Getting Primal for January ~ A Revolution ~ A New Challenge

Are you ready to be healthy and fit the way nature intended? I propose another challenge. A challenge where you get real for 30 days. Lets skip the notion of 80/20 and think of it as 100% primal. If the occasion comes around where it is "eat bad or go hungry", eat a little bad, just as much as you need to comfort your tummy and then go back to 100%.

I have slipped a lot this season becasue there has been a lot of stress in my life and I have taken the simple way out. Sometimes I have been getting prepackaged meals for lack of time and planning. That ends today.

I am taking my measurements, taking pictures, and will be posting them here. Then for the next month, i will post food I cook, my primal fitness, adventures, and what is trying to set me back.

Are you ready to be fit? Join me!! I would love your recipes, your stories, your help. We all need some support.

Paleo Holiday Lessons

For an entire month, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, thousands of Americans knowingly over-eat foods that are bad for them. No I don't just mean on those particular days, but for the entire month. Why? From the day before Thanksgiving, when we bake the pies, until the day after Christmas, when we polish off pies, we have parties, cookies baking, gingerbread house making, and candies on every desk we walk by. We wash all this sugar and flour down with prepackaged hot chocolate and flavored lattes that come from drive-thrus. The more you activate your sweet tooth, the more it demands sweets.

Fat Head - You’ve been fed a load of bologna.

Fat Head - You've been fed a load of bologna. Starring, written and directed by Tom Naughton, Fat Head is an eye-opening documentary about why we are really fat. Contrary to the current scientific community, it is not from McDonalds, meat, fat, or a host of other "bad' food that we have been told to avoid. 

The movie starts out much like many news stories about obesity, overweight people walking around with the cameras intentionally cutting off their heads, as to not embarrass them. Tom then compares himself to the 'obese' population. Tom is obese but he doesn't look like the rolly polly people that the news portrays as 25% of the population. At 5'11" and 206 pounds, Tom is OBESE

Learning to Ski ~ Try Something New

Exercise is something most people dread. Not me. I love to play and the world is my gym, for the most part. I play games with the kids like 'hide and seek' and dodge ball. I like to find new things to do. I love the slow and steady, like hiking and cross country skiing. I love the fast and furious like karate and laser tag.

Last Sunday I geared up to go skiing for the first time at Shawnee Peak in Bridgton Maine. I called the night before I went. They have a "Learn to Ski" program for those who have never skied before. Brandon answered the phone and gave me the price for people to take the program who have their own skis and a pass, $39. Told me to ask for him when I got there.

It was the most beautiful day for skiing. The sun was shining hard on the slope. As I came up to the group of new skiers and asked for Brandon, I took off my outer most layer of jacket. I was already hot. Brandon radioed up to the instructors to give me a free lesson. Really a sweet thing, especially less than a week before Christmas.

Pumpkin Paleo Pancakes

I found these "Pancakes" on Paleo-Zone. They are awesome!! I have added some changes of my own.

2 eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup almond butter
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tablespoon Agave

2 tablespoons chopped pecans - topping
2 tablespoon real maple syrup - topping

Gym or no Gym

A huge part of Primal nutrition is the exercise. It is Move Frequently at a Slow Pace, Lift Heavy Things, Sprint Once in a While. Well It is December in Maine and we have bouts of below freezing, intermittent snow and ice, then maybe a day of 50 degree rain that washes whatever we have away.

Move Frequently at a Slow Pace: Hard to move at any pace but a careful one when there is ice everywhere. The mountains that I hiked a month ago are freezing and icy. The local trails that I walked the dog are deep with cold mud. The roads that I biked are banked with ice, sand and salt, from the plowing from the scarce snow that we have had.

Simple Fish Chowder

Growing up on the seacoast of New England, it was mandatory that you ate chowder. Not the red soup that comes from Manhattan, but the white thick hot chowder that came from steaming pots with a pat of butter melting on top, making the fresh pepper swim around.

Eating primal doesn't mean you miss out on childhood soups, just mean you change things. I am the kind of primal girl that drinks dairy, so if you are not this is not the soup for you. My dairy is the least processed as possible. Usually I head to the farm and have them fill my gallon jugs with milk still warn from the cow.

DIY Larabar Roundup, Make your Own!

According to the  LaraBar Company: Our Food Philosophy: Simple. Pure. Delicious.™ Which is why I love them.


 Nuts and fruit. Which ever bar you choose, those are the ingredients to greatness. No sweeteners, fillers, supplements, flavorings or preservatives. How good is that? Just real food, nothing more.


I thought I would make my own but before I run out and buy a new food processor, i thought I would share the roundup of awesome sites that make these wonderful bars.

Raw Food Diet is not Primal

When I tell people that I eat like your hunter-gather ancestors, I always get a look. 7 times out of 10, they think I am eating raw everything. It is not the same thing. 

Yes I only eat foods that a human can digest in it's raw natural state.

What about chicken? You can't eat that raw.

Did you remember the 80/20 rule?

Thanksgiving has come and gone. The stuffing was stuffed, the pies baked, the rolls were steaming. Did you partake?

I did. I went to family's house. Even through I am die-hard about my diet, I am not going to ask my host to make an entire menu around my dietary needs. Beside Thanksgiving is about family and friends gathering together to enjoy each other's company and being grateful for the things we have.

I also live by the 80/20 rule. It doesn't mean to break down your day and eat non-primal 20% of the time. Sometimes it means being able to eat your Grandma's stuffing, or Uncle Joe's famous chocolate cake on a holiday. I try to be primal  100% of the time, but when life sends me to a pizza place for a celebratory after win feast, I can have some, without making myself nuts.

Today, I am back to being primal, happy that I spent some time with my cousins. Happy that I am not black Friday shopping. Happy that I am going to the national forest picking out our family Christmas tree. Not worried about the evil grains that lurked in the food I overate this one time a year.

Primal Hypnosis - Paul McKenna

I love reading nutritional books. I sometimes get some that actually make me laugh. For example, I got a book on self-hypnosis for weight loss. I am reading it and after the first 2 chapters, I realize that the book if full of 'feel-good' sayings, like how you are not at fault for being fat. The reason you are fat is that the food companies have actually hypnotised you to eat their crappy food. If you listened to the accompanying CD you will be deprogrammed. Plus the other reasons for being fat, like it is your genetics, family life, and a plethora of other reasons besides, "you eat too much and/or too much crap food". She also advocated no exercise. She said she hated it and she is thin without it. She was going to show all of us how to be thin without even taking an after-dinner walk. Bunk!

Diavoli Fritte with Onion and Dill Dip

Diavoli Fritte with Onion and Dill Dip from Bitchen Kitchen

Tonight in the Pittman house we are eating these adorable hot peppers. We love spicy stuff here and these are sure to get our spice on.

Ingredients
Diavoli Fritte (Fried Devils)
1 cup canola oil
4 cloves young garlic, roughly chopped
4 anchovy fillets, mashed with a fork
9 dried chillies
Green Onion and Dill Dip
6 scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup dill, minced

Ginger Sea Scallops

Ginger Sea Scallops ~ Fighter Fuel

Yeah, I know they are sitting on white rice.
Try and picture those nice pieces of
protein on a bed of black wild rice...

Tis the season for Sea Scallops. Yeah really, there is a season. It runs from October till March, of course you can get them anytime frozen. They are very quick to cook. 2 minutes per side if you are searing them in a fry pan over high heat.

The End Of Overeating by Dr Kessler

 The End Of Overeating By Davis Kessler

I thought that today I would write about a book that changed my eating habits. It is one of my  favorite books when it comes to nutrition. I picked it up at the library. I opened it thinking it was a diet book. I was very wrong.

The End of Overeating has more to do with how our food is processed and how the processing effects our bodies. Knowing how certain food can effect your desire to eat too much is very powerful to learn how to stop overeating.

Dr Davis Kessler is Harvard-trained doctor, lawyer, medical school dean and former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. That is a lot of credentials. Even armed with all that knowledge, he was overweight man and a yo-yo dieter since college.

Kessler was on a mission to find out why he just couldn't resist certain foods. He enlisted labs and scientists from around the world. He read every medical paper regarding food consumption. He even went dumpster diving in the middle of the night as some of our favorite chain restaurants, like Chili's and Appleby's. His booked is littered with footnotes pointing back to some study or experiment.

What Kessler found was that the body craves fat, sugar, and salt. When these three things combine in certain proportions, the body wants to have more than it needs. The food labels at these chain restaurants revealed a lot more than they want you to know. Some appetizers have 8 or 9 different types of salt listed on the label as well as different fats and sugars. An average appetizer in a chain restaurant is 900 calories and that is before you get you meal.


Foods that are highly processed, like that grilled chicken breast you always order because you are looking out for you weight, may not be the best choice on the menu. These pieces of meat are marinated in sugar, salt and fat and then tenderized to the point that you don't have to chew your food. The foods have become hyper-palatable, according to Dr Kessler. He says, “A hyper-palatable food that requires little chewing and goes down easily”. It also make you want more to eat than you should.

This book has no diet plan. It is just full of knowledge to helps you understand what goes on in your body and your brain when eating certain foods and why they make you want to overeat when clearly you have had enough. It is a must read!

Challenge #3: Move Frequently at a Slow Pace

Walk, hike, swim, or cycle. Today is raining. I really wanted to cycle, but I am going to hike instead.

Why hike in the rain? Well for one thing, the forest is a different place in the rain. If you like nature, you must hike in the rain. Animals, like frogs, salamanders, and turtles, often explore the ground during the cool rainy days of early fall.

If you like to take pictures, the light is diffused so there are no harsh shadows, no glare. Waterfall pictures are the most beautiful on a cloudy day and a slow shutter speed.

One more thing about a rainy day hike. No one else is there. You really get to be one with nature. No other hikers, unless they are die hard like me, to be on the trails, even the popular ones.

Ready to Get Back to it - Primal

I have been absent these past few days but I had a good reason. My husband was deployed to the Middle East yesterday. It has been a rough weekend to say the least. Saturday we had the departure ceremony. Sunday was football with friends and Monday was the extremely long, but not long enough, drive to drop off my husband so he can go to his mobilization site. Just picture me with a sad face.

Didn't mean that I wasn't trying to be primal. I did try, but with being on the road so much the choices were limited. At the Verizon Wireless Center in Manchester, there literally was nothing primal in the place. We arrived at 12 , for my husband had formation. The ceremony was at 2. We had planned on us getting food before we got there as we had a car full of children. Traffic held us up and we got there just in time.

Once we were in we were stuck there. No running for a coffee. But I do have to say that they treated us very well while we were there. A local Baptist church was handing out baggies of homemade cookies and brownies. Another group was handing out water, juice and snacks. A booth was also set up from the USO and they had crayons and activities for the kids to do while they sat and waited.

The kids kind of pigged out. They were hungry and it was cookies. Normally I would have said something but seeing as to what they were there for, I figured it wouldn't really hurt them.

New Day

Today is a new day. I am starting off with some good quality coffee with cream, no sugar. I am also having some scrambled eggs. Then I am off to help at the local food pantry. I am bringing a big *** salad with me so I can eat while I am there.

Challenge #1 Eat lots of Plants and Animals

This is my favorite challenge. I LOVE to eat. I also really love to eat good foods, but sometimes I get stuck in the quick and easy, like open a box and pop into your mouth easy. Then I would get into the habit of eating that way. Not any more!!

I have cleaned the fridge and the pantry and now I need to refill it. I am headed to the store today after pinting off the shopping list.

Day 2 YUM

Day 2 started with an early morning doctor's appointment. I woke up early enough and had time for breakfast, but I wasn't hungry. Before I would have ate anyway. So many diet books and nutritionists claim you need to eat breakfast everyday. I have heard this for years and sometimes have eating weather or not I was hungry because it was part of the diet.

Primal Blueprint offers different advice. Intermittent fasting. Which basically means that sometimes you are hungry and you should eat. Sometimes your not and you shouldn't eat. It doesn't hurt your body or your metabolism by skipping a meal every now and again. Back in the hunter-gatherer age, people got hungry, sometimes not eating for days, because they hadn't found food. 

Chronic under eating is the thing that screws up your metabolism.I was on a diet once that advocated 5-6 meals a day. Each meal being about 300 to 400 calories a day, not to go over 1800 calories a day. I found I was still hungry after eating a 'meal'.  It wasn't the amount of calories over the day but the number at the meal for me that matters. I always found myself wandering back into the kitchen when I sill had 2 hours until I was supposed to eat again. That was another thing. I thought about the next meal, constantly. I lost some weight, but wasn't living my life.

Day 2 food:

• cheddar cheese
• coffee with cream
• tossed salad with avocado and full fat creamy cheese dressing
• orange
• banana
• Taco salad 

The Taco salad was awesome. I had some chirozo sausage from the local farmers market. It is a pork sausage with Mexican spice in it. I browned it up and chopped it up small. On a bed of Romain lettuce, I split the plate into quarters. On each quarter I places a handful of local grape tomatoes, a quarter of a sliced avocado, a large spoonful of chirozo, and some diced Cheddar. The flavors of the very fresh ingredients were great the way they were. No need to add dressing, but the husband did sprinkle some hot sauce on it.

Day 1 Primal Challenge

Today was the day! The start of my Primal Blueprint 30 day challenge. Starting out my weight is 181. I stand about 5'6", so that makes me FAT. Can't find my Tape measure but as soon as I do I will post my circumference.

This morning I was a little anxious. Not that giving up pasta and bread would be hard, but that giving up all grains would be. There are grains in everything as I look around. I looked the other day at a convenience store for a primal snack. Besides some beef jerky that was laden in chemicals, there was nothing remotely primal. Not a piece of fruit nor stick of cheese. I decided to hold off until I got home.

What can I snack on? Crackers!

I love cheese and crackers. They have to be my favorite and have been dreading the thought of not having any for a month. So I have been searching the web for different recipes and I am making my shopping list.

At the top of the list, because it is in almost all the recipes is almond flour. I have never used almond flour before. I am curious on the flavor, but worried about the price. After a quick Google of shopping prices shows that the average price is about $5 for 10 ounces. It will take more than half the package to make one batch and there are so many recipes to try.

So I decided to ask myself what exactly almond flour is anyway.. The answer is simple, ground up almonds. Ground skinless blanched almonds is called almond flour. Leave the skins on for almond meal. From everything I have read the two are interchangeable. You simply add the nuts to a food processor or blender and grind into meal. Just be careful not to go to far because you will have almond butter, which is really tasty, but will not make good crackers

Other seeds and nuts that are on my shopping list are, sunflower seeds, ground flax meal, and sesame seeds. I will need an assortment of herbs, Parmesan cheese, garlic, and olive oil.

Some recipes, like Grain Free Almond Crackers, from Caveman Food or Sunflower Seed Crackers from Mark's Daily Apple are simple. Others like Savory Herb Crackers from What I Crave or from Fit Rich Woman are a bit more complicated.

Now that the heat wave in the Northeast has broke, I can put the oven on and try them all!
.

Gearing Up - Primal Blueprint Challenge Sept 7th

courtesy of imamon

Just got an email from over at Mark's Daily Apple about the upcoming challenge. The challenge starts Sept 7th and will end Oct 6th.  Don't want to wait to win a prize, well with Mark's sponsor, U.S. Wellness Meats, sign up for their newsletter and someone will win $100 gift certificate for Mark's Primal Products.

What should you have if you want to go primal with me?

Well you could get the 'The Book' and/or the cookbook, but Mark just came out with the Primal Leap Package. With it you get a guidebook, DVD, audio book, shopping guide, fitness book, one-on-one access to Mark, pod casts, and a daily email. You also choose to receive either The Primal Blueprint and The Primal Blueprint Cookbook or the Primal Essentials Kit with your Primal Leap package.

Shopping List

This day is almost upon me. The day when I go 100% primal for a month and I actually got the OK from the doc before I told him what I was going to do.

I am an athlete and I have had some injuries this summer that has put me off my feet. Just this week I started to get back to my activities and I also had a doctors appointment. I was complaining that my appetite was huge and that I had gained 10 pounds this summer. Well my appetite is still like I have training 15 hours a week. So he said to shy away from carbs and eat more protein.Cool.

So today I empty the pantry. Kids are are helping me happily but they don't know it yet. Out goes the whole wheat bread, refined sugar, and pasta. In comes the tuna, apples and raw honey.

The list:

• Yogi Chai Roobios Tea (very good unsweetened) 
• Greek Yogurt
• Cream
• Eggs (free range of course)
• Olive oil
• Sunflower seed oil
• Samlon
• Tuna
• Steak
• Hamburger
• Chicken
• Berries
• Apples (the orchards are just opening for pick yourself)
• Whatever fruit is on sale
• Almonds
• Sunflower seeds
• Walnuts
• Pecans
• Almond Butter
• Jerky
• Salad fixings because I love a Big *** Salad nearly everyday
• Bacon nitrate free
• Fresh Veggies from the farmers market
• Wild rice (at least I will give it a try)

four food groups, where did you go?

Growing up, if you are of a certain age, we ate by the rules of the four food groups. It seemed, at the time, that it was the only food guide there ever was.  It was so simple. Divide your plate into thirds, to each section add meat, veggie, and a starch, drink a glass of milk and you had a balanced meal.

Now we have pyramids for every diet imaginable (even Primal Blueprint). It made me wonder if the four food groups were the first? It wasn't.

On Ramp to the Day, Fueled by Coffee

I must admit, that I have 'freinded' Dunkin Donuts. I have the green punch card from the corner store that has one more punch to it until I get my free coffee and I only got it a week ago. I have also driven 15 minutes out of my way (more than once) to get to a Tim Hortons rather than hit the BK on the way home from the doctors.

I have a coffee problem. An addiction? Well maybe not, but I do spend way too much on coffee when I am out, and I drink way too much.

The Challenge

A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either.   ~wikipedia.org

It is the way humans were meant to eat, or so says Mark Sissons.

Mark Sisson's book "The Pimal Blueprint" has so much information backed up by references at the back of every chapter.  These 'end-notes' cite sources like the Mayo clinic, New England Journal of Medicine, CDC, and so much more.

The first human like species, Homo Habilis, roamed the earth 2.5 million years ago. Homo sapiens appeared 200,000 years ago. Only 10,000 years ago our primal ancestors started to farm, relatively, a short time. Mark insists we were meant to eat like out paleo hunter-gatherer ancestors because our genetics have not changed even if we get our food from a different place and in a different way.

I believe him. So for the month of September I am going to live primal. My hopes are that I will lose some weight, get in shape and have more energy.

I am going to follow mark's advise from his last challenge. I will act 'as-if';

• as if I am the person who loves the gym.
• as if I can be Primal 100% of the time.
• as if I have no desire for sweets, bread, pasta and rice.
• as if the big and small stresses of everyday life can slide off my back.
• I may not be that person yet, but I will act as if I am.

Here are the laws:

1. Eat Lots Of Plants, Animals
2. Avoid Poisonous Things
3. Move Frequently at a Slow Pace
4. Life Heavy Things
5. Sprint Once in a While
6. Get Adequate Sleep
7. Play
8. Get Afequate Sunlight
9. Avoid Stupid Mistakes
10. Use Your Brain