Primal Journal **Greensprout** page 152

[Greensprout]

I've enjoyed reading thru your journal, Greenspout. I've been eating paleo for about a year now and although I don't veer off, I've found it's been getting rather stale. Your journal has encouraged me to try some new recipes and get back to listening to Robb Wolffs podcasts. Thanks for that!

Good grief, hope you didn't start all the way back from the beginning! It's become rather lengthy after 2+ years.

I agree that the meals can get a bit boring if you let them, I've done that here and there, eventually I remember there are so many great recipes that like minded folks have shared, and I get inspired all over again.

Well done on sticking to paleo for a year. Sticking with the basics is not hard. My wobbly points are periods of: eating too much; not exercising consistently; and alcohol (which you've obviously seen for yourself if you've been reading). Hence, the upcoming W30 plan. Time to kick it up a notch.

Welcome, and glad to be of some encouragement. You might want to check out the Balanced Bites podcasts as well.

[Greensprout]

Ended up with 7 hours sleep. Decent, but should have gone to bed sooner, as I knew I had to be at work early.

Woke to find that son #1 had eaten all of the leftover hash last night, and hadn't left myself time to make breakfast and lunch, so despite the 3 meal routine of the past week, I decided on a random IF day. It was quite fine, with white tea and water, combined with a busy work day.

The hour of badminton was rather fun. Even managed to work up a light sweat, but I'd consider this more play than workout. That was the extent of today's activity.

Eats:
black coffee
white tea
tsp of coconut oil
some macadamia nuts at 5pm (18 hours fasted)
D: sushi with hubby. wakame salad, assorted sashimi, some rolls (which thankfully weren't too heavy on the rice layer, just enough), green tea. I did bring my own gluten free tamari

Tonight will be a bottle of wine shared.

As for the scale, an interesting week. Started at 151, ended this morning at 148.8. I'd say that's rather decent. The weekend may change things a bit, with tonight's dinner plus some drinks, but I don't anticipate anything significant. The next month should be rather interesting.

Hubby has finished ISWF, up to the meal planning part. Says he learned a lot of the WHY, and now understands why certain ingredients have made their way into the kitchen via my shopping trips that he's never seen before. Pretty sure I've told him most of this stuff before, but I guess he just needed to really get there in his own time. I'm still impressed. He's dropped a few pounds this week too, back around 165, which he hasn't seen in 6 or 7 years. He's almost 5'9". I recall about 10 years ago when we were very into TKD that he got to around 155, and was very lean. Friends said he looked "too thin", but he looked pretty damn good, I thought!

[Greensprout]

A busy weekend coming to an end.

Yesterday was a good sleep in, after being up rather late. Felt those few drinks when I got up, too. Then off for some great urban foraging. Farmers' market finds included: lamb steaks & lamb liver, pastured ground pork and chops, cabbage, heirloom carrots, scallions, multi coloured sweet peppers, spaghetti squash, onions, green beans, rainbow chard.

I took my pickles out of the crock, I think next up is a go at sauerkraut in the one gallon crock. The pickles are delish. I've been eating some daily.

Yesterday's random eats:
3 soft boiled eggs
few macadamia nuts
liverwurst on long cucumber slices
late dinner of grass fed ribeye, mushrooms & peppers. A shared bottle of very lovely Okanagan Meritage, and a couple of other beverages. 4 squares of 70% dark chocolate with raspberry.

Funny old scale. Yesterday morning was down again to 148, today back to 151. I think I have to blame the 2 nights of drinks, because the foods were actually pretty decent. Interesting.

Today was a flurry of domesticity. I made Primal potroast (first PB cookbook), tried cauliflower mash with roasted cauli rather than steamed. Added a nice flavour, but the texture was dryer. Normally I add butter & cream, and perhaps some cheese, but today was ghee with coconut milk. Pretty okay, but different. I have a slowcooker of bison & beef bones simmering (were on the stove all day then just transferred to the slowcooker), made pesto to freeze from my exploding basil plants, and helped hubby do an egg bake with ground pork, spinach, mushrooms & peppers.

Hubby's quite keen on the W30 start. Hence his idea to prep a bunch of foods today to make breakfasts & lunches easy. We did the egg bake, plus he roasted a bunch of chicken breasts and took the meat off the bone so ready to grab and go. I like having someone else do some cooking for a change! Having him on board is going to be very good. Unfortunately, he will be on the road for 10 of the 30 days, so more challenging for him, but that's pretty normal around here.

Today's eats;
black coffee
coconut water
liverwurst on cucumber
couple of macadamias
D: primal pot roast, cauliflower mash, roasted heirloom carrots & beets. Rather stuffed after this.
one hard cider, one vodka soda. Alas, goodbye to you for a month.

Focus for the week: squeaky clean eats, good amounts of sleep, lots of movement.

[Greensprout]

Started the day with something like almost 6 1/2 hours of sleep. Hubby's alarm woke me half an hour before I was getting up . He sets it loud because he wears earplugs as he's a very light sleeper. Normally I don't really hear it, as I sleep heavy, but today was my loss. Once again sluggish at first, but that turned into a decent level of energy for the day.

Mid day was a great 5+ miles in the sun, very slow run for 2.3 miles in the middle, brisk walk for the remainder. My hips and calves are feeling a bit tight, perhaps hot tub before bed will solve that issue.

Eats:
B: black coffee, 1 1/2 slices egg bake (sausage, spinach, peppers, mushrooms).
green tea
L: chicken breast with skin, 2 small sweet peppers, 2 cucumbers, 1/4 cup of macadamia nuts
rooibos tea
D: 2 pastured pork chops grilled, swiss chard, a small roasted beet, some cauliflower mash. Pretty full after this.
a cup of kombucha (I looked it up, it's okay for W30 - some flavours anyway, including this one).

Did a starting point measure this morning. Weight still up from the weekend, and I do feel a bit puffy around the middle, so that should go soon.

Height: 5 ft 6 in
Weight: 150.6
waist: 29.5 in
belly (at navel): 33 in
hips: 39.25 in
right thigh: 23 in.

Not bad, but there's work to do. It's been better even over the last 3 years.

[winencandy]

My wobbly points are periods of: eating too much; not exercising consistently; and alcohol

Those are my wobbly points too. Although sugar is my biggest "wobbly" point.

It looks like you had a great start to your W30!
I shall cheer from the sidelines
(and maybe, just maybe, try no sugar during the weekdays)

[BJDMINN]

My wobbly points are:
Chocolate Larabars
Cocoroons
Dried fruit
Nut butter
Pinot Noir

Your weekend of domesticity was fruitful! I'm going to try roasting my cauliflower next time for mash.

Best to you on your W30 and thanks for the tip on the Balanced Bites podcasts - I will check them out.

[Greensprout]

Those are my wobbly points too. Although sugar is my biggest "wobbly" point.

It looks like you had a great start to your W30!
I shall cheer from the sidelines
(and maybe, just maybe, try no sugar during the weekdays)

My very own cheerleader .
Hey, go with what you can live with.

My wobbly points are:
Chocolate Larabars
Cocoroons
Dried fruit
Nut butter
Pinot Noir

Ah, pinot noir, a favourite of mine.

I've decided that my wobbly points also include my butt and thighs . But according to today's MDA blog post, perhaps that's not such a bad thing. Yeah.

[Greensprout]

The hot tub was good last night, and I was in bed, lights out by 1010pm. Very close to 8 hours of sleep, nice.

A decent walk in the heat. I can't feel motivated to go lift in the warm sweaty smelly gym when it's so nice out. There will be time enough for that when it gets colder. 4 miles, I found a playground and did 2 full pullups plus 3 assisted ones, and threw in about 50 walking lunges, 15 park bench incline pushups, and 30 bodyweight squats. It was all good.

I weighed today, (yes, yes, not supposed to do that on W30, whatever), I wanted to see if the weekend suspected fluid gain was going. 148.8, so I'd say yes. Good.

Eats:
B: Black coffee, 1 1/2 slices egg bake
green tea
L: chicken salad with homemade mayo, diced scallion, pickles & green olives, a plum
D: 2 grass fed burger patties topped with avocado & red onion, side of cucumber, mini tomatoes, sweet peppers
probably the half bottle of kombucha saved from yesterday in a bit.

The day got super busy mid afternoon, ended up at work till well after 6, so nearly an 11 hour day. Ugh. And still had to start dinner when I got home close to 7. I strained my bone broth, and reduced it a bit, still have to strain into jars (still very hot), get ready for work, and I was planning on getting beef shanks into the slow cooker in the morning, we'll see how that works out. Need to be in even a bit earlier to review overnight updates before the morning briefing. Gulp! Not seeing 8 hours tonight, as it's nearly 10 already. Will be 7 for sure, anyway.

So a decent day 2, despite the hectic afternoon & evening.

[winencandy]

I've decided that my wobbly points also include my butt and thighs .

Greensprout, THOSE are called wobbly bits

But according to today's MDA blog post, perhaps that's not such a bad thing. Yeah.

I haven't read it yet...but now I will

A decent walk in the heat. I can't feel motivated to go lift in the warm sweaty smelly gym when it's so nice out. There will be time enough for that when it gets colder. 4 miles, I found a playground and did 2 full pullups plus 3 assisted ones, and threw in about 50 walking lunges, 15 park bench incline pushups, and 30 bodyweight squats. It was all good.

Very good! Although it makes me realize that I do not move nearly enough

[Greensprout]

Greensprout, THOSE are called wobbly bits

Uh, yeah. I knew that

it makes me realize that I do not move nearly enough

Just plan some time and DO IT already! You've done it before. Schedule an hour or half an hour for "me time" just to move, whether that's walking, running, or tossing around that old sledgehammer you used to keep under the sofa.