What to say?

People have started noticing and commenting on my weight loss (6 kilos in 3 months which is by no means outstanding, but it’s obviously noticeable). With the comments come the inevitable “how are you doing it?” questions. These are the ones that I still cringe at. Not because I don’t want to share, but because I know that my answers will cause some raised eyebrows.

Here’s the thing. When you say to people “I’ve started eating 200g steaks for breakfast” they look alarmed. They also don’t understand when you say “I only use full fat dairy and put butter on my vegetables”. Other concerning statements include “I cook in coconut oil – yes it’s high in saturated fat!”, “Soy makes me sick”, and “Potatoes don’t count towards my vegetable consumption.” And the most outrageous thing you could possibly mention is that you don’t eat whole grains. EVER! 

I shall never eat this way again!

The only way I can justify some of my eating habits is with my gluten intolerance. That gets most people off my case with the bread/wheat thing, but still doesn’t explain why I don’t eat rice or beans. The fat debate is one that I know I will never win, so I don’t even go into that argument except to say that coconut oil is the absolute best thing to cook in because it has a higher heating point than most things – including olive oil! It also helps that Miranda Kerr has spoonfuls of it each day ;-p 

This is more like it!

With the start of my Leptin Reset challenge, another difficult thing for people to understand is the no snacking thing. We have had the 6 small meals a day mindset drilled into us from all angles… Most people don’t take the time to understand the logic behind this – they just hear it and think “Yay! Another couple of times I can eat!” By following an eating plan which advocates eating windows allowing at least 5 hours between meals, I don’t only feel better, I feel free-er!! It’s less meals per day that I have to think about preparing.

In the exercise stakes, it’s a similar pattern, although a bit easier to explain away. At my first session at my new gym, the personal trainer assigned to me looked a bit crazed when I said I only wanted a weights program from him. “But you need to do cardio at least 3 days per week for weight loss!” No, actually I don’t. Apart from the fact that 70% of weight loss comes from what you eat, excessive cardio actually stresses the body! I told him that my main daily cardio would come from walking, and I would do one HIIT session per week (sprints on the treadmill or intervals on the rower). The rest of the time I would divide my workouts between weights, pilates and yoga.

Now that the weight loss is showing, it’s nice to know that I’m finally on the right path. I’ve been trying the excessive cardio route for years and combined with a conventional wisdom eating plan with whole grains in abundance, I didn’t lose any weight! So much for busting my gut at 5am every morning and starving myself by eating “low – fat” (but high sugar) yoghurt and calorie restricted meals! Conventional wisdom certainly does have a lot to answer for…

The Importance of Routine

I went to visit my parents on the weekend. They’re awesome and I love seeing them, but staying at their place for 4 days threw me completely out of whack! Don’t get me wrong, they are healthier than 99% of the parents out there, this I’m sure of. But there’s something about being in someone else’s place (even if they are your nearest and dearest), with a different kitchen and fridge, that makes it harder to stick to your tried and tested eating plan.

Breakfast wasn’t too difficult as they always have an abundant supply of eggs, and I was lucky enough to scrounge some left over curried mince to add to that. It had some vegies through it but I also added some broccoli to flesh it out. Lunch and dinner too was generally some kind of meat with vegies, but it always seemed to have an additional sauce or not huge range of veg… Overall, it was still okay but there was still small room for improvement.

So what is the big deal then you might be asking? Well it was just the little things that threw me. My parents drink a lot of tea, and will usually have at least one for morning and afternoon tea. With my new ‘no snacking’ rule, it was difficult to overcome. The worst was the morning we went to my grandparents and, knowing that my brother and I were coming and it was my dad’s birthday, my grandma had baked all manner of delicious but decidedly not-primal goodies. Sitting there drinking a cup of iced water while my family chowed down on pikelets, date and fruit cake was tough!

The issue there was that because I remained strong at morning tea time, when it came around to lunch I was able to rationalise having a piece of fruit cake with my cuppa! Perhaps ‘able to rationalise’ is not the right terminology, but with everyone commenting on my weight loss and me feeling like I’ve been eating really well, I just went with it.

I know what you’re thinking… So what?!?! You ate a piece of fruit cake – oh you’re just on a downhill spiral now!!! And yes, granted it is probably a bit of an extreme reaction. But do you know what? I didn’t really even enjoy the fruit cake (sorry Grandma!) It was too sweet for my palate which now associates sweetness to the tart berries I occasionally have as a ‘treat’ after dinner. Even the chocolate (85% at a minimum) I eat is bitter. But I love it!  And so I have learnt that I still need a bit of work when it comes to emotional eating. I wanted that fruit cake because it reminded me of summers at Grandma’s!

I guess the biggest lesson is that routine is so important. There is no way I would ever eat fruit cake at home because I just don’t have that sort of stuff in my house! It’s easier to skip morning and afternoon teas because I don’t have the social expectations surrounding it. Plus there’s never going to be a load of goodies silently chanting “eat me” in my ear.

So this week it’s back on plan. I won’t see my family again until Christmas, and even I know that I will give myself a cheat day then! I figure as long as I can eat fairly cleanly up until that point, I’ll be doing alright.

Re-organising my priorities in life!

I'm back!

Since this is my first post in over 10 months, I'm feeling excited but overwhelmed at the same time. I have had what only could be described as a 'hellish' time this past year, but am now finally feeling like I might be coming out the other side!
How do I know this? Well mainly because I'm now really keen to get my health and nutrition back on track. Like many women going through a relationship breakdown, I turned to comfort foods to help me ease my pain... My comfort of choice was chocolate, and lots of it... I'm talking mars bars, rocky road, milo - the works!

A mars a day does NOT keep the doctor away!

I certainly didn't forget my intolerance to gluten in all this, but the few times I did go all the way with my cheating, I paid for it in the days afterwards. If anything, it has helped to further cement my commitment to the primal lifestyle!
So now that I have removed all the distractions from my life and surrounded myself with people who are truly understanding of my choice to live this way, I'm hoping to get back on track. I wasn't necessarily wildly out of control, but I also wasn't completely committed to the cause. This is probably why my weight didn't actually change, so while I'm happy that chocolate didn't increase my paunchy stomach, I still know I need to lose about 15 kilos to get to a healthy weight.

Kick-starting towards my goals

In the last week, I've been rediscovering the absolute gold in the Marks Daily Apple forums and among other things, have stumbled across the Leptin Reset challenge. After reading all the info on Jack Kruse's site, I thought this sounded like a good way to kick start my weight loss again. And given that it is now 6 weeks until Christmas, it seems like the perfect time to give it a crack.
The general premise is that you eat your biggest meal at breakfast, eating no more than 30 minutes after waking, and making sure it's full of protein (at least 50g) and good fats. You eat a maximum of 3 meals a day and there is no snacking allowed. This includes coffees and teas unless you drink them black without milk and sugar (and who seriously wants to do that!) I think this is going to be the most challenging thing for me, as I am used to my morning cuppa at about 10:30am. Carbs need to be limited to 25g, which basically means no grains (duh!) and starchy vegetables. You should try to allow at least 5 hours between meals and not to eat 3 hours before bed (this is difficult for most people!) Exercise is discouraged in the initial stages, but I will still do my walking and light resistance training.
One of the tricks with the protein thing, is that it needs to be 50g of protein. That ends up being a lot of meat or eggs. For example, a 170g fillet of steak has approximately 42g of protein in it, and 1 egg has about 6g. So my breakfast this morning consisted of a 200g rib fillet steak and 2 x poached eggs with sliced avocado. I would usually chuck some vegies in there but was in a bit of a rush this morning. Other okay sources of protein include cottage cheese and tofu (no thanks!), and nuts have a small amount too.

Did someone say vegetarian?!?

What do I want?

I've got some short- and long- term goals that will help me to stay on track, particularly with the silly season nearly upon us! My major goal is to lose 15kg by 10 March 2012, which is when I take off overseas for 6 weeks. I'll be a bridesmaid at one of my best friend's weddings in Thailand, so I'm keen to look my absolute best. Considering that is 16 weeks away (I'm not counting the Christmas/NY week), I'm hopeful that that isn't too great a goal. And now that I've written it in the blogosphere, I've got a constant reminder! Along the way, the major things I'm hoping for are better sleep, improved fitness, no sickness, and more energy.
Once the initial 6 week Leptin Reset period is over (and I've survived Christmas!), I'm keen to start experimenting with IFing, and heavy lifting. Everything I read tells me that these two things could make an even greater impact on my health. I figure since my parents were once both bodybuilders, I must have the genes somewhere in there to be really toned!
In the meantime, I've subscribed to basically every Primal/Paleo blogger and have renewed my subscription to most of the primal newsletters. I'm also going to pledge to update my own blog regularly, if only for my own needs. And now that I have a Twitter profile, I'll have to learn how to use it!

The End of Joke January!

Joke January is a joke (haha) between my work colleagues that centres around the fact that January was a write-off. I know that excuses are always a sign of lack of commitment, but hey, a major natural disaster and big move aren't regular occurrences!
The floods hit us in the second week of January, which meant that my well planned start to the year was thrown into chaos! Certainly we were some of the lucky ones, in that the floods didn't get anywhere near our home, but they did manage to inundate the basement of my workplace... Our team had a lot of work to do and nowhere to do it!
My regular routine was disrupted and in the madness of having nowhere to go to work, my husband and I made the big move into our first 'house' together! Due to the floods, we weren't even sure that we would be able to do that up until the day the move was scheduled for... So it wasn't exactly a stress-free time.
I am still displaced from my workplace. While it's still disruptive, now that Joke January is over, I've really made an effort (psychologically) to turn February into a good month! I'm a bit disappointed that some of my 2011 bucket list has already been put onto the backburner, but I'm sure it won't take much to turn it around.
So, efforts towards a morning workout (either a walk or swim) will be stepped up and our eating habits will definitely improve! We've already joined the local pool as members and found some great local places that sell fresh food. I've started a pole dancing class with my friend (it deserves a separate post!) and found an adult education centre that offers music and sewing lessons!
Here's to February being fabulous!

A 2011 Bucket List?!?

Can you have a bucket list for just a year? I’m not sure, but hey, why not?! I am hopefully not anywhere near dying, so a ‘kick-the-bucket’ list is a long way off. Still, I was thinking last night about things I would like to achieve this year, so why not make a list?

I have the advice of many wise people floating around in my head too – set realistic and achievable goals. It’s no good saying “I will lose 20 kilograms this year” because, while that might happen, it doesn’t actually verbalise how you will actually do that! It’s much better off to say “I will eat no grains or sugar” or “I will do 30 minutes of exercise every day” which is measurable, achievable and should, if done right, lead to that 20 kilo weight loss!

My 2011 bucket list will not just be weight/health related, though I’m hoping that some aspect of my life will be improved by achieving them (duh, otherwise what is the point!). So, here is my list for 20-11…

• Eat no grains (this one starts on 3 Jan, as my previous post explained my unpleasant start to the year!)
• Learn a musical instrument (at this stage, I think it will be guitar, though I could do always do something really unusual – bagpipes perhaps?!?)
• Take a course in how to use my digital SLR camera (no point having it if I don’t get the most out of it!)
• Grow and maintain a herb and veggie garden (this one can start when we move into our house on 15 Jan)
• Learn pole dancing (I already have a friend on board to do this with me!)
• Get a membership at our local pool and swim at least 3 times a week (our pool at home is not quite big enough to do laps!)
• Start studying for my masters (the jury is still out about what my specialisation will be!)
• Eat seasonally (no more ‘fresh’ strawberries in winter!)
• Take a photo a day with my husband (an idea I read in some relationship magazine – this will have to start when I’ve discussed it with him!)
• Learn basic sewing (this might have to wait until I have a sewing machine!)
• Maintain this blog with at least one post per week!

Notice I haven’t numbered them. I don’t want this to become a tick and flick type list, and create that mental barrier that I have to complete number 1 before I do number 2 (especially since the eat no grains thing is a year-long attempt!).

I’m sure I will add to and/or change this list as the year wears on. I’d like to be able to look back at it regularly to remind myself of what I’m aiming for this year…. It will also be good to reflect on it at the end of the year and identify if any of these goals have led to other positive changes in my life. For example, I’m hoping the eating no grains and swimming will lead to some weight loss.  Possibly eating seasonally with a herb and veggie garden, and learning to sew will save us money! Who knows what else this could bring…

Now it’s your turn!

Happy New Year!

Yeah, I know I’m a few days late! Better late than never but… I actually started off the year feeling terrible, but not from what you might think. I had a couple of drinks on NYE but certainly not enough to make me drunk, or sick… I was horrified to wake up at 5am on New Years Day as sick as a dog then! Hubby joked that I’d had too much vodka, but I knew the culprit – NYE dinner and the chicken kebabs that obviously hadn’t been quite cooked…

While it was horrible at the time and not exactly pleasant looking back on it, there was one good thing about it. It cleaned me out! Seriously, I was an empty vessel on January 2, ready to start the new year afresh. I couldn’t stomach anything serious however and unfortunately settled for a small cup of oats with banana and milk. I know, appalling! But honestly, it seemed to balance out my stomach, so at the time I was quite thankful.

Hubby & I had planned to really kick into the 30 day challenge on Sunday, but my physical state didn’t quite allow it. I was left feeling very sore and sorry for myself, and I guess you could call it a fasting day (which is not a bad thing when you think about it!)

By Monday I had perked up enough to stomach a small serving of bacon and eggs for breakfast. Lunch consisted of meatballs and strawberries (served separately!), with chicken and salad for dinner. I knew that my stomach was considerably smaller than it had been at the end of last year, so I took it really easy to make sure I didn’t overdo it.

This led me to thinking that I should really make a conscious effort not to overeat. I should explain, I come from a family of overeaters. It was almost a competition, especially with 2 younger BIG brothers! I know that over the years, I have definitely maintained generous portion sizes with my meals. Why not use this as an opportunity to curb my ways? Combined with primal eating, this must be a good pathway to a healthier weight!

So combined with my New Years Resolution to eat no grains and minimal sugar, I’m adding watching my portion sizes and eating slowly. Defined goals that are achievable. I can’t guarantee that I’ll lose 15 kilos, but I can stick to my ‘no grains and sugar’ mantra!

Back on Track

It's been a month since my last post, and I'm only just now finding a small window of time to sit and write about my experiences (good and bad) since our big move, starting a new job, and aclimatising to Queensland weather!
As I've said before, moving is hard. It's doubly as hard when you move into accommodation that's not actually 'yours'. We have a beautiful apartment in an amazing area of town until we can move into our house, and although it is perfect in many ways, the fact that it's not ours has interfered somewhat with our way of life (pre-move!). An unfamiliar kitchen with certain essential utensils missing; and not knowing where to get the best, freshest food, has been our major hurdles. Not to mention living just up the hill from some of the best restaurants in Brisbane!
All of this has meant that I've been fairly lax in maintaining my Primal Blueprint eating plan. I've tried, don't get me wrong, but it's been difficult!
I've managed to steer pretty well clear of wheat products, and have been impressed with the gluten free options offered at most restaurants up here. There's certainly a greater awareness of offering gluten free menu options which has been good. My slip-up came recently at my cousin's wedding - a cocktail function with canapes. Not many gluten free options available, and I either had the choice to not eat (which would have been disastrous as there was lots of alcohol on offer) or to bite the bullet and try some of the different choices....
This was not a good decision, let me tell you! At least if I had just stuck to alcohol I would have enjoyed the night and been fairly sick the next morning, but would have bounced back pretty quickly. Because I chose to eat, I paid for it all week. I'm not kidding. It started the next morning with a terribly upset stomach and a week later I was still not well. Lesson learned, I hope!
It has definitely cemented for me the fact that Primal Blueprint is the best way of eating for me, if for no other reason than PB food doesn't make me sick! Everyone at my new workplace knows that I'm gluten-free (it's the best way of explaining it to people who you hardly know!) and I have learnt that if there are no PB friendly foods on offer, I choose not to eat! A bit of fasting does the body good!

Mondayitis

Oh man, did Monday come along way too quickly this week! It probably had something to do with the crazy weekend I had, but still, this morning's alarm was not well received (and consequently snoozed for a good half an hour!)
I'm actually really excited about this week. We're moving back to Queensland (the state of sunshine) on Friday and I'm starting a brand new job next Monday, so there's lots to look forward to. There's also lots to be stressed about, because packing and moving is not the easiest thing in the world to do! Especially if you had a 'blow out' on your last weekend!
Most people would consider that a 'blow out' every once in a while is acceptable, and probably required to maintain sanity. But considering I haven't really had one since I started this journey in April, my body has reacted pretty badly today!
I should clarify that my 'blow out' began on Saturday evening at my beautiful friends' engagement party. I'm one of the bridal party, so figured it was as good an excuse as any to let my hair down. And I did. When hubby questioned me as to how many glasses of champagne I consumed and I couldn't actually remember, I knew it was a good one! I think the figure was probably about 20 glasses, but hey, who's counting?!?!
Of course, all this drinking on what was a somewhat empty stomach would have its downfall. I certainly wasn't strict with PB eating when the canapes came around. Unfortunately there wasn't really enough food for me to feel like I'd had a full meal, and so when the rest of the party guests were announcing their intentions to grab some Maccas on the way home, the golden arches had never looked so good to me!
This was probably the point of the night where there was definitely no turning back. 1 cheeseburger & McChicken burger later and I was feeling good! I didn't even give a second thought to how I might be feeling in the morning, especially considering that the last time I had had Maccas would have been over 6 months ago!
Fast forward 10 hours and I was in pain. My body ached and my stomach growled at me. I knew what I had done but I felt so terrible that I couldn't be stopped. I was never so thankful that the staple PB breakfast is bacon and eggs because that's all I felt would get me through! My beautiful husband made me the most perfect scrambled eggs you've ever tasted, and I was feeling better...
It didn't last though! In another few hours, guess what I was craving?!? More crappy food! Specifically, a sausage roll and quiche from the local bakery. Definitely not primal, but I didn't care! I made a promise to myself that I would have some vegies for dinner...
That promise lasted as long as my full stomach did. Then I was definitely NOT keen to go grocery shopping and pick up some real food, and definitely WAS keen to eat some greasy chinese food, including spring rolls and rice.
Let me tell you, after eating this, it wasn't pretty. My stomach which had been growling at me before was now more in writhing in pain. I knew what I had done. It was as if I'd gone on a 24hr bender, with processed food and grains being my poison of choice!
A sensible option this morning was to fast. This would at least give my stomach some reprive. Unfortunately I've still been feeling terrible. I feel like I have constant indigestion. The most I could stomach at lunch was a salad. That just made me feel heavier. If I could take the afternoon off, I would, but it's my second last day at work! So instead, I'm just going to suffer and remind myself of this experience any time I think "Oh it won't be that bad" in the future. Because let me tell you, it is that bad, and worse.
The positive, if you could see it like that, is that I now understand why I am feeling so bad. It's like my body is rebelling against my food choices! I know why my stomach feels like it's in knots and why I feel like I've got constant heartburn. I've eaten more grains in the past 48hrs than I have over the past 3 months prior, so my body has gone into shock! But if this feeling is not incentive enough to not touch them again, I don't know what is.

Just because I haven't posted, doesn't mean I'm not committed...

Yeah, I've been slack with the posts lately. Sometimes life just gets in the way! I've had such a crazy 3 or so weeks and it's been difficult to get a spare moment... The great thing is though, I can safely say I've stayed on the primal blueprint track. How well? I estimate at least 80/20.
Haven't heard of the 80/20 rule? Basically, it means you're primal 80% of the time. And with my 20%, I try to stay reasonably true to the PB laws so that I don't undo all my good work!
Travelling is difficult when you're following the primal blueprint. We did a LONG drive up to Queensland for my sister's birthday and found it really hard to get good primal food. Here's a run down of our 6 days away...
Night One = 7hr drive. I had packed some boiled eggs, ham, and vintage cheese, plus some fruit and nuts to snack on during the trip. Easy!
Day One = 10hr drive. We managed to get a primal breakfast of bacon and eggs at the hotel's breakfast buffet. Thinking about it now, breakfast is actually an easy meal to do primal - bacon and eggs, hold the toast. Lunch was a bit trickier... We stopped at a highway servo and options were Maccas, KFC, or sandwiches from the cafe! Not exactly full of options. I ended up getting a salad sandwich and just eating the filling! Dinner was fish and vegies at mum and dad's - the vegies were a definite winner!
Day Two - Five = fairly primal eating while visiting family. My 20% cheats included Grandma's scones (seriously, how could I resist) and my lime & soda mixed with Malibu at the 18th party.
Day Six = 17hr drive. This was an effort. We found a roadside cafe for breakfast and it was awesome - the best bacon and eggs I'd had for ages! Lunch options were Maccas/KFC/Subway, so I went for the most primal option - a Subway salad (no bread). Honestly, it was terrible! Seriously, without the bread, cheese, and sauce, subway salad is not at all fulfilling! We stumbled across a cafe that did roasts for dinner, and so really enjoyed a roast beef and vegies (especially after that terrible lunch).
Exercise while travelling is also difficult. I managed to get in some interval sprints on my parents treadmill, and a long beach walk while visiting Gran & Granddad, but apart from that, the exercise was minimal.
The dreaded visit to our personal trainer after 2 weeks 'off' came sooner than we were ready for. Imagine our surprise and excitement then, when we stepped onto the scales and we'd both dropped 2 kilos! Our trainer suggested that the time off actually worked in our favour, so we were stoked that our seemingly 'slacking off' turned out okay.
Although we still have a hectic couple of weeks to get through, I'm committed to staying as close to primal as possible. I just know that it makes me feel better and I still have a way to go to reach my goal weight. So, with changing jobs, moving house and city, I think the primal blueprint will be a welcome constant in my life!

Cavewoman & Caveman come to the party!

My sister's recent 18th dress-up party provided a perfect opportunity to embrace our inner caveman! Conveniently, my sister's name starts with "C" and hubby immediately knew, considering our recent lifestyle change, that dressing as a caveman/woman would be perfect...

Look at my sexy body!

We started off the evening fairly primally - with meatballs & vegies for dinner! However as it was an 18th, avoiding the copious amounts of alcohol on offer was a challenge... I chose what I figured was a 'decent' primal drink of choice - malibu + soda water + lime.

They had malibu back in cavewoman days, didn't they?!?!

Of course, no true party is complete without the token strippers pole, and hubby showed his caveman strength...

Lucky for those caveman bike shorts hey?!?!

So we joined the birthday cow, Clark Kent, cleopatra, cadbury, CSI, cutlery, california girls, cactus, cheerleaders, Confucius, Cat in the Hat, and all the others in celebration of her 18th birthday, and we're pretty sure we're too old for this stuff! Happy Birthday you cow!

Long Weekend...

Whenever a long weekend comes along, it's always easy to let your healthy lifestyle fall by the wayside. I've made a conscious effort this weekend to ensure that, even if I was a bit more relaxed, I still managed to meet most of the 10 Primal Blueprint Laws. Let's see how I went:-
1. Eat lots of animals, insects, and plants
Hmm, well I've definitely covered the animals and plants thing, though not so keen on the insects part! Friday night started with Meatzza, I've had a fruit smoothie, roast chicken and greek salad, and bacon and eggs... (eggs technically count as animal!)
2. Move frequently at a slow pace
I did a low impact cardio circuit at the gym (combo of walking on an incline for 2km, rowing for 2km, and a 5km easy bike ride), did a 30min spin session, and some Wii yoga. I was planning on going for a walk outside, but the weather hasn't permitted :-(
3. Lift heavy things
A weights sessions at the gym is my only claim to this law... Oh, and a 30 minute bodyweight session (lifting my own weight is HEAVY!!!!)
4. Run really fast every once in a while
Haven't covered this one over the weekend. My interval sprint training usually happens at a PT session on either Tuesday or Thursday - it will be Tuesday this week, as we're travelling on Thursday :-)
5. Get lots of sleep
An easy one over the weekend! I am always guilty of sleeping in a bit, but I figure I'm catching up for any sleep lost during the week. Technically we 'lost' an hour of sleep last night, as daylight savings kicked in and our clocks went forward an hour, but we will get that back when daylight savings ends in April!
6. Play
Not really covered this one, and it's really one that I need to work on. This shitty weather doesn't help! I did play my favourite jet-boarding game on the WiiFit - does that count?!?!?!
7. Get adequate sunlight
Hmmm, another tough one, especially in Canberra and this terrible weather! I did take my Vitamin D tablets though :-)
8. Avoid trauma
I have managed to successfully avoid hurting or injuring myself - bonus, as I usually burn/cut myself when cooking!
9. Avoid poisonous things
We had Indian takeaway for dinner last night. I wouldn't say it's entirely poisonous, it was mainly meat, spices, and vegetables (they thought we were weird cos we didn't order rice or naan bread!), but I'm sure there were some ingredients which my body didn't appreciate!
10. Use your mind
I continued reading Gary Taubes "Good Calories, Bad Calories" - it's a very heavy book that you can't read all in one sitting (like I usually do when reading fiction!)... But it's an amazing, eye-opening read!

A day in my life

Today was a good day! I feel really positive about both my eating and exercise today, so thought I would share it with you... I've been a little bit run down this week, and added to the stress of my job interview last week, it has culminated in a cold sore, so have been trying to really focus on clean eating and staying really healthy. I must say though, these Compeed patches are the best treatment I've ever used for cold sores, so if you haven't discovered them yet, and you're an unfortunate sufferer of cold sores like me, you must try them out!
Here's my day...
I woke this morning and had my lemon & water drink with 2 lysine tablets (a must when you have a cold sore outbreak).
Breakfast consisted of 1 soft boiled egg and a smoothie (banana, strawberry, pecan, greek yoghurt & coconut milk). I also took my daily vitamins, Blue Ice Royal (Cod Liver Oil+Butter Oil) and Ferro-Grad (Iron+Vit C).
I had a handful of macadamias at about 11.30am... I find it so hard to just stop at a handful of macadamias, but practising self-control is a really important component of the Primal Blueprint! Because all of the food you eat is SO tasty, you really need to be conscious of how much you're eating, otherwise it's very easy to eat a whole packet of something (in my case, macadamias) in one sitting!
Today was a rare day that I didn't have a packed lunch, so I bought a 1/4 free range chicken, 1 avocado, and a pre-mixed greek salad to eat. Not the most amazing primal lunch, but definitely a reasonable compromise. I've really been focusing on increasing my fat intake lately, so have been adding avocado to many of my salads. I have to say, it's definitely a favourite of mine!
Due to a late lunch (2:00pm) and having personal training at 5:30pm, I didn't eat anything this afternoon. That meant I was really pumped for my personal training session.

And boy, did my trainer work me hard! A brief warm up walking on an incline on the treadmill and then into the weights room for a great, but full-on, workout. Here's a run down of what I did:-
3 sets of:-
15 x squat to press
15 x bent over rows
15 x bicycle crunches
*rest*
3 sets of:-
15 x upright rows
10 x burpees
15 x push ups
*rest*
3 sets of:-
15 x bicep curls
10 x jumping jacks
30 second plank
*rest*
3 sets of:-
10 x medicine ball squats
100 x skips
10 x O-leg crunches
Let me say I was completely buggered by the end of this! And my trainer let me cheat on the last set by only doing 50 skips... I think I earnt it but! Seriously, skipping is not one of my favourite exercises, simply because I always feel un-co doing it and generally can't do 100 skips straight through without at least one trip up. Can someone out there invent a machine that replicates the skipping action, without actually having to jump over a rope ;-p
Tonight's dinner consisted of lamb cutlets and garlic with mashed pumpkin, cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, and dutch carrots. And for dessert I treated myself to a cuppa and a fruit & nut bar (home made of course)!
So, today was definitely a great day! How was yours?

Primal Plan

Whenever someone has asked me about Primal Blueprint lately, they've always followed up with a "What's the eating plan like?" question. I'm sorry to break it to you, but there isn't one! And that is the real beauty of the Primal Blueprint - it can be tailored exactly to suit your goals and taste buds ;-p How many times have you read over a diet plan which gives you a daily eating schedule and thought, "I could never do that because I don't like eating (fill in the gap here)"... That issue is eliminated when following the Primal Blueprint because you can choose to eat what you like from the allowed foods list! If you're still unsure about the allowed foods, here's a run down:-
Eat:-
- vegetables;
- meat;
- fish;
- poultry;
- nuts & seeds;
- fruit;
- FAT!
Avoid:-
- grains;
- trans-fats;
- anything with an ingredients list ;-p
We also allow dairy in our eating plan. Mark recommends cutting it out if you know you have issues digesting it, but we, thankfully, seem to handle it well. Again with dairy, full fat is the only way to go, raw is even better but difficult to obtain (low fat means it's been heavily processed  - and seriously, how much better does full fat cheese, milk, yoghurt taste!)... But, as another example of making the eating plan work for you, if you don't feel 100% when eating it, don't!
Of course, people are still curious about what we eat during a day/week and so I thought I'd give you a look at our plan for the week...

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
1 x soft boiled egg Smoothie with hazelnut, banana, strawberries & greek yoghurt	Bacon & eggs with tomato, spinach & mushroom sautéed in garlic	Intermittent Fasting	1 x soft boiled egg Smoothie with hazelnut, banana, strawberries & greek yoghurt	Sausages with tomato, spinach & fetta frittata
Left over roast chicken and vegies	Fish cakes with BAS (big ass salad)	Grilled lamb, pumpkin & fetta greek salad	BAS with ham and avocado	Thai Lettuce wraps with roasted cashews
Salmon in creamy dill sauce with steamed vegies	Greek lamb cutlets with sautéed mediterranean vegetables	Beef ribs in blueberry sauce with roast sweet potato & spinach	Thai Lettuce wraps with roasted cashews	Cheat Meal (Katie travelling)

As you can see, we are eating quite well on this 'diet'. I do this plan up on a Friday before our weekly shop and it always works well. And just so you know, we plan to eat this way for the rest of our lives, focussing on the freshest fruit and vegetables, and best sources of meat (grass fed should be your aim). We have been eating like this for the past 2 months and I've lost over 7kg! And I've never felt like I'm missing out! To help you even more, over the coming weeks I'll post recipes for some of our favourite meals so you can try them out too (check out Salmon in Creamy Dill Sauce to get you started).
One thing you will notice is that there are no morning or afternoon snacks in there. Honestly, we've found that you don't need them when eating this way. Particularly after a breakfast filled with eggs and lots of fat, we stay full until lunch time. If we do feel the need to snack, our choices are nuts or fruit. Also, if we're feeling like we need something after dinner, we allow ourselves a square of dark (85%) chocolate with a cup of tea. Mark covers sensible vices quite nicely and dark chocolate definitely makes our list! Warning though, if you've never had 85% dark before, I recommend working up to it by starting at 70%... Initially, to our 'sweet tooth' 85% dark chocolate was quite bitter, but now after having cut out all sweet things, it tastes like pure gold to us! Apparently they can get 99% stuff in the States, so one day we might give that a go. I'll do a proper dark chocolate post at a later date.
So there you have it. I challenge anyone to claim that we are missing out on vital nutrition eating this way... Unlike many other diets, we don't feel restricted in our eating choices, and definitely feel FULL after eating every meal. We have more energy than ever before and that helps us when we're flexing our muscles at the gym. The variety in our food is amazing and we've discovered a love for many new vegetables (which, if we were told that we MUST eat for a diet plan we would probably dislike, but because we get to choose to eat them, we love them!).

First Week of Primal Challenge

So one week down in the Primal Blueprint 30 Day Challenge and honestly, it really hasn't felt like a challenge at all! The food we eat on this eating plan is absoultely mouth watering and we never feel like we are missing out... We're also really enjoying our exercise, having increased our strength training and limiting ourselves to one high intensity sprint session per week.
Take at look at how our first week panned out:-
Monday
B'Fast = Walnut, Banana, Strawberry & Blackberry Smoothie with Full Fat Greek Yoghurt & Coconut Milk
M'Tea = Cup of tea with Full Fat Milk
Lunch = Roast Pork and waldorf salad with apples (no dressing)
A'Tea = 1 x corella pear
Dinner = Salmon Fillet in creamy dill sauce with mixed steamed vegies (Recipe coming)
AM Workout = 30min body weights & stretching
Lunch Workout = 30min walk around park
PM Workout = 30min Yoga on Wii Fit
Tuesday
B'Fast = 3 egg omelette with mushroom, tomato, & spinach and 2 chicken sausages
Lunch = Ham & Avocado BAS (Big Ass Salad)
Dinner = Grilled lamb steaks with baked pumpkin and mixed vegies
Lunch Workout = 30min walk down to the lake
PM Workout = 1hr PT session (sprints & abs)
Wednesday
A day of travelling for work still meant No Excuses!
AM = Fasting
Lunch = Mix of caeser (no croutons) and greek salad, filling from 1 mini quiche, assortment of sliced fruit
A'Tea = Handful of nuts and cup of tea
Dinner = Moussaka with greek salad (Recipe coming)
No Workout today :-(
Thursday
B'Fast = Hazelnut, Banana, Blueberry & Strawberry Smoothie with Greek Yoghurt & Coconut Milk
M'Tea = Cup of tea
Lunch = Left over moussaka
A'Tea = 1 x apple
Dinner = Chicken Parcels (Recipe coming) with sweet potato chips and mixed salad
AM Workout = 30min bodyweight & stretching
Lunch Workout = 30min walk around city
PM Workout = 1hr PT (circuit)
Friday
B'Fast = Scrambled eggs with bacon, tomato, spinach & feta
Lunch = Grilled barramundi with chips & vegies (eating out reasonable option)
Dinner = Zucchini base pizzas topped with proscuitto, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, bocconcini, rocket and basil
No Workout today
Saturday
B'Fast = Bacon, eggs, mushrooms & tomato
Lunch = Almond, Banana & Strawberry Smoothie
Dinner = Roast pork with apple and roast vegies
Dessert = Walnut self-saucing pudding & ice cream (a cheat meal as we had guests over!)
No Workout today but put in 2hrs of housework which I figured counted for something :-p
Sunday
B'Fast = 3 egg omelette with bacon, tomato, mushroom, & spinach
Lunch = Roast chicken with mixed vegies and tabouli
Dinner = Beef & pumpkin casserole
Dessert = Pear slices

Overall, eating this week was good! Our workout schedule could have improved, so that will be our goal this week. We do always get in 35-40mins walking daily by walking to and from work, so I know that if I miss my workout, it's not the end of the world!

The Primal Blueprint 30 Day Challenge Begins

The official PB Challenge starts tomorrow as they have lined it up with the American Labour Day Holiday. Hubby & I thought we’d get a head start though, so we’re prepped and ready to go today! The main reason for this is that it’s much easier to get into the right headspace on a Monday, when you are at the start of your week, and you can set up your habits for the remainder of the week.
Mondays are hard! I’ve always found this with our current work-out schedule. You go to bed on Sunday night with great intentions of dragging your ass out of bed before 6:00am to get in some exercise, but 9 times out of 10, the alarm gets snoozed til you MUST get up or be late for work! The winter just adds another deterring element to the situation... Now that it’s spring though, I’ve figured that time for excuses is over.
I think the Monday-itis has a lot to do with the weekend hangover. Think about it, you’re more relaxed with your sleep patterns over the weekend, which means when Monday hits, you have to reprogram your body for that earlier start. Going from an 8:30am wake up on Sunday to attempting a 5:30am wake up on Monday is near impossible! That could have been the equation facing me this morning...
Instead, last night, I thought about what I could reasonably manage. Going to the gym adds an extra 20 mins onto my time needed in the morning, so that was out. I could go for a walk through the park, but Canberra mornings are still quite chilly, so my motivation for that was not high. I settled on an easy 30 min body weight and stretching session to get my heart pumping and my muscles limber.
I’ll let you in on a little secret now... I still snoozed the alarm this morning! It was set for 6:00am, but I didn’t get out of bed til 6:30am. That’s the beauty of giving yourself plenty of time though. I knew I didn’t need to start getting ready for the day until 7:00am, so I had factored in some snooze time.

Here’s a breakdown of what I did for those first 30 minutes of my morning...

Start with a glass of water + lemon juice – it freshens your breath and provides a good kick start to the day (my mum also says it’s great for me too, so I usually listen!)
I did 3 sets of body weight exercises:-
10 x burpees (these are the bane of my existence, but I know they are good for me!)
10 x push ups (I did as many as I could on my toes (4) and then went to knees for the rest)
60 sec wall squat (a killer in the morning)
10 x tricep dips (I use the dining chair to do these as they are a good height)
60 sec plank (again, another killer, but overall the best core exercise you can do)
These took me approximately 20 minutes – I could usually do this in less time, but it’s still pretty hard to go flat strap first thing so I recommend easing yourself into it!
I finished with 10 minutes of stretching which is without doubt my favourite thing to do in the morning. You really work all those tight muscles and it can even help relieve tension from sleeping incorrectly the night before.

By 7:00am, I was ready to make a start on our breakfast smoothie (banana & strawberry with coconut milk) and prepare our lunch (roast pork & apple waldorf salad). A busy, but productive morning, and I’m going to be feeling good for the rest of the day.
Honestly, the biggest tip I can give anyone starting out their journey is to plan! That might sound a bit “teacher-like” but it is certainly the best way forward. Last night, I planned in my head what I was going to do, how much time I needed, and factored in extra time that I knew I would most likely need on a Monday morning. I plan daily and weekly as it helps me to have a process determined in my mind, which makes me less likely to falter. For example, today I’ve covered off my body weight session, I’ve planned a walk at lunch time (weather permitting), and will do yoga tonight (Wii Fit might have its faults, but I have come to rely on these bi-weekly sessions!).
An even greater level of planning goes into our weekly food plan (80% of body composition comes from what you eat!). I plan on a Friday, as we shop at the Farmers Markets on Saturday, and this allows me to get everything we need for the week. Buying the food according to a plan also raises my awareness of what food we have in the fridge. All too often, when you don’t have food in the house or an idea of what to cook, you can get caught in “I’ll just have take-away tonight” mode. There is also an awareness that fresh food has a used by date and therefore we don’t want to waste it! I’ll do some more in-depth food plan posts at a later date.
Let the 30 day challenge begin!

What is normal?

It's amazing to witness the changes to your body when you start to eat the right foods. Before primal, I was often bloated, fatigued, suffering indigestion, and constantly getting sick. We are raised in a society which accepts that sickness is normal, but is it really?!?! Surely our bodies were designed to be healthy. We are given all the tools to live full and healthy lives, but somewhere along the line, we've become complacent.
I think that a lot of the issue stems from our quick fix pharmaceutical/pill industry. Rather than addressing why we are feeling sick, we pop a pill that masks the symptoms but doesn't actually treat the underlying cause. Is this the way we want to live? Imagine if the answer was simply eating the right foods, getting regular exercise and plenty of sleep...
I can't believe the change that has occurred in me over the last 6 weeks. I've survived a Canberra winter unscathed, which is amazing considering that I've spent most winters in the past either with the flu, or recovering from it. My skin has improved out of sight. I no longer suffer from indigestion after most meals, nor have I seen any signs of bloating (apart from one occasion when I cheated at a Chinese restaurant and had some rice). I have more energy and finally have a reference point for what 'normal' should feel like.
It makes we wonder though, how many people out there are unaware that things could be better. Unless you have a celiac diagnosis, it's unlikely that you're aware that eating grains is a major cause of bloating, gut irritation, and indigestion. And possibly you think it's normal to feel like that after eating! As Kat Eden explains, we need to start listening to our bodies and feeding them the right fuel.
I haven't even mentioned the weight loss that has come with the primal eating plan. In April, when we started on this health journey, I weighed in at 96.9kg. At my weigh-in last week, I was 91.7kg. All but 300grams of that weight has come off in the last 5 weeks. To me, that is incredible! We are openly fighting back against conventional wisdom and winning. I have not felt hungry since we started eating primally. I have more energy to commit to my training sessions. A typical breakfast for me is a 3 egg omelette with ham, tomato, mushrooms & spinach. No shakes or low fat breakfast cereals, I get to eat real food, food that has typically been shunned by conventional wisdom, and I'm losing weight.
While learning all this information was initially daunting, and a little bit frightening, I now feel empowered. For the first time in my life, I feel like I have control over my body. Granted, I've always been in control, but this new way of thinking helps me to make informed decisions. I'm learning what 'normal' really should be!

Starting a Primal Journey Part 2

The first, and in my humble opinion the best, website I discovered was Marks Daily Apple - primal living in the modern world by former marathon runner and all-round legend Mark Sisson. As I read through his 10 Primal Blueprint Laws, I became concerned, then enlightened, then excited! Concerned because a lot of the information in his sight contradicts the conventional wisdom about diet and exercise we have been raised to believe (and, as I have previously mentioned, I have religiously followed for years). Enlightened because he explained, with detailed references to scientific studies and personal experiences, why the food that I have been eating has been making me fat, depressed and sick. Excited because if this primal way of living was going to improve my overall health, assist in weight loss and contribute to a fun and happy life, I was ready to sign up (and encourage my family and friends to do the same)!
Although my husband was somewhat reluctant to attempt what could easily be seen as another one of my crazy "fad diets" he was supportive of me adopting this approach as he could see how depressed I had been getting with our current health and fitness regime. And since I do the majority of the cooking in our house, he was coming along for the ride whether he liked it or not!
Now since I am writing this blog for myself and to hopefully enlighten my family and friends, I'm going to really break down how I've made changes in my life to adopt this primal lifestyle. A lot of the blogs I've discovered online are from people who have already been primal for some time, however I am at the very early stages of my journey. I've got a long way to go to get to my ideal weight so you can share the ups and downs with me!
The most crucial aspect of eating primally comes down to the level that all food you put into your mouth is processed. Let me spell it out for you - it should be unprocessed! We should be eating food just the way nature intended it. If it comes in a box or from a drive-through window, chances are it's not good for your body! If it has an ingredients list longer than your Christmas wish-list, it is not real food.The guys over at Fitness Spotlight cover this one perfectly.
The first challenge I encountered was the notion that grains are unhealthy. Yes that's not a typo. Conventional wisdom has us dominating our diet in healthy grains with a food pyramid urging us to eat 6-11 serves a day. I'd never thought about this before, but should we really be eating 11 serves a day of anything (except maybe vegetables!)? Everything in moderation, or so the old mantra goes! The issue is that we have been duped. Grains are not our friend. Ever wonder why celiacs disease is now being diagnosed at a higher rate than ever before? It's because our bodies, evolutionally speaking, were not designed to eat grains. Cavemen didn't feast on bread, cereals, pasta and the like! They ate real food like meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds. But in a relatively short time (yes 10,000 years is short in the span of human evolution), grains have become the staple of our diets. The issue? ALL grains need to be processed in some form before we can eat them. Ever seen a bread tree? What about a spaghetti plant? Ever seen wheat in its natural state? You can't just go out to a field and eat it! If you do a google search, you will come up with many websites supporting this fact. Mark does it best though here and here.
So, our first stop was to cut out the grains. It was easier than I thought! We really didn't eat much bread beforehand, so certainly didn't miss that. And instead of our dinner plates being loaded up with pasta, rice, or the like, we just piled them high with vegies! We swapped our cereal breakfasts for omelettes or smoothies and our sandwiches at lunch for salads.
Our next challenge was sugar. This was a big one, especially for my husband, who has a very sweet tooth! Sugar is likened to heroin in its addictive nature and I would hazard a guess that most of the world's population is addicted to some degree.  The idea that sugar is what is making us fat is not new, although is certainly not supported by conventional wisdom, which blames fat as the cause of our issues. Once you realise how many foods have added sugar, you start to see how we have been misled for all these years!
Eliminating most added sugar in our diet was made easier by the fact that we were able to substitute sugar for fat. Yes, this one isn't a typo either! Fat is good for us (except for trans-fats and polyunsaturated fats) and contrary to popular belief, eating healthy fats, even saturated ones, doesn't make us fat. It's easy to see how we've been fooled. The idea that fat makes you fat is logical. But ask yourself this. With the proliferation of low-fat, fat-reduced, and fat-free food that is now flooding the market, why are we getting fatter?!?! Obesity is a growing problem and obviously the low-fat diets are not working - I am a prime example! The reason? In laymans terms, all that food, when the fat is removed, tastes like shite, and therefore needs additives to make it taste okay to eat! So rather than eating the natually occurring fat in food, we're stripping all the nutrients out of it and adding sweeteners to make it palatable. Or even worse, we're creating "fake" food as a substitute for "real" food.
So that's basically it. We've cut out grains, reduced sugar intake, and upped our healthy fat intake. I am now cooking meals every night rather than relying on Lean Cuisines (which although are low fat are high in everything else!). We are taking a healthy salad to work for lunch every day rather than relying on the cafe across the road. I only drink water or tea (Coke is a dirty word in our house!). I am conscious of everything that I put into my body. I read labels on foods. We get all our fresh produce (meat and vegies) from the local farmers markets. I ensure that all the meat we eat is grass-fed, that our eggs are free range, and our vegies are free of pesticides. Despite all this, our food bills have gone down, due to the fact that we are not eating nearly as much food (as an added bonus, fat makes you a lot fuller than grains and sugar), we hardly ever get take-aways, and have scrapped the Lean Cuisines (that are actually ridiculously expensive!).
Even if you take nothing else away from this post than to consider switching to just eating real foods, then I think that's a positive!

Starting a primal journey Part 1

For my first blog post, I am sharing my story, to set the scene for the beginning of my journey...

I am exhausted.
For years, I have religiously followed the conventional wisdom mantra of eating a low-fat diet and (albeit not as religiously) working out in excessive cardio sessions at the gym. But it hasn't worked! Since leaving high school 10 years ago I have gradually gained excess weight to the point that the Wii Fit now scolds me for being "Obese". What's going on? According to conventional wisdom, my low-fat, calorie controlled diet combined with regular aerobic exercise should have had me losing weight until I reached a healthy goal.
My latest quest for health began in April when my husband and I signed up to a personal training program at a local gym. This included two 1hr sessions per week with our personal trainer, regular gym sessions on alternate days, as well as a calorie-restricted healthy eating program.
We worked hard. We ate carefully. All our food was measured and portioned. All our workouts were hard-core. If we weren't hurting a couple of days after, we hadn't worked hard enough.
We both really improved our fitness levels. I started not being able to sprint above 7km/hr on the treadmill and I can now push 14km/hr. I can do twice as many pushups and even manage a couple 'man' pushups (proper ones on my feet instead of my knees). I can run the full 5 flights of stairs at the gym rather than plod up only 3 flights. Great results yes?!
There was one problem. In 8 weeks I had only lost 300grams. My weight, which had been measured on a weekly basis, had fluctuated up and down, but I hadn't even been able to crack the kilo mark! My husband, who granted had more to lose, had only managed a loss of 1kg over the 8 weeks. Obviously fitness is important, but my goal was weight loss and I expected at least some results.
After working our butts off (figuratively, not literally obviously) for more than 2 months, we were pretty much at the same size we'd started. No weight loss! No body fat loss! How was this possible? I was working harder than I ever had in past 10 years, and had drastically changed my eating habits. Most days I was averaging about 1500 calories. I was always hungry and generally didn't have the energy to put my all into training sessions, but I powered through, confident that conventional wisdom would come through in the end.
It didn't.
By month 3 I was over it. I couldn't understand what was happening. I had practically given up eating any food that was "bad" for me, even though they were the foods I enjoyed eating the most! I was dragging myself out of bed in the freezing cold winter conditions at 6am to flog myself in the gym before my day had even started. It was completely depressing and difficult to see a way through it.
An off-the-cuff comment that I remember my mum making last time I had been visiting up north was my turning point. She had mentioned a "Caveman" diet philosophy. I understood this to mean eating like they did back in caveman days. Before McDonalds, Lean Cuisine, and Light & Easy meals dominated our weekly menu, these caveman had access to natural, wholesome food. Could their way of eating be my answer?
As I could only guess that diet was the issue in my lack of weight loss, I set out to do some research to see what information was available about this way of living. And that's where the revelations began...