Wow, I've been gone for a while! Well, here's an update and an interesting twist on everything diet and exercise.
I bought this Groupon for a place called The ALIVE Academy. It was just for a VSI Biofeedback scan. Six months ago, I went off birth control because it didn't jive with my Primal-ness and I thought maybe it would help with my general apathy and seemingly mild depression. Well, the end of January rolled around and I haven't had a cycle at all, in any capacity, since then.
My husband told me he really wanted me to go to the doctor. My mom told me she really wanted me to go to the doctor. My friend up here told me she wanted me to go to the doctor. I figured I would take this weird bioscan and see what happened.
It came back with unresponsive ovaries, an unresponsive thyroid, an unresponsive hypothalamus, an unresponsive small intestine, and a stressed heart. They asked me how often I poop. Yep. My answer was not good enough. So I got myself to the doctor.
She is testing my hormones, my pituitary, and my thyroid for dysfunction because apparently my moodiness, dry skin, constipation, and lack of cycle are all symptoms of a thyroid condition, but my thyroid symptoms could be a symptom of a pituitary condition. She's not going to give me the jump-start progesterone until she knows that it's NOT a symptom of a greater underlying hormone problem.
Well, then!
When I talked to my mom, she said that her doctors have suspected her of a thyroid condition for 15 years now, but the tests always come back negative. The counselor at the ALIVE Academy says that they often only test for one hormone or enzyme, but just because that comes back okay doesn't mean your thyroid isn't in trouble. There's a more complete blood test that should be covered by insurance and can be mailed away for that will test all four areas of thyroid function. So if my thyroid test doesn't come back with anything, I'll ask for the more complete test.
But clearly there is something amiss, regardless of whether she jump-starts my cycle with a week of progesterone.
The ALIVE Academy thinks that I caught the problem early enough that a good, healing diet and stress management should help everything. So, in a week, I'm going to start a diet that fits in with everything I've ever believed in, but takes it to a whole new level.
I'm going to begin a bone broth fast. The first concern of theirs is my irregularity. So first I'm going to drink nothing but bone broth for three days to clean out my system and get rid of all the bacteria in my gut, and then for three days I'm going to add fermented whey to repopulate my gut with a whole host of good bacteria.
I will also have to switch my skin and hair care to completely natural stuff without any endocrine disruptors. So far, my go-to has been coconut oil and a good scrub. Actually, while I had tried it before with horrendous results that I now know are due to the extreme amounts of dairy I was eating, this time around my skin seems to be liking it. My forehead especially is getting to be really clear and smooth; my chin is breaking out due to hormonal imbalances, but the coconut oil is really soothing and soaks right in. Weird. Crazy. Whatever.
I also dyed my hair with henna for the first time today, and I got lucky and picked something really close to my current hair color. It's just a little bit deeper. I was actually hoping for a slightly funkier, redder-red, but I ended up with... natural. Nice, natural, light auburn. Just like the container said. Well, I guess henna isn't nearly as scary as I expected. But goodness gracious it stinks! Better than chemicals, but I might take a tip next time and add some ginger shavings or tea or something to make it smell more pleasant. Blech!
In the meantime, I am forbidden from grains, dairy, and soy. That's not hard, given my current diet.
And honestly, the weird thing is that I'm still digging the raw meat. I got a rude awakening with Blizzard Nemo this weekend -- 36 hours without power -- and so all I ate was previously frozen fish. With a little salt, it was amazingly delicious and everything my body wanted! Then, when I finally got power back on, I ate some sauteed bean sprouts and a baked sweet potato with my dinner and was like, eh. Could have just eaten more raw fish. Weird.
So that's that. I'm kinda looking forward to the all-bone-broth diet, aside from the hunger part. I had been drinking more because I heard so much about the health benefits, especially for women with hormonal problems, but I never expected anyone to suggest something so drastic. But I guess if you're drastically ill, you need some drastic healing, and since I wonder how much modern medicine's pill contributed to these problems, I also wonder if modern medicine has everything it takes to heal. I think a blend is in order.
Expect me to keep updating here on my progress. Goodness knows, this will be interesting to say the least!
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
A Few Snafus
I caved in and had a little bit of steamed spinach and turnip with my raw grass-fed beef, and I can't tell you the last time steamed spinach tasted so damn good!
Here's how my plan has morphed:
I am still super-low-carb. I can eat leafy greens and after particularly hard workouts, I can throw in a starchy tuber. My starchy tubers for now will be ones without fructose, i.e., potatoes, turnips, etc.
Today, I ended up fasting for basically the whole day, and as long as I kept myself busy, I was fine. Sometimes I still use food as a way to alleviate boredom, and that's no good! Food should be fuel.
Yesterday, I discovered "Beyond Survival with Les Stroud" and got hooked into watching all 9 episodes. It was fascinating! They were essentially what is left of hunger-gatherer societies, and I think I learned a TON about being Primal. Many of the groups only ate one meal a day, maybe grazing a bit as they hunted and gathered. The hunters gathered as they hunted, and even the gatherers came up with protein. All portions were very small, and everyone walked a lot. This site has the right idea promoting lots of slow movement, but I think for the sake of making the diet and exercise approachable, Mark underplays just how much walking they did and how small their portions were. In one episode, Les goes hunting, and while the hunt was unsuccessful, they managed to find one grub, some shrimp, a few small fish, and gather a few mushrooms and a heart of palm, and that was all they ate for that day. In another episode, the hunt is successful because they catch two large porcupines, and those two are going to be meat for the whole village that night. When they go collect honey, they only collect it 1-3 times per year, eat it all right there, and that's that. Everything else is tubers, mushrooms, the very occasional fruit, and mostly gathered seafood and small game. Interesting.
Granted, that might be the real world, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's optimal. Still, food for thought! So I used that as inspiration when I wrapped my one turnip in aluminum foil and surrounded it with frozen spinach, so when it baked the whole thing would steam, perhaps as the roots would as they were cooked in palm leaves over flames. A little salt, some raw beef, and it was pretty delicious.
Exercise today was yoga. I had one of the best yoga workouts I had in a while. Now, it's time to get some Primal-style SLEEP!
Here's how my plan has morphed:
I am still super-low-carb. I can eat leafy greens and after particularly hard workouts, I can throw in a starchy tuber. My starchy tubers for now will be ones without fructose, i.e., potatoes, turnips, etc.
Today, I ended up fasting for basically the whole day, and as long as I kept myself busy, I was fine. Sometimes I still use food as a way to alleviate boredom, and that's no good! Food should be fuel.
Yesterday, I discovered "Beyond Survival with Les Stroud" and got hooked into watching all 9 episodes. It was fascinating! They were essentially what is left of hunger-gatherer societies, and I think I learned a TON about being Primal. Many of the groups only ate one meal a day, maybe grazing a bit as they hunted and gathered. The hunters gathered as they hunted, and even the gatherers came up with protein. All portions were very small, and everyone walked a lot. This site has the right idea promoting lots of slow movement, but I think for the sake of making the diet and exercise approachable, Mark underplays just how much walking they did and how small their portions were. In one episode, Les goes hunting, and while the hunt was unsuccessful, they managed to find one grub, some shrimp, a few small fish, and gather a few mushrooms and a heart of palm, and that was all they ate for that day. In another episode, the hunt is successful because they catch two large porcupines, and those two are going to be meat for the whole village that night. When they go collect honey, they only collect it 1-3 times per year, eat it all right there, and that's that. Everything else is tubers, mushrooms, the very occasional fruit, and mostly gathered seafood and small game. Interesting.
Granted, that might be the real world, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's optimal. Still, food for thought! So I used that as inspiration when I wrapped my one turnip in aluminum foil and surrounded it with frozen spinach, so when it baked the whole thing would steam, perhaps as the roots would as they were cooked in palm leaves over flames. A little salt, some raw beef, and it was pretty delicious.
Exercise today was yoga. I had one of the best yoga workouts I had in a while. Now, it's time to get some Primal-style SLEEP!
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Eating Super-Simply
Yesterday was my first attempt at my elimination diet. I ate raw ground lamb for breakfast seasoned with sea salt. It was...
AMAZING!
Holy cow my taste buds were doing the happy dance. My body was doing the happy dance. I don't know what was going on, but it was so delicious it was scary. I had duck aspic for lunch, so something cooked, and then I had salted raw venison for dinner. Again, delicious! Something about it feels so nutritious, and even elegant. It's not sashimi, but it's along those lines. Wow, was it amazing!
I even had an amazing, motivated Primal workout at my "gym." I went to the Adventure Race training, which I do every other week, and I think the trainer was reading my mind. We did a circuit where each activity consisted of 30 seconds of work and then 15 seconds of rest to move to the next station. We did USA climbs, jump lunges, pushups, tire jumps, knee-ups on the rock rings, balance beam, and mountain climbers. After two circuits, we rested for about 5 minutes and then did the "finisher," a burpee pyramid with 30 seconds of POSE running drill in between each set of burpees. I was high on life after that, so i went home and ate some turkey and giblet gravy (yeah, again cooked). And I drank some turkey broth because I knew today was going to be a long day.
So then today I had lamb for breakfast, and while I had set aside the last of the turkey for lunch, when it came time, I really wanted more lamb. I had a long evening in front of me, and it was going to involve a fast, and for some reason I felt like I would be better fueled with raw lamb than with cooked turkey. Maybe I was right, because I made it through the evening effortlessly. I started doing some modeling on the side, and today I had my first paid shoot! The whole thing took four hours, plus the 45-minute commute to the studio. Still, I had a blast, I was full of energy, and I had a great time!
My skin is starting to look calmer. Part of that is because I'm now a week removed from the holiday debauchery. It'll be about two weeks before I'm completely reset from the holidays, and from there we'll see how super-low-carb does for fixing my skin. Still, aside from the sheer expense, this is very do-able and delicious. I just need to figure out what fat source works best for extra calories.
AMAZING!
Holy cow my taste buds were doing the happy dance. My body was doing the happy dance. I don't know what was going on, but it was so delicious it was scary. I had duck aspic for lunch, so something cooked, and then I had salted raw venison for dinner. Again, delicious! Something about it feels so nutritious, and even elegant. It's not sashimi, but it's along those lines. Wow, was it amazing!
I even had an amazing, motivated Primal workout at my "gym." I went to the Adventure Race training, which I do every other week, and I think the trainer was reading my mind. We did a circuit where each activity consisted of 30 seconds of work and then 15 seconds of rest to move to the next station. We did USA climbs, jump lunges, pushups, tire jumps, knee-ups on the rock rings, balance beam, and mountain climbers. After two circuits, we rested for about 5 minutes and then did the "finisher," a burpee pyramid with 30 seconds of POSE running drill in between each set of burpees. I was high on life after that, so i went home and ate some turkey and giblet gravy (yeah, again cooked). And I drank some turkey broth because I knew today was going to be a long day.
So then today I had lamb for breakfast, and while I had set aside the last of the turkey for lunch, when it came time, I really wanted more lamb. I had a long evening in front of me, and it was going to involve a fast, and for some reason I felt like I would be better fueled with raw lamb than with cooked turkey. Maybe I was right, because I made it through the evening effortlessly. I started doing some modeling on the side, and today I had my first paid shoot! The whole thing took four hours, plus the 45-minute commute to the studio. Still, I had a blast, I was full of energy, and I had a great time!
My skin is starting to look calmer. Part of that is because I'm now a week removed from the holiday debauchery. It'll be about two weeks before I'm completely reset from the holidays, and from there we'll see how super-low-carb does for fixing my skin. Still, aside from the sheer expense, this is very do-able and delicious. I just need to figure out what fat source works best for extra calories.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Preparing an Extreme Elimination Diet
Not much of an adventure: leftover steak tartare and a raw egg for
breakfast. The thought still makes me go, erm...but the taste and the
energy make me go WOW!
My refrigerator is starting to look kind of empty. I turned my 11 cups of duck stock into an aspic with some agar-agar flakes I found when I was cleaning out my cupboards. I have less than three dozen eggs. I have some deer meat. That's about it.
I am preparing to do a severe elimination diet, because a) it's something to do and b) I haven't been very scientific in the past, and my results are good but not great. I have never had any weight to lose, I just wanted my weight to be in control and my skin to glow with insane health and vitality. For a while, I had that, but then I went off birth control. My weight has been the same, but my skin reacts more severely to the things that trigger my acne. Dairy hits with a bigger punch than it used to, as does sugar (that was a fairly new one for me). So, I am planning a severe elimination diet to see what happens.
That means I'm going to have to give up a few of my favorite things, namely eggs, beef, and pork. Eggs have been a staple in my diet forever, so perhaps it is time for a break. Beef is another staple, probably something I eat nearly daily, and if I don't have beef, I have pork. I'll eat more fish, since that is something I DON'T eat a whole lot of. I'll even give up my decaf coffee and my caffeinated teas for a bit.
You better believe eggs are going to be the first food back in my diet, immediately followed by beef.
I don't have all the ingredients yet, and I'm still trying to get through my leftovers, but I think for a bit, I'll wean myself into the elimination by not eating eggs tomorrow. Wow, I can't remember the last time I didn't eat eggs!
Is it extreme? Yes. But so is my acne, and so is my messed-up hormones. Extreme problems call for extreme solutions, and I'm ready to do this. I'll hit up Trader Joe's tomorrow.
Oh, yeah, I'm going to eat it all raw, too. Just overhaul my whole diet and do something so extreme and crazy that it just might work. I'm sick of my skin looking like garbage, and I'm sick of my hormones being whacked out.
My refrigerator is starting to look kind of empty. I turned my 11 cups of duck stock into an aspic with some agar-agar flakes I found when I was cleaning out my cupboards. I have less than three dozen eggs. I have some deer meat. That's about it.
I am preparing to do a severe elimination diet, because a) it's something to do and b) I haven't been very scientific in the past, and my results are good but not great. I have never had any weight to lose, I just wanted my weight to be in control and my skin to glow with insane health and vitality. For a while, I had that, but then I went off birth control. My weight has been the same, but my skin reacts more severely to the things that trigger my acne. Dairy hits with a bigger punch than it used to, as does sugar (that was a fairly new one for me). So, I am planning a severe elimination diet to see what happens.
That means I'm going to have to give up a few of my favorite things, namely eggs, beef, and pork. Eggs have been a staple in my diet forever, so perhaps it is time for a break. Beef is another staple, probably something I eat nearly daily, and if I don't have beef, I have pork. I'll eat more fish, since that is something I DON'T eat a whole lot of. I'll even give up my decaf coffee and my caffeinated teas for a bit.
You better believe eggs are going to be the first food back in my diet, immediately followed by beef.
I don't have all the ingredients yet, and I'm still trying to get through my leftovers, but I think for a bit, I'll wean myself into the elimination by not eating eggs tomorrow. Wow, I can't remember the last time I didn't eat eggs!
Is it extreme? Yes. But so is my acne, and so is my messed-up hormones. Extreme problems call for extreme solutions, and I'm ready to do this. I'll hit up Trader Joe's tomorrow.
Oh, yeah, I'm going to eat it all raw, too. Just overhaul my whole diet and do something so extreme and crazy that it just might work. I'm sick of my skin looking like garbage, and I'm sick of my hormones being whacked out.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Vitamins and Minerals
Yesterday, I did not get enough sleep! I was paranoid that I was going
to miss my husband's phone call that he arrived safely at basic training
in Fort Jackson, and I never got it! So I woke up all night panicked
that I missed the call. That made my hyper-emotional at work today.
So far, the meat thing is working. I get pretty clear hunger signals, but it doesn't take a lot of food to satiate me if I actually stop to listen. Part of me thinks it's not a meal if it doesn't have huge helpings of veggies, but if I don't feed myself until I'm physically full, then I'm able to tune in and hear when I'm satisfied. It means I'm eating light, which is good for my post-holidays bloat.
Breakfast: two eggs and leftover brisket; yerba mate tea
Lunch: leftover duck leg, giblet gravy, some jarred kelp
Dinner: leftover baked cod, clementine
Snack: homemade turkey stock, complete with fat
Supplemented with cod liver oil and Juice Plus.
This may not look like a super-healthy diet as is, but I am putting my food into FitDay, and I was amazed at how well I'm doing on vitamins and minerals.
Check this out:
That's a lot of vitamins and minerals! As long as I keep a variety, including seafood and organ meat, I should do fine.
I took a 2 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon with my cats. Seriously, they have a sixth sense for naptime, and shortly after I curl up, I have two warm fuzzballs with me. The funny part was that, just like my cats, I make sure that I nap in the sunlight from the window. When the sun moved near me, my one cat couldn't decide if she was going to sleep curled up with me or curled up in the sun, so she went back and forth for 20 minutes. My other cat easily curled up with me. No problem there!
I also walked to and from work again today, adequately bundled up for the cold. It was super-sunny, but the wind chill made it -1 degree Fahrenheit. Brrr! But, hey, a successful Grok would have been a good hunter and had plenty of animal skins, so there. I was just so tired that I felt like I was falling asleep as I was walking.
The best part about the low-fiber, don't stuff yourself diet is that it benefits my clarinet playing. I had an audition this evening for a community band, and there wasn't the weight of food in my stomach making me uncomfortable. In spite of my nerves, I played pretty well. Now I have a new activity to keep me occupied while I wait for my husband to get back from basic.
Tomorrow, I have a long trip ahead of me to pick up a clarinet from Boston. Sounds like an intermittent fast day that I plan to end with time trials!
I can't wait for my skin to clear up from the sugar and dairy-fest that happened over the holidays. It really makes me question whether cheating is ever worth it. Just sayin'.
So far, the meat thing is working. I get pretty clear hunger signals, but it doesn't take a lot of food to satiate me if I actually stop to listen. Part of me thinks it's not a meal if it doesn't have huge helpings of veggies, but if I don't feed myself until I'm physically full, then I'm able to tune in and hear when I'm satisfied. It means I'm eating light, which is good for my post-holidays bloat.
Breakfast: two eggs and leftover brisket; yerba mate tea
Lunch: leftover duck leg, giblet gravy, some jarred kelp
Dinner: leftover baked cod, clementine
Snack: homemade turkey stock, complete with fat
Supplemented with cod liver oil and Juice Plus.
This may not look like a super-healthy diet as is, but I am putting my food into FitDay, and I was amazed at how well I'm doing on vitamins and minerals.
Check this out:
That's a lot of vitamins and minerals! As long as I keep a variety, including seafood and organ meat, I should do fine.
I took a 2 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon with my cats. Seriously, they have a sixth sense for naptime, and shortly after I curl up, I have two warm fuzzballs with me. The funny part was that, just like my cats, I make sure that I nap in the sunlight from the window. When the sun moved near me, my one cat couldn't decide if she was going to sleep curled up with me or curled up in the sun, so she went back and forth for 20 minutes. My other cat easily curled up with me. No problem there!
I also walked to and from work again today, adequately bundled up for the cold. It was super-sunny, but the wind chill made it -1 degree Fahrenheit. Brrr! But, hey, a successful Grok would have been a good hunter and had plenty of animal skins, so there. I was just so tired that I felt like I was falling asleep as I was walking.
The best part about the low-fiber, don't stuff yourself diet is that it benefits my clarinet playing. I had an audition this evening for a community band, and there wasn't the weight of food in my stomach making me uncomfortable. In spite of my nerves, I played pretty well. Now I have a new activity to keep me occupied while I wait for my husband to get back from basic.
Tomorrow, I have a long trip ahead of me to pick up a clarinet from Boston. Sounds like an intermittent fast day that I plan to end with time trials!
I can't wait for my skin to clear up from the sugar and dairy-fest that happened over the holidays. It really makes me question whether cheating is ever worth it. Just sayin'.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
New Year's Resolutions
Man, I am AWFUL with keeping up with the journal. New Years' Resolution: keep up.
Something happened after Thanksgiving and I suddenly lost my taste for carby foods. I think what happened was I realized how much fruits and veggies actually trigger overeating. Huh? Apparently, yes, the feeling of fullness I get from a lot of food begets wanting to feel full all the time.
The other thing I noticed is that, yes, full-fat dairy makes me break out in cystic acne, but too much sugar also makes my skin just look sad, and it doesn't seem to discriminate. Sugar is sugar, whether it comes from junk food or from fruit. An extra banana seems to be the difference between good skin and bad skin.
So, like many people on this site, I'm doing a relatively extreme low-carb diet right now. It's easy coming off of the New Year celebrations, but we'll see if I'm singing the same tune in a few weeks. At the very least, pairing it with a Primal approach to fitness makes me less prone to cravings.
I'm not big on resolutions, but my husband left for basic training today: he's joining a National Guard band stationed nearby. Well, with the house empty, I'm free to experiment to my heart's content without offending anyone (although my husband loves even my simplest cooking, so no offense would be taken). My first real New Year's resolution is to achieve more radiant health. Yeah, that's wonderful and all, but I actually have a plan!
My diet is going to become very strictly clean, and I'm going to add in raw and cured meats. I really enjoyed the gravlax recipe posted on this site, so I plan on making it a regular part of my diet. I also just got some grass-fed ground beef for kicking butt in a workout, and I'm looking forward to eating it tartare with potentially a raw egg -- I get mine from pastured chickens and they're amazing. Another option includes beef jerky that has been dehydrated at a very low temperature. I've done it before and it tastes so good that I don't even believe the meat is essentially raw.
Not that I won't eat other cooked meats, of course. Right now I'm making my way through piles of leftover turkey, duck, fish, and giblet gravy, hoping to consume it all before it goes bad. I think I will succeed!
I am making my way through clementines right now, and after that I should be able to get pretty low-carb, with my veggies being seaweed (thanks MDA for basically telling me what leafy green was coming up) and pickled beets. It'll be a month before I can add sauerkraut to my mix. So there you have it: leafy greens, fermented veggies, an assortment of meats, fish, and organs. Maybe the Brazil nuts. I went through the refrigerator today and just started throwing out stuff that doesn't fit into this plan. I think it will be refreshingly cheap and easy.
Oh, I'm also taking JuicePlus. That way I'm getting in the fruits and veggies without the guggling gut that I've been having.
So today looked like two eggs fried in some leftover bacon fat and a bit of leftover brisket. Lunch was leftover turkey with some kale cooked up in leftover bacon fat. Dinner was half a can of oysters, baked cod with kale cooked in leftover bacon fat, and a clementine. Before bed, a cup of turkey stock. That's it.
The other part of my resolution is "move more" by walking or biking pretty much everywhere on the island. That's going to really suck when I need eggs, since it's, like 20 miles away or something. I'm walking to work since that takes longer than biking, it's slower, and it's way more do-able than trying to brave the New England cold and wind on a bike. Today, so far so good. It was cold and windy, but it was bright and sunny, and I enjoyed the time to think, like mediation in motion. I will repeat it tomorrow.
My workout today was a nice strength grinder that reminded me why you shouldn't let yourself put on five pounds over the holidays. Pull-ups get a lot harder, especially when you're only capable of doing maybe one. In fact, everything was hard. That's just more incentive to keep my food intake a little lower until I get back to my normal weight.
The third thing I did in my quest for radiant health is give up coffee. I had been drinking decaf, but on New Years Day I switched to tea. Some of it is caffeinated and some of it is not, but it's not coffee. Maybe once I'm done with my bags of really awesome caffeinated tea, I'll make the full switch to herbal tea, but at the same time, green tea is so good for you that I'm on the fence.
This, after my brother bought me a ton of biodegradable K-cups of coffee! Well, I will treat myself from time to time, but I'm truly ready to kick the addiction. I already feel better from the weeks of prep I made for this transition.
My other "big" resolution is to become a real butt-kicking clarinetist. I was there once, I was motivated once, and I'm ready to find it again. Without my husband around, I don't have "anything better" to do than practice. My first thought was 3-4 half-hour sessions, plus a bit of goofing off while I learn how to improvise, but my fourth practice session turned into 1.5 hours. That puts me in my college-era practice range. If I can do that every day, I'll be thrilled! My goal IS to do that every day, but I was going to build up to it. Not any more. I'm a machine!
So there you have it. This post couldn't be more different than the last post I made, where I was extolling the virtues of fruits and veggies. I still love them, I'm just going to love them in smaller quantities. I dread the thought of having to do a complete elimination diet like many people have just for beautifully clear skin, but eventually you either throw in the towel or you grit your teeth and do what needs to be done. I'm all for gritting my teeth if I need to.
Something happened after Thanksgiving and I suddenly lost my taste for carby foods. I think what happened was I realized how much fruits and veggies actually trigger overeating. Huh? Apparently, yes, the feeling of fullness I get from a lot of food begets wanting to feel full all the time.
The other thing I noticed is that, yes, full-fat dairy makes me break out in cystic acne, but too much sugar also makes my skin just look sad, and it doesn't seem to discriminate. Sugar is sugar, whether it comes from junk food or from fruit. An extra banana seems to be the difference between good skin and bad skin.
So, like many people on this site, I'm doing a relatively extreme low-carb diet right now. It's easy coming off of the New Year celebrations, but we'll see if I'm singing the same tune in a few weeks. At the very least, pairing it with a Primal approach to fitness makes me less prone to cravings.
I'm not big on resolutions, but my husband left for basic training today: he's joining a National Guard band stationed nearby. Well, with the house empty, I'm free to experiment to my heart's content without offending anyone (although my husband loves even my simplest cooking, so no offense would be taken). My first real New Year's resolution is to achieve more radiant health. Yeah, that's wonderful and all, but I actually have a plan!
My diet is going to become very strictly clean, and I'm going to add in raw and cured meats. I really enjoyed the gravlax recipe posted on this site, so I plan on making it a regular part of my diet. I also just got some grass-fed ground beef for kicking butt in a workout, and I'm looking forward to eating it tartare with potentially a raw egg -- I get mine from pastured chickens and they're amazing. Another option includes beef jerky that has been dehydrated at a very low temperature. I've done it before and it tastes so good that I don't even believe the meat is essentially raw.
Not that I won't eat other cooked meats, of course. Right now I'm making my way through piles of leftover turkey, duck, fish, and giblet gravy, hoping to consume it all before it goes bad. I think I will succeed!
I am making my way through clementines right now, and after that I should be able to get pretty low-carb, with my veggies being seaweed (thanks MDA for basically telling me what leafy green was coming up) and pickled beets. It'll be a month before I can add sauerkraut to my mix. So there you have it: leafy greens, fermented veggies, an assortment of meats, fish, and organs. Maybe the Brazil nuts. I went through the refrigerator today and just started throwing out stuff that doesn't fit into this plan. I think it will be refreshingly cheap and easy.
Oh, I'm also taking JuicePlus. That way I'm getting in the fruits and veggies without the guggling gut that I've been having.
So today looked like two eggs fried in some leftover bacon fat and a bit of leftover brisket. Lunch was leftover turkey with some kale cooked up in leftover bacon fat. Dinner was half a can of oysters, baked cod with kale cooked in leftover bacon fat, and a clementine. Before bed, a cup of turkey stock. That's it.
The other part of my resolution is "move more" by walking or biking pretty much everywhere on the island. That's going to really suck when I need eggs, since it's, like 20 miles away or something. I'm walking to work since that takes longer than biking, it's slower, and it's way more do-able than trying to brave the New England cold and wind on a bike. Today, so far so good. It was cold and windy, but it was bright and sunny, and I enjoyed the time to think, like mediation in motion. I will repeat it tomorrow.
My workout today was a nice strength grinder that reminded me why you shouldn't let yourself put on five pounds over the holidays. Pull-ups get a lot harder, especially when you're only capable of doing maybe one. In fact, everything was hard. That's just more incentive to keep my food intake a little lower until I get back to my normal weight.
The third thing I did in my quest for radiant health is give up coffee. I had been drinking decaf, but on New Years Day I switched to tea. Some of it is caffeinated and some of it is not, but it's not coffee. Maybe once I'm done with my bags of really awesome caffeinated tea, I'll make the full switch to herbal tea, but at the same time, green tea is so good for you that I'm on the fence.
This, after my brother bought me a ton of biodegradable K-cups of coffee! Well, I will treat myself from time to time, but I'm truly ready to kick the addiction. I already feel better from the weeks of prep I made for this transition.
My other "big" resolution is to become a real butt-kicking clarinetist. I was there once, I was motivated once, and I'm ready to find it again. Without my husband around, I don't have "anything better" to do than practice. My first thought was 3-4 half-hour sessions, plus a bit of goofing off while I learn how to improvise, but my fourth practice session turned into 1.5 hours. That puts me in my college-era practice range. If I can do that every day, I'll be thrilled! My goal IS to do that every day, but I was going to build up to it. Not any more. I'm a machine!
So there you have it. This post couldn't be more different than the last post I made, where I was extolling the virtues of fruits and veggies. I still love them, I'm just going to love them in smaller quantities. I dread the thought of having to do a complete elimination diet like many people have just for beautifully clear skin, but eventually you either throw in the towel or you grit your teeth and do what needs to be done. I'm all for gritting my teeth if I need to.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
The Switch-Up
Looking at my last blog post, I had these high ideals about going back to eating less meat after Thanksgiving. Then a really weird thing happened.
While we were in Washington, D.C., my husband and I went out with his sister, her boyfriend, and their grandfather to a restaurant called Founding Farmers. I ate a ton of turkey on Thanksgiving and desperately wanted vegetables, so I ordered a vegan eggplant and polenta dish. It was so delicious that I said if I could cook that well, I would be a vegan.
The next day, my husband and I got breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien, and I ordered the vegan six-vegetable quiche. We watched football, and I ate leftover mushroom risotto, turkey, and pie.
The next morning, we got breakfast before driving home to Newport. I ordered the red flannel hash (basically hash browns with beets), topped with goat cheese, poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce. It was SOOOO good that any notion of loving veganism went straight out the window. I never felt so nourished.
My skin hasn't been very happy recently, but my hormones are still out-of-whack since going off birth control. I did some reading and found someone who blogged about "eating like the Japanese" as a way to help her skin heal. I sort of assumed that meant eating lots of rice and raw fish, so I tried a week of adding brown rice and wild rice (which is really a grass) to my diet. I indulged in three sushi meals (one hardly counts because it came from the commissary). They were delicious, and they fall under cheat meal status, but they don't fall under "I can eat like this all the time" status. Nope.
So I thought, okay, those Okinawans eat lots of sweet potatoes, which I like, and lots of fish, which I like. I tried doing some research on their diet, but kept coming across a book, "The Okinawa Diet," which, from every review I've read, basically turns the USDA food pyramid into Okinawan foods. I even read a claim that they get up to 86% of their calories from sweet potatoes, and was even thinking I would try that until a commenter pointed out that they only relied that heavily on sweet potatoes when they were *starving* from Japanese oppression.
According to the Weston A. Price Foundation site, theirs is yet again another kinda "greasy" diet, with one serving of meat (usually pork), two servings of fish, and vegetables cooked in pork fat.
So what's a girl to do?
Listen to her body and eat whole foods. Moderately low-carb didn't work for a while, but for a day or two, super-low-carb (I think) was working: my favorite low-carb omelette with crab, spinach, and onion, plus some farm-raised bacon ends (apparently bacon ends are so much less popular than actual bacon that I can get a bag of it for about half the price per pound as bacon strips -- ah, vanity) and avocado. I've also tossed in pumpkin puree for some creaminess and moisture that cheese would provide. It works, shockingly.
Lunch has just been chicken breast and some greens. In the raw spirit, I ate a bite of raw chicken. It's disgusting. No wonder as far as I can tell no culture includes raw poultry as a delicacy. You have steak tartare, beef tataki, sushi, raw eggs, etc., etc., but I don't know of raw chicken. I'm happy keeping it that way.
Dinner has been meat and Brussels sprouts, but I ran out and have had to make due with my root veggies. One day I actually found cleaned, whole rainbow trout in the store and cut it up raw. I tried to make it sushi-style, but my knife wasn't nearly sharp enough and so I just ended up with a pile of raw fish. A little salt and black pepper, and it was delicious.
I didn't try it on my husband in case I somehow failed and ended up violently ill.
He loved his baked, bone-in, skin-on fish; I loved mine raw and am still alive to talk about it.
Yesterday, I had one sweet potato and some very undercooked venison burger before I went for my personal training. I had plenty of energy for the first time in days, so he changed my workout and dealt me a real doozy. I have to share this because he called a "milestone" workout.
Warm-up with joint mobility, inchworms, balance beam, and low squatting.
Kettlebell complex: 10 double-arm swings, 5 single-arm swings, 5 high-pulls, 5 snatches, and 5 clean-and-thrust.
Then the real circuit:
8 KB squats with two 12kg bells
Rope pull with two 40kg bells (I mean, they were HUGE)
15 KB swings with a 16kg bell
3 slow reverse push-ups on the Universal Strength Apparatus
2 Turkish get-ups on each side with the 8kg bell
Did that circuit three times and then finished with 10 clean-and-press with the 12kg bells.
It. Was. So. Hard.
I'm not joking about those two 40kg bells. They could have been 48kg for all I know. Yes, that's at least 80kg, or 176 pounds. It's on a pulley, so I have a mechanical advantage, but I walked up to it, pulled on the rope... and nothing happened. Seriously. Then I laughed out loud, cuz it was hilarious, and threw my entire body weight into trying to pull those two kettlebells up to the top of the pulley. My trainer was going to have me raise the bells three times, but when I was throwing all my body weight into moving those things mere inches, he decided one was enough and joked that I was probably the worst bell-ringer ever! I said it would be demoralizing if it weren't so hilarious. Like my trainer said, there's no technique to this because it's just SO HEAVY, just making it move. It reminded me of those workouts where they say just go outside and push a car. That kind of heavy. You are using every fiber in your body to move mere inches.
Switching up to a much larger kettlebell for the swings was awesome, too, because I felt every muscle in my core tighten just to stabilize me as I stood up. Seriously, who needs ab work with that?!
When I woke up this morning, every muscle in my body had a dull ache, and I strongly desired rest! I had my normal fatty breakfast, then came home for lunch and had chicken, greens, and ate up a turnip and some beets. The beets made me feel like I was craving sugar. It was good, but not what I wanted. For dinner, we had more venison burger with a side of baby Yukon gold potatoes, and I had two banana-avocado puddings for dessert, and I feel kinda sluggish and bloated. It was delicious, but not what my body was craving.
It looks like I want non-starchy veggies and some extra fat. Not tons of fat. A brief experiment with clarified butter left my skin looking wonky, so I'm thinking not much more than the fat that comes with the meat, but honestly, more of the meat. It's like I want either the carbs, or I want the protein/fat, but I don't want both at the same time.
The only thing I will remember is that the sweet potato is my power food. I think I'll keep on the low-carb for the next few days, then eat a sweet potato before my next workout and see what happens. Could be magic!
While we were in Washington, D.C., my husband and I went out with his sister, her boyfriend, and their grandfather to a restaurant called Founding Farmers. I ate a ton of turkey on Thanksgiving and desperately wanted vegetables, so I ordered a vegan eggplant and polenta dish. It was so delicious that I said if I could cook that well, I would be a vegan.
The next day, my husband and I got breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien, and I ordered the vegan six-vegetable quiche. We watched football, and I ate leftover mushroom risotto, turkey, and pie.
The next morning, we got breakfast before driving home to Newport. I ordered the red flannel hash (basically hash browns with beets), topped with goat cheese, poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce. It was SOOOO good that any notion of loving veganism went straight out the window. I never felt so nourished.
My skin hasn't been very happy recently, but my hormones are still out-of-whack since going off birth control. I did some reading and found someone who blogged about "eating like the Japanese" as a way to help her skin heal. I sort of assumed that meant eating lots of rice and raw fish, so I tried a week of adding brown rice and wild rice (which is really a grass) to my diet. I indulged in three sushi meals (one hardly counts because it came from the commissary). They were delicious, and they fall under cheat meal status, but they don't fall under "I can eat like this all the time" status. Nope.
So I thought, okay, those Okinawans eat lots of sweet potatoes, which I like, and lots of fish, which I like. I tried doing some research on their diet, but kept coming across a book, "The Okinawa Diet," which, from every review I've read, basically turns the USDA food pyramid into Okinawan foods. I even read a claim that they get up to 86% of their calories from sweet potatoes, and was even thinking I would try that until a commenter pointed out that they only relied that heavily on sweet potatoes when they were *starving* from Japanese oppression.
According to the Weston A. Price Foundation site, theirs is yet again another kinda "greasy" diet, with one serving of meat (usually pork), two servings of fish, and vegetables cooked in pork fat.
So what's a girl to do?
Listen to her body and eat whole foods. Moderately low-carb didn't work for a while, but for a day or two, super-low-carb (I think) was working: my favorite low-carb omelette with crab, spinach, and onion, plus some farm-raised bacon ends (apparently bacon ends are so much less popular than actual bacon that I can get a bag of it for about half the price per pound as bacon strips -- ah, vanity) and avocado. I've also tossed in pumpkin puree for some creaminess and moisture that cheese would provide. It works, shockingly.
Lunch has just been chicken breast and some greens. In the raw spirit, I ate a bite of raw chicken. It's disgusting. No wonder as far as I can tell no culture includes raw poultry as a delicacy. You have steak tartare, beef tataki, sushi, raw eggs, etc., etc., but I don't know of raw chicken. I'm happy keeping it that way.
Dinner has been meat and Brussels sprouts, but I ran out and have had to make due with my root veggies. One day I actually found cleaned, whole rainbow trout in the store and cut it up raw. I tried to make it sushi-style, but my knife wasn't nearly sharp enough and so I just ended up with a pile of raw fish. A little salt and black pepper, and it was delicious.
I didn't try it on my husband in case I somehow failed and ended up violently ill.
He loved his baked, bone-in, skin-on fish; I loved mine raw and am still alive to talk about it.
Yesterday, I had one sweet potato and some very undercooked venison burger before I went for my personal training. I had plenty of energy for the first time in days, so he changed my workout and dealt me a real doozy. I have to share this because he called a "milestone" workout.
Warm-up with joint mobility, inchworms, balance beam, and low squatting.
Kettlebell complex: 10 double-arm swings, 5 single-arm swings, 5 high-pulls, 5 snatches, and 5 clean-and-thrust.
Then the real circuit:
8 KB squats with two 12kg bells
Rope pull with two 40kg bells (I mean, they were HUGE)
15 KB swings with a 16kg bell
3 slow reverse push-ups on the Universal Strength Apparatus
2 Turkish get-ups on each side with the 8kg bell
Did that circuit three times and then finished with 10 clean-and-press with the 12kg bells.
It. Was. So. Hard.
I'm not joking about those two 40kg bells. They could have been 48kg for all I know. Yes, that's at least 80kg, or 176 pounds. It's on a pulley, so I have a mechanical advantage, but I walked up to it, pulled on the rope... and nothing happened. Seriously. Then I laughed out loud, cuz it was hilarious, and threw my entire body weight into trying to pull those two kettlebells up to the top of the pulley. My trainer was going to have me raise the bells three times, but when I was throwing all my body weight into moving those things mere inches, he decided one was enough and joked that I was probably the worst bell-ringer ever! I said it would be demoralizing if it weren't so hilarious. Like my trainer said, there's no technique to this because it's just SO HEAVY, just making it move. It reminded me of those workouts where they say just go outside and push a car. That kind of heavy. You are using every fiber in your body to move mere inches.
Switching up to a much larger kettlebell for the swings was awesome, too, because I felt every muscle in my core tighten just to stabilize me as I stood up. Seriously, who needs ab work with that?!
When I woke up this morning, every muscle in my body had a dull ache, and I strongly desired rest! I had my normal fatty breakfast, then came home for lunch and had chicken, greens, and ate up a turnip and some beets. The beets made me feel like I was craving sugar. It was good, but not what I wanted. For dinner, we had more venison burger with a side of baby Yukon gold potatoes, and I had two banana-avocado puddings for dessert, and I feel kinda sluggish and bloated. It was delicious, but not what my body was craving.
It looks like I want non-starchy veggies and some extra fat. Not tons of fat. A brief experiment with clarified butter left my skin looking wonky, so I'm thinking not much more than the fat that comes with the meat, but honestly, more of the meat. It's like I want either the carbs, or I want the protein/fat, but I don't want both at the same time.
The only thing I will remember is that the sweet potato is my power food. I think I'll keep on the low-carb for the next few days, then eat a sweet potato before my next workout and see what happens. Could be magic!
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