Gearing up for the return to normality. Sort of.

My vacation ends tomorrow (le sigh). I've not been as Primal Blueprint on target as I hoped.

Here's what I've done right:

• Some sort of physical activity almost every day. Either a walk on the beach, or splashing around in the ocean for an hour, if not both.
• Eating eggs and making smoothies. W got me a Vitamix for our anniversary and it has been the source of delicious smoothies and will continue to be so.

Here's where I've completely ignored the Primal Blueprint recommendations:

• Eating vast quantities of ice cream sandwiches.
• Eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
• Eating pizza many nights.
• Drinking soda.

It's interesting, though, because it feels like a set of vacation behaviors, ones that won't be too difficult to change once I get home. We'll see.

I'm going to be in a holding pattern for a while, because I want to ease back into things and then I have a week with a few days of work travel coming up. So here's my plan for July 29 - August 11:

1. Primal meals whenever I'm at home.
2. At least one daily walk, preferably two (morning and evening).
3. At least one aerobic workout each week (swimming).
4. Use yellow lenses after dark.

Dealing with Setbacks & Making Plans

It's been a rough couple of weeks, y'all. First W was sick, and then I got it (I'm on Day 7 now). Plans for eating and exercise got thrown out the window as I did everything I could to just rest as much as possible and consume whatever didn't sound gross. So I've been subsisting on Sprite and pecan twirls. It hasn't been healthy but it's been what sounded like it wouldn't make me feel worse. Yesterday or the day before, though, I started getting that gross too-sweet taste that comes from that "diet," and decided it was about time to kick it to the curb.

I did get in one swimming workout during Week 2, but calm, relaxing evenings sort of fell by the wayside since I was coughing all night long.

My birthday is Sunday and I have a decidedly unPrimal menu planned - tea sandwiches and cupcakes. I'm going to try and stick to sparkling water for the beverages, which will be my nod to health. I'll strive for more Primal breakfasts over the next few days (eggs or smoothies), and maybe make some salad or stir-fry, but ease into it.

Then at the end of next week I head to the beach for a vacation. It's going to be tricksy to keep it primal there, but here are the plans:

1. Keep breakfast and lunch primal with eggs, fruit, and veggies rather than my typical beach fare of cereal and sandwiches.
2. Walk on the beach every morning and evening.
3. Swim in the pool every day.
4. Spend some time actually out on the beach every day.
5. Find time for at least one strength training workout at some point during the trip, preferably more than one.

Week Two

Here are the goals for Week Two:

Diet - Primal Shopping Spree
The idea is to refill the now bare fridge and pantry with Primal essential foods. The thing is, I find when I try to "stock" much of anything, I end up throwing a lot out. So instead, I'm planning my menus pretty carefully and buying what I need from them. I'm getting fruits and vegetables mostly from Papa Spud's, but I'll also make a grocery trip tonight to pick up eggs and meat.

Exercise - Moderate Duration Aerobic Workout
I'm going to call 20 minutes a moderate duration for me because, aside from my morning walks, I'm pretty well sedentary. Swimming is my aerobic exercise of choice; walking is my second choice. The goal is to do a moderate duration aerobic workout at a relatively comfortable pace (55-75% of maximum heart rate). In the Primal Blueprint Fitness plan, one would ideally get 3 - 5 hrs of this sort of aerobic activity, over the course of about 4 days a week. But I think I'll slowly ramp up to that. I'll start with just one workout of about 20 minutes, going to the pool on Thursday. I thought there was no time to go swimming this week because of a busy schedule but I just learned that the Wellness Center will be open even though Thursday is a holiday, so I think I'll take advantage of the day off to go swim there. If it goes really well, maybe I'll go back Friday, too.

Lifestyle - Calm, Relaxing Evening
With a week full of rehearsals for a show I'm directing, this one will be a challenge! But here goes:

• On nights when there's time, I'll go for a walk after dinner.
• Household relaxation time is code for playing the Game of Thrones Living Card Game, which you can bet I'll be doing.
• I've gotten very good at (and know I'm so lucky to be able to) waking without an alarm.
• And then of course I'll continue my morning walks.

I have to say, finding the time to work all of this in over the course of a whole week instead of in just one day is much easier.

Week One Wrap-Up

Today's the last day of week one.

Here's how I did.

Kitchen purge: I did end up bringing some non-primal food into the house when I indulged my hot dog craving Thursday, but those buns have been safely placed on the top shelf, and W is preparing the last hot dog for himself as I type. So I feel pretty good about that.

Restock preparation: My order to Papa Spud's is in for this week: local cucumbers, butter lettuce, blueberries, and green bell peppers. Everything but the peppers will be organic. I know peppers are part of the dirty dozen, but I had 2.5 credits left in the box and the only locally available peppers, which happened to be exactly 2.5 credits, were conventional. So I'll rinse those extra carefully.

Increase daily movement: Monday through Thursday were great for this - I walked and stretched. Friday through Sunday, not as much - W and I were both sick Friday and though I felt better Saturday and Sunday, I was still a bit out of sorts. Plus, the weather has been bonkers. I'll keep working on this one.

Primal essential tools: I've got everything I need - yellow glasses, exercise clothes, etc. So I'm in good shape.

One of the things Mark Sisson mentions in his first book, The Primal Blueprint, is that not everybody will jump in and do the whole thing right away. We've got to do what's right by us.

Here are things I ate this week that are distinctly unprimal:
Frozen yogurt
Hot dogs, hot dog buns, baked beans
Pretty much anything I had at the party I went to Saturday
A hazelnut espresso milkshake
An orange smoothie
A key lime scone

It looks like a lot when I write it out that way, but here are the things I had that were pretty well primal:
Lots of eggs
Macadamia nuts
Dark chocolate
Salmon salad (this is going into regular rotation for our dinners - so tasty!)
Steak stir fry
Homemade berry banana smoothies

When I list that, it doesn't look like as much as I hoped, but I got 3 meals each out of the stir fry and salmon salad, had eggs 4 mornings this week, and made my own smoothie one day. So I'm doing quite well, I think.

I don't notice a big difference in my energy level yet, but I imagine that will take some time.

On to week two!

Shooting for 80%

I have a bad habit of giving up on things early. I mess up once and then call it quits. I'm trying not to do that this time. After all, it's what you do most of the time that matters, not what you do occasionally.

Yesterday a colleague brought cookies to work. I made the conscious decision to eat one. It was delicious and I didn't feel odd afterwards, even though it was the first grain I'd had in a week. After waiting a little while, I had a second. After that one I felt headrushy and weird. So I determined: one cookie is probably enough.

I forgot to take my thyroid meds this morning. I felt kinda blah all day long. The best way to describe this feeling is to say I feel fuzzy and dull, as opposed to clear and sharp. In the past, I've found that carefully orchestrated consumption of carbohydrates can alleviate this sense. On the way home from work tonight, I was stricken with an intense craving for hot dogs and baked beans. I tried to figure out a Primal way to handle the craving, but I was entirely unsuccessful. So I decided to just go with it. It was great.

In these circumstances, I do have to be careful because it's very easy to move from just having something once in a while to making it a staple. I don't want that to happen here. So I informed W that the remaining hot dogs, buns, and beans are now his. I trust he won't let them go to waste.

Meanwhile, I will return to Primal eating tomorrow, knowing that Saturday night I'm going to a party where I can test the one-cookie-is-enough theory.

Week One

Here are my challenges for Week One:

Diet
1. Complete a kitchen purge/organization. The goal of this was to put all non-Primal foods in places hard for me to get to (tall shelves). I didn't get rid of them completely because W isn't going Primal and I want him to be able to get to his stuff. Our height difference is helping us out here.

2. Do some restock preparation. I got enough foods for primal meals for the week from Harris Teeter - eggs, meat, veggies, fruit. I also had lots of primal snacks already - nuts and seeds, for example. And then I made it a point not to fill the house with new non-Primal foods. I did have some - some frozen yogurt, some cookies at work - but I a) made sure they were high quality and b) limited the quantity. Finally, I've identified Papa Spuds, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods as local options for getting the more difficult to find Primal stuff easily. Plus I may one day venture to one of the Farmer's Markets.

Exercise
1. Increase Daily Movement. Thus far, I've walked for at least 10 minutes each morning, done some stretches at work, occasionally done a few dumbell rows, and made it a point to avoid elevators and always take the stairs. Those are easy to stick with. This "I'm antsy at work, I think I'll do 8 lb dumbell rows" thing seems like a good idea.

Lifestyle
1. Get the tools in place for a Primal lifestyle. Mostly this meant being glad I'd already installed F.lux on both of my computers and getting some glasses with yellow lenses to wear when I'm having after-dark screen time.