Day #80 of Paleo Change

So work and life in general has been busy this week.  I'm not getting to update this blog as much as I would like to.  But, having said that it's day #80 and I am still feeling great and seeing results.  I stepped on the scale this morning to see that I am down almost 33lbs since the start of this journey.  But it's not just the number on the scale that shows my progress.  I am in smaller clothes, I haven't bought any yet I'm just wearing old small clothes because I will not invest any money in clothes until I lose 50lbs and keep it off for a while. :)

I'm also still doing Bulletproof.  I didn't do it over last weekend and partook in some cake and other crappy food on Saturday and was up almost 2lbs by Monday.  It took me all week to lose that plus a little over another pound.  I need to stop sabotaging myself but I'm not blind to knowing that I still have a problem with food.  I could very easily slip back to old me if I wasn't vigilant about wanting to stay on track....even with the symptoms that comes with me eating poorly.  This is something I will probably struggle with and work on for the rest of my life I'm sure.  I know that eating this way is better for me but I also still crave and want to eat shit food.

So some observations were made this week.

1. I can now drink my iced tea sugar free most days.  This was the shocker for me because I have never liked the taste of plain tea.
2. Bulletproof coffee works not just for helping me lose weight but also helps keep me regular.  I didn't drink it over the weekend and had digestion issues until around Wednesday.  But after that I became regular...I did this without taking my magnesium citrate supplements this week.
3. I really really really love squash... like I could eat it raw love.
4. Once I start eating while on Bulletproof I can't just eat something small and expect I'll be OK.  I have to eat something substantial or I crash......very hard.  This happened yesterday.  I ate lunch a little early b/c of happenings at work my lunch was a very small salad with some shrimp on it (like 3) by 4:30pm I was so hungry I was shakey.  I went home and made dinner quick and was alright once I started eating.  But lesson learned, doing bulletproof I cannot skimp on my intake.

That's it for now, the bottom line is I still feel amazing compared to the old "slug" me that would never do stuff thru the week because it required too much energy ;)

Bulletproof Day #4

This is the first day where I'm actually a little hungry.  So I'm not sure if I'll make it till 2pm before I eat.  And I am totally craving a huge steak dripping in Kerrygold butter.

So yesterday was day #3 and up until around 10pm it was pretty decent.  It was very hot here yesterday heat index over 100 and we worked in the yard.  I sweated alot, didn't drink enough water and thus a head ache ensued.  This head ache progressed into a full blown migraine over several hours and by midnight I was in terrible pain.  I took some medicine and that didn't help, so I started drinking water.... lots of it.  After about an hour my stomach stared churning and I needed to....poop.  This was great because it had been 5 days since my last BM.  I went and my pain started subsiding.  Still there just not as bad.  I drank some more water and tried to go to sleep which I finally did.

I can only attribute my migraine to two things.  Dehydration and constipation.  Today I am drinking more water, lots more.  I was down another pound this morning so that was great but I'm not sure where I am yet on how I feel about this Bulletproof IF thing yet. I promised to give it a week so I have a few more days to go.

Tonight I made... Spaghetti

No really it was paleo sketti!

I started with some onions and orange bell pepper, kerrygold, garlic, S&P
Then I browned some burger and added some of my secret Italian spices (like basil, oregano, more garlic).  Once browned I added the peppers and onions back and some tomato sauce and season to your liking.

 Next I made my "noodles".  Which meant I cleaned and sliced some zucchinis with a veggie peeler.

When sauce is about ready boil your water and of course add a little EVOO to keep it from sticking and boil your noodles for just a minute or two.  Too long and you'll get mush, not long enough and they might be chewy.  This is totally up to your liking. 

 When that's all done you get this wonderful concoction that feels like you're eating pasta only without the gluten.  So yummy!  And this was totally on a whim, I made the rest of the family normal noodles and enjoyed my sauce my paleo way.

Bulletproof Day #2

Bulletproof Day 2


I got up early b/c my mind wouldn't stop racing.  A problem I worked on all day wouldn't leave my mind and I had somethings I just had to try today so I got to work almost an hour earlier than my usual time.

Weighed myself, was happy with result. I had gained some weight from the "gluten free" pasta at Olive Garden on Father's Day.  That weight plus more was gone or roughly 3lbs.

I made my coffee.  I used less Stevia today than yesterday because I found that I liked the taste less sweet.

I drank it slowly even though I wasn't really hungry.

I'm hyper as all holy bawls.  Not jittery just hyper.

I spilled tea on the table in the break room because I was talking with my hands like an Italian and apparently very hyper and excited about my garden at home.

Did I mention I'm hyper?
/twitch
/twitch

No hunger, I feel full, sated, and like I could run a million miles.  Time will tell how long this lasts....Leah still thinks I'm psychosomatic :p

Day 69: trying something crazy...

It's almost impossible to read about paleo/primal/caveman eating without encountering some mentions of IF (Intermittent Fasting).  The idea is pretty much exactly as it sounds.  You eat intermittently.  The funny thing is in the past few weeks I was doing this accidentally.  I noticed that I wasn't eating at regular intervals because I just wasn't hungry.  Now please note, I am not exercising therefore I do not need fuel like someone who is.  I am consuming the necessary calories and fuel for someone who is just doing normal daily activities.  Anyway, I would occasionally skip breakfast or lunch and wouldn't even realize it as I wasn't hungry.  Or sometimes I would breakfast and lunch but not dinner.

Then I started reading more about IF and how IF doesn't necessarily work for women the same way it does for men.  In fact, normal IF is actually kind of bad for women.  But, I've also heard that in some cases it does work for women.  That's where "Bulletproof Coffee" comes in.  So, here I am sitting in kind of a plateau, already IF'ing, and I think.... "WTH let's try it."

This will be updated throughout the day as I see how going bulletproof feels.

Last night on a trip to the store Leah and I perused the store aisles until we found single estate, wet processed coffee.  I actually found one. SCORE!  I knew we didn't have MCT oil but I thought I'd try virgin coconut oil since the stuff I had at home was pretty hard and processed and we already had Kerrygold grassfed butter.

7:20am:
I start making my coffee.  I didn't think to snap pictures, I will do that tomorrow.  The consistency is that of a latte at least at first glance.  It is creamy and I found it delicious but remember I'm a fat lover now.  The coconut oil made it taste exotic, I did sweeten it with some stevia.  I let Leah try it and she immediately turned up her nose and said it was "slimey".  But, she said it was something she might try.

8:45am:
I am done with the coffee and wishing I had more because I thought it was yummy. :(  So far, I do not feel any differently.  In spite of the fact I am not a normal morning coffee drinker I do not feel jittery or like I'm having a rush.  I am not hungry either.  I will update if anything changes.

9:52am:
I'm feeling a little hyper and focused but still full and not hungry at all.

11:57am:
Still not hungry, feeling pretty good.  I've gotten a good bit of work done :)

2:00-4:09 pm:
I was so frigging busy today I never got hungry once and what's worse is I never moved from my desk all day until close to quitting time because I was so focused on fixing a problem I never realized it.


4:10pm:
I started crashing, by that  I mean I was tired and hungry.  VERY hungry.


5:30ish pm:
I finally got dinner in me.  I immediately felt better and had a surge of energy.  I played with the dogs outside and walked them.


8:30pm:
I'm getting tired, sleepy even.  So I predict an early bed time.  And thus concludes day1 of Bulletproof.

Still chugging along

Like the little engine that could I am still going.  I'm still eating paleo and still feeling good.  I find that I sometimes cheat but I won't revert to old ways.  For me cheating is eating a coconut bar or eating honey sweetened paleo ice cream.  The appeal of processed junk food is completely gone from me.  I can't bring myself to eat it.  So if I'm going to cheat it's going to be something homemade.  I still have added sugar in my tea...although I don't use alot I still cannot drink iced tea unsweet.  /gag

My garden!

Bacon!!

But enough about that.... see that awesome picture of greens, onions, and bacon?  Yep that would be lettuce and onions from my garden killed/wilted with bacon grease.  And it is about as paleo as one can get.  But aside from that it is yummy!  This is a dish my mom used to make for us in the summers and man did it invoke memories of childhood this week when I ate it.  It also helped that this actually came from our garden that we've been diligently growing.

This past weekend I also made roast chicken. It had been a while and I stopped making it because it seemed like it was going to waste.  This one was extra yummy though as we used herbs from our herb garden to spice it up.  And I was able to capture most of the juice for stock.

mmmm grease

 Once we ate all this yummy chicken I decided to make a massive pot of leftover stew.  This became dinner last night and because my mom does still enjoy noodles and corn I added it to the stew.  I just ate around it because I know that stuff will kill me :)

These are some great examples of frugal paleo eating. I've taken to buying on sale meat in large quantities.  While I would love to eat pastured/grass fed meat it's just not possible to do that on our budget.  So we are trying to shop wisely and hopefully before too much longer we will be harvesting even more veggies from the garden.  One of the largest complaints about paleo is that it is expensive.  I'm telling you it can be done you just have to really plan and work at it and it truly becomes easier as you get more practice.  Yes, it is cheaper to go buy a McDouble for a $1 but that $1 meal is going to make you feel like shit and for a few couple dollars more you could each something that is nutrient dense that will stick with you longer and make you feel much better.

So before I close out I will say that my weight has been flip-flopping this week.  I was down to 28lbs but I'm back up 1.2lbs today.  I'm fairly sure I know why that is; it's not what I've been eating but what I haven't been doing.  I didn't take my magnesium over the weekend (tsk tsk) so once I get that back in me and regular I'll back down again.  I don't want this part of my blog to put others from trying paleo...please understand I've had digestion issues since I had my gall bladder out in my early 20s.  Most people on paleo do not suffer this ailment ;)

Links! Links! Paleo links!

I just compiled this list to give to a co-worker so I thought I would use it as an excuse to make a blog post.  YAY!

http://nomnompaleo.com
http://paleomg.com/
http://www.elanaspantry.com/
http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/
http://www.chowstalker.com/
http://www.katiekdid.com/

Now that is out of the way.  Guess what?  I am almost 27 pounds lighter today than I was 58 days ago.  Yep that's right I'm almost two months into this paleo thing and I'm still losing, still happy, still sleeping well, and still not really having to exercise to lose weight.  Crazy huh?  Don't get me wrong with my added energy I'm doing more outside things than I used to but I am in no way abusing my body to lose weight.  I'm just eating correctly and enjoying life.

It's hard to not get excited about this and shout it from every roof top but I am learning to reign it in a little bit.  I don't want to be that person that is critical of what my friends or family eat.  It's especially hard with my family because I love them so much that when I see them eat that bread with their meal knowing the body's response I  just want to yell at them.  But, I figure the best possible way to influence those around me that I care most about is to do it by example....so that's my new approach.  It's harder than I'd like it to be but at least I'm working on it!

And with that said I do want to make a disclaimer... if it's not obvious to you I am not a doctor, a nutritionist, a certified anything except Leah might say I'm a certified pain in her ass :)  So anything I say here, any answers to questions are all my opinion.  As with anything you read on the Internet you should verify it with a trusted source.

Happy Summer Paleos!  Bring on the sun :)

I was soooo hungry last night for good paleo food

So I looked in the fridge and saw:

Fresh pastured eggs
Heavy cream
Cheese
Spinach
Zucchini
Onions
Bacon
Jalapeño

I totally made something yummy! That became today's breakfast and will be lunch too. Being paleo is awesome :)

Except so much beer over the weekend caught up to me. I'm up 2.2 from my drinking binge but I should drop that pretty quick this week :)