The self-care project (A post-W14 study)

[jennor]

Day 18 2014 06 16

 

Sleep: Monday. It was difficult to get my body to understand that this morning it was back to getting up at 5:20, so I had some trouble falling asleep last night. Probably around 6.5 hours, but I feel pretty rested from the lovely weekend.

 

Food:

Breakfast: 3 eggs, veggie hash, handful cherries, coffee.

Lunch: Buffet; veal patty (piece of it, it was breaded on the outside  so I cut that part off first), spicy beef, vegetables and salad, handful nuts, donut peach. Coffee.

Snack: Coffee. Another peach and handful nuts.

Dinner: Chicken thigh, sweet potato "fries", salad, spicy mayo.

De-caf, some dark chocolate.

 

Exercise: Run commuting - 7.4 km to the meeting point this morning and will do another 5.5 km for the pre-school pick-up this afternoon. Total: 12.9 km (8mi). Legs were tired this morning, so it will be slooow and easy today! I feel so good when I work out, though. It really makes me so much happier!

[almcc]

Hi jennor

Thank you for the reality check - it's important to remember how far I've come. Starting today I'm going to keep track of my compliant meals. I need to step back and see the big picture. I'm also back on 21dsd.

This morning I had kale, eggs, ground meat, coffee. Snacked on homemade crackers and baba ganoush. Heading to a late lunch with a friend. Dinner tonight is sausage, squash casserole and salad. Tomatoes, too!!

jennor - where is the marathon. Sounds exotic!

Happy day.

[jennor]

Yeah, Ashley, don't feel defeated. It is a process and you really have come so far. Try to keep the bigger picture of how your eating has changed in mind. Easier said than done, I know. But we all fall in the ditch, we just have to keep picking ourselves up and back on the road. Sounds like you are back to caring for yourself, so all is good. Your food sounds delicious, by the way!

The marathon is on Mallorca, an island off the coast of Spain in the mediterreanean sea. The course runs through the city and along the sea, and it is quite pretty. We'll make it a family vacation and stay a few days. Last year we lucked out with the weather and had perfect beach weather the entire time, but usually it is not that warm. It is nice, because it is just a 2 hour flight and a chance to get away just when it is getting really dark and depressing in Sweden!

[jennor]

Day 19 2014 06 17

Just to be clear, I have not been all shiny-perfect paleo for the number of days I am counting. (Hello, ice cream happened...) But I will focus on being "sustainable paleo" for 100 days. That means mostly W30 compliant, but not perfectionist and with some dark chocolate and SWYPOs. It is an experiment in learning to ride my own bike.

 

Sleep: 6.5h? Not enough. Little girl woke up and it took a while to get her back to sleep. Yawn.

 

Food:

Breakfast: 3 eggs, veggie hash. Coffee!

Lunch: A mix of things from the buffé, but mostly lamb steak and mixed veg. Paranuts and peach. Coffee.

Dinner: Glutenfree seafood pizza without cheese. This was suprisingly delicious! Cherries and strawberries. De-caf.

 

Exercise: Pre-school pick-up run! I am taking the little one in the running stroller and big girl rides her bike. They love it! 4.5 km easy run. I didn't manage to squeeze in some weights, unfortunately. I want muscle!

[jennor]

Day 20 2014 06 18

 

Sleep: So darn tired today. I went to bed on time but youngest DD woke up a little after 4 am and didn't go back to sleep. Aaaaaahhh, I will survive on coffee today....

 

Food:

Breakfast: 2 eggs, veggie hash, donut peach, COFFEE.

More coffee, two donut peaches.

Lunch: Thai beef, grilled chicken, salad, asparagus, nuts.

Dinner:

 

Exercise:

[almcc]

Hi.

Wrote a long post yesterday and my phone ate it. Never got a chance to get back to it. Anyway Maliorca sounds so wonderful. It's on my list of places to visit. 😀 Husband turns 50 next year and I thought we would go to Japan. But the other day he mentioned Europe. That is a great plan for lots of reasons. The main one being we have not been to the UK since his mom died and there is lots of family to visit still. But going home can be hard. Fingers crossed that it will work for him.

Sleep - last night was tough. I missed a few critical hours in the middle of the night. I'm tired too - jennor. Coffee!!!! Yay!!!

I am amazed by my body. 2 days into eating sweets and bread and I can barely walk when I get up in the morning. Everything hurts. Then 2 days into eating healthy - I don't hurt in the morning at all. Wow!!!

Things have been going well. I made a blueberry crumble - it was the first week of blueberries at the farmers market and I decided to enjoy them. The crumble = blueberries with a topping of almond flour and ghee. It was so good and I did not miss the sugar.

working out today. Not in the mood. Maybe after coffee I'll be excited. ðŸ˜

Happy day!!!

[almcc]

Hi

Sleep last night was not good. The dog is sick. So I got up and down. Ack. 2nd night in a row.

Yesterday's workout was great. Bench presses, squats, assisted pull-ups, step-ups. And I'm not too sore. There is no way I could have done that workout before Whole30. Woohoo!!

Last night I made banana donuts - no sweetener. They were ok. I didnt miss the sweet but I need to figure out how to give them more flavor. Or not.

Here's to taking care of ourselves.

[almcc]

Hi jennor,

 

Had a better night's sleep. the dog woke me up at 4:30 so I got 6 hrs.  I am feeling so much better.  Worked out this morning and just had a breakfast of egg, broccoli, ground meat, avo.  yum.

 

While I was at the gym I had a conversation with my friend who is a trainer and nutritionist.  He asked - what percentage of health problems could be resolved if people ate well.  What do you think?

 

Off to get another cup of coffee.

 

Happy eating well!!

[almcc]

Hi

Went to the farmers market and avoided all the backed goods. Got some beautiful blueberries and 4 turkey eggs. Can't wait to try those tonight.

Getting a cold and craving sweets. Ack

Here's to caring for ourselves.

[almcc]

Hi.

Did a little experiment. Night before last I had some wonderful 85% chocolate - no soy. Ate too much and felt horrible yesterday - wasn't a cold. Think it was the chocolate. So now I know. No chocolate no corn no rice. Immediate and icky response.

The turkey eggs were good. Next time I'll poach them to see if I taste a difference.

Today I'm laying low. And taking extra care of myself.

Happy day!

[jennor]

Hi Ashley!

 

I belive almost all health problems relating to metabloc syndrome such as diabetes (type 2), fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease, most kidney disease (about 40 % is diabetes related!) could be prevented or even treated with diet. I also belive that diet has a big impact on autoimmune disease, not so much in causing it perhaps as in controling it. This Saturday we were at a local fair that comes to the beach every year. Both me and my husband were shocked at how the majority of the customers were overweight, smoking and not looking very healthy.

 

Sorry I have been MIA. We celebrated Midsummer in Sweden this weekend and it is a really big deal here. It was nice, as always. My oldest has a slight fever and I had a sore throat, but we powered through. No running for me though.

 

Saturday at the fair they had a donut shop where they make the donuts fresh. I am not much of a donut eater usually, but every year I get a fresh one from there. It was delicous, but UGH it does not feel good once it is in my body. My littlest one was so funny - for some reason she thought it was a chicken nugget (even though she picked one covered in chocolate and m&ms!) and she was so disappointed! All she could do was sob "chicken nugget?" and point at it looking confused! We had to go buy her a hot dog instead. Older girl loved it - but only ate all the candy off it and then asked for a hot dog instead too.

 

The donut kind of sums up my eating this weekend. I have been doing ok, but not really as good as I want to be. I eat great real food, then I eat ice cream at night. I am not very happy with it. I need to get back in my routine. This is a stressful week for me. I keep hoping things at work will calm down since it is summer, but I still feel over loaded. Next week looks better in my calendar though, so there is hope.

 

I need to get my ducks in a row and tackle work now. I'll be back with my daily plan!

 

Oh, and I want to add that I am really grateful for this forum, to keep me coming back into a healthy mindset when I am busy and stressed and feel like I am entering the cycle of tossing it all out the window to just push harder and then revward myself with food. Thank you!

[jennor]

Sooo, yesterday I wrapped up the first part of a big project. I am tired now, and need some rest. My body is stiff and aches from not working out for over a week. Eating is good, except that I had to eat pasta and a mystery sauce at a work-related thing yesterday. There were just no options. It tasted like cardboard but didn't give any immediate bad effects. Today is fresh and bright ahead of me. I'll be back with a fresh plan on how to practice some self-care. But first, a lovely meeting....

[almcc]

Hi

I'm back at it today. Had a few days where I ate off my plan. Feeling ok but excited to be feeling better. Someday I will get to a point where I am not tempted to go off roading.

jennor - hope your day is going well.

[almcc]

Hi jennor

Tried to send a PM and it is not working.

Things here are ok. Yesterday was a bust. Today I am eating out 2 times. Will do ok for lunch - not sure about dinner. Tomorrow I am moving my daughter back from college. Not sure how we will manage food. Next week I am on vacation for 3 days. The weeks where I have a lot of social things are the hardest. I have to make a plan.

Here's to the process.

[jennor]

Ashley, social outings are difficult. I usually go for the cleanest protein I can find with salad and vegetables. Sometimes it is just impossible though. Today we ate out for lunch. The restaurant had mostly foods that are unfriendly to my intestines, but I was lucky and found a sashimi dish with salad. Not really enough calories, but I chased it with two hard boiled eggs in the car later.

I am cleaning up my act. I am doing probably 80/20 whole 30 food, but I want to clean it up. I don't want to crave chocolate and ice cream every night. I think it is going to be key to try to gear down a bit with work stress and get more sleep. I know I "eat my feelings" at the end of stressful and exhausting days. It is summer, it will hopefully slow down a little at work next week and I will work hard on getting some rest. I also need to get back to running and working out. My body is begging me for movement and I always sleep better and feel less stressed when I work hard physically as well.

2014 06 28

Sleep: 7.5 or something. I slept well.

Food:

Breakfast: 2 eggs, veggie hash, coffee

Pre-wo: egg

Lunch/post-wo: sashimi salad, a few chicken pieces from DD's plate

Snack: 2 eggs, veggie hash, de-caf

Dinner: lamb roast beef, sweet potato "fries", mixed salad, water melon

Exercise: I ran a trail half marathon today. It was a lot of fun. The course is really hilly and not fast, so it was more of a long run than a real race effort. It is such a beautiful course along the sea. My legs are tired and very happy now. So am I!

[almcc]

jennor - still not able to send a message. Wouldn't mind so much but it's long.

I'm cleaning up my eating starting Thursday for sure. I'll be gone Monday through Wednesday. Luckily my friend eats healthy so she'll be okay looking for good places to eat. We are also going to hike and go rafting. After that I'm back to 21dsd.

Interesting experience today. I had broccoli, beef and sweet potato. I have been eating sp daily since I started this process last year. I stopped when I cut back on sugar last month. Tonight the sweet potato was tooooooo sweet. That's progress.

jennor - I'm glad you got some movement in and hope you slept great!!!

[jennor]

Ashley, I got a message from you, in the Hi conversation. Is that what you tried to send?

I was thinking about sweet potatoes yesterday. I wonder if they are high in fructose since they are so sweet? I will google.

2014 06 29 Sunday

Sleep: 7.5 hours. Slept great! (Thank you Ashley!)

Food:

Breakfast: 2 fried eggs, bacon, fruit salad, coffee

Lunch: Chorizo, sweet potato, salad, mayo and spicy dipping sauce

Snack: few pieces dried mango

Dinner: Salad with tuna steak, olive oil, balsamic. (Eating out, not enough food, but the only option at this Italian place)

Snack: Cherries. Egg. De-caf.

Exercise: 6.5 km (4 mi) easy. Ran with the family, so nice and easy for my sore legs. It also included a break at a cafe and a playground after the first 3 miles.

Off to bed now. I figure that will be a good start to next week.

[jennor]

2014 06 30 Monday

Sleep: 7 hours. I think when my husband goes on vacation next week and takes the kids to our summer house I will make a point of trying for 8 hours each night. It shouldn't be too difficult when I have more time to myself and I think it would do me good.

Food:
Breakfast: 3 eggs, salad, tomatoes, sugar snaps small handful nuts, coffee.
Lunch: mixed salad veg, omelette with sundries tomato, olives.
Snack: handful nuts, cherries
Dinner: Salsicca, sweet potato, sip ash, mayo, spicy dipping sauce. Cherries and watermelon. A few pumpkin seeds.

Exercise: Planning a short and easy evening run with the family. I would also want to lift some weights but I doubt that my schedule will allow that. ETA: 6.5 km (4 mi) easy run with the family after dinner. We stopped to look at the lambs and the kids loved that. Nice and easy, my legs are still sore.

[almcc]

jennor - sleep. I am realizing more and more how important it is. Yesterday I slept in - after I let the dog out - until 10!! Felt wonderful all day and I did not need a nap in the afternoon. The teenager slept till 12:30. : )

How long will your family be gone? Will you go on the weekend?

I am looking forward to my mini vacation this week. And next week my daughter and I are doing a mini spa vacation. Yay!!

Here's to taking care of ourselves!!!

[jennor]

Ashely - Yes to sleep! I got almost 8 hours last night and I feel amazing today.   I think you should sleep in more. Get it when you can! I think it is an important reset for both the body and the mind. It also sets me up to being healthier during the day. If you can sleep in on your mini vacation, I think you should do it!

 

The family will leave on Monday and I will take the train up to meet them on Sunday (I have a 10K race on Saturday), so it will be a full week. I know I will miss them a lot. But I also have grand plans of cooking up one or two big batches of food and eating them all week. No cooking, very little dishes. Moree reading and yoga instead. I think it will be a nice week.

 

I have had 3 really good days of eating well, working out and sleeping. I feel better already. I might stick to it as a Whole-something, but don't plan on doing a set number of days. I'd rather just take it day by day.

 

2014 07 01

 

Sleep: Very close to 8 hours. I also got to wake up with my kids instead of at the crack of dawn, so we got in a nice cuddle before starting the day. I love my little pigglets!

 

Food:

Breakfast: 2 eggs, sweet potato hash, a few sugar snaps and a few nuts. Coffee.

Lunch: Fish, big mixed salad with lots different veg, olives. I love the food at work!

Snack: Trail mix (not peanuts), de-caf

Dinner: Salsicca, sweet potato hash, spinach, mayo, moroccan sauce.

Off-roading: ice cream

 

Exercise: Either a rest day or a run. We'll see after work. ETA: rest day

[jennor]

Wednesday 2014 07 02

 

Sleep: Nah, not so good. I guess 5.5h?

 

Food:

Breakfast: 2 eggs, salad w/ tomato and pepper, sugar snaps. 2x coffee!

Lunch: Beef, salad and lots of veg, roasted aubergine, balsamic, olive oil, a few pieces fruit.

Afternoon: A coworker brought me chocolate and I devoured it. It was no milk, 60% though...

Dinner: Lamb roast beef, sweet potato "fries", big slad, mayo and spicy sauce.

Ice cream...

 

Exercise: Running 8 mi w/ 4 mi at tempo pace tonight. I was exhausted so I went to bed at 7:30 instead.  <-yawning

[jennor]

Thursday 2014 07 03

 

My tummy is grumbling, probably from ice cream two days in a row... That does make me think.

 

Last year I did my first whole30 in July. I can't belive how much healthier I am just a year later. My UC is in remission, I am on a lower dose of my harshest medication and I think I might be getting my period back. Amazing stuff!

 

I have contemplated doing another whole30 to kind of celebrate and manifest these changes on the anniversary of it. I do however think that as long as I keep the off-roading under control my diet is fine the way it is. I am not sure I want to commit to complete policing of all food shopping and cooking during vacations and in the social situations I have coming up. I eat whole30 style already, but I don't ask in the canteen if my beef has been cooked in butter. Miost days are probably close to 100% whole30 until I start in with the treats at home after dinner. So I think that is where I need to put my focus.

I also need to focus on training. Just a few days of not running and working out and my back really hurts. I sit in the car for close to 2.5 hours every day, and that just about kills me. I also lift and carry a 2 year old. I need to make a commitment to streak run again, and I need to get back to regular weight lifting. I also need to sleep more, but I have no concrete plan on that yet...other than to go on vacation in 1½ week from now. 

 

So for the rest of July I hereby commit to not having any non-paleo treats (no regular sugar, no milk, no grains). I will have dried fruit and nuts in moderation and fresh fruit and berries. I love the cherries and peaches that are in season now, so I will enjoy those fully. I am also fine with paleofied treats sweetened with small amouts of honey. Because I know I do not have the time to bake and eat a ton of those anyway!

I will also get back in the swing of working out by doing a daily streak run of at least 2 km. This is the season for it too, with the long lovely evenings. Twice weekly I will do at least back exercises and push-ups. It's a start!

As for sleep, my family will be away next week so I think it will be easier to get my "me-time" in after work and still get to bed on time. After that I will also have 2 weeks of vacation, and I will be able to sleep in past 5:30.

 

Wow, I have a plan and I just commited to it for the world to see. Let's go!

[jennor]

Thursday 2014 07 03

 

Sleep: 10 hours. Yes, that is right! I was so exhausted yesterday. I could feel myself being snappy with the kids and I really just wanted to go to bed. So I went to bed with the kids and slept all the way through the night until 5:45. I thought maybe I would wake up at 4-something and in that case I planned to get my run in. But I guess I really needed the sleep more.

 

Food:

Breakfast: 2 eggs, big mixed salad, spicy dipping sauce on top. Coffee, of course.

Lunch: Starter of shrimp and mango followed by baked mackerell w/ cauliflower puré, beer braised pork jaw filé and a big plate of mixed salad veg, olives and a basil-chili oil. Delicous!

Dinner: Ground beef w/ spicy dipping sauce and chipotle chili, sweet potato "fries" and salad, mango-avocado salsa, and mayo. Cherries, water melon. A few home made chocolates sweetened w a little bit of honey. A small ice cream. (Too much and the ice cream was not what I had planned. A clear case of tired, defeated self sabotage.)

 

Exercise: A run later.  Again, tired and ended up not following through. I am mad at myself, but I know that doesn't really help matters. Frustrating.

[almcc]

hi

Back from vacation.  Had a wonderful time.  Rafting was great.  1 more vacation next week for a few days - rafting again with my daughter. Working out this morning - which will be the first time in 2 weeks.  Looking forward to it.

 

My plan - no treats till our vacation.  But  I'll eat some fruit and maybe make some paleo buns for 4th of july. 

 

Happy day!

[jennor]

Ashley, rafting sounds so cool. Was it scary? Happy 4th of July!!!

 

2014 07 04

 

I ended up not following through with my plan last night. It is really hard for me to have any kind of will power left at the end of the day. I feel like I leave work still with the best intentions, but then it all gets eroded by the stress of feeding the kids, keeping them happy and finally when they go to bed I am just wiped. The thougt of going out for a run by then is just not appealing. I am not sure how to go about this. One idea would be to pick the kids up from day care, fix dinner and then immediately hand over to my husband and head out for a run while they eat. I might try that, acctually.

 

Sleep: 7 hours, but I was woken up a couple of times by the kids. I am tired now. The 10 hour night was a life saver, but I still need to get more hours on a regular basis. I stay up too late to have some kind of flavor of "me-time" and in the long run it is self sabotage, because I exhaust myself for an hour of meaningless surfing on the web.

 

Food:

Breakfast: 2 eggs, tomato salad, coffee.

Lunch:

Dinner:

 

Exercise:

 

I am trying again today. I feel frustrated with myself, and at the same time too tired to change my loop. At least it IS Friday today...