MikeWSQL

Yeah - Joey - that code is great heart strengthening material. The consultant in me wishes all the bad client code was that easy though ;-) Please tell me that isn't really in prod someplace.

Thanks for the welcomes. Still doing well.. Down about 7LBs on the week.. A bit high but I was eating really bad before :-) Still having some Carb Flu sympoms.. I've been including an apple or banana - sometimes both a day.. Plus some blueberries with coconut milk frozen together here or there to shut up that sweet tooth. Still seem to be going down. Good resources here and I'm enjoying making some Paleo-ish meals & snacks. Just made some roasted sweet potatoes and fried pears.. Some coconut oil, little butter, cinnamon and a dash of vanilla.. Tasted great...

Just got back from the maple sugar festival.. Had to help make maple candies by pouring still reducing, hot maple syrup from the pan onto snow... Then watched some big batches in various states of cooking.. Was handed a cup and they said it was the sap - not yet boiled down - from the tree.. I figured that would be okay so I drank.. Tasted good.. Really cold, crisp and refreshing with just a hint of sweetness.. They should market "maple sap" as a drink.. There must be some healthy nutrients in those trees and the ratio they boil it down to make syrup (40:1?) means it is a lot more water - and other stuff, than sugar... It was a small dentist office size cup 1/4 filled. Figured that wouldn't send me back in terms of progress in will power and cleaner eating this week... Then my daughter wanted to go into the donut cooking demo... So I sat and watched her pour sugar, cinnamon, flour, eggs, etc. with the other kids and make donut dough... Then I was asked to help put the cinnamon donuts into and out of the deep fryer since I was standing.. Yeah.. That was different.. Scooping each glistening, golden brown cinnamon donut out of the oil... I snuck a little bit of one of the donut holes that we also fried from my daughter.. I'd call it a nibble.. A small house mouse would have taken a bigger bite.. It tasted great... Then it was off to the johnnycakes discussion and demonstration.. White cornmeal, water, salt I think... Finished with maple syrup (what else?) My daughter enjoyed a mini one, I refrained... Then it was more maple candy.. I had to have a little nibble as well.. Think half a pinky finger nail sized... So I think I did alright ;-) Later in the day I was starting to feel that low blood sugary kinda feeling. That borderline shaking, feeling out of it or zoned feeling. I've been going through the carb flu a bit this week but I can't help but wonder if those tiny bites were enough to send out a bit too much insulin :-) But.. Yeah.. 6 days eating cleaner done and I'm feeling alright. Just made another stir fry for the whole family. My wife enjoyed the break, my daughter enjoyed helping and I got to use Red Peppers, Green Peppers, Onions, Garlic, Fresh Ginger, Kale, Asparagus, Summer Squash, Zucchini and some lean stir fry beef. Plopped a fresh egg from the backyard chickens into a pan and tossed my portion in with it for a little extra protein.

It is a bit brutal :-) I'm going to leave all of my weapons home tomorrow. Sure I'll be risking personal safety, but the risk of carb-crazed induced felony charges is higher than nefarious people hanging out at the maple festival.

Been drinking a ton of water and that has been helping. I'll have to look for a recipe for those banana pancakes.. Oh yeah the other test will be tomororw.. Taking my oldest - my daughter to "Maple Sugar Days" at the local farm museum... 3 hours of watching them make syrup, make stuff out of syrup, watching them make apple cider donuts, maple candies and then watching them make johnnie cakes from scratch the old fashioned way. It will be fun to watch my daughter eating all that ;-) I'll be sneaking in some carrot sticks and cashews in the coat pocket, me thinks.

Sunday is my middle boy's birthday party. My wife is making her legendary and famous from scratch chocolate cake... My mother in law is making her famous spaghetti sauce with plenty of pasta cooking.. She puts a little white sugar in her sauce when she cooks it but I think a good compromise would be to buy a spaghetti squash and use that but with her sauce and skip the cake... That's not too bad... A couple tablespoons of sugar in a big saucepan of spaghetti sauce made from scratch (well canned tomatoes) with hamburg and peppers/onions can't be that bad to indulge in the sauce part at least.

So far so good on the eating front... Had some cheese off of a part of a slice of pizza today.. I'm sure the sauce wasn't great, etc. but I couldn't resist and that was still better than having the pizza.... Got a steak tip salad at the restaurant.. Wolfed it all and added some feta.. Today is day 5 and while I've been keeping up with it and doing alright I'd say the carb flu is a bit worse on day 5 than day 3 ;-) That "you're starving me!!" feeling in the stomach even though I've been eating, mild headache, more easily frustrated. Next week will be better. Just happy I'm cutting the crap out and I've found some tasty things to whip up when hungry so far.. Will be better when that constant false hunger alarm resets ;-) GRRRR

Now if you look at some of my other posts and blogs you'll see I'm new.. New to the site, new to trying to take control of my life and I'm not going full "paleo" but pretty close to it.. Still going through a bit of an "I need bad and fake carbs!!!" rage but anyway I did some good shopping Monday night when starting out so I have plenty of stuff around.. My wife is on board we try to eat more naturally anyway.. I had to eat out yesterday and went Chinese so all I could get was chicken and steamed veggies.. hold the rice, extra veggies.. So I was craving something asian tasting so I quickly whipped this up and it tasted awesome... Zucchini, Red Bell Pepper, Green Pepper, Mushrooms, Kale, Onion... sliced/chopped/diced depending on the veggie some of the chicken breast I had precooked on Monday put it in a frying pan with a little Roasted Garlic Grapeseed oil to get it cooked a bit, but veggies still had plenty of crisp and flavor, and nutrients.. Meanwhile in another pan I put maybe a tablespoon and a teaspoon or so of Bragg Aminos (a natural soy alternative.. just water and non GM soybeans).. A tiny, tiny, tiny drop of natural, organic raw honey (think the point of a butter knife dipped into the solid honey and left in the pan to melt... first time I've used a "sweetener" all week of eating like this.. And a tiny splash of the roasted garlic grapeseed oil and a small splash of rice wine vinegar.. Plus some ginger and some left over dry spices from last time we had thai food... Cooke that up to a boil, stirring a lot then reduced and poured into the other frying pan with veggies and chicken.. A quick dash of jamaican hot pepper sauce (no sriracha sauce) at the end and added some more kale last - i like crispy kale... Splashed that around and cooked another couple seconds.. And man.. That tasted great.. My wife said it reminded her of a veggie stiry fry dish she used to get at a favorite. My daughter tipped her bowl upside down to drink the little bit of "stir fry sauce" I made too... Of course I was feeling like that "you aren't full.. you need carbs" sensation was going to hit me as I was eating so I diced up half a sweet potato, through some Cinnamon on it and stuck in the microwave.. The whole time I was cooking, the half eaten pan of brownies that my wife made for dinner last night were still sitting there in the kitchen island where I was doing the chopping.. You know what? I didn't even seem to mind them being there... Day 5 of trying to eat right and I was even down another 1# today (not the I am measuring) and feeling like I may actually make it without processed carbs, sugar, etc. after all :-)

and yes - it does feel good to be full but not STUFFED.. And I don't see why Almond Milk wouldn't work. Worth a shot - let us know. Never even knew Almond Milk existed.

or do you mean the food food recipes? Those sounded good too.

@MirGSS The dessert recipe? I mentioned it earlier. It is good nommz... It's easy.. Buy some frozen berries (blueberries are best) and some coconut milk.. Take the berries out of the freezer for a bit (15ish maybe), let them melt a bit, mash them up with a fork a bit - don't crush them all, they test great when they have a little sour bite to them (maybe a cup maybe more.. whatever you like...I'm not big on measurements...) then pour some coconut milk (few tablespoons, maybe more maybe less).. Mix it up really well, maybe mash some more blueberries in the process... Stick the bowl in the freezer for 20ish minutes and enjoy your paleo friendly blueberry coconut milk ice cream.

You can do it! :-) Yeah that ice cream thing was great. Found it over at Paleohacks.com or someplace. Managed to do fine at the chinese food restaurant.. Guy across from me hate Scallion pancakes with dumpling sauce and mu-shi pork (my favorite)... Guy next to me had Sesame chicken that smelled and looked great.. I hate steamed veggies and chicken - hold the rice give me extra veggies.. I didn't die. I don't think I drooled too much either.. Added some hot mustard for flavor.. After being in the chinese restaurant and "surviving" here only on day 4, I think I'm actually gonna do alright. If I resisted duck sauce, fried "stuff", general tso, etc.... I think I can even resist the birthday cake and pasta at my son's 4th birthday this weekend... (I hope) :-)

By the way.. I haven't been starving myself (Well I haven't been counting calories so I don't know) but I've been eating fine portions, snacking on cashews, carrots, an apple a day, etc - the berries, etc.. So been eating plenty - but with the cutting down of crap and some more walking, etc. I've gone from 217.5 (gotta add the point 5...) or so to 210.5... In just 4 days. I'm sure much of that is the increase of water I'm drinking and less salt and crap so who knows how much is "good" loss but it's an improvement over maintaining and growing. As I start to add the workouts in I'll expect things to change there and I don't care about weight loss alone... But already feeling the wedding ring fit better, pants fit a bit better, etc.. Small differences from 4 days of eating more right? I'll take it.

Thanks for the comments. So far so good. Had my two eggs, handful of strawberries, few cashews and apple this morning and actually hadn't started even feeling hungry until now.. Problem is I'm on a client site and having lunch with the team.. Chinese restaurant.. Plenty of healthy options on the menu... Normally I'd be getting a Coke, and a combo meal with Fried Rice, a few chicken fingers, a couple beef terriyaki sticks and some bbq spare ribs... Today? I'll have to search online and see what I want before.. Not going full paleo but when I start eating rice again (waiting a week or two before I allow myself to even eat healthy rice.. bought some ezekiel bread but waiting a week before I have that.. Just feel the need to start off this way for some reason) it certainly won't be fried white rice or any of the instant rice they serve at most chinese restaurants.. So I think steamed veggies and chicken or beef is in my future.. Just wish I knew the sugar situation on the brown sauce first, think I'll avoid it just in case...

Definitely not out of the woods :-) Have a little "Where's my sugar?!?!" rage going on and sure miss my really bad and empty carbs. Just put a post over in the Rebel Army Base camp forum. Doing alright though, just dealing with the right sized portions and lack of carbs filling the hole in the gut and that feeling of "something's missing" up in the satiety center.. Will pick exercise back up in earnest tomorrow. Been walking more and outside more playing with kids - lots more than I have this winter... So that actually -has- been exercise walking in the snow up and down hill multiple times each day and once my energy levels are a bit up I'll be getting into it.