I’m skipping the photo tonight, simply because there doesn’t seem to be much visual change at the moment.  

The good news is that after eight weeks on Primal, I’ve lost 13 pounds.  

The latest change on the clothes front is that it looks like I’m going to have to replace about half of my underwear, because half of it doesn’t fit anymore.  That’s something not too many people mention when they lose weight.  Surprise!  Your underwear can’t stay up!  

The size 14 pants really need to go.  I need to commit to 12s and move on.  But it’s like the gigantic WSU jersey I bought one Halloween to wear at the Q; I just can’t let go.  I still sleep in that jersey, though I’m swimming in it.  

This is the first week I’ve been able to wear a pair of size 10s all day.  I disguised the muffin top.  They weren’t painful, just ugly.  Progress!  The 8s don’t do up yet.  Not surprising.  

I found an exercise program on Prevention.com that I think I can live with. We’ll see how six weeks of that works out.  Plus, Jeff and I both won a month’s membership at the athletic club across the street from our house.  We’ll get to work out there and enjoy the hot tub and sauna for a little while.   

I still don’t miss bread or potatoes.  I kind of miss beans.  I know I’ll miss the fresh peas out of the garden.  I can’t wait for garden goodies.  The only thing I have been insanely craving is cake.  I may have to get a small slice of red velvet cake and be done with it.  Satisfy the craving without guilt, and then go back to what I was doing.  I did that the other day with a Diet Coke.  Yes, I had an evil, aspartame-filled Diet Coke and did not die.  

It was not a happy experience.  Let’s just say that carbonation is uncomfortable–very uncomfortable–if you’re no longer adapted to it.  

I’m still very much on board with this Primal thing.  It’s not a miracle cure, but it certainly is better than what I had been doing.  

There are several things you “give up” when you do Primal, but the one thing that causes the most trouble is grains.  The American diet is entirely built around it.  You only think meat is the centerpiece of your meal.  It may be your starting point, but look at your plate when you eat next.  What is the one thing you are never without?  

Even salads are generally served with bread, crackers, or croutons. 

And potatoes, really, are only a substitution for a grain.  They serve the same purpose in a meal. 

My meals always look to others like there’s something missing.  I’ll have a heaping pile of vegetables, a generous (forget deck of card-size) serving of some kind of meat, maybe a bit of cheese, and some kind of non-floury sauce drizzled over the top.  Jeff still cannot comprehend that a person can lose weight eating as I do.  I don’t think he’ll really believe it until I drop quite a bit more.  

“Trust you to find a diet you can pour bleu cheese dressing all over.” 

But the thing that’s hardest is just finding things to eat in public.  I am not supposed to be eating out of convenience stores because all that’s available is processed food, but when I’m caught without, and I’m hungry, I’ll make the best of a bad situation.  I’ll get some cheese or some lunch meat or even, if I’m really desperate, a hot dog, and brave the nitrites rather than the carbs.  

Because what else is there to eat in a convenience store that doesn’t have flour or sugar in it?  

And when I take my bunless hot dog in the little tray to the counter, I get the look.  You know, the sideways look with the smirk.  And they ask, “Doing Atkins, huh?”  

No, I am not doing Atkins, where I can eat nitrite-filled garbage, but no bun, as long as I keep within 20 grams of carbs or less, and things like cheese, carrots, and tomatoes are verboten.  

And I just look down at my hot dog that I am not supposed to be eating, but am, because I was in too much of a hurry in the morning before driving 45 miles to work to fix myself a proper salad, and I know I’m going to pay for it later and say…..

“Yeah.”  

Jeff came home from the store with all kinds of veggies for both of us.  He’s not doing Primal, but for the month of February, he’s not drinking beer and he’s making a concentrated effort to eat more vegetables.  He has no goals in mind, really.  He just wants to see if he loses some weight and feels better.

He did, however, come home with a tube of Pillsbury Red Velvet Cookie dough.

I held up the tube and asked, “So we’ve gone out of support right into sabotage?”

He grinned.  “Yup.”

A bit later, he said that he got the tube because he thought that maybe it was an incentive/reward thing.  You don’t bake the whole tube all at one time.  You freeze it.  Then after you (meaning me) lose five pounds or so, you slice off enough for one cookie and bake it.

He means well.

He also knows that Red Velvet Cake is my favorite, and that when I discovered Schwan’s makes a Red Velvet cake/cheesecake dessert, my world almost came to a blissfully self-destructive end.

Again, he means well.

I think we better just leave that tube in the freezer for a while.  A long while.

I decided today–screw the categories by day.  This Primal Blueprint thing is taking over my life. I might as well just go with it. I’m sure the categories will come into play.  They just won’t be regimented into days.  And this is where my head is now, so let’s just go with it.

Things I’ve noticed since I’ve gone Primal:

1) I need more water to live.  I don’t know what it is.  Maybe the carbs I was eating before made me retain water or something.  Before I cut the carbs, it was torture to drink recommended amounts of water.  I rarely needed to drink at all.  Now I’m drinking water more often than I ever have, and I’m loving the taste of it.

2) I sleep better.  It’s easier to fall asleep, and my sleep is more restful.  About five days a week, I don’t use an alarm.  I’m getting up when it’s becoming light.  I’m not going to sleep shortly after sunset, as recommended, mainly because I live in North Idaho and that would mean I would be sleeping about 10 hours a day or more right now.  (Also, I work until well after sunset.  My boss frowns on on-the-job naps.)  Oh yeah.  I’m napping more.

3) Muscle mass is increasing, mostly in the lower body, though my arms are tightening up nicely.  I haven’t looked at my back in the mirror, but I think I’m developing in the latissimus dorsi.  Here’s hoping to a swift end to back boobs!

4) Nothing in the tummy area yet.  I’m seeing more of a waist, but nothing’s changed in the bad abdominal fat area just yet.  I keep telling myself, “It’s only been a week.”  I’m thinking about posting profile tummy pics on Mondays.  Would that gross you out too much?

5)  Unlike when I did Atkins, I am not craving carbs AT ALL.  I think it’s because I’m allowed to eat as many veggies as I want, and a limited amount of fruit.  Twenty grams of carbs per day will definitely put you in ketosis, but it will also make you feel deprived.  I don’t feel deprived.  I had 85% cacao chocolate today!  Atkins people would have sworn I’d ruined my diet and would have had to start over.

6) The bad news:  I’m not seeing much scale movement.  I’ve been holding steady, really.  I’m not having that massive water dump you usually have at the beginning of a diet that makes you feel like you’re accomplishing something.  (And then you binge wildly on the forbidden foods and gain back and UGH!)  I actually just quit smoking again shortly before I started–I’ve been nicotine free for a week and a half–so I think my metabolism is still trying to find its normal level.

7)  I’m already bored with my strength workout, but I don’t have access to a chin up bar so I can do Mark’s.  Plus I HATE pushups.  Hate them.  The good news is that workout I’m doing, even though it’s boring (Glamour’s Body By Glamour Workout for May of 2008), is primarily body resistance.  I’m thinking of increasing the handheld weight portion past the limit they recommend once I’m completing two full circuits.

I’m still moving on this.  I hope I have some dramatic improvement to show for this soon.  In my heart of hearts, I’m hoping Jeff will do this with me, because I think he’s suffering from all the carb-related issues Mark talks about in the book.