Primal Journal **Greensprout** page 156

[winencandy]

Halfway through and looking good.

Day 1 *************** Day 15
Height: 5 ft 6 in
Weight: 150.6***********145.2 (-5.4 lb) Seriously?!
waist: 29.5 in************28.75 in (-0.75 in)
belly (at navel): 33 in*******31.5 in (-1.5 in)
hips: 39.25 in************38.5 in (-0.75 in)
right thigh: 23 in**********22.5 in (-0.5 in).

I'm quite surprised and pleased. Great motivation for the remaining 15 days for sure.

Excellent!!
Almost makes me want to try a W30 again.
Almost.

Ahhhhhhh. Hubby smashed up the front end of his car on the way home today.

That sucks

[Greensprout]

Yes, everyone was okay. Just car damage. We carpooled in mine today, but he has something later tomorrow than I need to be there, so he checked his car out, and it seems okay engine wise, so he'll drive his own tomorrow.

7 1/2 hours of sleep. Still no "boundless energy" on this W30 day 18, but again not all tired out, so that's a good sign. I seem to be less hungry, or maybe more filled for longer after regular or even smaller sized meals, without the snacking desire between meals. Sometimes it was just "mouth hunger" but sometimes real hunger. Perhaps that was more a premenstrual hunger thing. The regular monthly bloat gain is going away now too. I was mostly headache free today until this evening, when it has returned pretty strongly. Enough to medicate, like most recent days.

Eats:
B: 2 sausage egg muffins, black coffee
L: tin of salmon with mayo, diced pickles and olives, a plum
after work: spoon of coconut oil mixed with a spoon of cashew butter
D: 2 grass fed burger patties topped with avocado, red onion, mayo, salad of romaine, cucumber & tomato with evoo/white wine vinegar.

I was wanting some berries & coconut milk, but don't think I need them. Might just go for a cup of kombucha instead.

I had a short chance to exercise at lunch, so went out for 3.2 miles, running very slowly (12:30 min mile pace) for 2 miles, walking half a mile or so before and after. It was good, not taxing at all, and very enjoyable.

[Greensprout]

Yesterday there was a free BBQ at work for lunch, just the usual hot dogs and burgers. I brought a snack of my own instead, as I knew we'd also be out early in the afternoon. Good choice. I went down to have a look, and aside from the sandwiches, there was store made tub o' potato salad and tub o' coleslaw. Ewww. And just under 7 hours of sleep to start the day.

Yesterday's eats:
B: coffee, 3 scrambled eggs in ghee over a grass fed burger pattie
green tea
L: coconut oil/cashew butter, a plum
more green tea
I think 12 almonds after work
D: grass fed striploin steak, mushrooms, garlic broccoli
coconut milk with cocoa on frozen raspberries

Today I slept in, but after 9 hours of sleep, I woke still with the headache (coming and going all day still) and the dark bags under my eyes made me look like I'd slept about 4 hours after a bottle of wine. WTF? Didn't feel that bad, just looked hellish. Whatever. Makeup helped. Farmers' market, groceries, and other errands took up most of my day. I did get more lamb liver and some local goat milk soap & bath stuff, plus lavender hemp body lotion.

Today's eats:
B: black coffee, half an avocado with celery salt, a peach
L: tin of wild salmon with mayo, diced green olives & pickles
6 macadamia nuts
D: big salad with seared scallops
coconut oil/cashew butter
cup of kombucha.

Weight is still inching down, which is rather nice. I'll do full measure and such at the end of the 30 days. Today is day 20, and still on plan. Hubby decided tonight to make one of those banana/egg/cocoa/almond butter microwave muffin things, when I suggested this was not on the W30 plan, he didn't see just what the issue was, since he could eat any of the ingredients by themselves and be fine. Whatever. He's a big boy. He's actually been doing extremely well, and is even considering staying off of regular dairy, just bringing back good cheese once in a while. I think butter would be in order too.

Another good night's sleep is in order for tonight.

[Siobhan]

I'm thinking along the same lines - I'm going to bring back butter, fermented dairy like raw milk kefir and yogurt, and small amounts of cheese. Also need to experiment with whey protein powder. I am amazed at how my daily calorie count dips without cheese. Huge for weight loss in my experience. Of course it remains to be seen what will happen when I start eating this stuff.

[Greensprout]

I've not tried kefir yet, and any raw milk is impossible to find here. I suppose the only way is to know someone with a family milk cow, which, being city dwellers and not from this area, is very unlikely to happen. We had cows when I was in high school at home, and the cream was to die for. Really. We made butter regularly, just put the cream in a gallon jar and shook the hell out of it until the magic happened. I do miss that. Didn't know how good I had it at the time, it was more "OMGmyparentsareinamidlifecrisisandwanttolivebacko nthefarm" king of thing. Yet the daily farm chores (lots of lifting heavy things daily) prepared me pretty darn well for basic training right after high school.

On another note, I'm really getting tired of this damn headache. Very sure it's not dehydration, nor hunger, not particularly stressed, TOM is over, and I'm positive it isn't a carb flu sort of thing. Granted, over the years, I have had stages of lots of headaches, but they have typically been tension type, which go hand in hand with increased stress. I dunno. It's here every day, sometimes goes away for a bit or mostly gone, then returns. I've been waking with it too, most days. Not strong enough to be incapacitating or anything, but damn annoying. And I don't want to medicate regularly either. Funny that it started when the fatigue of the first week of W30 set in. The fatigue is pretty much done, but the headache lingers.

9 hours of sleep and still woke with the headache. I didn't let that stop me from heading out walking for over an hour and a half, covering nearly 7 miles. Felt great, but the headache continues. Bah.

At least I have a nice grass fed beef roast in the oven cooking low and slow for dinner tonight. Hubby got it from a coworker whose brother raises the cattle locally.

[Greensprout]

Eats for today:
B: black coffee, 12 macadamia nut halves, a peach
post walk: cup of bone broth, 4 slices local bacon and 3 over easy eggs cooked in the bacon fat
few more macadamias, 2 mugs of mint green tea
D: lovely grass fed sirloin roast, cauliflower mash, carrots with ghee & dill.
I would have had more, but the roast was small, and one kid had a friend over. So an hour later had a bowl of thick, chilled coconut milk mixed with a little cocoa with frozen blueberries & fresh strawberries, all topped with toasted coconut. Mmmmmm.

I toasted up a bunch of coconut flakes for the week. I could eat them all now, they're so damn tasty. But I put them away in an airtight container, like a good girl. Actually, I'm quite full. The coconut milk & berries is very filling and awesome.

I've mixed my kombucha with sparkling water to sort of stretch it out. A whole bottle is a lot in one go (and rather pricy, too). I've started splitting the large bottle into 2 servings, and topping it up is kind of nice. Still get a great full glass with all the flavour, still very good diluted. It almost substitutes for a glass of wine or vodka soda in the evening. Almost.

The scale today was lower than I've seen in a while. Seems to be a whoosh going on. Probably just the post TOM thing, hopefully it stays off. I have to say I've been impressed thus far the difference I'm seeing with cutting out the extras. And I have been getting more sleep regularly, which can only help. Now to just quash the headache once and for all. It's just a dull ache at the moment, but had to resort to medicating once again. That helps sometimes, but not every time.

I've also been a bit congested the past couple of days, and sneezing on and off. A resurgence of some sort of allergy? I've managed to be free of those symptoms for 2 years now, but who knows?

[Greensprout]

I do think there are allergy symptoms going on. More sneezing today, nasal congestion, and tired feeling eyeballs. Having not used antihistamines for for now my third allergy season (used to take from first green till frost every year for about 8 years before that), I'm a little hesitant to go back on. I'll have to play that by ear. The headaches may well be related to that too.

Yes, the damn headache has been on and off (at times very nastily on) all day. I don't suppose staring at a screen is helping. Think I'll cut the online time a lot tonight and read instead. I'm ready to go full force on meds to get rid of it for once and for all at this point. My head feels heavy, almost like the sort that comes with a sinus headache, minus the sinus pain. Another cue that it may be allergy related. Regardless, it made for a less than productive day at work, staring at a computer screen.

Fit in a nice slow run today. Half mile walk, 3 mile very slow run, just over a half mile walk back to work. I took some streets in the residential area near work that I hadn't been on before, it's an older, established neighbourhood with lots of trees, and it was kind of fun.

Eats:
B: coffee, a burger pattie with about 1/3 of an avocado (turned out to be one of those weird ones that doesn't ripen properly)
3 mugs green tea
L: tin of salmon with diced pickle, green olive & mayo, a plum
mug of fruity herbal tisane
after work: 2 pinches of toasted coconut, cup of bison bone broth
D: baked chicken - one leg and one thigh, small sweet potato with ghee, garlic/ghee broccoli
a peach diced topped with chilled coconut milk & toasted coconut. Omnomnomnom.

Made sausage & egg muffins while prepping dinner, which I had been planning to do yesterday, but lost interest.

Perhaps a cup of diluted kombucha shortly.

I've been doing really well on the sleep regularly of late, last night 7 1/2 hours, but tonight I think I'll go to bed even earlier, if I can manage to get things shut down. I think we have some advil nighttime which has benadryl in it, so that may help a bit, I hope. Have to be in early the next 3 mornings for briefings. Bah.

[Greensprout]

After taking the advil nighttime last night, some of the congestion cleared. I got to bed at a good hour and managed to get 8 hours of sleep. The headache was a bit there upon waking, so I decided today to medicate regularly. It did help, and I also caved and got some Areius antihistamines today (the one I used to use all the time). I'll give it a go for the next week or so and see what happens. I looked closely at the label, and whaddaya know...cornstarch in the ingredient list. Buggers. Why? My head did feel a lot better all day, not completely gone, but rather minimal for a change. Of course, after getting home from work, it returned rather strongly, but I'll plan for another good night's sleep and see where this goes.

Eats:
B: black coffee, 2 sausage egg muffins
2 mugs green tea
L: one chicken drum and one thigh, 3 cucumbers, a small green pepper, a plum. Another green tea
Rooibos tea
after work: 8 macadamia nuts, pinch of toasted coconut, cup of bone broth
D: grilled pork sirloin chop, tiny bit of sauerkraut, roasted brussel sprouts & mushrooms
cup of kombucha.

I feel like eating more, but am full. A mouth hunger thing, I suppose. I did have a half a tsp of white rice when making it for the kids (how the heck else do you tell that it's done??), but refrained from more like I sometimes do.

Weight is up a touch for the second day, but the trend I've seen since starting this W30 is I get a few days down, then 2-3 days up (but not quite as much as the start), then down for a couple or 3 days to a new low number, rinse and repeat. As long as the overall trend is down, it's all good.

Aiming to walk tomorrow, today the clothes I brought ended up not quite good for the windy, unexpectedly cool and sometimes wet day. After work, of course the returning headache smashed any motivation to go out then, even with the sun out.

[Greensprout]

Day 24 and still on plan. The scale has started down again, hopefully a trend to continue through day 30, hey, I can be optimistic, but expect a few more variances through the next week. For kicks, I tracked my foods for yesterday and today, and interestingly came out under 1500 cal, which is without hunger, so that's pretty cool. If not paying attention, I'm around 2000 or more easily. Of course, not having drinks in the evenings is helping in that respect. Carbs are on the low end, and with influence from the Eat Moar Fat thread, I'm working at moving some of the protein calories into more fat in place. Can't hurt to give it a go. It's a bit more challenging, as for quite some time, I've focused on lots of protein. I've always been a meat kind of gal .

The headache was with me when I got up after a nice 8 hours of sleep, but minimal throughout the day. Strangely, it returned on the drive home after work. Here all evening, but less intense. The sinuses are pretty clear, so the antihistamines are likely a good choice for now.

Midday included a good walk, it was cool and windy, but sunny, and I was prepared today. Just under 5 miles in 70 minutes. The park was very sparsely populated today, but nice with the leaves turning and on the path.

Eats:
B: black coffee, 2 egg muffins (eaten after getting to work and after the first briefing)
green tea (following an excessively long meeting)
L: 1 chicken drum and 1 thigh, 4 small cucumbers, a plum (post walk)
after work: 10 g raw macadamia nuts (yes, I measured)
D: lamb liver, sauteed cabbage. (hubby away, son #1 at work, leftovers for #2, and I enjoyed every bite )
peach with coconut milk.

I did have less coffee this morning, 2 smaller mugs rather than one huge one plus large travel mug. It was fine.

I've gotten in the routine of 3 meals daily as per W30 guidelines, but expect I'll go back to 2 once this is done next week. And the odd IF as well, which I seem to do fine with. It's so much easier just to wait till midday to eat and not have to think about having a breakfast meal in the rushed mornings. I think I'll follow most of the W30 guidelines until our vacation at the end of the month with a few exceptions, and will probably go strict again after we get home Thanksgiving weekend. I expect that will be in order after a week in Vegas!

[Greensprout]

A decent day after about 7 1/2 hours of sleep. The headache was there on and off, but often just barely, though more this evening again. Nasal congestion, runny nose and watery eyes better, much less sneezing but eyeballs are still feeling fatigued.

Cool day, but some sun, so I got in my touch over 4 miles of walking midday. I'll miss the VFFs and outdoor walks when it gets cold and snowy. Perhaps I should look into the heavier ones with the socks to carry me until it gets really cold.

Eats:
B: coffee, 1 1/2 egg sausage muffins, the last little bit of liver.
green tea
L: leftover sauteed cabbage, pork chop, cucumbers, a plum
white tea
10 g of raw macadamias, 2 pepperoni sticks. Those are not on plan, as they have nitrites, but they seemed like a good idea at the time.
late D: 5 slices of bacon, a small avocado, a tomato
cup of kombucha/mineral water blend.

I had a lovely bath for the first time in ages. Cleaned out my big jetted tub on the weekend, which had been sadly abandoned for months. Used a mango bath melt thing from Lush, and it was lovely. Good precursor to bedtime.

Hooray for Friday tomorrow. The last weekend of the W30. We're planning on a nice bottle of wine next Friday, I may wait until next weekend to have something, but on the other hand, if a glass of wine seems right after Tuesday, it might happen. Abstaining hasn't really been as challenging as I thought it might be, it's become more of a routine than anything else, I suppose. And while I longed for cheese in the first week, that's been no big deal either. I do plan to reintroduce small bits of dairy next week (cheese) and see if there's any difference. I hope not! That would really be sad.