Sunday, October 9, 2011

30 Day Challenge - Day 28

Day 28:  Fell off the challenge!

Not meaning I stopped eating Primally, but I certainly didn't keep my original goals of getting 10-15 mins sunlight every day (each sunny day, I tried, but at times just didn't sit still long enough to make the 10 mins), exercise a little each day (well, does walking up and down stairs a LOT count??), and eating Paleo/Primal (that I can say I did about 95% of the month, and when I didn't BOY, did I pay for it!!).

So, what's up?  Well... I'm preparing for our Spouses' Club's Fall bazaar.

This last Thursday, I finally got a volunteer to take the publicity side off my hands!!  THAT freed me up, well... not really, but I didn't have to run around like a chicken without her head anymore!  Speaking of publicity... WE NEED A KINKO'S (or store like it)!!!  To be able to make inexpensive flyers (is it spelled 'fliers'?? Looks wrong) and posters would be amazing!  Perhaps I'll put in a customer request through AAFES... Mike??  What do you say?  ;)  In the meantime, my printer is sure getting a workout and now is telling me the "K drum life" is over... but, punch in "online" and it'll print more.  Same quality, no colors off or lighter... what is a "K drum"??















My teen's senior homecoming was last night and since they had 'mustache' day earlier that week, and he decided his blonde mustache and sideburns needed to be darker to be seen, he now has dark facial hair (compliments of "Just for Men") and is proud of his manliness...

He is awful suave and debonair... and just plain cute.  :) 



Update on Cheyenne:  She's doing well... I guess as well as a dog who is going blind can be.  She moans a LOT.  I mean, not when lying down or getting up (that would be 'normal' at 9 years, i think), but just lying there... she'll move a little an moooooaaaaaannnnn.  She'll change position and mooaaan.  She'll stretch out and mooaaannn.  ???  What's up with that?  She is in no apparent distress... not hungry, has free access to the outside with her dog door (which she still navigates freely), not constipated (I'm one of those moms who will check the poo and watch her go just to make sure all is 'coming out ok'), and her sugar is OK.  So, my theory is that she's making more noises for attention.  Yep, it works.  Or did.

She's also funny about staring at us, though not directly as I don't think she's able to make out exactly where the food is anymore, when we're eating something.  She always has done that, but would put her head down when we said "Put your head down" (my smart boy taught her that).  But now, I'm wondering if she's not listening because she just figures if she can't see us, we can't see her??  I mean, dogs DO seem like a 2 year old human in behavior at times... and, well, that's a fun game for them... ha ha!!  Just a thought. 

How's the raw food diet?  I think my last post I had posted how she and Buddy were totally uninterested and actually had negative reactions to smelling the pork liver we had purchased.  Well, I cooked up some last night and THAT was the trick.  AMAZING.  What they will sneeze at and shake their heads trying to get rid of the smell/taste when raw... they both couldn't get enough of it cooked!!  (I have to say I wouldn't touch the stuff either raw or cooked!!)  So... starting last night, they get a before bed snack of cooked livers.  Unfortunately, though I thought her sugar levels were getting better and were actually quite low when we started with the raw food, we're back up to 16 units of insulin 2x daily.  :(  Well, that's down by 2 units/2x daily as she used to be on 18 units.  I do have to say, though, I have not been taking her for her walks this past two weeks as hubby's not here to take her and I just haven't made it a priority.  THAT needs to change.

1st NEW GOAL:  Take Cheyenne (and Buddy) for a morning walk... daily. 

Update on My weight-loss:  Another stall.  I figured it was most likely due to the fact that I was/am getting busy with the bazaar preparations, but reality is that I have been VERY bad at getting my Couch to 5K runs done.  I should have been done with the program 2 weeks ago and have yet to do my 3rd 9th week run!!  That'll happen today.  

It's frustrating gaining and losing the same 2 pounds day after day.  Everyone's telling me I look 'great' and that I clearly have lost weight... but, that's probably in comparison to how large I was... extra-large, really... still large.  Ha ha!!  But, not in comparison to the beginning of this 30 day challenge!!  So...


2nd NEW GOAL:  No more fruit.  Why?  Fructose.  Albeit a natural form, not chemically altered like HFCS... it's still fructose.  Fructose = sugar.  Plain and simple.  So... for the next 2 weeks, I'm cutting celery, carrots and cucumber sticks and putting into little bags that I can keep in the fridge for my snacks. It is recommended in the Primal Diet that you limit fruits when trying to lose weight.  So... that's what I'll do. 

So, what's been going on besides being busy?  Busy isn't new for me, it just takes different forms.  So, why the stagnation?  Daily headaches... lack of carbs?  Nope... not this far into my Primal journey.  Allergies?  Possibly.  I'm thinking that perhaps it IS what I'm eating and all the pollen from those wonderfully sweet smelling Japanese Olive trees.  That leads me to:

3rd NEW GOAL:  Check ALL food for it's Inflammation Factor.  What's that?  Read on...

About a month and a half ago, a good, 'old' friend (yep, met him back when hubby and I lived in England in 1990!!), who is suffering from lupus (thank you anthrax shots) taught me about the anti-inflammation diet.  He instructed me, via Facebook messenger, how to find the IF (inflammation factor) for each piece of food that one eats.  The site he showed me was the Self magazine's nutrition data webpage.  He talked me through how to figure out the IF for the foods I ate yesterday and today.  The goal is to make sure each meal totals greater than or equal to 50 points.  For example:

My favorite breakfast is:
2 over-easy eggs (IF = -86:  YIKES!!  That's "mildly" inflammatory)
2 pieces of bacon (IF = -12:  still mildly inflammatory)
1 medium banana (IF = -60:  yep, mildly inflammatory)
Coffee 16 oz (IF = 2:  milfly anti-inflammatory!!)

Results:  my morning cup of joe and Primal breakfast was -156!!  That's not 'mildly' inflammatory anymore... it's inflammatory. :(  Sad BabyPT.  So... overhaul this morning to:

This morning's breakfast:
2 scrambled eggs (IF = -122:  why higher for scrambled than fried???)
2 pieces bacon (IF = -12)
3 oz collard greens, frozen (IF for turnip greens = 210!!!)
coffee 8 oz (IF = 1)

Results:  just by changing from a banana to the collard greens added into my scrambled eggs, I was able to make my breakfast's IF = 77.  So, I made my goal for >=50 for that meal!!  Good job, BabyPT!!  :)

So, let's take dinner from last night:

DINNER: 
1/2 white onion (IF = 128)
1 small zucchini (IF = 6)
3 thinly sliced pieces of steak, 3 oz (IF = 18)
Yam noodles/Shirataki, 2 oz (IF = -22, couldn't find shiratake, so substituted soba...)
Fresh ginger flakes (IF = 129)

Results:  AWESOME!!!  IF = 259!!!

Did I have a headache last night?  Yeah.  Why?  Oh, not because of anything I ate or didn't eat.  I'm assuming it's just sinuses and seasonal allergies... so, I popped some Aleve and went to bed.  :)  I must say, my joints feel great today!!  :)

Try the anti-inflammation diet... it's a great adjunct to the Primal Lifestyle/Paleo diet OR just on it's own.

More info:
http://inflammationfactor.com/index.php
http://nutritiondata.self.com/

More dinner pictures... didn't fit with my descriptions above, but are great photos anyways!


Cook the 1/2 onion in bacon grease or coconut oil.. peel some ginger and either grate or peel straight into onions.  I freeze my ginger, so I use the peeler to get the outer covering off, then again use the peeler to peel/grate it!  SMELLS wonderful!!
 Add zucchini and continue to stir-fry until soft tender...  remove from pan and set aside or put right on your plate.
 There's my meat... it's Sirloin Round 'choice' for sukiyaki... there's the noodles in their package and my ginger after I peeled it.  :)  YUMMY!!  Oh, I sprinkled some gluten-free soy sauce on the meat.  Didn't bother with salt, even though the soy sauce was reduced sodium.  Have you ever looked at the sodium content??  "Normal" soy sauce is about 900 mg sodium per serving, and the reduced sodium is still 450 - 510 mgs!!  So... that's a no-brainer for me... go for the reduced sodium 'cause it tastes the same anyways.  ...but I'm not as thirsty afterwards...
 Stir fry the steak... I made all the pieces, but only ate 3... I guessed they're 1 ounce each, but didn't weigh them.  Since they weren't the leanest cuts, I didn't add extra oil to the pan. 

And... lastly, I boiled the shiratake noodles for about 3 minutes.  I have to admit, they were SO flavorless that I wasn't crazy about them.  So, next time I will put some soy sauce and other stuff into the water.  The dogs LOVED them!!  Cheyenne loves pasta, so for that raw food dog, she was in heaven getting to snap at noodles again!  :) 


And one more of the handsome young man...  nah, he's not a ham at all! :)


I sure love you, Boodie!!

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