Saturday 31 December 2011

Some muscle trying to peek through

Challenges for January

1. To stay Primal 100%.
2. No buying food while out (the only things we buy now is coffees, or whole chickens from Oporto, really not needed, I just need to be more organised on shopping days).
3. Only buy milk and coconut cream from the supermarket (been pretty good with this one so far). Coconut oil and other stuff, eg toothpaste, my facial stuff from health food shop.
4. All the rest of food from farm, and butchery (plus weekly organics which starts up again soon).
5. Shopping once a week only (also been pretty OK with this one as well)
6. Buy nothing new, if anything is needed must be second hand.
7. No spending money on unesseary entertainment, there is always free things to do with the boys.
8. Have Greg take the car every day to the train station until school goes back , and do groceries on Saturday.
9. Walk every day with the boys in the pram to the park to play. (about 3 km or so each way I think).

I think that is it for now.

Sunday 1st January 2012

Decided id do a workout today:
3 sets of 12 reps:

Bent over barbell row - 20 kg x 3
Barbell chest press - 20 kg x 2, 22.5 kg

Dumbbell pullover - 7.5 kg x 3
Assisted chest dip - 61 kg x 3

Assisted pullup - 68 kg x 3 (need to work on this one)
Incline dumbbell fly - 7.5 kg each hand x 3

Food:
Breakfast: Leftover mince from last night (plus eggs for everyone else)
Lunch: Chicken thigh plus salad (salsa for me, after my workout)
Dinner: New york steak and steamed veg.

Still have a bike ride to do with the family as well.

Friday 30 December 2011

Saturday 31st December

20 km cycle in the fresh air and sunshine in 1hr 16 mins. I really enjoyed it. I saw my first snake in the wild (thankfully dead!!) I really enjoyed the fast parts, and did lots of sprints too. Really quite an enjoyable ride :D I really need to learn to ride my bike properly with the gears though.

Food for today:
Breakfast: Bulletproof coffee, and delicious preservative free lamb sausages with wilted spinach.
Lunch: Roast chicken
Snack for everyone in the afternoon: Smoothie with raw cashews, cream, strawberries, banana and milk. Very thick, and they all loved it.
Dinner: Garlic and onion mince. My oldest loves it, and while he eats it, ill keep making it. There will be leftovers for breakfast with egg tomorrow, since I am making a double batch. This will have grated zucchinni and cabbage in it again.
After my bike ride I had a banana, this will still keep me under my carbs for today :)

New years eve, and it will be just a quiet night at home with the family :)

Thursday 29 December 2011

Friday 30th December

Food for today:
Breakfast: Bulletproof coffee and chicken thigh cooked on the BBQ as requested by my 4 year old :D (marinated in lemon juice, dijon and a little salt and pepper.
Lunch: Was out after all our grocery shopping, and so we went to Outback Jacks (which has grassfed steak), although only my 4 year old had steak LOL, I had chicken, and my husband had fish. We all had salad and a few chips. (Yes chips, they weren't all that nice, but still didn't push me over my carbs for today, so not worried). Not a very exciting meal, but it was nice to eat out after shopping all morning. Its not something we will do often either.
Dinner: Scrambled eggs and bacon I think, but not 100% but I did take bacon out of the freezer. There will be veg of some description, maybe spinach, or maybe sweet potato and zuccinni hashbrowns, but I won't have these, so maybe just the spinach for me.

Workout:
4 sets of 10 reps total (done as a circuit, one exercise after the other for 2 groups)
Set one:
Two-arm row - 20 kg x 4 sets
Flat dumbbell fly - 5 kg x 2 sets, 6 kg x 2 sets(really gotta work out this upper body more!!!)
D/B lunge - 10 kg each hand x 4 sets
Ballet squat - 20 kg plate x 4 sets

Set 2:
Bent over lat raise on an incline bench - 4 kg each hand x 4 (so bad!)
Tricep dip x 4 sets (body weight only)
Hammer curls - 6 kg each hand x 4 sets
Lying barbell extension - 12.5 kg x 4 sets

It was a good but tough workout, but I really need to push myself harder in the upper body area.

Wednesday 28 December 2011

Thursday 29th December

Breakfast:
Omelet filled with bacon, onion and spinach, and bulletproof coffee for me.
Lunch:
Roasted chicken thigh, plus steamed broccoli and cauliflower. Plus raw carrot for everyone else.
Dinner:
Garlic and lemon mince like last night, but this time I also added zucchini, seems like this amount of mince (500 g) is not enough for a meal for us all as boys were still hungry, so they had some Jalna biodynamic yoghurt and some cheese after. Will have to cook a double batch and keep leftovers for Gregs lunches I think.
Extras: (I rarely need anything else, so when I post here it will be mostly for everyone else, but will add if I have anything like today)
Went out this afternoon, and had a double espresso with whipped cream (and no itching yay!, seems for some reason I can handle cream, but still get itching from milk, not sure why). Greg had a latte with cream, and the boys had a cream babycino. Still cafes can't get this right, I say cream only, and this time it had a little chocolate powder! I still let them have it, since they saw it when I was handed it, but grrr!.  Boys also had raw almonds this morning after our 16 km bike ride (they were in the trailer).

Biggest change since going primal - Warning Contains pics.

I think is my belly overhang. I don't feel like I have lost huge numbers and nor do I care, as I feel smaller, and stronger. But what is most noticeable is how much less my belly hangs over in the last 2 months.

Tuesday 27 December 2011

Sucessful dinner experiment

Garlic/lemon mince.
Really delicious. Inspired by an idea from a friend.
Fry up some onion, bacon (just used this as a leftover from breakfast, but I don't think its an essential ingredient) and garlic in some ghee. Add your beef mince (grass fed of course).  Fry while breaking mince up until small lumps. While this is cooking, have some sliced up cabbage steaming. Add this steamed cabbage to your mince once its cooked, along with chilli flakes (as little or as much as you want), and a little butter. Cook together for a few minutes, add some lemon juice just before serving. This is soooo yummy!
My oldest even asked for more.

2 months primal today!

2 months primal today :D I am still learning everyday and we still have days where one or both of our children will refuse to eat something new, but they are mostly eating everything.
I have weighed myself once in that time at the naturopath about a month or so ago, but I truly don't care. I have been measuring my waist each day as a little experiment, and I know it goes down without milk, but I am not going to keep measuring daily. Obsessing over numbers is what got me into a bad headspace before, and I am not going back there. The same reason I am not going to track my food intake on my fitness pal or similar. I am eating to hunger, and I no longer stuff myself stupid, and that is huge progress.
Last nights dinner would have been something I would have in the past eaten too much of, but I didn't. My body tells me when I need food, and so I eat, and its def less often than it used to be. The fats are keeping me satisfied for much longer than carbs ever did. I also never get that hunger where I feel like I could eat off my arm like I used to. It comes on gradually, and then I eat. Even after a hard workout I feel amazing, I really am loving this. Nothing can beat it, and I know I will not go back to grains.
The candida seems to be pretty much gone. If I have a little milk my skin does itch again, but butter doesn't do it, so for now, ill keep away from the milk/cream, and see how I go. Nothing really more to report on the progress, but I know this year I will be at my goal weight, whatever that may be, but its not a race, its just about my health, and the weight loss will follow.

Lack of self confidence.

Some days I really lack self confidence, but then the next ill feel really good. Yesterday was one of those bad days, which normally would have sent me running to the junk food, and it didn't! So I call that a win.
I decided I would do an extra workout (after a bad run/walk), and there was an attack class on, which I had previously enjoyed, but had not done one in a while. It was fine to begin with but then the studio has a long mirror all the way along the front, and it was making me feel sick watching myself jiggling around in it. It was really affecting my workout, and I ended up walking out half way through, then I almost ran straight into the person who made me want to leave this gym in first place, I almost ran back the way I came, but the only way was back into the class or out of the gym, so I ran out. I don't know why I let this person affect me so much, and I am really trying to not, but its hard. Its time to work on me, and not care about what other people think. I really should talk to this person, but for now ill do my best to avoid her, its what I do best :/ I am very happy it didn't send me to junk food, as pre-primal it would have.

Wednesday 28th December

Workout for today done:

4 sets of 8:

Barbell squat - 40 kg, 45 kg, 50 kg, 60 kg (My PR so far).
BB Lunge - 40 kg, 45 kg, 50 kg (PR) and 45 kg
Calf raise (20 reps), 10 kg plate each hand x 4
Upright row - 15 kg, 15 kg, 17.5 kg, 17.5 kg

Ballet squat - 10 kg plate, 10 kg, 20 kg, 20 kg
Stiff legged deadlift - 40 kg x3, 45 kg (these were really hard, as my hamstrings were already sore)
Calf raise - 10 kg each side x 4
Triceps kickback - 5kg x 3, 6 kg (this is pretty pathetic, my upper body really has some catching up to do).

Abs -
Swiss ball crunches x 4 sets of 8, with a 7 kg medicine ball over my head.
Planks x 4 for as long as possible (didn't time)
Leg raises 4 x 8.

Food:
Breakfast: Bulletproof coffee, zucchini and sweet potato hashbrowns, and bacon
PWO: Bullet proof coffee
Lunch: Lamb and steamed veg
Dinner: Something with beef mince, probably just fried up with garlic, onion and lots of veg.

Will be going for a run around at the park this afternoon.

Monday 26 December 2011

yummy!

I ended up making these with dinner, and although I didn't plan on eating the same dinner as the rest of my family, still unsure why I wasn't, I did have these http://purelyprimal.com/2011/03/29/sweet-potato-hashbrown-breakfast-stacks/ I served them with bacon and hollandaise sauce (eggs for everyone else too). It was a delicious dinner, and felt almost bad like it was takeaways or something, this meal will def be a junky kinda meal, even though its not bad for us, it kind of feels that way.
I will def make the hashbrowns again, they worked really well, but will do as more of a breakfast thing.

A meal like this pre-primal would have made me stuff myself stupid, but I did not feel the need to do this, and that makes me very happy :D

My cookbook collection

Tuesday 27th December

I was planning to go to RPM this morning with S, but for a change my children actually slept in past 6 am and I missed it. I am quite bummed about it, as I really was looking forward to a good cardio workout, its been a while since ive done it.
My body aches from my last few weight sessions, but its a good hurt, Ive missed it.

Todays food is not terribly exciting, I am not feeling very hungry today, so ill see how I go, I have had breakfast, and if I am hungry when I feed the rest of my family ill eat what I planned.

Breakfast - Beef mince patties, with grated carrot, zuccinni, onion, garlic and a few herbs. Served with bacon.

Lunch - Lamb sausages (preservative free) with steamed veg (I got some pumpkin soup out of the freezer that I made, so I may eat this now, or at dinner).
Dinner - Bacon and eggs (as requested by my oldest) Will serve with wilted spinach.

Sunday 25 December 2011

Dinner

Nice and simple tonight

Monday 26th December

Food for today:
Breakfast - Pork mince, onion and a few herbs and spices all fried together, served with wilted baby spinach and a bulletproof coffee.
Post workout - bulletproof coffee (not actually hungry)
Lunch- Beef and broccolli stirfry, not sure on spices etc, will just throw something together LOL
Dinner - New york, 28 day aged steak with steamed veg, plus sweet potato for the rest of my family.

Todays workout

Giant sets (4 sets, 10 reps each set):

Barbell squat - 40 kg, 45 kg, 50 kg, 50 kg
Stiff legged deadlift - 40 kg, 45 kg, 45 kg, 45 kg
Dumbbell one armed row - 7 kg, 8 kg, 10 kg, 10 kg (Def need to work on upper body!!)
Pushup - Incline set, toes (not very deep) x 3 more sets

Dumbbell shoulder press - 7 kg each hand all sets
Calf raise (20 reps) - 10 kg plate in each hand for all sets
Dumbbell curls - 7 kg each hand, 5 kg ea, 8 kg ea, 8 kg ea (very bad!!!)
Overhead dumbbell extension - 7 kg, 8 kg, 8 kg, 8 kg.

Plus a little abs, swissball crunches with a plate and leg raises.

About to go for a long walk with my family.

Last nights dinner ended up being a picnic and a play in the park. I was going to run on my own but my big boy didn't want me to. I ended up running after him a lot while he was learning to ride his bike. By the time we went home, he was riding 100 % on his own, and didn't even want me to run with him. He really blew me away.

Saturday 24 December 2011

Sunday 25th December

Today is Xmas day, but its very low key for us, we don't do santa and only bought our boys a couple of things each, a bike (a trike for my youngest) and a small wooden toy each) both love their bikes.
Bike and trike were bought second hand, this is something I have made an effort to do since going primal. Its a huge step for me, as I would never have done this in my past life. But I am enjoying trying to find bargains when we need things now, as there really isn't much that has to be bought new.

Food for today:
b - Bulletproof coffee (7 am, had my mother and step father coming for breakfast at 9am, so wanted to wait).
Bacon and eggs (one egg for me, as I am still not sure about eggs for me, plus not really hungry)
L - Lemon and garlic chicken
D - Dinner will be leftover chicken and a huge plate of steamed veg, since we have been lacking in that department today.
Snacks for the rest of my family have been watermelon and banana smoothie. No-one seems particularly hungry today.

We spent quite a lot of time this morning helping our oldest ride his bike, and here is the video. This is the first time he has ridden a proper bike, and I am impressed at how fast he picked it up. He has had his balance bike for 2 years, so I put it down to that. Well worth buying one, then skipping the training wheels.
This afternoon we will be going to a big park (where I am running 5.5 km in Jan) so I can run the course, and then we can have a walk/play.

Friday 23 December 2011

How else our lifestyle has changed.

I already tried to go as organic and chemical free as possible, eg not immunising any of us, avoiding nasty chemical cleaning products and personal care products but not as much as I should have been, but now I use nothing chemical laden or SLS laden.
I don't buy any packaged or processed food, all dressings, sauces etc are made from scratch. We eat all grass fed, organic meat. Organic fruit and veg (although am not as concerned with things with a thick skin being organic, so if I can't get it easily its fine). I try to avoid the supermarket as much as possible, still buy unhomogonised/organic milk and butter from there (a NZ brand, which is from grass fed cows). But once all shops go back to normal next year, will be getting a weekly delivery of those items (or less frequently depending on our needs) I buy the butter to make our own ghee.

Part of killing off this candida is avoiding dairy, I have not gotten to 100% dairy free, as I am still having one coffee a day, but I am working on getting rid of it still. My belly is going down now that I have cut it out a lot. I am measuring my belly daily as an experiment to see how it goes without dairy.

Saturday 24th December

This morning I did a great workout with S from my old gym. It was tough, but good. I didn't record everything I did today, but will normally, but it was a back and arms workout. I am feeling it now :D
Food:
Breakfast - Chicken sausages (preservative free of course) and salad (home made coleslaw) for me, sausages, eggs and bacon for everyone else.
Lunch - Leftover fish pie for me (Homemade, smoked salmon and smoked trout, with coconut cream, and herbs, topped with a little purple mashed sweet potato, zucchini and cauliflower mash).
Dinner - Lamb and steamed broc, cauliflower and wilted spinach.
I don't normally need to snack, but had a few raw cashews and a coffee after my workout.

I am still battling this candida in my system, the main symptoms is the itching in the not so fun places, but I am treating it naturally using:
Oregano oil capsules
Garlic capsules
2 x a day with Apple cider vinegar in water
Probiotics.

Also using garlic, tea tree oil, yoghurt and 3% hydrogen peroxide (in water) and not all at once, to treat the main itching. So far its really all helping. I will go back to the naturopath early next year, but really want to kick this infection in the bum!

I promise more pics will come of my food each day too.

opps severly neglected blog!

OK I have been very slack with updating my blog, and my new aim is to update every day with what we are eating.
We are nearly 2 months into this lifestyle and loving how I feel every day. My husband is also enjoying how he is feeling, and really notices it if he even has something small, ie like a small amount of hot chips with a meal, or a soft drink. My boys are sleeping better and are in much better moods all the time.
I am not weighing often, and might start doing weekly next year, but not sure, as this is more about health for me, and I don't want to get into that midset where I obsess about food and numbers like I used to. I am in a great headspace right now and don't want to ruin that.
A couple of weeks ago though I went to the naturopath and she used fancy scales to measure my body fat, muscle mass etc. I have a good amount of muscle, and according to the calculations they use which take into account the muscle, I need to lose 13 kg to be in a "normal" weight range. Much less weight than I was originally aiming for, but ill get there first, and then see how I feel. I know I will never be in the 50s or even maybe the 60s, I want muscle and don't want to be skinny. I want to be healthy and have a good shape and ill know once I am there :D

Am back at my old gym, and back to lifting heavy. I was thinking of getting back into classes and going crazy for a while for a boost to my weight loss, but I know thats stupid, and I am glad I came to my senses :D

Sunday 6 November 2011

Dinner

http://www.bbqaddicts.com/blog/recipes/bacon-explosion/
with pineapple and homemade bbq sauce between the 2 meat patties. Salad is cabbage, apple and red pepper with a herb dressing.
 

Lunch

I made my boys a celery man with cream cheese, cashews, cucumber and carrot and both actually ate it. They also had some turkey breast. My lunch was coleslaw, turkey breast and salsa. Delicious!
I forgot to take a picture of the celery man but here is my lunch:

Delicious breakfast

Best dinner ever!

http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=2775
I used this recipe for the dianne sauce. We had 28 day aged angus new york cut, worth every cent. Served with mashed pumpkin, with wilted spinach with cashews and butter. Wow, I am still buzzing about it. My family ate some, but weren't as excited as me. I did not take a pic, but I am wishing I did now. I couldn't wait to eat it :)

Saturday 5 November 2011

Sweet potato chips

Well this was a bit of an experiment really.
I tried cutting them into circle slices and then shallow frying them in ghee. They did not get at all crispy. So I then peeled the sweet potato into strips, and fried them, and voila! crispy chips. My 4 year old who normally won't touch sweet potatoes, loved them. That makes it a success :D
Each meal that goes down well makes me feel better about this whole thing, as some meals are just a dismal failure and no-one eats them.
Will start trying to take pics to add to my blog. I have promised myself I am not going to neglect this blog, and keep it up to date with how things are changing for better or worse.

Wednesday 2 November 2011

The beginning

This is my blog for following my families journey into a primal lifestyle.
It began Friday 28th of October.