What? Sweat??

Sweat:

We do a LOT of this as humans, don't we?  I found that while 30 pounds heavier, I sweat more... then I started exercising while at that weight and I sweat buckets.  I'd read that as your body becomes more efficient at exercise, I'd sweat MORE!  Really?  Yep... however, 30 pounds less, I look at it like it's a sign of my hard work at becoming healthy.  So, when the Couch to 5K Facebook page posted something from Active.com about how your sweat can taste different according to what you're eating... I clicked and read, and decided I'd share: 

What Does Your Sweat Taste Like?

By Anna Roberts McMurray
For Active.com Ever notice when you are working out, or especially when you are in the hot yoga room, your sweat smells, tastes or feels a certain way?
Sweating is a natural function of the human body, and is very important to the body health. The first function is to cool the body down when it is heating up. The second function is to provide a secondary system that removes toxins through the skin.
Ideally, you want your sweat to taste and smell neutral, which means your body is balanced and hydrated but for most of us, this may not be the case.
Use this sweat taste guide to determine what you're eating and make the appropriate adjustments to balance your body.

• Salty: You have been eating a great deal of carbs: breads, pasta and fried foods.


• Sweet: Lots of sugar in the body with can come from fruits, chocolate, candy, or alcohol.


• Sour: You've had a bit too much dairy and soy products: milk, cheese, or tofu.


• Vinegar: Too much protein and animal products, which gets turned into ammonia.


• Thick: When your sweat is thick there is a lot of gluten in the body which comes from breads and pastas.


• Margaritas: Margaritas...enough said. 

Next time you work out hard, take a moment to taste and smell your sweat. Take note of what it tastes like and make the adjustments in your diet. Then be sure to drink plenty of water to hydrate and flush out any toxins in your body.

Interesting, huh?  Nope, not gonna see me licking my arm while running... but, I DO sweat a lot on my upper lip and end up tasting that just licking my lips.  Though I've been off breads, pastas, and fried foods (except stuff I stir fry up in coconut oil or organic butter) for over 3 months now, I can honestly say I don't recall licking my lips lately and tasting too much salt, but more salty than not... definitely not sour, vinegary, sweet or thick... sheesh, I always thought sweat was sweat and basically salt water... I'll have to pay more attention in the future!!  ;)

 

30 Day Challenge - Day 30

Day 30: 'Tis the last day of the challenge... but, remember, two days ago I wrote new goals for myself:

1.  Take the dogs for a daily walk (I had put morning, but let's be real and say 'anytime' as they really don't care, they just wanna walk!).
  - Today, we walked!  Poor Buddy just wants to GO and see and smell and meet and greet and I STOP it.  I am a Cesar Millan-type dog owner.  When we're walking... we're walking.  We're not sniffing the ground or trees or other people/dogs... we're walking.  It's exercise.  I also do not let him charge forwards WAY in front of me... or PULL me (that's a battle).  I swear, no matter how high I put his leash on his neck (like Cesar shows), he's pulling... gagging and coughing along the way.  Cheyenne... just walking.  She's getting arthritic enough to slow down pretty fast these days.  She was my real test-subject for the Dog Whisperer methods and it worked!  I even have doggie backpacks for them both.  When we first started doing our walks Cesar's way, it was just Cheyenne and I... back before the Buddy rescue.  I would load up 2 bottles of water in each side of her backpack and 2 cans of fruit in each side.  I would come home with my left calf all bruised cause she 'healed' so well, the backpack would knock against my leg!!  Well... fast forward over 5 years later and she's still walking well.  Buddy, on the otherhand... doesn't care if he has a backpack on that weighs 50 pounds... he'll still strain to go forwards.  I really would like to take him running with me.  Wish hubby would do that, but he doesn't, so somehow I need to figure out how I could and get away with leaving Cheyenne at home.  (you haven't heard her cry when I take him and not her out of the house!!  It's HORRIBLE!!!)  So.. before dinnertime, we had a nice 30 minute walk and about 10 minutes running around the dog park.  No other dogs there, drat. 

2.  No more fruit
   -  well, besides the 1/2 apple the day I made this goal... no fruit.  got on the scale this morning and no movement... not like I really expected it to move much with no fruit for 2 days! 

3.  Check all food for Inflammation Factor.
  - that I've been doing AFTER eating it!!  Here's the morning breakfast of 2 eggs (-122), 3 oz collard greens (210), 2 sausage links cut up (-27), and 1/4 cup salsa (-1) = +60 IF... makes the goal of above 50!

So, lunch was such a delicious meal yesterday that I repeated it today and took a picture!  I can't believe that just virginia ham, avocado and tomato would be so good together!!  So, again I was sitting at IF of +128. 

Dinner (sorry, no photo) was an angus broiled New York strip with seasoning on it (+15) and a full cup of steamed green beans (4) = 19 as the inflammation factor.. so, very mildly anti-inflammatory... not quite the +50 I need for a meal, so... you guessed it!!  I took a Mega Red Omega 3 capsule!!  Feelin' groovy! 

Then, I had frozen yogurt (-80) with sliced almonds (42) and dark chocolate chips (NA) = -38.  Bad choice... perhaps worse than if I ate fruit.  Next time... how about almonds and chocolate?  As long as it's dark??  Nope... though I would expect dark, dark chocolate to be anti-inflammatory, it's not.  The higher you go in those good cacao solids, the higher, in negative numbers, the inflammation factor goes... Perhaps that's why migraines are linked to chocolate?  Ah-HA!  Gestalt!   I think I understand!! 

Well, my darling readers... tomorrow is a reserve day for me and it's already almost 10pm.  So, it's off to bed I go!  Take care and get looking at those inflammatory factors in your foods if you have migraines, joint or muscle pains, back pain, etc!! 

30 Day Challenge - Day 29

Day 29:  FALL DECORATING!!! 

Busy day today!!  Wonderful sunshine and great food!!  I even bought some squash (spaghetti and acorn), sweet pumpkins, a cute little pumpkinny-squash, and a mini-pumpkin... not to mention the pretty Japanese apples, both green and reds.  Of course, they were all purchased on base, so the pumpkins and squash came from the good ole US of A.  Expensive, but worth it 'cause I'll cook them!!  I even found out 1/2 cup pumpkin is about a 44 IF, so it's mildly anti-inflammatory!! (makes me like them even more!)

Breakfast was 2 scrambled eggs (-122 IF)with 2.5 oz collard greens (138 IF), and 2 cut up sausage links (-30 IF).  So, though I wasn't in the 'positive' end of the inflammation factor (IF), the collards did bring the score up to -14.  So... I took a Mega-Red Krill Oil tablet at dinnertime to help bring up my score for the day... so... being that cod liver oil is 341 for 4 grams and salmon oil is 625 for 4 grams...  it's GOTTA be up there, right??  So, it was only 3 grams, so let's figure on 300 IF just for grins and giggles.

Lunch was my "dinner" as I ate breakfast late (around 10am) and lunch around 4pm, I guess it counts as both lunch and dinner:  LINNER as Mom would say.  Why didn't I have lunch then dinner?  Wasn't hungry at lunchtime.  Not hungry now (9:30pm). (...here comes a rant...)

In the Primal/Paleo lifestyle, you only eat when you're hungry.  Got it?  I know, I know... for YEARS I would force myself to eat when not hungry 'cause "Breakfast is the MOST important meal of the day", so I HAD to have breakfast, right?  Early in the morning, too.  WHY???  (imagine me whining like a 2 yr old at this point)... cause that's how I was raised and our perfectly confusing "experts" in nutrition and their flawed studies said I HAD to eat.  Ummm... OK.  Why did I get fat then?  OH, yeah, trying to break-that-fast and keep my metabolism going.  But, I was just hungry in about 2 hours after breakfast... why can't I have eggs every morning??? (again, whiny tone)... WHAT???  I can??? REALLY??  But, but, all the 'experts' say only 2-3 eggs a week and THAT'S new news... gotta watch my cholesterol, right? 

Perhaps not... Dr. Mary Enid is a lipid researcher who has done exhaustive review of medical research to find that there really isn't research, good research, to support the Lipid Hypothesis.  Read this for a great breakdown:
http://www.health-report.co.uk/saturated_fats_health_benefits.htm  
http://robbwolf.com/2011/08/11/big-fat-blog-post-2/ I like this one because it has a comparison graph for us visual learners, on the different fat sources and the breakdown of how much sat fat, MUFA, PUFA and transfat in each source... opened my eyes!!)
Another new "idol" for me is Sally Fallon. She has a LOT of YouTube videos and is a good teacher (easy to understand)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxMXXKJ7uwA

However, if you just google "Cholesterol", you'll get many, many websites that talk about how bad it is and how studies have "shown" we're to eat low fat/low cholesterol diets... even the Harvard site really teaches about this.  It teaches all the stuff my poor little PT brain keeps wanting to buy back into... until I realize that the introduction on the page (click on "Harvard" and you'll get the page), they provide you with references to explain the problem in America and obesity... then you get to the 'From Food to the Bloodstream' part and there are no more references.  OK, but they haven't really said anything totally different than what I already think and know... then read on until the "Diet and Cholesterol" part where they try to tell us the PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids) are GOOD for us... yeah, some are... but they tend to have more Omega 6s than 3s and we want a 1:1 ratio, so if the smallest ratio among them is 13:1, then that's too high!  AND, oh, by the way, them saying fish oil and such, with their high 3s are PUFAs is wrong.  Add the satfat with MUFA and you get more than the PUFA for salmon oil... (scroll to the bottom of this link)  To say that the polyunsats, which do go rancid and are not the kind of oils you want to eat as they breakdown (think oxidative process), are GOOD for you, is not fair.  On Mark's Daily Apple... he has a LOT of posts on different oils and fats.  One of my favorites on oils, especially the healthy ones, is here.  Anyhow... back to the Harvard website... beautiful reference to MUFA study and weight loss/cholesterol lowering... those people barely ate grains, too!!  But then, the saturated fats portion.  Small, but powerfully stated (again without references)... "bad" sat fat... "our body makes all we need"??  You mean, releases from fat storeage??  What does this mean?  It really brings more questions than answers in that section.  Next section... trans fats... I agree, but again, limited research references... some, but not a lot.  There IS a lot of research out there on bad trans fats!  and... then cholesterol and then cancers... and then... blah, blah, blah... yes, they cite research during all the cancer warnings about fats... but what they don't expect YOU to do is to click on those references and READ the research.  EXCELLENT that we have others to do that for us!  That's why I'm online a LOT lately... reading the research and looking at others who have.  You'll see many of the blogs I follow post their interpretations of the research, too.  Its worth it to read through some of those as you won't have to get bogged down by the numbers and figuring out what it all means. 


Moving on (its getting LATE) ... back to "Linner":

1/2 avocado (54)
3 deli ham slices (no flavoring... just Virginia baked ham) (71)
2 tomato wedges (3)
So... I made a +128 Inflammation Factor, meaning this meal was VERY anti-inflammatory.  Yay, me!!  Who knew a hastily thrown together 'salad' would be so delicious and good for me!! 

So, last thing for the day... I decided to start a Facebook page from this blog:  BabyPT goes Primal.  Just like the blog title, well, almost the blog title with lone less word.  Check it out!!

Lastly, just to remind you, or teach you if you didn't read my blog from yesterday.  The IF is an inflammatory factor of foods.  You can figure them out the way I do on the Self Magazine Nutrition website.  Read yesterday's blog for more instructions on how to use that website! 

30 Day Challenge - still Day 28

STILL Day 28:

Why am I blogging again today?  Well, my earlier post really should have been for Day 27 as I blogged all about yesterday... yesterday's food, my teen's homecoming dance, and how I was feeling earlier today.  How about TODAY???  :) 

I'm always amazed at how many excuses I can come up with to put off my exercise... "I gotta check email/facebook/blog"... "I'm tired"... "I'm hungry"... "I just ate and can't exercise on a full stomach"... "I don't have time"... "It's too late in the day/I can't exercise this close to bedtime"... and the list goes on and on.  So... it took me two weeks to do the first two days of Week 9 with my last run Friday.  I was lazy today... was going to just wait until tomorrow (Monday) to do the last run... until I started watching the exercise videos sent in to Mark's Daily Apple Primal Blueprint Workout Video challenge!!  How motivating!!  I wanted to start doing burpees and sprints and... HOLD IT!!!  I still had my 'last' run to do!!!  But... suddenly it was 6pm and I should be making dinner... OK... how about do the run while dinner's in the oven?  GREAT idea!!  So, while it was cooking, I ran on the treadmill.  I had to jump off at the 15 minute mark of the run to remove the squash from the oven, then after the last 20 mins (remember, there's a 5 min cool down after the run is done!) I stuck it in the broiler while frying the dog's liver treat.

DINNER:  Baked Acorn Squash posted by 'catlyng2' on the FastPaleo recipe sharing site:

Since there was just little ole' me, I cut the recipe in half.  I'll post the original recipe though (the numbers in parentheses are the inflammatory factor numbers, we'll talk about them later on).

Cooking time:  50 minutes
Serves 4  Heat oven to 350deg F

2 Acorn Squash (-78)
1 apple (-21)
2 ozs walnuts - chopped  (-78)
3 thick-cut slices low sodium bacon (-18)
Cinnamon (-1)
Coconut oil (I used extra bacon grease)
Organic, unfiltered honey (-10)
Crumbled blue cheese (-7)

Cut acorn squash in half and scoop seeds out.  Place squash, cut side up, in a ceramic/glass backing dish.  Sprinkle interior with cinnamon and drizzle with honey. 

Chop bacon and saute over medium heat.  The 'goal' is to render the fat, not crisp the bacon.  While that is cooking, core and slice and apple into small pieces, then chop the walnuts.  After the bacon fat has mostly rendered out, stir in the apples and walnuts in and coat with bacon grease (this is where I had to add just a little more from my stock I keep in the fridge).  Do not cook, this is just for coating the apples and walnuts in the bacon grease.  Pour this mixture into the acorn squash hollows.  Pour 1/2 cup water into the bottom of the glass dish and cover entire pan loosely with aluminum foil or use the glass lid that comes with the dish.  Bake for 45 mins, remove and sprinkle blue cheese over the tops and put back in to broil 3-5 minutes until cheese is melted. 

Since the squash shell was HOT... I put it in a rice bowl and attacked it with my fork.   Man, that was good!!  I even sent the photo to my teen's cellphone to show him what he was missing!  (Not like he responded or even likes acorn squash!!)


So, what's the Inflammatory factor??  I had to do the math for the parts and pieces... those numbers are in ( ) in the ingredient list... so, one serving is:  IF = -53  BOOO!!!!  HISSSSS!!!!  Errrr.... Here ya think you're doing well eating a veggie and fruit, yeah, it has bacon... but sheesh!  The freakin' APPLE, SQUASH and WALNUTS are more inflammatory than the freakin' bacon!!  WTF???  (when I say that, it's "What the Freak/Fudge/fill in the blank with an F word that's NOT that one!!")  *SIGH*  Can I eat some broccoli and make it OK?  How about a fish oil capsule?  Hee hee... I found it!!  The fish oil capsule should work!!  Though the ingredient list says "sardine, anchovy and mackerel", I can only find sardine oil at IF=356 for 1 tsp or 4 grams.  Though the bottle says 1000mg fish oil... we're not given the breakdown fully (these are from Costco and their brand).  OR I could take a flaxseed oil supplement, which is still in the anti-inflammatory levels (1 tbsp/14g is IF=142), however I get less bang for my buck... so, fish oil capsule it is.  Take THAT you inflammatory meal!!  (I am thinking this will get me nowhere in the long run, so vowed to myself not to get in this predicament as often over the next 2 weeks while testing out this anti-inflammatory way of Primal eating.)

Anyhow... no matter how the numbers came out, that squash was delish!!  I'll keep going to FastPaleo.com for more recipes in the future.  As you can tell from the last photo... I literally ate it ALL gone!  :)   

Of course, since my run was late in the day... I can honestly say I have beaucoup energy now and really don't want to go to bed even though it's almost 10pm!!  Gotta stay true to the Primal Blueprint and get my 8-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep.  G'night!!

Civilized Caveman Contest

One of my Favorite Blog/websites is doing a contest/giveaway... so, to get my name in the pot... I'm sharing the page on which the giveaway resides:


http://www.civilizedcavemancooking.com/2011/10/10000-fan-giveaway.html?showComment=1318152608184#c8143139680617672987

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!!

30 Day Challenge - Day 22

Day 22:

Absolutely nothing new today.  I was in a mood!  Crabby and achey all day long... nope, no exercise.  Nope, not in the sunshine either.  Ate only enough to take off the hunger... why?  Eh, probably fighting a virus.  Stuffy head, face headache and just overall malaise.  Could it be the food wasn't the issue Saturday?  (from Oktoberfest)  Possibly, but not likely.  So... got me thinking.  Maybe I'm not eating enough??  I'm no longer tracking what I eat nor how much I eat.  I'm just eating and trying to eat meat, fats and veggies/fruits with each meal.  But, when I wake up late, I only eat one meal in place of breakfast and lunch... no, not brunch... to me that implies a LOT of food to replace two meals.  This is just breakfast instead of both.  Today was just scrambled eggs with bacon bits and coffee.  Orange for the fruit.  For a snack in the afternoon, I had two pieces of the banana dark chocolate bread I made over a week ago.  Still good.  Dinner was left over steak and cabbage salad from the other night and some steamed broccoli.  That was the best!  Then later this evening, since I was craving something sweet, I made a fruit salad of Japanese pear and apple, mandarin oranges (no sugar added), chopped dates, dried cherries, and golden kiwi.  THAT hit the spot!!  I also realized I wasn't drinking enough water... so, guzzled a lot of water.  Mood has greatly improved and the headache feeling better. 

So, this evening, I watched a show on the Discovery Channel I heard about via Robb Wolf's website called "I, Caveman".  It was interesting enough that it caught my teen's attention and we actually sat and watched a TV show together!!  That alone made it worthwhile to watch in my book!  There were 2 episodes and it was based on a 10-person team going into the mountains in Colorado with very few supplies such as enough water for 4 days, a shelter, clothes and a 2-day instructional session on how to be a caveman. 

The first show was set on the first 5-6 days during which they found out how difficult it was to actually find food... that is, edible plants and animals to include fish, mice and elk.  The second show began with the people having found a herd of elk and the hunt was on.  I kinda felt as though the show ended at that part.  It took them so long to actually figure out HOW to hunt (and there was a cheat on that with an off-site expert coming to teach them), how to get along, and how to live, that the next thing you know they kill the elk and the show was over.  That was where my disappointment lay... it was a pivotal part of the team/tribe that I would have liked them to spend longer than 10 days out there to explore more issues than just the hunt.  Don't get me wrong, the hunt was an amazing and emotional part of the show... I teared up.  There's something so elemental about humans, modern ones, realizing just how difficult it is to take a life.  That's why I, personally, am happy to drive my happy little butt to a grocery store and purchase my meat.  Yes, I'd like the meat to come from humane killings... but I really am glad I'm not responsible for that actual ACT of killing, skinning, dressing the kill.  Anyhow... that realization was portrayed well in this episode... but then, they were packing up and done.  *sigh*  I understand it wasn't a reality show, but a 10 day 'experiment'... but sheesh, I would have kept watching!!  If you have the chance... watch it.  Yeah, there was the whiny person, the angry person, the typical characters you would see in survivor (except for the competitiveness, as these people needed to work together to survive), but all-in-all it was a good show. 

Good night!!