all the way through my torso as well as just general bad-gut/indigestion feelings. Ugh.

D | greek style lamb meatballs | grilled zucchini | raw tomatoes, celery & cuke | water

I don't know if it was the celery or what that set me off...nothing else is too out of place. Maybe I should go back to wine with dinner!

Anyway, woke hungry after reasonable sleep. The usual wakings, but fell back to sleep, too. Early full wake though - like 5am again and gave up trying to doze shortly thereafter. Curiouser and curiouser.

B | coffee | berries & goats milk yogurt | 2 eggs | 2 1/2 bacon strips | 4oz V8 | handful of blueberries (picked myself)
L | greek style lamb meatballs | grilled zucchini | raw cuke | mashed cauli | water | 10 macadamia nuts

[June68]

So before I forget, I had coffee and then did -

6 mins TGU w/25lb db (that was work my friends - big difference from the 20lb db)
15 mins on-the-minute kb swings w/34lb kb (HIIT)
3 sets per hand suitcase carries w/34lb kb
1 set rack position carries w/34lb kb
3 x 5 pick-up-the-baybeh lifts w/34lb kb (until you try them, you cannot imagine how winded they make you)
5 x 50 jump rope sprints (tripped once on last set, I think it was exhaustion)

I'll try to find a vid of the pick-up-the-baybeh lifts. They're weird. Not really a squat, not really a deadlift and not really a shoulder press. They primarily work the deltoids and pectorals. You don't lift the bell directly over your head (now THAT would be a stupid idea - Darwin award candiate), but in front of you at eye level, like you're looking at a baby you've just picked up. I strangely like them, but it's wicked hard for me to do them if I've done any upper body lifting at all. They're a serious compound lift.

Phew. I'm not really hungry at the mo, but I'm sure I'll get there. Slept reasonably well. About the same as the last few nights and once again, could not sleep past 5:30, so I packed it in and got up. Thomas is bummed because he doesn't get much of a morning cuddle anymore. Spoiled cat.

Cannot find a video. Bah.

So no breakfast really, just a snack after my workout. Then later lunch.

S | Chobani blueberry yogurt
L | 2 egg omelet w/red pepper, green onion, spinach & cheddar | 2 bacon slices | 1/2 bratwurst | 8oz V8 |blueberries as palate cleanser

Phew. I think that should hold me for a while.

[June68]

Women, Weights and Strength Training


Women are scared of weight training.
Not every woman. I get that, but a lot of women.
I was a hard-core lifter for 10+ years and so have a lot of experience with women in the weight room and questions from women who never venture off the cardio deck.

1. I don’t want to get bulky
Well, since you’re not a man, you won’t. Under normal circumstances women just don’t have the chemistry to build big muscles. That takes testosterone. Quite a lot of it and women just don’t naturally have that much. So go ahead and lift. Muscles look sexy as hell on women.

2. That looks heavy
Well, duh, yah. It’s supposed to be heavy. Women underestimate their strength most of the time. Some of it has to do with comparisons to men, which frankly you shouldn’t do, and some of it ties to femininity and the idea that if you’re physically strong you can’t be feminine. BS. I can carry my own 40# bag of kitty litter to the car, thanks. What I don’t understand is that a lot of women in their daily lives move, haul, and shift and awful lot of weight; why do they think they’re weak? Picking up ever-growing children, swinging them through the air onto a hip. Wrestling the lawn mower in and out of the shed. Hauling firewood into the cellar. Carrying overflowing laundry baskets up and down stairs. Heaving grocery bags to and fro. Dragging that stupid $*$@#!*^ vacuum cleaner around. Wimmins is plenty strong and you all know it, you just haven’t applied it to formal training yet.

3. It’s a man thing
Back to that strong women aren’t feminine notion. If you’re hanging your womanhood on your weakness, sister, we’re kicking you out of the feminist club. Oh and have you seen a professional ballerina? Think she looks like Barbie? She can probably kick your ass. Strength is sexy. Don’t fall into the trap that weakness is your ally either emotionally, mentally or physically.

4. It looks too confusing/I might hurt myself
You know how your husband/brother/boyfriend always finds the most difficult or complicated way to do a simple thing? Weight-lifting and strength-training have been dominated by men for so long that they made something pretty intuitive into a minefield of rules, equipment and supplements. It’s really not that hard. Sorry guys. It’s been a wicked long time since I learned basic lift forms, but beginners can still learn a lot from some old timers. Arnold Schwarzenegger's early bodybuilding books are terrific despite the bad lighting. Arnie’s form was always spot on and he didn’t fool around with Nautilus and other crap. Check it out if you can get a copy. Start with basic compound movements that involve big muscles and you will build strength easily.

Anyway, that’s what I can think of off the top of my head. I remember once, just before I stopped lifting, I was out with my co-workers at a restaurant after work. It was summer and I had on a short-sleeved shirt. One guy kept looking at me. Sure he saw me every day, but it took a couple beers in him to ask me to flex my biceps at him. I did. He was floored (had me some great guns for a while) and wouldn’t arm wrestle me after that even though he’d most likely have won. It was hilarious.