Thursday

Brother, am I tired this morning.  Woke up at 2:45 am and could not stop my brain - that was it for the night.  I am happy to report that I had no leg cramps at all, despite a very low carb day, but not having them was sort of pointless if I was awake anyway - apart from the pain, that is.

146.2 today, and still a bit stiff from the workout Tuesday evening.  Lee says he's down a pound from yesterday, which was up a pound from two days ago or something.  He seems to be oscillating around the 201 pound mark with no relief.  I did check his eating from Tuesday and he had over 70 grams of carbs; reported that to him and I think his food yesterday was nearly all fat or protein - eggs and bacon for breakfast (with milk), naked burger with toppings and caesar salad for lunch, BBQ - ribs and sausage and cole slaw for dinner.  With sweet tea, unfortunately, but it still should fall far shorter of the 70 gram mark.  We are planning dinner at a McDonald's on the road tonight - naked burgers for both of us.  I am determined that he'll see "19" at the beginning of his weight - and soon.

Well, diesel fuel number 1 (I think it is - heavy cream) is not helping this morning - and neither is English Breakfast tea.  This is one of the days I wish I had a sugar-free Red Bull handy - no, they're not paleo, but they do work.  I had a regular one once and never want to repeat that - the sugar crash hit so fast I almost collapsed - but the sugar-free ones are helpful on days like this.

All that said, even operating on low sleep right now, I feel a lot better than I would have in the same state while eating the SAD.  I know I can function.  I would just rather not, right now.

Wednesday of the world's longest week

And it's not - exactly - because Christmas is coming; it's a 4-day week leading up to time off (which happens to be Christmas).  Anyway, here we are at Wednesday.  Yesterday's eating (for me) went like this:
Breakfast - 2 turkey bacon and about 1.5 eggs scrambled with 1/4 pound of ground beef (leftovers from the beef, eggs, spinach dish).  Tea with heavy cream to start
During the day - about 1/3 cup of walnut pieces
Dinner - ground sirloin patty with cheddar and bacon, and a tiny bit of avocado (it was really hard, so not worth eating).  2 squares of stilton cheese, about 5 dark chocolate almonds, and a piece of paleo christmas candy (coconut shreds covered with 60% cacao chocolate).

Lee had about the same thing, without the walnuts and with Olive Garden soup and salad for lunch - he picked Pasta E Fagiole, which has to be carb-city.  Also at least 2 glasses of 2% milk.

The reason I'm recording this so scrupulously is that he is still not losing weight at all, and I am feeling compelled to figure out why.  So I'm going to load him into LoseIt for a while to see what his ratios are.  I've also suggested that he should try an IF day or two, and that he might want to get a blood glucose meter and test himself after meals to figure out what's kicking his blood sugar up - because something must be, somewhere.  He was having leg cramps overnight, which seems like he's running low-carb in general, but I'm wondering about gluconeogenesis due to not enough fat calories or something.  Gah!

We did the gym again last night - just weights for me; he walked a mile and then hit a few weight machines.  I don't think the walking will have the adverse effects on his appetite, since it's not strenuous or highly aerobic.  For me, the second session prompted body aches right away - I was pretty sore overnight and don't feel too wonderful today.  But a pound of water went away, so I'm back at 146.4.

The coconut water after workouts seems to be keeping cramps at bay - I had some popping at bedtime, but nothing worse.  And I'm getting used to the taste, sort of.

Tuesday

I think maybe Chinese food is problematic.  We went out for some last night - I had some (not a huge amount) Cashew Chicken without rice.  Chicken wasn't breaded, sauce was thin, so it shouldn't have added weight.  I am assuming it was the salt - that and the fact that, for some reason, workouts take 2 days to register with muscle stiffness on me.  Anyway, I'm up to 147.4 this morning.

We're going back to the gym tonight, before dinner, I think.  I don't know if that will improve things, or make them worse.

Monday before Christmas

Pretty good weekend, from an eating standpoint.  We ate at home a lot - stew on Friday, cabbage rolls from Everyday Paleo for dinner Saturday, roast beef and potatoes and rice-flour gravy last night.  Breakfast yesterday at Cracker Barrel, which has a gargantuan low-carb breakfast - 3 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausage, and some sliced tomatoes.  Breakfast Saturday was a second pass at the ground beef, eggs, and spinach thing - more spinach and eggs to less beef this time, and still pretty good! And we ate out for Saturday lunch - I had a Wendy's double with cheese, sans bun, and Lee had chili; we split a baked potato (with the crap they provide in lieu of butter - ugh).

Lee came really close to being below 200 on Saturday morning, but saw it go back up on Sunday, just out of caprice, as far as I can figure.  He's stiff and sore right now from the cold, and that's probably part of it.  We also went to the gym yesterday morning, and are both stiff and sore and swollen from that.  I did a variety of machines - all weightlifting; he walked a bit and then did a bit of lifting. 

Made some kinda fun, near-paleo candy this weekend - I had a partial bar of 60% cacao chocolate and some leftover coconut shreds, and melted the former and stirred in the latter.  It's pretty darn tasty - worth repeating, although next time, I'll do the 85% stuff.  It tastes rather like a Mounds bar, only not as sweet and not nearly as sticky.

147.0 this morning; I saw 145.something over the weekend and having eaten so clean, I tend to think that this is my muscles protesting the weight work yesterday.  I took a couple of salmon oil this morning and will take some Advil if the pain increases at all; between them, the excess fluid should go away, I think.

We were laughing yesterday morning at the prospect of January at the gym, as all the folks who gained weight over the holidays make their resolutions and start to keep them.  Because, so far, I think both of us have lost a tiny amount of weight over the holidays - not much, and some days, it's hard to see.  But I didn't fit into a size 8 before Thanksgiving, and now I do (I'm wearing one of the skirts I made earlier in the fall and it's too big), and I think Lee's nearing a breakthrough - his "skinny jeans" were falling down while we were out shopping yesterday.

Hungry

I have no idea why, but I have been stomach-growlingly hungry all day, to the point at which I succumbed to a cookie and some M&Ms that were left over from yesterday's party.  As should be obvious to a Paleo/Low-Carb eater, neither was the least helpful. 

It is now roughly 20 to 3:00 pm.  A bit late to be realizing I should have had some lunch today.

Christmas Food

Over the past 3 days, we've received gifts from various members of our family who have developed a tradition of sending food.  I think that we have discussed our way of eating with most of them - or at least, they've seen it in action, back in the spring.  I suppose it's possible that they're just like my mother, who keeps asking when I'm going to stop "dieting", and figure that how we eat is in support of a weight-loss goal or something, and will go back to "normal" some day.  Because here are the highlights of what they have sent us for Christmas this year:

• Frozen gourmet lasagna
• Bagels - it looked to be several dozen of them
• Some sort of frozen cake
• Flavored popcorn

Amongst all of this largess (lard-ess, more like), we did get some steaks and some coffee, so it wasn't all problematic.  And the popcorn's original sale benefited the Boy Scouts, and I'm all for that.  But now we have all this stuff in the house that we don't eat, and I need to come up with suitably enthusiastic thank-you notes for it, as well.

The popcorn came to work with me this morning - I work in IT, and have never seen an IT organization pass up free food, so I think it will be appreciated.  Lee is thinking of doing something similar with the bagels at his office sometime soon.  The lasagna and the cake?  I don't know.  Guess we'll let them stew a while.

My weight's holding steady in the mid 140s - 146.6 this morning.  Lee's still not losing; I suggested he try the keto-stix a couple of times to see if he's ever going into ketosis, and we could work from there.  And he wants to go to the gym more, which I think means I have to start getting us to the gym more (a role I would willingly give up, but it's mine and has been for a long time).  Maybe one or the other of those will help.  If we do get to the gym more, I'm going to start working on a six-pack - I think I'm about where I could do it and have it be visible.

Fortunately, I think we have received all of our food-oriented gifts.  Good thing - I'm not sure we haven't exhausted our options for getting it out of the house.

A nightmare

Just came from the holiday party at work.  Here was the menu:

• Pizza (various sorts)
• Salad with a choice of dressings (including blue cheese)
• Cake
• Cookies
• Candy
• Apple Juice
• Cranberry Juice Cocktail
• Coke
• Sprite

I did the best I could navigating the minefield; a reasonable helping of salad with dressing (it had "vegetable" and soybean oil both, but probably was nicely full of fat), one slice of pepperoni and black olive pizza, from which I peeled and ate the toppings and cheese, a small handful (maybe 10, total) of plain M&Ms, one King Leo peppermint ball (1" diameter, I think) and one cookie.  I did not drink.

I was sitting there, toying with my dessert, when one of the other women at the table started to talk about problems with her insulin levels, and how she couldn't possibly miss a meal without feeling faint and seeing spots and didn't see how anyone could.  I couldn't help myself; I turned to her and said, "oh, I do that routinely - I only ate dinner on Monday."  And then I shut up.  I try not to make a big deal of the way I eat, and I was very matter-of-fact about peeling my pizza and skipping the crust.  And if I can find a natural way to slip in a remark about "heart-healthy saturated fat", I will, mostly to see if anyone actually is listening.  But I won't proselytize.  Maybe I should, but I can't - unless someone asks and really seems to want to know.  And after my aunt's and sister-in-law's reactions ("oh, yes, that's exactly what we're already doing", as they proceed either to consume or serve flour- and sugar-laden food), I'm even a bit chary of sharing with people who act interested.

Anyway, one holiday minefield successfully negotiated.  Don't know how many more to go...

Thursday

I succumbed to the lure of peanuts yesterday.  I think it has to do with having a cube right next to the floor's one microwave, so lunchtime comes, and I get to smell everyone's lunch.  On the days they bring microwaveable frozen lasagna, I have no problem not eating (microwaving it smells like, well, vomit).  Other days, they cook something beefy, and I get hungry.  Yesterday was one of those days. 

I came prepared today - finally remembered to bring some walnuts with me.

146.4 today.  We ate Mexican last night, but I had carne asada with guacamole (and chips and some of the rice, and two unfried corn tortillas - I was hungry), so, in theory, it wasn't as bad as my usual cheese enchiladas.  Also had my one cookie - and kept it to one this time.  And some walnuts and some cheese.  As I was getting ready for bed, I felt the leg cramps starting, and when the first one fired off, I went and drank some coconut water.  It wasn't as instantaneous a fix this time - I felt the fasciculation or whatever it is for a while after, but the cramps did not return.  So it seems to work.  It also doesn't taste as nice as I thought it did the first time, but since it's medicinal, I'll slug it down - it tastes much better than, say, Ny-Quil.

Holiday party at work today, featuring pizza.  I will eat the top and skip the bread.  I wonder if it would be possible to make a pizza top by melting cheese with tomatoes and pepperoni and spices in a casserole dish or something.  Seems like it would be worth a try, anyway.

Wednesday

So I ate 3 cookies after dinner yesterday - something with white frosting on it, something with chocolate frosting on it, and something with sugar on it - spaced throughout the evening.  Dinner was brats and mustard and a salad with ham in it and blue cheese dressing (Marie's - has soybean oil in it as the first ingredient, but everything else looks okay).  By bedtime, my digestive system felt and sounded like it should have been featured on Storm Chasers or something, and I slept miserably as a result - never deeply.  Can I really blame the cookies?  I don't know.  But I'm definitely disinclined to go on another 3-cookie "binge" any time soon.

Pizza party at work tomorrow.  Not sure how I am going to deal with it, especially in light of last night's reaction to (I guess) flour.  I have a fork at my desk, guess I could bring it and use the crust as my "plate" in order to eat the cheese and meat off of it.

146.6 this morning; some of the water weight is gone but I had pretty achy joints this morning - more wheat reaction or maybe from sleeping badly - in any event, I think there's more water there.

The thought of 3 cookies as a binge makes me laugh - but for me, these days, I guess it really is.

Tuesday

Fasted fairly comfortably yesterday, then went out and ate smoked turkey and salad with blue cheese dressing; followed up with an ounce or so of Gruyere and one cookie with frosting.  And that was enough for the day.  Although I must admit to being on the verge of cranky just before dinner.

All that effort notwithstanding, I'm still at 148 even.  Probably see some change tomorrow - that does seem to be how it works.  And I am still in some sort of carb-processing, water-retaining state, because I have no hint of what some internet site called "fasciculation" - the bubbling sensation in my calves that signals a potassium loss. 

Speaking of calf cramps (sort of), I have an experiment to try the next time they hit.  I had horrid ones on Friday night, combined with more traditional foot cramps that had my toes aimed every which way.  I got up and downed 4 potassium tablets, a magnesium, and then had an idea to take a swig of some rather old coconut water that I'd had in the fridge for a while.  After swallowing, all the cramps subsided almost immediately, and did not come back in any form for the rest of the night, which I thought was odd - pill-form potassium actually doesn't seem to do anything once the cramping starts.  So I'm wondering about the coconut water, and got another, reclosable, container of it, which I plan to guzzle from when next I have any issues.  Logically, it does seem like it might be quicker-acting than a pill that needs time to dissolve, and it contains other minerals that might also help. 

I meant to get some walnuts to bring to work today but forgot.  I figure that they have to be somewhat better than peanuts from the machine - nuts over legumes, for starters, and of the nuts, walnuts have (I think) the best Omega 3:6 ratio (still not wonderful, but better than most). 

The "one cookie a day" rule I imposed on myself seems to be working.  Thinking back, we were always limited in our junk-food intake as kids; once I was an adult and the food rules seemed to change, I dropped those restraints, and the result was 45 pounds (over 20 years - which I think was roughly the number Gary Taubes' first blog entry was dealing with - "just 20 calories per day".  Yeah, right).  And for what it's worth, I am really savoring those single cookies, as prescribed in French Women Don't Get Fat.  They're much better that way, I think.

Brats and (probably) sauerkraut for dinner tonight - good stuff!

A bit of analysis

I can't help it; I am still trying to help Lee even if he wants to fight me.  So I took our food intake from yesterday, to the extent that I know it, and logged it in a calorie counter that can do macronutrient levels.  Granted, yesterday's eating sucked, so I also found the day's eating that I logged last week to see if I were inadvertently starving myself into the size 8.  I think that's more representative of my normal eating patterns these days.  Here's what I see:

Lee yesterday:

• Calories: 2051
• Fat: 109.5g, 51% of calories
• Carbohydrates: 132.86g, 27.5% of calories
• Protein: 103.9g, 21.5% of calories

Me yesterday:

• Calories: 1876
• Fat: 113.2g, 54.8% of calories
• Carbohydrates: 126.1g, 27.1% of calories
• Protein: 83.7g, 18% of calories

Me last week:

• Calories: 1829
• Fat: 137.5g, 68% of calories
• Carbohydrates: 32.9g, 7% of calories
• Protein: 111.9g, 25% of calories

The big difference yesterday in what Lee and I ate was that he had grits and eggs with breakfast, and a glass of milk, where I had 6 slices of turkey bacon and a dollop of cream in my tea.  Other than that, we pretty much ate the same things, as far as I could tell.  The big differences between what I ate yesterday and what I normally would eat are manifold:

• Normally, breakfast is 2 eggs and 2 slices of turkey bacon, with the dollop of cream
• Normally, I don't eat lunch
• Normally, dinner is pretty protein- and fat-centric, without a lot of starchy vegetables, and I eat a lot of cheese or nuts and a bit of very dark chocolate
• Yesterday, I had half a piece of commercially prepared cheesecake, albeit with a crust composed of flourless chocolate cake.  Still, it was a huge bolus of carbs. 
• Yesterday, I had a hefty portion of chips and queso.
• Yesterday, I had a hard cider with dinner

Lee's normal breakfast is very like mine, although he usually adds a glass of milk (currently 2% which is down from whole milk last month, and he wants to switch to skim).  He eats lunch, and I don't have a lot of insight into it, although I hear about "half a bun" a couple of times a week, so I would say that he's getting carbs there that could be avoided.  He also frequently takes a banana and a low-fat, artificially sweetened yogurt (ugh!) to work with him, presumably as a snack.  Our dinners are generally similar and he does try to keep the obvious carbs down, but, for example, last week we were at a "healthy" soup and salad (and pasta and bread) place and he opted for beets in his salad and had a cream (roux? probably) soup and a corn muffin.

Is it all enough to add up to a permanent stall?  I don't honestly know.  I wish I could convince him to log a week's worth of eating, so that I could pull it apart and see if I could find the issues.  Maybe I'll ask him to do that the next time he complains about not losing any more weight.  But I'm not holding my breath that he'll do it.

On an unrelated subject, my system seems to be reacting well to the fast - it's nearly 1 pm and I'm just now getting hungry (probably the result of contemplating yesterday's meals), and the mildly "off" feeling I woke with seems to be fading.

Garbage in, ...

Pounds on.  Ate horridly all weekend, and as a result, I'm up to 148 this morning, and not surprised in the least - also unsurprised to be feeling swollen and achy in most of my joints.  Friday's Mexican food led to Saturday's purchase of Christmas cookies and dinner with some sort of fried potato cake, leading to Sunday's cheesecake (no flour, we think, but plenty of sugar) and stew (flour roux, almost certainly), and chips and queso.  Not clean, not remotely Paleo.  So - no surprise here, I think - I'm fasting this morning.

We did the cookies right.  I went to a proper German bakery in Old Town, and bought an assortment of small butter/sugar cookies with sprinkles or frosting on them.  Once home, I vacuum-packed half of them and stuffed them in the freezer, and made a rule for myself limiting the intake to no more than 2 a day.  And I have abided by those rules.  The cookies I have had so far (only 3, actually) are extremely tasty and not so sweet as the one I had at work a week or so ago.  I think, without all the other junk, they would have been minimal in impact.

Lee is starting to push back on Paleo eating, arguing that the research I've done cannot possibly be the whole picture (not that I'm claiming it is) and telling me that he's going back to skim milk.  Fine.  I give up with him.  He won't read anything I send him for himself, claiming he believes what I've been saying - until he doesn't.  If he wants to eat garbage and argue with me about the knowledge I've gained, I will simply stop sharing; he's on his own.  I'll continue to eat the way I've learned to, the way that has improved my lipids dramatically, the way that has lost me around 45 pounds (depending on which day you ask), the way that will help me avoid Type II Diabetes and heart disease and Alzheimer's and auto-immune disorders and other diseases of civilization, and he can take his stupid statin drugs and blood pressure meds and sink slowly into metabolic syndrome.  Because if he doesn't want to understand the principles himself, and wants me to do his homework for him and tell him what to do, it ill-serves him to turn around and tell me that the homework I did for him was wrong.  He thinks that he will be able to lose weight by cutting calories and fat and by exercising, despite the fact that he has already lost something like 20 pounds by ignoring calories, not exercising, and eating fat.

Crazy-making, definitely.  But he's over 60, and is resisting the new tricks.  And his weight loss has stalled (I know why, too, but I will not be able to convince him to stop eating grits and yogurt and milk and bananas even for a week or two to see if it starts moving again - I know this because I've suggested it before and got nowhere). Not sure that there's much I can ultimately do there.

As I suspected

... 145.2 this morning.  Went to one of those salad-bar-and-"healthy"-food places last night for dinner and nearly couldn't eat, because the "healthy" food consisted of pasta, breads and muffins, soups with beans or a cream base (i.e., a flour-based roux), and baked potatoes with topping.  I had a lot of salad, and a bowl of "cassoulet" (so called, and it followed the basic pattern for the dish, but without any of the good French fats that would be there in the real thing), and some tapioca pudding (don't the Kitavans eat tapioca?  I'm sure that must be paleo, right?).  The beans in the cassoulet are making their presence known this morning, but not in any acute way. 

Made some paleo "cookies" last night with almond meal, walnuts, and pumpkin as the main ingredients.  They were okay, but could have used some salt, and probably would have benefitted from raisins (I guess we could "gather" raisins, right?).  Anyway, a first foray into things we might use to expand our basic diet (not counting the cheesecake), and worth continued exploration.

I also confirmed my size 8 status yesterday by trying a skirt on.  Still mind-boggling.

Gaah!

My husband has been complaining that my recently purchased, size 12 chinos from LL Bean are too big, which annoyed me rather a lot, since I just got them.  Given that I did body fat measurements yesterday, I thought I would check to see if he was right.  My waist is currently about 28-3/4" and my hips 38-3/4".  LL Bean's size charts go like this:

• Size 10:
• Waist: 29-1/2"
• Hips: 39-1/2"

Okay, I fit into the size 10s and am starting to be glad I ONLY ordered 2 pair in size 12 to replace the 4 pairs of size 16 I had been wearing (boy, I bet those would look pretty funny on, about now).

But here's where it got really surreal.  I kept reading (or my field of vision was wider than it needed to be).

• Size 8:
• Waist: 28-1/2"
• Hips: 38-1/2"

I am closer in size to an 8 than a 10.  I cannot recall the last time I wore a size 8.  It may have been junior high.

So here I sit, a 49 year old woman with a dilemma.  Well, several, actually. 

• Do I buy the size 8s or the size 10s?
• Do I replace my current swimwear with a bikini? (Bear in mind that no matter how thin I am, gravity is a force to be reckoned with.)
  
• Dare I try on the already-altered-once little black dress I bought in June that started life as a size 14?  Or do I just go buy something new?  For that matter, I have a handful of other undiscarded dresses in my closet - try them on, or just give them the heave-ho now?
• Do I try to gain a little weight and stay stable somewhere that apparently isn't my genetic "normal weight"?  That sounds almost as hard as weight-loss on the low-fat plan.  Or do I go with nature here, keep eating the way I eat, and let the pounds and measurements settle where they will?  Even though that looks to be a rather expensive proposition (another new wardrobe).

Nobody in their right mind would have any sympathy for me right now, and I do not blame them.  Tee-hee-hee!

Carbing up: the day after

My stomach doesn't love me today, and I feel a vague malaise.  Stupid flour and sugar... 

Thursday

I anticipate that my weight will be up tomorrow, after what, for me these days, amounts to a carb binge, yesterday.  In addition to the cookie (I did end up eating the whole thing), I had another bag of trail mix (again, on purpose to increase carbs), a half-baked potato (half of a potato, baked, but not for long enough, at Country Buffet), and a couple of pieces of fudge.  I'm sure that the cookie was 25 grams of carbs, and the trail mix was 27 grams; so I was pushing 60 grams before the potato entered the picture.  Still, the sum total was lower than the SAD, and I don't plan to do that sort of thing daily.  I do need to come up with a sensible way to increase carbs to maybe the 60s on a daily basis, without eating wheat or masses of sugar.

So, 144.8 this morning (like I have said in the past, my weight increases seem a bit time-delayed).  My BMI is 20.2, and my body fat% is 23.  I really like it.

A cookie

Given my issues with cramping overnight and the fact that I seem not to have completely stopped weight loss, I made a decision to eat a cookie from a box left for the people at work this afternoon.  And, after 1 bite, I'm not sure I can go on - it is teeth-curlingly sweet.  To the exclusion of all other flavors.  Wow - how did I ever eat stuff like this routinely?

Calorie/nutrient counts for yesterday

I think I captured everything in LoseIt, and it's showing me with a total of 1829 calories for the day, 68% fat, 7% carbs (33 grams of which 23 were sugar), and 25% protein.  Spot on what I should be doing, and definitely not a "weight-loss" calorie count.  Okay, that's good to see.

However, I meant to mention this before and forgot, but 33 grams of carbs apparently isn't enough to keep the cramps at bay.  I had nasty ones in the outside of my right leg last night - behind the anklebone on the outside at the same time as a shin cramp - another of those situations where stretching it out is simply not an option.  Maybe we'll have some beef stew for dinner tonight from my home-alone cooking binge - with potato starch to thicken it.

Really? Really???

Got on the scale this morning and had to do a go-back.  I am at 144.4 (or possibly .6; does it really matter?) this morning.  I don't think that was a goal, really - I'm happy at weighing under 150.  Anyway, I also did my body fat measurements, and am at 23% even this morning, and within about 3/4" in hip and waist measurements of being able to make pants using a pattern I found in my stash from the 90's (I'd guess) that has tapered legs and a waist-high waistband.  I've been wanting to make those pants again - I like the ones I did make recently, but have never been a fan of truly straight legs unless they're skinny, and these are straight and a sort of medium width, so that they flap about the ankles in a way I don't care for - it doesn't look graceful.  Anyway, my lean body mass is at 111.2 pounds at the moment, which indicates to me that I'm still losing fat - actually, looking at my lower abdomen tells me that - it continues to melt slowly away.

I finally got a chance to watch the movie, "Fat Head", which I'd been reading about in the low-carb/paleo blogs for a while now.  It's currently available on Hulu (at http://www.hulu.com/fat-head).  I loved it - laughed out loud (while sitting alone in my kitchen in front of my laptop) multiple times, and the nutrition science is spot-on and very clearly explained.  I sent the link to both Elizabeth and to my sister; hope they opt to take a look.  Lee even watched a bit of it over my shoulder, although he wasn't willing to stand there for 1-3/4 hours' worth, understandably.

Anyway, back to this weight-loss thing.  I do keep an eye on the mirror in case I start looking anorexic, and that doesn't appear to be happening.  Here's what I ate yesterday:
Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs and 2 strips turkey bacon; 1 cup of tea with heavy cream in it
Lunch - nothing
Dinner: 1/3 pound Angus burger patty with cheddar cheese and green chile (seriously wonderful!), 1/2 cup cottage cheese, and a pickle spear
Miscellaneous snacks: 3 oz cheese (Gruyere and/or Kerrygold sharp cheddar), 1 cup of strawberries with 1/3ish cup heavy cream, 1 square of Lindt 82% cacao chocolate.  Possibly a cup of tea with heavy cream in it.

I wasn't hungry, except briefly around 2:30 (so useless for lunch-eating!).  I mean to put that log into LoseIt just to see what the calorie count is.  In the meantime, I guess this new loss a)signals I haven't hit my genetically appropriate weight yet, and b) means a few Christmas cookies won't do me much harm (unless the gluten or other wheat toxins get to me).

Tuesday

Exciting news!  I posted the link to Gary Taubes' new blog on Facebook yesterday, and actually got my sister to read it.  It's just possible she'll buy and read his new book when it comes out, and if what he says makes sense to her (it certainly did to me), perhaps she'll change how she eats and improve her health.  I tried to convince her to read GCBC (I would even have lent it to her), but perhaps my use of the phrase, "800-page magnum opus" put her off.  I won't push the issue - in the wake of the salt water thing, I just can't - but I will keep my fingers crossed.

Ate nothing between breakfast and getting home after work last night; while peanuts are available in the machine, the fact remains that they're Omega-6 heavy and therefore pro-inflammatory (somehow, that doesn't seem quite the right antonym to anti-inflammatory).  And I have something impinging some of the nerves in my hands right now - I slept funny over Friday night, I think - so I need to be settling inflammation down, not adding to it.  Doubled up on salmon oil this morning as well.

Poor Elizabeth!  She got cramps from potassium imbalance yesterday in her cheek and stomach and could not get them to go away.  I advised pigging out on avocados for a while and watching the salt. Hope that will help, as she is starting finals this week and could do without the distraction.

We got some boffo good cheese at Costco last weekend - a lovely aged Gruyere.  I opened it to cut up into snack-sized pieces last night and had dogs at my feet immediately.  They are crazy fond of cheese, especially Swiss-type cheeses, so the smell must have called to them.  But they didn't get any.  I ate the edges, probably even with wax (not entirely sure about the wax - but the edges were somewhat shiny).  Costco also had a French butter with sea salt, so I got some of that.  I am assuming that the cows were pastured, but without evidence (I haven't opened it up to see the color yet).  Given that, without bread, we don't have a vehicle for butter, I figure I can splurge on it when I do buy.  And it's healthy!  That's always a good reason.

No shift in weight overnight.  Seems like I really am settling in the high mid 140s, and that seems to be about right.  I certainly like the way it looks in clothes - and if I can just remember to do a few crunches (to exhaustion) and or lift occasionally, I could potentially make my next swimsuit a bikini again.  At 50, and without grossing out people in my vicinity.  Yee hah!

Cold Monday

It's about 27 outside; not at all nice.  I had several conversations about the cold weather over the weekend, and about people being cold.  I know low thyroid will make people cold, but it seems like being under-nourished would have the same effect - what I think I remember hearing as a child: "no fuel for the furnace".  In such conversations, I find the words, "eat more fat" coming to my lips more and more often.  In groups of people who don't eat the way we do, that can prompt some rather odd looks.  Oh, well.  I live for the day when I hear a commercial that includes the phrase, "heart-healthy saturated fat" in it (we can all dream).

Ate pretty well over the weekend.  We saw a show on the Food Network Friday - one of those "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" ones - that included a pure Paleo recipe (not on purpose, I imagine, but it was).  Saute some chopped onion in butter to wilt it a bit, add ground beef and fry that up.  Top with wilted spinach (I sauteed it in ghee), and a couple of beaten eggs, and cook until the eggs are done.  Top with grated parmesan cheese.  We tried it for breakfast yesterday, and while I need to tweak the proportions - no recipe was given, so we just eyeballed it - it was really good.  And I'm not a big spinach fan.

I also made my own eggnog.  A survey of the commercial brands all included HFCS, so I did a bit of research and found a recipe that involved a bit of cooking (in case the eggs had any salmonella about them).  It is definitely the same thickness as commercial, but the flavor is a bit different and I haven't quite figured out why.  But I very much like the fact that it isn't nearly as sweet - a recipe that served 6-8 had just over 1/3 cup of sugar in it.  So a good start - and I may try adding a hint of vanilla; I think that might be the missing flavor (either that or bourbon, since I made it non-alcoholic).

146.2 this morning.  I don't think that's the lowest I've ever been, but it's down from the 147.0 I was all weekend.  I also seem to be losing inches around my waist - the lower abdominal subcutaneous fat I still have seems to be shrinking.  Good news and bad - my clothing is getting a bit loose again.  The good news is that maybe I can produce a six-pack - at nearly 50 years old.  That would actually be way cool.

Lee says he's losing weight again.  I'm not sure what triggered it, but good to hear.

And Gary Taubes is blogging!  I've been hoping that would happen one day - I read a lot of nutrition blogs these days and loved his book, so the combination should be wonderful.

Friday

Went and ate Mexican last night - I was quite peckish when I got home from work - and that was after having a candy-machine package of trail mix (peanuts, the odd cashew, raisins, and M&Ms) mid-afternoon.  The trail mix was a conscious decision; with the holidays upon us, I see a lot of messages on TV and other places about eating sweet things, and I thought that would deal with a mild craving without damaging things too much.  It was very good, and it did the trick.

I also considered purchasing some eggnog while shopping last night - until I read the labels.  It ought to be simple, right?  Eggs, heavy cream, nutmeg, sugar.  I'm pretty sure that's the recipe.  But everything I picked up contained HFCS and several ingredients with too many syllables.  So for now, I passed.  Maybe I'll make a small batch - after all, at home, we have eggs, heavy cream, nutmeg, and sugar.  I bet homemade will taste more like what I remember as a kid, too; the stuff these days is too sweet and lacks body (sounds like a wine tasting response - sorry, but I don't know how else to describe it).

I sent Lee more details of weight-loss practices he might try - found the weight loss page on PaNu and copied and linked it.  I hope he reads it and tries some of the suggestions, because he still reaches for the low-fat fake yogurt and the bananas and the only one slice of bread because it stuck to the sandwich filling, and the fake sugar in his coffee.  He still has a lot of visceral fat, and that's the stuff that really has the health impact, so I am hoping he'll start seeing some success again.  He had a physical on Wednesday and I'm interested in his blood chemistry results (is it sad that I can reel off a list of things he should ask about?) - especially the blood glucose in his case, since he's on statins and I imagine his lipids will look statin-like.  Supposedly they also tested C-reactive protein, which is an inflammation measurement, and that will also be an interesting number, since he has significantly reduced inflammatory stuff like wheat, even if he hasn't been totally successful at eliminating it.

Oh, and I was at 147 this morning - I think it's healthy that I'm starting to obsess less about my weight.  I also like that I have the key to getting through the holidays without damaging my health this year!

Thursday

Finally got a night's sleep last night, with the assistance of Advil (I think) PM.  So I'm woolly this morning - feels like I'm surrounded by a muffling curtain of semi-transparent heavy plastic or something.  At least my stomach seems to have settled down, sort of.  I was ravenous this morning and still feel a bit hungry and weak.  The doctor told Lee yesterday that there are salmonella outbreaks active in New Mexico right now; probably that's what we ran into.  The last time I ate something with salmonella poisoning, it took a couple of weeks before I felt human again.

146.8 this morning, although the scale considered options between that number and 149 something, I think, before settling.  Whatever.

Ugh

I no longer think we had food poisoning over the weekend, but that we ran into a virus of some sort, since I think both of us had some degree of fever with it.  That, and the fact that I thought I was over it on Monday and yesterday only to have it resurface this morning.  Sort of.  Anyway, I'm fasting again because I cannot abide the thought of eating right now.

148.4 this morning after drinking rather a lot of tea, and with my stomach all bloated and nasty.  I'm functional, but not enjoying it.