Primal day 10: Frakking hormones :P

Sunday, September 18, 2011

At the times of my life when I've had a boyfriend, I've positively lived for lazy Sundays. Sleep in, have a big brunch, get some stuff done around the house, and maybe curl up on the couch together for a good movie. And I usually enjoy these types of lazy Sunday afternoons as a single gal, too, but sometimes - usually when my hormones are all whacky because FLO is about to stop by - spending a lazy Sunday getting things done alone SUCKS.

Today was one of those days.

I mean, I accomplished a lot. My clothes are all clean, my car is all shined up, groceries have been purchased, and I now have another bison meatloaf, a few cups of mashed cauliflower, a pot of chicken coconut curry, and a pot of broccoli cheddar soup chillin' in the fridge to get me through the week. Plus I made serious progress on my grad school apps, which is friggin' awesome! My school list is set and the essays are all drafted. Things are well underway.

But you all know how hormones can be. They can make you CRAZY. And lonely. Doesn't matter how well things are going - one second I'm folding laundry, the next I'm all over some silly song playing on the radio.

It's shaping up to be a feel-good movie and a good night's sleep sort of evening. Things always seem happier in the morning. :)

Happy Sparking, folks.

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

CATWOOMAN 9/19/2011 8:26PM

We all have our ups and downs. Women and their silly hormones. Sometimes a good cry does make you feel better. Glad you relaxed a bit and feel better. Sending you Comment edited on: 9/19/2011 8:29:25 PM Report Inappropriate Comment

GINAV2 9/19/2011 7:10AM

Hehe, I ended up watching Kung Fu Panda. And I did indeed wake up feeling better. Thanks, guys! Report Inappropriate Comment

GHK1962 9/19/2011 12:26AM

Uhh...I don't know what FLO means...but for some reason thinks I'm not sure I want to know! Sooo...leaving that alone...and instead amhoping you wake indeed feeling better. By the way, did you watch a feel good movie? Which one? Report Inappropriate Comment

GIANTMICROBE 9/18/2011 7:04PM

I had a semi-productive day as well. Made some lunches for the week so all I have to do in the morning is grab one and go. Hope you feel better soon, when I'm hormonal I cry over silly stuff as well. Report Inappropriate Comment

Primal challenge days 8 and 9: dental torture and soup

Saturday, September 17, 2011

After a week of paleo/primal/clean eating and workouts, along with going public with my plans to go back to school next year, I'm starting my weekend in a nice content state of mind. There's a chill in the air and the leaves are starting to change colors...I just love this time of year!

Today's paleo adventure started off with a fantastic run. 50 degree weather FTW! I stuck to the bike path and went low tech: no podcasts, no music, no heart rate monitor. Just me in my sneakers, listening to how my body was feeling. I ran/jogged about a mile, walked a bit, did a few reps of sprints, and then walked home. There was a brief detour to stop by the pond and watch some ducks and a swan quacking at each other, and then it was back home for bacon and butternut squash soup. Could you ask for a better September morning?



Since the weather is colder I'm on a soup kick. I already mentioned the butternut squash soup, and on the way home last night I picked up the fixin's for broccoli cheddar. It's hard to find paleo friendly commercial soup stock but I found a brand ("Kitchen Basics") that's gluten free with no preservatives but not prohibitively expensive. It'll get the job done. Soup stock my be my next culinary adventure, but in the meantime I've got broccoli, cheese, chicken stock, and a shiny new immersion blender all ready to go!

Now...on to yesterday. The good news - no cavity after all! So I just had to face the standard torture of a dental cleaning. My gums are still tender 24 hours later, and my gut flora are all out of whack because I have to premedicate before dental work, but I'm eating yogurt and I survived my return to dental care relatively unscathed.

Ok, on to the bad - my tooth pain, which had actually stopped on its own (well, until the dentist found the spot and poked at it for a while - sadistic bastard!) was not from a cavity. Apparently I'm suffering from "decalcification" all over my mouth, in a distinct pattern that pops up when people have had braces in their youth. It's kind of like the first stage of a cavity but not in a way that warrants treatment. The doc recommended Sensodyne toothpaste and a daily fluoride rinse, and sent me on my merry way.

That sounded reasonable but I was curious so I looked up decalcification last night and this was the first link that popped up:

wholehealthsource.blogspot.co
m/2009/03/reversing-tooth-decay.html

The take home point is that scientific studies done in the *1920's* proved that teeth, with cavities, are perfectly capable of healing themselves as long as you have:

1. Proper mineral intake, 'specially calcium/phosphorus
2. Plenty of fat-soluble vitamins - vitamin D in particular (most important step!)
3. Limited phytic acid, which binds up minerals and makes them unavailable, so skip the grains and beans

Basically...eat primal. Winning! I hope this means I'll be in better shape by my next cleaning, six months from now.

(Ok, angry rant time: As I was reading this I started thinking about how WRONG the government recommendations are, and how much solid science is completely ignored so that big businesses can keep us fat and unhealthy so that they can milk us as cash cows, and it just made me SO ANGRY!!! I've always been fairly apolitical but with everything I've learned about nutrition, health, and politics in the USA these past couple of months I'm hopping mad and ready to take to the streets! From the processed food and sickened meat in our grocery stores to the pill-pushing medical industry OF COURSE we have an obesity epidemic! Gah! /rant)

Aaaaand now I feel like some sort of crazy hippy-dippy conspiracy theorist. (Is it still paranoia if they really are out to take your money?)

Angry rant aside, this little n=1 primal experiment seems to be delivering serious results even just one week in. I'm down two pounds after this week of bacon, eggs, vegetables, fruits, meatloaf, steak. butter, coconut oil...and I haven't changed my calorie intake or boosted my workout routine at all. I can't wait to see what results the next week brings!

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

CATWOOMAN 9/18/2011 7:02PM

Interesting about the 1920 scientific evidence on how our teeth will heal themselves....it is all about the almighty dollar! Funny how it is kinda trendy to be going all natural; like with cleaning products, eating organic and such .... we are just doing what people did before the event of mass advertising. I'm with you with the ranting ... wow, you are doing great on your eating, with the 2 lb. loss. Have a great week! Report Inappropriate Comment

GHK1962 9/18/2011 1:52AM

Sounds like it was a super run day this morning...simple...and nice. As for the ranting...you're not alone. By the way, I especially liked that bit about asking if it really is paranoia. Heh...you're right I think...it's not paranoia...esp if you KNOW they are watching. Report Inappropriate Comment

Primal day 7: staying the course

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Not much of interest to blog about today, since everything I ate was leftovers (well, not the bacon, eggs, and spinach this morning, but bacon and eggs are hardly breaking news. Very nom nom nom-y, though!) I had a nice long walk to the train station this morning, saw an obnoxiously cute squirrel sitting on a picnic table eating an acorn. Winter must be coming soon! Pretty typical day. :)

I spent the evening cooking good hearty foods for the next few days. Butternut squash soup, spaghetti squash with meat sauce, baked sweet potato, and a salmon fillet. There is much work to be done on the grad school application front this weekend and I don't want to lose hours in the kitchen! Well, maybe a little time...I do still want to make shepherd's pie.... Anyway we've got the first taste of coldish weather rolling in this weekend and it's the perfect time to bust out some autumn friendly recipes. Mmm, autumn. The best season of the year!

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

GHK1962 9/15/2011 11:40PM

Fall is a great time of year. Sounds like you had a day that we need once in a bit. Normal...yet good :) By the way...I got ingredients for that pulled pork sandwich...gonna try it this weekend. Report Inappropriate Comment

Primal day 6: the good, the bad, and the oh-thank-god-i-finally-got-that-over-with

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

First, The Good: my slow cooked pulled pork made with an on-the-fly no-recipe dry rub. The rub was about 1/2 unsweetened cocoa powder, 1/2 homemade "seasoning mix" that contained varying amounts of cumin, paprika, black pepper, salt, cinnamon, ground ancho chilis, and ground cayenne pepper. Basically whatever I had in my spice rack that sounded good. I ended up with about a tablespoon of dry rub and used it all on my pound of pork shoulder, wrapped the whole thing up tight in foil, and threw it in the toaster oven at 250F for about four hours. It came out mouthwateringly tender and surprisingly sweet, considering there was zero sugar in the dish. I threw it over a biiiiig bowl of baby lettuce with some cheddar cheese and salsa for lunch. Delicious!

On to The Bad: I think I have a cavity. I've been extremely negligent about going to the dentist, even though I now have dental insurance, and I fear all those years of ice cream and cookies have taken their toll. My molar is NOT happy about being poked, even by the soft bristles of my toothbrush. On a positive note...at least I'm finally getting to a dentist now? AND, as if that wasn't punishment enough, my french press broke in the sink last night! So I went out for a latte this morning, which made my tummy all rumbly. And then I had more teeth brushing to look forward to. Blergh.

And now for the Oh Thank God (yadda yadda yadda): I finally told my boss that I'm applying to go back to school! I've been trying to find a good time to bring it up for months now and her not knowing was starting to get ridiculous, since I needed to ask for a recommendation, but I finally found my moment today. It feels SO GOOD to have that off my chest and out in the open. Plus she was totally supportive and said she thinks it's a really good idea for me to go back, though she didn't want to encourage it because she likes having me work for her. I lol'd. The news did work its way through the rumor mill awfully quickly, though. But I think even that is for the best. I never regret being honest. :)

Oh, and one more bit of good...it wasn't my official "weekly weigh in" but I hopped on the scale after work, just out of curiosity, and I was all the way down to 138! Whoop whoop, primal is AWESOME! Rawr.

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

GHK1962 9/15/2011 10:27PM

Ms Wright is a kopy kat. Just saying. Heh. Report Inappropriate Comment

KWRIGHT26 9/15/2011 9:46AM

Oh my goodness... I want to eat this stuff too! Report Inappropriate Comment

GHK1962 9/15/2011 12:30AM

A few things.... 1) That pulled pork description. OH MY GOD...do NOT do that again...now I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooo hungry. That sounds freakin super awesome. And...putting it on a bed of lettuce....GENIUS. I am so going to try this. 2) Dentist. I am sorely debating sending you this link...but will anyway. Please do NOT not go. It is important for your dental health. I just include it as a funny story. http://www.sparkpeopl e.com/mypage_public_journal_ind ividual.asp?blog_id=4142016 3) Yup...high 5!!! You will do well...I can tell :) Bonus) Nice on the scale thingy...your goal wt is not just withing sight...it's within arm length reach! Report Inappropriate Comment

CHAOSTHEORY635 9/15/2011 12:19AM

kick ass!!! are you getting a rec letter from your boss? Report Inappropriate Comment

Primal day 5: meat CSA

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

I got some great news today! The small farm/ranch that I've been buying my meat from at the farmer's market each week had an opening for their meat CSA from December - June and I got in off of the wait list! Yay! I thought I was going to have to drive for many miles to find high quality chemical free, pastured, grass finished meat and free range chickens when the farmer's markets packed up for the season, but instead I'll just have to walk across the street and pick up my cooler full of frozen healthy deliciousness! I will need to stock up to get through October and November but my freezer has plenty of space now that I'm not stockpiling Lean Cuisines and frozen ravioli. :)

For those of you who haven't encountered a CSA (I only just learned of them last year myself), it stands for "community supported agriculture." You usually run across them as a farm crop investment. You buy in at the start of the growing season, the farmer uses the money to get his fields planted, and then every month you go and pick up your share of veggies and fruits. It's a good way to support local small farmers and make yourself eat lots of fresh, seasonal produce. The downside is that you have to plunk down a large sum of money up front (usually in the hundreds of dollars), and if you don't have a large family you end up with WAY more produce than you can possibly consume! I have colleagues that split a farm share between two or three families, which is a great option if you can convince friends to go in on a share with you.

A meat CSA is exactly what you would expect it to be - you buy in for a certain amount of meat and then show up for your share every month. The only difference is that you can make smaller payments every month rather than paying up all at once, since the animals need to be fed year round, unlike fields of crops. :) Just like a produce CSA you don't get to pick what goes into your share but it's guaranteed to cover a range of cuts (e.g. steak/ bacon/ ground beef) and some variety of animals (beef/pork/lamb/chicken), depending on who took a turn to the slaughterhouse that month.

The farm also has open house days each season so you can "meet your meat." Six months ago I would have been completely horrified at the thought but since I started the paleo thang I've developed a much healthier relationship to my food! I'm glad to know that the meat I'm eating was once a cow that had a stress-free life with plenty of grass and sunshine, or that my chicken got to nest in a converted school bus while spending its days pecking and scratching around a farm yard.

Healthy animals make healthy meat which make for healthy people! So I've never been so happy to get in off a wait list before, and this has been one hell of a good primal-experiment day.

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

KWRIGHT26 9/15/2011 9:44AM

Also slightly jealous. I think I'll search for some CSAs right now. Report Inappropriate Comment

CATWOOMAN 9/14/2011 12:09AM

Lucky girl. When I lived in England for a time we were able to go to the local "farm" shop and get meat and veggies that were wonderful. We grow some of our own veggies ... Enjoy! Report Inappropriate Comment

CHAOSTHEORY635 9/13/2011 10:34PM

AHHHH JEALOUS!!! I'm totally going to look into this and see if there's anything like it in my area! Report Inappropriate Comment