Clever Manka is dressed and undressed

Not going out to faire today, at all. My sinuses are still full (had to Afrin again last night so I could sleep--going to try a double dose of Sudafed today), and I'm just not feeling it. Dancing tomorrow, though!

Fetish is living in the downstairs bathroom 90% of the time, now. She consistently pees on the bath mat, so I no longer keep one on the floor. Instead, I have a rotating selection of beat-up old towels (the ones I use for henna) that are easily laundered. The only time she's allowed out of the bathroom is when she's supervised. As in don't-take-your-eyes-off-her supervised. This pretty much means in one's lap, or next to one on the couch. She doesn't get to walk around the house anymore. Right now she's in my lap, which is a treat since she wasn't allowed on laps when people were sitting at the table. Poor cat. She must be confused. And lonely.

For the Paleo-types around here: I stumbled onto The Healthy Skeptic's blog yesterday. LJ RSS feed for it is here if you want to add it to your F-page. Interesting health-related topics from a practitioner of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine who follows a primalesque paleo eating style. He goes beyond the standard discussions of general health and writes in-depth articles on treatment for depression, diabetes, and thyroid issues.

I have, sadly, given up on Mark Sisson and the Daily Apple. There were always a couple things about Sisson that made me cringe (he's rather sexist, among other things), but the message made up for the gripes I had with his personality. Lately, though, he's sorta jumped the shark. I guess he figured out that it was hard to make money without selling product, so now he's pushing this protein powder mix along with his supplements. The supplements, okay, whatever. And he's always said his old protein shake stuff was just a hold over from his pre-Primal Blueprint days and that's where most of his revenue came from. Okay. But now he has a new product that is (I quote) "the perfect tool for living a healthy Primal lifestyle in the modern world."

What. The. Fuck.

Then he spent the next few days talking about how ohemgee, yoga really can be a tool for good health, and how watching too much television is bad for you.

Really?

I think I'm done with Mark Sisson. I appreciate his help getting me on this path, but he's got nothing to offer me now. I still think the original Primal Blueprint book is a great resource, but I won't be subscribing or sending anyone else to his blog these days.

On the other hand, Whole9 is coming out with additional support information for clean eating--Whole30 3.0. They're also doing some tough love articles on ethically responsible eating.

I sort of made these vegetable pancakes this morning. I didn't have carrots. Or green onions. I forgot to add the baking powder, and I only used two eggs. I gave the milk a miss. But wow they turned out well. I need to allow more time for the zucchini to drain next time. The mixture was a little runny after letting it chill for twenty minutes.

They were a great light-but-filling breakfast. Perfect for my pre-dance workshop meal. There are four pancakes left over, and I think they'll reheat very nicely. Mmmm-MMMM!

Busy. And hungry. And tired. I continue to forget to down a little spoonful of coconut oil in the morning. Based on _luaineach and adammaker's suggestions, this could be a great boon to my energy levels, but do I remember to take it? No.

I'm doing lots and lots more reading and listening regarding nutrition issues, both on the Primal Blueprint front and the Chinese Medicine angle. In particular, I'm moved by Dr. Robert Lustig's studies on fructose and obesity. I'm doing a lot of thinking about this, and I'm looking at eliminating any sugars not found in the small amount of dairy I still eat (yogurt, heavy cream for coffee) and cooked fruits and vegetables. Wine would return after a thirty-day detox period. Hard alcohol and sweet cocktails would be a rare treat. I haven't made any grand decisions yet, but everything I'm reading/hearing leads me to believe it's worth a serious trial.

Regarding Lustig's studies, I'm alternately amused and annoyed by the people who get all up in arms about how he's wrong and using bad science--trying to find a silver bullet for the obesity problem. It baffles me. Are people so attached to the idea that sugar is good food? Are they not listening to his whole argument? He's not saying that mainlining fructose is what makes someone obese. His observations show it's the way one's body responds to fructose, causing individuals to overeat, that is the main problem. See here for a ridiculous argument with people who, if they would listen to the anti-sugar argument instead of jumping on their high horse too soon, would realize that they're all arguing the same point. Silly people.

And really, who's going to tell anyone that to lose weight, they should eat more sugar? I mean, besides the companies trying to push low-fat cookies and ice cream.

As I mentioned, my copy of Mark Sisson's The Primal Blueprint arrived this week. I haven't had time to read nearly as much of it as I had hoped, but I got through the first chapter. If reading the author's Daily Apple blog and visually participating in adammaker and royal_spice's delectable meals weren't enough, the first few pages of Sisson's book would've been enough. The words warmed my heart like no other nutritionally informative book* ever has.

Right off the bat, Sisson basically says "This style of eating is based on the reality of our evolution as human beings. Evolution is a fact, bitches. Deal."

I tell you what, if I hadn't already been interested in trying Primal, that alone would've convinced me to give this a thirty-day trial.

Science works, bitches.

* And believe me, I've read a lot of them.

Damn, Friday night was some fun.

Saturday was delightfully hang-over free, thanks largely to royal_spice's reminder to down some Emergen-C before bed. Thanks, hon!

After running some Saturday morning errands, I headed home to get mckitterick so we could pick up the stuff he needed to hang the mirror in the sewing room. madmatmax came over, intending to help mckitterick work on the Newport, and got roped into helping hang the mirror. It didn't take too awfully long, and now the mirror is up! It's up! Woo hoo! It's been six years since I had that thing hung on a wall. I'd forgotten just how fucking awesome it is.

Once the mirror was hung, I looked at myself for a little while. So why don't I feel like doing anything? I pulled out my visual journal and re-read all the spring goals and promises and hopes I'd written in bestill's class in March. Why haven't I done anything? My Fitness Goals page has a big old fail for the past four weeks. I haven't done half of what I thought/hoped I'd do by this time--activity-wise, body composition-wise, anything-wise. I started writing in the journal, asking myself why why why? Why am I having such a hard time motivating myself? Why am I being so damn lazy? I didn't come to any conclusions.

So I put away the journal and cleaned the house.

After our dinner company left, I tried talking about it with mckitterick, but we didn't get anywhere. I think I didn't convey the fact that I simply don't care about my fitness or health levels, and how that is just plain weird. So very weird. I don't get it. This is not me!

On Sunday, I spent a lot of time rearranging the sewing room for optimal use of the mirror--which meant finding a different way to store things like the drying rack, ironing board, and scrap fabric bin. Then we went out to dinner with madmatmax to thank him for his help with the mirror and the car. And afterward, we came home and ate some ice cream.

Bang Head. Seriously, what the fuck?

This morning, I got up at Exercise o'clock and made myself move in front of the mirror. This consisted mostly of jump rope and working on my squat. Problem: Fetish was going back to the vet this morning, and had to have an empty system. So that meant no breakfast. And that meant constant mewing and interruptions and me trying not to whack her on the head with the jump rope. Or sit on her at the bottom of a squat.

And you know what? I was annoyed. Annoyed at the interruption of something I was finally doing. Instead of being pleased to resign myself to paying attention to the cat (which is probably how I would've felt last week), it kind of pissed me off. I started looking forward to tomorrow morning when I can feed her so she'll leave me the fuck alone for my exercise time.

I have no idea if it helped me to write down my problems, or talk about them, if it was just a matter of time, or sunspots, or a combination of any/all. But I think I'm (finally/again) coming around to a mindset of desire for healthfulness. There are gonna be days where I feel lazy again, but I hope the general trend is towards motivated movement.

Primal Eating starts today. I made the commitment to start today and I'm sticking with it. I'm a little low on fresh vegetables, but I'll make do with what I've got. Next week, I must get to the Farmer's Market before 9:00. Everything but the mixed greens were all gone when I arrived. Also, in an effort to eat healthier and more mindfully, I'm going to walk home for lunches. No more eating at my desk for a while. I'll keep doing that until the weather gets too hot to make the trek up the hill twice a day.

The wonderfully appropriate Hello Kitty shit-or-get-off-the-pot icon is courtesy of miischelle.