Thursday, October 6, 2011

Day Four Primal/IF

Today is Day Four of my new lifestyle, and the scales this morning (I know I said I wouldn't weigh myself for a week, but I was curious) say I've lost two pounds in two days. Now, I'm not sure how much of that is normal fluctuation, but I hope that what I'm doing is working.

Yesterday was my long fast day. I ate dinner normally with Ben and D on Tuesday night (spaghetti and meat sauce with zucchini, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, and red pepper over brown rice pasta) and had nothing but water for the rest of the night. I wasn't really hungry when I went to bed, and I wasn't hungry when I woke up. I had black coffee in the morning, and then D and Harley and I went for a walk later in the morning. I started getting a rumbly stomach at some point during our walk, but nothing unmanageable. I realized I was probably a bit dehydrated, so drank tons of water when we got home. I started getting hungry around noon, which is usually when I break my fast on regular days.

I started fantasizing about food. haha! I didn't actually make it 24 hours, because I realized that would leave me with zero time to eat, since I had a meeting to go to last night. So I ate bacon, 2 eggs, and some leftover spaghetti sauce (no pasta). I didn't even finish it all, had zero cravings for bread, and was so full! D and I had a nap shortly after that, and I wasn't hungry again for HOURS. I went to my meeting, and totally was able to walk by the treats table with cookies and banana bread, with zero cravings!!!

I made a side trip on my way home to stop at Bulk Barn and the grocery store to pick up some items for Thanksgiving Dinner on Sunday. I'm taking broccoli salad (mayo, vinegar, a little sugar - will use xylitol, broc, crispy bacon, and grated cheddar); lemon and lime coconut flour muffins; and peanut butter balls. See? You don't have to starve to death on this Primal thing..you just don't eat grains or sugar or processed crap! (ok, I'll be eating a little sugar, but that's better than a LOT.) The best part about bringing dessert is that I'll know there's stuff there I can eat. The pb balls use natural peanut butter, honey, and coconut flour for consistency. You can add chocolate chips, but D can't have it. And even the carob chips had sugar as the first ingredient, and soy was high up on the list on ALL of the chips. Ew. No thanks.

I'll be able to eat pretty much everything I want at Thanksgiving dinner, I might even have some potatoes. We'll see. I will NOT have stuffing, not that I do normally, and I hope that I can make the gravy so I can use arrowroot flour instead of flour or cornstarch (and it's awesome and easy to use)....other than that, I can have everything, in moderation of course. But I'll probably make that day my long fast day, so I can eat as much as I want without worry. I will break my fast when we get there at 1630 and will be able to enjoy appetizers and such, if there are any.

Last night before bed, I had some apple and swiss cheese with D. Now remember, the only other thing I ate all day was bacon, eggs, and spaghetti sauce. So I should have had more calories, but I wasn't really hungry. I SHOULD have had a big glass of milk with that, because I ended up hungry at 2200 when I went to bed, and ended up getting out of bed and drinking it around midnight, which was 2 hours past when I had planned to stop eating. But I figured it was better to do it then, than to be super hungry this morning and not make it to noon as intended. I'll have to figure out a way to get more calories into me on days when I'm ending a long fast. That's the trick - to make sure you get ENOUGH calories, else your body won't lose weight.

I spent a lot of my time Tuesday night and Wednesday writing out recipes that use coconut flour. I found a great website called Coconut Recipes that has hundreds of recipes that use coconut milk, coconut oil, shredded coconut, and/or coconut flour. I'm excited to say that I found recipes for pretty much everything I think I'll miss - desserts, a sweet-type bread (i assume it's like banana bread texture), muffins, pancakes, tortillas, english muffins, even! I'm going to make a tortilla today to see if they taste ok.

Speaking of coconut flour, you can buy organic coconut flour at the Bulk Barn for really cheap - it's around $3.59 or something for a pound of it. It costs upwards of $10 a pound in the U.S., so I'm relieved it's more affordable here. You can also buy coconut oil at the Bulk Barn, as well as shredded unsweetened coconut. You CANNOT buy xylitol there, for that you have to go to a health store like Quartermaster in London (although the brand they sell is made with GMO corn) or Red Thistle on Norwich Ave here in Woodstock. You can also order it online at Xylitol Canada. Make sure the one you buy says "Non-GMO" on the package.

I will be trying out a few of the coconut recipes over the next few days and weeks, and will post the recipes and reviews.

Flour. Rice. I don't have particularly overwhelming cravings for these things. I miss being able to have a bagel or sandwich, but I don't think I'll die without it. Processed junk is convenient, but we don't really eat much of that anyway. Rice crackers, I'll probably miss, since I enjoy eating them with a snack of apple and cheese, or with peanut butter. Maybe I'll see if I can make some crispy little Primal crackers. Or pick up some nori or something. mmmm nori.

I've decided I'm not going to eat rice, either - it's very high on the glycemic index, and I felt like crap Tuesday night after I had the brown rice pasta. It's just not worth it. I think I'll save my rice days for when we have sushi. Once I've lost 20 pounds or so.  18 to go!

Edited to add: I must say, since going on this Primal diet and cutting wheat and sugar (and using xylitol), my teeth feel GREAT - no tartar! And my breath doesn't stink, even first thing in the morning. How cool is THAT?

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