Decluttering, Cortisol, And A Glance Back

As I mentioned in the last post, I've been on the road a lot lately. Back at work now, my To Do list is steadily growing and my time off has only exacerbated the situation. My stress level at work now is very high and shows no immediate backing down. Looking at my desk, my inbox, and my To Do list, they are all filled and rather cluttered, giving me a feeling of being unorganized and rather lost. I know from past experience that when I am decluttered and organized my stress level is low and I am more focused. I also know this stress is releasing cortisol and doing so chronically. (Check out Mark's take on cortisol)

It seems that periodically as my priorities change or I am off on some adventure that I return to find my life rather cluttered with debris from old priorities or old adventures. Striving to reduce and remove these occurrences has become a priority. Stress levels stay low when my desk, my home, my life are clean and organized. I sleep better, I feel better, and I can then devote more time to the dogs or with friends. In my house I have been going through each room, keeping only the essentials, and donating, selling or trashing the rest. Having tackled every room save the attic, when I find time over the weekend I go through box after box, mostly filled with past, quasi-sentimental items. With each trip to the nearby shelter or each dump run, I feel more free. Each item out of the house means one less thing to worry about.

Periodically I will come across something that rather defined my past. Having found the Paleo/Primal lifestyle and vastly improved health and fitness, typically when I look back it is with the hope I never go back there. Be it the large or extra-large t-shirts to the countless video game CDs, I am quite happy to part with these items of my past sedentary life. One thing I found recently really stood out to me:

204 SoBe Bottle Caps

Back in the last few years of high school and the first few years of college I drank soda and ate fast food regularly. My drink of choice was the SoBe Orange Carrot Elixir. Finding these bottle caps that I had collected for their unique sayings underneath each made it plainly clear why I gained so much weight during that time. The estimated grams of sugar for each bottle is 57.5. Time two hundred and four bottles is 11,730 grams (25.86 lbs) of sugar, not to mention hundreds of dollars. I am surprised I did not get Type II diabetes. I probably came close:

Then

Now

So this process of decluttering my current life, besides reducing stress and freeing me of material items, gives a feeling of empowerment. I am glad I made these changes I did and I look forward to the life I will lead and the person I will become. It was through the Paleo/Primal lifestyle I learned the difference between surviving and thriving.

Experiences and Thoughts On The Road

In the past 30 days, the hounds and I have been on the road for over two weeks. I have found traveling to be quite exciting and love visiting friends and meeting new people. If a friend has a couch and the ability to have two large dogs in their home there is a very good chance I'll come to visit. I like to double or even triple book myself when I go to visit someone so that I have countless things to do and if an event doesn't work out I can jump to the next without blinking. The adventure will go on!

The latest trip has taken me to New York City where I got to meet several people in the NYC Paleo scene. I went to an Art De Vany book signing event and got to meet him and Robb Wolf. Being a fan of Robb's podcast, I got him to say "Holy Katz!" and I explained that I had driven up from Maryland and that his unexpected appearance made the night. It was nice being around so many like-minded people. Being my first time navigating the NYC subway and doing it solo, I found the overall trip into the city extremely satisfying. Taking in the sights and sounds, the overall buzz of the people, a part of me now wants to try big city life. I wonder if I could make it work, move with the dogs, and would the three of us be happy living in such an urbanized area.

Art De Vany

Robb Wolf

The Paleohund Pack in Long Beach, NY

I failed to stay Paleo during this last trip. When I am offered a trip to the best burger joint in Long Island, I take it. The times I do best eating Paleo on the road is when I pack prepared meals, rather than eat out along the way. Unfortunately I have to complete for space in the cooler with the dog's food and do not always like my food sitting with raw meat. However when I approach feeding myself like I do my dogs, I do not fail. 

Getting back to my normal routine does not always go smoothly when our sleep schedules are off and I have a bunch of things to do around the house. But even the most intensive travel experiences refresh in their own way. Seeing old friends, letting loose, and deviating from the norm are all parts of my life that I will refuse to part with.

Hunted, Roasted Rabbit

Sunday morning I drove to my good friend Bob’s farm. The temperature was in the low 20s with a decent wind. After taking some practice shots with the 12 and 20 gauge shotguns we went off to hunt rabbits. Although I was gung-ho about hunting I had a few reservations. First, the shotguns were very simple and had no safety switch. Second, I had never hunted, or shot rather, moving on foot in a group. Ultimately I did not want to pull a Dick Cheney.

I walked into the field with enough shells in my pocket to wipe out several generations of rabbits or take over a small country, whichever came first. Not having dogs, we beat through the brush ourselves. Bob periodically warned me we may not actually see anything. I would respond that I realized that a part of the hunt involves locating the prey. Hell, I was completely satisfied braving the elements, tramping through brush with a gun in hand. I can see the benefit of having a dog root out the rabbits for you. Besides not having to walk through brush and the dog having a heightened sense of smell, it gives the hunter more resources that can be devoted to having the gun ready to shoot.

About halfway through our walk we saw our first rabbit. Neither of us had a good shot at it so it got away. It was the largest wild rabbit either of us had seen. We did our best to track the prints in the snow, but to no avail. Not long after that we had another rabbit appear and that one did not get away. I managed a nice, clean head shot and was quite impressed with myself.

Straight out of Fargo

We hunted longer but saw nothing else. With the wind biting at that point, we grabbed our kill and went back to the house.

Butcher's Board

Skinned

Bob’s father was very kind and did the gutting and skinning for me. This is something I have full intentions of learning, I just did not want to rough up the only rabbit. We went off to wash the final product and came back to the barn cats having a feast with the entrails. Luckily I had already saved the heart and liver for myself!

Waste Not

Once home I further washed any hair off, wrapped it in bacon and roasted. I expected the taste to be gamier, but it turned out to be rather mild and quite delectable. I think next time, hoping there will be a next time, I will try a stew. I must admit that there is something uniquely satisfying about killing and cooking your own food.

  

Heart and liver fried in bacon fat = Amazing!

Unleashed Thoughts

When I looked outside this morning and saw the snow falling the first thought to cross my mind was a question I get asked quite frequently: How do you train your dogs to behave so well off leash?

It is during poor weather that I would do all my off-leash training, so watching the snow fall makes me want to grab the dogs and head for a park. There are a few parks in the county that I live and I would run the trails of each while training for ultras. I realized that as the weather got worse, I would see far less people and the ones that came did not stay nearly as long. It was these moments I started letting Shaman run free. It was those first experiences of running with him unrestrained, the entire park to ourselves, that I got hooked. From the raw excitement exuding out of the dog to the transcendental and primal feeling I felt, trail running was forever changed for me. It was also these running experiences that solidified the bond and the trust I have with my dogs.

Our runs have taken us to some beautiful places.

Being off-leash requires trust.

I realize not everyone has the ability or is ready to run with a dog under only voice control. I am going to put together a basic guide to help people achieve this.

A Fasted Perspective on Hunting

Yesterday I had a breakfast that included 5 eggs, a thick strip of bacon, and beef liver. A few hours later I ate approximately ½# of ground beef I had cooked from the night before. I ate everything in a 3 hour window (7-10am) with intentions of fasting until breakfast this morning. Ultimately I went out for a small bite to eat for dinner with my local dairy farmer, but that is neither here nor there. What I write about now is when I came home after work before I had the aforementioned dinner.

Steak and Eggs

Over the holiday weekend I picked up some venison from my uncle and thawed it out after I returned home from my New Year adventure. Using my new Cutco Butcher Knife I started cutting one of the huge legs of meat in to meal sized portions for the dogs. Upon coming home from work and putting the venison shown above in their food bowls (in addition to an egg) my hunger became more apparent than ever. I wanted all that meat. It was at that moment I wished I had a larger chest freezer and I had venison all year round. The breakfast and lunch I had was nothing without eating a thick venison steak such as the ones staring back at me. Any qualms I’ve mentioned having with the taking of the life of an animal seemed to be thrown out the window.

After seconds of contemplation I fed the dogs these beautiful steaks and told myself I will become a hunter. I will hunt to feed both myself and the dogs. I brought up this realization at dinner with my good friend Bob of Nice Farms Creamery and it looks like Sunday we will go rabbit hunting on his property. With it being winter and things fairly slow around the farm we should be able to protect his valuable pasture from rabbits, saving it for his dairy cows.

It looks like I will become a hunter sooner rather than later!