lazy bones

It pains me to admit this, more for prides sake than anything, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I am unequivocally, irrevocably LAZY. Yes, sadly, it’s true. Hello, my name is Jenny, and I’m lazy.

Damn, I really hate admitting that.

I’ve fought admitting this for a good year or two, maybe because I was still trying to ride a wave of non-laziness that I’d been surfing for a good year or two prior. Now I’m starting to realize that I’m just balancing on a surf-board that is firmly grounded on the beach. That’s actually a really lame analogy but once started I felt unable to abandon it. And it does an okay job illustrating my point.

I suspect a part of my laziness, at least initially, was ignorance. I didn’t realize I was on the beach. I genuinely thought I was still riding a wave and fighting to keep my balance. After a while it dawned on me that I was beached and I apparently decided denial was an adequate approach (sorry, still can’t abandon the analogy).

Except “adequate” is no longer working for me. I find myself more easily winded with simple tasks and sucking air during more intensive labor. I should note, I’ve noticed this directly corresponding with the quality of my diet.

When I made dietary changes, moving towards primal, I noticed that I felt more capable of DOING. I still didn’t purposely exercise (except for that week or two when I pushed myself to train for the Army PT test – fizzled and died real quick) but I felt able bodied and the momentum to conquer tasks. Towards the end of the summer I was energized enough to lug 42lb patio blocks around and level and lay my own 5’x5’ (ish) patio area (25 blocks). I felt awesome after doing that and my diet was mostly on track.

Then, over the past 6 weeks my diet really started to slip. More sugar and sweet crap has inched its way back into my body and I’m winded more easily and my blood pumps madly. For instance, I engaged in physical labor this weekend for a work event and it left me gasping often. In another instance, last night I enjoyed a movie night with a friend that included sneaking flasks of booze into the theatre (we think we’re bad ass). By the end of the evening I was winded just walking out to my car and my blood pressure felt sky high (thank you alcohol and buttered popcorn).

So this past week has been a wake-up call. Over the last 6 months of changing my diet I had good intentions of getting the exercise habits ingrained once again, but that never materialized. And honestly, I didn’t really care. I’m not even sure I care now, but my body is throwing up warning signs. Time to care.

Time to get my ass in gear. And the lazy party of me is going “Ugghhhh!!!! No!!! I DON’T WANNA!!!!!”

So where the world do I even start getting my ass back in shape? I dread the thought of going back to the YMCA. I hate sharing machines and waiting to use equipment. I want to get in, sweat, and go. Non of this lolly-gagging crap (plus, you totally know everyone will be wiping down equipment and machines with clorox wipes and lathering their bodies with sanitizer…annoying).

I see over at Mark’s Daily Apple they’ve got some posts on fitness so I’m going to check them out and I’ll get back to you . . .

 

frankenfoods: messing up a good thing

I was wandering through the baking aisle today at the Stuff-Mart and looking at this wide array of oils that they’ve added to their usual stock (yeah variety!). As I was perusing the olive oils, I came across the following hybrid of canola oil and olive oil.

My first thought was “Grrreeeeeeaaaaat. Way to mess up a good thing Pompeian.” From a primal perspective, seriously, what are they thinking?

In general, why does the food industry have this compulsive need to mess with good, natural, wholesome food. Do they honestly believe that they are really and truly enhancing their product? Or are they just throwing leftover crap in, spinning it as “good”, and seeing how many unwitting suckers will buy their message and their product in the name of doing something good for their health?

Products like this are fueled by money. Creating the above is essentially a watering down of the final product. They mix the expensive ingredient, in this case Olive Oil, with an aesthetically similar and less expensive ingredient, canola oil (hugely inferior to Olive Oil). Then they make it look like they’re doing you a favor and charge you more for the “value” that they have added to it.

This drives me MAD. Mad, mad, mad, mad, mad. MAD!!! Bang my head against the wall in frustration kind of mad. So I’m going to do posts on the different frankenfoods I see out there, include pictures, and rage at the arrogance of the companies churning out this swill and expecting us to thank them with our dollars.

And what can we do to discourage the messing around with our food? Don’t buy the food companies swill.

 

grrr arrghh!!

My labor day weekend was 90% awesome and 10% painful. Part of the awesomeness… seeing WWE Raw wrestling live (I now HEART Randy Orton – though I’m a little hesitant to admit it yet – to John Cena, sorry, but I’m breaking up with you – ha, in the dreams of my delusional little mind).

Also part of the awesome:

• Shopping!!
• Did I mention WWE Raw Wrestling?
• Spending time with a guy I like (not Orton, a real live guy)
• Getting stalked by guy’s ex-girlfriend all night after wrestling (creepy and exhilarating)
• A bit of “under cover” action
• Celebrating grandma’s 100th birthday
• Hanging out with family
• Coming home

The 10% painful part comes with me having another clumsy moment…apparently I have a quota to fill about every 6 months. I’m putting down a little patio area in my yard and so I picked up patio blocks from a home improvement store while I was out of town.

To move things along and get back to the fun shopping I helped load the blocks in my SUV. In the process I stepped on a broken chunk, turned my right ankle, fell on my left knee, and pitched forward holding one of the 42 lb patio blocks and slammed my knuckles into the asphalt. My knuckles look like I repeatedly punched a patio block, they’re bruised and scraped and hurt.

This also pricked my pride because of the family gathering on Saturday. My family picked on me and I couldn’t sock my dad or brother’s while they continually gave me grief over my clumsiness. Grrrr, arghhh!

And here I was with good intentions to start a serious exercise regimen this week to. I think swimming will have to be the answer to that. <sigh> I was really looking forward to kicking my ass.

On the other hand, seriously entertaining stories to tell. Hope I can heal quickly.

 

school yard bullying tactics gone global

Every day there’s more news about the size of the nation…the fatness of it. Media outlets spew their interpretations of “scientific” studies – often flawed studies with even more flawed interpretations. It’s maddening!

If the bad science and interpretation isn’t frustrating enough, the attitude with which this information is declared over the airwaves and in print is almost giddy with condescension.

Again, maddening!

There’s a conversation going on about fat people, right in front of fat people, but the fat people are not included in the conversation. If fat people dare to join the conversation, the “experts” are quick to talk over them and ignore what they are saying and pull out the standby stereotypes; fat people are lazy, fat people are stupid, fat people are unfit, fat people have no self-control, fat people are stuffing their feelings, etc. ad-nauseam. In a word, fat people are marginalized.

This superiority complex of the not-fat runs rampant. I’m sad to say I even see it on Primal/Paleo/Anti-Conventional Widsom sites. On the Marks Daily Apple Forum there was a post that served as more fodder for this disdain:

With time, we gain weight, because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that, when there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren’t heavy; we are enormously cultured, educated, and happy.

The above paragraph was quoted in the post on the MDA forum and the poster said that it was from a story written “to make people feel better about being large.” The original poster also went on to say “People go to great lengths to ‘justify’ their overweight. I guess you have to when you’re doing ‘everything right’ (low fat, low cal diet, chronic cardio) and nothing is changing.”

<sigh> I was really disappointed by this post. First of all, I’m not sure anyone would really take the quoted paragraph seriously. I think it was written tongue in cheek. Second, it’s rife with condescension and stereotypes. Third, why the fuck do I or any other overweight person have to justify the extra poundage we’re carrying around? It’s no one’s fucking business but our own.

Apparently the fat nazi’s are on the lose and demanding I cower and confess. As if I owe them an explanation, as if they’re entitled to know how I can possibly hold my head up and stare down their audacity.

And when I dare to do that, they start having a conversation in front of me, around me, about “how dare I…” and “don’t fat people know…” and “she’s just lying to herself…” and “studies show…” and “$147 billion in healthcare….”

It’s like elementary school tactics all over again. A couple kids start talking about another kid, usually an outcast of some sort, in quiet voices (or loud whispers)… loud enough for the outcast and anyone else within 10-15 feet can easily hear. Suddenly the outcast is the center of attention and incredibly uncomfortable…what to do? Walk away, shrug it off, run away in tears, or call out the kids talking about them.

99% of the time, the outcast is going to walk away, shamed into submission by the antagonists. And the antagonists rise up in their superiority, while anyone who heard the exchange, and saw the outcast shamed, now feels free to do the same thing to the same person regularly.

This tactic has gone global and the fat people are the outcasts on the playground, shamed by the media, the government, healthcare professionals, and science. The taunts of the bullies get a little louder, a little more vicious…and it spreads. More people join in, emboldened by the nerve of the “experts.”

What’s that quote…

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Never has this been more true in the conventional diet wisdom arena. Stupid people are running amuck. Bad science is widespread. But apparently it’s still the fault of the fat people when they do everything that conventional wisdom demands of them and don’t see results. And now, apparently fat people are stupid for not finding primal/low-carb (or whatever), stupid for not questioning the status quo.

It seems these days that there is no refuge from the fat bashing…damned if you do, damned if you don’t. It’s around every corner. It’s exhausting to endure.

I don’t know what the solution is. I think it’s important for the overweight to stand up and call fowl. It’s important to arm ourselves with the knowledge and to understand the studies giving the other side ammo – we need to be able to engage. And we need to remind them of our humanity. Yes, we are living, breathing beings worthy of respect and compassion.

So anyway, I don’t know if this makes any sense. Maybe I’m rambling. I just feel like there’s this huge injustice out there concerning the overweight and it hurts me and I want to fight it. The overweight (myself included) need champions, people who are on our side.

And we need to be on our own side. We DO deserve respect and dignity.

 

woh- what happened?

I was rockin’ along really well on the Primal Blueprint challenge that first week and then I sorta flipped over the weekend and ate a full box of pudding made with the best milk in the world (Farmer’s All Natural Creamery). I never bounced back from it. I tried fairly diligently that next week but then I crashed and burned over the weekend once again.

After that I just sorta gave up. I think part of it was an aversion to being involved in something that suddenly “everyone” was plugged into. That, and it was eat, sleep, shit Primal Blueprint Challenge over at Mark’s Daily Apple and I think there was just too much “noise” – it detracted from the challenge for me.

Or maybe these are just convenient excuses I latched onto because I didn’t really want to do the challenge? Who knows.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to the challenge being over and everything settling down over at MDA. And I’m looking forward to not having this half-hearted commitment hanging around my neck like an albatross.

So now I’m hitting the reset button and getting myself back on track eating yummy fat and protein and some veggies and fruits. It was definitely time to get back to the good stuff because my acid reflux was rebounding – urgh. Today has been very medicinal for that.

I’m hitting a mental reset button too because I had plans to get together with a guy I’ve been crushing on for about 9 months and he’s once again bailed because he found himself a new girlfriend. FRICK!! I’m pissed and I need to ride this anger into a kick-ass workout program (something that has been lacking in this primal journey).

So that’s my update.

 

quickie update

Let’s see, so I’m about 2 weeks into the Primal Blueprint Challenge and I’m really enjoying it. I haven’t kept myself under 50g of carbs every day (have allowed a sort of ‘cheat day’ each week) but I keep myself mostly to right around 50g of carbs – give or take 10g (at least I’m guessing at that – haven’t been tracking it faithfully since that first week).

Two weeks ago I discovered a new Farmer’s Market that has started up in town and I’m so psyched about it. My favorite find there so far has been patty pan squash. It’s delish. My favorite way to prepare it so far is to fry up a couple strips of bacon, quarter the squash in the pan, sprinkle some salt and pepper, saute, and then add some fresh basil leaves (shredded) at the end. Put them on your plate almost immediately and chow down.

The taste is really mild, like most other squashes, specifically zucchini or summer squash. But with the bit of bacon and basil, it’s so yummy.

So I’ve been eating a lot of squash for my vegetables and eating a lot of meat and eggs. I feel really good when I’m eating this way and I’ve lost 3.5 lbs so I’m really psyched about that. I’m at a weight that I haven’t seen in 2 years so…happy day! Since starting to dabble in this new way of eating I’ve dropped (depending on what number I start with) as much as 14 lbs. Yeah progress!

Today was one of those cheat days and I’m having a bit of an attack of acid reflux symptoms. I don’t have these when I’m eating Primal so I must get right back to eating that way again.

So to sum up – try patty pan squash and eat primal because you’ll feel great and lose weight!

 

pbc: days 3 & 4

Yesterday I got distracted and didn’t post my intake for the day but I did track it and it is provided below. It was a REALLY good day for me food-wise yesterday. Today wasn’t as good. I still kept my carbs around 50g but it did go over. However, I still think I did pretty good and I’m rather impressed with my dedication to it this week. I’m really loving this and not feeling at all deprived. It’s excellent. Primal eating definitely makes me feel good. So here’s my food records for today and yesterday.