The Sugar Monster Strikes Again!

So I'm going to be honest with you guys right now. I've been stressed out since I got back from Vegas. I do not know really why, but it's fact. Maybe I'm a bit burnt out or whatever, I don't know. Well, yeah. I am kinda burnt out.

Don't get me wrong, I like my job. I like my boss. I like my company. But running the front desk/sales system/office managing thing? Yeah, not my passion. It's cool if it's yours. Just not mine. So I only like it and do not love it. But I've been here longer than any place else, so that should help you understand that it's really not bad in my book. Just not what I want. And know what? My boss knows that and is cool with it.

So yeah. I'm burned out a bit right now I guess. Sometimes I have to deal with people that are pooheads. Sometimes those pooheads work for us. Lately that's what I've been dealing with. Today in fact I had to deal with a poohead a bunch. Punching people in the face is frowned upon, so I didn't do that. Couldn't have anyway since he doesn't even reside in this state. But I wanted to. Damn you physics! The pooheads are the reason for burn out.

Anyway. That brings me to my sugar monster again. That little shit loves it when I'm stressed. It tells my brain, hey, want to make a super quick dose of serotonin? Eat a York Peppermint patty! (ef! I love those things). "Better yet," it says, "eat two!" Occasionally it also suggests a Dr. Pepper. Love that stuff to death too (literally?).

So here's the de-stress plan, and hopefully the weather will allow me to do this. I am going to sit at my pool  with a book all flippin weekend! I am going to make so much Vitamin D I won't know what to do with it all (I know that's not actually possible, I'm just trying to illustrate just how much sun will be had). I will not burn. I will walk around the park as much as I want. I will go to bed as early as I damn well please, and I will stay in bed as long as my cats will let me. And I'm not talking to ANYONE. NOT ONE PERSON. ALL WEEKEND. NO ONE.

I will not answer the phone, I will not say hi to my neighbors at the pool (though I will indeed smile back if they smile at me, but there will be ZERO conversation!), I will not talk to my parents, I will not talk to my BFF, I will not comment on the facebook. I probably won't talk to my blog either, unless I'm feeling so freakin awesome that I have to tell my blog all about it.

I just realized there will have to be an exception to not talking to anyone. I'm out of eggs. I was so focused on the fact that I was out of bacon (and had been for days...DAYS PEOPLE), that I forgot I only had one egg left. I will have to at least say thank you to the checkout person at Whole Foods. I will not allow this interaction with another human being to ruin my weekend. Because I love eggs and their procurement will not be tainted.

And on a serious note: Please enjoy your weekend and remember that the reason we have it is because our soldiers gave their lives for our freedom.

Thank you. That is all.

Whole 9 Review

Ok, it's a slow day at work. Friday before a long weekend always has me hearing crickets at my desk. So I figured it's a good time to tell you how super cool my Sunday with Dallas and Melissa Hartwig was.

So to start off with, a little background on how I found out about this seminar. As I've said before, I can be a little obsessive when I've found something great. Paleo is great! I've been reading like crazy for the last few months. Every now and then I'd see something about "I finished my Whole 30" or "Melissa/Dallas at Whole 9 said..." But for some reason I'd not looked into their site until one day I was at nom nom paleo and she'd posted about going to a Whole 9 nutrition seminar. Nutrition seminar thought I? For me that's almost like a day at Disneyland, so I took myself right on over to their site.

The third post down on their front page read "Colorado for a Cause". Since I live here, well, I just had to click on that. They presented the story of a lovely woman who's beloved mother had passed due to cancer. It was very moving, and at the end, they wrote that they were extending an invitation to anyone that was coming to their Denver seminar to bring a loved one at no charge. After I stopped crying all over myself at my desk, I called my step-mother to see if she'd be interested in attending. I have been trying to get her (and therefore my dad) on board, and they've been making some changes, but I thought maybe if she could come and hear a couple well respected, knowledgeable (and pretty) people talk about it, it would help keep them going on the good path. There have been several studies that suggest we think pretty people are smarter, so it's probably helpful that they travel the country with their attractive selves giving the scoop on all things Paleo nutritious to help convert the masses. I wish my mom lived here, I would have taken her too.

So number one, that's the kind of people these two are. Which is to say more plainly: they care. They want to help people.

Let me tell you something. They know their stuff! And they know how to explain it in simple terms that nearly everyone can understand. Basic, straightforward, honest. You don't have to have a degree in anything science related to understand what they're telling you. You don't already need to be on the Paleo bandwagon to get it either. They explain from the bottom up. "Sugar does this. Insulin does that. Blood sugar works this way. Put it all together and you can see why maybe consuming massive amounts of sugar (including "complex carbs") is maybe not so great." They also had come up with a really helpful visual that showed the vicious cycle of insulin resistance leading to health problems leading to more insulin resistance and on and on.

They talked about everything from insulin to cortisol. Who needs to fuel back up after a workout, who doesn't, and why you would/wouldn't (something that's been a bit confusing for me, but now I get it!). Why understanding the basic underlying mechanisms of the way your body processes food can help you to lose weight or gain muscle. Why eating grains does not lead to better health and why eating meat and veggies and fat does.

They took turns on different subjects, which was nice, because they each have their own presentation style. They're both also really well spoken. That's probably good since they have to talk for 7+ hours at these things. And they're funny!

And they didn't just talk AT us all day. Lots of "experts" are only experts because they like to hear their own voices. No, not these two. They talked TO us. You gots a question?! Ask away!

That brings me to my statement that they're honest. I know they're honest because I've been doing the reading myself. But if you haven't done so, a good rule of thumb is when someone is willing to say "I don't know", I'm pretty sure they can be trusted. No one knows EVERYTHING about anything. Especially when it comes to nature and the human body. It's just not possible. There were a couple questions (good questions) that came up and both Melissa and Dallas were given the opportunity to say they didn't know. They also said, "I will try to find out. Email me and I will get back to you on it." And I'm sure that they will. I did not have one of those good questions, so they won't be emailing me anything...

All in all, it was totally worth it. They're great people who are out there trying to help as many people as they can achieve optimum health. If they come to your neck of the woods, I'd highly recommend you try to make it. You'll be glad you did!

Oh, and I preordered their book...super excited for it!

Acountability

Yeah, so I went to the Whole 9 seminar today, but that's not what this post is about. I'll write a proper review when I've got more time and more sleep. I was so excited last night that I slept like all kinds of poo. I assume because I was worried I wouldn't wake up on time. My biggest personal fear, and something I loathe in others is what we'll call "a lack of promptness". Loathe is not too strong a word either. Anyway, enough about that. Oh, rest assured though, the seminar was most awesome.

I started this blog to keep myself accountable for the changes I was making to my lifestyle and diet. I've kinda slacked off on that, and it's been to my own detriment. Don't get me wrong, I'm still doing pretty well overall, but without having to tell someone what I'm doing (yes, even if that "someone" is my little blog...I still haven't figured out who's reading this other than my mom and C on occasion, but I'm making myself accountable to whomever you are too...because my stats say it's way more than just those two reading my crazy rambles.)

I talked a bit about the Vegas family trip. I didn't have a ton of food options (yes I know Vegas is full of ALL KINDS of options, but we weren't on the strip so I was limited to the food available in the hotel and all those other options are not my cup of tea.) Hence all the Fat Burger action. And Starbucks. Tall Chai thank you very much. I think that was actually what derailed some of my progress. Milk and sugar. Not in small amounts either. Nope.

So yeah, my psoriasis is flaring, and it's my own damn fault.

Now, it's not as bad as my bet is it would have had I not already adopted the changes I had. And not as bad as it would be if I still got no sun. I love the sun. I used to think the sun didn't love me back, but turns out that was purely a misunderstanding between us. But that's what happens when the middle man in communication is a sun-phobic brainwashed dermatologist. The sun and I have worked it out though and I've promised not to listen to doctors too much.

On the subject of sun. I have a not so secret secret. I'm not a natural redhead. It suits me for sure. I have the right temperament, and can get very pale (coughanemiacough), so everyone just assumes. And you know what they say about assuming... Red hair does not work with a tan though, and tanning is something my skin excels in. It's actually a bit of an effort to stay this stereotypically Celtic in appearance. So since I plan on being tan forever now, I have to not be a redhead anymore. This could be the hardest part of this whole lifestyle change for me. I've not decided yet if that is laughably great, or laughably sad. Either way though, I'm for sure laughing. Life is tough no? ;)

I'm tired and so my brain is just working on this stream of consciousness stuff, or whatever the hippies call that. I think my original point was that I'm going to have blog more of the mundane food shtuffs for a bit to get myself back on track. Yeah. Pretty sure that was supposed to be the point of this post. I guess that's why I titled it "Accountability".

I don't do well on little sleep, so sorry for this post. I'm still going to click publish though. Shame? No sorry, I'm not familiar with this concept...

I'M SO EXCITED, YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW!

Why am I so excited I used all caps and an exclamation point? Let me tell you!

This Sunday I'm going to a Whole 9 seminar! Don't know Whole 9? You should. They're nifty. And come on, not hard people to look at (and you know how I feel about attractive people). That's a good thing, since I'll be looking at them from 9 am til 5 pm.

I've been kinda bummed that it is likely I'll never get a Robb Wolf nutrition seminar since he's trying to change the world in other ways at the moment (yay for the world, boo for little ol' me). I discovered this Paleo thing a bit too late in the game for that. Sigh. So when I found these folks and shortly thereafter found out they'd be coming to town, I was stoked.

Yes, I am from Southern California...why do you ask?

Anyway, I'll be waking up bright and early on Sunday to drive super north to soak up massive nutrition and lifestyle knowledge delivered by pretty people with dry erase markers. Don't worry though, I'll still be sleeping later than a normal work day, so I won't be sad.

Anemia. It's lame.

There is a particular type of muscle exhaustion that comes with having severe anemia. It's really hard to explain. Almost like your muscles are ready to give out on you. You can feel it in your heart. And I don't mean metaphorically. I mean literally. Your heart feels so worn out. I do not recommend it.

I work on the 2nd floor of our building, so I refuse to take the elevator unless my hands are so full that opening doors would require circus act capabilities. Sometimes I regret this. Those times are when my hamstrings and quads are saying, gee lady, if we had enough red blood cells for energy, this would be so much easier! It's just one floor, but it reminds me how difficult it can be to get back to great health when you've been sick for so long. In a way it's very humbling. Truth be told though I'd rather be humbled in some less concerning way.

Since I've changed my diet, I have not needed to take as much iron as I used to. This is fantastic for my bank account. The iron I take is not that little black/brown pill they prescribe that makes it impossible to poop for a couple weeks but has a tiny price tag. I take a liquid iron and it's not cheap. I still have not found the proper number of days I need to take it though. As you can imagine, I'd rather not overdose on iron either. I used to have to take it every single day of my life. If I missed a couple days, I noticed and paid for it with not being as active as I otherwise would have liked to be. I thought that would be the rest of my life. Take iron or no walks in the park! Yet another reason I'm grateful for having found Paleo.

I have no clear end point in my mind for this post. So I guess then this is the end of the post :)

The Sugar Monster

I have one. It lives in my tongue and it has direct access to my brain. It's been super vocal these last couple weeks and I've been giving in. One day it was a couple York peppermint patties. The next maybe a couple more and a mini piece of chocolate and so on. 3 Dr. Peppers in the last few weeks as well. This from only having a teaspoon and a half of sugar in my tea in the mornings and that was it. Big spike!

This week I've not been sleeping well. I think this is no coincidence. I've also stopped making progress with my spot healing. And I have to be honest, I've been a bit more free with cheese than normal (as in, I've had some. I don't normally do any milk products unless they live in my chocolate and that's been the case for a long time now).

My sugar monster is poisoning me. Tomorrow I kick the sugar monster's ass. I gave myself this weekend because my bff was finally graduating and I knew there would be some sort of yumminess at her parent's house today. There was. I had ice cream. Tomorrow it begins!

Death to the sugar monster!

P.S. C told me I should start tagging my posts. I figured since I'm getting random page views anyway I may as well. So let the tagging begin.

P.P.S. C did not like The Paleo Solution. The science stuff was boring to her. She's reading The Primal Blueprint and seems to be enjoying it more.

Those damn five fingers

Something to know about me. When I find something that catches my interest, and has more than one dimension to it, I get a little, um, obsessive about learning all there is to it. Take something as simple as make-up (no, it is not one dimensional). Need to know its history? How far back does it's use go REALLY? Was Max Factor a real person? I'm your girl! I know all the things! Well, almost all the things. I'm quite sure it's impossible for any one person to know all the things about anything. What about pin-up art and the artists who created them? Oh, don't get me started! And that's just hobby stuff. I am way super obsessive when it comes to the human body. It is so incredibly amazing to me. So finally deciding to look into this Paleo thing as you can imagine has given me a lot to obsess over.

I've been reading tons of blogs. In addition to hunt gather love http://huntgatherlove.com/ I've also been going through the extensive archives of Mark's Daily Apple www.marksdailyapple.com and because of him and all his barefooting glory, I decided to get "those ugly toe shoes" as I've been calling them since I first saw them at a baseball game a couple years ago. I ordered the least ugly pair I could find over the weekend, and they came in a couple days ago. Yep, still ugly. But I was excited none the less.

Took them out for a spin the day I got them. They're really hard to put on. Getting all my little tootsies in their own little pockets is a challenge.

As for walking in them? It's weird mentally for me. Really, really weird. And keep in mind, I go barefoot around my house all the time-no shoes allowed past the front hall. I get nasty looks from people in my complex because I go to the office to pick up packages with no shoes on. Same thing when I go pick up my mail. If I'm working out at home...no shoes. I only wear shoes when socially required to do so, so no shoes is not normally a big deal for me. But I felt almost naked. Seriously. Who would think that something as simple as footwear would have such an effect? I have to admit, I already felt slightly exposed because I've been taking my walks in a tank and shorts. I do not wear shorts. I have only one pair of shorts! They're for working out/walking only. So then I throw these almost not shoes on, and voila! I feel like I may as well be walking around the park in my undies.

The actual feeling of the shoes is interesting. I pretty quickly stopped noticing that there was something between my toes. I noticed that my strides naturally got shorter (not that with my little legs they were all that long to begin with!). I could feel everything, but at the same time my feet felt safe. When I walked on rocks, I could feel that they were sharp, but they didn't poke my feet or hurt. What was most awesome was walking in grass. I could feel the crunch of grass that hasn't greened up yet. I could feel the coolness and softness of nice fluffy green grass.

Those little bastards gave me a blister though. On my Achilles tendon. Not the pad that's supposed to prevent rub. No. The stitching where that pad is attached to the rest of the shoe! Oh well, that's what band-aids are for right? I'll buy some mole skin and all will be fine I'm sure.

I will keep wearing them for my walks. My feet feel good. They do feel like they're actually being used more. All the little muscles and tendons and connective tissue are ever so slightly sore. But it's the good sore, so I'm not complaining.

Maybe shortly I will take the dive and do a couple sprints in them...

And on a totally unrelated note, I saw a mama duck and her little babies! So stinkin cute. I of course did not have my phone with me to take a picture.

Viva Las Vegas...or, how I know I'm ketone adapted

Last Friday was my grandfather's 80th birthday. He lives in Las Vegas, and my father and his uncle planned a family dinner/party in his honor.

This, and the draw of Cirque shows are the only things that could bring me to that place. My own personal version of Hell would be to be trapped walking around the strip and casinos on a Saturday night for all eternity.

One thing you should know about my father's side of the family. They're loud. I don't mean that in a bad way. They're mostly male, big and tall, and the women that were born or married into said family have learned to be soft spoken is to not be heard. My preference is to be soft spoken. This however has nothing to do with my story at all. But I thought I'd share.

Another thing to know, that does actually matter here, is they're maybe not the biggest "planners" you'll ever meet. Consequently, I ended up eating on my own a lot because I didn't know when or where the next gathering would be that would involve any food I can eat. I ate at Fat Burger. A lot. No bun of course (since I'm gluten intolerant anyway. It's kind of a given that I get funny looks at burger joints).

Inevitably what would happen right after I ate would be my father and/or stepmother would find me and off we'd go and before you know it, it's bed time. So two out of the 5 days there, I only ate once a day, and that was in the morning.

 I did not kill one single person. I did not injure anyone physically or scar them mentally either. My energy and mood stayed very level. Even when faced with crowds of people and annoyances that would have previously pushed me to the edge of telling someone to back off or else before I changed my diet. FYI I really don't like crowds. I don't get nervous-I get annoyed and really want everyone to get the flip out of my way...not enough people in crowds seem to have any goals and thus wander aimlessly. Or worse, they STOP in the middle of a walkway to discuss what they'd like to do next. How about next you MOVE?!

Know what else? I didn't even want to kill anyone. Well, not because of hunger or low blood sugar anyway, but that's something else entirely...The rest of the time I managed to eat twice a day - Woooo Hoooo! So this is how I know I must be ketone adapted.

I did unfortunately sleep altogether like poo. The walls of the hotel were very thin, and I could hear all my neighbors doing whatever they were doing. If any door within a 4 room span slammed, my door and walls would shake. Neither of these things are good for going to sleep or staying asleep. The beds were super comfy though, and I managed to get in some time by the pool to read.

I also got to see "O" and "Love" on top of hanging out with my grandpa, so not all was lost! Thank goodness though he only turns 80 once, because I have no interest in going back anytime soon.