Thursday, January 22, 2009

Day One

It's the end of day one, and so far, I am feeling good about the choices I made today. While not totally primal, due to poor planning on my part, it was overall much lower in carbs that I would normally have. My food today was:

Morning: 1 oz Roasted Almonds
Atkins Advantage bar --- I know, it's not primal, but it was better than grabbing a snickers!!
Lunch: Flat out Wrap with mayo and turkey pastrami
Dinner: 2 eggs, scrambled, with 3 sausage links, and 2 Tbsp Sour Cream
2 glasses wine
Snack: Tea with 2 tbsp raw honey and lemon juice -- obviously I was craving something sweet! Good thing the worse thing I had in the house was raw honey!

I got my meat delivery today (grass-fed, pastured) so I am now fully stocked and will be able to better plan the rest of the week. My freezer is filled with incredible looking steaks, ribs, bacon, ham, pork steaks, and even some cuts I've never tried before.....like lamb riblets, leaf lard, and london broil (I've had london broil, but have never cooked it myself before!). I am excited to try some new recipes and expand my palette.

Tomorrow I will receive my first shipment of local, organic produce from a new delivery service that I am trying, Terra Organics. The "box" that I will be receiving only has fruits and vegetables grown here in the Northwest. While I generally try to go Organic, if I can find Local AND Organic, I am in heaven! I think this service will help me expand my options in my cooking. For instance, this week, the box contains kale and parsnips. I've never had either of these. I've found some simple, primal friendly recipes that I am really looking forward to making this weekend. If everything goes well, I'll post the recipes.







Ready for the Journey

The New Year is upon us, and like most people, lose weight and get in shape top my list of New Year's Resolutions. I feel like I have been on a diet most of my life and personally, I am sick of it! I think the thing that really gets me is that I know what I need to do. I know what foods my body responds best to. The question is "if I know this, why do I stray from it?"

Well, the time has come to end all that. I decided why not throw caution to the wind and turn to the internet for accountability and support? So here it is, my attempt to get back to eating real food, the food that my body responds best to. Real food is meat, seafood, veggies, fruits, nuts, and yes, fats. My poisons are sugar and carbs. Really, it's true. I know when I eat sugar or carbs, I will feel horrible within an hour, and continue to feel like crap the rest of the day, which of course gets me in that mindset of "of well, I've already blown it." (I know so many of you can relate to that!)

When I say Living Primal, I am referring to the Primal Blueprint that you can find over at Mark Sisson's blog (
www.marksdailyapple.com). The man is living proof that real food is the only way to feed the body! Check it out for wonderful information about how we should all be living!

So what is my plan? Eat (and play!) according to the Primal Blueprint, which includes occassional vices, which in plain english, means every once in a while, I can still indulge in wine and chocolate -- two of my favorite vices!!! And to hold myself accountable, I will post out here in cyberspace for all to see, what I am eating on a daily basis. Now, this blog is not just about what I am eating. It is about making positive changes in all areas of my life, even if I don't know what all those changes are just yet.

I am finally ready to embrace the primal lifestyle. I have cleaned out my kitchen and stocked up on the good stuff. I am also getting into the mindset that this is not a diet, but a life long lifestyle. There are a lot of Primal steps that I already have in place. For instance, when I cook at home, I use only grass-fed meat from a local ranch. (If you are in Washington State and need a source for pastured beef, chicken, lamb and pork, check out
www.thunderinghooves.net. They are amazing!!!) I also attempt to buy as much local produce as possible. I've even joined a home delivery service that delivers only grown in the Northwest (local) produce.


The picture in my profile was taken December 17 at Hanuma Bay in Hawaii. Notice the long sleeves? Yeah, kinda tired of that! A new position at work will "require" three to four trips a year to Hawaii (rough, I know, but somebody has to do it!) and in the next picture, on the next trip, I want to be wearing something a little more fashionable, maybe even showing a little skin (ok, maybe just a little arm!). My dream is to have arms like Angela Basset in "How Stella Got Her Groove Back." I have been saying for years that I want arms like hers!


So there's my story, thanks for joining me in the journey!