Primal Summer Survival Plan (Primal-JoJo) page

[Primal-JoJo]

Hey there... I've been a long time lurker around these parts. I started my primal journey in August 2011 - so I'm coming up on one year soon. The reason I've finally decided to "come out" in the community is because I need some support to survive being primal this summer while I'm away from home!

Here's the dealio. I've slowly shifted to primal over the last year and it's been rather seemless for me. I'm a major foodie and LOVE eating - especially FAT - bacon and butter!! Yum! Although I have dabbled - I have never fully trusted the whole "low fat" thing - if something like cheese or cream, that is SUPPOSED to be made of fat, is not made of fat... then what the heck is it made of?? Anyways - my point is primal just felt natural to me. I've always cooked from scratch for the most part - with a some breads and pasta cheats scattered around the place - I feel like all I really did was stop buying grains and shifted all my food porn surfing to primal/paleo blogs, and viola! I turned primal!

I live alone - so controlling my food is super easy. If it's not there to tempt me I don't eat it. THe 80/20 rule has served me quite well. My 20% is usually when I go out -I don't go out very often - so when I do, I eat whatever the hell I want. Living on my own this has been fine. However this summer I've been all over the place. My grandma is visiting from Poland so I've been spending a lot of time at my parents' house so that I can hang out with her. I've also been spending time at my boyfriend's parents' house. I haven't been on my own for almost a month - and under these circumstances my 20% has definitely been stretched a little too thin. As I said before I LOVE eating! Primal works for me because I hate calorie counting and love stuffing my face - primal allows me to do this. I've never really been overweight - so primal has slimmed me down and given me a pretty sweet beach body without sacrificing my love of putting yummy food in my belly- but now summer is almost here and I fear it could slip away!

So, yes, my motivation at this point is mainly VANITY. Although overall I love primal because I believe I can be healthy and enjoy food and life til the day I die - this journal is to help me keep on track and maintain, and even better, my beach body for the summer til I'm back to living on my own again. It would be such a shame to be primal for the better part of the year and then let it go at the time when you walk around half naked the most! I'm writing this in my bathing suit right now, seriously!

My biggest challenge is not succumbing to all the junk food that is available to me. My parents' house as well as my boyfriend's parents' house are not terrible - I can actually find a lot of primal things to eat (I also allow dairy which helps). It's just NOT eating the extra non-primal stuff that gets offerred to me all the time. I love to stuff my face, so this is hard. I haven't done as poorly as I thought I would over the last month. But I definitely need to dial it in.

So I've actually devised a plan on how to manage my eating away from home! Hopefully, someone was interested enough to read all of this and will support me as I try to put this plan in action for the next few weeks! It would also be great if this could become useful for other people trying to make primal work in less than ideal circumstances! More on the "plan" next time!

Thanks for reading!

[Primal-JoJo]

Okay so Day 1 complete today. I was actually at my own place the last two days, so I had a bit of time to myself, and a chance to be 100% primal for 2 days. It felt good and it made me feel re-engergized and ready to start my summer challenge!

Today has been successful in some ways, but rough in others - mostly, because I came home and my grandma had made blueberry perogies (we're Polish)!!! OMG! I love these things and I only ever get them like once a year - so this is normally a no guilt cheat. However, I feel really dedicated, SO... I only ate 4, AND after a pretty heavy workout. I consider that a success cuz I could seriously could eat like 10 of those in one sitting. So I seriously held back - not easy for me.

So as I said I do have "a plan". I've actually compiled a word document and listed the primal foods that are normally ready available at my parents' house. This way if I'm hungry I just whip out that list and find something that works. I also have some go-to's listed for sweets. This is my plan to deal with the times everyone around me is eating sweets (which is often) - I have a few go-to treats that are primal or pretty close - this way I can enjoy something without the guilt, or stomach pain and still feel "social" - since it seems food is such a social and family thing at my house. Breakfast/lunch are usually easy for me at my parents house. Bacon and eggs are always readily available- so that's a no fail go to. But it gets trickier for dinner and beyond as that's when the carbs come out and then the sweets and snacks.

Today was okay though.

Breakfast: Scrambled onions, ham and eggs. Tomatoes with sour cream and chives. (I also had 2 bites of market bread, but I decided to not eat the whole piece and gave it away. Go me!)

I was still hungry, so I had an apple with some cashew butter and cinnamon.

Had a killer workout with my sister. Hope I'm sore tomorrow Squats and pushups and planks, oh my!

Snack: Jasmine tea with some honey.

Dinner: Burgers. Just had the patty over a salad with romaine, tomatoes, avocados, onions and pickles with some ketchup and mustard.

Was still hungry after dinner (really could have eaten another patty... but oh well), so I made one of my quick easy "treats" for dessert to fill me up. Acorn squash, apples, butter and cinnamon heated in the microwave- it's like healthy apple pie! I used lots of butter and some heavy whipping cream with vanilla to top it off. Then I was happy. I also took my dog for a nice hour walk.

Finishing the evening with some camomile tea. Hope tomorrow goes well.

[AbigailLyn]

Hi Jojo!

I just recently moved back home for a bit (hopefully VERY temporary) and am pretty majorly struggling to avoid all the non primal crap my parents keep stocked. So much easier when you're on your own and can control what's in your fridge...

Anyways, hoping I can learn from your plans! Gooood luck!

[Primal-JoJo]

Hey AbigailLyn - I know it is so hard not controlling your food! I find planning is really key for me, as well as helping make dinners. Luckily my family is not anti-primal - they don't really live by cw, more an everything in moderation type mentality - so they're quite open to having me cook primal foods, but to feed everyone, we do rely on starches unfortunately :S Is there any primal foods your family would dig if you made??

I wish you luck! We can do it!!

[Primal-JoJo]

Day 2
Pretty good for the most part. Started the day with some lovely sun bathing - getting my vitamin D!

Breakfast/lunch: onions, sausage and eggs. A piece of cream cheese - sort of the euro version of cow cheese.

Snack: some cold-cuts and kielbasa. Some home-made iced tea with a bit of sugar and honey. Later had a small coffee with cream and bit of honey.

Dinner: Lots of veggies and homemade dip (sour cream, garlic, s+p, dill and mayo); BBQ pork chops, a small potato with butter.

"Treat": a piece of dark 85% lindt chocolate. I bought a bar as an emergency go-to when there's chocolate around. Then I watched my family eat ice cream! (I love ice-cream, and will usually eat some since it's not often - but I had a huge waffle cone ice cream last week). After the whole ice cream thing though I went and made another apple squash treat. This time with coconut oil and milk, instead of butter and dairy cream. It was sooooo good!!

No workout for today - I was pretty sore from yesterday, so took a rest. Back to something hardcore tomorrow though I also have been taking my supplements: 2 things of omega 3s and my B12.

Unfortunately I've stayed up way tooo late tonight though... had a snack of some left overs from dinner. But all in all, day 2 was pretty good. Conquered the ice cream temptation - yay me!

[Primal-JoJo]

Day 3

OMFG! I think I've found my new crack! Dark chocolate with coconut oil smothered on top!! Oh boy!

Another day with some hits and some misses...

Started the day with sunbathing (I love vitamin D and my new bathing suit, eeeee! so cute!). Then I did some sprints on the exercise bike and then went in the pool and did a little more sunbathing.

Supplements: B12, and Omega 3x 2 (should probably up to x3 at home though, since most meat and eggs is CW here) - also drank a cup of my homemade icetea with this (and wished I had made it less sweet)

Breakfast: Half of a potato, bacon, zucchini, onion omelet. Soooo good - wish I didn't split it with my sister, lol.

Mistake: Marzipan cappuccino. I was only going to try a sip from my mom, and have tea instead, but the package had less sugar than I had expected so I said "F**k it" and had one. Sugar and caffeine = crappy feeling for me though, so I should have gone with the tea idea.

Dinner: Was freaking amazing! BBQ chicken breasts and drumsticks with my homemade, primal BBQ sauce (that the whole family loves ). Sauerkraut with pork and mushrooms! (Yay for Polish primal foods!!). There was also a side of rice that I skipped, even though I normally do eat a bit of rice.

Dessert: Dark chocolate square with a teaspoon of coconut oil. I can't believe I only had one! Cup of tea with a bit of honey and some whipping cream.

Mistake 2: Tried some poppy seed cake my mom brought out. Damn it was sooo good. Had a half piece and then felt crazy hungry and wanted MOOOAAAR!! I felt like a shark that had a taste of blood BUT I held back and instead ate some leftovers from dinner til it passed. Saved by the sauerkraut.

Hopefully I will learn from my mistakes tomorrow....

[ecks]

You sure get a lot of sun bathing in! wish I could... instead i'm at work. Lucky Duck!

[AbigailLyn]

I am AMAZED at your self restraint. I forgot about poppy seed cake, but it is super lemony and deliciousness. I'm going to have to try your coconut oil and dark chocolate crack. I need some primal crack options!!!

[Sabine]

Good job in choosing to journal through this challenging period. I am certain that being more aware of it will help keep you slipping from 20% to 30% to 40% to OH, NO!

[Perky_Originale]

Hey Jo-Jo! Nice work so far, keep it up, if I can help with recipes in anyway at all don't hesitate to message me!
Perks