Primal Blueprint Journal DCarr10760 (David) page 29

[DCarr10760]

Hi Julie,

When I was younger I could lose weight like crazy! Then gain it like crazy! (I blame beer for that). But as I've gotten older (50s) it's harder for me to lose weight, despite being pretty muscular still.

I think you're right, I needed to eat more, I was just nervous about the huge amount of carbs that all them taters tote along with them so I tried to keep it near 150 gr.

And you're absolutely right about how PB enhances how the body works etc., I'm much more aware of how I feel and how foods affect me (even my mood) since going Primal. It's really interesting to me. I like the feeling of being a bit hungry and only eating until satiety, not OMG I'm sooo full, blurt!

I'm with you on the heavy cream in coffee, I just wish I could find a decent source for organic cream from grass fed cows.

David

[DCarr10760]

My three-day tater trial has ended as planned. The results? A not so impressive total weight loss of one half pound. Strange because yesterday I was down two pounds! Of course lots of things affect daily weight and it's not possible to say with any certainty that the Tater caper was responsible but the results certainly do not point to undoubted success.

In fairness, my compliance to the program was not 100%, it was 89%. Due to a business lunch yesterday, I ate a salad with grilled chicken instead of a potato. This brought my calorie totals per day to 950, 1500, 950. This represents a significant caloric deficit, so I would have expected some loss, even if only water.

But I believe that my body had downregulated my metabolism in response to the long term calorie restriction. Of course three days is not long term, but the tater trial followed a month of cyclical 48 hour weekly fasting. This may have triggered the so-called "starvation mode".

I've wondered about this before, people talk about it, but other than a feeling of lethargy i didn't understand how the body would suddenly use less energy. Of course the answer it to reduce the body's temperature, duh! I read about this in the tater thread.

For two days I have been very cold, not just because the weather has turned cold, but I feel cold on the inside. I have never felt this way before, I'm always warm, warm hands, warm feet, warm heart! I rarely wear heavy coats, even in the dead of Winter.

I've got one of those instant read thermometers, they're not so accurate, but should at least show me the range. My waking temp was 97.0*F. I'll take it for a couple of days and then see if it stays low.

For the time being I'll raise my calories to 2000 - 2500 eating Primally to see if I can dial up my temp baseline and then dive into the fasting again. Hopefully I can use temperature as a tool to know when my metabolism is slowing so to avoid pointless starvation.

So while the tater trial wasn't in itself a huge success, it got my thinking in order and maybe has added a new tool to the chest. So I am happy!

Some eggs, some Applegate franks, a steaming hot cup of coffee with heavy cream (I missed this the most) and I'm beginning to warm up!

David

[DCarr10760]

In other news...

I ordered some Celtic Sea Salt and bought a Perfect Pickler Kit and a quart jar with the intention of making some homemade kraut! It arrived today! Yay! I have some cabbage in the fridge waiting to go! I need another project like a third nipple, but it keeps me from hyper-focusing on the nutrition threads, resulting in days of potato feasting...

[Siobhan]

Hey, ya gotta try this stuff! And who knows what will come of it? If nothing else, I learned a lot about myself and eating. And I have found it to be a great reinforcement for primal eating. It is easy to slip into old bad habits and I got a reminder that I don't want that to happen.

[Judg]

LOL! I read that entire potato thread and noted that good results were far from universal.

I've also heard of "fat fasts" and spending three days (no more apparently) eating nothing but protein. I have been tempted to try that last one, but I can't seem to stop myself from buying veggies... We all have our vices, I guess.

When nothing seems to be working, loss-wise, I usually do much like you - just switch into maintenance for a while and try again later.

[Siobhan]

The potato feast has made me think that perhaps a few days eating meat and green veg might be in order. Something really simple and easy, like chicken with green salad. Boring perhaps but in my experience very satisfying. Anyway, I should keep this sort of musing in my own journal and not clutter up David's!

[DCarr10760]

I don't mind clutter at all. Leastways not in here. :-)

So I have a 2-quart canning jar of kraut fermenting as we speak, er...as I write. One of the things that I am interested in, and it was part of the appeal of the potato program is to eat more seasonally. I really enjoyed the CSA for this reason. All spring and summer we used the locally grown vegetables and it somehow made me feel more connected to the Earth and to the way food comes to us.

This is the last week of the CSA and I'm a bit sad about that. I've enjoyed it so. We'll definately be doing it again next year, though without the bakery and specialty items, which will be a disappointment to our friends and family who were the recipients of all those decidedly non-primal goodies.

I do have a vague bit of emptiness, now that it's autumn. Normally I would be doing a lot of baking and pie making. The sour kraut was in part to fill that space, which it did nicely, but as the holidays approach I will miss making all of the usual comestibles. Some I will still make as gifts. A fine gift, "here, loved one, have this nice apple pie, you are however responsible for your own diabetes which surely will result, Bon appetit!"

I am conflicted. It's strange that even though lots of family and friends have now acknowledged my weight loss, not a single person has asked me what I am doing to lose weight. So I haven't been proselytizing at all. Woe to the first person who does! :-D

[DCarr10760]

Unrelated post having to do with nothing of importance.

My older boys, from the first litter tease me whenever I am dressed for walking because I wear mid-calf white athletic socks. So bowing to social pressure, when I ordered a pair of minimal running shoes from New Balance I also ordered three pairs of what I call peds. They just cover your foot and look as though you have no socks on at all.

I wore them today and have suffered with cold ankles and feeling like my socks have fallen down all day! Each child will be getting a pair in their Christmas stocking.

That is all.

[DCarr10760]

So all day I've been thinking about downregulation of metabolism. I've continued to be cold all day, I did take a walk but felt sluggish and heavy. I only did two miles, I'd planned to do four. I took my temperature at noon and again just now at dinner. Both times I was 97.0*F. I began to suspect that the thermometer was not really working so called over boy who read 99.1 and then SWMBO who read 98.5. So it isn't cold in here, it is really just me.

I made a big pot of chicken, eggplant, onion and cauliflower in Tiki Masala sauce (OMG yum) and had a huge portion. Stoke the fire!

For the past few years I've gotten very good at eating very little and always I lose some weight and then I stop losing. I bet this is what's happening, my metabolism slows after several weeks of caloric deficit and whatever level of calories I do consume my body adapts to.

So I'll up my calories (staying Primal of course) until my temp is more normal consistently.

There, that's settled.

[Siobhan]

I think the same thing happens when a person exercises too much - you know you are over-training when your temp drops. Over-dieting is much the same, I would think.

I used to be cold all the time, but no more. I am so relieved to not have that happening. I'm going to watch out for something like that - if I start getting cold I will know it is time to change things up.