Jodi Goes Primal

So all is good in my world. I’m sticking to the changes I’ve made in my life, with few exceptions. I’ve basically caved on the coffee front. I have one cup with one stevia and a dash of heavy cream (which is the only artificial sweetener and dairy I am taking in). I’ll try again after I get some more time under my belt…already considering some chai tea with a bit of honey and some heavy cream. I’ll work towards that after some of the other changes stick.

Tuesday I skipped breakfast, had leftover Mediterranean Eggplant and cucumber slices for lunch.  Then we picked up Mexican. Asked for Carne Asada, cooked without vegetable oil, but with real butter. So had about 5 oz. of skirt steak with 1/2 cup of onions and bell pepper and 1/4 cup of salsa. I went through the trouble of asking them to cook it so that I could eat it and then I snuck about 4 tortilla chips from the bag. I’ll count it as a success since I actually stopped at 4 and no margaritas (can’t go to the Mexican restaurant and not have margaritas…but I did).

I did an accidental IF Wednesday, nearly 23 hours. Wasn’t hungry for breakfast, got busy and never stopped to eat lunch.  My husband made a turkey meatloaf.  I had cucumber and mixed berries with a couple of pieces of meatloaf.

Today started out with two eggs cooked in coconut oil. Lunch was about 6 oz of gyro and salad (pushed aside the feta) and I split a baklava with my daughter (the good: almonds, honey and the bad: filo dough). Tonight I came home and found two huge ziplock bags of goodness. My husband made homemade jerky in our smoker today! It turned out great! He made burgers for dinner…made sure to tell me, no additives (no breadcrumbs or sauces with sugar added) to my patties. I had a burger patty with tomatoes and pickles and I’ve probably had about 4 oz of beef jerky already. I told him how much weight I’ve lost so far today and he said “you’re going to force me to go on that diet with you, aren’t you?” I just said…nope, but if you read the book I was reading and visited the sites I was visiting I wouldn’t have to force you It was nice coming home to the homemade jerky (he even called me before to ask what kind of marinade was acceptable) instead of the chocolate covered graham cookies that he bought the other day. He sees that I am serious so I think the recent sabotage efforts might be waning. Maybe they were just testing me to see if it was going to stick…we’ll see. I’m feeling good and an added benefit: down 11.5 pounds on day 11…not too shabby. Oh, and more importantly…have dropped my one remaining dose of fast acting down from 20 to 15 units; have dropped my evening dose of Lantus from 40 to 30 units and my morning dose of Lantus from 20 to 10 units. My fasting blood sugar this morning was 158…a new low for me in a while. It can only get better

Edited to correct my food once I had my food diary in front of me…tried to do it from memory initially, just switched up my Tuesday and Wednesday, but all is accurate now.

Well the good news is that the sicky flu feeling is passing now.  The bad news is that I caved on the coffee issue.  I’m trying to drink it black.  Food wise I am doing well.  I am sticking to the changes I’ve made even though I’ve eaten out a couple of times.  I requested that they prepare my food in a way that I can eat it.  Surprisingly, they are willing to do that.  I hate having attention drawn to me, so I’ve always avoided making waves, but now I ask.  The worse that can happen is that they say no.  There is no need for me to be embarrassed if they say no.  It is what it is.  I can always order a salad with no dressing and a protein cooked in olive oil or with nothing if necessary any where I go.

The coffee thing is a kicker.  I only used to drink what amounted to about a cup and a half a day, with one splenda and some half and half.  It is amazing how much I feel like I NEED that coffee every day.  I know its mental, so it is worth working at.  The cravings have been bad the last few days, especially with the birthday cake at the office and the biscuits made this morning for breakfast for my family…things like that are going to be in my life forever.  I just have to deal.

I skipped two workouts this week because of headaches and nausea, so there will be no rest today.  Already did quite a bit of housework, including cleaning all the shelves in my fridge so activity level today will be good.  I’ll also be making up one of my circuit workouts today.

All in all I feel pretty good.  I am fighting a little bout of depression…I swear I grieve for the loss of the carbs, but I’m handling it.   I am down 7 pounds this morning since my weight Sunday night.  I know most of it is fluid because I did drink quite a bit the weekend before I started the Whole 30.  The real test is this weekend.  I had been doing well all week and then going crazy on the weekend.  So whatever weight loss I would see during the week would come right back so that I was losing and gaining the same 5 pounds.  That should NOT happen this weekend because I am staying true to the Whole 30!

Monday went well.  Ate according to my planned menu, though I did add another piece of fruit in the evening.  Worked out according to my plan.  First day was uneventful for the most part.  No coffee (probably the hardest thing all day) and I did have some cravings in the evening, but probably more out of boredom than anything else.  The husband’s co-worker sent home a whole ziplock bag of his famous oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate chip cookies just for me…so said the husband.  I passed…and it really wasn’t that hard.  I made sure to let him know not to do that again.

My fasting blood sugar was elevated (guess who forgot to take Lantus Sunday night), but after I hit it with some fast acting, it was better for the rest of the day (not nearly where it needs to be, but better).

Right on time, “The Primal Blueprint” came in today.  YAY!! So I’ll be reading in between tasks (brought work home since I am off for Mardi Gras).

All of my progress will be posted to the progress page.  At some point (once I’m more brave and a less vain), I’ll post my weight progress as well.

*Circuit Training = Warm-up (10 minutes), 40 fast stepups, 12 dumbbell curls (alternating arms), 40 fast stepups, 20 lunges (10 each side), 40 fast stepups, 12 overhead press, 40 fast stepups, 20 dumbbell squats, repeat circuit, cool down (10 minutes)

Yes, I did say my FIRST whole 30, because I’ll probably do it at least two more times after that.  I’m thinking after a whole 90, I’ll be in a really good place.  I’ve been visiting many paleo/primal/fitness blogs for a while now (as you can see by my ever growing list on the right).  One of those is where I found the Whole 30…go to Whole9 and follow the links.  This is what I am starting tomorrow.  I’ve been “dabbling” with clean eating for a while, but never fully committed because I continued to have “cheat” days and planned non-primal days.  But for the next 30 days, at least, I’ll be fully committed.

For me to be successful with that, I needed to plan.  So plan I did.  We shopped Friday night.  My meals and workouts are planned for the next 30 days.

Yes, even my workouts.  I’ve also been “dabbling” with working out.  In January, I committed to working out every single day for 31 days.  It was hard for me, but I did it.  Since then, I have been researching fitness blogs and sites, trying to find something that will work for me.  As much as I’d love to be able to do CrossFit workouts, I have to be realistic.  An obese 44 year old, full time working, mother of three teenagers can’t just jump in and start doing CrossFit workouts, not this one at least.  But I can learn and modify a plan that will work for me and that is what I have done.

Failure is not an option.  There will be no cheating (in spite of the fact that my home is not Paleo as my husband and children have not come over to my way of thinking, so there are still dairy and grains in my cabinets and pantry).  There will be no excuses for not working out.  This is going to happen and when, not if, but when I get through the first 30, there will be a next 30 and a next.

So things I won’t be doing:  No grains, No dairy, No legumes, No sugar, No processed foods, No alcohol and No coffee (since I can’t bear to drink it black).  Things I’ll be eating:  meat, eggs, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruits and Oils (like Coconut Oil or EVOO).  Some of the things I’ll be tracking:  weight, of course, my blood sugars and the amount of insulin I need to take.  Tomorrow I’ll post the plan for the next 7 days.

Currently, I am merging my two blogging lives. I used to only blog Diabetes and then I created this blog to keep track of my primal progress. Now, I am merging the two. I went primal because of my diabetes so the two do go hand in hand. So, I am in the process of moving all of my links to this blog so that I can come to one place and catch up on all blogging favorites at one click.