DW's primal journal

ooooh ooooh ooooh i hurt this morning. Last night was the typical half hour of drills, then we worked on a sparring drill that involved step back, snap kick from back leg, then duck a punch, come up and cross punch 1, 2, 3, 4. Lather, rinse, repeat with increasing speed. So, yeah, deep, wide stance squats over and over, for a half hour.

But then something totally cool happened. Well cool for me. The Mr. had dropped me off for class and run to the store to get some stuff for our bbq today, and came back to get me, sitting through the last quarter of class waiting for us to finish. As soon as it was over, our instructor beelined for him and proceeded to tell him about a round house to spinning back kick I planted on a guy in the ring on Tuesday, and how he wished he could have videoed it. He wasn't blowing smoke either. The guy was like, misty eyed describing all this. "I'm telling you, she can fight", he said, which of course I'm just weird enough to get giddy hearing that. Anyhoo, he wants me to test for my yellow belt next Friday.

Adding squats to the at-home exercises now. Just as soon as I CAN squat. I need this shirt. Squats? I Thought You Said Let's Do Shots | HUMAN | T-Shirts, Tanks, Sweatshirts and Hoodies

BBQ with friends today, most of whom are gluten free so that helps with the menu planning. Brisket, chicken legs, jalapeno poppers, fruit and veg trays, got some Blue Diamond crackers that are made from nuts and rice... I figure white rice isn't nearly as bad as the rest of the grains. Cheese cubes, hot sauce that the Mr. is making now.... corn chips but a few won't kill me.

Breakfast: 2 piece bacon, 3 sweet cherries, 1/2c cottage cheese
Lunch/Dinner: grazing on above for the afternoon
Scale probably won't move until next week.

 

Nothing much has changed in the past few weeks. I haven't been paying a lot of attention to what I'm eating but there wasn't much in the house that wasn't primal approved anyway. That I liked, at least. Not a fan of beans in a can or spaghetti. The scale hasn't moved either way.

Got my yellow belt! Which was waaaay too big so I raided the Mr.'s old Kempo bags and dug out his yellow one which is about a foot shorter and fits way better. I'm also going to have to get my gi jacket taken in. It's way too big now.

I was expecting to have to do all the basic kicks, two katas, and three hapkido moves. Was not expecting to have to spar for it. Or do jump kicks. Or moving blocking exercises. Or punches. But ok no prob. Afterwards he tells me he made me do a lot more than he normally did for a yellow belt. Which, I'm not sure why. I joked that he was hoping I'd pass out so he could fail me but he said he wanted to see how far he could push me. Anyway I told him I want to start working on the punching bags so we picked out some bag gloves and as soon as those come in I'm going to start on that because my arms were like jello after just a couple of minutes swinging.

We also added a fourth and final addition to the house, an 18 month old Dobie we named Brewer... Brew for short... in honor of the Mr.'s newfound obsession.

Unlike the old Pit, Brew is a ball of energy and wants to go go go which means I'm spending a lot more time running around than usual. Not ACTUAL running... for runs I drive the truck and run the leash out the window. He can hold 15 mph for a couple miles straight without blinking. Me, not so much. But now I'm really, REALLY wanting a dog cart. I will need to lose some more weight tho... In the meantime we're clicker training, working on recall, sit, stay, and show some damn manners when someone goes to the door. The Mr. wants me to include Get Off My Couch and Get Your Long Skinny Nose Out Of My Butt to the lesson plan but haven't gotten to those yet.

My go-to breakfast has become 3 pieces of bacon and a half cup of cottage cheese. It's easy and I like it. If I wake up really hungry then 3 pieces of bacon and 3 eggs scrambled with 2 tablespoons heavy cream and Sriracha sauce and cheddar. Lunch is usually a baby spinach salad with assorted chopped veg and maybe a small can of salmon or tuna tossed in. Our blackberry patch is producing massive berries right now so I eat a handful of them every morning.

They're the extent of my sugar fix, though I have been allowing myself my Starbucks chai tea latte on Sundays when we go into the city.

Exercise includes class 3-4 times a week... tho only once this week thanks to my back flaring up. Also free weights for arms and shoulders, squats, and 80 crunches every 3-4 days. I have aspirations to do it every other day but motivation to sweat was never my strong suit. Adding in a mile a day of walking Brew. I'd say I have a goal to eventually run with him but all it takes is about 20 steps running now and the hip bursitis comes on screaming so I don't know.

All things considered I feel better than I have in years and a hundred times better than I was at the start of this year. I've been slacking a bit for the last two weeks... with the scale not moving I figured I'd ease up on myself for a while and perhaps trick my body into thinking all this losing weight silliness was done with so it'd stop hoarding every calorie I give it. But starting tomorrow (Sunday) I'm going to tighten things up and work on dropping the next forty pounds.

 

Nicely done, DW.
As for your dog cart. Are you wanting to buy or build? If build, I would recommend a surry design. Using wheelchair wheels (as I did on this deer cart. It remains light, assembles in less than a minute ( with no tools), and the wheels are designed to be supported from one side only.)

 

I've been doing a lot of research on the dog carts for a while. The two main designs are the Chalo sulky, which is a two wheeler that uses a dorsal pole hitch, and then the Sacco which is more of a traditional shaft system. The advantages of the Chalo are of course, weight, but your dog needs to be extremely well trained because he can spin on a dime and there's no steering ability beyond gee and haw. The thing I like about the Sacco is the shafts hook into the steering system so if your dogs "SQUIRREL!!!", you have more control. But I'm not spending $3000 to buy it or a grand for the Chalo.

The nearest thing I've come up with as far as cobbling together my own version vs actually building from scratch is to take one of those 3 wheeled bicycles that has the basket between the rear seats, removing the chain and drive stuff, then taking the seat off and lowering it down to the frame between the rear wheels, but using a boat or riding mower type seat. Far as the front end, it could be cut and rebuilt sort of chopper style maybe, swapping out the front wheel for a shaft with 2 wheels and a Sacco style tow bar attached to that, leaving it wide enough that I could run two dogs side by side on down the road if I got another Dobie.

The problem I have with building a sulky is getting it perfectly balanced. And I don't really like riding on them. My cousin once let me drive some retired Standardbreds of his using a sulky and while it was a blast I couldn't shake the feeling that I was one bump away from falling off the damn thing.

 

Our zucchini is producing like mad so we're eating a lot of it now. I have a little side gig doing product reviews and got sent a spiral slicer to use on veggies. It's cheap but does the job unless the zucchini gets too big. The other night we had spaghetti and meatballs but I used zucchini spaghetti on mine... zoodles, heh. In the mornings I've been slicing a bunch up and tossing it in the bacon grease after the bacon is done. This morning I added some Cholula to it and my eggs and it turned out great.

Last night we had quail that the Mr. picked up frozen. I originally thought they were deboned and was going to stuff them with cheese, bacon and jalapenos but they were just butterflied and full of little bones. I tried to debone one but mostly just butchered it so settled for rubbing them in bacon grease, salting and peppering, and tossing on the grill with a foil pack of baby red potatoes I dug out of our tater tub, and onions with olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh rosemary. Added jalapenos halves filled with cream cheese/red pepper/jalapeno and topped with a little strip of bacon... I made up several gallon bags full of those a month or so ago and stuck in the freezer. Saute'd some shredded zucchini.

I have class tonight so won't get home until after 7:30, then shower, so dinner will be a quickie. Have pork shoulder steaks thawing, will season and toss in the cast iron skillet and stovetop them. Maybe a salad to go with.

Scale coughed up a new low number but not quite a pound down so will recheck in a few days.

 

Seems like I'm eating zucchini twice a day lately. Shredded and saute'ed in olive oil, season salted strips on the grill, diced with tomato and spinach in balsamic vinegar, shredded and dehydrated and added to salads for crunchies, raw with salt. We only have two plants but they're in a raised bed full of bunny/chicken poo and rotted hay so they're producing like mad. Saw squash bugs the other day tho so their days are numbered.

We've had a cool snap with rain and temps in the 60-70 range so class has been a nonstop rotation of heavy bag work, sparring, and the weight circuit. Halfway through everyone's arms are jello, ha. I'm getting really good at taking punches to the face. Some day I will learn to keep my hands up. :/

I came across a recipe for chocolate covered toasted coconut pops, primal approved. I don't do sweets often but lately have been craving something sweet. Think I will be making these this week.


Scale: -3.2
Total: -45.2

 

On the bright side, maybe you shoes wont fit anymore and you'll get to go shopping for some new ones!!
Our family eats tons of greens now and we never used to until we woke up. I have 2 friends that never eat vegetables and they both have sunken, hollow, black rings around their eyes.
I started looking into stat's on nutrit. values of different greens before planting my little garden and was amazed at the level of Anti-Inflam. properties greens have.
My knee's don't hurt me anymore, I know it has something to do with it.
If you put some wild honey, soy sauce, garlic and ginger they are quite good! We have them almost every night now.
My picky 13 year old loves them, so that's sayin something!

 

I wear the same size shoes as I did in high school.

Had a chicken leg and thigh for breakfast yesterday and then did a stir fry for dinner with turkey breast, shrimp, bell pepper, carrot, zucchini, and mushrooms. Made some jasmine rice for the Mr. but just ate mine straight. Turned out pretty good. Had to run to the city to get my latest Invisalign tray and swung through Starbucks. The carbs/sugar on those iced chai lattes are evil but I'm only hitting them a few times a month now ... used to make them at home and go through one or two a day. I don't let myself make them now.

Breakfast of bacon, fried eggs, and zucchini. Topped the eggs and zucchini with Cholula. Iced Earl Grey tea. Lately I've been doing breakfast around 10 am and then just skipping on to dinner, probably do that today. Not sure what to fix for dinner. Have class tonight so won't have time to do anything fancy. Maybe just do pork chops w green beans and garlic shrooms.

 

Today is my birthday! Yesterday I got a giftie box from mom which confirms my suspicion that she has dementia. Inside were various goodies, including a bag of brussels sprouts (I think I told you about how I hid those behind the fridge and in plants as a child to get out of eating them), a random ziplock bag, a B cup sport bra (might have fit when I was 12), and a pack of AA batteries which I will happily add to the stockpile. On Saturday we're heading to the paintball place for the afternoon with a bunch of friends. Well I say a bunch of friends. Started out with 14 until the girlfriends of the guy friends found out where we were going. The number rapidly shrank to 5. And I'm buying so WTF? Whatever. Afterwards we're hitting Texas Roadhouse and I'm getting an obscenely big prime rib, extra rare. But for today, it's dining as usual. I debated making some chocolate cupcakes but meh. I had so many blackberries the other day I made blackberry cobbler... not primal approved. Tasted wonderful, but made me feel like crap afterwards. So much sugar, ugh. I had to take a nap. Wound up throwing a bunch in the trash. Freezing the rest of the blackberries to make blackberry brandy with later.

Doing a lot of heavy bag work in class, and it was 99F yesterday. Bout passed out from the heat, had to go collapse in front of a fan for a while. Tried to stand up once and went dizzy. Be glad when fall gets here and the temp drops. Can't handle those workouts in that kind of heat. No class tonight, back Thursday and Friday. Hopefully the new bag gloves I ordered will be here by tomorrow. Hate using the grungy ones they have at the gym.

Came across this recipe in my quest to use up the zucchini explosion:
Zucchini Noodles with Caper Olive Sauce and Fresh Tomatoes | Gourmande in the Kitchen
And while debating whether or not to make a chocolate cake for my birthday I found this:
Paleo Zucchini Chocolate Cake

Scale: -.8
Total: -46

I started this on March 7 and I set a goal of -10 a month, which is a bit ambitious but anyway. Coming in 2 pounds shy of meeting it this time but that's ok. -8 beats -0.. or + anything.

 

Looks amazing. I was wondering if there was a healthier zucchini chocolate cake recipe out there. Thanks for posting. I just harvested my second zucchini yesterday. This summer has been so cold. I will trade our 60 for your 90's anytime.

Happy Birthday Queen DW!

 

When we arrived at the paintball field I was feeling pretty good. All those TKD drills, the endless bag work, sweating buckets, I figured I was in ok shape. Not great shape, but ok. The paintball place quickly disabused me of that notion. Holy crap! I was sucking wind after the first very short game. I wasn't the only one either. Our group consisted of 30-40 year olds, nurses, LEO, machinists, and all but one skinny CNC operator is carrying at least 50 extra pounds. We managed four games back to back before making a run for the safe room to chug water and examine our welts. And discuss how fat we are. Then back out to a new playing field. We played for three hours, picking up two extra players along the way, a pair of 17 year olds who were quick to dispatch all of us in rapid succession despite being a bit fat themselves. During one of our water breaks someone dryly observed that if this had been a war we'd already be gathering flies. Regardless of the blood, bruises, and blown lungs we all had a blast and have made a pact to hook up a couple times a month and play some more. Next date is the 23rd.

Went a bit off the rez over the weekend, with Texas Roadhouse's version of a bloomin' onion on the table and Starbucks on the way back home. Also half a bag of popcorn yesterday and an entire bar of dark chocolate. Climbing back on the wagon this morning and am going to get back to planning out meals in advance for the week to help keep me on track.

Breakfast: 1/2 c cottage cheese, 3 pieces bacon
Lunch: 2 cups Romaine, 1oz cheddar, half a small can of canned chicken, 6 cherry tomatoes, 2 tbsp mayo
Dinner: 8 oz pork steak, mushrooms onions sauteed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Snack: 1/2 big avocado

Scale: -3.4
Total: -49.4

 

Watch out for twisted ankles while playing paintball. I have twisted several. I love the game, but I play with a slingshot, and dark paintball shells, that way you can't tell where they are coming from until too late!!

 

I didn't stick with things too bueno in August. It's a real bear to be the only one at home trying to eat a certain way and I've been getting into stuff I was trying to avoid because seeing it on the other guy's plate is more than I can stand sometimes. I'm not exactly the Queen of Willpower. More like the court jester. Haven't been going to class much either. Using injuries and heat as an excuse but not fooling myself. I'm just being lazy. The scale hasn't gone up so there's that at least, and yesterday while running around doing errands I was constantly hitching up my jeans, which will now pull off without unbuttoning, but I need to get back on track asap or I'll wind up having to pull off weight I just lost.

I'm thrilled to have dumped just short of 50 pounds... but I still need to drop a lot more. Somedays I think I look pretty good. Then I pass a mirror and .... *sigh*. But maybe I need a few more mirrors because sure as chit my friends and husband don't reflect anything negative back or do anything to encourage me. Being surrounded by fat, hungry people isn't conducive to sticking to a more active, healthier lifestyle. My lone female friend completely ignores the topic entirely... she's forever trying some magic pill or drink hoping to wake up skinny and I think she resents seeing me lose weight through actual effort. She's one of those who likes to go on about how fat people are fat because of their genetics and not bad choices and I'm screwing up her excuse so I won't be getting any support from her and she's damn sure not going to be my walking buddy, lol. My husband isn't going to say a word either way because his first wife taught him to avoid that particular bear trap. Plus he's been on a chili dog/beans & cornbread/fries & tater tot roll lately and I've pretty much waved the white flag for the most part. Maybe knowing you guys see many ax handles my ass is measuring lately will horrify me enough to keep me at the gym and out of the mac & cheese.



Yeah. Ugh. I lined them on on the right side so as you can see I'm aiming for jeans that are almost half the size of the starting pair. Back to recording everything I eat and getting on the scale every morning.

Breakfast: skipped
Lunch: 1 chicken thigh, Caesar salad with chopped tomato
Dinner: Spinach Parmesan ravioli with spaghetti sauce... not primal but I thawed them out and we need to eat them. :/

 

Need some motivation to get back in the gym?

 

Need a kick in the ass. I want to go tonight but the pet/house sitter is coming over at 5 so I can show him what to do and I don't know if I'll be done with him in time to go. Then leaving Friday morning for our fishing trip so won't be going next week. Will just have to do stuff on my own til week after next.

 

I will save this for a PM