The Primal Life

I wanted to take this opportunity to blog about something I haven't blogged about yet. It's about our adventures in the Primal Life.

Now, some of you may have heard about the Paleo diet, and the Primal diet is very similar. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'll go back to the beginning.

Clay woke up on Ash Wednesday in 2011 feeling like God was calling him to fast from food completely until Easter. Long story short, he completed the fast, and lost a lot of weight in the process. It was at this point that he realized he needed to do something about his weight. On our first anniversary in 2011, Clay begged me and begged me for P90x until I caved. I don't know if you realize this, but P90x is expensiiiiiive. And since I control the money in our relationship, he had to ask permission. He purchased the videos, got some resistance bands, and set out on his P90x adventure.

day 1

working out like beast.

He worked out like a champ and sweated all over the living room rug that John and Lauren gave us. He started Couch to 5K and finished it. He downloaded this Calorie Count app to track his eating and exercise. We completely changed our diet and eliminated most processed foods and drank only water. We opted for turkey bacon and whole wheat pasta and egg whites. We incorporated more veggies and fruit than I think he ever ate when he was a kid. He dramatically lost weight, like, to the point where people were telling him he needed to stop (in Louisiana, you're not allowed to be skinny). A year later, in 2012, we were running the Crescent City Classic 10K, he was getting all tan as a lifeguard on campus, and he had lost 100 pounds.

one year later

Crescent City Classic!

That was when we needed a transition. Calorie counting was becoming old and tedious. Clay stumbled upon Mark Sisson's book The Primal Blueprint and pulled some concepts out of it. Basically, it is a lifestyle based on the diet/exercise of our ancient ancestors. Eat plants and animals (it says insects too, but GROSS). Play. Move around a lot at a slow pace. Lift heavy things. Get lots of sleep. Use your mind. Avoid poisonous things (one of which is sugar). Get a little sunlight. Run occasionally. This is what our bodies were designed for.

So we deleted the Calorie Count app. Clay quit running 30 miles a week. He still did P90x, but we started eating differently. The most drastic was absolutely no carbs, and not just the sugary things. No bread, no pasta, no flour, no oats, no grains, nothing. This was/is the hardest thing for me to deal with, which is why I'm still only about 50/50. But Clay plunged into it and guess what? He is maintaining a healthy weight without killing himself or denying himself. In fact, if you've seen his primal breakfast omelets, you'd think he was going to turn back into Fat Clay.

But here's the fun part. We get to experiment with new things. At first meals were just chicken or pork, and two different kinds of veggies. Booooooring. Now, I bake cookies with almond flour and coconut flour. I made a chocolate/cookie dough cake for his birthday that was completely primal. We use honey, agave nectar, or pure maple syrup instead of sugar. We slice up zucchini and saute it into "pasta" (and it's much tastier, lemme tell ya). We stick cauliflower in the food processor and cook it over the stove with spices to make "rice." We ditched the chips and baked veggies until they were crispy. We make pie crusts out of honey, butter, and cashews. Fajitas come in lettuce wraps now (and OhMyGoodness are they sooooooo good). We've started buying spices and seasoning everything ourselves instead of seasoning packets or sauces that are packed with sugar, salt, and corn syrup. Dessert became dark chocolate, strawberries, and homemade whipped cream sweetened with honey. Our friends Matt and Elise got on board and started to lose weight as well.

Zucchini Pasta

Birthday Cake!

Do I miss carbs? Yeah. Do I still binge on ice cream and cookies and bread? OOOOOOH yeah. But the Primal Life is completely satisfying. We don't have to "give up" anything. And Clay is still Mr. Skinny.

Wedding and 3rd Anniversary

2010 vs. 2013 - note that I'm in the same dress!

Sooooooo. For those of you who had questions about what we were doing or why, there ya go. For those of you who have never seen Fat Clay, welcome to the World of Crazy. And for those of you who are struggling with your weight, who are exercising a lot but not seeing results, or are dieting and experiencing the rollercoaster of weight loss/gain, maybe this is something to check out.

Until next time,
Carm

PS. I could not be more proud of Clay!

Scottish things.

Well, I think even less has happened since I posted last.

We are still staying with Alex. We have been in contact with the person renting our flat to us, and he has been keeping us updated on all of the setbacks with the renovations. Originally, we were supposed to be in the flat September 1. When we met with him and looked around the flat and decided we wanted to take it, he told us it would be more like the second week of September. Wellllll. Apparently, the water is not hooked up, and that is keeping the contractors from being able to release the property to the trust, allowing them to put in carpet and furniture and GIVE IT TO US. So, we were informed it would be more like October 1 before we can get it. I'm still praying for a contracting miracle and that we'll be able to move in earlier than that.

The other miracle we need is a JOB for me! Unemployment is driving me insane. I am used to working 45-50 hours a week and being in constant motion. All we've really done is wander around and watch That 70's Show and the Vicar of Dibley. I have applied for 7 jobs now, all across different fields: restaurants, administrative, library, dorm cleaning staff. I'm going to start on hotels next. So far, I've been rejected for 2 and haven't heard back from any of the others. Let's hope someone out there is desperate for a girl who has a Christian Ed degree she doesn't want to use and lots of management and customer service experience!

So, in an effort to keep y'all entertained, I have compiled some fun facts about the UK that I've noticed since I've been here.

Someone somewhere told me that the water here had a different taste. I guess because of the filtration being different from the states. Some people have said that it tastes like soap. Some have said that it's really super sweet. PEOPLE. It's WATER. It tastes like water.

I also want to talk about the wonderful invention called roundabouts. Four cars coming into an intersection. Everybody goes left. You yield to the people already in the roundabout. You get off on whatever street you want. No pesky red lights to wait on. No turn lanes and yielding to the other side in order to turn left or right. You just ride around in circles. It's genius. But the COOL thing is... the redlights? They are for pedestrians! You know that button you push in the states? That cross/don't cross button that doesn't really do anything? It triggers a red light here, so the cars stop and you can cross! Yaaaaaaay!

Yesterday, I saw a rabbit on a leash the size of a cocker spaniel. I was going to get a picture, but I was just too stunned to make it happen. If I happen to see the rabbit again, I will get a picture for sure.

Lastly, I want to tell you about something very serious... Breakfast cereal. They have the same brands of stuff here, but a lot of them have different names. I literally stood in the cereal aisle of Morrison's for 10 minutes looking at all the different cereals and being very confused.

Same concept, different taste (probably the lack of corn syrup!)

say whaaaaaaaat?

almost the same. the dog wears a sweater in the UK. seems appropriate. 

i don't understand why they keep Tony the Tiger, but they change the name?

same little talking shredded wheat mascots, but different name. 

slightly different little elves, but exactly the same. 

Hope this was good enough for now. Gotta go apply for more jobs!

Carm

Life

Well. I procrastinated on updating this thing because... well... not a whole lot has happened.

We have moved out of Philip's house, and I'm kinda sad about it. He was a lot of fun. We're staying with Philip's friend Alex now, and his two American roommates, Adrian and Kat, both of which are moving out this week. So far, it's been lots of fun. He let me do the dishes and clean the kitchen. Feels like home again :)

View from our new room. Not too shabby.

the other view - the backyard! on the other side of this fence are APPLE TREES!

No really, I love cleaning the kitchen.

We made some friends at church - David and Mairi - and they invited us over for brunch, showed us around the St. Mary's College Library ANNNNNND the King James Library, and then dinner out on the town. We ended the night in the Whey Pat, watching a folk band play live music and eating MORE haggis nachos.

Other than that, we've done a whole lot of NOTHING. We wandered around the city. Took pictures on the Old Course. I have been polishing my resume and applying for jobs. Full-time jobs are hard to find in this city. Hopefully, something good will come up.

sneak attack picture on the Old Course!

the reason i look so happy is because this field is full of bunnies

love this guy

apparently, this is a famous bridge? My dad told me to find it by sending me a picture of Jack Nicklaus standing on it

We found a semi-Mexican restaurant. Very strange collection of different types of food, but good fajitas. Clay bought some pipe tobacco from an ice cream parlor. Yeah. You read that correctly.

Also, we had dinner with the pastor of the Baptist church, Andrew, and his wife, Janet. After dinner, they took us around the city, to the Old Course, and to the Fairmont, where I was hoping to get a job. The position has since been filled. Oooooh well. I didn't really want to have to commute there. Plus, I showed up with Dr. Pepper socks peeking out of my dirty TOMS so. Yeah.  Not looking too good.

Speaking of socks. I literally came here with two pairs of socks. One of them is the pair of previously mentioned Dr. Pepper socks. The other is a pair of lime green ones with leprechauns on them. I seriously need a grownup wardrobe. But no white socks! White socks are for losers in the UK.

Things I wish I brought with me to the UK:

• thicker socks
• simple, neutral colored socks
• heck, socks in general
• sunscreen (when the sun finally comes out, it still burns you)
• Tony Chachere's creole seasoning (hey UK, you're doing it wrong)

Right now, I'm in the process of applying for 4 University jobs, and if those don't work out, I'm hitting up the coffee shops. I'm trying to find something full-time, but it's pretty difficult. God has really come through with everything else in this whole process. I know he will take care of us still. 

Some fun things. The toilets here? They flush all crazy. Instead of water rushing from the back and swirling around, it explodes from the front and the back like a waterfall! Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it is a little crazy. 

Also, the showers? They do NOT have shower curtains. At least not any of the ones I've seen. They have a tiny half door to "keep water from getting out..." BUT WATER STILL GETS ALL OVER THE FLOOR! Not to mention you're completely exposed to the entire bathroom. This is very very strange. 

And the Aldi? You can get groceries for cheeeeeeeap. If you don't mind buying bobo brands of things (which doesn't matter to me, because I don't have a clue what the nice UK brands are - they all look like bobo brands to me) We bought a week's worth of sandwich things, salad things, and omelet things for about 20 pounds. I love a good bargain. 

If you ever want to come visit us, make sure you bring comfortable walking shoes. We walk everywhere. The places we've stayed have been about a mile down hill from the city center, so it means a 15-20 minute trek into town whenever we want to go. OH! And they also have this hill. We have gone up it and down it each time we want to get into town and it is literally at a 45 degree angle. At least 100 steps. I hate it. Dempster Terrace. You will too. 

it doesn't look that bad... FROM THE TOP!

Other than that, we are really just sitting around waiting for the next step. Job, classes, moving into the apartment from Jesus. Hopefully all of that will take place in the next two weeks. 

Lastly, has anyone heard of the Haar? If you're thinking it's a pirate word, you're wrong.  It is this crazy coastal fog that rolls in and scares you because you think Voldemort is going to come get you. We walked around in it last week and wow. I thought we were living in a horror movie. 

haaaaarrrrrr!

haarrrrrrr

Carm

God is so good, y'all.

He is steadily providing everything that we need at the time that we need it. Sure, it's driving me insane waiting until the last possible second, but it's developing my trust. He is taking care of us.

Saturday was fun. We got up early and went to look at a cottage for rent. The couple who owns it is from Belfast and they even came to pick us up to drive us out there. It was beautiful and there were apple trees and lots of sheep next door that would come up and watch you! Unfortunately, it's too far out of town, so we wouldn't be able to make it work without a vehicle.

It's a pretty cottage though. This is not a current picture! Don't worry, it's not snowing here... yet.

I was also able to Facetime with my mom and sister and they got to talk to Philip. He obliged by saying everything Harry Potterish that they wanted. "What would you like me to say? 'Expecto Patronum and Welcome to Hogwarts and Wingardium LeviOOOOHsa!"' He's a funny guy.

Later that night, we were all sitting around the flat when there was a knock at the door. It was Pastor Rollinson from the Baptist church. We had been in contact with him for a few months about possible accommodations in the area, and he had been extremely helpful in hooking us up with some other St. Mary's college students from his congregation. He encouraged us a bit and prayed for us before he left. It's nice to know that there are people who love Jesus all over the world.

We were a little worried about what we were going to do about accommodations, since technically, we were going to have to leave sometime Sunday afternoon (because new tenants were coming in), but Philip was nice enough to go stay at a friend's house and give us his room for a few more days. He's also helping us secure some more accommodations for the next few weeks. He is seriously the nicest 20 year old college student I've ever met.

The other tenants in the flat are interesting. She's a local. He's Australian. They're also in their late 70s. They are sooooooo cute. I am currently sitting in the lounge with him while he talks to Clay and he's wearing a red t-shirt with a dragon on it and a giant belt buckle with the Texas state flag on it. He's talking about visiting all of his wife's rellies (relatives) while they're on vacation here. You know how talking to old people is really fun? With their crazy stories? Imagine an old person with an Australian accent. It's magical.

Sunday was great! We got up early and walked to St. Andrews Baptist Church (Pastor Rollinson's church), which is currently meeting in the auditorium of Madras College because they're too big to fit inside their church sanctuary (not a bad problem, if you ask me!). Their church reminded us a lot of home. It was nice hearing Scottish accents while we were singing too. :) Afterwards, we had coffee and biscuits and got to chat with some other St. Mary's College students and make some new friends. Everyone here was soooooooo friendly. They noticed we were new and went out of their way to run up, shake our hands, and ask if we were the Americans who were printed in the bulletin (we were!). We even had one guy tell us he had been to a Braves game and how he didn't really understand American baseball, but he had a good time. We're thinking this may be our church home for the next few years.

The view from church!

Soooooo, I'm sure you want to know where we are on the house hunt. We looked at a few places, emailed a bunch of letting agencies, and hit a lot of dead ends. We woke up this morning knowing there's a deadline to our time at Philip's, and we needed to find something quick. We got some coffee and wandered around to all the letting agencies in the city. NOTHING. Either everything was either already let, astronomically out of our price range, too far away, or unavailable until the end of September or later. Feeling a little bummed, we grabbed a quick lunch and sat over by the cathedral ruins to think things over. We decided to head back to Philip's and do some more online research. When we got back, we found an email from Martin Passmore, the chair of the trust whom we'd been in touch with about the possible flat!

Part of the view of the walk into town.

Remember how excited I was about this flat? And then remember how not excited I was about the price? The more we talked to people in the area, the more we realized that this place was probably the best we were going to get. So we arranged a time to meet and wandered over there. Martin walked us around the area and gave us a little history. It used to be a school but in 2005, the school merged with another in the area and they sold a bunch of the land, giving them quite a bit of money that they wanted to put back into education somehow. They decided to use the land to build flats for students at a lower cost. The flat that we looked at was the renovated school house itself. and it. was. PERFECT. I should have taken more pictures, but here's what I've got!

The kitchen from the lounge

The ceiling in the lounge/kitchen area! It's gorgeous!

would you believe me if I told you the fridge was in there? IT IS.

spare bedroom. and TWO closets!

the view from the spare bedroom

the lounge from the dining area/kitchen

We told him we would take it. And he just said, "Well, it's yours then." JUST LIKE THAT! Unfortunately, they're still in the renovating process. No carpet or furniture yet. So, it won't be ready until the 2nd week of September. Hence, we're looking for temporary accommodations for 3 more weeks. If anyone would like to donate to the Temporary Accommodation Fund, we are on PayPal :)

God is so good. I can't even begin to tell you how this has completely surpassed my expectations. He is providing for us step by step. It's not always going as planned, but it's better than anything we could have planned on our own.

Just a seagull hanging out.

as sweet and clear as moonlight through the pines.

 Carm

Scotlaaaaaaand!

Well guys, I'm here and I'm cold. Yeah, usually we have a gradual work-down to 60 degrees but no. 85 in Atlanta. 60 in the UK.

I'm sure you want to know how the last 48 hours or so have been. Let me try to remember...

waiting at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta Baby Girl International Airport

Last I wrote, I was nervously awaiting our plane flight. The flight had 12 open seats in Business Class and negative 21 in coach. If nobody from coach opted to upgrade, we had a pretty good chance of getting Business. Soooooo. we got to the airport 3 hours early to make sure we could get in and go through security and all that. The international concourse of Hartsfield is reaaaaaaaaallllly nice. And also, DEAD AS A DOORNAIL. There were probably 10 people in the place, 4 of which were trying to go through security. It was a breeze. From the time my Granama dropped us off to the time we sat down at the gate was probably 15 minutes. So, we waited, and waited, and waited. The flight was delayed, and we waited some more. Finally, they called us up to the counter after everyone was boarded.

BUSINESS CLASS!!!

ALLLLLLLLLL MY LEGROOM!

Clay is overjoyed.

I may never fly again at this point, because I know I will never afford business class. We were literally waited on hand and foot. They called us by name and gave us bottled water without us even asking. Over and over and over again! Like, our bottle would be empty and they would swoop in a replace it with a full one!! They took our dinner orders like we were at a restaurant and we got to watch movies and sleep on our little recliney seats with soft, plushy pillows and blankets. and DINNER! Holy cow it was awesome! They would come by and put a little cloth on your tray table and then start bringing you all kinds of stuff. For appetizers, Clay and I both had a salad (with a tiny bottle of balsamic), tomato basil soup, and grilled shrimp and pineapple. For entrees, Clay had braised beef ribs and I had fettuccine alfredo. And for dessert, I had ice cream and Clay had fruit and cheese. We watched a little of Iron Man 3 and ended up going to sleep around 1am.

ONLY TO WAKE UP TO THEM OFFERING US BREAKFAST! French toast and cheese eggs and coffee and orange juice and fruit and bagels and tiny bottles of jam. It was like a dream.

We landed in Manchester around 11:00 UK time... which was 6am Georgia time. We breezed through customs (although, the customs guy made Clay take his hat off and looked him over a few times because his passport picture is of Fat Clay.) We found a little computer kiosk and booked a room in St. Andrews at the apartment of a university student. Then we lugged our 4 50lb bags, 2 carry-on bags, and 2 bookbags on a bus to the Car Rental Village. Got a Peugeot hatchback, loaded it up, and we were off! The only issue is that we didn't want to turn on Clay's phone and my phone is off. So how do we get there? A dinky road map of the entire UK. We only got turned around twice and 6 hours later, we were in St. Andrews! (It would have only taken 5, however, we took a nice unexpected detour through Edinburgh during rush hour.)

Clay driving!

Fog in Scotland!

Edinburgh!

When we got off the highway.

it's beautiful!

We are currently staying in the second bedroom of Philip, an undergrad student at the University who apparently came into some money and bought the place. He rents it out all the time, and there's rarely a time when the room isn't booked. It just happened to be open for the next few days. We're still looking at what the next step will be, but apparently, Philip has some friends who owe him some favors and may be able to put us up for a few days so we don't have to stay in a hostel. He also let me WEAR HIS DRESS ROBES!!

the view from our window

We drove to Dundee today (against the better judgment of Philip - he says you should "lock your door and slam your foot on the gas) and dropped off the rental car. We got some coffee and lunch and wandered around and we both realized Dundee looked a bit like the UK version of NOLA. Except cleaner and nicer and less bums. Maybe that's why Philip was scared about us going there.

statue in Dundee that I've been looking at online for months!

We hopped on a bus and came back and wandered around St. Andrews for a few hours. This place is gorgeous. Literally. I joked about it looking like Hogwarts but SERIOUSLY. Everywhere we go, it's like magical people are going to pop out and start expecto patronuming each other. Here are some pictures:

We're about to go get some dinner in town. Tomorrow, we're going to go look at a cottage to rent and possibly look at some other places. We're also going to find out how we can UK rig my phone. Should be fun.

Some fun things:

Driving on the left side of the road is crazy. The highways were easy, but every time we'd get on a two lane road, we'd freak out because we'd think people were coming at us. It's doable. Just strange. Also, shifting is the same, but you're doing it from the opposite side of the car. With your left hand.

Roundabouts are everywhere and they are magical. Red lights are few and far between, but when they turn red and yellow at the same time, you can go.

The stereotypical UK person looks like this guy. I'm not even kidding. For those of you who are wondering, this is the cartoon version of Karl Pilkington from the BBC show An Idiot Abroad.

Also, Clay ate haggis nachos. And the people of Dundee think that "cajun" means "pour sweet, slightly spicy red sauce on it."

I heard both a 12 year old and a tiny old lady say the "f" word. Peny Turner, you may need to bring some ear muffs. I know you like to suck all the air out of the room when you hear cuss words. They are thrown around like Mardi Gras beads here.

More tomorrow! God is working things out perfectly and hopefully we will have a place to live by this time next week.

Carm