twenty 6

B: bacon, sunny side up eggs with extra runny yolks....YUM...fruit
L: peel and eat shrimp, grilled fish cobb salad
D: odwalla green superfood, polish keilbasa with the best saurkraut and caraway

great day today.  i went down to the hotel hot tub this morning to sweat out some of the margarita.  i ate breakfast with teenagers and talked about the latest pokemon/yugi-oh hybrid t.v. show.  then, i went to my martial arts class.  i felt really slow.  it's a post alocohol day for sure.  we ate at a little restaurant on the marsh.  vitamin D from the sun is my favorite supplement to take.  there was a LONG nap involved in the late afternoon.

the boy was outside a lot.  he went skateboarding for a while.  it was good to have his friends around.  it's the last hoorah before school starts on tuesday.

are we on twenty-four?

these last few days have been life-changing.  there will be updates.

B:black coffee
S: brazil nuts and blueberries
L: seafood and spinach omelette
S2: trail mix and kombucha
D: smoked chicken with southern style green beans and coleslaw

slammed a tire to pulp and ran.  attended an awesome martial arts class.  got a massage...my muscles practically creaked and crackled.

i'm tired these days because of the stress.  i crave sugar and for the first time this whole challenge, i crave french fries.  but, it may just be because this challenge is a month long and these cravings may come along once in that sort of time span.

vingt

two thirds of the way through the challenge!

after the challenge, this blog will be experiencing some changes in content. there will be daily articles about the cave girl lifestyle and how to best implement it. i will also be writing a great summary of my whole worldview/viewpoint/life choices. yeah, stay tuned for that succinct piece!

B: flash fried flank steak, lox, tomato, garlic and egg scramble with avocado and coffee (this is becoming one of my favorite meals)
L: mixed frozen drink....mmmm...liguor and fruit! what a treat!
D: an amazing spinach salad with pecans, grilled chicken, bacon, red onions, mushrooms, and black olives

i rode my bike for a while, then walked the dog for a nice long time. i was bursting with energy! spent a lot of time outside, shirt off, by the water, with the breeze on my skin. the boy was pretty bad company. the link between diet and mood has been well established and i will be exploring that further with him. i'm really hoping that he makes that connection before i let him loose in the world. particularly this world where noone is really on your side in making the best choices for your health.

diznef

B: flash fried flank steak with cilantro, pineapple, tomato salsa and some cherries

L: peel and eat shrimp with drawn butter, unsweetened ice tea, jerk chicken with guacamole

D: pork chop with cherry, thyme, red onion confit (inspired by marksdailyapple recipe) with spinach, chocolate

i had a wonderful cave girl kind of day.  i woke up when my body was ready.  i walked, rode my bike, went to martial arts class and ate lunch outdoors, mostly with my fingers.  i did violate a basic cave girl principle when i let my attention lapse and tried to block a knee with my shin.  i now have massive goose egg mid-shin.  

the boy went to martial arts with me, spent time outside playing to catch raindrops in a cup, didn't play any video games today and he was all of a sudden this wonderful human being.  coincidence?  i think not.

eighteen

the waves were great today, but it didn't work out to be on them.  that's  fine with me.  i went to the beach with the tall man to watch the surfers.  after watching, the water was just too inviting.  being in the ocean is like immersing myself in an elixir.  i am always healed.  the homesickness, the culture shock, has been rinsed off of me.  i can bathe in the same water that envelopes the land that i've known as home...home in my bones.  

i can imagine the cave girls that lived thousands of years ago moving from cave to cave, hunting ground to hunting ground, always searching for survival (or maybe just seasonal vacation spots).  how much easier it must have been to understand the interconnectedness of all places when she could count the paces.  how much better she felt each home blending into the next to create a world of home through the flexing of her thighs.  how much intimacy she must have created with each plant, each rock, each fallen leaf through the speaking skin of her feet.  how much commitment she must have felt to the water that she swam in naked and vulnerable.  

so, after the engagement with the waves, i headed to a field where i played with my wolf-dog.  with my skirt dancing in the breeze of our own making, i took in the land with large strides.  it is all the same, this home of mine.  it stretches out in all directions, reaching back onto itself, back in time and forward in my imagination.  i am home always.

this evening, i played tug-of-war with the tall man's akita.  she is beautiful.  she is fully dog in a way that i strive to be fully human.  i felt her strength.  i felt my own.  i was unafraid.  i am a cave girl.

B: coffee, blueberries

L: blueberries, peach, scrambled eggs, salmon, zucchini, tomatoes, red onions, garlic, and avocadoes with a sprinkling of black, lava salt and more coffee

S: a couple squares of....wait for it...chocolate (i know!)

D: hamburger patty with caramelized onions, mushrooms and a salad with blue cheese dressing (stranger danger, stranger danger!!!), with dark chocolate and sea salt covered almonds

the boy is far too teenagered out these days.  the video games and the anime have him completely hypnotized.  i realize also how much time and with what difficulty it will take to change his diet.  setting a goal to change someone else's behavior was probably not the "surest thing".

i've allowed myself quite a bit of rest this week, but i feel very ready to dial up the intensity.  

diez y siete

B: almond and part of a peach, coffee

L: sashimi and seaweed salad

S: crab meat, artichokes, blueberries, almonds, and chocolate (okay, that sounds a lot more like a meal, huh?)

D:chicken mole with extra guacamole (oh my god...meat AND chocolate????)

felt very non-cave girl today.  spent a lot of time indoors, sedentary, and feeling artificial.

we'll chalk it up to a lapse.  

in other news, my quip for marks daily apple's contest placed 7th.  not too bad...

Be a 100% free-range, organic and wild animal.  Go primal.

The sun has set and I need some deep sleep.  I will be headed out to the waves when it creeps back up over the horizon.  My body will feel the salt water.  I will play with that tall man with the strong arms and gentle eyes.  And I will feel wild again.

sweet sixteen

B: a little pineapple, a little peach, some leftover tuna, leftover chicken sausage, and leftover burger (surf, turf, and coup)

S: chocolate and almonds

L: salad greens with olives, garlic, perppers, and rotisserie chicken

D: plum, ground beef with veg and cuke and avocado "salsa"

i'm absolutely exhausted.  i got to walk a ways when my tire blew.  but, the high point was getting back to my martial arts class after six weeks of absence.  really trying to manage the stress of being in a less than ideal cave girl atmosphere....

la mitad

i am halfway through the challenge raised by http://www.marksdailyapple.com/ and fifteen days into something ancient.

my sugar cravings are gone. i feel a freedom in my eating that i haven't had since childhood. i can go hours without the panicky jitters that i used to get when i was on the carbohydrate roller coaster. my joints have not ached except for my wrists twice. i sleep better, deeper. my energy is up. apparently, i've lost weight but the only person that weighs me is a nurse once or twice a year when i go in for checkups. i feel that i finally recognize the person looking back at me in the mirror. this works for me. of course, it does, i'm a cave girl.

B: black coffee with a little sugar, cantaloupe, pineapple and a boiled egg

L: grilled chicken, cucumber and cherry tomato dill salad, chocolate

S: almonds, iced coffee with cinnamon (not a great idea...still jumpy)

D: caramelized onions with okra and basil, sauteed spinach with garlic and lemon, seared tuna steaks encrusted with pistachios (SO YUMMY!)

i started school today.  it's so hard to sit inside for hours, especially when it is sublime outside.  i managed to get some steady aerobic exercise in by walking the longest way around to all my classes carrying about 20 pounds of books.  i also took a break from the stuffy inside.  i spread my sarong out on the grass in the asian garden, hiked my dress up around my thighs, pulled it down from my shoulders, dangled my feet off the edge to feel the grass between my toes, and welcomed the sun into my skin.  clothing is SO unnatural!

i walked my second favorite dog this evening before preparing dinner.  after being inside for hours, my body craves activity.  i'm learning to listen closely to what my body says.  eating and moving is becoming more instinctual.  i'm getting wilder by the day.

quatorze

easing back into the pace here.

B: coffee with a little azucar

L: peach, egg scramble with salmon, okra, red onion, bacon, and cantaloupe

S: pineapple, almonds

D: grilled flank steak (nice and bloody....is this cave girl or vampire girl?  sometimes i wonder) with a salsa made from that pineapple, cilantro, and tomatoes from the tall guy with the strong arms and gentle eyes (we need to come up with a shorter alias) garden, grilled asparagus with a dipping sauce made from sundried tomatoes, mayo, cilantro, and siracha, washed down with a little chianti and chocolate elixir from the kakawa chocolate house (www.kakawachocolates.com) 

it was a slow day.  that's what i need right now.  i did carry about a hundred pounds up a flight of stairs.  

mark sisson's book came to my house...finally!   the primal blueprint and the cave girl are getting acquainted.  so far, it's great.

days dozen through 14

so the past couple of days have been lost in the ether of time.

this is what i can tell you: 

i ate according to my cave girl diet, even while traveling (even in the miami airport!).  i found that i have an increased sensitivity to dramamine.  i don't know if it's because i've been eating so cleanly or what.  

i hiked one day to spend time with a dear friend over coffee on her porch, scented with basil.  (the porch, not the coffee)  in that one fell swoop, i feel that so much of my life philosophy was captured.  

the next day i traveled from "the arms of people who love me into the arms of other people that love me".  that is what it means to be rich. (thanks jan for that awareness.)

then the next day, i camped out in a nearby cave, only emerging to eat fish, then heading back.  

sex is great cave exercise.

i am in pretty deep culture shock.  i've gone from a place where living like a cave girl is easy.  the pace of life is slow.  sleep comes when the sun sets and ebbs away with the sunrise.  food is local (REALLY local...avocadoes and coconuts and mangos drop into the yard) and fresh.  (with no refrigeration it can't be any other way.) living outside is easy because the outside and inside move seamlessly into each other.  relationships are intimate and casual at the same time.  drums echo under the moon.  and coffee percolates whenever two or more are gathered.

now, i'm here.  where money is god, the mall is the church, and stuff is a religion.  

but, part of being a cave girl is resourcefulness.  there are waves to ride, state parks to hike, weeds to forage, fish to catch, dogs to sprint with, love to be made, and a new cave to find.

ten ten ten

i'm sitting with gravel under my bare feet, listening to the ocean, with a hammock in sight (haven't mastered the art of mounting a hammock with a computer in hand after a glass of wine).

B: coffee, leftover curried salmon cake, tomatoes, cabbage and lime salad, watermelon, and COCONUT!

S: peppered turkey wrapped around white asparagus

S2: some zabriko (haitian fruit that is somewhere between a mango and an apple in taste) and a slice of avocado

D: grilled lobster with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cabbage, avocado, and squeezed with lime and the aforementioned glass of red wine

today was a sprint day.  it was so great to be active after a couple rest days.  i sprinted up a slight incline which was a lot easier on my knee.  i also did some push-ups, crunches, burpees, and pop-ups.  the surfboard is on the roof of the car and the waves are calling my name: "cave girl, cave girl....let's play".

nine

B: coffee

L: coconut, twice-fried beef (haitian specialty), avocado, watermelon, cabbage, carrot, and lime salad, and espresso

S: chocolate (no one's surprised by this, huh?)

D: curried salmon cake over black olives, tomatoes, and a dollop of mayo (yes, it was that good)

i drove A LOT today.  so by dinnertime, i was completely exhausted.  it was another rest day for my knee.  at least the kid was along for the adventure.  it's good to have my very un-cave girl-like sisters here, though.

i ate eight

B: some mango, a coconut (wooy..since i found that tree, i just can't leave those delicious orbs of goodness alone!), boiled egg, avocado

L: grilled goat...it was not BAAAAAAd at all (sorry), broccoli, glass of greens and whey (wanted a big salad, but that doesn't happen here on the cheap)

S:grilled goat and watermelon

D: some pork, beets, watermelon, avocado

who was a lazy cave girl today?  ME!

actually, my knee needed a day off.  i love knowing that my body is always up to something, even if i'm just laying there watching far too many episodes of numbers.  it was healing, repairing itself, preparing me for the next adventure.

se7en

mmmm...the ocean.  

B: dark chocolate with almonds, blueberries, and cranberries

L: creole conch with cabbage and lime salad, also had a couple bites of sea cockroach (a.k.a. lobster)

D: eggs scrambled with onions, asparagus, a little herring over avocado

i made some strong mint/spearmint ice tea that i sipped on all day to stay hydrated without the boredom that can sometimes set in with drinking water all the time.  it was a good idea.

we went to the beach today.  there were a lot more people than i like to share the beach with.  BUT, the sun was warm, the sky was blue, the water was refreshing, and the company was fun.  

just doing the doggy paddle was exhausting today.  there were a lot of choppy waves.  i did swim quite a distance.  i must have done something to my knee because it feels wrenched.  i don't remember hurting it, though.  hmmm.....

the boy was a fish all day.  he is a pisces, after all.

seis

B: black coffee, some mango, a couple grapes, a coconut (water and meat), a couple bites of leftover burger

L: leftover burger, sauteed veg., a glass of freshly sieved rasberries (o.k. juice...sue me)

S: a couple grapes, a bite or two of pate de foie (this one was canned and i had to check the ingredients S.T.A.T. when it had such a different mouth feel from the stuff i usually get.  result?  POTATO STARCH!!!!!!!  i mean, really), and dark chocolate

D: carrots, a couple green beans, and pot roast 

S: greens and whey protein (I KNOW!  i'm having a hard time with this one.  i'm in the caribbean and i just don't have access to as many leafy greens as i usually do and my body is just craving this stuff!)

i walked in the mountains a little bit today.  enough to get the heart rate up and the calves sore (which really isn't much, it was so steep).  worked on the vitamin D stores by soaking up some sun while the kid swam.

i'm wanting to do some heavy lifting and some moderate intensity cardio.  i drove around a lot today.  that always fatigues me.

day number FIVE

B: black coffee then nothing until 12:30

S: coconut (that i got all by myself, like a big girl...see previous post)

L: salad with turkey breast, olives, avocado, green grapes, hydroponic lettuce (i know...it creeps me out, too) and a couple bites of herring

S: mango, some grapes, some chicken creole with veg.

D: buttered, steamed zucchini, nori-wrapped burger (yes, i said it....nori-wrapped burger) with tomatoes, onion, mayo and mustard (good goddess, it was good.  messy, bloody meat wrapped in seaweed eaten with my hands.  can it get any more cave girl?)

i had a great workout this morning.  i set an obstacle course in the yard complete with rock throwing, tire flipping, burpees, plyometric jumping, stair climbing, and vertical ab thrusts.  i did three rounds of it.

the boy was full on teenager today.  he slept until 11 and played video games all day. he didn't step outside until we ate dinner on the patio.  when i mentioned, with my mouth full of burger and its juice running down my arms, that that was the first he'd been outside today, he ran around the patio yelling and did 40 jumping jacks.  he squeezed by on a technicality.

cuatro

b: last of the goose liver with truffles, mango, black coffee, and a glass of greens

l: some roasted chicken with sauteed vegetables

d: fantabulous beef with spicy eggplant mush and avocado

s: cachiman (pictured above....she's ugly but she's good, like a toothless hooker), a glass of whey protein, and chocolate

the kid and i went swimming again.  i had no problem soaking up the vitamin D from a lounge chair.  i swam a few laps until i was tired.

i've noticed that the more active i am, the less hungry i am that day.  i also crave a lot more protein when i'm active.  today, i was slow moving and just felt ravenous.  any science to back this up?

another interesting thing that i've noted since keeping this food journal (and i'm doing it the cave girl way, before milligrams and the concept of calories were invented) is that i'm doing more "fake" food than i'd like.  the glasses of greens and the whey protein are not my favorite way to get my nutrition.  i'll be working on this.

trois

what a weird day yesterday was.  i'm feeling a little stagnant and that contributes to feeling down.  i'm homesick for that tall guy with strong arms and gentle eyes.

anyhoo.....

B. skipped it.  had a cup of black coffee and wasn't hungry until almost 1:00

L: mango, handful of almonds, carpaccio (with hot pepper oil...yum!), and a salade nicoise (green salad with avocado, lots of basil, anchovies, tuna, and hard boiled egg), espresso

S: goose liver pate with truffles and grapes so dark they were almost black (did i mention i am 1/3 french?)

D: hamburger patty with grilled eggplant

the hamburger was almost superfluous.  i wasn't that hungry.  i'm also almost sure that it was breaded in a little flour, when i woke this morning, my joints and hands hurt like they haven't since i gave up cereals.  

lesson?  ask about preparation when you eat at restaurants.  

the kid and i did a little sprint relay outside in the yard.  it was loads of fun.  he does his "i'm too cool to show i'm having a good time" routine (he is 13), but i'll catch him do his little excited dance out the corner of my eye.  

i also did some pop-ups (surfing next week), sit ups, squats, and some jumps.  

the kid's diet really concerns me, but since we're at grandma's, it's almost a lost battle.  he is plied with pizza, breadsticks, mac and cheese, and plenty of soda.  translations: sugar, sugar, sugar, and sugar, all spiced up with some high fructose corn syrup.  i don't know how he functions.

ni

so today went a little something like this:

B: chicken and veg. stew with avocado, black coffee

L. chicken and veg. stew with mango and chachiman (it's a haitian fruit for which i have no english name)

D:....wait for it....you got it...chicken and veg. stew with avocado

S: a glass of greens

S2: a glass of whey protein and some dark chocolate

kind of violates the whole variety principle a little bit HOWEVER there must have been days in the ol' cave when a big pot o' soup was dipped into over and over while they went about their lives.  besides, it's DAMN good soup.

got the kid outside for a little while for some tire flipping and some running.  i also did some crunches, pushups, jumping jacks, and some jumping.  

dia numero uno

day one:

b: leftover veal cutlet, avocado, some tomato, some peppers, some onions, some mango

l: turkey breast, olives, almonds (was so on the run!)

d: steak, ginormous salad with pineapple

s: LOTS of chocolate (mmm....)

went swimming with the kid: raced a couple laps, challenged each other to silly ways to swim across the pool, was taught how to "launch" by jumping out from under the water.  y'know...played.