I Am Large, I Contain Multitudes

After about 4 weeks, I basically ditched the Primal regime (LJ | DW) as of a week ago Sunday, making fantastic banana-cinnamon-walnut-flaxseed-chocolate-chip pancakes and sweet potato home fries for brunch, and ending later with a fantastic burger from the Harlem Tavern which was (if slow in coming) exactly what I wanted.

So now I've had about 10 days off, to compare with 4 weeks on.

Things I have noticed:

Groceries: Expenditures up about 50% from past few months' average, no joke. My previous set of normal cooking habits has been heavily based for years on BEANS AND GRAINS ALL THE TIME. Guess what? Fresh vegetables (especially nice salad greens), fish and meat, and organic eggs? Cost a lot more. At, like, Passover levels -- not by coincidence, of course, since Passover is also a meat-and-vegetable-heavy time period.

Conversely, my impulse spending on outside snack food (not proper meals out or actual groceries) went way way down, because guess what? 90% of grab-n-go food options are sugar- and starch-based crap. And I'm including pizza and burritos in that basket as well as pastries and Clif Mojo bars. Which brings me to...

Planning: Again, this approach requires Preparedness at near-Passover levels. I have never been so scrupulous about bringing exactly one day's worth of meals and snacks to work every single day (rather than keeping the usual stash of chocolate, nuts, and Luna bars in my desk). And I have a new appreciation for the convenience of pouring out a bowl of Cheerios every morning, or pulling a quart of homemade bean chili out of the freezer as food for the next few days. (I'm sure there are other food categories one could pre-make and freeze, but I haven't really gotten a handle on them.) It eventually occurred to me that I should maybe hard-boil some eggs as instant/travel food, but in all seriousness I got stumped on: how are you supposed to check them for blood spots? But anyway.

( More observations )

The major conclusion I draw from the experiment is that it is way easier to feel well fed on 1800-2000 calories/day if that intake comprises at least 75% proteins and fats and less than 25% carbs (or else, perhaps, when all of those carbs are green vegetables and a little fruit). In other words, perhaps what I really need is guidelines that ensure there is more FOOD in my food, and to acknowledge that the maple oatmeal scones of the world may certainly be Treats, but are not themselves to be confused with Food, even if they come out of the Food budget (in both a money and nutrient sense).

And it's easy to laze out and make suboptimal choices unless I have that "program" mentality actually reinforcing my commitment to the better choices.

So we'll see. For today, it's still back to lentil salad and quinoa pilaf for lunch. :-)

You guys, I have so, SO much I could be writing about, and I've just been too slammed to take the time. Which means I have half-finished entries gathering dust from a month ago, and by the time I get around to posting them, they have to be half rewritten. (Not that that's bad, from a literary perspective.)

So here's one piece of the current landscape.

**

Remember those size 8 pants I bought at the end of October? (I'm pretty sure I had posted about them either here or on FB, but I can't find the citation now, so you're going to have to take my word for it. ANyway...)

Yeah, they don't fit anymore. I suspect I've put close to 10 pounds back on since starting my new job Nov. 1. :-P

( nattering about food and exercise )

I don't quite get it. I got on the scale
This morning, and guess what? I'm down five pounds
Since erev Pesach! It's not like I'm on
The "I-Hate-Matzah" diet; au contraire,
I made my second-ever matzah brei
This morning, based on yesterday's attempt,
And that's stuck with me well enough that now,
At two p.m., I'm only just beginning
To think of lunch (I brought some mashed potatoes).
So this has hardly been a low-carb week.
I can't have been retaining that much water.

Admittedly, my tendency to snack
Is kept in check throughout the Pesach week
By simple unavailability:
If I don't pack it, I'm not eating it.
Perhaps that is the moral of this story;
Or maybe it's that, after Thursday night,
I should continue to incorporate
More eggs, more produce, even cottage cheese,
And cut back on the lentils and the oatmeal.