Long time, no post. Here's what I've been up to.

I haven't written anything here in a long time.

One thing I have been up to is I recently started Maffetone fitness training. You can read about the Maffetone method on his website. Here are some links on his site that I recommend:

• Overtraining (PDF) - I felt I was suffering some of the earlier symptoms of overtraining. So far following his methods, I am actually getting more exercise each day but feeling less overtrained.
• Mediterranean Diet - I continue to eat a low carbohydrate, natural foods diet. I like his description of the Mediterranean Diet. My low carb diet is quite similar.
• Why do I follow a low carb diet? - This page offers a test to determine if a low carb diet is beneficial to you. I did not do this, but instead just dove into the paleo diet. But the result for me was the same. I feel better with less than 100 grams of carbs a day, and I feel best, extremely vibrant, energetic, happy and alive on less than 60 grams of carbs a day, even as little as 20 grams of carbs.
• Low heart-rate training - The part of the Maffetone Method I actually do
• Aerobic exercise - What it is and how it works

I continue to try to work my low carb, natural foods diet around The Man, who is adamantly opposed to it. He actually told me the other day that he is the exact opposite of me and that's why he can't eat the same foods as me. I thought about that, and he is correct. He is the opposite of me:

• I feel young, he feels old
• I am healthy, he is unhealthy
• My chronic aches and pains are gone, he takes pills and applies ice packs every single day for chronic pain
• I am happy and cheerful, he is depressive, moody and irritable
• My mind feels clear and focused, he complains of brain fog
• My health improves more and more, he has a cardiologist now
• I usually sleep well, he cannot sleep without psychiatric medications and even then he says he can't sleep
• My digestive system works great, he claims he has not had a normal bowel movement for as long as he can remember (it sounds like IBS to me)
• My skin looks pretty good and I feel healthy, he complains every day of chest pain or back pain or digestive problems or upset stomach

I am no longer going to try to convince him to eat the healthy foods I prefer. A grass-fed lamb chop is completely wasted money if I serve it to him. He honestly believes he can attain better health through a diet rich in refined and processed foods. The above are the results he has achieved vs the results I have achieved. More details of my own results:

• Lost 30lbs
• Uncontrollable hunger gone
• Sugar cravings gone
• Blood pressure went from 110/80 to 104/65
• Chronic pain in my feet (from hiking PCT) is gone
• Depression gone
• Personality issues greatly improved (I'm not flying off the rails for no reason anymore)
• Skin looks better (I've actually gotten compliments, it never was that bad, but it's better)
• Posture improved
• Physical strength improved
• Greater endurance
• I have an appreciation for organ meats and off-cuts. It's kinda fun.
• I can cook

Beef heart jerky is yummy!

Recently I made beef jerky from beef heart. Wow, is it good! It's the best jerky I've ever had. I marinate it in red wine vinegar with cayenne pepper, cumin, salt and pepper. I dehydrate it in my crappy Ronco dehydrator that works great despite being the most low-budge, low-tech dehydrator you can buy. Jerky isn't cooked. The heart is raw when I place it on the dehydrator racks. Mmm mmm good!

Here's the recipe:
marinate 3lbs heart as slices in:
- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 teaspoons black pepper for at least twelve hours
Then dehydrate!

Recently, on recommendation from a random man I was talking to at Whole Foods, I went to Santa Cruz Market. Santa Cruz Market has been there as long as I can remember. I remember it from way back as a little girl. They still have the G & H Blue Chip Stamps sign on the side of the store. Do you remember blue chip stamps? That was a looong time ago. You got stamps with every purchase to put into a book. Once you had enough stamps, you could order something from a catalog. The more stamps the better the thing you could order.

Santa Cruz Market is now an ethnic grocery. Many of the items are in Spanish or bilingual, including the meats. I asked the butcher if they had heart. He didn't know what that was so I pointed to my own heart. Oh yeah, we have that! He sold me "Corazon de res" for $2.59 a pound. I pay $8 a pound when I buy the grass fed stuff on the Internet. I can't even find it anywhere else.

They had all kinds of meat there. Pork belly, pork liver, even goat. They probably had beef brains, but I didn't see any. I think Santa Cruz has become my meat market now. I know grassfed is better for you, but I can get organ meat and specialty meat. Grassfed meat is only available as chuck roast, ribeye and NY strips and ground, which I imagine is just the chuck, ribeye and NY steaks they couldn't sell, and it's minimum $7 a pound and up to $25 a pound. You have to buy CAFO meat if you want organs and any thing else.

I'm tiny and I've completed the PCT

Look how tiny I am.


This is me on top of Mt. Baden-Powell. I hiked 89 miles on the PCT Memorial Day weekend. Within those 89 miles were 20 miles I hadn't hiked before. With those 20 miles complete, I have officially walked every step of the trail.