Yesterday’s workout was a tough one. Kipping pull-ups with a 10 lb. weighted vest!! It was my first time wearing that vest, and I am proud to say that I made it through in one piece. Today’s workout involves a whole lot of running, and guess what? It is raining! Surprise, surprise. If it continues to rain, I’ll have to row on the rower instead.

For the past week, I have been craving chicken salad (boiled chicken, mayonnaise, pickles, celery, and eggs). When trying to be primal, the mayonnaise and pickles become problematic. Even with organic mayonnaise, which you can find at HEB Plus, ingredients include soybean oil and honey. According to Mark Sisson in The Primal Blueprint, soybean oil has high omega-6 and low omega-3 values. Too much omega-6 and not enough omega-3 fats can cause an inflammation response in your body. You can read more about that here. When shopping for pickles at HEB, many of them had high fructose corn syrup listed as an ingredient. High fructose corn syrup is extremely fat-promoting because it is quickly and easily converted into glucose or triglycerides in the liver. Too much glucose and triglycerides in the body increases a person’s risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.

Because of this, I searched for recipes online and decided I would make my own mayonnaise and pickles. I bought all the ingredients last night and spent the entire morning preparing the pickles. Organic cucumbers were too expensive ($5.98 for two very small cucumbers), so I bought non-organic ones and used a fruit/vegetable wash (found in the produce section at HEB) on them after rinsing. I made a few changes to the recipe. I used organic apple cider vinegar, organic ground mustard, and garlic powder in place of the white vinegar, mustard seed, and garlic cloves. Also, my preference was to cut the cucumbers into thick hamburger slices, but you can choose whatever way you’d like. They will be sitting in my refrigerator for 5 days. I can’t wait to see how they turn out. Mayonnaise coming soon…

Homemade pickles