My own accountability journal. page 3

[U2sandrah]

It is good to have nothing but primal stuff in the pantry!
Today I tried primal banana pancakes topped with some cream. Didnt even need sugar, they were delicious! Now that is a recipe Ill stick to in the future to come. That with a cup of coffee.
Later today Ill go for a walk, if the -8ºC doesnt get any worse.
Since yesterday I have been macerating some porkchops with fennel and garlic. So Ill have that for late lunch topped with sauteed mushrooms, peppers and zucchini. At nite time if still hungry, Ill have a green leaf salad. Maybe Ill do a sweet potato and orange gratin if i have the need for something sweet. Ill try to keep em down.

[Annieh]

Sandra your primal pantry sounds terrific.

I cleared mine out and tried to keep it primal, but what with buying crackers and cereal for my dh and dd, as well as other items they can't seem to live without such as sugar, tomato sauce, drinking chocolate, peanut butter and muesli bars, the result is not as wholesome as I'd like.

[U2sandrah]

Hi Annie!
Well, I get what u mean, it has taken me a lot of time to stop buying loads of cheese and cookies and specially pasta.

My approach has been to slowly migrate from A to B, meaning: I love fresh cheese, ricotta, etc, and bit by bit taking it off the list and now I only have a chunk of emmentaler. Or for instance, I love dried fruits also, and are very easy to overeat and having a massive sugar high, so to eliminate them has been a challenge; from buying tons of stone dried fruit like apricots and peaches, to every now and then I have a few pieces of walnut or pecans and drizzle them with honey.

I havent had pasta for months, my only recent cheats have been pastries and in social events so Ill have to work into getting into my "no thanks, no bread for me" attitude again.

I miss ice cream also! but instead I have slices of pears smothered in creme fraiche.

Not losing weight, but im steadily maintaining it. Im waiting for weather to improve in order to go for longer walks.

So for some cold turkey is best, for me is to ease myself again into the mindset.

[U2sandrah]

So this past week has been a week of ups and downs. I think on a 70:30 ratio.

The damned chocolate croissants have taken the best of me, on two out of 7 days. I will work harder on eliminating them! Thankfully no IBS flares lately.

Also this week I figured out that I cannot digest all that well coconut milk and coconut in general. Maybe small amounts for cooking (meaning just drizzles) its ok, but having my morning coffee with that stuff makes my gut seriously growl all the time.

Well, its all about getting to know myself with this new ingredientes.

My motivation at this point is: NOT to get the flu that has been going around lately, so for that I need to keep away from wheat! Eat my veggies and have a citrus fruit daily (orange or clementine, cannot stand the taste of grapefruit alone).

MUST KEEP AWAY FROM WHEAT!

This morning has been: A mozzarella ball with a handful of cherry tomatoes and lots of finely chopped chili, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic. Almond banana pancakes with yogurt (didnt even need to add any sugar, the bananas were that great). Coffee.

For late lunch/dinner im planning: Lemon-garlic-herb chicken breast (which I have been marinating since yestarday) sauteed with bell peppers (and chili) and shallots, with rocket salad as side dish. This with a nice glass of wine.

[U2sandrah]

So this week I managed to make it to a 80:20 ratio!

Today was a freaking cold day, with wind gusts + snow, making it extremely tempting to go and cuddle in a bakery... However, I managed to resist the temptation.

For the past 5 days I only had one small cheat on tuesday (one chocolate croissant) and on thursday less than 2oz of french fries. The rest of the week has been either veggies, chicken or pork meat, hard bio cheese, or bio sausages (bio meaning organic), bowls of soup (its so damn cold), more veggies, the ocassional fresh fruit (either clementines, oranges or bananas) cut up and smothered in cream, lots of water, herbal tea, one glass of red wine here and there, and a few squares of dark choc as breakfast replacement.

I am as a rule skipping breakfast daily, being very sucessful at this. I cannot call it a pure fast, cuz I have two dark choc squares (about 10g per sq) with whole hazelnuts (a real good variety by Rittersport) and a cup of real good espresso lungo. But besides that, until 12m I have absolutely nothing more to eat. So it is not a fast, but it is a form of unconscious caloric restriction.

So I would say a solid 80:20 has been achieved.

Daily carbs have been shifting between 100-120g per day. Whilst the calories have been shifting between 1200-1300 per day.

Walking has been over 30mins daily (more just makes my lungs hurt while at -5ºC).

A good achievement has been (besides upgrading to 80:20) to ditch the fruit juices! two weeks clear of orange and apple juices.
Next step is to ditch the fries in the work canteen. Further in the future will be to ditch the ocassional croissant, i mean i could keep it just to one treat per week like that.

I wish the weather was better so I can go for longer walks, but I really want to avoid excessive cold exposure to avoid the extremely contagious flu it has been going around my office the past 2 weeks, and I am still the only one who hasnt been affected... SO I MUST KEEP AWAY FROM WHEAT!!

My driver at this moment is not to get sick! It would be nice to lose some fat, but the highest priority is to avoid the flu epidemy going around. So keep up the veggies and VitC rich fruit is a must. Bananas are to keep the carb cravings at bay.

So I am aiming for the next time I post, to declare maintaining the 80:20 ratio. If successful at that, I will be upgrading to a 90:10, one step at a time...

[Annieh]

A great 80:20 week.

Like you, I just made the connection between too much coconut cream and a rumbly tummy. I've realised that paying attention to what I eat has made me more in tune with my own body.

Hope you are staying healthy!

[U2sandrah]

Hey there! I havent been around much, a lot of new stuff moving to a new country with new habits and the language... oh my god! the language... But Im getting there...

This past couple of weeks have been great. Ive stuck to the 80:20 sustainably and kept the occassional croissant to only one per week and just for social purposes. Maybe this is my own way, keeping it varied and not "cold turkey" which is the radical path that has made me fail multiple times in the past.

Of course, an additional target is to lose body fat, so that occassional croissant maybe slowing everything down. So Ill keep tracking my sustainable change and take it up a notch when I am ready to do so.

Thankfully weather is getting better, so longer walks are now available to me again! Im talking about looooong 2-3hr walks, even just walking around the city (air quality is great around here) or going to walk around the peripheral paths of the city (I even found a nice creek in the neighbourhood, with ducks, swans and all).

Soon I will move to my own place with my own kitcken gadgets (I am in a temporal company furnished flat) and my new neighbourhood will be within a few blocks to great lake-side living with lots of places to hike and explore.

Despite living on a loaner, my daily feeding has been very well behaved and cost-efficient: pork is the cheapest meat around so for instance: making pork meatball rataouille cassserole or pork stroganoff (skip the rice) or just plain eggs and bacon have been my staples. And since veggies are the cheapest thing around, then it has been more vegs than meat on my daily plate (bell peppers, zucchini, radishes -with the green top on!-, tomatoes and the occassional mushroom, all sprinkled with a permanent fresh chili garnish. For my sweet tooth quench has been mostly clementines, the occasional strawberry (when I find them at accessible price), and bananas.

The 12-13hr semi-fasts (or calorie reductions as I am inclined to call them) are locked in with no real starvation or hunger pangs, so the "no-breakfast" routine from Monday to Friday have been real successful and keep them up. Just throw in a couple of dark chocolate little squares and an espresso and I am ready for the whole morning.

The constant elements are being kept constant: coffee (for those lazy weekend mornings), dark choc, free range eggs, bacon, butter, olive oil, fresh chilies and an arsenal of spices. Also keeping at least three pots of fresh herbs for easy access and motivated cooking (rosmarin and parsley, next up will be to experiment with fresh sage).

Some homework for myself:
Besides the once-a-week-wheat-cheat, I have been splurging too much on dairy products (cream, yogurt or fresh cheese, so damn cheap!!!). So a big next step should be to cut those back to only two of a kind in my little fridge per week. This quantification of my fridge and pantry have been working for me. For instance: a few weeks ago I wanted to cut back on fruit/juices and up the veggies, so the moto has been: four types of veggies vs. two types of fruit, per shopping occassion. Take a snapshot right now: bell peppers (multicoloured), zucchini, mushrooms, radishes, tomatoes versus: strawberries and clementines.

Summary: doing great with lotsa room for improvement. Gotta keep motivated and sustainable.