Farmer’s markets and CSA season are once again upon us, and that means we need recipes to use up all of nature’s delicious bounty. This is one of my go-to recipes for the summer (and one of my husband’s favorites) because it’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s very versatile – you can sub pretty much any kind of pepper with any level of heat to suit your own personal tastes.
As someone who follows the paleo/primal movements, I’ve been interested in joining the barefoot movement for a while. I’ve had my eye on the Vibram Five Fingers. I know that Primal Toad has a pair and loves the company for their great quality product and excellent customer service. I love being barefoot – I love the way my toes can splay out and grip the earth in front of me, but I don’t like actually being barefoot, especially outside. The Vibram Five Fingers are the perfect compromise between actually being barefoot and feeling barefoot. They combine a thin flexible sole with spaces for each of your five toes to give you protection from the elements while still providing you with the barefoot experience.
Due to my self-imposed shoe embargo, I didn’t get a pair for myself until earlier this week, though I had talked both of my sisters and one of their boyfriends into getting pairs of their own. My little sister is a big fan of her KSO Treks and wear them everywhere, especially to the gym. I ordered the VFF SmartWool Classic – I’m a big fan of SmartWool socks and actually own a few other pairs of shoes that incorporate the SmartWool into the construction. As someone who can be prone to sweaty, stinky feet, I was hoping that the SmartWool would help, as it does in my other pairs, reduce the footfunk that can ensue from wearing shoes sans socks. A side note – the VFF sizing system is unique and though it looks like the numbers ought to correspond to the European shoe sizing system, it does not. In addition, shoe sizes can vary from model to model (for instance, the SmartWool Classic is said to run a bit smaller than the regular Classic). I went to the Vibram site after measuring my foot and used their charts to determine which size to purchase.
I ordered from travelcountry.com – I took advantage of their big VFF clearance sale, and the shoes finally arrived earlier this week on Tuesday. Putting them on was a little weird – my toes are not the most flexible, so they don’t always want to go into each of their dedicated slots. I’m finally getting to the point where I can basically pull them on, make sure my toes are all in straight and go. Also, getting used to the feel of something between my toes takes a little getting used to. Overall, I love them. They are so comfortable – like wearing the barest of slippers on my feet. I love being able to grip the earth with my toes when I wear them, and there are all sorts of muscles in my legs and feet working that I didn’t even know I had. And the SmartWool has been awesome – so far, so good – no stinky feet!
Having read a little about the VFF Classics, I expected to experience a breaking in period and so, only wore the shoes for a little bit each day. They did rub my heel on the back – the high back takes a bit of getting used to, but I often have this problem with flats and don’t mind wearing moleskin or bandaids until they are fully broken in. I wore them to piyo class, but ended up going totally barefoot for the actual class. Today, in fact, was the first time I wore them for an expended period and they felt pretty damn awesome.
Until I looked down and saw the hole. I’ve only had them four days and they’ve already developed a hole. I hate to think how beat up they would have become had I run in them this week. Sigh. At this point, I’m just really, really disappointed. I’ve been telling everyone how great the VFFs are and how they should get their own pair (I think I’ve convinced my SIL that she needs to ask for a pair for her birthday), and mine start to break down after only four days?
I guess this will be my chance to see firsthand how good or bad Vibram customer service can be. I’ve already contacted both travelcountry.com and Vibram directly. It is my understanding that they are under warranty for 90 days from the date of purchase and I should be able to send them in and receive a replacement pair. I’m really hoping that this won’t color my experience with VFFs negatively. I had already scoped out my next pair (either the Performa Jane or the Jaya LR)! I’ll let you know how things turn out, but I’m just hoping to be back in a pair of Vibrams soon, doing my barefoot thing!
I saw an old friend this morning for the first time in over six months. It was a 
bittersweet reunion that ultimately ended well. Things were initially pretty rough between us – there’s always that awkwardness that exists when it’s been a while. But thirty minutes later, I was glowing and grinning widely from ear to ear.
I realize that the primal/paleo lifestyle largely eschews long periods of cardio at the gym, but personally, I enjoy getting on the good ol’ AMT machine (aka the bouncy castle) and bouncing away while catching up on a good half hour of CNN. These days I try not to lean on the machine or touch the handles at all to make my torso and core work to keep me stabilized.
I won’t lie to you – it was rough. I did an hour of piyo yesterday and though I love that class, it’s brutal jumping in with both feet after a six month hiatus. I have to say, though, that afterwards I felt better than I have in a long time. And, even better, my neck and shoulders were down, back and regularly relaxed.
One of my main goals this time around isn’t weight loss. Sure, I’d love to lose the weight, but I’ve decided to focus on improving my horrible posture, stabilizing my shoulders, and reducing my dowager’s hump. In the pics I’ve posted on the blog, it may not be terribly obvious, but the combination of being overweight, wearing a 36F bra, and having horrible posture has caused me to have a large lump on the back of my neck. I’ve had it checked out, and apparently it’s just a massive buildup of collagen (basically skin) that has formed to overcompensate for my lack of muscular stability. Strengthening my shoulders, arms and back, working on stabilizing exercises and strengthening my overall core will all help, but it wasn’t until yesterday that I felt for the first time that maybe, just maybe I could actually get rid of it.
I’m at the point where standing up straight with my shoulders down and back instead of rolled forward kind of hurts. But it hurts in a good way, and I can already tell my body is retraining itself. I think the piyo will especially help – the class really focuses on lengthening and realigning the body. Also, my gym routine this time won’t be all cardio, all the time. I’ll be teaching this old dog some new tricks by adding in exercises like squats, pull-ups, push-ups, lunges, planks, and deadlifts.
So, here’s to reuniting with old friends and learning some new tricks! I actually feel amazing today – there’s something very motivational about getting to the gym and back before 10 am. Just knowing I have so much time to enjoy my day…and in the end, isn’t that what life is supposed to be about?
The first week of the Whole30 has not gone nearly as well as I would have liked it to. I knew this was going to be hard. What I didn’t know was that my mule-like stubbornness would kick in, transporting me back to the days of being a rebellious teenager who had to do something just because she was told not to.
You may have noticed that the date on my last post changed. I rolled back the start of the Whole30 to exclude my weekend thinking that a fresh Monday start would be what I needed. I also decided right off the bat that I would not being doing the Whole30 in its entirety. I could give up sugar. I could give up dairy. I could give up the scale. But I could not give them up together. The dual restriction was driving me crazy and in the words of my very loving and supportive husband “turning me into a bitch”. And he was right. So I decided that whole-fat dairy like heavy cream would be my exception.
Then I weighed in. My jeans felt looser and I felt better once I got over the initial murderous rage of giving up both cream and sugar in my coffee. And the numbers were pretty good. I decided to trust myself and give up the scale for the rest of the month per the Whole30 plan. And then I weighed in the next day. And the next day. And the day after that. I simply couldn’t step away from the scale and trust that my body would go in the right direction.
It’s been…challenging to say the least. And I’ve decided that, right now, the Whole30 isn’t for me. I’m going to continue to give up all grains for the next 30 days without any cheats and restrict my sugar intake, but I can’t do the Whole30 right now. I’m just not ready.
In other news, I tried my hand at gluten-free baking this weekend with a recipe for Gluten-Free Fudge-Like Brownies. Having procured coconut flour over the weekend, I was excited to try it out and was hoping to present my family with brownies just as good as the ones I used to make. It was pretty much a total disaster. Instead of a 8×8 pan, I used the 9×9 and the brownies spread out too thin. Instead of delicious fudgy brownies, I ended up with a thin brownie-topping. Still delicious, but nowhere near convincing my family that gluten-free baking could be just as good as regular baking. I’m sure I’ll be trying again in the near future, but for now, I guess I’ll stick with baking things I just won’t be able to eat.
I like structure. No, that’s not it. I don’t necessarily like structure. I do, however, need structure. Well, I always seem to do better when I have structure framing my life. And after evaluating the past few weeks and reading this post on Harder. Better. Faster. Stronger, I’ve come to the conclusion that, right now, I need to do something drastic, something gritty and hardcore. I need to reboot and do something drastic, something with lots of structure and rules. And that is why *deep breath* I have decided to do the Whole30.
Right off the bat, let me tell you that the Whole30 is not for everyone. Hell, I don’t even think it’s necessarily for most people interested in the paleo/primal lifestyle. It’s pretty hardcore and yet, in a lot of ways, it’s not that different from what I’ve been doing. The Whole30 is a commitment to eating “cutting out all the inflammatory, insulin-spiking, calorie-dense but nutritionally sparse food groups for a full 30 days”. What does that mean in laymen terms? It means:
Some parts of the Whole30 are definitely going to be harder than others for me. I’ve already given up grains and white potatoes, and I rarely drink alcohol, so that shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve also been trying to eat whole, unprocessed foods for a while.
It is going to be hard not having cheat days. But in a way, I’m glad there will be no cheat days because this week, cheat days turned into a slippery slope. Last night I had pizza from Pizza Hut, which did fit into my 80/20 plan, but still made me feel bad because I knew it was crap food and I could have done better. Not having any cheats will probably be the hardest part for me. I already know I have several birthday parties and birthday cakes coming up next month. Saying no to cake is going to be hard, but not impossible.
It’s also going to be hard to give up dairy. That was the one part of the paleo diet to which I was so resistant, and one of the main reasons I consider myself to be paleo/primal instead of just paleo. I drink my coffee with milk every morning, so the next 30 days will probably be tea-drinking days instead. And I’m used to cooking with butter, but that’s why I bought the coconut oil in the previous post.
Added sugar is going to be the hardest. I gave up sugar in my coffee, but I could not give it up in my tea. I’ve been drinking some form of sugar, whether rock sugar or honey with my tea and giving that up is going to be the absolute hardest part of the Whole30. I had been depending on that sweetened cuppa to satisfy my remaining sugar cravings. From now on, I’ll be going plain or sweetened with a touch of fruit juice.
Wow. Take another deep breath. I said this was going to be hard, right? But I haven’t gotten to the hardest part yet. For the next 30 days, there will be no measuring, no weighing, no scales of any kind. I’ve gotten a lot better about weighing myself, but the very idea of not weighing in for the next 30 days, of not having any measurements of progress to compare is really scary. It goes against everything the control freak in me stands for. It’s anarchy. But it’s mandatory.
So, that’s the Whole30 in a nutshell (there’s a lot more information at the Whole9 site for those who might be interested). But that’s the how, not the why. Why am I doing the Whole30? What am I hoping to gain from 30 days of such strict living? I’m hoping to push the “reset button” on my life. This is basically a 30 day reboot for my system, a chance to cleanse the impurities out of my body and reset my metabolism. I’m setting my body up as the “control group”, so that afterward, when I start to add certain foods, like dairy or even grains, back in, I can monitor the effects they have on my health for better or worse.
I start today, and the 30 days will be up on March 1st. This might just be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But I’m going to do it.