update

Lipid results! I got the results of my lipid profile after my paleo trial! I have been about 50% compliant with the primal diet and lifestyle recommendations since May. I've gone from a mostly vegan diet to eating eggs and red meat daily. Butter also. As one can see, my total cholesterol is down, but I'm not sure if this is really an improvement. My hdl:ldl ratio is still good, but not as good as before, and my tg is up a little. Hmm.
I feel better than ever and want to focus on greater compliance with the primal diet/lifestyle for that reason alone. Does anybody have any ideas about whether or not my lipid profile is improved? Please look over the before and after numbers and tell me what you think.
Thanks, B.

4

Better day! Last night I had a bun with my burger and today I had many grapes. The carbs make me feel better (of course) but it's alot less than before. Today I'm comfy in pants that used to hurt. Progress.

3

drag ass. i feel crap. i'm so tired and sore. not sure i'm going to keep going. i've had about 700 calories today and 130g carbs. so that puts me over my carb limit and I have about 1000 calories left to go. I guess I have some serious ambivalence toward eggs and meat. I've always hated salad. hmm. dunno about this. i'll check back later.

2

Did something to my neck at yoga (Bikram's Indian Salt Mine) today and will skip tomorrow.
calories 1840.
carbs 140.
I feel good, other than the cervical spine thing.

my primal blueprint challenge goals

For the next 30 days, my goals are as follows:

fast 24 hours once a week (mondays)
stay under 100g carbs a day
stay under 1800 calories a day
red wine once a week
yoga at least 3 days a week
track intake on fitday.com
finish Primal Blueprint

Yeah!! I love a challenge! Day 1

Just what I needed to get and stay on track! I'm in and so excited. Thanks, Mark!
This has been a summer of ice cream and birthday cake. It has also been a summer of yoga, swimming, walks outside and CSA veggies. So, while not the "Paleo Trial" I had originally intended, I'm making slow progress and am hoping to see some improvement in my labs. I just couldn't put the cholesterol check off any longer. I'm finally checking it on Aug 10. I have been putting it off because I've been scared that my cholesterol will be high and my doctor will recommend increasing the medication. There is a terrible history of heart disease in my family and I have a lot of fear surrounding the whole thing.
Time to move ahead. No fear, as they say.

back on track--again!

Thanks for the words of support! You guys rock, or should I say Grok. I feel SO much better eating primal and I love to exercise, it doesn't make sense to fall back into old habits and feel crap. I guess that's why its called a habit.
I'm starting to read Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson today. What a great resource! He seems like a sweet person, too.
My kids will be attending a class at the zoo today. They get to help prepare the meal for the big cats--very cool. I'm planning to fire up my home Bikram studio today while they are away, and have a great workout.
Love and rockets to you!

I quit

I quit my paleo trial, now I'm back.
Unquit.
I had a big freakout about food, my weight, blogging, yoga. Think it all started when I decided to cancel my membership at the yoga studio due to lack of funds. I do Bikram yoga and love and need it beyond all words. I get crazy in the head when I stop practicing.
It is a long standing pattern of mine to go on obsessive kicks about food, trying to lose the extra fat, then get sick of the obsessing and all the space it takes up in my life, then quit.
I've decided to take up my yoga practice at home (which will be an interesting challenge what with heating and humidifying our bedroom), follow the primal diet, and continue to read your fine blogs and maintain my own.
Thanks for checking in on me and thanks for sticking with the plan. You are all an inspiration.
I'm going to the doctor on July 30th to have my labs checked.

tuesday weigh-in

188. Unchanged from last week. That is good news to me!
Last week was *that time of the month* and I wanted to eat sweetened cereal or ice cream bad. And I ate some of it, but not nearly as much as I would have if I weren't trying to eat primal.
I wonder what the purpose of premenstrual carb craving is? Every human drive has an evolutionary purpose that developed for good reason. The sex drive, the maternal instinct, hunger, thirst, fear, fatigue, its all there to tell us something important so we can do the right things to preserve our lives and propagate our species. But PMS? What is it good for? I think the irritability is good for keeping your mate away from you at a time when you are not fertile anyway. I guess that makes sense. But the carb craving...and the strange feeling of never feeling full. I wonder......

not so paleo

This weekend was not so great. I worked both days at the hospital and felt totally drained. Saturday eating was paleo, but I went to bed at 5pm and didn't get up until 6am. So there was my intermittent fast! Sunday, I ate candy and ice cream at work and popcorn for dinner. I felt down all weekend. No exercise. I didn't have any alcohol, though. So there is one thing I did right.
So, its a new day, as they say. This kids are home from school for the summer as of today. It's pouring rain out. But I'm determined to have a good day.
Carpe diem.

Happy Tuesday

188 today. I'm so glad to be out of the 190's. I've been stuck for so long. It's really been pretty painless eating this way! The meat provides a full feeling for a long time. Fruit and veg taste so good, especially this time of year. Yogurt and cheese, well they sort of speak for themselves. Nuts are amazing.
In the upcoming week, I plan to:
Have the open meal and avoid all other "off plan" foods entirely ( last week I never really had the open meal, but "cheated" frequently)
Walk or yoga everyday
Get more info on other workouts
Help my husband get primal
Have a peaceful Tuesday!

Update

Tuesday weigh in is tomorrow, but today is the 2 week update. I've been doing pretty well with the food. Not as well as I thought I would. There have been 2 or 3 days on total noncompliance, but overall, I've followed pretty closely to the plan I set out. (see sidebar "simple plan") I need more exercise.
I also wonder how accurate the dang Tanita scale can be. After yoga, I can have 125 pounds of muscle and 31% fat. A morning after going to bed hungry, I can have 112 pounds muscle and 36% fat and weigh 2 pounds less. Huh. Any insights from anyone?
But the numbers looked good today, so I'll take them.

Quick Check-In

I haven't been checking in here the past few days, but I've been doing well. Sticking to the plan pretty well. When I "must" have something not on plan, I've been having it with dinner. Walking and yoga for exercise.
And Wow. I sure love meat and it makes me feel good for a long time after eating it. That's a new discovery since I started eating this way. I still feel a little guilty about loving it, but more on that on a different day.
Have a lovely weekend, all!!
B.

Wallace Stafford Butler, Jr. I love you and will never forget.
Thank you Uncle Bud.
Thank you for your sacrifice.
Have a safe and happy memorial day!

intake

2 fried eggs, 2 pc bacon
8 shrimp, salad greens, olive oil
slice cheese, slice ham
1 peach, 4 strawberries
grilled salmon, bison brat with bbq sauce, asparagus, radish and sunchoke
1 light beer
ice cream cone
No exercise today.

business

Today promises to be crazy busy, so I'll just do my food plan here.
Plain yogurt with a kiwi and apple
chicken and spinach saute with olive oil
apple and almond butter
buffalo brat, beef patty and a mountain of greens. olive oil.
3 glasses wine
small ice cream cone
I won't have time to work out.

better already

Yesterday, I did yoga class and ate 100% on plan (see side bar "simple plan"). For the past few days I have been feeling total crap, but today, I woke up a new person. Great sleep, energy, positive attitude. Amazing what proper exercise and diet will do so quickly. I can't imagine how I'll feel after 6 weeks of this. That's what I want to find out!!

Today's menu:
chicken with greens, walnuts and raisins. A little ranch dressing on it all.
fresh raspberries and plain yogurt
chicken-veggie soup
asparagus and spinach saute with olive oil
apple

Today, I walked around the lake. It is hot and windy today. Very sunny. Pure bliss.

Breakthrough

whine/rant alert: you've been warned.
Why is it so hard for me to stick to this plan? I think I know the answer. I'm used to using food for comfort, distraction and stress relief. My top 3 ways to cope are: eating, shopping and drinking wine. The shopping and drinking will get me in trouble quick, (hangover, credit card debt) so I am able to keep those vices to a minimum. But eating? That gets me in trouble slow, although its been catching up with me these past few years. But since the negative effects of overeating are gradual, I just overeat. I don't really crave anything, like some people love candy or fast food. Seems I resent restrictions on food, even if those restrictions are placed by me and for good reasons! I mainly seek to escape emotional discomfort by finding pleasure in the basic act of swallowing food. Even uncomfortable fullness is a welcome distraction.
I believe there is a natural, primitive drive taking place here. My great-great grandparents came to this country because they were starving. Long before them people spent their days and years seeking enough food to live. Now that I am here, living amid great abundance, I still get really pissed if I get hungry, or feel like I can't have what I want.
Then there is the emotional part. Back in the day, if the kids were driving you insane and tearing the cave apart, you would send them outside, hunting with dad or you would ask the younger co- wife to step in and give you a break. Not possible in our culture today.
Or take some examples from my job as a nurse in a hospital. This weekend, I had a patient who was 65 and in with pneumonia. Lives at home with his wife. "Young lady, I poopsied my pantsie. Please help me." There is no reason this guy needed to crap his shorts, but I'm too busy to question him and the nurses aide is too busy to do it, so I clean him up. Stroking my arm, he says, "You young girls do such nice work. My wife's just no good." So, what would have happened to a guy like this in more primitive times. Hmmm, let's see: elder member of the tribe poops himself on purpose to get attention from younger woman. Solution: Let the lions clean him up. Just so you don't think I'm totally cold, I did treat him with respect and gently set boundaries with him. In this situation, I felt frustrated and humiliated. I also had a patient who was 38, father of 3 you kids with a nice wife. He was actively dying of pancreatic cancer. The family was crying, he was in agony. Back in the day, you would join the family in their crying, try to lessen his suffering. After he died, you would maybe have his family join your family to live. What I could do was lessen his pain with medication, try to be a compassionate presence and resource for the family while pulled in a million different directions (poopsie). In this situation, I felt very sad and also huge frustration about not giving this family the time they deserve. What did I do with all that emotion? I couldn't sweat it out in yoga class, or go for a walk because my kids and husband wanted me back home. I ATE and ATE. Not paleo food, either.
Now, I'm probably the most fortunate person I know. I've had innumerable blessings and countless lucky breaks, but jeez, almost everyday I fight the feeling to "run away, escape, get out!!". I think tht is a very primal response to the stupidness of modern life.
The stresses of my modern life are very easily pushed aside by buying things, swilling wine and most of all, FOOD! But as we all know, these ways of coping come with a heavy price. The price is health, without which, we have nothing. Hows that for a vicious circle.
But as I said before, I'm lucky. I love healthy food. Love to cook. And I love strenuous exercise. Bikram yoga kicks the butt of marathoners and marines and makes gymnasts shake. I'd walk all day, if I were allowed. I want to learn to work with kettlebells. And I'm not giving up my Paleo Trial. I'm 43 years old. There are 43 days until July 1. I'm starting again.

3

2 peaches
a few grapes and strawberries
2 fresh, local, all natural sausages--YUMMIEST EVER!
bowl of multi-grain cheerios and milk (yup)
grapes
bleu cheese
walnuts
2 sesame crackers (yes)
mixed spring greens and ground grass feed beef
3 glasses chardonnay

exercise was only a walk

day 2

No formal exercise today....just chasing kids.
Food was:
berries, pineapple, melon
2 pc banana bread (oops)
salmon-walnut salad
bison jerky
1 light beer
1 banana
handful cashews
arugala salad with parsnip, raisins, ramps, olive oil and bleu cheese

easy day

I had a very sweaty yoga class today and an easy time with the paleo plan.
Food was:
banana
Bison jerky
2 poached eggs
steamed broccoli with butter
grapefruit
BBQ bison
parsnip, sunchoke, radish saute with olive oil
prosciutto and mozzarella bites with asparagus
2 glasses white wine.

slow start

I stressed at work and ate cookies. My homemade yogurt turned out waaaaay too sour. So, it's back to square one, I guess. I'm going to start logging my daily food intake here for the next 6 weeks, exercise too. I've got the MD appointment set up. By the first day of summer, I could have 10 pounds gone and great cholesterol levels............

Saturday

Yesterday was my first day on the paleo plan. I grazed all day on apples, almond butter, buffalo jerky. I had roasted salmon and beets, green veggies, and olive oil at dinner. I had my "open meal" for the week already in an ice cream with the boys before bed. All day I felt a little hungry and headache.
Today I'm going to yoga and then to work an evening shift. I'll bring nuts and fruit and plan on a chicken breast, cooked veg and salad for dinner...there is a great salad bar.
Work is where I have eaten alot of crap in response to stress. Eating for reasons other than hunger is a behavior I'm really going to focus on eliminating. Coping with feelings by eating, drinking wine and spending money has been my modus operands for way too long. I've made progress in this area, especially in the last year, but I've been slow to change. Here's to picking up the pace!!

getting started

A few facts about me:
I'm female, 43 years old, married with young kids at home.
I'm 5'8" tall, about 40 pounds overweight and am on medication for high cholesterol.
Several close relatives have had heart disease. I want to avoid it.
Most of my ancestors are from Northern Europe. Some from Southeastern Europe. Some from the Middle East. Blood type O. I'd like to learn about ancestors' diets and ways of life throughout the ages (anthropology?)
I've tried a lot of "diets" in the past and tend to get a little obsessed with "dieting". I want to stop doing that.
I practice Bikram yoga, walk and play with my kids for exercise.
I'm a registered nurse in a hospital 2 days a week.

My goals for this blog:
Write about the pleasures and challenges of making lasting dietary changes for self and family
Connect with others who are doing the same
Learn more about optimal human nutrition
Just log in daily and be accountable for my 6-week commitment, as boring as that may be to read :)

Our fridge is stocked with veggies of all kinds, farm fresh eggs, fruit and nuts. I made yogurt last night. The freezer is full of elk, bison and salmon. Today I'm making an appoint with the MD for my cholesterol check in 6 weeks.
So, this is it. Time to get started.