Sending It In

Earlier while out running errands, I stopped at the bank for a money order. Next stop was the post office with an envelope containing that money order addressed to Little Rock. I dropped the envelope in the box and became a bit emotional as I did.

In that envelope was the down payment that enabled me to schedule myself to have abdominoplasty in September. Just to clarify, that is a tummy tuck.

Whoa. Hold up. Plastic surgery?

Aren't you a Primal Hippie?

Why yes, yes I am. I believe in all things natural and do my best to live that way. But once you see the state of my belly after three kids, multiple large weight gains and losses, and two cesareans you will understand. I do plan on showing before pictures, but only until I have after ones to go along with them.

The loose skin on my abdomen cannot be touched by a clean diet and all the ab exercises in the world. I am only 31 and have a lot of years left to be rocking my body. I work hard, I eat right and I deserve to be completely happy with every part of my body. I'm not happy with my belly. I haven't been for 11 years.

I have a terrific surgeon in Little Rock and plan on keeping you updated on what I'm doing to prepare for my surgery.  I'll just go ahead and tell you that I will complete a Whole30 in the month leading up to it. For the summer though, I will keep to my workouts, limit my alcohol, stay away from grains, and try to live as primal as possible.

It's exciting, scary, emotional, and downright life changing.

Have you had any cosmetic procedures? If so, I would love to hear about your experiences.

In My Coffee

This is sad.

I'm starting to believe that dairy and I are incompatible.

Waaaaaaaaaa!

I discovered this during my last attempt at a Whole30. I made it 11 days. Go me! Not.

Anyways...

I would wake up in the morning with a flat belly (well as flat as my belly could get) and upon having my first cup of delicious caffeinated manna with a splash of raw cream I would blow up like that girl from Willy Wonka. "You're turning violet, Violet!"

I should have known considering that when I cleaned up my diet four years ago, ice cream began to give me fits. Meaning it sent me to the bathroom within minutes of consuming it.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not at the point where I will turn down a delicious piece of Brie or a slice of gluten free pizza topped with three different artisan cheeses.

But for the most part, I'm avoiding dairy.

That means coconut milk in my coffee, almond milk in my smoothies, and leaving the cheese off of most of my meals.

I think I'll survive.

Back From Vacation!

 In my last post I talked about staying on track while on the road. Warren and I had the chance to exercise that when we took an overnight trip to Oklahoma City.

But first...my eats from the day before. I started the day off with some scrambled eggs, guacamole, and market sausage. This is a picture of my plate after I devoured half of it and remembered to take a picture. Appetizing...I know.

 

I was pretty busy packing and cleaning so I gulped half a Naked Green Machine and gave the other half to Warren. I also flipped through this book looking for new ideas.

 

 

The chocolate chip cookie recipe from Against All Grain's website kept popping up on my radar. I decided to give it a try. Chocolate chip cookies is definitely a treat my family has been missing.

 

Whoa! We were not disappointed. This was the best grain free treat I have ever tried. Amazing. In fact the kids are bugging me right this minute to make some more.

 

Dinner that evening was a collaborative effort. Warren had brought home about 8 ribeye steaks that were about to go out of date and we had cooked them in the dutch oven low and slow. He made a Paleo gravy after looking up how to achieve the proper thickness. Add in some sautéed veggies and dinner!

 

The next morning....roadtrip! I packed a cooler with a ton of primal snacks so we wouldn't have to eat out too much. Leftover sausage, apple slices, brie, Larabars, Applegate Farms turkey slices, string cheese, guacamole, pistachios, wine, coconut water, and kombucha. We had breakfast on the road.

 

About lunch time it was time for a stop. We came across choc brewery in Krebs, OK. This is a their bar room.

 

My homebrewing husband is always in heaven when we make a brewery stop.

 

I totally broke my beer fast. It was worth it.

It's good to get away with the love of your life.

 

And this band was the whole reason for the trip. We had 4th row tickets. Insanely amazing!

 

The next morning we had lunch at Kitchen 324 in downtown OKC. The building was gorgeous but I was not impressed by the food. At all.

 

 

And back to reality and home cooking! This morning I seared some pork chops and had mine with scrambled eggs, apple slices, and brie. I'm trying to get all my favorite cheeses eaten up before I start my first Whole30 on August 1st.

Dinner was part of a T-bone with steamed broccoli, nearly burnt sweet potatoes, and sour cream steak sauce. The potatoes were good despite me forgetting about them. The past few days I've been going down to only two meals a day. I'm just not hungry around lunchtime. Probably because I often don't eat breakfast until 10am or so. I am truly interested in intermittent fasting and I think I could probably do it but I'm not sure if I should be eating more at my two meals or not. Any suggestions?

Eats Day 6 & Fall Garden Hopes

I have really noticed a major increase in energy over the past day or so. I put it to good use with a 3.5 mile run at 7 am, followed by working at our business for about 4 hours (our monthly organic delivery came!), did some major major grocery restocking, came home and proceeded to build a raised bed in the backyard.

We have lived in our home about 5 years and have had variable luck with gardening. One year we had more squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and jalapenos than we knew what to do with. This year, everything I planted was killed by a late frost, and everything I replanted became so overgrown with weeds that I gave up. Before I went on vacation I noticed a few squash plants holding on but by the time I got back they had succumbed to the heat.

I have been dreaming of a collection of raised beds for some time now and yesterday I got out the tools and scraps of wood from our shop and got to work. Hopefully I can get some stuff in the ground to have a small fall crop. Turnips, and kale, maybe acorn or butternut squash.

A few of my hens were hanging around watching me build the raised bed.
Chickens are actually really sweet.



Tired and glad I was able to construct a box without my husbands help, also very glad I didn't lose a finger to the saw.
Or break my wrist with the drill.



 

 

After the run, I was starved but had to rush to open the store. My sweet husband made us a big Sunday breakfast and called me to come home and eat. We live very close to our business so I was able to run right over and enjoy having someone else cook for a change. Funny thing was, he made Paleo pancakes and instead of using coconut flour he used shredded unsweetened coconut. They tasted fine but the consistency was off. He kept commenting on how they weren't cooking right and then I noticed what he had used. It was comical but he was very adamant about how I should start labeling my mason jars better since we have coconut in 7 different forms in our house. Shredded, flaked, fresh, flour, water, milk, and oil....all coconut!

 

Breakfast was still delicious. I topped my pancakes with a bit of organic blueberry jam and a splash of maple syrup.

 

 

 



For lunch I had some Wild Planet sardines in marinara sauce, with pickled asparagus, and a nectarine.

After this amazing lunch I pulled the dutch oven out of the well....the oven. It had been hard at work braising some ribeyes. Benefit of having a grocery store....lots of meat to eat!

I shredded it and nibbled on a little and then put it away for dinner later. I had a spoon full of Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut butter and a bottle of GT's Kombucha. I fixed dinner for the family but skipped it myself. I just wasn't hungry. Energy and not feeling hungry all the time? Well, its pretty awesome I have to say.

Giant platter of meat. Yum! We now have emergency protein for days.

Eats Day 2 & Some Nature Thrown In For Good Measure

 

Living in Arkansas we tend to take it for granted the natural beauty that surrounds us. But not the Primal Hippie family! We ventured down to our local river, the Cossatot, yesterday. In the native Indian language in our area Cossatot means "Skullcrusher". Its a quite popular place with kayakers when the water is up.

It never fails, every time we head to a favorite swimming spot we end up picking up trash. Pack it in pack it out people! It wasn't just the Gatorade bottle. It was three snack wrappers, bottle caps, and cigarettes I stuffed in there.

No one needs to be messing with the beauty of a place like this.


And on to the days eats!

Breakfast! Leftover steak from the night before. One egg fried in coconut oil. Really wanted another egg but the hens were not obliging this morning.

Lunch was a bit of a repeat from yesterday. Primal cereal. Yummy!

No picture of dinner. We had guests and I got so wound up in entertaining that I forgot to snap a picture of dinner. It was grilled ribeye steak, leftover kuri squash, bacon jalapeno poppers, and a bit of mashed potatoes.

No workout yesterday. I busted out a few mock pull-up's because I've got that goal remember? And the hike down to the river was nice, so I got some moving done. Just move right?

Day 1 Eats

Today started off rainy. My very favorite kind of day. I spent the better part of an hour drinking coffee and blogging on the back porch.

In just a short time I had to prepare breakfast. This morning it was bacon with over easy fried eggs. Try putting your eggs on top of fresh baby greens. So so so good! A little trick I learned while on vacation.

 

 

Lunch was two of these leftover chicken legs. See the begging Primal Aussie?

With a little bit of primal cereal. Just some nuts topped with fresh sliced bananas, coconut flakes, and half and half.

 

 

Dinner was round steak with roasted kuri squash. Simple, easy, filling.

 

(Not shown the super yummy dark chocolate I consumed this afternoon, still battling the sugar monster round these parts!)

Workout for the day was 30 minutes of Polly Yoga. I needed it after the strenuousness of yesterdays at home crossfit workout. Stretching is oh so good!

Setting Up For Success

(or more accurately titled...What To Do If You Live In the Boonies.)

First and foremost. Nature should be your playground. You can hop, skip, and jump all you like. You can hike long distances and sprint short ones. You can landscape your yard and get a hell of a workout.

But what about those days when you have all of 20 minutes in between kid stuff and house stuff and life stuff?

Then you gotta just bust out a quick and fast and effective routine.

I have grand plans of turning a portion of our outdoor shop with the 12ft ceilings into a mini-crossfit box. We are slowly acquiring equipment and working on cleaning and reorganizing. So far the things we have are giving us a pretty good workout.

You gotta jump jump!

This is something I am admittedly not good at! I need to get faster. I need to go longer. I need to not tangle my feet in the cord!


Pot called the kettlebell what?

Weights in any form are a must. We have the standard plate weights and a bench (but those are waiting for the proper gym configuration) and now we have these kettlebells in 10lb and 20lb.



Pull-ups aren't just for toddlers!

This right here is a personal goal. I have never in my life been able to do a pull up. I am also terrible at push ups. Evidently all my strength is in my lower body. It's that rear end that powers me up hills when I'm running.



Dreaded Dreadmill.....

This is not necessary. But it is really good for when you can't leave the house to get in a run or a long walk.

Only a few items remain on the wish list. Boxes for jumping. Rope for climbing. We have the mats for a cushy landing!

That's pretty much the basics. All these things used in the right ways can whip you into shape. That is...as long as you are eating right. We all know correct nutrition is the absolute foundation for a healthy life.

And speaking of...dinner last night was delicious. I made Practical Paleo's Smoky Bacon Wrapped Chicken Thighs paired with a simple green salad and sweet potato.

 

 

I am so happy there are leftovers!

Howdy

I'm ready to begin...

For the fourteenth time. Or so it feels like.

A bit of backstory, yes?

My weight loss and subsequent gain has been on a rollercoaster for eons. Most recently and by recently I mean about three and half years ago I lost nearly 50lbs. My third and final baby had turned one and I was finally fed up with carrying around 180lbs on my 5 foot 4 inch frame. I embraced a very strict diet and ran five days a week. I started out with three miles and worked my way up to ten miles. I competed in races. I only ate junk or drank alcohol on my cheat day. I had a pretty fast 5K time under my belt. I whittled my weight down to almost 125lbs. Then I hurt my knee. Repetitive running injury for the win! I went to the local gym for rehab and got into lifting a bit. I gained definition but also gained weight.

And then I got burned out.

I never completely stopped running but I let go of that oh so very strict diet and began to drink a lot more. The weight crept back. My clothes were tighter. Over the past two years I have put on 20lbs. And you know what? I am really and truly angry about it. I'm ready for a change. And I have a plan.

Here goes.

Paleo and primal style eating came into my radar over a year ago and I slowly shifted my diet that way. I expected to lose that weight I had gained back with little to no effort. It didn't happen. Why you may ask? I asked myself the same thing. The answer is simple really. I never let go of the sugar and the alcohol and the occasional cheat day. My husband began primal eating last Christmas and has lost 15lbs and gained definition although he doesn't work out at all. So the first part of my plan is to embrace primal and paleo full on. No cheating. No more beer. Minimal dairy. Cut out the sugar. Even the good ones for a while to try and break through the plateau.

Part two entails my exercise. I am going to decrease my long distance running. I can't give it up entirely because I do believe it has major psychological benefits and I there is nothing I love more than an early morning run watching the sun come up over the beautiful mountains where we live. A crossfit type of at home workout is going to be added in the mix. I will detail that in a later post. Yoga is a must. It makes me happy and healthy and keeps me limber and loose. Hiking as a family is also a must. While that doesn't happen everyday its a great way to be together and get some Grok type exercise going on.

Part three is sleep. Sleep! Man that might be the most important thing. When I was so addicted to running that I got up at 5am to run 9 miles, I would be in bed by 9pm. Every single night! In the last few years I have been going to be about midnight or later. Rewiring my sleep system is a must.

So why Primal Hippie?

Primal because I honestly subscribe the most to the eating habits of Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple. I have read him for a long time and truly believe that a bit of full fat dairy, some dark chocolate, or a few glasses of red wine won't hurt you. I love the act of moving a lot during the day, doing some sprinting, and some heavy lifting. He also details the importance of sleep and wraps all his philosophies up in a character called Grok.

Hippie because about four years ago we discovered our son has food allergies. I wrote about this in detail on my other blog. Long story short he is allergic to artificial flavorings and colors and certain chemical preservatives. This caused us to completely overhaul our diet to foods free of these additives, and organics specifically when we can. We still hadn't cut out grains but did eat very healthy for people who still ate bread and pasta. This caused us to look at other areas of our life and begin to work on them as well. Recycling, reusable bags, natural body care products, composting, gardening, keeping chickens, etc. etc. etc. I use hippie in a very loose way. It doesn't mean what it used too. In our area when you call someone a hippie it just means they try to live a very natural peaceful life.

And a bit about that area. Our family lives in a very very tiny rural Arkansas town. We own a grocery store and are very lucky in that. We have access to the food we want and need to feed ourselves the way we are meant too. But there is no crossfit box in town. No yoga studio down the street. We can't pop in a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods after work. We have to work hard for our primal food and life. But in some ways its easier. There aren't many temptations keeping you out after dark. We live close to beautiful mountains and rivers and can hike and run outside whenever we want. It makes the hippie lifestyle a bit easier.

So as I said, I'm ready to begin.

This was my weight a week ago. Then we went on a week long vacation and I am proud to say I didn't gain a pound. I weighed myself this morning and the scale hadn't budged. I plan on posting some before pictures this week. I'm scared but they are needed.

Please join me on this journey. Support is needed and much appreciated. I'll share my plans, my workouts, my food. I love to cook and share what I'm eating. Follow me on Instagram. I'm @primalhippie. Tell me your stories. Where you are and what you're doing to be a better healthier person.