The Age of Strife page

[Strife]

I'm not really new to the whole primal thing. I've tried it, on and off, for a while, usually with some decent success. Lately, though, I've recommitted to the idea. Enough so that I'll finally post around here and maintain a journal.

Starting out: I started working on primal living when I was 197 lbs (3 weeks ago). I'm currently 194 lbs.

Dietary stuff: I tend to eat a pork chop cooked in butter for lunch, and a meat dish for dinner. A cup of decaf coffee with heavy cream for breakfast. Throw in some sides (broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots). Sometimes I make crockpot soup, and I'm trying to make chili now, too. The soup and chili will help me to increase my vegetable intake, since I mostly eat meat right now. Once I have my own blender I'm going to try my hand at making my own eggnog for dessert and before bed. I'm also going to try making my own ghee soon.

Lately I've been getting cold cuts (at the deli counter, not the pre-packaged crap) and sliced cheese as a snack. I'll roll up some turkey inside some cheese, with some mustard, and that'll keep me full in between my meals.

Some things I'm working on now: I've been turning off the tv and shutting down my games at sunset (when my computer screen goes all orange thanks to f.lux), as well as living by candlelight. I'm an insomniac, and this was started as an experiment to see if I could actually address the insomnia through changes in behavior.

It's only been a few days so far, but the difference is noticeable. I've been sleeping earlier (11:30 at night instead of 3:30 in the morning). Last night, I reverted to normal light habits, and was up until 11:30 in the glow of my light bulbs watching tv with a friend. Took me hours more to fall asleep, and I slept in until 11:30 this morning, whereas I'd been waking up before my alarm (set to 9) on mornings after a candlelit night. Tonight I'll be returning to my candles.

Overall this has been a success, and I look forward to continuing to not just lose weight, but to improve the quality of my life.

[Strife]

Went back to candles last night. It worked wonderfully. Got to bed semi-early again, and was up before my alarm.

Didn't eat much today, but wasn't very hungry. Wasn't hungry yesterday, either. I'm eating almost pure fat and protein, with little or no carbs (at most a bit of sugar in my coffee). Was mildly concerned about the whole not hungry thing (I've had issues with just not eating in the past), but I've decided that it's fine. If I get hungry, I'll eat until I'm not. No need to force food down my throat just to say I ate an arbitrarily assigned amount of calories.

The no-tv, no games, no lights thing would be a lot easier to do if I had company, but I live alone. Makes the community aspect of pre-digital living pop out a bit more, or rather, the importance of community. In the meantime I get lots of reading and play in while I'm here alone.

[Strife]

I finally got the candles that I ordered yesterday (72 sabbath style candles, 32 votives), but the wine bottles I'll be using to hold the sabbath candles didn't show up yet. The votives worked really well to light my place up, but I need new holders for them, to keep the wax from spilling all over. Candlelight is still helping with the sleep, and I got to bed at a decent hour last night. Was awake before the alarm again this morning, and it felt like I'd slept in.

Didn't really eat much for most of the day, but went to a nice sushi place in the evening with a friend. Gorged on miso soup, kani salad, butterfly rolls (lobster, avacado, mango, in a sweet soy paper), winter rolls (kani, avacado, mango, in a standard seaweed wrap), california roll, and gyoza. Ate too much, and ended up feeling a bit ill by the end of it, so skipped the sugary dessert that I normally get (mango icecream).

Today will be Christmas with the family. I'll be trying my hand at making Primal eggnog, but no clue as to what the rest of the family will be making. Some sort of meat, at least. At worst I'll stick to that.

[valmason01]

The no-tv, no games, no lights thing would be a lot easier to do if I had company, but I live alone. Makes the community aspect of pre-digital living pop out a bit more, or rather, the importance of community. In the meantime I get lots of reading and play in while I'm here alone.

+1...it would be much easier. It makes me sad that there is a loss of community in our society. I have been doing jigsaw puzzles. They can be a fun way to pass the time though of course much more fun with someone.

[Strife]

Christmas went pretty well. Ended up eating sausage sprinkled with cheese. The non-primal parts: Homemade cheese danish, one cup orange juice, and a few cookies. Not nearly as much as I've eaten on previous holidays, so I'm content with that.

Was gifted a blender/food processor. Looking forward to being able to make bullet proof coffee and my own smoothies. Tried out the Primal eggnog recipe from the MDA blog, and decided that it could use a bit more sugar, and that I need to add a bit more spices. Otherwise it came out amazing.

Tomorrow I weigh in again (I try to do this every Wednesday, just to track whether what I'm doing is actually working). Here's to hoping I've been doing it right.

+1...it would be much easier. It makes me sad that there is a loss of community in our society. I have been doing jigsaw puzzles. They can be a fun way to pass the time though of course much more fun with someone.

Hehe. I can imagine that you'd get pretty good at the puzzles after just a little while with no lights. I'm considering taking up some sewing projects by hand, rather than using my machine, during my time in the dark.

[Strife]

Today has been a massive pile of shit. Woke up at 4 this morning with a stomach bug (not sure if it's flu or poisoning). Stomach emptying itself as quickly as possible from whatever route it could find. Fever giving me the chills on and off. The puking ended up stripping my throat raw, and there were a few drops of blood in it from that. Lost my voice for a few hours. Still fighting a massive headache and extreme sensitivity to pain.

No food for the day (unless you count three saltines that I can't even remember if I kept down). Just sipped on ginger ale and sucked on lemon drops and lemon cough drops. Pharmacist told my friend (who called out of work to care for me) that simple sugars and ginger is good, and that water just makes it worse. I believe it. Didn't puke nearly as much after switching from plain water to ginger ale.

Sadly, friend is also now coming down with the same bug.

Today is, overall, a giant loss. So I'll just try to sleep early.

[Strife]

I'm still recovering from the stomach bug. The nausea went away during day one, but I've been sore and achy for the last two days. My diet's been shit during this time, too. Ginger ale, lemon drops, saltines, and a giant bottle of Bolthouse Farms C-Boost smoothie. Now that I'm feeling up to actually moving around (for the most part) again, I'm getting back to proper eating.

Shoulder and neck muscles are stiff and sore, but light exercise and weight lifting has helped loosen them up. So has some light play (in this case, shadow fighting).

In good news: My wine bottles have come in. They're empty, and look pretty decent. And they perfectly fit the sabbath candles I ordered (a 72 pack for the same cost as a much smaller pack of tapers from stores). My apartment is going to be well lit from now on, and the bottles were far cheaper than a similar amount of taper candle holders (which my sabbath candles wouldn't fit into anyway). I'm really looking forward to sundown and being able to light all these, and seeing my place suffused with a pleasant orange glow.

[valmason01]

Hope you feel better soon! That is such a horrible type of sick.

I like your candlelight idea. Keep us posted on how it works.

[Strife]

Been having some mild nausea on and off since I got sick. Tonight's the first night with none so far. Got really off track with food and just splurged on carbs and sugars (one day all I ate was ginger ale and a chocolate orange). Today was much better, with a fast from waking until dinner time, broken with cottage cheese and then a juicy cheese burger.

The candle thing is going really well. My wine bottles are wonderful. I keep about four lit in the living room now, with two in every other room (lit only as needed). It keeps my place well lit and cozy. I am absolutely 100% thrilled with how it's working out. My quality of sleep has improved vastly since I started doing this. I still take melatonin before bed, but I'm no longer tossing and turning for hours. I'm having some nice, vivid, dreams (and some lucid ones), and I wake up in a relatively good mood and looking forward to my day.

A bit of progress on the weight side of things: I got a new jacket a month or so ago. I had to twist and turn to get it on, but now it zips up fine with no problem (and no sucking in my stomach).

[Strife]

Just a quick update: I've stumbled a bit. Got lazy and started eating out more, and eating unhealthy crap. Emotional eating sucks. The candle light thing is still going great. I'm waking up at 10 at the latest, and around 8:30 on average. This is so much better than sleeping in until the middle of the afternoon, or the early evening, as I used to do back when I was in college. Also, the dimmer light seems a lot more natural and comfortable now. I can't imagine having the bright lights on at night anymore.