Almond Butter and Vigorous Exercise are Good


The only test I did yesterday was adding a session of about 40 minutes of vigorous exercise. Actually, I spent about ten minutes warming up, so it was really only about half an hour of vigorous exercise, but it was enough to change my state; it changed my energy level, increased my body temperature, deepened my breathing, flooded my muscles with blood, made me sweat and it also increased my appetite.

 This is the first day, since I’ve started on this carefully and thoughtfully restrictive plan (I’m on Day 16 now), that I’ve felt hungry at all. Last night around nine pm as I was watching a movie, I got the urge to eat, which I ignored.  I went to bed without satisfying that urge in the interest of staying consistent for my research.

It wasn’t difficult to fall asleep, as I had suspected it may be. In fact, in the past, when I’ve ignored late night signals that my body is still hungry, I’ve found it nearly impossible to fall asleep.  Somehow last night was different. Not only did I fall asleep quickly as I normally do, but I woke up without hunger pangs and felt fine in the morning.

This morning after my bathroom visit*, I weighed myself and recorded that I’m back on track with losing weight; proving once again that my friendly diet is safe and friendly.
It wasn’t a big loss; only about 0.4 pounds. It would seem that perhaps I could allow for an extra small snack on days that I perform vigorous exercise. Theoretically, if the snack wasn’t one that caused any inflammation, the extra food shouldn’t be a weight-bearing factor.

But moving onward, since this morning was a weight loss day, I’m free to make another test today. I’ll be testing the possible reactivity of having two different types of proteins on the same day; which is theoretically harder on the digestive system than sticking to just one type at a time. I’ll have chicken thigh with lunch and then a top sirloin beef steak for dinner.  Both types of protein have already proven friendly, but this will be the test to see if having them both on the same day shows the same result.

This morning, I was anticipating having my new approved breakfast, two fried eggs. But I stopped and thought that it would be a third animal protein today. So, I decided to stick to rice cereal, coconut milk and blueberries with cinnamon instead. Mmmm. It was delicious. I’ll have eggs tomorrow.

*POOP TALK: 
A friend who is reading my blog was offering me advice on how to relieve constipation, so I wanted to clear up the misunderstanding. She saw that I wanted to poop before my weigh-in, but my body was saying it wasn’t time to poop. I did, however, poop later that day. It isn’t that I was constipated, it’s just that I wanted the timing to work out so that I would poop before I weighed myself, and at that time, my body wasn’t ready. I would never PUSH or FORCE my body to poop. If it’s not time, it’s not time. But I’m still having one or two healthy, effortless bowel movements every day, so please don’t be concerned.

BACK TO FOOD:
I was prepared to make a pot roast today and have that for my dinner, but after discussing it with some friends, we determined that the different method of cooking (slow cooking for eight hours as opposed to quickly searing the outside and serving medium rare) would effect the protein molecules differently enough to warrant making slow-cooked beef a different test. And the same difference would go for a pork roast compared to a pork chop. So I will stick to my tested and friendly top sirloin tonight and test the roast separately over the weekend.

I have to mention how excited I am about almond butter; one of the great discoveries I made recently due to my movement away from my beloved (but possibly goitrogenic) peanut butter. I’m accustomed to having a piece of fruit and a handful of almonds as a snack, but a couple of days ago I experimented with chopping the fruit and putting it in a bowl, dropping in a spoonful of almond butter and sprinkling with cinnamon. WOW!! YUM.

I was shocked at paying $9 for a tiny jar of this stuff, but the first time I spread some on apple slices and sprinkled cinnamon on top, it felt like I was having candy. Today I cubed up a pear and mixed it up with a spoonful of almond butter, drizzled coconut oil on top of that and it is FANTASTIC. It feels like I’m having a sinful dessert rather than a healthy snack. It’s amazing to me how much different almond butter is than almonds.  And there’s nothing added. The ingredients list is simply “raw, organic almonds”. But somehow, grinding them into butter releases some incredible deliciousness that, when paired with pear and cinnamon, is out of this world.


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