Life is Good: Red Wine, Dark Chocolate, and Black Metal

Sorry for the slow blogging lately. I've been busy with school, extra curriculars, and my new internship. I do have a few updates for you, some good and some less-than-good.

On the diet front, I've been doing my usual lunch/dinner combo (big ass salads, with a sweet potato or two). I bought a bottle of sriracha and my mouth has been burning for 5 days straight. That stuff is simultaneous addicting and brutally painful. My mouth isn't sending the proper signals to my brain, because every goddamn day I hurt myself on that stuff haha.

My breakfasts were pretty boring this week. I was really kicking ass with my intense veggie intake (per the Wahls diet) for about two weeks there, and I kept it up while I was at home. But I had a bit of a SNAFU getting back to campus Sunday night, so I didn't have time to stock up hardcore. After tackling kale, mustard greens, swiss chard, and red cabbage, plus the 3-4 cups of mixed greens I get already, I needed to switch up my greenage in order to avoid kidney stones. (Supposedly Science: different leafy greens have varying amounts of oxalate acid, which can cause kidney stones. With the increased intake of these veggies, Dr. Wahls suggests rotating.) So I bought a bunch of organic spinach and a small head of radicchio lettuce. I love spinach, but no one told me that the latter was bitter as all hell when eaten raw. So I basically had to eat microwave cooked (ie: warm) lettuce for breakfast.

For protein, I got some cheap steaks and Omega-3 eggs. My endochronologist made a fuss last month about me not eating dairy, the reasons being partially paleo, partially me liking the taste of water. So I snagged a small carton of Swiss Goat Milk to get some extra protein and calcium. Its not that I don't like regular milk, but sometimes it gives me gas, and I'm not too fond of perpetuating both the neolithic cattle culture and the government-business promotion of dairy as an essential food group. [steps off soap box]

On the exercise side of things, my aunt's recently set goal of running a 5k in April inspired me to get my act together. I've never liked "cardio", even though I owe about 50% of my weight loss to the Insanity program back in summer 2010. Nowadays, when I have the time and energy, I prefer to lift some weights or do some yoga in my room. I have flirted with the idea of running a 5k in the past, but I never really committed to training.

That's about to change.

I've decided to add two days of running and racquetball to my regimen leading up to the Relay for Life in late April. I have/had no idea how hard it was going to be, what a good time would be, or how to train. My good friend Jake is a running machine (in Army ROTC), and he has agreed to take me under his wing to whip me into peak running shape.

I ran my first timed mile in seven years on Thursday. Throughout elementary school and junior high gym class, I never ran a sub-12 minute mile. Yesterday, on my first attempt, with no formal conditioning whatsoever besides moderate daily exercise and 100+ lbs off my bones, I ran a mile in 7:55. I could barely believe it, and I almost died in the process. 8 minutes was always my standard for "I could never run a mile that fast." And I did it on my first shot. I still don't know what my goals are, and there's no way I could run 3.1 miles straight at that pace. But at least the bar has been set.

In health news (the kinda-not-good part), I got my long-awaited blood work back today. [Science ahead] Back in August, I was tested for thyroid: my TSH and free T4 were normal, but my free T3 was low (hypothroid). Last week's results show that now both free T4 and free T3 are low, so my doctor suspects pituitary issues. This was reinforced by low testosterone (was below range, not at the very bottom of the range), low free T, and low luteinizing hormone (helps produce testosterone). These results ALSO point to hypopituitary problems. As I said before, I think a 7 year old head injury is to blame.

So, I'm going to get a TRH test, the definitive test to see if my pituitary/thyroid system is working improperly. Also getting an MRI to check for "growths" (read as: TUMORS!!!) Just messing, I'm not too worried.

So after getting this seemingly bad news, I've been extremely chipper today. I'm having a nice quiet (read as: lame) night, reading Frank Herbert, drinking cheap red wine, eating dark Baker's chocolate, and listening to Ihsahn. Love that sax.

Life is good.

Sunday Brunch

Whenever I'm home, my grandma likes to cook a meal with me. I knew she liked salmon, so I proposed oven-baked salmon with veggies, and two side recipes from some of my favorite paleo/primal sites: avocado deviled eggs and vegetable latkes.

As usual, I freestyled a bit on each recipe. I skipped the crab meat on the eggs, and just threw together yolks, avocado, nutmeg, paprika, mustard, and pickle juice. The avocado wasn't as

soft as I would have liked, but what can you do? (It turns out, putting it in a bag with an apple over night will ripen it. I had a bag and an apple literally 2 feet away from the avocado all night long. Damn) For the latkes, we shredded some zucchini and yellow squash, mixed in a few eggs, and fried in olive oil. After the first 4, I found it too hard so I turned the rest into a hash. It was still delicious.

The salmon was wrapped up in foil with olive oil, tomato, and squash/zucchini. I would have preferred wild caught, but Kroger doesn't have that fresh. The farm raised definitely tastes different, and the skin especially is not very good. But it didn't ruin the meal.

I love being home.

Saturday at Home

A quick post: I came home for the weekend and that means I had a KITCHEN! I started off with a green smoothie of coconut milk, kale, avocado, and 2% Greek yogurt. I sprinkled some cocoa and cinnamon on top. Very delicious, and a great way to get my greens out of the way.

For lunch, I warmed up some of my lamb head stew that I had in the freezer, and poured it over the remaining kale stems.

Earlier in the morning, I threw together some tomatoes, short ribs, and italian spices in a crock pot to recreate a recipe from Primal Palate. By dinner, the meat was falling off the bone. The broth was so oily (in a very good way!), and the tomatoes were so soft, the meat so tender.....

.I had 3 or 4 bowls, it was so good. Definitely one of my best creations. Thanks to Bill & Hayley for the recipe! I had a huge amount of asparagus on the side.

I also spent the day making various broths, which I'll post about tomorrow. Tonight, I'll be hitting the club soda, lime juice, and GIN. As close to primal as you can get with alcohol.

Microwave Liver Frittata & Veggies

I've been trying to replace my usual whey protein shake breakfast with real, whole food. I've been moving away from whey on the whole just to cut down on dairy and because I don't know what other kinds of chemicals, additives, etc they're throwing in there. Whey is a great supplement when you're short on time or can't access real food, but I'd rather keep the unknown nasty stuff out of my body.

So I decided to pick up what some people would consider "nasty": chicken livers. A pound for $1.50 at Kroger. It fulfills my protein needs and meets the weekly offal suggestion under the Wahls Diet. Yesterday, I just microwaved a few...and suddenly remembered that I don't like chicken livers unless they're covered in other flavors. So this morning I covered them in cajun spices, chopped up a little thyme, and "Cameron DeHarted" them. That is, I cracked two eggs (omega-3s) on top. (That phrase is a remnant of my less-than-talented cooking days, in which my primary method of adding pizzazz to a meal was to just crack an egg over it.) It was surprisingly tolerable.

I finished off most of my remaining veggies: broccoli stalk, cauliflower, asparagus, collard greens, mushrooms, cabbage. I've had the same thing each morning since Saturday, so I'm looking forward to next weeks rotation of veggies. Not sure what I'm going to pick up yet, so if you have any suggestions, leave them in the comment section or on facebook!

I'm going home this weekend, so I'll be doing lots of cooking. Look out for a few rapid posts on Saturday and Sunday.

Cheers!

Lazy Saturday

I knew today was going to be a good day. I just had this gut feeling. I got about 8 hours of sleep before being woken up by a text message. I was refreshed and ready to start the day. Friday was pretty damn good (got an internship!), and for some reason, I've been in a really good mood the past few days. I had my first of many Wahls breakfasts. For a drink, I ground up a little flax seed (ALA omega 3 fatty acids, phytoestrogens, and fiber) and bee pollen (flavonoids, B vitamins, and anti-allergenic stuff), plus some cinnamon (tastes good, controls blood sugar.)

I found out you can cook steak in the microwave, which is going to be valuable knowledge throughout the next 5 months of dorm life. I cut off the visible fat of my little steak and nuked it for 2 minutes. I then poured off the melted fat and nuked it for a few more minutes (it was pretty thin, so it didn't take long to cook through.) I also nuked two Omega 3-enhanced eggs, and plated that with cooked broccoli, cauliflower, and asparagus, and raw radishes, zucchini, red cabbage, and a giant leaf of collard greens. I drizzled a little olive oil and N'Orleans Cajun seasoning (just dehydrated garlic, salt, paprika, onion, and red pepper) on top of everything, some lemon juice on the cruciferous and leafy greens. It was all very delicious, and I was absolutely stuffed. My jaw was actually a little sore from all the chewing, but I felt satisfied and energetic for my 1pm racquetball session with my good friend, Mr. Jake Young. The drink I mentioned earlier was pretty bland, but considering my go-to beverage is water, I didn't mind. Anything for health, right?

Since I had a late breakfast and exercise at lunch time, I didn't get to eat much before dinner. I had a post-workout snack of 1/2 of an 87% dark chocolate bar (my vice) and a cup of lactose-reduced Greek Yogurt with a little flax seed and cinnamon, along with a hot cup of white tea.

Dinner was my Ohio Union staple; what Mark Sisson has so eloquently labeled "Big Ass Salad". ~2 cups of mixed greens, green pepper, red and green onion, carrots, chicken, eggs, tuna, radish sprouts, avocado (MUFAs), mushrooms, cucumber, pepperoncini, and walnuts (omega-3s). I topped it off with EVOO (more MUFAs) and cajun seasoning. And after dinner, I sat down with a nice chilled glass of Willy's Brew: Seville Orange Sangria.

A very nice day, lazy on all accounts except the spirited round of racquetball. I finished a comic book, watched a little Arrested Development, did my laundry, and put off homework. It feels good, man. No complaints.

Grocery Haul: a veritable smorgas-dorm

That title has to be the worst pun I've ever attempted. Shame on me.

After that long ass post, I figured I'd post a few pictures of my latest trip to the grocery store. I've posted enough weird meats, now its time for med-res shots of vegetables and other goodies. This is my breakfast, snacks, and supplements for dinner. I don't think I'm quite hitting 9 cups, as suggested by Dr. Wahls, but I'm getting as close as I can given my budget and micro-refrigerator constraints.

Haul #1: organic celery, brussel sprouts, green peas, red cabbage, artichoke, plantain, golden beets, chopped spinach, flax seeds (ALA omega 3), bok choy, acorn squash, organic carrots, organic quinoa, and bee pollen.

Haul #2: organic red cabbage, organic zucchini, purple and green asparagus, organic mushrooms, organic broccoli, red radishes, organic cauliflower, organic collard greens, organic swiss chard.

Haul #3 (THE PROTEIN!): quick sale steak (not grassfed, but I'll cut off the fat because that's where the toxins accumulate in conventionally-raised meat), omega 3 eggs, greek yogurt. I don't know if you can cook steak in a microwave, but I'm going to find out. Again, in an ideal world, I would be cooking CLA-rich, grass-fed steak from a trusted butcher, on safe ironware. In due time, my friends.

#4 (All the "other" stuff): Green and white pomegranate tea, chocolate yerba mate, coconut oil, apple cider vinegar, raw honey (with comb!), red wine, kelp flakes, SRIRACHA, pomegranate/blueberry juice, Louisiana hot sauce, lemon juice, unsweetened chocolate, and Stevia. (Not pictured: my omega 3 supplement, which is a mix of fish, flax, coconut, and borage oils.)

And here's what I had for a little snack. bowl of steamed, chopped spinach, cooked acorn squash seeds, and Justin's maple almond butter. Not pictured: a few pieces of 87% dark chocolate.

Egg-Kale Dorm Breakfast

Real short post today. I've been ashamed of my lack of veggie intake, so I bought a bunch of kale and went to town. I can get salads for lunch and dinner, but I'm on my own for breakfast. Here's three different things I put together on the quick.

1. Simple microwave steamed kale with two eggs.

2. Kale wrap with hot sauce, egg, and garlic. (With a cup of chocolate Yerba Mate)

3. Microwave kale-egg frittata with garlic.