Meagan's Food Diary: June 29th

Well, it's been a bit of madness for the past week or so. I managed to pick up a bug of sorts and ended up with the stomach flu last week. That meant 3 days of no food except gingerale, saltine crackers, and chicken broth. As I slowly recovered, my body was craving carbs and fat like crazy. I didn't know if it was a good idea to deny it while I was recovering, so I just gave in to my cravings. This means that I had pizza, bread, processed sugar, and other carbs over the weekend. The fascinating thing is that my eczema has been acting up like crazy. So I now know, almost beyond a doubt, that my diet contributes to the health and condition of my skin.

So, I know I'm not doing particularly well with either the challenge or the blogging. I think part of it is that if I actively deny myself certain foods, I crave them more (this makes sense, I think). So part of this is also an exercise in discovering my own motivations. I think I need to go back to just eating well and not thinking too hard about what not to eat. Because inevitably whatever is on the "not" list becomes the desired item. Interesting.

I'm trying to get back on track today.

So far:
- 1 cup of tea with milk
- smoothie (apple juice, banana, cherries, 1 scoop greens+)
- 1 rosemary lamb sausage
- protein shake
- 16oz peppermint tea
- 1 apple

Angela's Food Log: June 24th, 2010

So tired--third night of 6 hours of sleep or less.

• 1 grande *$s coffee with 1/4C cream
• 2 Handfuls of trail mix
• 1/4 C baked/refried potatoes left over from the other night
• banana
• 2-3 handfuls of trail mix
• 1C "baby" carrots
• 1T almond butter and 1/2 T coconut oil
• 6oz (?) sirloin tip steak (finally, food!)
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1.5 C Primal Apple Something*

So... I forgot the most important part of my lunch: the meat. Hence the lack of meat until dinner.

I tried making a primal dessert, even though I am firmly in the camp of "don't try to make perverted substitutions of former favorite foods". I peeled, cored and sliced 6 or 7 medium Fuji apples, tossed them in a bowl with cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and a few drops of lemon juice, dumped them into a 9" round pie dish lightly oiled with coconut oil, and baked uncovered at 350F for 30mins. While that was cooking, I mixed 2C almond meal, 1T raw local honey, and 1T pure vanilla extract to make a topping of sorts. After the apples had baked for 30mins, I took them out of the oven, added about 1/2C water to the dish and sprinkled the almond mixture on top. I then put it back in the oven for about 15 minutes.

First impression: it was ok. The almond topping wasn't very exciting, and the apples weren't cooked to that delightful mushy stage that you get in real, good apple pies. If I had included chopped nuts in the topping, that might have helped. Next time, I will try that as well as covering the apples while they are baking with aluminum foil (we are currently out of foil). MC seems fairly unimpressed with this, so I suspect I'll be finishing the rest myself :S

Angela's Food Log: June 23rd, 2010

Was woken up in the early morning by a horrible calf cramp! This seems to happen when I go sufficiently low-carb and work out. I have seen posts by other people on LC diets complaining about muscle cramps. We'll see if the cramps continue--I am not sure what to do about them.

Today has me seriously considering if I should dump the coffee and cream habit--mostly because of the amount of dairy it causes me to ingest. I have heard many many people say that dairy stalled out their progress on weight loss, and even though I am not trying to "lose weight" (i.e. make the scale go down), I wonder if it is interfering in my body's ability to use stored fat as fuel. Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that the dairy might be responsible for my skin problems :(


Food for today:

• 3 (?) handfuls trail mix
• 1 grande *$s coffee with 1/4 C cream
• 2C beef guacamole left over from last night
• banana
• 2 handfuls trail mix
• 2 shot americano with 1/4 C cream
  
• 2T almond butter and 1T coconut oil upon getting home from work
• half a large pork sausage (getting tired of sausage)
• 1 small glass Merlot
• 3/4C baked & refried red potatoes with 3/4 C hamburger 

Angela's Food Log: June 22nd, 2010

Tuesday. CrossFit tonight.

• large coffee (*$s) with 1/4C coffee cream.
• Lunch: 4 bacon-wrapped halibut nuggets, 1/2C sausage.
• Caesar salad with baked Cajun chicken breast (B/L, S/L) at Smuggler's Cove pub. Felt a bit bloated during the afternoon.
• 2 shot breve with half-and-half from Olive Olio's. Tasty!
• Some sausage as an afternoon snack...
• Dinner: Guacamole Beef (Courtesy of Taryn @ Tabata This; link here), 1.5 baked small red potatoes with a dab of butter on each half. Also a strip of bacon.

CrossFit tonight was great: 6 rounds, 4 mins each of: 8 hang squat snatch (25bs) & a 250m row. My fastest time was 1:34, slowest time 1:46 (first round). Felt good, a little wobbly on the squats though. Need to work on snatches for sure.

Angela's Food Log: June 21st, 2010

Uh oh. I didn't log Monday and now I can't remember what I ate. Here's what I *do* remember:

• large coffee with 1/4C coffee cream
• 1C sausage
• green salad with grated carrots, apple slivers, salad crunchy mix and olive oil/balsamic dressing
• Double Americano with 1/4C cream
• Dinner: sausages, bacon-wrapped halibut chunks, refried leftover chicken with sliced vidalia onions, glass of Merlot, bacon. Sooo good!

Hmm... that might actually be accurate.

I fell off the wagon.

Well, that didn't take long. I already missed two days of journalling. I am so stressed out right now that I am craving coke and a bag of potato chips--this is most certainly an emotional craving, and I know better than to cave in. I think that I just haven't had enough to eat today, and so it's wreaking havoc on my blood sugar and emotional well-being. Not having internet at home on the weekend seems to have thrown off my food diary as well. I meant to keep a written record that I could transcribe, but ended up repeatedly forgetting. So I'll piece together what I can remember, and start again for today.

This weekend (what I can remember):
Saturday:
Scrambled eggs
1 Apple
50g Roast Beef
Lamb
Sauteed bell peppers (olive oil)

Sunday:
Scrambled Eggs
1 rosemary lamb sausage
3 slices back bacon
1 banana
5 large strawberries
1 Frunola bar
1lb mussels (smugglers cove)
3 gin and tonics
1 cup earl grey tea with milk
1 square dark chocolate

Today's food:
Breakfast:
1 1/2 rosemary lamb sausages
Fruit salad (1 banana, 1 apple, 7 large strawberries)
1 cup of Tea

Snack:
Coffee with cream

Snack:
16 oz Hot Apple Cider (holy sugar rush. Bad idea.)
1 energy ball with chocolate from Finnerty's

Snack:
16 oz Earl Grey Tea with 1/8c milk

I'll post more as the day goes on...

Angela's Food Log: June 20th, 2010

More weekend! Yay again!

• Cup of coffee with 2T whipping cream
• 4 slices bacon
• 2 scrambled eggs in bacon grease with 2 slices cheddar cheese and diced vidalia onoins
• Homemade frappuccino: 1C whipping cream, 1C almond milk, 1C frozen coffee (freeze in ice cube trays), 1T raw local honey, 1/2T pure vanilla extract. Nom nom! (see picture, below)
• BBQ at my parents': Large steak, green salad with local organic lettuce that I picked myself, salad crunchy mix, grated carrots, apple slivers, and olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing. I had a 1/4C of Mario's Vanilla Gelati with assorted fruit for dessert. Tasty but I think it made me unable to get to sleep, as we ate dessert at about 10PM. Also felt itchy and headachy when we got home, but that could have been due to the caffeine wearing off :S

Here's a picture of my frappe: