Friday, December 30, 2011

Friday

Well, we end 2011 about 3 pounds lighter than we began it (at least, my January 3rd entry shows a weight of 150.3; today, I saw 147.0).  I can live with that, although I would prefer to be in the 140-145 range just now.  And I probably will be, once the sugar season ends.  I finished the toffee yesterday, thank heaven.  Talk about a siren song!  That stuff practically reached out of the drawer and grabbed me.  But it's gone now, apart from the weight I'm carrying today.

Actually, today feels like inflammation - I woke up aching from head to toe after a night of sleep interrupted by toes cramping up (the old style) and the cat walking on my hair.  I know I was awake shortly after 1 am, with toe cramps that I thought I'd got to subside before falling asleep the first time.  Not so much.  I was able to get back to sleep, but it was pretty low quality stuff, and this morning, my shoulders ache and my fingers are swollen, and I feel fairly crappy.  Took 2 Advil and 2 fish oil with breakfast, and am hoping that will help.  I think a massage is on the books for this weekend.

Here's the day's eating for yesterday:
  • scrambled eggs
  • sausage patties
  • the usual supplements
  • tea with cream
  • cheese
  • toffee
  • more toffee
  • chicken breast meat
  • salad with dijon vinaigrette
  • white wine (1-1/2 glasses)
  • Brach's mint thingies (about 5)
  • strawberry ice cream (Haagen-Dasz tiny container's worth)
I should really be grateful to have only gained 0.7 pounds from that. 

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Thursday

Yesterday was a serious junk-food fest; I don't know how else to describe it.  And yet, I'm down another half-pound, which is definitely a could-be-worse scenario.  146.3 this morning.  Here's the rundown:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • the usual supplements
  • tea with cream
  • cheese
  • toffee - possibly as many as 5 pieces
  • potato chips - to break the toffee chain
  • deli chicken
  • salad with blue cheese dressing
  • dark chocolate - more of the Dove things
  • Brach's mint thingies - 2 or possibly 3
  • more cheese, I think
Most people would look at that list and think it was somewhat normal.  To me, it felt like wallowing in pig slop.  For which mindset I'm terribly grateful of course.

No migraine this morning, but my left eye has a slightly dilated pupil, making it feel unfocused.  My sinuses are a bit messed up this winter, so I'm blaming them for most of it.  Things could certainly be worse - I haven't caught cold in about 2 years, and whatever Lee had for the past two days has mercifully left me alone - but I would like the congestion to go away and stay away.

I misspoke yesterday about having no aches and pains; they just hadn't shown up yet.  By mid-morning, I had a bit of a hitch in my git-along from the inner and outer thigh machine.  Not much more than that, though. 

All in all, I really can't complain.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Wednesday

Hm.  Another migraine aura in my left field of vision this morning, similar to the one last Tuesday.  I may see a pattern.  Here's yesterday's eating:
  • the usual supplements
  • tea with cream
  • cheese
  • two pieces of homemade toffee (to die for good stuff)
  • taco salad
  • two Lindt milk-chocolate truffles
  • three Brach's mint thingies
  • half of a small bag of potato chips
I'm at 146.8 this morning, so the fasting is working to remove the traces of Christmas.  I had breakfast today; Lee is feeling somewhat better and was able to cook and get up at a more conducive hour.

Elizabeth and I went to the gym last night - I went partly to start ramping up for the boot camp stuff, and partly to get her to go - she needs a gym buddy or she won't go.  I walked about a half-mile at a rapid clip, then went downstairs to lift a bit - did abs, triceps (arm extensions, anyway), inner and outer thighs, and leg extensions.  Some mild stiffness in my delts or trapezius muscles this morning, nothing more than that.  Took a couple of fish oil to help with it.  We worked out fasted, and I didn't notice anything in particular - and my "fasted" state was after eating the cheese and toffee, so not all that fasted.  But I was rather hungry.

We'll keep it up, I think.  I also bought the boot camp app for my phone, to see what they think I should be doing.

As for the pattern to the migraines, I had 3 Lindt milk-chocolate truffles the day before my last one - can't say that they're "it" for sure, but it is suggestive.  I think I'll avoid them for a while.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Tuesday

Five day holiday weekend.  So, let's see.  I weighed myself on Sunday morning and was excited to see 144.9.  Unfortunately, I think the scale may have been resting on the base molding again; either that, or I pigged out big time at Christmas dinner (also a possibility), because yesterday morning, it said 149.0.  Twice - I double-checked.  Fasted breakfast more or less, yesterday, had lunch, and had cashews and cheese in lieu of dinner.  148.3 today - a slight improvement.  Here's yesterday's eating:
  • tea with cream
  • Monday supplements
  • cheese (around 10:30 am due to actual hunger)
  • naked "philly cheese steak" burger at Ted's (opted for beef)
  • iced tea
  • a half-sour pickle (we think these are naturally fermented)
  • a few spoonfuls of some really weird coleslaw
  • cashews
  • more cheese
  • lots of hot tea throughout the day
I'm feeling like I'm fending off a cold, sort of - a bit stuffy, some vague things going on at the back of my throat, stuff like that.  Have been doubling down on the Vitamin D for the past few days, and I don't think it will get any worse.  But my throat was on the verge of sore last night, and noshing on cashews, with their salt, seemed to help a bit.

Christmas dinner was ham, cheesy-sauced potatoes, greek salad, ambrosia salad, green beans, a slice of challa (for my sister-in-law's challa, I eat wheat - and it's only once a year), and an ice-cream dessert thing.  Also wine and several glasses of champagne, so the weight makes total sense.  Apart from that, we ate pretty well over the weekend; a few sausage balls (carby, but using gluten-free Bisquick), some corn bread, and a little candy - not much at all, really.  And the weight is already backing off.

I fasted again this morning because Lee is sick (sick to his stomach; possibly food poisoning, possibly a virus of some sort) and was kind of restless last night, so I opted for 15 minutes' more sleep over food.  I think it was the right choice.  I have cheese with me, and we'll probably have taco salads for dinner; everyone (who is eating, anyway) is looking to knock at least a few pounds off.  I might go to the gym tonight, as well - maybe, anyway.  Our boot camp thingie starts in two weeks, and I'd like to be marginally strong to start out with.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Wednesday

And so we roll around to the final day of this shortened work week, with two further short weeks to go - got Monday off for Christmas and then for New Year's.  Family arrives tonight, and, if I'm honest, I am anticipating a not-so great weekend.  Too many people around, and I'm not good with crowds.  I am trying hard not to be irritable in anticipation - it may turn out fine - but I can feel it lurking in a corner, waiting to spring on me.  Paleo eating can only fix so much.

That said, here's yesterday:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • walnuts
  • dark chocolate
  • a cookie (homemade, contained wheat, I'm fairly sure)
  • hot and sour soup
  • teriyaki beef skewers with Chinese mustard
  • popcorn (a small one, they said, but small is the new pretty big, if you ask me)
  • two Brach's mint thingies
  • more chocolate
  • more walnuts
I brought stuff with me for the movie - we went to Sherlock Holmes after a Chinese dinner - but wanted just a small amount of popcorn.  There's no such thing anymore, apparently, and I failed to exercise self-restraint and did finish the bag. 145.7 this morning, no surprise

I think we are doing another movie tonight - Mission Impossible, before we can't on account of company with small children.  But dinner at home, first - if I heard right, stuffed peppers.

Off starting tomorrow, so I think there will be cooking in my future, as well as one Mexican dinner out, and Christmas with family.  I will try to take it easy.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Tuesday

Someone is toasting raisin bread nearby.  One of the SAD foods that I do miss occasionally is toast of any sort, but raisin toast is just piling on a bit.  I had breakfast this morning, so I'm not hungry, but it does smell good.

Back to normal yesterday, mostly.  I did eat all the cheese I brought to work and, well, here's the full scoop:
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • Lindt milk chocolate truffles - 3 of them
  • Meatballs with spaghetti sauce and provolone cheese
  • salad with meat and dijon vinaigrette
  • dark chocolate - some with blueberries
  • 2 Brach's mint thingies
I believe that was it.  145.2 this morning, so much of the retained water was shed.  However, I'm still suffering from some level of inflammation this morning, I think - had an abrupt migraine aura (arcs made of sparkly triangles in my left field of vision) after drying my hair.  Took 3 advil and 2 fish oil, and ate breakfast in the dark, and it had mostly gone.  I can feel the headache threatening a bit, but think I caught it in time.  I completely buy into the threshold theory of migraine triggers, and thinking back over my long weekend, I suspect I was piling up quite the stockpile of triggers - stress, lack of/bad sleep, less-than-optimal diet, dehydration.  I'm just glad that I have a very recognizable aura, and that it's very responsive to intervention of some sort.

Had breakfast this morning - eggs-and-bacon.  I brought walnuts with me to work today, rather than cheese, since I think they're a bit less inflammatory.  It sounds as if we are eating Chinese for dinner and going to a movie after, and I'll just have to go easy on the Chinese.  Probably some hot-and-sour soup and the teriyaki beef skewers for dinner, and I'll bring more walnuts or hazel nuts to the movie.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Monday

My four-day roadtrip is complete, and I am very tired.  Thursday we brought the contents of a two-bedroom apartment down from the second floor via stairs, and out through the complex into a trailer.  Friday we attended graduation ceremonies, and Saturday and Sunday, we drove.

I ate well on Thursday, I believe; eggs and bacon, tacos?, pork osso buco and a big salad, a bit of creme brulee.  Friday was similar, although I did have an order of fries for "lunch"; dinner was chopped steak with onions and mushrooms over mashed potatoes, and I ate most of it.  Saturday I managed a naked double quarter pounder with cheese at lunch and then had Mexican food for dinner (lotsa corn - and I could tell overnight; corn seems to be very inflammatory in my system).  Sunday was eggs and bacon for breakfast, and junk food throughout the day - chocolate blueberries, a few roasted hazel nuts, and fries for lunch (which were tasty).  We had chicken and salad for dinner, and all of us went to bed well before 9 pm. 

I'm at 146.6 today, much of it general inflammation.  My feet are swollen, and I ache pretty much everywhere.  I preferred to stay in bed an extra 15 minutes this morning, so I could say I'm fasting right now, but anticipate eating later - I have cheese with me.

One thing I did notice; despite hauling quite a few boxes down the stairs on Thursday, I wasn't in the least stiff on Friday morning; I actually felt pretty great.  I hope it all qualified as "lifting heavy things" and will be interested to see the effects on my upcoming "boot camp" program, starting in about 3 weeks.

Back to the routine (sorta - not like next Sunday isn't Christmas, and not like we don't have family arriving Wednesday).  Meatballs for dinner tonight, with either spaghetti sauce or stroganoff sauce.  And more salad, I think.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Wednesday

Bummer - I didn't post a weight yesterday.  I think it was 143.3, but I could be wrong.  At any rate, it was 143.5 or .7 this morning, after a fairly intense fast.  Easy, but I didn't eat from about 8 pm Monday night to nearly 7 pm Tuesday, give or take.  Drank lots of tea, though.  Here's the details:
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • double quarter pounder with cheese, no bun
  • 2 peppermint nougats
  • 2 dove dark chocolates
  • the last 1/3 of the small bag o' potato chips
That was it.  I was still peckish when I went to bed, which is where the chips came in.  They helped - and may have helped water retention overnight.  I woke up this morning about 3:00 am, just achy - sore back and sore calves.  I don't think I've been doing much, although hauling the animals around last night might have had an effect.

Leaving tonight for Phoenix for 4 days (of which, 2 are on the road back).  Probably won't be eating wonderfully, but not an excuse to slack off, either.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Tuesday

I ended up going Christmas shopping instead of eating anything organized for dinner last night, which resulted in a not-fasting assortment of finger foods in the end.  Here's the day:
  • fat-bomb smoothie
  • the usual supplements
  • tea with cream
  • cheese
  • dark chocolate
  • more tea with cream
  • cheese
  • walnuts
  • a small portion of potato chips
  • peppermint nougats (only 2 last night!)
  • Dove dark chocolate (also only 2)
I was not hungry this morning and needed to wrap presents (they wouldn't have got done tonight, for sure), so I fasted.  Tea with cream and supplements only - and I didn't bring any cheese with me to work.  If it gets unbearable, the dark chocolate and hazelnuts are available - but I may try to make it to dinner tonight.  Or past it, come to think of it - after getting home tonight, I have to:
  • get the dogs to the kennel
  • get the guinea pig to my sister's house
  • rearrange the cat's feeding setup to make it easier for the neighbors to feed her
  • pack for me (not much; most of my stuff went by car over the weekend)
  • tidy the house
  • set timers as necessary/possible
  • wrap any additional items that show up in the mail/UPS today
  • print my boarding pass
  • set out the maids' Christmas bags so that they'll notice them
I'm sure there's more - or will be, once I get home and think of things.  What I don't see in all that is time to eat.  Hmm.  I'll figure something out, I guess.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Monday

Stevia is extremely sweet.  Almost nauseating - no, it IS nauseating in its sweetness.  I made a fat-bomb smoothie yesterday (a batch, actually) and put 3 minuscule scoops of powdered stevia in it - I'm assuming that the scoop is the equivalent of a teaspoon of sugar, or is meant to be.  The half I drank yesterday was ghastly sweet - rather like drinking pure powdered sugar.  I put more berries in the other half this morning, and it was better, but still too sweet. 

Finally tried the pickles I've been brining on the floor of the pantry - and a) they did not kill me, or make me sick, and b) they're pretty darn good!  Salty rather than sour at the moment, tasting of dill and garlic, and with a nice crunch.  And good for me - what more could anyone ask?

Here's yesterday's eating, which led to a weight of 144.4 this morning:
  • fat bomb smoothie
  • cheese at various times throughout the day
  • a smallish portion of potato chips
  • dark chocolate - about 4 pieces
  • Brach's peppermint nougats - about 4 pieces
  • walnuts
  • half-pound burger patty with a great crust on it (just sayin)
  • salad with vinaigrette
I was at 143.9 yesterday morning.  I blame the candy.  No idea what's in a peppermint nougat - I'm sure it's mostly not food - but they taste like Christmas, all by themselves, so I bought a bag.  Trying to keep consumption light - aiming for no more than 3 pieces per day.

I think that's it.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Friday

I am ecstatic to say that the dogs have returned to behaving nearly normally - I was able to get them into the backyard single-handedly last night, and they went readily again this morning.  One thing down.  Oh, and one of them ate a gift tag off a present under the tree - a very normal thing around our house, I'm sorry to admit.

Nothing particularly noteworthy yesterday; I succumbed to boredom eating and consumed the last of the fundraising candy yesterday afternoon, and it was very good.  Milk chocolate and almonds always tastes vaguely toffee-like to me.  We went out to eat again, but to a steak place, so the ingredients were more readily identifiable, and as a result, I'm still at 145.3 this morning.   Here's the breakdown:
  • Paleo banana bread
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • chocolate bar (the whole one)
  • almond flour shortbread cookies
  • steak
  • wedge salad with blue cheese dressing and bacon bits
  • iced tea
That was it.  We got back rather late, watched a bit of football (not sure why, but we seem to watch it by choice this year, regardless of who's playing), and crashed for the night.  Slept well (such a blessing!).  And here I am again today, with 8 hours ahead of me, utterly unstructured.  But no chocolate handy, so maybe I will eat a bit better.

Oh!  We checked the brine-fermenting pickles last night, and the brine has clouded up properly, so I think they are working.  I'll taste one on Saturday to see how things are going - and with luck, won't die of it.  Leaving things to sit out and sort of rot on purpose is a bit scary in this day of antisepsis.  But if they worked and taste at all good, they'll be perfect for helping Lee recolonize his gut after his antibiotics run out.  He's been eating probiotic yogurt things, and they seem to be helping a bit, but the pills are intended to win in the end.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Thursday

Yesterday was another longish workday, so I did end up eating more chocolate than I would have if I'd been busy.  Not bad, otherwise.  The dogs seem - finally! - to be settling down a bit, and we got more Christmas shopping done.

Here's the day's eating:
  • Paleo banana bread
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • an entire fundraising chocolate bar
  • half a strawberry shake
  • naked bacon cheese burger with blue cheese crumbles
  • fries
  • two almond-flour shortbread cookies
That was it.  145.2 this morning.

I am very happy to say that my sleep is improving - I don't think because the cold has set in outside, either.  The hot flashes have subsided again, without my having to get hormone supplements started, for which I'm grateful - not sure I really want to go there.  They may return - and they may not.  I think I'll just be glad for now that they're gone and I'm getting rested up again.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Wednesday

I realized, when the alarm went off this morning, that this was going to be one of those long weeks - it's Wednesday, and feels like we should be at Friday, already.  Two days in a row with not much to do at work, where my day's work was pretty much complete by 8:30 am.  Boredom eating prevailed yesterday - I brought cheese with me, but had chocolate and nuts as well, just to pass the time.  I hope today won't be a repeat, but it's another fairly unstructured day.

Here's yesterday's eating:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • dark chocolate (Lindt's 85%)
  • hazel nuts
  • pork tenderloin
  • salad with meat and cheese
  • blue cheese dressing
  • more tea
  • almond flour shortbread cookies
  • more cheese
  • more chocolate
  • walnuts
Nothing out of the ordinary.  I am still at 145.5 this morning, which is fine.  We had banana bread and bacon for breakfast - I figure, with six eggs in the recipe, a slice is nearly the same as eating scrambled eggs.  Okay, not quite, but I probably had an egg's worth.

The dogs are behaving slightly better, but still require more maintenance than usual.  They have until Saturday to get over it - after that, it's just me at home with them; Lee's headed to Phoenix for moving the kid back and Graduation - I'll be headed there next Wednesday night (another reason it's a long week; by contrast with next week).  I don't know how much fun it will be to handle them on my own, but I'm already figuring on fasting breakfast the three workdays - it just isn't worth the trouble to even try to eat.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Tuesday

Yesterday was just a giant bowl of suckage; our dogs have been acting beyond strange of late, deciding the back yard is off limits to them, among other things, and they hit the apex of strange yesterday morning while I was in the shower, leading to a lot of stuff like carpet cleaning that normally doesn't happen before I go to work.  Since we didn't know - still don't - what was bugging them nor how to make it stop, it left me with a sense of frustration and general blues all day.  They spent the day at the vets, being looked over to make sure it wasn't an illness.  I spent the day at work, wishing I could go home, crawl into bed, and cry a bit.  Doesn't work that way, but I did what I could by going for Mexican at dinner and finishing the chips and also the rice.  Carbs are sometimes rather comforting.  And weight-inducing - I'm at 145.5 this morning.  So be it.

Here's yesterday's eating, as I can recall it:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • dark chocolate
  • hazel nuts
  • chips
  • salsa
  • cheese enchiladas with green chile
  • spanish rice
  • iced tea
  • more chocolate
I think that was it.  By the time we got home, things were getting less strange.  One possible cause of the dogs' sudden venture into psychosis was a chirping unplugged smoke detector that had been sitting in the garage - I noticed the chirping just about the time they started fearing our back yard, so maybe there was a correlation.  The device has gone off to the dump, and we've found a way to force them outside that doesn't involve too much running, and they seemed a bit less freaked out this morning.  It doesn't help that it was -3, either, but that's not something we can control, short of moving to Florida.

Pork Tenderloin tonight - possibly from a recipe in Paleo Comfort Foods (maybe without the nut butter sauce, though?).  And Brussels Sprouts, sauteed or something.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Monday

It is 9 degrees outside.  Fahrenheit, that is.  Above zero.  Does that mean it could be worse?  Why yes, it could, but it's plenty bad enough, thank you very much.  We are still wandering around on layers of snow/ice from last week, because it's been too cold for that mess to melt and evaporate (the latter being the important bit).  On Friday, on the way from work to the car, I stepped on an invisible patch of ice with one foot and found myself losing my balance in very slow motion.  Probably that's a good thing, but I hit the ground, nonetheless, on my right hip.  Took an epsom salts bath or two over the weekend, but I still feel a bit stiff and achy and swollen.  I should have taken fish oil.

144.5 this morning - no idea where the pound came from, unless it is water from falling and becoming stiff.  I had a few carby foods over the weekend, I think, but not many.  Mashed potatoes and gravy (didn't eat all of them) on Friday night, cottage fries on Sunday morning, that I recall.  Here's yesterday's eating, which consisted of breakfast and snacks, really:
  • Paleo banana bread (best batch yet, but it took nearly all the mixing bowls in the kitchen to get it that way)
  • tea with cream
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • cottage fries
  • a bit of french onion soup (no crouton, just broth)
  • a swallow of pinot noir (did I mention that this was at breakfast? - we were out to brunch with friends)
  • cheese
  • walnuts
  • potato chips (a half-cup, all told)
  • more of those fantabulous almond-flour shortbread cookies - maybe 3 all day
  • chocolate
  • strawberries
I'm thinking that was it - but I could be wrong; it was a weirdly scattered day and I don't recall it clearly.

During a shopping outing on Friday, I saw that Adidas is producing "toe" shoes, similar in design to Vibrams.  But not that minimalist, either - the bottoms are very stiff and thick.  I don't think my feet would be strong enough to take advantage of the individual toes - it would be like wearing regular tennies with toe pockets in them.  Still, it's interesting that they're becoming that mainstream - and kind of a bummer to me, because I rather like wandering around in them and having people who notice them do a double-take.  On the other hand, if they do gain better acceptance, maybe the gym will allow them in the weight room again - apparently, they're verboten there just now.  And I want to wear them for our boot camp thing next month, so things could get interesting.

I have started a jar of brine pickles in the pantry - following the instructions for fermenting vegetables on the Perfect Health Diet site.  Cucumbers cut into chunks, garlic, and dill weed, in a brine that used pickling salt.  I have no idea if it will work or not, but am hopeful that I can produce something not unlike the ones at Ted's Montana Grill, which are different from your average jar-o-pickles from the grocery store.  I couldn't get unwaxed cukes, though, so the whole thing may not work.  Should be interesting, even if it doesn't produce food.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Friday

I'm getting pretty good at sleeping through hot-flashes.  I'm fairly sure I had at least one last night, and I'm equally sure that it did not wake me up.  My first awareness of being awake at all was at 4:11 am, and I went right back to sleep from there.  A good night.  It probably didn't hurt that it was well below freezing outside; I've always found that the absolute best weather for sleeping.

We ended up eating Chinese last night, although tonight a meat loaf is in the plans.  I had stuff I didn't think would result in weight gain, but I was wrong, a bit.  143.5 this morning.  Here's the day's eating:
  • scrambled eggs
  • turkey bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • 1/2 of a chocolate bar
  • almonds
  • hot and sour soup
  • beef with broccoli (I think the sauce was cornstarch based)
  • two spoonfuls of rice - probably less than 1/2 cup
  • hot tea
  • cheese
  • walnuts
  • chocolate
We had turkey bacon again this morning, so I'm guessing I'll be struggling with hunger again later today; it's just not very satiating, not nearly as much as bacon.  It is less trouble to cook, though, which is, I think, why we're having it just now.  I think if it continues, I'll have to double up on the heavy cream in my tea or something - maybe have cheese with breakfast, instead of (or in addition to) mid-morning/lunchtime-ish.  Some of yesterday's mid-day eating was sheer boredom, and I'm facing something similar today.  I will have to plan for ways to work around it, somehow.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Thursday

We did end up eating at home last night - Lee made nekkid cheese steaks, using a sirloin or ribeye or something, sliced up more like for Chinese food than steak sandwiches.  They tasted quite good - very authentic, expecially with the jar of Cheez Whiz to dollop over them.  That and a salad was dinner.

I did not have any cheese at work with me yesterday, which might have been a small mistake.  Instead, I ate almonds, peanuts, half a chocolate bar, and the last of the Godiva chocolate pearls that I had stashed - I was on a minor bender, actually.  143.0 this morning, so some of the Mexican food weight has gone away.  Here's yesterday in full:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • salted almonds
  • half a fundraising chocolate bar (dark with almonds)
  • bag of peanuts
  • nekkid cheese steak (steak, peppers, onions, provolone, cheez whiz
  • salad with blue cheese dressing
  • a square or two of dark chocolate, possibly with pomegranate stuff
I think that was it.

I have cheese with me today - probably important, because we had turkey bacon instead of the real stuff, which means the fat content of breakfast was lowered a good bit.  It's cold out, snowing, and likely to do so all day.  I'm not looking forward to the commute home, although getting to work was not as bad as it could have been (so many things aren't).

It occurs to me that the Social Living thing we signed up for, to do 3 weeks' worth of Boot Camp, starts next month.  I should probably get back to doing wall pushups and squats or something.  Soon.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Wednesday

So we had Mexican last night.  Can I blame my parents' kitchen remodel?  I think I'll try.  They can't eat at their house, and my mom was on an ulcer regimen for about 2 months and it just ended, meaning she can break her drought of things-with-chiles.  They have been to this one Mexican place 4 times since she was given permission to eat there again, and I think we've been with them on 2 of those trips, there by ourselves a third and maybe 4th time in the recent past.  They have amazing good green chile - southern New Mexico style, all green.  All well and good, but NOT Paleo - I'm quite sure it's roux-based.

Last night, we all went again.  Unfortunately, we got there a good half hour before they did, and spent it eating chips and salsa, and (for me, at least) drinking a margarita.  Bad move - or something was (the main course was pork fajita meat covered with pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream, and green chile - and is a particularly delicious way to keep it semi-paleo-ish).  I got home and found myself exhausted-feeling, weak, with a lot of lower intestinal activity, and freezing - had to take a bath to get warm, and after that, I just wanted to fall asleep.  I assume it was something I ate or drank.  143.3 this morning, as well.  Meh.

Here's the entire day's eating:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • turkey sausage
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheddar cheese
  • chocolate bar (1/4 of a fund-raising bar)
  • chips
  • salsa
  • small margarita
  • pork
  • pico de gallo
  • guacamole
  • sour cream
  • green chile
  • dark chocolate
Long list, but really not that much food.  Back to normal today, and, I hope, eating at home.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Tuesday

Huh.  Nothing much to share today, really.  Sleep continues to be challenging, and I'm blaming it all on hormone swings - I'm having warm flashes - nothing like the horrors from last spring, thank heaven - and they're making it hard to maintain a normal body temperature.  Sometimes they feel more like cold flashes, actually.  Anyway, I find myself partly awake about twice during the night - this morning, the second stint was at 4:30, which basically meant I was up for the day.  Despite that, and maybe because of the hormone swings as well, I'm losing weight in a mild sort of way.  142.8 this morning by the new scale. I think the only thing I've changed from a few weeks back when I was seeing 147 rather regularly is a mild downturn in my sugar consumption.  And that could certainly account for it - I find eating sugar reinforces itself, and I spiral upward rather quickly.  I've also cut way back on nuts - not consciously; it just happened.  Maybe now that Fall is turning into Winter, I am not storing energy for the long sleep anymore?  I looked at my records from last year, and it appears that the losses in October and November slowed down significantly - in August and September, I lost just over 6 pounds a month, in October, it was 4, and in November, 2.  Between November and February, I know I lost another 5-1/2 pounds, but I didn't chart my weight after mid-November.  Nonetheless, an interesting trend, and somewhat supportive of my theory that insulin-based fat storage enabled us to survive Winter by turning all of the ripe Fall fruit into fat.

Meanwhile, here's yesterday's eating:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • Monday's usual supplements
  • almonds
  • dark chocolate with almonds (I bought some fundraising candybars last week and am eating them very slowly - this was one or two segments of a 4-part bar)
  • chile (no beans - yeah, Chili's!)
  • salad with blue cheese dressing
  • iced tea
  • french fries with ketchup (probably fewer than 10)
  • two chocolate almonds
  • one almond paleo "cookie"
I think that was it.  It seemed pretty carby at the time, but I did have a few feints at leg cramps overnight, so it probably wasn't.  And I'm down another one-fifth of a pound this morning, as well.  Got some cheese with me, so I may be able to avoid the chocolate bars today.

By the way, Gary Taubes finished his series on the Food Reward Hypothesis, here.  I'm no scientist, but he makes a very convincing argument that Guyenet has not proved much of anything.  Guyenet's response seemed peevish at best ("he's cherry-picking my cited studies, and has a book to sell!") - I found it hard to read, and I can't make his definition of "reward" anything but circular - a food is "rewarding" if it makes you eat more of it, so by definition, since the obese folks in one of the studies they contended over ate less of the liquid diet, it was therefore not rewarding, even if it was a source of significant sugar - more than a Coke - and (theoretically) tasted sweet.  Before I can buy the whole reward argument as valid, I would need a definition of reward that could be applied to a food without watching people eat it.  Oh, and could someone explain to me why, if the liquid diet was very unrewarding to the obese folks, the normal weight folks didn't slack up in their consumption of it?  Wouldn't they have found it unrewarding too, if it was fundamentally unrewarding?  Supposedly, this dialogue is finished (it shouldn't be - this is science, dammit!), but I'll keep an eye out for new developments.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Monday

I somehow think it's a bit abnormal to lose weight over Thanksgiving, but it appears that we both did.  I am at 143.0 this morning on the new scale, and Lee reported being down a bit yesterday.  Crazy!  On the holiday itself, I had a fat-bomb smoothie, probably a few hunks of cheese to make it to the family meal, and then had chips and guac, rice crackers and Boursin cheese, turkey, salad, cranberry sauce, green beans, a baked sweet potato, and pecan-crust pie at dinner - and some wine.  Really pretty Paleo, all things considered.  Most of the rest of the weekend involved a big breakfast, no lunch or very little lunch, and dinner out, frankly.  Some of which was Mexican, but since I've got things under control, I opted for fajitas rather than enchiladas for dinner, to lower the carb count a bit.  Here's yesterday:
  • bacon
  • coconut-flour based "bread" made with leftover sweet potatoes (it was a bit dense, unfortunately, but didn't taste too bad - I toasted it and spread it with butter)
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • walnuts
  • cheese
  • chocolate
  • ham with mustard
  • chips and salsa
Was that it?  It may have been.  Neither of us was very hungry at dinner time, so we reheated some leftover ham and ate it, pretty much by itself.  That's how it's supposed to work, right?  If you're hungry, eat; if not, don't.

Our new scale gave both of us a false sense of wonderfulness for a while this weekend - we'd positioned it so that one corner would rest on the floor molding if someone stood on it, and the result was to remove about 3 pounds from our weight.  At one point yesterday morning, I thought I'd hit 140.  It was nice to see, and if things keep going as they are right now, I probably will for real within the month.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Wednesday

Yes, it is Wednesday, but it's also the last workday of the week, so, in a way, it's Friday.  I'm so beyond ready. 

We bought a new scale yesterday, because our old one just started acting disinterested in turning on and zeroing.  The new one seems pretty consistent with what the old one was saying - this morning, it had me at 143.9 (this one goes down to full 1/10ths of a pound, rather than just reporting the 1/5ths), which is pretty close to where I was yesterday, down a little.  Supposedly this scale will bluetooth my weight to my phone, should I decide I want to do that.  Not sure what the benefit is, yet.

Yesterday went like this:
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • a few Godiva chocolate pearls
  • a few almonds
  • caesar salad without croutons
  • bacon-wrapped grilled shrimp (not bad, but not immensely better than non-wrapped grilled shrimp)
  • peppercorn sirloin (I think) with bleu cheese sauce
  • steamed broccoli
  • a small amount of mashed potatoes
  • iced tea
  • a couple of almond cookies
  • more cheese (I was hungry again around 9 - undoubtedly Red Lobster was trimming the fat off some part of dinner)
That was it.  We were over at my parents' house after dinner to check progress on their kitchen remodel, and my sister showed up with chocolate cake for my mom's birthday.  It didn't look even remotely appetizing to me - and by that time, dinner was starting to wear off a bit, so I was a little hungry. Always cool, how my tastes have changed.  Lee had some - said it was really sweet.  I wonder if, with all of the sugary foods available to people nowadays, the desserts have to be over-sweetened in order for them to stand out as desserts?  Just a random thought.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Tuesday

Yesterday was proof that eating 3 meals in a day doesn't always prevent weight loss.  We had an errand to run during lunch, so Lee and I had Falafel King - which is to say gyro meat on salad with two other salads as side dishes.  Not bad stuff - lots of lovely garlic.  I had two Godiva chocolate pearls after in a futile attempt to stop smelling of garlic - nobody said anything to me, but that was probably politeness.

So.  Yesterday's eats:
  • scrambled eggs
  • pork sausage links
  • the usual (Monday) supplements
  • tea with cream
  • gyro meat
  • salad
  • tzaziki sauce
  • greek salad dressing
  • two Godiva pearls
  • chicken breast
  • salad with dijon vinaigrette
  • hot tea
  • cheese
  • 3 almond cookies - still addictive
And this morning?  144.2 if the scale is to be trusted.  Not bad.

I slept like a wet rag overnight - actually, that's a very apt comparison, because we had a downslope wind and that makes the ambient temperature quite a bit warmer, so our bedcovers were way too warm.  Woke up at 11:30 and again at 3:30 - the latter time, I could not get back to sleep until around 5:20, I think, and the alarm goes at 5:30.  Finally got up at 6:15, but skipped breakfast.  I don't know what is messing with my sleep these days - or rather, I probably do and am just trying to make it go away (or finish up, already!) by ignoring it - in any event, I would like more and better sleep.  I probably need to hit the gym - good intentions and all that; I've not been going.

I don't think today will be much of a fast - I have some cheese with me for later.  What I really need at the moment is a Red Bull, I'm sorry to have to confess.  Or coconut milk.  Not that it matters; I have neither, and will have to struggle through the day on sheer willpower and English Breakfast Tea.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Monday

We kept things fairly strict this past weekend, I think.  Which, by and large, was a good thing.  Lee's suffering from some sort of digestive upset at the moment - has been much of the weekend; he thinks it has to do with his sinuses being hyper productive.  Maybe so.

I made another batch of Paleo banana bread - used a bit less sweetener than last time, so it's more savory, which I don't mind, but I'll probably follow their recipe next time - we went out and bought dates, so I'll be able to.  Bought them at Costco, so I have a lot of dates available, and not much to do with them.  Maybe stuff them with goat cheese?  Appetizers for Thanksgiving!

144.6 this morning; up from 144.0 yesterday, but our scale appears to be suffering from death throes, so I don't know if I trust it.  Here's yesterday's eating:
The cookies were from a recipe I found at Elana's Pantry, and I wasn't sure that they'd actually work - what on earth holds them together after baking?  But they did, and although not terrifically sweet, were pretty addictive.  I made one change - swapped out her agave nectar for maple syrup, hoping that the latter isn't pure fructose (I haven't looked that up yet).  If I'm going to make paleo food, I really don't want to try to make imitation SAD food with weird chemical substitutions, and these make the grade - maybe 5 ingredients, and no hoops to jump through to force them to behave unnaturally, apparently.  Definitely a treat, not something we should be eating daily, but also very acceptable.

Well, this is getting weird.  Yesterday, Lee pointed me toward this article on Cafe Hayek, which sure seems to point to one of their contributors eating at least Archevore-style.  My attempt to tweet it failed - I embedded a space or something.  So, going there this morning to find the link, and what do I see? This - posted by the guy who's changed his diet.  So the way I eat, and the way I think politically (conservative/libertarian-ish), and the way I think economically (Austrian school), all circle round on each other.  If nothing else, I'm consistent.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Friday

Airplane water, much of it, I think.  A day of sensible eating, and a chunk vanished - I'm at 145.8 this morning.  Here's yesterday's eating:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • a few dark chocolate "pearls"
  • a bag of peanuts - I was quite hungry late in the day
  • grassfed beef meatballs
  • spaghetti sauce
  • chocolate almonds
  • cheese
I think that was it.  Spent the evening doing needlework, which tends to keep me from wanting to raid the cupboards, and is something I should do a LOT more of.  We didn't go to the gym, although we did go to the grocery store for garlic and bulk cheese, so we weren't averse to leaving the house or anything. 

Weekend coming.  Not sure what we'll be doing, although Christmas shopping will probably be part of it.  That, and more of that sensible eating.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Thursday

Yesterday's fast did not go all that well.  First, I had a banana.  Not bad, of itself.  At lunch, they offered blackened "Cajun style" salmon (salmon being such a big part of Cajun culture - in any event, I don't care for it), so I had an eggless Cobb salad with lots of bacon, and some green beans and carrots in a sauce that tasted of butter (I suspect no cows were involved in providing the flavor, though).  That left me hungry by mid-afternoon (not enough bacon in the salad, I guess), and in mid-afternoon, I was at the airport.  Of all the really horrid places to try to find nutritious food, Reagan National Airport, concourse A must be near the top.  In desperation, I ended up with a "big grab" bag of Lays, and a tin of Godiva dark chocolate "pearls".  Finished the potato chips, and have a few pearls left.  Does that mean the chips were more rewarding than the chocolate?  I'll leave that to others to determine.

No food on the plane (not truly the world's longest flight, but boy, did it feel like it), and had "dinner" on the way home, around 9 pm.  Here's the breakdown:
  • banana
  • the usual supplements
  • tea with half-and-half
  • salad with bacon, blue cheese crumbles, and dressing that was probably ranch with soybean or canola oil in
  • green beans with carrots in butter-flavored sauce
  • way too many potato chips
  • dark chocolate
  • seltzer with lime
  • bison burger with cheddar cheese, no bun
  • pickles
  • fries with catsup
  • iced tea
And I ate all of the fries - no idea if they were tasty or not, I was just tired and hungry at that point, and they were prey.  As a result - 147.0 this morning, and a stomach that is discussing things with me in rather terse terms.

I think we're going to the gym tonight.  No idea what's for dinner, but if I have my druthers, nothing on that list above.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Wednesday

I managed to eat quite well, yesterday, as it turned out.  Surprisingly, the conference lunch offered baked chicken and wedge salads with blue cheese, so I ended up eating 3 meals.  Dinner was out, at a seafood place, and was very manageable, as long as one didn't inquire too closely as to ingredients. Here's the breakdown:

Scrambled eggs
Bacon
Tea with cream
The usual supplements
Baked chicken thigh
Wedge salad with blue cheese crumbles, blue cheese dressing, and bacon
Part of a crab cake
Glass of muscadet
Greek salad, in which I managed to avoid most of the chickpeas
Grilled shrimp
Mashed sweet potatoes
Roast butternut squash
Hazel nuts
Dark chocolate

Seems like a lot of food, but I think it was just that it came in lots of separable parts.  For what it's worth, I had leg cramps over the course of the night, so I think I stayed near ketosis.

I'm debating about a fast this morning.  Woke up with a headache and a stuffy head, so I've upped the vitamin D and fish oil, and had some Advil.  I should probably eat, if for no other reason than to protect my stomach from the last.  But I must say that I'm really not terribly hungry.  Maybe another cup of tea before I decide...

--
"Comforts that were rare among our forefathers are now multiplied in factories and handed out wholesale; and indeed, nobody nowadays, so long as he is content to go without air, space, quiet, decency and good manners, need be without anything whatever that he wants; or at least a reasonably cheap imitation of it." -- G.K. Chesterton

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Tuesday

So far, so good - I think.  No idea what I weigh this morning - the hotel has bathrobes, but no scales.  But I'm eating okay.  Here's yesterday:

IHOP omelet, with ham, cheese, and tomatoes
Olives
Pork osso bucco
Polenta with butternut squash
Various root vegetables
Prosecco
A couple of hazel nuts

This morning, I have had scrambled eggs and bacon so far, and, depending on what's on offer for lunch, will probably fast until dinner.  Tea with half and half when I can - that should help if I do get hungry.

Read an article in USA Today this morning - intensive weight loss counseling of the obese, by their doctors, led to them losing and keeping off an average of 10 pounds.  It stayed off for 2 years.  Based on other information provided in the article, these were people weighing over 200 pounds to start with.  Sure would be nice if the doctors were even a little bit helpful...

--
"Comforts that were rare among our forefathers are now multiplied in factories and handed out wholesale; and indeed, nobody nowadays, so long as he is content to go without air, space, quiet, decency and good manners, need be without anything whatever that he wants; or at least a reasonably cheap imitation of it." -- G.K. Chesterton

Monday, November 14, 2011

Monday

We ate well enough over the weekend, I think, although Saturday did include a Mexican dinner, and we ended up getting a second basket of chips.  Oops.  Something to work on, I guess - I recall that, when we started this way of eating, we could skip the chips entirely.  Better choices yesterday - as a result I'm at 145.2 this morning.  Here's the breakdown:

Bacon
Paleo banana bread (from Make It Paleo)
Cheese
Ham
Salami
A few potato chips
Dark chocolate
Chocolate almonds
Salad
Dijon vinaigrette
Meat loaf

I think that was it.  Now for a challenge.  I'm in the airport awaiting my flight for a 2-day conference for work, at which both breakfast and lunch will be provided.  Obviously, I will be fasting some of it, though I'm not sure what.  I packed hazel nuts and a Lindt 85% bar, as emergency rations.  At a minimum, it should provoke some interesting conversations with the other 7 people attending from work.  

--
"Comforts that were rare among our forefathers are now multiplied in factories and handed out wholesale; and indeed, nobody nowadays, so long as he is content to go without air, space, quiet, decency and good manners, need be without anything whatever that he wants; or at least a reasonably cheap imitation of it." -- G.K. Chesterton

Friday, November 11, 2011

Friday

Back to 144.4 this morning; we went out to dinner last night, so I'm not too surprised.  Something about restaurant food seems to do it for me.  Something - in this case, it was the gravy; we both had turkey dinners (potatoes, mixed veg, cornbread dressing and cranberry relish) at Mimi's last night, and I found that steamed carrots with turkey gravy are actually quite good.  Well, tasty - no comment to be made on their inherent merit.

Here's yesterday's eating (other sins involved, come to think of it):
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon and sausage (I think it was both)
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • M&Ms (pure emotional eating)
  • turkey
  • mashed potatoes
  • gravy
  • carrots and broccoli
  • cranberry relish
  • chocolate almonds
  • walnuts
I don't know where it's coming from, but I woke with another headache today.  I don't think it's stress, although yesterday was a very down day for me - people picking on my kid, worries about the future, stuff of that sort.  I'm still fighting some temperature swings, and today, they feel very much like a fever, although that could just be the presence of the headache.  Took an extra fish oil and some ibuprofen, and I hope that will keep it under control.  But I would very much like it just to go away.

For what it's worth, I am paying for the gravy this morning - a touch of indigestion, to boot.  Just adds to the overall malaise...

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Thursday

I felt like I ate vast plates of food last night, and all for naught.  This is interesting, for reasons I'll get to in a minute.  I was at 143.8 this morning, so down more than a pound from yesterday, leg cramps and all - managed to keep a first one from manifesting, but not the second one.  It's weird; I don't think I'm eating that much different from the times when I wasn't cramping up, and yet, a) here they are, and b) I seem to be losing weight again.  Whatever.  I've said before that it's well worth the minor annoyance.

Here's yesterday's eating, as I recall it (meaning I will probably forget something):
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • sausage
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • leftover flank steak
  • bone broth and wine reduction sauce with butter
  • two twice-baked potato halves
  • Southern-style green beans
  • chocolate almonds
  • walnuts
  • more cheese
Okay, I'm fairly sure that was everything.  All I know is, I got up from the table still feeling hungry, and the walnuts didn't do it for me, so I went for the cheese (Kerrygold Dubliner - I'm reasonably sure it's pastured milk).  And that seemed to help.

So here's why this is interesting.  The potatoes are not considered strict paleo, and probably took me out of zero carb for the day, as did the beans and the chocolate almonds.  I ate the walnuts absolutely mindlessly - just shoveled them in and went back for more.  I would tend to think that their prompting that sort of reaction was a hint that they might be a high-reward food, sort of.  And they did not assuage my hunger, either, leading me to forage for the cheese.  Which I had 4-5 pieces of.  Yesterday, Gary Taubes put out a new blog post in answer to Guyenet's Food Reward Hypothesis, which he says is still bound by conventional wisdom - the old calories-in/calories-out argument of weight.  He seems to be making a good case for his arguments (disclaimer: I tend to be a Taubesian in this fight to start with), and I had a sort of flash while reading it that they may both be describing legitimate phenomena that are more or less orthogonal to each other - the Food Reward stuff pointing to my mindless walnut gorge, in that there may be some foods that act like a drug on the brain, leading to addictive consumption - and the body-rules/hormonal theory of obesity (Taubes' side) pointing to the possibility that some of those highly rewarding foods might be fattening, but that others might not.  And I commented on his post to that end.  Not that he took up my points and replied to them, but I thought I would at least get it out there.  Last night, for me, certainly seemed to lend credence to my thinking (n=1 and all that, obviously).  So it was interesting.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

I must be getting old

Two days in a row I forgot a fairly prominent item consumed when listing out my day's eats.  Yesterday, I had a slice of pumpkin tart with pecan crust left over from Sunday's dinner.

Okay, now we're good.

Wednesday

Hey - it's not snowing today!  It was, however, very cold out - painful earlobes cold.  I don't know the exact temperature, but a chill wind is hurtling along some of the major streets outside, making it feel much worse.

I saw some tweets from Melissa McEwen yesterday, talking about how a cold environment helped her stay leaner.  I can see the logic in that, but emotionally, I'm not sure I'm on board.  I'm not pinin' for the fjords right now, that's for sure - maybe the saguaro.

Whatever.  It is late Fall, after all.  And I'm back down to 145.0 this morning.  Lee lost yesterday as well.  I think he had some ham and cheese around mid-day, and I had some cheese, so we basically ate the same thing:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • stuffed pepper with spaghetti sauce
  • salad with meat and blue cheese dressing
  • hot tea
  • chocolate almonds
  • a few potato chips
Oh, and by the way, yesterday's entry should have included hot and sour soup.  I don't know that it influenced anything or not, but I thought I'd mention it.

Sleep has been pretty much the usual - I have a short wake in the wee hours, and the leg cramps have resurfaced, much to my dismay.  They don't seem to be waking me up as thoroughly as the last bouts, though, for which I am very grateful.

I have a business trip next week, so I am already plotting.  Bringing nuts and maybe jerky with me, and going to see if I can find out what "breakfast" means to the conference organizers.  I'm sure it won't involve fat and protein, unfortunately, so I'll be doing my usual get up early and buy my own routine.  Kinda annoying, but in the grand scheme of things, bearable.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Tuesday

I made it all day yesterday without snacking between breakfast and dinner - not a huge accomplishment, but, perhaps, a tribute to the staying qualities of eggs and meat.  Also an indication that I had meetings pretty much all afternoon after lunch, so I would not be bored enough to start fantasizing about junk food.  I had not brought cheese with me, so it was a good thing.

146.4 this morning - a slight loss, unusual, considering I had Chinese food for dinner last night, and it normally is unhelpful in losing weight.  Here's the day:
  • scrambled eggs
  • sausage links (not turkey)
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements for Monday
  • chicken with garlic sauce
  • rice
  • hot tea
  • one fried noodle
  • fortune cookie
  • chocolate almonds
  • a square of Lindt 85% chocolate
  • walnuts
That was it. 

Lee's struggling with his weight again - gained some on his trip, and found himself up 2 pounds overnight after the Chinese dinner.  He had more of the carbs than I did - more noodles, more rice - and came home and, for some unfathomable reason, had a bowl of oatmeal because he was cold.  Well, that ain't gonna help anything - but I can't be his eating sheriff.  His stomach reacted badly and immediately to the meal, so something was off.  I imagine his 2 pounds are to do with carbohydrate digestion, and will be gone if he gets away from them for a while.  We shall see.  He's giving up lunch, he says, which should help him a bunch.  If he sticks with it, that is.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Monday

And here we are again.  Monday morning, seeming later than it is, after a busy and productive weekend.  I was 144.4 on Saturday morning, 146.8 this morning.  In between was a dinner of Mexican food, including a margarita, and a meal that included both potatoes and dessert, and wine.  I'm still down 2 pounds from a week ago, so I guess it's progress.  Here's what I recall of yesterday:
  • bacon
  • turkey sausage
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • hot dogs with mustard
  • potato chips
  • cheese
  • a glass of red wine
  • flank steak in various marinades (we made 2)
  • a twice-baked potato half - sour cream, butter, cheese, bacon
  • southern-style green beans with bacon
  • salad with blue cheese dressing
  • iced tea
  • pumpkin tart with blackcurrant preserves on a pecan crust - included brown sugar, jam, maple syrup (and was damn good)
I think that was it for the day.  I spent much of it cooking, always fun, and I can say that the dinner consisted solely of ingredients, except for the blackcurrant preserves.

Had a conversation with my sister about her health.  She's battling Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and just coming off a month-long elimination diet that was not the Whole30, apparently.  Her healthcare provider determines food allergies/sensitivities by having her hold items in one hand and testing the strength of that arm - strong indicates no issues, weakness indicates an allergy.  This worries me - as far as I am aware, there is no scientific basis for such an approach - but I didn't say anything about that.  I did ask her if anyone is looking into healing leaky gut issues, since they're supposedly a factor in autoimmune conditions, including Hashimoto's and allergies of various sorts; she didn't know.  I worry for her - this is bound to be a time-consuming odyssey, and while the elimination diet was a good start, it would seem that she may not be in the very best of hands here.  If it continues not to work, maybe she'll ask me to point her to some resources, but I'm very hesitant to offer my non-expert opinion unsolicited.  I did show her my new cookbooks, both of which are very grain-free in nature.

Over the weekend, I had a sense that I may be about to go through another round of hot flashes.  I'm tempted to get the prescriptions for the HRT filled, just in case.  These don't feel the same as the ones during Lent, so it may be something else - and for what it's worth, when I've been hot, so has Lee, and I'm pretty sure he's not having hot flashes.  He's felt a bit off since getting home, so it's also very possible that we're both having a virus of some sort.  Will be keeping an eye on it.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Friday

Spent yesterday enduring an oh-so-mild migraine.  It was looming at breakfast, making my arms feel weak, and by the time I made it to work, had produced a sort of headache that lingered all day, influencing my tea-drinking (more!) and eating a bit.  Sometimes I felt hungry, other times, rather sick.  It was kind of nasty - and, of course, I had no Advil with me, so all I could do was suffer it out.  Got home, and took 3 of them - and with that, and an Epsom Salts bath and a bit of dinner, I got to feeling less awful - just wrung out.  Not pleasant at all.

Despite that, I ate marginally okay.  Here's the scoop:
  • fat bomb smoothie
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • potato chips (salt cravings)
  • more cheese
  • salami
  • some very nasty gluten-free nut thin crackers, looking for some crunch
  • an apple
  • more cheese
  • walnuts
  • chocolate almonds (only 3)
Was asleep fairly early, I think - before 10, anyway - but slept rather roughly; some passing fasciculation/cramping in one leg, and an inability to get comfortable and stay that way.  I didn't exactly wake up at any point, but I wasn't fully asleep all night, either.  Woke up at 4:40 and put on an old radio playlist, which I remember hearing start, but no details of, so I suspect I went back to partly-asleep.

145.8 this morning - down a bit from yesterday.  Probably down to a weight zone where I will spend the winter, I'd guess - mid 140s.  I was looking back at this time last year, and I was in the just-under-150 zone, so I can't complain much.  I feel a bit thick about the middle though - my jeans are a little bit tight, and at one point in the past year, I can recall them being very loose.  Something to work on - we haven't been doing much in the way of exercise recently, what with the travel and everything, and we should be.  Maybe next week, things will simmer down to normal and we can get back to the gym.  For today, though, I'm just glad not to have that headache anymore.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Thursday

It was 14 degrees out this morning.  Surely there's someone we could call about that.  On the other hand, it makes for perfectly wonderful sleeping weather - especially with the monster double duvet.  I woke up for the first time at 5:15 - just a bit ahead of the alarm clock.

146.2 this morning - the water is finally leaving me.  Here's yesterday's eating:
  • fat bomb smoothie
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese throughout the day as needed
  • shrimp skillet from Paleo Comfort Foods (seriously yum, even if I over-emphasized the lemon at the expense of the garlic)
  • rice
  • chocolate almonds (7 or 8 in total)
  • walnuts
  • more cheese
I believe that was it.  Finally got my copy of Make it Paleo last night and it has oodles of things that look extremely tasty - in fact, I lay my eating of walnuts and cheese directly at its feet - the pictures made me very hungry.  They even have instructions for making one's own almond and coconut milk - both look easy, although I don't see myself doing it.  As with the other cookbook, I will probably substitute butter or ghee where they call for coconut oil, but there's a lot of stuff there that looks very worth a shot.  Huge swaths of desserts, as a matter of fact.  And now that I have my coconut and almond flour, I can give some of the "pastry" recipes a try.

Another smoothie this morning - I made a whole batch yesterday and Lee wasn't up for eating, so I just kept it in the fridge - it actually works out very well that way.  Had some bacon with mine this morning, which may help keep hunger at bay a bit longer.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Wednesday

Seems like about this time last week I was bitching about the snow.  And this week?  Bitching about the snow again.  Not an auspicious start to the cold season, if you ask me - weekly heavy snowstorms (they're calling it a "blizzard" on the south side of town) in the dead center of Fall.  Will Winter be worse? 

I thought I ate fairly well yesterday, but only lost a small bit - 148.2 this morning, and my feet are still swollen.  This kind of reminds me of the cruise we took after Elizabeth graduated, when I had to get a lymphatic massage to get the fluid in my ankles to drain.  Nowhere near the magnitude, but definitely as persistent.  I'll add to it that my ears are stuffed up - inflamed.  Something is out of kilter, I guess.  As we will be working through several Paleo cookbooks for the next few weeks, I would anticipate that whatever it is will return to kilter.  And I will be cutting way back on the sugar, especially with the holidays on the horizon.

Here's yesterday's eating:
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • a fun-size Nestle Crunch bar (I did not look at the ingredients)
  • turkey breast
  • mashed cauliflower with a bit of butter
  • "gravy" made from chicken stock, herbs, and potato starch
  • cheese
  • chocolate almonds (only 3 of them)
  • walnuts
I think that was it.  I had hoped to get a deli turkey breast, but they didn't have any, so I got a vacuum-packed thing from Jenny-O.  Not exactly the flavor I was looking for, but it filled me up, when combined with about half a head of cauliflower, cooked to mush with chicken broth and attacked with the stick blender (turned out pretty good).  I added a pat of butter to it, and that vastly improved the flavor.

Tonight we're trying another Paleo Comfort Foods recipe - shrimp skillet, shrimp with bell peppers, tomatoes, onion, and herbs.  It looks quite tasty, so I am hopeful.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Tuesday

Halloween is not the best day to try to get rid of water weight.  Just sayin.  I was - I think - pretty well-behaved; I had some chocolate almonds - either 8 or 12 (can't remember how many times I went back for more) - some dark chocolate, and 2 Halloween treats: M&Ms and an Almond Joy.  And didn't want any more after that - they were way too sweet.

My legs, feet, and ankles are still pretty swollen.  148.4 this morning, so I got rid of some of it.  I did not have breakfast today because of mild indigestion - guess the Almond Joy was just too much for me or something. 

Finally (!!!) slept like a rock overnight.  I think I woke up maybe 5 minutes before the alarm went.  I stayed up until 10, partly because I was finishing a movie on the iPad and partly to start resetting the body clock to deal with next week's return to sanity.

Here's yesterday's eating (junk):
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • potato chips
  • two pieces of cheese
  • bacon and tomatoes
  • pecans and cheese spread
  • chocolate almonds
  • dark (85%) chocolate
  • M&Ms (fun size)
  • Almond Joy (fun size)
I think that's it.  Lee's home tonight - late, I think, based on when he left Phoenix - so we should get back to our regular eating patterns starting tomorrow.  I think I'll do a bit of grocery shopping tonight and aim to have something from Paleo Comfort Foods for dinner tomorrow.  Apparently, my copy of Make It Paleo finally arrived at my parents' house, so I should see it some time this week.

My sense this morning is that I've been struggling with weight lately due to an excess of sugar, more than anything.  It seems like the 3 times I've had to put some effort into getting back down to my base weight have been sugar-related - it's not poisonous to me, but it starts a chain of cravings that I have trouble controlling.  A useful insight, I think.

I brought the Halloween leftovers in to work today, as I did last year, and will spend the day eating cheese - not fasting this morning, so I will probably have one pretty soon, as the indigestion passes off.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Monday

Ugh.  148.8 when I stepped on the scale this morning, and most of it water, I believe.  We walked a lot on Saturday, with aches and pains as a result on Sunday.  And I ate crap all day yesterday.  Here's the list:
  • Cracker Barrel hash brown casserole (but oh, did it taste good - if I'd just stopped there...)
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • chips and guac and salsa
  • iced tea
  • Chicken Enchilada Soup at Chilis (not really sure what was in it)
  • salad with blue cheese dressing
  • iced tea
  • walnuts
  • cheese
My stomach is unhappy this morning, so I'm fasting - the real deal this time, no cheese with me, and every intention of avoiding the machines all day.  I may have a fat-bomb smoothie for dinner, depending on how the afternoon/early evening goes.

I'm still a bit achy in a few places, such as behind my knees.  I did take my vitamins this morning, and may have had 2 fish oil, which should help with that.  We'll see how things are in the morning.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Friday

I think that's 5 or 6 days without 8 hours' sleep.  I am a zombie this morning.  Woke up at 3:30 - not because of the cold; I got that fixed - and could not get back to sleep.  The dog helped - she needed to go outside around 4:00 again.

I don't know how long cortisol takes to start doing damage, but this needs to stop. 

144.6 again this morning.  Here's yesterday's eating:
  • cheese
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • more cheese
  • pizza top (pepperoni, cheese, tomato)
  • chocolate almonds
  • walnuts
I think that was it - I don't remember.  I was utterly uninspired by dinnertime yesterday, so I went with quick and easy.  I know I need to eat things that are not cheese, but when it's just me and I'm so dragged out like this, it's very hard to even think of anything else.  Which is to say, I had cheese this morning and have more cheese with me.

Weekend in Phoenix.  I will probably have my naked double quarter pounder for dinner tonight at the airport.  Not sure what else, yet.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Thursday

Gosh, maybe the world's longest week is going to come to an end after all.  Spent some of the evening yesterday attempting to haul broken branches off of the grass/garden area and into our driveway, with only mixed success; a few of them outweigh me, I'm reasonably certain.  And also knocking the day's further accumulation of snow off the branches that had not yet fallen - that I could reach.  This turned out to have been a good approach, although imperfect; we lost another large branch later last night - well after the snow had stopped.  Summary: I got a mess on my hands, and with Halloween coming Monday, need to get it at least partly cleared up - right now, the largest bits are right on the sidewalk leading to the front porch.

Crap sleep again last night - I couldn't stay warm.  If I weren't flying to Phoenix tomorrow night, I ... no, I take that back.  Tonight after work, I am adding in the final layer of the duvet, bringing it up to a thermal rating of -10 or something, I think.  It comes in two pieces, a thin one and a thicker one.  We use the thin one in the summer, and had changed over to the thicker one last month, but putting both together may solve my problem - and it needs a solution, quickly.  The dogs awoke, cold, at 4:00, so I let them get on the bed with the mattress heater on, and they seemed to appreciate it, although that killed all chance of sleep for me.  We will keep trying, though.

144.6 this morning - a bigger drop than I'd expected.  Especially as I'd gone on a tear looking for forbidden food last night due to an incendiary bad mood after dealing as best I could with the devastation in my front yard.  Here's the day's eating:
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese throughout the day
  • two 1/4 pound burger patties with prime rib seasoning
  • about 1/3 of a snack-sized bag of potato chips
  • 8 chocolate almonds
  • pecans with cheese spread
That was it.  Apparently the chips and chocolate didn't do much damage at that point.

I am not fasting today, but the pre-dinner eating will still be sparse.  Had some swiss cheese for "breakfast" and have some colby with me for as-needed eating.  Not particularly balanced, but it does keep body and soul together well enough.  No idea what I'm having for dinner, though.  I'll have to think of something.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Well, that helps

Granted, I have "broken" my fast with a piece of cheese (made about 14 hours, I think), but someone just heated up commercial lasagna in the microwave behind my cube.  Commercial lasagna, in a microwave, smells to me exactly like vomit. 

I suspect I can go a while before I need to eat again.

Wednesday

I ate chocolate last night.  Lots of it - well, lots in terms of how I eat such things now.  An entire milk-chocolate rabbit left over from Easter two years ago (it dates to the start of my eating Paleo - and was in fine shape, I might add).  A Lindt truffle of some sort.  A stick-shaped thing with some sort of filling - one of those bits of lagniappe you might get at a high-end restaurant.  That was it.  Lots, like I said.  It tasted good, and I paid attention and enjoyed it, and it was enough.

145.6 this morning, despite several days of rather crap sleep.  This morning I woke at 3 am, sort of needing a bathroom trip, but it was very cold in the bedroom due to the snowstorm outside, and I didn't want to get out from under the covers, so I attempted to go back to sleep without.  Should have known better.  By the time I finally braved the room, I was well and truly awake, no going back.  Turned the radio on at 5:00, listened for half an hour, and got up, to feed the dogs and deal with the trees - too many leaves for it to be snowing just yet.  I think we lost quite a few branches of a tree that isn't right for this climate anyway.  When I'm more awake and in a better mood, perhaps I'll see the cleanup as a Primal exercise opportunity.  Right now, I'm just pissed off.  Because the only person available to deal with the mess just now is me.  I guess I should be glad that I'm in reasonable enough shape to tackle it.  "Should", mind you, not "am" - maybe after some sleep.

Yesterday's eating:
  • half of a fat-bomb smoothie
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • wedge salad with blue cheese dressing, tomatoes, bacon, and slices of steak
  • wine
  • the aforementioned chocolate gorge
  • walnuts
I think that was it.  Apart from the chocolates, it wasn't really all that bad, and I did lose a bit of weight, so that's good.

I'm sort of fasting today.  I had tea with cream twice this morning, and I have cheese with me that I will eat at some point today, to try to brighten things up.

I made my very first bona-fide purchase of an eBook yesterday - I bought Paleo Comfort Foods for iBooks.  I have an iPad with Kindle installed on it, so I could have gone through Amazon, but I know iBooks supports pictures, and I had some credit in iTunes.  So far, I'm very impressed with the content - and I think Lee will be a fan as well - they have recipes straight from his childhood, like gumbo and "grits" (not so sure that cauliflower is all-useful as a substitute for grits, but I might slide some shrimp-and-"grits" by him to see how they play).  They also have a banana bread recipe, using almond flour, that I will try - and the picture looks like actual bread.  Probably not an every-day item, but for special occasions, sure.

I have some ground beef patties in the fridge that I need to eat for dinner, at least some of them (there are 4; I'll probably have 2).  No idea what I'm going to do with them - maybe there's something in Paleo Comfort Foods.  Still haven't got my copy of Make It Paleo, which is to be a late birthday present from my parents.  Kinda bummed - I'd hoped to do some test-driving while it's just me.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Tuesday

I tend to think the potato chips may have triggered some reward-eating last night - to the tune of 8-10 chocolate almonds throughout the evening.  Well, that, and the fact that I was eating mindlessly - so much so that I got through 3 almonds without recalling them at all.  Just looked up and realized that they had been there and were now gone.

146.0 this morning, still.  I'm good with that - and the scale, I think, was wandering in the 145.something region before settling, so it's probably on the low side of that number.  Here's yesterday's eating:
  • fat bomb smoothie (about 2/3 can of coconut milk's worth, mixed berries, protein powder, vanilla)
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • potato chips
  • pepperoni pizza topping with mozzarella and tomatoes and herbs
  • cheese
  • chocolate almonds
  • 1 square of 85% Lindt chocolate
That was it.  I hadn't done the pizza topping thing in a while, and I really liked this version - sliced pepperoni layered in a pan with mozzarella, chopped tomatoes, italian spice blend and garlic powder, then cooked at 350 until the cheese was bubbly - I finished it off under the broiler.  Way yummy, and very messy, since there is nothing to absorb the fat or juices.  It's eaten with a fork.

I had the rest of the fat bomb smoothie this morning - about half as much as yesterday, so I brought some cheese with me to work, for the inevitable hunger afterwards.  Dinner out tonight - but at a steakhouse, and I am prepared with my menu selection.  Probably fast breakfast tomorrow, as it's entirely possible I will be spending that time outside knocking snow off the trees.  Ugh.  Not welcoming winter with open arms.

Monday, October 24, 2011

And later yet...

Got the potato chips.  Near as I can tell, they're less prone to prompt craving-eating later on.  Only one bag, this time - no gambling winnings.

Later, Monday

Hmm, interesting.  Had just the fat-bomb smoothie for breakfast (about 1/2 can of coconut milk's worth), and I'm rather hungry, now that it's 11:52 am.  Since I saved the other half in the fridge for tomorrow (already smoothied up), I'm thinking I'll add some bacon or something.  The more urgent issue now is, do I go get something to eat, and if so, what?

Monday

On Friday, I was 147.2; this morning, 146.0.  That's more like it.  And that's despite several nearly-unconstrained attacks on the Trader Joe's dark chocolate almonds, and a brief foray into the last shards of the bag of tortilla chips Lee had bought and left (which brings up an existential question, really - if I can't eat tortilla chips, what on earth do I use to convey salsa into my mouth?).

Friday night I suffered from the dogs and my left leg - and got rather broken sleep.  Saturday night I slept like a rock, awaking almost exactly 8 hours after I fell asleep.  Last night, I either dreamt or experienced something crawling on the back of my neck, and had a rough night thereafter.  I should be a bit draggy today; I am not.  I opted for a coconut milk smoothie for breakfast and am fizzing over with MCT-fueled energy just now.  That stuff really is a bit like speed.

Anyway, I think, if I can keep the cravings at bay this week, I have my oh-so-minor weight issues under control.  I didn't bring any snacks with me this morning, so there is a risk if things get too boring this afternoon, I'll be headed downstairs with a dollar in hand, but I am (mentally) armed to resist that urge.

Here's yesterday's eating, as best I can reconstruct it:
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • cheese chunks
  • possibly some walnuts?
  • dark chocolate
  • salami
  • chocolate almonds
  • bean-free chile
  • iced tea
It was sort of an eating free-for-all - I only really had one semi-structured meal (dinner), and otherwise, ate what sounded nutritious when I got hungry.  It seems to have worked - as did whatever I ended up eating on Friday, which is where I saw the big drop.  Actually, as I recall, that was a fast, broken by cheese at the 17 hour point, followed up with meatballs with a stroganoff-style sauce for dinner.  I would tend to guess that more fasts are in my short-term future, since getting up the necessary 15 minutes early to feed the dogs is REALLY difficult right now.

It struck me, over the weekend, that I may be fighting a normal seasonal occurrence - fattening up for winter.  Not that I'm going to cave in, but it's certainly possible that that's what is going on.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Friday, later

Ate the cheese.  I think I got in a 17-hour fast, though.

Friday

I have put the damned cashews in the garage fridge for the duration.  When Lee gets back, he can take them back out, but I need them to be relatively unavailable.  Had some more last night - for the salt, I guess.  Maybe I should just go eat some salt.  147.2 still this morning.  I am fasting.

Yesterday looked like this:
  • scrambled eggs with stuff in them (ham, mushrooms, peppers)
  • the usual supplements
  • tea with cream
  • hazel nuts
  • cheese
  • salami
  • an apple
  • chocolate blue berries
  • dark chocolate
  • bloody cashews
Cravings suck.  I will get this figured out.

Despite it being an IF day, I do have cheese with me.  So I'm not necessarily aiming at making it to dinner - I can if I want, though.  We'll see how things go.  Soup or meatballs for dinner tonight - I am defrosting both and will have to eat one of them.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Thursday, continued

Yesterday's eating went like this:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • the usual supplements
  • tea with cream
  • hazel nuts
  • 6 oz filet wrapped with bacon
  • wedge salad with tomatoes and blue cheese dressing
  • green beans
  • iced tea
  • cashews
  • chocolate cherries (only 2)
  • cheese
I came home from dinner wanting to eat.  I don't know why; seems like there was plenty there so satiate me, but I snacked a good bit last evening.  I was hungry going in to dinner, so I suppose it's possible that I just didn't get enough at the meal itself.

No idea what I'm having tonight - possibly meatballs with some sort of swedish/stroganoff inspired sauce (sauteed mushrooms, sour cream, beef stock, allspice?).  Possibly just cheese, or something like that.  On my own for the next two weeks, roughly.  I'm hoping to use the time to get rid of this 6-ish pounds I've acquired recently, or to turn it into muscle.

Wall pushups and squats tonight, I think.

Thursday

Lotsa cashews after dinner; that's what I'm blaming.  I wanted salt.  147.2 this morning, and my digestion is possibly over-fully functional again.  I guess that's good, but I have 3 hour-long meetings back-to-back this morning, which could be less than fun.

With Lee gone, I'm going to emphasize fasting - IF tomorrow morning, for starters.  See how things go.  Of course, I'm supposed to go have a farewell beer with a former co-worker; not sure if that's wise on a very empty stomach.

I'll note yesterday's eating later; the meetings call.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Wednesday

I caved into boredom again yesterday - M&Ms this time.  I made them last, though - spun out a single vending machine package over a 2-hour stretch.  I guess that keeps their carbs from being an official "bolus", right?  Seriously, I really need to find something else to keep my mind occupied during the long stretches of not enough to do at work.  I brought nuts with me today, thinking they might be a better boredom snack, since they come in lots of small pieces.  We shall see.

Eating was something like this:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • M&Ms
  • large taco salad - lettuce, tomato, gf beef (half-pound), cheese, sour cream, salsa
  • iced tea
  • cashews (just a few)
  • walnuts
  • chocolate cherries (I think)
147.0 this morning.  I will find a way to avoid the machines today, somehow.

Did 40 wall pushups during a commercial break last night, but no squats.  My shoulders feel pretty okay, and did not wake me up in the middle of the night, which makes me think I did them wrong.  I'll wait until tomorrow for the official verdict, though.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Tuesday

Already a slow week; I woke up with the alarm this morning convinced that it was Wednesday; it's not, obviously.  It is very dark in the mornings anymore, making it even harder to get up - I'm sure if I were so fully Paleo that I didn't use an alarm clock, I'd be "getting up with the sun", not beating it by an hour.  It's starting to rise as I leave the house around 6:50 am.

So, 147.4 this morning, trending in the correct direction again.  Here's yesterday's eating:
  • scrambled eggs
  • turkey sausage
  • tea with cream
  • Monday's usual supplements
  • cheese
  • bacon
  • sliced tomatoes
  • cashews
  • chocolate cherries
The cheese came in several installments - mid-day (call it lunch if you want), and again as part of dinner.  I'm less achy than I was yesterday, although still a bit swollen, so I think there's more water there to lose.  I didn't do any lift-heavy-things work yesterday, other than hoisting a water bottle onto the cooler once, because of the aches and pains; I think I will do some tonight.

Waiting eagerly for my Make it Paleo cookbook; it looks to have shipped already, but whether it's to my place or my folks, I don't know.  I've also been listing out options for feeding myself while Lee's gone - been a while since he's had an extended road trip like this, so I have to think about it in advance.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Monday

I am a reformed character, I hope.  Hellish weekend. 

We finally had the brats on Friday, with kraut and mustard, and not too much afterwards, for me.  Unfortunately, I'd played the mild gambling game of buying food from the machine on Friday afternoon, and won - sometimes, if the machine doesn't spit out your first selection, you get two of it, as it rolls its dispenser mechanism in order to free the one that got stuck.  And I got two packages of chips, and ate them both.  Bad move.  148.0 on Saturday morning.  Plus, at some point, Friday night (I think), I'd done some more pushups and squats and had some inflammation from that.  Anyway, Saturday, I had a fat-bomb smoothie, no real lunch (probably some cheese), and Mexican for dinner (enchiladas, chips and salsa), and Sunday, I was up to 148.6.  Saturday, I also spent several hours pulling weeds and picking up leaves and what-not, increasing the stiffness and inflammation.  Sunday, I fasted breakfast altogether, had a bit of cheese and an apple mid-afternoon, and pot-roast with potatoes and carrots and salad for dinner, followed by crustless pumpkin pie and ice cream.  As a result, I'm at 148.4 this morning, aching like nobody's business, and none too happy about it.

Maybe I was very low carb for too long.  And you know what?  It worked just fine for me.  So maybe I should consume an occasional safe starch, but I don't think it's imperative.  I'm going back to meat, cheese, leaves as my basic food groups, with occasional forays into fruit and a potato in non-fried form here and there.  Maybe a very little rice.  Because I don't like being in pain head-to-toe, and while I do know that the exercise and muscle building stuff is some to blame, I think perhaps it wouldn't be quite so painful if I'd avoided the safe starches.  Just saying.

So I have some cheese with me for snacks today, Lee will be out of town starting on Thursday for about 2 weeks, and I'm going to go back to routine fasting, taco salad type things, and snacking on cheese or nuts (a few fewer than before, but some).  That worked for me, and all this other stuff isn't.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Friday

I am not surprised.  I should have known better, to start with, but when I'm tired and hungry, some of my self-discipline goes down the tubes.

We had thawed some brats for dinner last night - in fact, part of the reason I was unable to get back to sleep at 3:30 yesterday morning had to do with making sure that they weren't on the counter, but had made it into the fridge.  But by the time I got home, I was sleepy, bored and frustrated with work, stiff and achy, and I wanted something that tasted good - not that brats don't, but they didn't taste like the taste I wanted.

Which was, as it turns out, a Smashburger.  And that's what we had for dinner.  By itself, would have been fine.  Accompanied by fries and a strawberry shake, not so good for me.  Tasted amazing.  And I'm back at 146.8 this morning.

Here's yesterday's eating in toto:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • the usual supplements
  • tea with cream
  • trail mix (also a bad move, but coulda been worse)
  • cheese
  • smashburger with cheese, pickles, tomatoes, mustard and ketchup
  • fries with more ketchup
  • strawberry shake
At least I had the sense not to come home and eat more, I think.  As far as I can remember, we didn't eat after we got home last night.  I have a mild touch of indigestion this morning - not sure what from, though.

We'll probably have the brats tonight - at least, we probably should.  Then I have a fairly empty weekend, in which I need to do some cooking.  Lee's golfing both days, leaving large swaths of time free to be creative in.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Thursday

Fasting yesterday turned out to be almost a non-issue; I did not eat until dinner, and then we had Chinese food.  With some rice, which I'd been avoiding before.  But yesterday, I read the discussion of safe starches on the Perfect Health Diet site, and what they said made sense to me, in line with other safe-starch discussions (possibly on Archevore or Robb Wolf's site).  And I can't complain, much.  I lost 0.2 pounds overnight (146.4 this morning), between the fasting and the eating of rice.  Given that my diet has tended to be very low carb, I'll introduce them slowly, but rice and white potatoes are good food that I like, and if they don't cause issues, will probably contribute to even better health than I have now, eaten within reasonable limits.

Here's yesterday's eating:
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • hot and sour soup (has tofu in it, and was beyond delicious, and I don't have it that often)
  • beef with green peppers
  • white rice
  • a fortune cookie
  • hot tea
  • chocolate cherries
  • walnuts
  • tea with cream
That's it.  I was completely full after dinner, but have a very bad snacking habit, and the cherries and walnuts helped with that.  I was hungry for breakfast this morning, something that isn't always the case.

I have begun doing some of the Primal Blueprint workout stuff - the wall pushups and squats, anyway.  Did 40 pushups the other day, and tried again last night, only to have to stop after 26.  I think I stood further away from the wall last night, which was the proper form.  So I don't need to shift to a new approach just yet.  On the squats, I made it to 10 before having to give up.  Between just those two exercises, I woke up at 3:25 this morning quite stiff and sore, and could not get back to sleep.  I need to remember some anti-inflammatories before bedtime on nights I do the "lift heavy things" work.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Wednesday

Fasting this morning - 146.6 and a slight case of indigestion said to.  Not sure where the latter came from.  Here's yesterday's eating:
  • scrambled eggs with spinach, mushrooms, ham, and cheese
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese snacks
  • M&Ms - work has not been helpful lately, and I'm eating from frustration
  • BBQ turkey
  • baked potato with butter and sour cream
  • cole slaw
  • wine
  • chocolate cherries
I think that was it.  Not sure what is causing the indigestion, but it - and the need to get Lee and my car on the road to the dealer (oil service, early) - made a good reason to do a fast today.  I didn't even bring cheese snacks - so I hope that I've still got the keto-adaptation to keep me going until dinner.  I think I do.  I'll know for sure around 2 this afternoon.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Tuesday

Aargh!  Is that how it's spelled?  I want to indicate mild frustration.  I think I ate well enough yesterday, despite a snag in my overall plans (see below), but here I am this morning at 146.6.  I would really like to believe that it has something to do with body composition, but I don't.  Even though we went to the gym yesterday and I strolled a mile in 16 minutes, with a couple of sprint intervals (racewalking sprints, that is), and came home and did 40 wall pushups and a few wall squats.

I think doing 40 wall pushups means that I have to shift to table pushups now, or something - that's in the Primal Blueprint workout e-book I got.  But I need to go refresh my understanding of it; when I read it originally, I was too interested in how the videos worked (fabulously), and skipped over some of the text.  If that is the threshold, though I would like to note that I've only done 3 sessions of wall pushups, and have improved from being able to do about 20 to being able to do 40 with only that much effort.

The squats aren't going quite as well, although last night's effort was hampered by my t-shirt.  It has a large yellow circle on the back, in rubbery paint, and the circle sticks to the wall, preventing a good slide.  So I tried doing them with only my head and butt touching the wall, and I can't think that the mechanics were even a little bit okay.  My knees did not like what I was doing one bit, no matter what, so I stopped after about 5 of them.  I'll try again tonight.

So, yesterday's eating, including the snag:
  • scrambled eggs
  • turkey sausage
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese snacks
  • bunless philly cheese steak
  • iced tea
  • cole slaw
  • grassfed beef burgers (1/2 pound total)
  • swiss cheese
  • avocado
  • tomato slices
  • pickles
  • mustard and ketchup
  • iced tea
  • chocolate cherries
  • vanilla ice cream
Did you spot the snag?  Lee wanted to go to lunch - and on weekdays, I rarely eat lunch, so there's half again as much food as I usually consume.  I kept things pretty clean, though, and I do feel a bit swollen and stiff today, so the extra weight may just be water.  I'll keep an eye on it, and if things don't subside soon, see what else I can do to shed the excess.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Monday

I mostly eliminated nuts from my eating over the weekend, and my stomach is grateful.  I did have some cashews last night, but not too many.  That said, I'm at 146.2 this morning (up from 145.0 yesterday), so I don't know that it was altogether a better move.  Here's yesterday:
  • fat bomb smoothie-and-a-half (didn't want to waste coconut milk, and Lee didn't want one, so I eliminated the water and had the whole thing)
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • chips and salsa - okay, that's not a good thing
  • hot dogs and mustard
  • chocolate cherries
  • meatballs with spaghetti sauce and cheese
  • salad with meat and cheese and homemade italian dressing
  • iced tea
  • cashews
The smoothie had its usual effect - I ended up doing lots of little things around the house all morning because of the excess energy - and that was a good thing.  I also didn't want anything to eat for quite a while afterward.  The chips and salsa was a dumb move on my part, although I had maybe a cup-and-a-half of chips (measurement includes lots of airspace).  They tasted good, I must admit.

Over the weekend, I did have a fair amount of potato-based starch, and it seems not to have had a weight impact, overall (unless this morning is a delayed reaction to it - and I doubt that).  I also had an apple with cheese as one of my non-nut snacks - tasted amazing, and was very satisfying - love the crunch.  Someone tweeted not long ago that Paleo eaters seem to be morphing from low-carb into whole-foods/sensible eaters, and that seems to be happening with me as well.  Avoiding pre-fab food appears to be the most important thing we can do - and something we are thoroughly on board with around our house (except for those chips...)