primal-princess-blog

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updates!

I know I haven't posted in a while... that's because I'm doing quite well with my diet and don't feel the need to. Right now I'm on the keto diet. I'm not sure how much I've lost because I haven't made a point of weighing myself. Whenever I do, I get discouraged because my weight fluctuates 2-3 pounds and always has. So I'm waiting longer in between weighings so I can get a realistic idea of how much weight I've lost, instead of being, say 165 one week then 167 the next then 162 the next.... I'd rather be 165 at the beginning of the month and 155 at the end ;) Last time I weighed myself, I was 170.5. I had weighed myself about a week before and it was 169. I was so thrilled to be back under 170 so being half a pound over a week later was very discouraging. So, that's why I'm not weighing myself weekly anymore. I'll just weigh myself monthly or bi-weekly or something.

That being said... 170 is good! (I'm probably less now; I last weighed myself a week and a half ago, maybe? I want to say around the 10-15th somewhere) I'm not sure how much I weighed at my heaviest but I want to say 185. I weighed about this much at the beginning of the year. I've seen upwards of 180 on the scale but I know I've never passed 190 so 185 is probably about right. So yeah, 15 pounds dropped so far this year! Another 15 and I will be back down to the heaviest I ever was before pregnancy! (I'd kill to be that weight again...to think I thought I was fat at 140...) Especially considering most of that 15 (about 8-10lbs) was lost during this month alone. Not bad ;D I know, I suck for not getting my starting weight...

I know I've mentioned in the past that I don't want to set weight-based goals because I'm not sure how much muscle I'll gain, but I'm going to celebrate if/when I get down to 140! I'm going to get some new clothes, eat things that I used to enjoy before I started this lifestyle, and treat myself to a massage or something. If my weight stays steady at 150 or something and I'm happy with how I look I'll still go celebrate. But I think getting down to 140 is realistic. I'd like to get there by the end of May or beginning of June. If I keep losing 2-3lbs a week I can do that no problem! :)

My real goal weight is 125... I've never been less than 133 or so. I think if I can somehow get my lovehandles to melt off, 125 will arrive by the end of the summer. We shall see! Hopefully I'll have good updates in a couple of weeks!

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What you do is what the whole universe is doing at the place you call ‘here and now.’ You are something the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is something that whole ocean is doing.

Alan Watts (via wethinkwedream)

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Sugar... oh honey honey

Bleh. Time to cut sugar. I had a massive headache yesterday because of this that led me to go to bed early then get up at 5am and as it is now 4pm I'm pretty tired and don't feel like writing. I've had pretty intense carb cravings lately. Nothing I've really caved into but I have eaten too much sugar. Pasta grosses me out at this point and I've never much liked bread anyway, so.... That's my blog post about sugar cravings.

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Girly thingz!

I keep writing blog posts and never finishing them, ugh! Oh well- this one I will probably finish because I'm letting my materialist side go wild.

I've just decided that every time I achieve a new goal, I'm going to treat myself to some new clothes. This is good for a few reasons: one, I won't be spending all my money all at once; two, I need new clothes; and three, motivation. It'll also be good because I'll fit into my new clothes.

I'm just going to throw out some goal ideas because I don't know exactly what to do and I don't want to set weight goals. I'll probably reward myself on a monthly or every other week basis or both or whatever. I don't know.

So here's a list. -Spend one month in ketosis (daunting, but if I do this I am going on a $200 shopping spree) -Get my abs to look how I'd like them to look (this probably won't happen til late spring but that's okay) -Fit into my jeans from high school -GET RID OF MY LOVE HANDLES! -Successfully perform a challenging yoga pose i.e. scorpion, headstand IF I don't meet my goals, I'll use the money saved to go towards the next reward. More motivation.

I would like to spend next month in ketosis and jumpstart my weight loss and metabolism as well as heal my gut. I don't plan to stay on a keto diet for life. Plus, I need a transition from semi-paleo-with-dairy to completely-paleo before I go raw. I'm sure I'll post about this later.

I'm already looking at clothes on etsy. I'm such a girl

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Diet plan, as of now

I keep changing my diet plan. And I'm kind of making it up as I go along, honestly. But I wanted to take some time to draft it as of right now, mostly for myself. It changes constantly but I think I'm at a point now where I can plan a few things out.

In January I cut out soda. This was kind of a warmup because I knew it'd be easy for me to do this as I've done it before and I already get sick of soda easily. I haven't had a soda this year excepting red bull which I have had only a handful of times, and I've now cut it out. This month I attempted to cut out gluten which has actually resulted in me cutting back on it and cheating here and there. But I've paid the consequences for cheating on my diet, as I mentioned in my previous post.

Originally I planned to begin a full paleo/primal diet next month. Instead I'm going to focus on healing my gut. I think 30 days is plenty of time. For the remainder of the month I'm cutting back on sugar wherever possible and avoiding gluten completely. Next month I'm going to remove sugar from my diet entirely, including fruit, just to see how it goes. If I feel bad I might add in some fruit, but I'm going to stick with berries and other fruits that are relatively low in sugars. I'll probably still eat rice as a carbohydrate because I do believe my body needs some carbohydrates. I don't eat a lot of carbs that aren't sugar anyway, so if I'm cutting sugar I need rice. I want to increase my intake of animal products, and consume tons of kombucha and bone broth. In April I think I'll be ready to go fully primal! In fact, I probably will be by the end of March. I already eat fairly primally when I can. The last thing I'll need to do is cut back on dairy and observe any changes in my digestion. If I can digest it, I will continue to eat it; if not, I won't eat much. When I go primal I plan to cook all meat fully except beef which I'm going to eat rare and then gradually transition to eating all meat raw. At the moment the idea of raw poultry completely disgusts me but I haven't eaten a lot of pasture raised poultry so maybe when I do I'll be able to transition to eating it raw. The idea of raw fish is already appealing to me so I may begin eating that right away... and save the bones for broth!

By the end of the year I hope to be able to say, "Wipe its ass and put it on my plate."

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(Mostly) gluten free for 2 weeks!

I have been attempting to cut out gluten this month, though that's turned out to mean I'm cutting back on it tremendously, but that's okay too; doing so has given me an opportunity to see how it affects my body. Which it does. I haven't eaten any gluten pasta or pizza since last month. I've had one of each that was gluten-free. I had my last gluten versions of each at the end of last month, knowing they'd be forbidden this month.

It's been hard to remain gluten free while staying at my parents' house. My mom offers me pasta and bread all the time, knowing I'm on a GF diet. I have eaten some breaded things--unintentionally at first, then knowingly a couple of times, only because it was the only thing available.

I have cheated a couple of times on my diet, but I am doing so knowing that these "cheat" items will be my last ones ever. I had 3 girl scout cookies (thin mints and a samoa, if you were wondering) which is an accomplishment on my part because normally I'd eat half a box on my own. Another "cheat" was knowingly eating some breaded chicken tenders, which would also be my last, as well as a yeast roll. I had gone to O'Charley's and those were a couple of my favorites there. However, I also tried a rare steak which was amazing! After I ate breaded chicken tenders the other night, before I went to O'Charley's, I felt gassy and bloated all night. Then when I went to O'Charley's the next day and ate a roll and even more breaded chicken tenders, I wasn't able to finish my meal which is bizarre for me. That night I was gassy and bloated and had diarrhea. I have also experienced a pinching sensation in my muscles, particularly my back muscles, and poorer than average circulation (my circulation already sucks), and back and neck pain and tension, when eating gluten is all I do differently.

Do I think I have celiac disease? It's certainly possible. I think everyone has it but to varying degrees. Some won't notice until they cut gluten out entirely and try to bring it back into their diet. Most people think gas, bloating, and diarrhea are normal. They believe IBS is just something wrong with their gut, maybe a genetic disorder.

I had definitely planned to cut back on sugar a lot and I have a tiny bit, though not as much as I should. I'm sure this will be easier when I replace morning coffee with kombucha or bone broth. I'm going to begin brewing my kombucha this weekend and make bone broth next time I have any kind of boned meat. I need to try more types of meats anyway, like ribs and fish, so this will be a good opportunity to do so! As far as sugar goes I've had a candy bar, a smoothie, and a few cups of sugary coffee and drank coffee all day yesterday. Thinking about sugar disgusts me more than the thought of raw organ meats at this point so that's good. It shouldn't be hard to cut back since I've overloaded myself recently and almost literally gotten sick of it. My digestive system handles sugars quite well though, so I'm hoping I'm able to replace sugar cravings with naturally sweet foods such as fruits and almonds and coconuts and all those wonderful things. I hate using fear to convince myself not to do something, but it looks like I might have to with sugar. I have to remind myself that sugar is only going to hurt my gut; sugar will only feed my skin problems; sugar doesn't give me steady, consistent energy and is followed by a crash; sugar will make my body store more fat; sugar will harm my pancreas; sugar gives me brain fog. I have to consciously remind myself what has sugar in it and not to eat those things. It will be hard, yes... but when I'm feeling great, it won't matter.

It would probably help if I had some sort of diet plan written out, but I'm taking this one day at a time. I have a makeshift plan in my head, but it will be easier to stick to if I write it out. Perhaps that's an idea for another blog...

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my life as of today

Happy birthday to me! :)

This is going to seem like a bit of a negative post because I plan to list some symptoms that I currently experience. However, my reason for doing this is positive. I hope to heal myself from all of these symptoms within the next couple of years and become the best version of myself, by changing my diet only. I am doing this for the sole purpose of tracking progress.

So here's a list of symptoms I experience on a regular basis. Some are embarrassing, so feel free to laugh at me or judge! Everyone's got their problems :)

Note: a lot of these symptoms have been appeased in the past year or so as I've begun to transition to a more primal diet.

MENTAL: -(mild) chronic derealization/depersonalization (used to be worse-- progress!!!) -OCD like symptoms (I do not feel I have OCD, but feel it could develop into OCD.) such as: obsessive counting -anxiety -fear of darkness -compulsive habits like skin picking, nail biting, teeth grinding etc -mania (mild) -anger problems (mild) -irrational and negative thoughts; paranoia -weird images on closing eyes (clutter like images? hard to explain) -insomnia PHYSICAL: -psoriasis on scalp (improving) -random patches of psoriasis on body -cellulite :( -poor circulation, especially in legs -fatigue -feelings of weakness -dry, brittle, thin hair -dry skin in general -lack of motivation, laziness -excessive napping -lovehandles -excess weight around middle -overweight -bad posture -deteriorating eyesight -buttcheek rash/boils

That's all I can think of right now. Pretty much everything but acne! I'm excited to check these off one by one.

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chronicling a weight loss journey!

It's time for me to get in the greatest shape of my life. I've been doing a lot of research and have come to accept the fact that it's going to take a lot of trial and error and of course, effort. This is a fitblr but I may, at times, post things about other aspects of my life and how they pertain to my overall wellbeing, as this is a major lifestyle change and not just weightloss. I may post other things such as fitspo, progress pictures, paleo food, motivation, and yoga. So without further ado, here is my first entry! In the past couple of weeks I have lost five pounds simply by being mindful of how many carbohydrates I'm eating. Ultimately I'm not going to follow a low carb diet but it's what I'm doing for now as my body transitions into my ideal diet. At the moment I'm keeping track of which carbohydrates I consume and how my body responds to them and cutting out the ones that make me feel crappy. So far gluten seems to be the main offender (surprise surprise!) as well as corn syrup, high fructose or non. Gluten and sugar make me feel one of two things: a brick in my stomach or like I need to go, um, "number 2" immediately. I always thought it was caffeine in coffee that made me poop, but after experimenting and researching I believe it's the sugar. Gluten really isn't all that bad in my gut, actually. It's in my bones and joints where I feel it the most. On days that I don't eat gluten or even a minimal amount I feel noticeably more flexible. Headaches are also less frequent when I avoid gluten. I've been bingeing on gluten for a couple of days since I'm about to cut it out entirely starting February 1. Exciting! Now it's time for me to observe and find out which carbohydrates don't make me feel icky. I feel as though my body does need some because it is way too easy to take a nap when I eat only tiny amounts (but I sleep so well!) My energy levels are higher when I eat carbohydrates even if it's gluten, although gluten does make me feel sluggish. Rice seems to be the best carb for me. It doesn't make me feel heavy or sleepy and it doesn't affect my energy levels. I'm hoping I can eat fruits as well, but I have yet to experiment with them. In fact I'm hoping to be able to eat any carb that's not a grain (save rice) but we'll see how this goes! Enough about carbs! Time to share my diet plan. As a new years resolution I cut out soda, with the exception of an occasional red bull (which I will toss out next month with the gluten). I originally planned to take it one month at a time and implement a new piece of my new diet. Instead I've been taking it one day at a time and I'm already watching my carb and gluten intake and trying to eat lots of good fats and protein. Eventually i'd like to eat all raw meat for protein but I'm accepting the fact that it could take me years to get there. I have to get used to eating large amounts of meat first, having been vegetarian for 4 years from 2006 to 2010. I will post about that in more detail sometime. When I do find my optimal diet I imagine it will still be relatively low carb/high fat so please do not confuse my enthusiasm for finding the "right carbs" with an enthusiasm for carbs. Some paleo dieters probably eat lots of carbs and others don't so I think it depends on individual genetic makeup. Some of us are predisposed to eat more meat and some thrive better with more plants, depending on where our ancestors are from. But all humans should still eat paleo. The reason I thought of this is because of a few different stories I have read about peoples' experiences with paleo diets. Many of them eat carbs but some are unable to eat fruit, and one woman, a former raw vegan and fruitarian of 14 years, still feels best when eating large amounts of fruit. I will try to update daily and may start logging my meals and workouts...we'll see! I'm so excited for this change in my life. I've already thought of a handful of topics to write about so hopefully i can make this a daily thing! If you would like to join me in my journey feel free to follow! You can also follow my personal tumblr at hnnnnnnnnnnnnng.tumblr.com