Walking to Work

So it has been ages since I posted last, due to the move, and trying to re-adjust my time to fit what I want to accomplish each day…I promise I will do better now. I have been tweeting up a storm though, so I haven’t been completely idle.

It rains a lot in Seattle, (you may know this) especially in the Spring, which is why I have been putting off starting my “walking to work” program. I’ve been feeling guilty about not starting, I mean we moved to this apartment primarily so that I could walk to work. We’ve been here almost three weeks now, and it is weighing on me. I did two half days last week (or was it the week before?) which was easy, but I had to leave my car there overnight, and to be honest, I just worried about it the whole time. (Not that anyone really wants a slightly dented and worse-for-wear KIA, but if someone were to steal it for a joyride, or damage it in some way, it would be yet another thing that I wouldn’t have the money to deal with…)

So this morning, I took the proverbial bull by the horns and walked to work. The walk I have chosen is about 3.5 miles each way which gives me 7 miles to walk each day. There are several hills, and about 6 stoplights—and it takes about 1 hour and 25minutes. I could do it faster, but I don’t like to walk extremely fast. I enjoy walking, it isn’t about the destination for me, it’s about my surroundings. I fortunately found a nice route that is not too busy with morning commuters, and got to work about five minutes early—just enough time to switch into work clothes—it turned out perfectly!

My plan is to walk 3-4 times per week to start with, and eventually move to 5 days a week. I felt good as I walked this morning, although the hail and rain storm that struck a few hours later made me nervous about my trip home…it is sunny right now, I am crossing my fingers that the weather holds until I get home tonight.

In other news, I am (of course) still cooking and eating Paleo-ish. I have completely given up on the “no dairy” idea though—I eat grass-fed cheese, organic cultured sour cream, organic heavy cream, and grass-fed butter. I admit it, I am a dairy whore.

My diet has changed a bit however. The Paleo-ish/Primal diet/lifestyle(for lack of a better word/phrase)has been a learning experience, and one that I think will be continuous throughout my life. I began this journey several years ago, and I continuously learn new things.

For example, The Omega3-Omega6 ratio of my diet. I thought that I was doing pretty well by taking cod liver oil, cutting out grains and industrialized seed oils, and just focusing on vegetables, fruits, and meat. Turns out that even with all those steps I was still probably getting something like a 1 to 30 ratio because of all the chicken and pork I eat. There were several articles recently on just this topic, and so I have done my reading, and altered the meats that I eat, (even though it will mean a bit of a hit in the pocketbook).

We now eat beef. (And if we can find them for a decent price, we will also eat bison, lamb, goat, and venison). Chicken and pork will be an occasional treat. We eat sardines, oysters and canned salmon every day. And vegetables of course. Lately zucchini, asparagus and broccoli have been on sale--so lots of those cooked in pastured butter with an abundance of mushrooms. A few handfuls of mixed greens, tomatoes and avocados, and fruit, mostly oranges, strawberries, grapefuit and an occasional apple.

I think that we can make this work--chicken and pork were huge staples for us because they are always on sale for less than $2/lb. BUT--One chicken thigh with skin has 17 grams of Omega 6 in it, versus 1 gram in an entire pound of commercial grain-fed beef. With the sardines and cod liver oil, I have been keeping track of my O3/O6 ratio, and they are better now. Yesterday they were 3480/8907. (I love NutritionData!)So far I haven't gone wildly over budget either although it is hard to say how it will be in the long run...I'll keep you posted.

I am still IF-ing. For the most part I do a long fast of about 19-20 hours each day and eat a large meal for dinner--it usually includes an appetizer of fish or oysters, or grass-fed cheese, a glass of wine, a salad with avocado and tomato, and beef of some sort with two green vegetables. I'll share some of my new concoctions later this week. I have completely stopped eating mayonnaise (replaced it with cultured sour cream) and while I occasionally drizzle things with olive oil, I use pastured butter for cooking.

I do not have problems fasting--in fact, I really like it because I know that when I reach the end of my day I can have as much as I want for dinner--so far I have only ben able to eat about 1600 calories worth of food--so no worries that I will binge. With my distance walking, I was a little concerned that I would be crazy with hunger by the time I got home, but walking serves as a kind of appetite suppressant for me. I was fine.

I guess that is all for now, I will try to post more this week, with recipes and pics!! In the meantime, may all your food be truly edible...