Primal Challenge Journal (DebFM)
(268 posts) (13 voices)-
I'm not usually into doing online forums, but I found Mark's site and got really excited about it and thought I'd join in. I thought it would help if I'm a part of something rather than doing it on my own, like usual.
I started slowly cutting out potatoes/beans/grains about two weeks ago. It wasn't too bad easing into it.
Here's what I've had today so far:
b'fast: eggs with fennel and dill
lunch: couple ounces of turkey with lettuce, beet salad with beets, feta cheese, pumpkin seeds, basil and homemade vinegarette.
Supper will be Mexican-spiced chicken in the crockpot with sauteed veggies (peppers, lambs quarters, onions) with a little guacamole on the side.I run my own mini herbal business and garden a lot (4 hours yesterday). My main goal with this is to exercise more with a long walk in the evening and continue to garden.
Posted 7 months ago # -
Day Two
Despite really bad temptation today at my friend's house, I perservered! Wasn't easy, but I did it. Definitely have more energy these days! That's good, since I have little kids to run after...For eats today:
B'fast: smoothie with oatstraw infusion, protein powder, peaches, a little cream & flax seeds
Lunch: chicken, stir fried veggies, gazpacho YUM!
Supper: chicken sausage, kale sauteed with bacon & onions
Snacks: walnuts, wild blackberries - double YUMExcercise: yesterday I did 5 1/2 hours hardwork/heavy lifting in the garden so today I'm going for a two-mile walk after supper.
Posted 7 months ago # -
Day Three
Market day. This is a hard day. I sell at a local farmer's market (medicinal herb products) & it starts at noon. I had a great breakfast, however, so I wasn't even hungry until 2 p.m. The market ended at 6 p.m. The kids go, too, and that always makes things a little crazy! I get the added benefit, though, of all that heavy lifting of stuff in and out of the car.Eats for the day:
B'fast: collard green sauteed with a little ham & two scrambled eggs
Lunch: two leftover sausages & gazpacho
snack: walnuts and an apple
Dinner: two pieces of fish & broccoliUsually I'm completely exhausted after the market but this week I wasn't. Love that extra energy!
Posted 7 months ago # -
Day Four - Saturday
Worked in the garden for two hours in the morning and then went for a 6 mile/hour and half bike ride with the kids. Fun! Felt really good after the bike ride. :)Eats:
B'fast: eggs scrambled with spicy jalapeno sausage, onions & peppers topped with a bit of shredded cheese & salsa, coffee w/ cream
Lunch: turkey rollups with mayo & garlic, blueberries, apple & leftover sausage
Snack: handful walnuts, decaf coffee w/ cream
Dinner: baked chicken breast w/ homemade pesto (basil from the garden!), smashed cauliflower with Parmesan cheesehmmm...eating a lot of sausage this week! Next week, probably no sausage as we get our grass-fed meat for the month! Hurray!
Posted 7 months ago # -
Day Four - Sunday
Lots of working in the garden today = lots of heavy lifting. If there's too much dirt in the plastic wheelbarrow it warps a litte when dumped...:)Eats for this day:
B'fast: eggs scrambled with fennel, onions & dill; sausage, coffee
Lunch: Big salad with weeds & left over pesto chicken
Supper: Big night out for anniversary: coconut coated shrimp appetizer; baked haddock on bed of veggies, glass of wine & wee bit o'dessert - chocolate mouse with chocolate sauce. I ate about 1/4 & hubby finished off the rest! A really yummy dinner & aside from a little dessert, perfectly Primal! Woohoo!!Posted 7 months ago # -
Day Five - Monday
Whew, it was hot! But I was really busy, Did some light gardening (=got some good sun!), lots of laundry & then took one of my doggies for a walk in the evening. We had storms all around us, so the light show was pretty wild! Went to bed early.For today:
Breakfast: scrambled eggs w/onions & garlic; 1/2C wild blackberries w/ a little cream; coffee w/ cream
Lunch: blueberry smoothie: whole raw milk, protein powder, whole plain yogurt & lotsa blueberries
Snack: some blackberries & nuts
Dinner: Cold avocado soup (was delicious!!!); salad with leftover chicken breastI am feeling so good. Even when I'm hungry, I'm just hungry - no corresponding fuzzy brain, short temper or shakiness!!! Man, and the energy I have. Woohoo!
Posted 7 months ago # -
Day Six & it was nasty and hot. I cleaned really well the house in preparation for herbal medicine making. Aside from the typical gardening today was a quiet day, physically. Tomorrow - one of those body weight work outs? Maybe!
Eats:
Breakfast: 2 sausages and 2 scrambled eggs. I have to admit that I missed my veggies! K-man made breakfast so I cann't complain, though! Also coffee with cream
Lunch: leftover chickie on a salad with bluecheese & pine nuts; homemade balsamic vinegarette. Kept me going until after 6 p.m.!
Dinner: steak tips, cold cucumber soup and (homemade)cortido. Yum.
Snack: few walnuts, apricot & a few blueberriesMade an 'replenishment' drink from juice of 1 lime and a pinch of sea salt in 1 liter of water. We don't have A/C here so when it's hot I really feel like I need to replenish the salt. Especially since, for some reason, I'm no longer such a wicked salt hound! When I was eating carbs I was pounding the salt. I was Celtic sea salt or seaveg + sea salt, but still! Huh. Go figure!
Posted 7 months ago # -
Day Seven
Did one of those body weight workouts. Ouch! Then spent lots of time gathering in the garden. Time to make plant medicine!
Eats
B'fast: totally wasn't hungry and just didn't eat breakfast. No lightheadedness, grumpiness, etc. Can't imagine doing this before!
Lunch: chicken curry salad and kale fresh from the garden :)
Dinner: jalapeno sausage sauteed with onion & peppers, cold avocado soup & some leftover chicken enchilada filling
snack: blueberries snagged while in garden; apricot (fresh from local farmstand, even), and a few nuts; 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt with 1 tsp honey.Not having any sweeteners for something like 10 days now, that little bit of honey was crazy-sweet. Nice. I had *NO* idea how addicted to sweet stuff I was! Maybe that had something to do with the salt addiction? Now, I've always read that sweet cravings are related to eating too much protein, but personal experience is telling me they're not. Guess who I'm going to believe! Me! ;)
Posted 7 months ago # -
Day Eight!
Eats: scrambled eggs with spicy jalapeno sausage, sauteed pepper & onions, salsa & a little cheese; coffee w/ cream
Lunch: Salad with lotsa lettuce, some weeds, turkey, ham & dandelion dip dressing. I'm thinking, probably a little too much salt from the turkey & ham. Gonna have to quit that!
Supper: beef brisket curry cooked in the crockpot w/ 4 turnips, some canned tomatoes & homemade chicken stock. Put a tablespoon yogurt on top. That was pretty good!
Snack: blueberries while picking a quart off our blueberry bushes; nuts (from sampling to find out whether the crispy nuts were done!)Wasn't hungry enough today to want or have a "real" snack! Yea!
It rained all day, so the kidlets & I were hanging out mostly. It was CSA pick up, too. Veggies!
Also: measured myself! Eek! Still a curvy gal! :)
Posted 7 months ago # -
Day 10
Saturday...B'fast: 2fried eggs w/ 1 TJ's spicy sausage. The sodium content on that isn't too high. Coffee w/ cream
Lunch: we went to Whole Foods so I picked up lots of chicken & some salad greens at the salad bar. I was disappointed with their salad bar, though. Lots of cold prepard stuff, not a lot of raw materials.
Supper: Fried haddock (with a light coating of bread crumbs :^0 !) & beet salad. Couldn't finish the beet salad.
No snackies today. Just wasn't hungry!!!Exercise:
Almost 2 miles with the dog but she was pooped! I outlasted the dog!!! In her defense, it IS hot here and she is a Siberian husky. Her winter coat's coming in really thick so I think she was just too hot.Also, took my blood pressure and it's WAY down from about a month ago when it was low 130's over 85; now it's 112 over 75. :) Woohoo!
Posted 7 months ago # -
Sunday...
Hot day at the farmer's market! I had no trouble setting up though & managed to weather the heat okay. Wanted to eat tons of fruit - even had the hubby bring me some!B'fast: bacon & scrambled eggs; coffee w/ cream
Lunch: cold avocado soup, jerky and tons of water
snack: peach & plum (the sourish purple kind) & a little honey. The first from our bees!!
Supper: buffalo burger w/ cheese, guacamole & salsa; gazpacho; iced decaf w/ cream (man & a whole tray of ice!).After hauling all my heavy crap back & forth to the car twice is 90+ degree heat, I figured I could laze around last night, so I did! I'll have to walk tonight when it gets cooler. :)
Posted 7 months ago # -
Monday...Day 12
Wow, I've been doing this for 12 days already! Woohoo! Did some gardening in the a.m. and took the doggies for a walk in the evening when the sun went down. Still outwalking them! Tomorrow I'll have to do some weights...And I can honestly say that I feel like running - something I used to hate to even think about!!! That's saying something!Eats:
B'fast: breakfast sausage (4) with 2 scrambled eggies. Extra good when the hubby makes the eggs! Coffee with cream, too.
Lunch: cooked a leftover burger from Sunday & added cheese, salsa & guacamole. Yum. Had with gazpacho. Couldn't finish the gazpacho!
Dinner: curried cabbage with chicken & some sauteed zukes & summer squash.
Snacks: iced decaf with cream; berries while picking..I think that was it!Posted 7 months ago # -
Tuesday...Day 13
Woah! Almost two weeks?! No way!
More gardening today - lots of gathering! Am really starting to see some results with the bod! Woohoo!Eats:
B'fast: strawberrys smoothie; coffee with cream
Lunch: leftover cabbage & chicken from last night; beet & feta salad; iced decaf
Supper: stir-fried beef chunks; chard & kale sauteed in bacon fat & steamed; beet & feta salad
Snack: scarfed a few blueberries while picking; 1 tsp almond butter & slice of bacon. Also made two quarts herbal infusion (oatstraw & rosehips). Drank most of them!Posted 7 months ago # -
Day 14! Woohoo - two weeks over and out. And I fit into a pair of shorts that I couldn;t fit into last week. Finally, think I'm really losing some weight.
Eats today
B'fast: huge-o 4 egg omelet with salsa, guacamole and a little bit of cheese (couldn't finish it!); coffee with cream
Lunch: buffalo burger, salad
Supper: tuna with mayo & yogurt (ran out of mayo); sauteed zukes, peppers, garlic & onion; tomatoes.
No real snacks today though I did have decaf coffee with cream this afternoon. I'm thinking at this point this is more of a habit than a caffeine need. I certainly don't feel like I need it, hence the decaf. Did drink lots of iced oatstraw & rosehip infusion.The big deal today: popped popcorn for the kidlets and *passed* it up (my weakness)!!!
Posted 7 months ago # -
Day 15...Thursday
CSA pick up day! Kristin, who runs the CSA, hadn't seen me in about 3 weeks. Her comment? Ooooooh...Deb, you've lost weight and wow, has your energy changed and you look so much younger! Gotta love Kristin! :) Am sooo totally feeling better! Just the boost I needed!Eats for today:
Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggies; raw cut-up tomato; coffee with cream
Lunch: slice o'bacon; tuna with mayo; salad w/ lettuce & tomato - wow, I had a BLT salad with tuna, haha!
Supper: salmon with green cooked in the bacon grease from lunch. Yummers!
Snack: nice fresh apple from the farm stand and a few nutsWell, this a.m. I leave for an herbal conference where last year they had pretty decent food so I'm hoping it won't end up being a "food survival" weekend. I am prepared - made jerky to take and have nuts an fruits packed as a just-in-case.
Posted 7 months ago # -
Days 16 - 18
Whew! The conference was fun, despite the fact that it rained buckets Friday and Saturday afternoon while the temperature never dropped. My tent stayed dry, though. I love you, old brown tarp! LOL!
Eating at the conference wasn't too bad at all, except for the day they served scrambled tofu for breakfast. Eeeeww! I had backup jerky and nuts, so I was all set. I did get to eat lots of salad, baked salmon, grilled chicken, turkey and scrambled eggs. I wisely passed on all the dessert - day-glo orange sherbet? No thanks!
I didn't even have to break out the summer sausage I brought. Great. Had lotsa fun & learned a ton of stuff, as usual. :)
Posted 6 months ago # -
Day 19 Monday
Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggies with cottage cheese; coffee with cream. I could not finish the eggs.
Lunch: 2 spicy sausages with sauteed peppers, cheese & sour cream. Couldn't finish the peppers!
Supper: curried beef shanks with cauliflower, orange peppers & a tad bit of canned tomatoes. Was pretty good, but the shanks were a little tough. I'd let those cook longer next time!
Snack: only afternoon coffee with cream.
Big announcement: I lost 5 pounds but also dropped a whole clothes size (from 16 down to 14)! But on only 5 pounds weight loss?! Something's definitely going on here!
Posted 6 months ago # -
Day 20 Tuesday
A wicked nice day here. I took the doggies for a walk in the evening & out walked them again. Those doggies are really outa shape! Either that, or it's gonna be a bad winter based on how much undercoat they already have. I'm hoping it's the former.Eats for today:
B'fast - 2 scrambled eggs with cottage cheese; coffee with cream
Lunch: smorgaboard of meats: spicy sausage, slice of turkey with cream chesse; salad with bacon & a handful of blueberries
Supper: red cabbage sauteed in bacon fat; steak on the grill & 2 slices of bacon from getting the fat.Am definitely burning some fat now. Hurray!
Posted 6 months ago # -
Day 21 Wednesday
The kidlets & I started the day by taking a nice, long hike at a local conservation area. We were out for about an hour - pretty good considering the little one is 5 years old! It was also interesting because this same hike is the last one I took pre-Primal so I could gauge the difference in my energy. Wow, like a complete 180! Last time I was just moseying along, this time I was zooming plus I could have done at lease one more loop. Last time I was happy to be back in the car. What a difference!
Eats for today: 3 sausages & 2 scrambled eggs
Lunch: brie, sliced leftover steak & cut-up tomatoes
Supper: Primal gyozas (from the recipe challenge - they were delish!) wrapped in lettuce leaves & a little sauteed cabbage.
Snack: a few walnuts and cotswold cheese. The yummiest snack ever!
Posted 6 months ago # -
Day 22 Thursday
walkies with dog for 40 minutes. :)
B'fast: de nada be coffee with cream. Totally wasn't hungry. Felt super-good all morning! Gotta love that!
Lunch: salad with bacon, turkey and half an avocado. It was really yummy!
Supper: ground beef sauteed with zukes, tomatoes, onions, garlic and spices. The recipes from the Fat Flush Cookbook with added fat, of course! Man, I just couldn't stick with that & now I know why!
No snackies, just afternoon coffee with cream. I bet I get something like a quarter of my calories from cream!
Posted 6 months ago # -
Day 23 Friday
Hmmm..been looking over this week and I think I have found the reason for the bad sinus problem I've developed: cheese, Grommit! Will have to pursue that once I get this gunky head cleaned up.B'fast: 2 eggs scrambled with half a spicy jalapeno sausage & some cheese; cottage cheese; coffee with cream
Lunch: Summer sausage, 4 slices, each with brie on top
Supper: bowl o'spicy meat
afternoon snack - coffee with cream. The farmers market was really boring, so I was sitting & chatting with the vendor next to me and drank 2 cups!!! Eek!
Posted 6 months ago # -
Day 24 Saturday
Felt totally crappy and really laid low all day. Started to feel better in the evening. Went to bed early & slept like a log!
no breakfast but had coffee with cream
snack: 2 sausages
lunch: leftover meat; didn't eat much
snack: apple with almond butter
supper: coconut chicken and spinachPosted 6 months ago #
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