Thursday, January 19, 2012

Day ... Eleven...



I hope this is still a Carb Flu cycle, because I might be dying otherwise. Ha!


Today is the first day (since we started Going Primal) that I've really felt like I could just sleep all day. I don't feel all happy and over the moon, ready to run a marathon, or like I'm a whole new person. Yet, anyway. 


I have had a few people ask how much weight Tom and I have lost. I haven't really weighed yet. I'm waiting until Monday, which will be a full two weeks since we began Going Primal. Why? For the past five years, despite doing everything right, I haven't been able to lose weight. I would run to the scale every other day, and never see any change. So I'm not going to torture myself this time around. BUT, I can tell you that my jeans are fitting much better!


I think Tom has lost about 5 pounds as of two days ago. Not bad considering we haven't really had time to add in the exercise routine. He seems to be more accepting of the "diet" today. Could be because I made him some delicious butternut squash soup for dinner, and he quiet possibly forgot he was eating diet food. hehe


The kids are starting to get used to the type of food they're eating now. They have stopped asking "how many more days of this?"  Last night I asked them "has your stomach been hurting as much as it used to?" They all said "Nooo." Then we talked about their individual problems starting to decrease... I think they are finally understanding why we're eating "the new way" now. Whew.


So today the kids lunch boxes:


                       Breakfast: Sliced apples and Sunbutter
                       Lunch:      Ham, rolled up with either cheddar or feta cheese and strawberries
                       Snack:       Dried bing cherries and nuts


Seemed to be a hit! Except poor Regina says I forgot to give her any ham. I don't think so, I think she dropped it somewhere. I remember counting out three Ziplock bags of ham and putting them into lunch boxes. Anyway... she was starving. Good thing I hate a fruit plate mixed with fruit dip (whole fat Greek yogurt with vanilla and raw honey) and nuts waiting at home!


Dinner was a Butternut Squash soup (butter, onions, squash, chicken stock, nutmeg, salt, pepper) and leftover ham. I'm told they ate it all. Score!


I went out for the night. I went to my favorite Mexican restaurant and ordered chicken fajitas. I asked for no rice, beans, and no tortillas. They brought out a quesadilla fajita... chicken, peppers, and onions and cheese inside a tortilla fried in butter. I was drooling!


I. wanted. a. fried. in. butter. quesadilla!  So I sat there looking at this plate of awesomeness and I thought "well, I could just eat one bite of the tortilla and just really enjoy it. Well... no, I shouldn't. Really, nobody would know. Except me. Argh. I hate myself.  Hmm... Okay I could take a bite, but then ... since I don't lie... I'd have to tell the blog-world. I don't want to tell the blog-world! Oh fine, I'll just suffer while I eat everything off the beautifully fried-in-butter bread." And as I was battling with myself over this one bite of bread, the waiter comes over and says "Uhm, you alright, and everything?"  I felt like I was caught red-handed doing something very bad and quietly said "Yeah... I just can't eat the tortilla."  And I received a "you are one crazy person" look.  


So there you have it, blog world, you're keeping us honest over here in the Woods household! I both love you and hate you. 

;)







10 comments:

  1. Love it! I've had those conversations with myself a few times. So far, I have always won ;)

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  2. It gets easier! I've been primal (more marksdailyapple.com than Paleo) for about 4 months, not to lose weight, but more for health reasons. The food is so much better than eating the carbs of old. I now consider pasta, bread, cereals, white potatoes etc some of the dullest foods there are and i'm a pretty good cook. Also re the tortilla, just eat it (!). As Mark Sissons says you're not there to torture yourself or you'll fail because it's then some impossible mission rather than a lifestyle choice. Aim for 100% and you'll hit 80%. You'll probably find in 6 months that you'll eat the flour tortilla and your taste buds feel badly let down. Oh and for anyone interested in changing i'm a type 1 diabetic (20 year veteran) and the primal lifestyle has, from a blood glucose/health perspective, made more of a difference than any health 'professionals' advice has ever managed. Go look at ADA's (american diabetic association) food pyramid and in a sane world the ADA would be banned for negligence. There food pyramid is the equivalent of advising a recovering lung cancer patient to make sure they have a good smoke everyday..

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    1. Thanks for your comment! The family and I intend to do the 80/20, but *after* the initial three week challenge. LOL, to your food pyramid comment. Keep up the good work!

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  3. That butternut squash soup sounds really yummy. We will try it. Our kids are totally rejecting this way of eating. Hubby is fine with it on the surface, but seems a little grumpy about dinner. I haven't gotten on a scale (refuse to own one), but I can tell a difference and love it. This is a much more flavorful way of eating, if you ask me. It just takes cutting veggies all the time, which I like to do...I mean, after a day of homeschooling, who doesn't want to chop the heads off of spinach, etc??

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  4. Heather, don't get discouraged (hang in there!). It will get better. You're already getting to the half way mark of your challenge. I definitely challenge you to go beyond this, too. You don't have anything to loose, but oh so much to gain. I starting the primal lifestyle back in September and have lost a sizable chuck of weight since then (40+lbs), with much more still to go to get back to my teenager weight. Some things I notice is that my weight-loss comes to a halt when I eat foods high in carbs or starches (like when I cheat and eat lots of french fries). On the other hand, what makes me feel best is when I eat a lot of vegetables, but not just any vegetables, I'm talking about the dark-green, super nutrient dense ones. I recommend eating these kinds of veggies as the bulk of your food for a few days and seeing how you feel after that. The easiest way I've found to do this is in the pre-mixed salad greens from the grocery stores. Look for the ones that aren't made with iceburg or romaine lettuce, but instead sport a colorful mixture of chards, kales, radish greens, and alternative types of lettuce. The plastic tubs of these mixtures are only around $5 and I get over 5 meals out of them, and they're organic! I add lots of other veggies (like radishes) to the salad and meats/avocado to get some fat content and make it more of a "fulfilling" meal. To see a picture of my salad go to my blog at http://www.jaredcamarata.com/2011/12/weekend-experiment-growing-my-own-salad.html
    I wish yall the best in this endeavor and I think it is fantastic your family is undertaking this. It will feel good to have control of your health back in your hands. I'd glad that you're not being super strict with your girls about the eating choices (I.E. letting them have a little grain here and there). The way I see it, kids are completely different than adults and because they tend to burn so much more energy than we do, they probably don't suffer the same kind of high-insulin spike side effects that we do. Granted the really bad types of carbs that contain anti-nutrients are probably best to completely skip over.

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  5. Hi Heather,

    I've run into your husband online on several occasions (we've both written about the Latin Mass in Crisis Magazine) and I'm friends with him on Facebook.

    I saw him post about the Primal Blueprint, and your blog, about a week ago, and I decided to look into it. My wife bought the book the same day, and we started last Sunday, so we're on day 5.

    It's an interesting transition. I've noticed that I'm going through a number of the same things you are - higher taste sensitivity, energy and good feelings on some days/parts of the day and crash and burn fatigue during others, and of course the struggle with "Do I really want to give up these foods I love forever?" To make matters worse, my kids don't have any food allergies and are far more resistant to the changes than your kids are. Yesterday, I came home to the smell of my daughter's world-class chocolate chip cookies baking. I thought I was going to give up then and there.

    I've only lost about a pound so far, but I definitely notice other, harder-to-describe changes in the way I feel. I'm going to be very interested to see how things progress. I really enjoy eating a meal and not being hungry for hours after that. Or not feeling like I need to eat dinner, if I can get by with some cheese and handful or two of nuts.

    I'll be continuing to follow what you write here with interest. I'm thankful that your family went first, and inspired us to give this a try.

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  6. Is caffeine from tea or coffee off of the Primal food list? A lot of you headaches and muscular pains sound like caffeine withdrawal to me. When I would stop drinking caffeinated stuff, first, I would feel it in my calves. Then it would go from one muscle to another over a week or ten day period. Now, when I stop, it hits the top of my head first. A lot of aches - sore muscles - like I had been doing real work for days.

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  7. Your kids need more food. AND breakfast needs to start with a significant chunk of protein. Cut the fruit. It is really really carb heavy, and switch to greener veggies and more complex carbs. Really... one sweet thing like fruit a day.

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  8. Just stumbled across this blog, so I'm looking forward to seeing you and your husband's progress with the diet. I too am Primal, and eating this way does get easier overtime. I lucked out and never really experienced the carb flu which is so popular with us Groks, but I hope yours ends soon! Don't give up, because it does get better the longer you live like this. The things which are most rewarding in life are often those which we have to fight hardest for.

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  9. Maybe you already know about this, but if you are going to eat dried cherries, you just have to try The Cherry Republic's cherries. They are so, so, so good. I buy 5 lbs every Christmas. If I decided to go primal, I may indulge a little more often.

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