Nori Chips and Workouts

Hrm....they screwed with the dashboard here. Let's how this works.

Things have been going well. My eating has been pretty clean for the most part, and I've been feeling great. Last weekend we went to my mom's house for the weekend. It wasn't too hard to eat primal there, she knows what we're doing is more than happy to accommodate us. Although, then she also snacks and has treats, and wants to try nifty new recipes she's found that are served on bread. I sampled some things, and had two small oatmeal pancakes at the diner (which were to DIE for, and totally worth having, and didn't even need syrup, so I skipped it and just put butter on them), but I also had a fried egg over salad greens with them, which was really good - I'll be doing that at home.

Workouts have been going well, too. I'm still taking a very organic, do what I feel like kind of approach, and it's working pretty well. I've gotten in some heavy weight lifting. I had a few glasses of wine this past Friday night and decided it was a good idea to try out my new Kelley Coffey-Meyer 30 Minutes - Weights by jumping right into the total body pre-mix. Heh - she totally kicked my ass, BUT I made it through the whole thing, and I did 12 pound tricep kickbacks - not something I'm used to.

I also got in some CLX, walking and tried out more new Ellen Barrett. (Now I'm lusting after some barre DVDs a few people on the Video Fitness Forum are raving about, gonna have to sit on my fingers).

I came across this post on Can You Stay for Dinner? on how to make great 400 calorie salads which I really liked because it presents a formula for assembling salads, rather than specific recipes, which is really great. I've seen another similar post somewhere around recently, too, and these are the things I'm trying to find and compile into a sort of guidebook for myself for primal eating as a lifestyle, and how to really change the way I think about meals.

I tried making egg cups (the kind with bacon in a muffin pan), and those weren't really as good I thought they'd be. The tops came out like vinyl and they didn't hold together as much as I'd like. I'll stick to mini quiches, I think.

I also took a stab at making nori chips, and those were MUCH more successful! I think I'm in love - they are SO GOOD!

Yesterday, I spend a very long time cleaning our bedroom, which had gotten pretty gross over the winter, and things upstairs are really very nice now, which feels great. We're getting some things squared away at work too, which hopefully will help offset the monumental stress still hammering us there.

Nothing planned for this coming weekend, so hopefully we can get lots more things done that will make life even better.

Excellent Weekend

This weekend has been fantastic and exactly what I needed!

Friday evening we had dinner with my teenaged son and his girlfriend, and that was really pleasant. (Which totally had NOTHING to do with the three glasses wine, or the cute bartender who always flirts with us.) When we got home, I packed some almonds, eggs, my jar of coconut, some dark chocolate and the last of my recent batch of Blueberry Nut Balls, and an avocado into a lunch box to bring along, so I'd have some fallback supplies.

Dad's breakfast supplies included bacon and eggs, so I was good there.

Sat morning, I took a walk up the long driveway and back, including a little foray out onto the road to catch a couple of hills, plus some trail walking around the property and I'm happy to report that I LOVED IT!! It felt great, both on the trails and driveway, and on the paved road. So, I think I'm safe to say that it's just the crappy road by my house that's bad for me. Kinda sucks, but it is what it is.

We got the pontoon boat in the water and took it for a little spin, which was very good for my soul (and my stress).

For lunch we hit up a local brewpub, and I did have a nice scotch ale, but just one. I also had a burger with cheese and avocado, sans bun, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the fresh vegetable option was a heaping pile of BRUSSELS SPROUTS, that were clearly fresh and cooked perfectly. I was IN AWE. I think I'm still high on sprout bliss.

My sister went to the candy store, and I didn't, and even though she brought back a pound of fudge, I didn't have any. (She got some that was chock loaded with nuts, which I think have no business being in fudge, so that helped.) I also did not ever get around to having any of my own chocolate and coconut.

They decided on hot dogs and chips for dinner, so I ate my avocado, some almonds and nut ball.

Today was rainy and crappy, so I didn't get to do any more walking around at the cabin, but my eating was excellent, and I fit in a workout this afternoon at home:

This is new one for me, and my first time with it - I must say that I really loved it! It's got a lot of interesting moves, and a TON of cross-body core work, which I adore. Plenty of nice plank work too. It was a killer for me because my fitness level is down, but that's okay. I'm pleased to see that some of my strength, such as core for planks, seems to be coming back rather quickly.

Our kids are gone for most of the week on a school trip, so we're planning to try out some new recipes and do a little experimental cooking.

Walking

Things are going well. It's easier this around in a lot of ways because I already know how it's done for the most part. I don't have to learn all the concepts and the rules, I already know a ton of the tricks and several good recipes. I even know some of the things that do and don't work for me.

Clearly, I don't know them all or I wouldn't have to be starting over, I'd just be going on my merry way. But I'm learning.

I've spent time in the last couple of days searching out blogs that I find inspiring on either the food front or the fitness front. I've even got a few that are inspiring from the weight loss point of view. Those are a little dicey, though....the two best ones in terms of approach and outlook are women who are not even thirty. And while I find their stories and adventures interesting and inspiring, I also find myself extremely jealous that they were able to do it so young and here I am nearly twice their age and I haven't been able to do it YET.

It's depressing to think of all that time wasted, and there they are getting to enjoy it all while they're still young. Clearly, I'm going to have to find a way to let go of this line of thinking ASAP, because it's not productive at all. (except for perhaps a little motivation not to waste any more time, but the damage I will do far outweighs this.) Because, okay....I'm forty-two. I'm not pushing up daisies yet. And I haven't actually wasted all this time - I've done a lot of great things, and had a pretty nice life. I've just done them fat. But truthfully, about the only thing that would be significantly different about those years if I'd been thin is that I would have been better dressed. So....have to work on this.

Yesterday, at work I felt restless and a little cruddy so I went out for a quick walk around the block (which includes a decent hill climb on one end), and I really enjoyed it. A LOT. I enjoyed it so much, I decided to go for a walk when we got home. I got out on the dirt road by our house, which is a two mile walk down and back. And....I HATED IT. It was so uncomfortable, and the rocks hurt my feet even through my shoes, and the uneven ground made my lower back hurt like hell. I was so disappointed. I'd wanted to just cruise along, clearing my head and working my body, but instead I felt like an albatross.

Turns out I like walking on nice smooth pavement. I did some walking around town today to test, and it felt great again. This is a bit of a bummer since the only pavement near my house is the busy roads, and I wouldn't feel comfortable walking there. On the other hand, I'm sure with some creative thought I'll be able to find ways to get in lots of walking in places I enjoy. From now on, if I want a walk after work, I'll do it here in town BEFORE heading home.

One thing I can foresee is that I will want a "walking bag" to keep in the car with a visor and a belt and whatever else I think might make me comfortable if I decide to stop someplace and have a spur of the moment walk. I'll have to start checking out some of the parks around here too. We're going to the cabin this weekend, so I can test out my walking preferences on the unpaved driveway there and see if it the deal is that I really like super flat and smooth walking, or if it's just that I DON'T like the large gravel/crappy road walking.

Aside from the exercise, I'm REALLY hoping to make walking a big part of my stress reduction plan, and a way to beat the depression.

Eating's been fine, about the only thing I did that could be tweaked is that I drank too much wine on a couple of occasions. (What? Drinking a whole bottle of champagne is completely reasonable when your father is visiting and your son's girlfriend is over.)

Had my first green monster of the season this morning, and IT WAS GOOD. :)  (I don't drink them in the winter, really)

Anyway - we'll see how I do over the weekend. I won't have as much control over the food situation, and I'm really not sure what will be going on. But, Dad is a big meat and salad and eggs man, so we ought to be okay.

Irony, thy name is Sassy

Heh. Bit of an eye opener when I came on here to post because I'm making a renewed effort at primal, and really trying to get it right this time, and uh-rah and the whole nine yards...to find that my last post was the exact same thing. At about the exact same time. With pretty much the exact same catalyst. The Florida trip.

I don't know what it is about me that I have these swings where sometimes I can be pretty rock solid on this stuff, like I feel now, and other times it's completely fucking impossible - like it's been for the last nine months or so. I just don't get it. I suspect I may always be searching for the answer.

BUT - I'm grateful for this blog, so I could see that and get a good look at what I'm doing.

So, here's the skinny on me now:


I am still on the anti-depressants, and I'm okay with that for now. (I have some MAJOR stress factors in life right now.)

Let's put that out front - I have MAJOR stress in terms of getting my teenaged son to figure out what he's doing in life and do it (he's a senior), I have stress at our shop where it seems we keep getting more and more in debt. I have stress at home where we're doing okay, but are in pretty major debt, and I'm dealing with the teenaged son and his issues.)

I am JUST getting back into working out, as I lost the thread on that too.

I have good friends, and a fair amount of support in my life.

I have my hubby who's great, and is also trying to be primal.

I still have two teens in the house which has made staying primal more difficult since they bring home all kinds of yummy crap.

So, I guess I'll see if I can unravel more of my issues so I can keep up with this for good this time.