Primal Journal **Greensprout** page 149

[Greensprout]

Yesterday was very busy at work, as anticipated. I think I got up from my desk only a couple of times to pee and refill my tea until some time sensitive stuff was sent off by 1pm, so at least lunch (at said desk) was a welcome break. No opportunity to get out walking or to the gym from work, and once getting home, well, there was stuff to be doing.

Got my rental car for while mine is having body work. It's a teeny, tiny Kia Rio. Okay, but teeny, tiny. I'll have some issues with fitting stuff in when I pick up groceries for the family on Saturday! At least I don't have to pay for it, and I'm not stuck without one. Might be a couple of weeks till mine is done, but hopefully less.

Hubby & I went to Home Depot to look at new countertops. Got a quote, looked at sinks & fixtures. Found some really nice quartz counters, but have decided to put it off for a while, as the total with labour was a bit more than we are comfortable with for the moment. Maybe in 6 months or so. We're expecting a payout of accumulated severance pay from work, which may come through by the end of the year. That will make this project much more manageable.

Monday's eats:
black coffee
black & white tea blend with vanilla & coconut
L: salmon patties with sour cream/yogurt/lemon/dill sauce, pile of raw veg- peppers, radish, cucumber.
D: grilled chicken breast with skin, baked sweet potato, buttered broccoli
might have been some fruit in the evening?

Lots going on at work today, plus an even we had to attend in the afternoon, so no chance for the gym once again. I did an unplanned IF until getting home. Was quite fine.

Foods:
black coffee
white/black tea
5pm: half a chicken breast & a few almonds
7pm: "zuchetti" (local) lightly sauteed in evoo & garlic topped with puttenesca pasta sauce filled with a mix of grass fed ground beef & pastured pork, dusted with fresh parmesan.
Glass of white.

I have a lovely pastured pork shoulder to throw in the slow cooker for tomorrow. Looking forward to that. And getting out for a walk sometime during the day is in the plans. Should be doable.

[Greensprout]

I've been reading through "Primal Body, Primal Mind". A hell of a lot of great information in there. She breaks the science/biochemistry components of nutrition into digestible bites. I recommend it.

No opportunity again at work for exercise time. Busy, but a decent day. Chose not to walk after work in favor of other household stuff. A good driving session for son #2, into the downtown and one way streets, and so on. He talked me into stopping for gelato in the "little Italy" district. I didn't get any, but took a taste of his and then had to eat a few more spoonsful as I was holding it on the way home while he drove and I didn't want it running over the cup as it melted!

Today's eats:
black coffee
oolong tea
L: zuchetti with meat sauce, parmesan & feta
D: pastured garlic pulled pork, greek salad: cucumber, tomato, orange & yellow pepper, feta, fresh oregano, garlic, evoo, lemon juice. All fantastic. I'm still pretty much filled up.
Rum & zevia.

Random thought. The scale is a very fickle thing. Yes, many say "throw out the scale...smash it with a sledgehammer". I find it an interesting tool in the toolbox. I admit some days I step in several times a day, and get great amusement with the variability in the course of a day. And I also admit I bought a new scale 2 weeks ago, finally took the plunge into the digital age. Anyway, one day last week, good old water weight gave me a good laugh. From when I went to bed to when I awoke some 7 hours later, I had "lost" 5.2 lbs. I had been up twice to pee that night. Scales are good for trends over time, but seriously, how can one get alarmed at one random result I had a good giggle over that one.

[Siobhan]

That is so true - when I was a flight attendant I always gained at least 3 lbs in water weight during my trips. It was fun to weigh myself when I got home and then again in the morning and see it had disappeared, like a magic trick.

I'm getting a lot of good book suggestions from you - thanks!

[Greensprout]

I'm getting a lot of good book suggestions from you - thanks!

Happy to be of assistance .

My books arrived from Amazon today. I'm about halfway through Primal Body, Primal Mind, so the new ones will have to wait for a bit. Looking forward to it. Hubby saw the package of 5 books and said "so, I guess I'll see you in about a month?". Heehee. Just have to decide which one to read first.

I had my gym stuff with me at work, but remembered I had to get son #2 to the dentist this afternoon. Couldn't really justify taking time for a workout and then leaving 2 hours early. Turns out the kid has 4 impacted wisdom teeth, so we have a referral to an oral surgeon. Hopefully we can get things done before school starts in Sept. He had mentioned feeling sore, so I'm glad we can get the ball rolling. And the oral surgeon will be able to do it under sedation, which is a good thing. And thank goodness we have very good dental coverage. Kids are bloody expensive. Said kid is out practicing driving with Dad at the moment, and dropping off more resumes in hopes of a job. I think he's slowly starting to turn around, it's been a rough year with this boy.

Eats:
black coffee
white & black tea with coconut & vanilla blend
L: bison bone broth, the rest of the pulled pork, radishes, dill pickles.

Lunch filled me very well, though my belly was very gurgly afterwards. I'll probably make some bacon and eggs, maybe with avocado in a bit.

A pair of shorts that felt snug a few weeks ago, then less so 2 weeks later, are feeling "just right" today.

[Greensprout]

The scale does seem to be moving in a positive direction. We'll see if it remains so in the next couple of days.

Fridays at work for the next few months we can wear casual clothing rather than uniforms for a charitable donation. Yesterday I wore one of my new casual summer dresses. It hit what curves I have just right, IMO, and even my legs looked thinner . It felt good.

More amusement with the scale. Today I went out walking for the first time this week. It was very hot, so for an experiment, I weighed before I left, then after an hour and a quarter walk, taking off the sweaty stuff, and before hydrating. Down 2 lbs. Then downed a big glass of coconut water, and back up one pound. Too funny. Sometimes I'm easily amused.

9 hours of sleep, then off to the farmers' market. Today was zucchini, cucumbers, tomato, onion, dill, new potatoes, green peppers, pastured ground pork and lamb, eggs of course.

Yesterday I fasted until a late dinner of grilled striploin steak, sauteed mushrooms & peppers. Half a bottle of wine plus cider. Still had downward scale movement.

Today's eats:
black coffee
blueberries, cherries and a pepperoni stick around 6pm post walk and pool
D: grass fed beef/lamb burgers with an awesome greek salad of local cucumber, tomato, green pepper plus red onion, kalamata olives, evoo, fresh lemon juice, and feta plus oregano from the garden. Yum. Celtic sea salt and pepper to top it off.
Couple of rum & zevia.

I've thrown a free range chicken into the slow cooker for overnight. Removed the skin, (saved for crisping up tomorrow), stuffed with garlic cloves, onion, lemon, lemon juice squeezed overtop, and liberally sprinkled and stuffed with just picked rosemary, thyme and tarragon. It should make a lovely broth, and I'm looking at homemade caesar salad for tomorrow with local romaine.

Life is good.

[Greensprout]

While walking yesterday, I crossed paths with 2 ladies, one perhaps mid to late 50s, the other older. The second was pushing a stroller. As I came closer, I saw that in the stroller was a white toy poodle. I thought the point of walking a dog was for the dog to be walking. I later passed them again in the opposite direction, and the dog was actually on foot, with the lady pushing an empty stroller.

An error in judgement ensued in today's walk. On a whim, I pulled out a pair of running shorts that normally run too tight (haven't tried them on in perhaps months) and they fit nicely. So of course, I wore them on a lovely 70 min walk in the heat. Not such a good plan. This pair is a couple of inches shorter than my usual running shorts. I soon realized that there's a reason not to wear shorter shorts. Can we say chub rub? . Only a small amount of chafing in the end (or rather on the inner thighs), but note to self: remember to avoid stupid mistakes. .

The chicken in the slow cooker turned out lovely, all garlicky and lemony. I pulled all the meat off the carcass, which found its way back into the pot along with some random saved frozen bones and on to simmer until tomorrow. Mmmm. Lemony, garlicky chicken bone broth.

I ended up not eating until dinner today. Not particularly planned, I still have a chunk of steak from the other night, but by the time I got out walking, floating in the pool and so on, I felt fine enough to wait until mealtime. I slept longer than anticipated, got in 10 hours of sleep and up at 11. So a late start to the day. I did have a couple of drinks last night, but not as much as I might usually do on a Saturday. And the scale continues a downward trend. I'm intrigued. Another day or two will convince me that it's genuine.

Today's eats:
black coffee
coconut water post walk
D: chilled avocado gazpacho (this was really nice), caesar salad with of course home made dressing and fresh parmesan topped with a bunch of the chicken meat. 2 hard cider, glass of wine (during prep, with and after dinner).
pepperoni stick

This week I pledge to do better on exercise than last. And I think an appropriate medium term goal is to eliminate the chub rub before the season turns too chilly for shorts.

[Greensprout]

Woo Hoo, I just placed an order for some grass fed beef and pastured lard for pickup this week . I'm a happy camper. Pickup is across town, but will be a good driving practice session for son #2.

Speaking of son #2, when he tasted today's chicken, he proclaimed "if all meat tasted like this, nobody wouldn't like it".

I made "lemonade" today. Juice of one lemon, 12 oz club soda, 4 drops of stevia. A lovely sparkling lemonade. Very worth repeating.

I've topped off the night with a bowl of cherries. Quite a lot, and they were amazing. Funny, now I feel pretty much full to the brim, and I really haven't had a huge amount of food today, but it feels just right.

[Greensprout]

The scale did not continue its downward trend today. I suspect fluid, sort of a glitch kind of thing. We'll see soon enough over the coming days.

I did get in a workout today, a 35 min lifting session. Not too bad. Ran into hubby at the gym too, which doesn't happen too often on workdays, we rarely end up going around the same time.

I'm somewhat annoyed with myself this evening. Although productive, finished up the chicken bone broth (cooled, strained and packaged into jars), and for the first time made bacon mayo (rather nice I must say), I realized I had forgotten to make my drivers licence and insurance payment, which was due today (renewal time) . I managed to do the payment online tonight, so am thinking that I'm good to go for tomorrow. I'll stop by the insurance place after work to make sure all is okay and that the monthly payment is set up to continue. Sigh. I knew there was something else I was supposed to do today.

Eats:
black coffee
mint green tea
L: greek salad, steak & mushrooms
after work: pepperoni stick
D: 3 runny eggs over 2 grassfed lamb/beef burgers over sauteed kale. All sauteed in coconut oil/grassfed ghee. Oh yeah.
A vodka soda with lime.

[Greensprout]

Will, the scale was moving back down this morning. Not to where it was on Saturday, but 2 lbs down from an odd reading yesterday. Weird.

The past 2 days my mouth has been feeling incredibly dry from afternoon until bedtime. No higher salt intake, I'm wondering about something in the new loose leaf teas I have at work. Maybe something used on the non tea bits (coconut, fruity bits)? I don't think I'm ketotic, no nasty breath/foul taste in mouth going on. Have to look for what's triggering it.

A good noontime walk, 65 min or so. Hello, sunshine.

One of my favorite shops has another big sale on this week (the place I spent over $200 not too long ago!). Of course, only open till 6 on weekdays, and I didn't want to wait till the weekend when most stuff would be gone. So after work I sorted out the car insurance stuff (all good), then shopping. Ended up with a workout North Face T shirt, and a Fig sweater for half price each. Nice. I could have spent more, but decided that was all that was "needed" for today. The sweater will be great for cooler evenings in Vegas on our trip over summer dresses or for whenever. A nice organic cotton, great draping and softness.

Eats:
black coffee
coconut water post walk in the heat
L: chicken bone broth, chicken salad (chicken, red onion, radish, bacon mayo) stuffed in a green pepper half. Very good. Cup or so of cherries
various white/black teas
6 pm: pepperoni sticks
D: 2 grilled pork loin chops with SOG bbq sauce, caprese salad
rum & soda

I've found a new stevia sweetened no calorie cola, brand name Krisda. Tastes quite nice. Better than the Zevia. A couple of weeks ago I ended up having a diet coke for the first time in a while...very chemically and "wrong" tasting. Not good at all. Sad to think that on study nights in university long ago I would polish off a 2L bottle of that with a bag of potato chips while doing readings and writing term papers. Nasty.

We start 2 weeks vacation on the weekend, hooray. I'm intending on a solo 12 hour road trip to visit my Mom for a couple of days probably leaving on the weekend. Then late next week (in time for the long weekend), hubby's mom and her husband are coming out here from Montreal for a few days. The following week will be max relax time around the house/yard/pool, with perhaps a few excursions around the local area. Pretty much simple down time.

[Greensprout]

Something close to 7 hours of sleep last night. And a slight drop on the scale this morning.

I didn't have any tea today and had the same dry mouth issue. Still pondering ketosis as a possible cause, I'm not counting carb amounts at the moment, but don't think they're below 50g, I'd estimate most days 50-100. And I had a few potato chips last night for no particular reason. Stopped at a few, and felt oddly full afterwards.

Great news is I picked up my meat! 40 lbs of grass fed beef, mostly steaks and ground, with a couple of roasts and stew meat, plus ordered some extra shanks and soup bones. And a gallon bucket of pastured lard plus some pork cracklings!

No workout today, it was the weekly lunch out thing, which is evolving more into including external people too, so is more of a networking thing. I'll likely not be skipping out on this too much like I normally have been doing. At least I can bring my own lunch and not feel like I have to do the sandwich bar or make excuses for an IF.

Eats:
black coffee
L: cup of chicken bone broth, pork chop, salad of cucumber, tomato, feta & avocado with evoo, salt & pepper
Not really a dinner, but included over a couple of hours 2 pepperoni sticks, a purple topped white turnip raw, pile of slow cooked roast beef with horseradish.
last of the cherries
Vodka soda.

This batch of bone broth didn't gel. Still tasty, however. I have a couple more days of drinking it before I should freeze the remainder. I need to buy more jars, need some 1L size rather than just the 500 ml ones I have.