Day 6 - Jn

Was up late so I woke up later than I should have. (But earlier than I could have.) I did a mini workout while TF worked on the house and I have generally spent the whole day noticing that I worked out my legs yesterday with every step I climb. And we have a lot of stairs and I have climbed them more than normal because I've been shuffling things around and getting ready for tomorrow. First meeting of the #6 house church in this house. So much to do. So much more interesting than homework. Oh. Crap. Homework. :(

Workout: mini, planned, less angsty about it than yesterday
Breakfast: last of the chicken and onions scrambled in with a pair of eggs, way watered down OJ, rooibos tea
Lunch: Left over venison roast and carrots, an orange
Snack: Hard boiled egg (got indigestion==weird), cinnamon tea (Supah GROSS)
Dinner: Left over venison roast and carrots, Cranberry hibiscus tea

Neither of this pictures looks appetizing. Some foods don't photograph well.

Day 5 - Jn

I slept ok. I woke up in the wee hours and absolutely had to pee or there was gonna be no more rest. But I am feeling better every day. Lets keep this up. No adrenal failure relapse. Ready. GO!

Things to rant about...
- One-A-Day contains soy. Are you even serious? WHY?!?!?!?!?!, I already knew the fish oil capsules I had been taking had soy in them and I swapped those out for the real stuff that requires refrigeration. Lets be thankful that in theory if I am eating REAL FOOD that I won't need a multi any more either. The iron I take has some questionable ingredients but I am gonna keep taking it. I was still anemic on full contact, all go, no quit paleo. I am THAT bad. I need to chew on rusty nails.
- Good Earth tea contains artificial flavors. No freaking way. What about the good part? Why the heck do you need to artificially flavor something if you honestly believe the wonderful herbs that come out of the earth are good.

Things to rave about...
- Looks like all of the food to come in the Passover Seder is fit for Jn consumption. Ok the charoset has honey in it but I am going to eat it anyway. (This works because nothing is leavened....NO BREAD! HA!) Seriously though, I am wicked excited about this meal. It is the first time we will meet as the new family. I am making some whole 30 approved side dish to go with the meal but I haven't figured it out yet.

Work out: Yes! Begrudgingly! But I did it.
Breakfast: Eggs, Strawberries, red chai tea
Snack: artificially flavored crap earth tea and anger
Lunch: Leftover fishes and chards and half a sweet potato
Late Snack: while walking around Home Depot, An apple and a coconut lara bar
Dinner: In a super hurry the last of the chard and some of the chicken and onions all stirred together and consumed with extreme haste.

And I stayed up way to late...but I had fun.

Day 4 - Jn

I slept well! I think! I feel more refreshed than I have for a while anyway. I'm still not acting particularly productive but my mind seems to be more clear. Watched a lot of pre-recorded lectures instead of doing brain intensive homework. But I got work done! And I talked to KC who was all the way in Indianer. She learned lots about eating healthy on her trip so expect a downpour of information coming from her in the next few days.

Also have you figured out that the posts are coming a day after things were eaten? Cause that really makes more sense. And they will come every day until they don't.

Breakfast - Huevos and strawberries again. Watered down OJ and Red tea.
Snack - An Apple
Lunch- Baked Tillapia with lemon and dill, left over rainbow chard, half a sweet potato, Red Chai tea
Snack- small handful of hazelnuts, small handful of almonds
Dinner- Venison Roast and Carrots with really finely chopped onions to flavor the juices (from my deer- I killed it, cleaned it, packaged it, cooked it and ate it. YUM!), also Good Earth Original tea.

"Dessert"- roommate was making something that smelled baked and sugary and wonderful so I felt sorry for myself and went on the advice of a blog and mixed a scoop of almond butter with some coconut milk and some fruit Cherries in my case. Turns out this was gross. I am unlikely to do this again. Dessert = bad idea. AND Roommate made roasted almonds with cinnamon and olive oil and salt. Which is super tasty and totally edible.

I had oh at least 5-6 mugs of tea today. I am back to normal tea consumption only sans the caffeine.

Day 3 - Jn

I got up "early" to work out and ended up Skyping with a friend who currently lives VERY far away. And then I took another friend to the train so she could go somewhat far away. And then my brain decided it was far far away and so I spent the day slowly plodding and mostly distracted. Not sure the source of this funk. SAD (take your pick on standard American diet or Seasonal Affective Disorder)? Burnout from school? Not sleeping well? Dropping sugar? Dropping caffeine? Fingers cross that it is not my adrenals again but if this persists through the month I am going to be highly suspicious.

Breakfast- Leftover Eggs, Strawberries, Peppermint tea

Snack- Half a roto chicken, a handful of carrots. I know it was more like a meal. 

Lunch- Sauted chicken and onions over a spinach and multicolored pepper salad.

Dinner- Pretty much the same as lunch minus peppers and plus olive oil and lemon juice as a dressing

Day 2 - Jn

Today was not a great day for reasons unrelated to current food consumption. My back/hip/both is out. This used to be an almost constant problem before I started eating healthier and working out. While this has still happened occasionally in the past year it's been like once a month. I know. That sounds like a lot. I am working on it. At any rate I was moving slow if I was moving at all and stupid clumsy all day.

In theory the plan for the month was to eat what the LT was eating because we are working together on this and it would be easier logistically. 1 day in this is clearly not going to happen.

Planned no workout
Breakfast: Eggs made yesterday. Strawberries. Almost ate a moldy one- yuck. Peppermint tea
Lunch: A few pieces of leftover roto chicken, a coupla handfuls of carrots and some olives. Peppermint Tea
Dinner: Left over burgers topped with sauted mushrooms and my version of the rainbow chard/savory like we made last night. Lemon Ginger Tea.
Snacks: Cashews, An apple.

The LT had leftover burgers and chard for lunch and if all went well a wonderful roast when she got home from work.

Rough Recipe - Citrusy Rainbow Chard
- Heat oil in LARGE pan (cause green leafies start big), I use coconut or olive
- Dump in the whole 1lb sack of Chard (Kale would also be tasty)
- Pour 2 or 3 splooshes of orange juice and coconut milk (or add extra oj)
- Season with black pepper and or garlic or whatever makes you happy
- Steam until the leafies get soft.

Day 1 - Jn

I was in charge of the meal on Sunday for my little church family. As a send off for myself in to food never never land we had personal pizzas with a plethora of toppings to choose from. The upshot is I had loads of leftover veggies and ham and Bacon prechopped. Both the ham and Bacon have sugar as an ingredient which is technically against the rules but we conceded to this to not waste food. It's mostly protein and sugar was one of the last ingredients in both.

So I woke up. Worked out. Made scrambled eggs with contraband Bacon and peppermint tea. And eventually went to meet the LT. We had spinach salads with chopped chicken, multicolored peppers and pineapple (I had black olives). Then we meal planned a week and headed to the store. We had a few strawberries and an Orange each with some almonds while we started working on food. We boiled eggs for snacks and prepackaged nuts for lunches and made egg casserole with ham Bacon multi peppers and onions for breakfasts. And then we took a break for a while. Dinner was naked burgers, half a sweet potato and rainbow chard steamed with Orange juice. Colorful and tasty. I had some more chicken when I came home too.

Day 1. Success. Although one of my vitamins was lactose based and I realized too late. Lame.

I suppose I should get honest…and specific.

I started doing paleo March 15 2011. I know because I wrote it down. Sometimes I do helpful things like that. I was rigorous about what I was putting in my body for a month. After that I tried my hardest most of the time to avoid all grains but rice corn and quinoa (It acts like a grain. Get over it.) and those I ate sparingly. And avoid legumes including peanut butter. But I would eat wheat free soy sauce and not freak out if soy was a minor ingredient in something. And I guess somewhere in there I lied. I ate rice in various forms at least 3 times a week. But other than cross country travel when it was desperately difficult and over the holidays I managed to stay roughly paleo most of the time since then.

I stopped (and sometimes force myself away from) eating healthy on March 22 2012. I am now just over a week in. My body is angry and my cravings are for things like green beans and spinach salad and steak. I’ve eaten a bunch of my pre-paleo favorites and found them disappointing. The brain is a petulant child. If you don’t give in to the cravings it will throw a temper tantrum and all you can think of is pizza. Bring pizza up in a different context and the child is completely disinterested.

So what difference does a week make? It’s huge.

• I didn’t weigh myself before I started this so I donno if I gained or lost weight. I honestly don’t care.
• I am having trouble sleeping. (Part of that is ridiculous hours drinking caffeine.)
• I have the mental capacity of a goldfish. (I went to make myself a mug of tea in the microwave. I put a teabag in the mug, loaded the dishwasher, started to make breakfast, decided I wanted to make tea, put a teabag in a mug and rediscovered the former setup waiting for me beside the already opened jug of water. I got distracted between opening the jug and pouring. Seriously?) This has become common. I find myself walking around the house lost and wondering what I was supposed to be doing.
• I HURT everywhere. My muscles are sore like a mild flu. My joints ache- especially my knees. My eyes hurt?
• I’m getting headaches pretty regularly. That hasn’t been a problem for months.
• My skin is dry and cracking.
• I’m getting weird ringing in my ears.
• Despite eating all the time I am always hungry. I never feel satisfied and I never feel full even though my stomach hurts from ingesting too much food.
• It is getting harder to discern exactly what I am craving. That unsatisfied feeling all the time leads to a generic food craving and since I don’t know what I am craving I don’t know how to fulfill it so I eat lots and lots of things hoping to get it right.
• My insides are revolting. Both the verb and the adverb here. I am in GI pain probably 50% of the time.
• I am having crazy blood sugar swings. High spikes and low drops and both leave me feeling weak and shaky.
• Coupled with the blood sugar swings are mood swings. I get really cranky and mean at either end of the spectrum.
• And in general my mood is lousy. I’m depressed. And if I am not depressed I am sad. Lots of “what good are you anyway” thoughts which are flat out LIES. This is particularly not cool and frightening. The food I eat is not allowed to be able to shift my thought patterns in to the realm of “everything is ruined forever”. Bad food! Sit! Stay!
• I know that I honestly used to feel like this all the time and I THOUGHT IT WAS NORMAL. I thought it was the curse of my genetics and I just had to live with it and treat symptoms. I can’t believe I lived this way. I’m miserable and ready to start doing it right again.
• At the end of the week I was ready to be done. Really really ready. Those are the things I remember. I am sure there are probably more. Even just eating a healthy grain-free breakfast made a huge difference.
• I rang in this morning at 129 lbs but I don’t trust that scale at all. At least it is repeatable.

I will post later about what the LT and I did with ourselves today to prep (and eat).