Yesterday's eating consisted of aged Gouda, pork chops, peas, potatoes, and salad, a piece of cheesecake with strawberry sauce, and some cashews. Really not too bad. And it helped a bit - down a whopping 0.2 pounds this morning. I can tell that much of it is water - my hands are swollen and achy.
Theoretically fasting again today - the cheese yesterday started being consumed around 9 am, so it wasn't much of a fast. I don't know if I'll go for 16 or more hours today or not; based on when I stopped eating cashews, that would put me not eating until around 1:30 this afternoon, I believe. We shall see.
Dinner late tonight - in Phoenix. I have only $4 in cash on me, so I don't think I can even get McDonald's at the airport. This may end up being a fast of necessity.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Thursday
Wow - medicine head this morning. I took an Advil PM last night because of a headache at bedtime, and it's still working, I think. Except that I'm upright, ostensibly awake, and have just driven to work.
Definitely have been eating crap this week - I was up to 144.6 this morning, after a "lunch" of trail mix and potato chips (really need to stop doing that), episodic forays into some M&Ms that someone brought to the office, and a dinner from McDonalds - naked quarter-pounder with cheese, which by itself would be okay, and fries. They smelled good. Tasted amazing. But probably weren't a good idea, especially given that McDonald's puts flour on them for some reason. Followed it up with some dark chocolate and cashews - rather a lot of the latter, actually. So not such a good day.
I fasted again this morning, but have brought a bag of cheese with me to work, so I should be able to stay away from the trail mix, and any other random Easter candy laying around. Don't know what dinner will be - eating with my parents. The rest of the day consists of a meeting, and my doc appointment for the hot flashes I'm still no longer having. Gonna be a long one, I think.
Definitely have been eating crap this week - I was up to 144.6 this morning, after a "lunch" of trail mix and potato chips (really need to stop doing that), episodic forays into some M&Ms that someone brought to the office, and a dinner from McDonalds - naked quarter-pounder with cheese, which by itself would be okay, and fries. They smelled good. Tasted amazing. But probably weren't a good idea, especially given that McDonald's puts flour on them for some reason. Followed it up with some dark chocolate and cashews - rather a lot of the latter, actually. So not such a good day.
I fasted again this morning, but have brought a bag of cheese with me to work, so I should be able to stay away from the trail mix, and any other random Easter candy laying around. Don't know what dinner will be - eating with my parents. The rest of the day consists of a meeting, and my doc appointment for the hot flashes I'm still no longer having. Gonna be a long one, I think.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Wednesday
Note to self. No more random frozen leftovers for dinner. When I saw the container in the freezer, I thought it was some meatballs with spaghetti sauce. I was wrong. It was leftover commercially-made Irish stew - and as I was eating it, I realized it was full of flour (thickening the sauce) and barley. And didn't taste at all like spaghetti, which had sounded pretty good to me. I ate it - not all of it, but some - and had a slice of cheesecake to follow (but only that, this time - no chocolate cake, and no fruit sauce).
144.2 this morning, surely as a result of that, since I don't think I hit the machines yesterday for trail mix or anything. Also a night's sleep full of nightmares. Doing an "inadvertent" fast this morning. My stomach is not particularly happy with me, either, so the fast is probably a really good idea. I will try to eat better tonight, even if that means having a naked double Quarter Pounder or something.
Ugh.
144.2 this morning, surely as a result of that, since I don't think I hit the machines yesterday for trail mix or anything. Also a night's sleep full of nightmares. Doing an "inadvertent" fast this morning. My stomach is not particularly happy with me, either, so the fast is probably a really good idea. I will try to eat better tonight, even if that means having a naked double Quarter Pounder or something.
Ugh.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Tuesday
I finally got to sample the Easter dinner desserts last night - actually, in full disclosure, they're basically what I had for dinner last night. A few pieces of cheese to tide me over, and a slice each of amaretto cheesecake with a nut crust (which came out pretty much perfect this time, after cooking it in a water bath for 55 minutes and letting it cool in the slowly cooling oven for an hour), and flourless chocolate cake with strawberry sauce on it. They both came out really well, and I suspect that I will be having dessert most nights this week. Although I do hope to eat something a bit more dinner-like the rest of the evenings.
I had some pieces of aged Gouda for breakfast this morning, rather than anything requiring cooking. Lee's away for what I'm guessing is the week - it would be least-impactive to his work to drive back from Phoenix on Friday/Saturday rather than before that. So I may end up doing my version of IF this week - in my case, the I stands for Inadvertent, since it's very hard to get breakfast made when it's just me unless I get up 15 minutes earlier than usual, and I don't really want to do that.
Sleep has re-entered the picture for me, thank goodness. Very nice to be back in a cold room with a fan, even if it isn't as dark as the dining room was. Now that I have an appointment to discuss hormone replacement, the hot flashes have disappeared; at least, I cannot recall having even one in the past 30-36 hours. Well, I'll go in and talk, and maybe do a blood test to see if I've hit complete menopause, or if this is just some bizarre hiatus. Fine by me if that was it.
143.8 this morning - lost a pound of the weekend weight, even after my all-dessert meal (although between the two, I had the equivalent of 1/3 of a chocolate bar and maybe 1/10 cup of sugar (slightly over 1-1/2 tablespoons?) and a tiny bit of cornstarch - everything else was eggs, cheese, nuts, or flavoring. Oh, and some strawberry juice. So that probably wasn't exactly a ginormous carb load for the day. It's so crazy, after a year of eating like this, how my perceptions of a big-nasty cheat have changed. I'm good with that, obviously.
I had some pieces of aged Gouda for breakfast this morning, rather than anything requiring cooking. Lee's away for what I'm guessing is the week - it would be least-impactive to his work to drive back from Phoenix on Friday/Saturday rather than before that. So I may end up doing my version of IF this week - in my case, the I stands for Inadvertent, since it's very hard to get breakfast made when it's just me unless I get up 15 minutes earlier than usual, and I don't really want to do that.
Sleep has re-entered the picture for me, thank goodness. Very nice to be back in a cold room with a fan, even if it isn't as dark as the dining room was. Now that I have an appointment to discuss hormone replacement, the hot flashes have disappeared; at least, I cannot recall having even one in the past 30-36 hours. Well, I'll go in and talk, and maybe do a blood test to see if I've hit complete menopause, or if this is just some bizarre hiatus. Fine by me if that was it.
143.8 this morning - lost a pound of the weekend weight, even after my all-dessert meal (although between the two, I had the equivalent of 1/3 of a chocolate bar and maybe 1/10 cup of sugar (slightly over 1-1/2 tablespoons?) and a tiny bit of cornstarch - everything else was eggs, cheese, nuts, or flavoring. Oh, and some strawberry juice. So that probably wasn't exactly a ginormous carb load for the day. It's so crazy, after a year of eating like this, how my perceptions of a big-nasty cheat have changed. I'm good with that, obviously.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday after Easter
I was right - we ate out a lot over the weekend. The results aren't at all surprising, especially with how stiff I feel today - 144.8.
Easter dinner came out pretty well, but I don't seem to have the knack to get a large-scale (14 people and a baby) dinner on the table smoothly. Guess it's a good thing I didn't ever open a restaurant! I spent nearly the whole weekend cooking - and ended up with too much food, which is nearly always the case for me. I have heard that we have most of both desserts in the fridge outside, and there's a lot of meat left as well - we should have sliced up the portions a lot thicker, like Prime Rib should be served. Anyway, it's over with.
Biz had a violent attack of vertigo last night - on the heels of a week feeling completely normal, which totally sucked. It was so bad that she couldn't bring herself to fly, so she and Lee are on the road this morning. The spins have stopped, thank God, but she's a bit tilty and tired. Said she felt "off" during the day a bit - man, that sounds like a migraine, even to triggers like being surrounded by extended family and maybe more flour than she's been eating in a while. I, for one, am very grateful that Lee's job lets him do road trips occasionally - I was prepared to fly out with her and back this morning early if need be, but she didn't think she could even sit still in order for the plane to take off, so we bagged that. I'm glad we got the bedroom basically reassembled before the crowds hit - there's a bit of touch-up painting and some miscellaneous hardware/picture installation still to do, but everything else is done.
Time to get things back to a routine.
Easter dinner came out pretty well, but I don't seem to have the knack to get a large-scale (14 people and a baby) dinner on the table smoothly. Guess it's a good thing I didn't ever open a restaurant! I spent nearly the whole weekend cooking - and ended up with too much food, which is nearly always the case for me. I have heard that we have most of both desserts in the fridge outside, and there's a lot of meat left as well - we should have sliced up the portions a lot thicker, like Prime Rib should be served. Anyway, it's over with.
Biz had a violent attack of vertigo last night - on the heels of a week feeling completely normal, which totally sucked. It was so bad that she couldn't bring herself to fly, so she and Lee are on the road this morning. The spins have stopped, thank God, but she's a bit tilty and tired. Said she felt "off" during the day a bit - man, that sounds like a migraine, even to triggers like being surrounded by extended family and maybe more flour than she's been eating in a while. I, for one, am very grateful that Lee's job lets him do road trips occasionally - I was prepared to fly out with her and back this morning early if need be, but she didn't think she could even sit still in order for the plane to take off, so we bagged that. I'm glad we got the bedroom basically reassembled before the crowds hit - there's a bit of touch-up painting and some miscellaneous hardware/picture installation still to do, but everything else is done.
Time to get things back to a routine.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Friday
Interesting. No idea why this is going on. I'm at 141.0 this morning - a new low. We're not eating all that well, really - lots of meals out, Mexican with tortilla chips (n-6 oils bad!), a near-daily venture to the machines downstairs for either chips or trail mix or both. Crap sleep (still, though the thermal events are settling down, no doubt because I set up a doctor's appointment). And yet, after a dinner of shrimp on skewers (chosen for their PUFA profile over lamb, which, if domestic, would have been grain-finished - and they tasted good, so the purely-medical choice ended up being a good one) and vanilla gelato that was yellow (I am hoping that meant it involved a lot of dairy fat and maybe the odd egg yolk - and it wasn't over-sweet, either), with wine, I'm down a pound and a half. I'm cool with that - seems to indicate that my body is doing it's thing regarding weight regulation and my diet is not unduly influencing it - but I did think I'd hit my sweet spot, in terms of weight.
I have decided to make the croissants for dinner Sunday. They take 3 days to rise, which is a lot of time for the yeast to do their thing on the anti-nutrients in the flour, or at least, that is my hope. And the ambrosia - a pure-sugar salad, only really saved from utter depravity by a quantity of whipped cream, and the fact that the sweetened coconut shreds are coconut in there somewhere. I will probably skip that.
We are indulging in a bit of grandparenthood this weekend - our first, who is 7 months old and very charming, is visiting. She was sampling things at dinner, and was all over the gelato - so much so that Lee got much less than his half, I think - but he was the one feeding it to her. She also thought fairly highly of the olive oil, and Caesar salad - was helping herself to lettuce and sucking the dressing off. And trying to eat the leaves as well, but they struck me as a bit of a choke hazard, so I don't think she got much - I kept removing them from her mouth as she bit pieces off. It was quite entertaining. I am going to puree the prime rib and the green beans for her on Sunday, and give her a bit of the mashed potatoes, with her mom's permission, of course. I think she'll enjoy them.
This has been a very long week, but it is nearly over, and next week, we can go back to a quiet life and get some smaller projects done, I hope. The major disruptions (at least, the ones we instigated) should be nearly over with for the year. Barring any weather, warfare, or economic crises, that is, and those all seem possible these days.
I have decided to make the croissants for dinner Sunday. They take 3 days to rise, which is a lot of time for the yeast to do their thing on the anti-nutrients in the flour, or at least, that is my hope. And the ambrosia - a pure-sugar salad, only really saved from utter depravity by a quantity of whipped cream, and the fact that the sweetened coconut shreds are coconut in there somewhere. I will probably skip that.
We are indulging in a bit of grandparenthood this weekend - our first, who is 7 months old and very charming, is visiting. She was sampling things at dinner, and was all over the gelato - so much so that Lee got much less than his half, I think - but he was the one feeding it to her. She also thought fairly highly of the olive oil, and Caesar salad - was helping herself to lettuce and sucking the dressing off. And trying to eat the leaves as well, but they struck me as a bit of a choke hazard, so I don't think she got much - I kept removing them from her mouth as she bit pieces off. It was quite entertaining. I am going to puree the prime rib and the green beans for her on Sunday, and give her a bit of the mashed potatoes, with her mom's permission, of course. I think she'll enjoy them.
This has been a very long week, but it is nearly over, and next week, we can go back to a quiet life and get some smaller projects done, I hope. The major disruptions (at least, the ones we instigated) should be nearly over with for the year. Barring any weather, warfare, or economic crises, that is, and those all seem possible these days.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Th-brrs-day
It's blizzarding in the mountains, and rain was starting as I walked from where I park my car to where I work. What month is it again? Feels like late February, if you ask me. But we need the moisture. Yeah, I know - we do. I'm just a bit chilled at the moment, and with a body thermostat that is stuck on "the wrong temperature", that's not pleasant. Springtime in the Rockies, I believe they call it.
Better sleep last night - nothing like exhaustion to prompt really good sleep. We got to use the bathroom starting yesterday evening, which was very nice - I'm much less likely to lay in bed freezing if I can make a quick trip - as opposed to the trek to the other end of the house - to the facilities.
Dinner yesterday was at Tokyo Joe's - ugh. I'd been once and hadn't particularly cared for it, and Lee wanted to go, so I figured I'd give it another chance. I had a steak bowl with yakitori sauce. Steak was overcooked, tough, and stringy, the mushrooms I'd asked for with it were uncooked, by and large, and the sauce was over-sweet. Okay, I was right the first time. I don't like it. It provided enough energy to get much of the rest of the house straightened out, though, and that was what we needed. A bit of cheese and one of the Godiva mint-chocolate thingies, and that was it for the night. Apart from that, breakfast was scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, and the bison "sausage" patties from the new Mark Sisson cookbook - pretty good, although I'm going to experiment with the spices for our next go round, and we did make ours with grass-finished beef instead of bison (it's half the price these days). I also had some potato chips late in the afternoon after a particularly stressful day - I had to go chasing after plumbing parts at lunchtime, so that we'd have working sinks. Totally worth it, but stressful.
142.4 this morning. With the kids coming in for the weekend, I figure Easter Dinner may be my only home-cooked evening meal for the next few days; will just have to tread carefully at the various restaurants.
Better sleep last night - nothing like exhaustion to prompt really good sleep. We got to use the bathroom starting yesterday evening, which was very nice - I'm much less likely to lay in bed freezing if I can make a quick trip - as opposed to the trek to the other end of the house - to the facilities.
Dinner yesterday was at Tokyo Joe's - ugh. I'd been once and hadn't particularly cared for it, and Lee wanted to go, so I figured I'd give it another chance. I had a steak bowl with yakitori sauce. Steak was overcooked, tough, and stringy, the mushrooms I'd asked for with it were uncooked, by and large, and the sauce was over-sweet. Okay, I was right the first time. I don't like it. It provided enough energy to get much of the rest of the house straightened out, though, and that was what we needed. A bit of cheese and one of the Godiva mint-chocolate thingies, and that was it for the night. Apart from that, breakfast was scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, and the bison "sausage" patties from the new Mark Sisson cookbook - pretty good, although I'm going to experiment with the spices for our next go round, and we did make ours with grass-finished beef instead of bison (it's half the price these days). I also had some potato chips late in the afternoon after a particularly stressful day - I had to go chasing after plumbing parts at lunchtime, so that we'd have working sinks. Totally worth it, but stressful.
142.4 this morning. With the kids coming in for the weekend, I figure Easter Dinner may be my only home-cooked evening meal for the next few days; will just have to tread carefully at the various restaurants.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Wednesday
We were able to move the bedroom back to it's proper place in the house last night - spent from 3:30 to 9:30 doing that or things closely related to it. I managed to smash a tiny portion of my left thumb with a hammer, so I have a blood blister and bruise on it - found a few other assorted minor injuries this morning in the shower - no memory of getting any of them, but they're new.
We ended up having Mexican last night - cheese enchiladas for me. It was okay, and provided enough energy to keep going until we had achieved a degree of order in the room, but I woke up with indigestion today, so I have a few regrets on that score. 142.8 this morning - it didn't do much, and my fingers are swollen, so some of that .6 pound gain (is digital technology really that helpful? ) is probably stiffness water from the work we did.
Sleep wasn't so great, after all that wishing to be back in the bedroom. The dining room had one benefit to sleep - it was extremely dark. The bedroom - especially with the decorative curtains down, as they are at the moment and will be until I buy new ones - is much lighter. Also colder, which helped with reducing hot flashes, but the tradeoff was, well, being cold most of the night. I know, I cannot be satisfied. The ceiling fan is a huge benefit, though - moving cool air is a wonderful thing at my age.
I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but our Easter menu is going to be pretty primal:
We ended up having Mexican last night - cheese enchiladas for me. It was okay, and provided enough energy to keep going until we had achieved a degree of order in the room, but I woke up with indigestion today, so I have a few regrets on that score. 142.8 this morning - it didn't do much, and my fingers are swollen, so some of that .6 pound gain (is digital technology really that helpful? ) is probably stiffness water from the work we did.
Sleep wasn't so great, after all that wishing to be back in the bedroom. The dining room had one benefit to sleep - it was extremely dark. The bedroom - especially with the decorative curtains down, as they are at the moment and will be until I buy new ones - is much lighter. Also colder, which helped with reducing hot flashes, but the tradeoff was, well, being cold most of the night. I know, I cannot be satisfied. The ceiling fan is a huge benefit, though - moving cool air is a wonderful thing at my age.
I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but our Easter menu is going to be pretty primal:
- prime rib (ordered from the Honeybaked Ham company, so there may be some un-wished-for ingredients in there) au jus, with horseradish sauce
- mashed potatoes with sour cream and cream cheese
- Southern-style green beans, done with onions and bacon in the pressure cooker
- possibly shrimp Remoulade, if there are any unfrozen shrimp at Costco on Saturday
- nut-crusted amaretto cheesecake - the same one we had at Christmas
- flourless chocolate cake with berries - I didn't pay attention the first time I made this, but all the sweetness comes from the chocolate used - it's basically beaten egg whites and chocolate
- possibly an ambrosia salad - not primal at all, but it is Lee's birthday and he wants one
- possibly croissants - I'm still debating whether or not I'm going to do these - and if I am, I need to start them tomorrow. They'll be a 3-day process, indicating some amount of fermentation, so if not Primal, they would probably appease the WAPF folks
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Tuesday
Apparently, my body wanted those fries.
We ate at Chili's last night, owing to an urgent need to do some shopping for the bathroom (progress is being made at last!) and for the impending visitors this coming weekend. We both had naked bacon cheeseburgers and fries - and I ate every last french fry. They tasted amazing, but I figured I would be paying for them this morning.
Not so. The scale - on two attempts - reads 142.2. I'm cool with that. Only two meals yesterday, and no snacks, so maybe there were other things going on. Which isn't to say I won't pay in some other way - I have a touch of indigestion this morning that could certainly be associated with french fry consumption.
Barring any nasty things today, we will be able to resume sleeping in our bedroom tonight. The carpet arrives this morning, sometime in the next 3 hours. I anticipate a busy evening - will need to eat well at dinner tonight, with lots of heart-healthy saturated fat for energy and stamina, as we get the closet rebuilt and filled, move the bed (nearly impossible, by the way) and clear out the guest room. I don't expect it will actually help my sleep, this move, but it will be nice to get back to semi-normal.
I have an appointment on Monday with a physician to discuss hormones. I certainly hope they work, so I can get the sleep debt paid off. A dependency on "PM" is not in my plans for old age, that's for sure.
We ate at Chili's last night, owing to an urgent need to do some shopping for the bathroom (progress is being made at last!) and for the impending visitors this coming weekend. We both had naked bacon cheeseburgers and fries - and I ate every last french fry. They tasted amazing, but I figured I would be paying for them this morning.
Not so. The scale - on two attempts - reads 142.2. I'm cool with that. Only two meals yesterday, and no snacks, so maybe there were other things going on. Which isn't to say I won't pay in some other way - I have a touch of indigestion this morning that could certainly be associated with french fry consumption.
Barring any nasty things today, we will be able to resume sleeping in our bedroom tonight. The carpet arrives this morning, sometime in the next 3 hours. I anticipate a busy evening - will need to eat well at dinner tonight, with lots of heart-healthy saturated fat for energy and stamina, as we get the closet rebuilt and filled, move the bed (nearly impossible, by the way) and clear out the guest room. I don't expect it will actually help my sleep, this move, but it will be nice to get back to semi-normal.
I have an appointment on Monday with a physician to discuss hormones. I certainly hope they work, so I can get the sleep debt paid off. A dependency on "PM" is not in my plans for old age, that's for sure.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Monday
Which follows Sunday, every seven days, like clockwork. We had a reasonably good weekend, tempered by the fact that we are still sleeping in the dining room and the bathroom is not yet grouted, and seems like it never will be, unless we do it. Fun with contractors.
I think that led to some stress weight for me - either from stress eating or from general cortisol activity. I was at 141.6 on Saturday morning, 143.0 both yesterday and today. I fought mightily not to go for a straight sugar buzz last night - and won, I might add. Cheese saved me. And Solitaire on the iPad - it's addictive enough that it kept me from getting up in search of candy.
As for the menopause and the hot flashes - I'm giving up. Officially. Calling the doctor today to ask about hormones. Nothing is helping, except Advil PM - and I refuse to take that every night. While I don't feel as ill as I did a few weeks ago, the damn hot flashes are more frequent and soggier than ever right now, and with life so catty-whampus because of the remodel, I'm at a breaking point. So as soon as the doctor has had time to get the office open and the backlog of messages cleared, I'm calling. I doubt they'll prescribe them without an appointment, which is a bummer, but hopefully I can get control over this in the near future.
I think that led to some stress weight for me - either from stress eating or from general cortisol activity. I was at 141.6 on Saturday morning, 143.0 both yesterday and today. I fought mightily not to go for a straight sugar buzz last night - and won, I might add. Cheese saved me. And Solitaire on the iPad - it's addictive enough that it kept me from getting up in search of candy.
As for the menopause and the hot flashes - I'm giving up. Officially. Calling the doctor today to ask about hormones. Nothing is helping, except Advil PM - and I refuse to take that every night. While I don't feel as ill as I did a few weeks ago, the damn hot flashes are more frequent and soggier than ever right now, and with life so catty-whampus because of the remodel, I'm at a breaking point. So as soon as the doctor has had time to get the office open and the backlog of messages cleared, I'm calling. I doubt they'll prescribe them without an appointment, which is a bummer, but hopefully I can get control over this in the near future.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Friday
Leg cramps again last night - one that had me out of bed around 5 am, I think. I'm not sure why; yesterday's eating included some strawberries mid-day and a dinner of steak medallions with gravy, green beans, mashed potatoes, and wine. There should have been enough carbs there to head anything off. And I did as planned and took my magnesium citrate at bedtime (no un-wished-for side effects so far, but it didn't much help with sleep, either).
We're going wine tasting at the art museum tonight, which should be interesting. I don't know if it will be in the new part with the slanty walls or not - a bunch of slightly tipsy folks in eccentric architecture might make the newspapers, really. Dinner out beforehand - I don't know what, yet. A nice night to get out and wear some of the skinny clothes, for me, anyway.
I was down to 141.8 again this morning, so we are apparently eating for weight loss just now. Lee is below 200 again and happy with that. Elizabeth has had my sister (the one on statins) at her place for the past couple of days; I hope, but don't know, that she ate okay. It's greek week there anyway, which isn't conducive to good nutrition, I believe.
One week and a bit until Easter. It looks like we will be hosting dinner without too much trouble - we're having prime rib, mashed potatoes, southern-style green beans, salad of some sort (I'm trying to hold the line against an Ambrosia but think I will lose that battle), and a choice of amaretto cheesecake (nut crust) or flourless chocolate cake for dessert. Not pure Paleo/primal/archevoral/whatever, but pretty close - I don't feel like we're violating our principles with anything. On the other hand, my Easter tradition in previous years was to make croissants using the recipe in French Women Don't Get Fat - they are pretty darn good. It's a 3-day process with a lot of rising, so I think fermentation occurs. I could serve them with that caveat, or I could skip them this year. This is still a matter of debate.
I'll probably make them. I enjoy baking, so I've kind of missed working with dough this year.
We're going wine tasting at the art museum tonight, which should be interesting. I don't know if it will be in the new part with the slanty walls or not - a bunch of slightly tipsy folks in eccentric architecture might make the newspapers, really. Dinner out beforehand - I don't know what, yet. A nice night to get out and wear some of the skinny clothes, for me, anyway.
I was down to 141.8 again this morning, so we are apparently eating for weight loss just now. Lee is below 200 again and happy with that. Elizabeth has had my sister (the one on statins) at her place for the past couple of days; I hope, but don't know, that she ate okay. It's greek week there anyway, which isn't conducive to good nutrition, I believe.
One week and a bit until Easter. It looks like we will be hosting dinner without too much trouble - we're having prime rib, mashed potatoes, southern-style green beans, salad of some sort (I'm trying to hold the line against an Ambrosia but think I will lose that battle), and a choice of amaretto cheesecake (nut crust) or flourless chocolate cake for dessert. Not pure Paleo/primal/archevoral/whatever, but pretty close - I don't feel like we're violating our principles with anything. On the other hand, my Easter tradition in previous years was to make croissants using the recipe in French Women Don't Get Fat - they are pretty darn good. It's a 3-day process with a lot of rising, so I think fermentation occurs. I could serve them with that caveat, or I could skip them this year. This is still a matter of debate.
I'll probably make them. I enjoy baking, so I've kind of missed working with dough this year.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Thursday
We had a very good dinner last night - either Salisbury Steak or pan-seared mini meatloaves with a mushroom cream gravy, and sliced tomatoes. Consumed a full pound of ground beef (grassfed from Sun Prairie Beef) between us. The recipe went something like this (not all steps are in strict order):
Had cottage cheese and turkey bacon for breakfast this morning; I mean to make some of the Primal Quick/Easy cookbook beef/bison sausage patties this weekend for heating up next week, just for variety, and to make cooking less of a pain in the morning (Lee ends up doing all of it, bless him).
- Slice up 5-6 white button mushrooms (cremini would probably be better, but that's what I had)
- Mix about 2 tsp potato starch with a beaten egg in a large bowl
- Add parsley, dehydrated onion, garlic, salt and pepper to taste to the egg mixture
- Add 1 lb ground beef and mix thoroughly
- Form into 2 oval patties about 3/4" thick
- Heat 2 Tbsp ghee in a nonstick pan over medium heat
- Cook the patties in the ghee for about 5-7 minutes total, flipping them and removing when they hit rare (140 degrees per the instant read thermometer)
- Remove the patties to a plate and tent with foil to keep warm
- Saute the mushrooms in the ghee/drippings in the pan from the meat until browned
- Deglaze the pan with beef stock (probably 1/2-3/4 cup) and reduce to about 1/2 original volume
- Add around 1/2 cup of half-and-half and reduce again until sauce thickens
- Pour sauce over beef patties, distributing mushrooms evenly
Had cottage cheese and turkey bacon for breakfast this morning; I mean to make some of the Primal Quick/Easy cookbook beef/bison sausage patties this weekend for heating up next week, just for variety, and to make cooking less of a pain in the morning (Lee ends up doing all of it, bless him).
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Wednesday
Let's see, what did happen over the past 24 hours?
I gave Lee some cucurmin at breakfast, since he'd been complaining of some pain in finger joints when playing golf, and I figured it couldn't hurt. It's too early to tell if it's helping or not, but I'll keep adding it to his vitamins. We also took giant doses of fish oil last evening; post painting (but we have a color on the walls that I can live with and Lee isn't unalterably against (yet - it's an antique red, and pretty intense). It helped me as usual; he was still sore this morning but said he felt better than he had previously after similar exertion. I feel fine today.
Breakfast yesterday was eggs, turkey bacon and turkey sausage; no lunch but I did have some trail mix. Dinner was Chipotle - a bowl with barbacoa (apparently, though, only the carnitas don't have soybean oil in them) but no beans; I did have rice. And lots of guacamole. A few walnuts, a few chocolates. That was pretty much it. 142.4 this morning, so the loss of my weekend gain continues.
I gave Lee some cucurmin at breakfast, since he'd been complaining of some pain in finger joints when playing golf, and I figured it couldn't hurt. It's too early to tell if it's helping or not, but I'll keep adding it to his vitamins. We also took giant doses of fish oil last evening; post painting (but we have a color on the walls that I can live with and Lee isn't unalterably against (yet - it's an antique red, and pretty intense). It helped me as usual; he was still sore this morning but said he felt better than he had previously after similar exertion. I feel fine today.
Breakfast yesterday was eggs, turkey bacon and turkey sausage; no lunch but I did have some trail mix. Dinner was Chipotle - a bowl with barbacoa (apparently, though, only the carnitas don't have soybean oil in them) but no beans; I did have rice. And lots of guacamole. A few walnuts, a few chocolates. That was pretty much it. 142.4 this morning, so the loss of my weekend gain continues.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
He says it way better than I could
Tom Naughton on the Chicago School Lunch story: http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2011/04/11/this-will-make-you-lose-your-lunch/.
Tuesday
Ever so slowly, I'm paying off my sleep deficit; the latest herbs from the acupuncturist seem to be a slow-acting Kryptonite to my new super-power of random heat production. At least, whatever else they're doing, they're removing the feeling of malaise that accompanied each flash. I'll take it.
Last weekend, I swiped the Magnesium Citrate we had got for Elizabeth a short while back; she wasn't using it, and I'd heard it was very good at inducing a drowsy state if taken before bedtime. And it is. Unfortunately for Elizabeth, it was also very good at it's more traditional use (laxative), which is why she didn't fight me over my theft. I am finding this morning that it is indeed very good at both functions, so I may have to find a way to take less of it, or take it less frequently. I don't want to induce any sort of dependency.
We ate well yesterday, I think - eggs and bacon (turkey, not so great), and sausage for breakfast, no lunch for me, but a small snack of berries and cream, and at dinner time, some cheese and cashews followed by the asiago ribeye at Applebee's, with the potatoes and mixed veg. And a few walnuts to finish the evening with. Oh - and a Godiva Gem in a mint-chocolate-chip flavor. We found them at Target and figured that eaten one at a time, over a week or more, they wouldn't kill us. And they are damn tasty.
I lost a good bit of the weight overnight - down to 143.2 this morning, which is better. I know a lot of it was water associated with the muscle stiffness from painting. Which we will be doing more of, over the coming weeks.
Last weekend, I swiped the Magnesium Citrate we had got for Elizabeth a short while back; she wasn't using it, and I'd heard it was very good at inducing a drowsy state if taken before bedtime. And it is. Unfortunately for Elizabeth, it was also very good at it's more traditional use (laxative), which is why she didn't fight me over my theft. I am finding this morning that it is indeed very good at both functions, so I may have to find a way to take less of it, or take it less frequently. I don't want to induce any sort of dependency.
We ate well yesterday, I think - eggs and bacon (turkey, not so great), and sausage for breakfast, no lunch for me, but a small snack of berries and cream, and at dinner time, some cheese and cashews followed by the asiago ribeye at Applebee's, with the potatoes and mixed veg. And a few walnuts to finish the evening with. Oh - and a Godiva Gem in a mint-chocolate-chip flavor. We found them at Target and figured that eaten one at a time, over a week or more, they wouldn't kill us. And they are damn tasty.
I lost a good bit of the weight overnight - down to 143.2 this morning, which is better. I know a lot of it was water associated with the muscle stiffness from painting. Which we will be doing more of, over the coming weeks.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Monday
Wow, what a weekend.
Friday and Saturday were in Phoenix, helping Elizabeth out by acting as an upstairs maid and laundry serf. Six loads, if you can believe it. Plus miscellaneous cleaning, cooking, shopping, rehanging whiteboards (Command Adhesive Picture hangers are way cool). I think it was helpful.
Didn't eat terribly well those two days - I stepped on her scale on Saturday morning and saw 144.2, and I think that was accurate. But I did introduce her to the bunless option at McDonalds, and she agrees with me that the burgers taste exactly the same with or without bread. Unlike In-N-Out - protein style is good, but you actually miss the bun. With luck, knowing about bunless Big Macs will keep her from the chicken nuggets in future. We finished the trip at the Chili's in the airport, eating chips and salsa and artichoke dip. Oh, well.
Sunday was drudge-around-the-house day back home, more or less. Shopping, cooking, laundry (another load or two), and painting. I got the walls of the being-redone bathroom primed and painted, as well as the ceilings of it and the entire bedroom (there is nothing worse than painting ceilings, although I do appreciate the ceiling paint that goes on pink when wet and dries white). We had a good breakfast (Cracker Barrel does amazing low-carb), Mexican for lunch (not so healthy), and for dinner, a very nice pot roast with new potatoes and carrots. Put a little butter on a new potato that's been braising in pot roast liquid for an hour, and it's like eating beef/butter-flavored velvet. Very nice. I seared the pot roast and the mirepoix in bacon fat - much nicer than the "vegetable oil" that the recipe called for.
A couple of observations: I was very tired and achy yesterday morning, but in spite of that, had the stamina to prime and paint, including ceilings, for something like 6 straight hours. At the end, my shoulders and feet and hips and hands were all incredibly sore and stiff. I took 3 fish oil and some Advil once I was done for the night, and this morning, my hands and shoulders have a faint memory of being stiff yesterday, and my feet feel fine. I'm sure that our less-inflammatory diet helps this work as well as it does, but I am ever-so-grateful that it does work.
Especially as I will need to repeat the process - we both hate the paint color, now that it's dry. Bother.
Friday and Saturday were in Phoenix, helping Elizabeth out by acting as an upstairs maid and laundry serf. Six loads, if you can believe it. Plus miscellaneous cleaning, cooking, shopping, rehanging whiteboards (Command Adhesive Picture hangers are way cool). I think it was helpful.
Didn't eat terribly well those two days - I stepped on her scale on Saturday morning and saw 144.2, and I think that was accurate. But I did introduce her to the bunless option at McDonalds, and she agrees with me that the burgers taste exactly the same with or without bread. Unlike In-N-Out - protein style is good, but you actually miss the bun. With luck, knowing about bunless Big Macs will keep her from the chicken nuggets in future. We finished the trip at the Chili's in the airport, eating chips and salsa and artichoke dip. Oh, well.
Sunday was drudge-around-the-house day back home, more or less. Shopping, cooking, laundry (another load or two), and painting. I got the walls of the being-redone bathroom primed and painted, as well as the ceilings of it and the entire bedroom (there is nothing worse than painting ceilings, although I do appreciate the ceiling paint that goes on pink when wet and dries white). We had a good breakfast (Cracker Barrel does amazing low-carb), Mexican for lunch (not so healthy), and for dinner, a very nice pot roast with new potatoes and carrots. Put a little butter on a new potato that's been braising in pot roast liquid for an hour, and it's like eating beef/butter-flavored velvet. Very nice. I seared the pot roast and the mirepoix in bacon fat - much nicer than the "vegetable oil" that the recipe called for.
A couple of observations: I was very tired and achy yesterday morning, but in spite of that, had the stamina to prime and paint, including ceilings, for something like 6 straight hours. At the end, my shoulders and feet and hips and hands were all incredibly sore and stiff. I took 3 fish oil and some Advil once I was done for the night, and this morning, my hands and shoulders have a faint memory of being stiff yesterday, and my feet feel fine. I'm sure that our less-inflammatory diet helps this work as well as it does, but I am ever-so-grateful that it does work.
Especially as I will need to repeat the process - we both hate the paint color, now that it's dry. Bother.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Thursday
We really need to stop eating Chinese. Both Lee and I had digestive upset afterwards, and I gained 3/4 of a pound - 143.2 this morning. Yes, the scale gives structure to my days. Sue me.
I don't know if it was the Chinese food, the chips and strawberries throughout the day, or the walnuts I ate while watching Mythbusters last night. Pushed, I'd go with the strawberries - a large container of them sliced up, very sweet on their own, so not at all the berries of my Paleolithic ancestors. And they made me hungry later in the day, which led to the chips.
Bummer all that, because I had bacon, sausage, and strawberries for breakfast, and have an even bigger container of them on my desk to eat before day's end. Followed by airport food - flying to Phoenix to be the household help for Liz this weekend - her life has got a bit crazy of late. So I don't expect to be thinner by tomorrow morning. However, I do vow not to accept any of the snacks on the flight tonight.
I don't know if it was the Chinese food, the chips and strawberries throughout the day, or the walnuts I ate while watching Mythbusters last night. Pushed, I'd go with the strawberries - a large container of them sliced up, very sweet on their own, so not at all the berries of my Paleolithic ancestors. And they made me hungry later in the day, which led to the chips.
Bummer all that, because I had bacon, sausage, and strawberries for breakfast, and have an even bigger container of them on my desk to eat before day's end. Followed by airport food - flying to Phoenix to be the household help for Liz this weekend - her life has got a bit crazy of late. So I don't expect to be thinner by tomorrow morning. However, I do vow not to accept any of the snacks on the flight tonight.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Wednesday
Lesson learned. After a fast day, (mostly; I did have chips and trail mix mid-day), it is unwise to do anything really painful. Had to change a band-aid on my finger and it had stuck to the wound. I managed it, but nearly passed out - grabbed chocolate almonds and cheese, and eventually a hunk of solid sugar before I felt better. I don't know if there is a Paleo way to deal with something like that, other than biting a bullet while doing it, maybe. Or a shot of whisky (I have a bunch too - would have been a good reason to dig in!) The sugar did help. So, it's not for eating daily, but can be medicinal, I guess.
Apart from that eating and the mid-day snacks, I had a bunch of leftover pork roast yesterday, and some cashews. I think that was it. Back to 142.4 again this morning. Lee was out of town until around 7 last night and apparently ate well - said he had fasciculation (bubbling) in his calves overnight - just shy of cramps. We'll keep with the straight and narrow and get him down below 200 again soon, I think.
Breakfast this morning was eggs and real bacon. I have a bunch of cut-up strawberries to eat throughout the day - bought a big box of them at Costco over the weekend, and they're very sweet, so I don't want them to go to waste. Don't know what we'll do for dinner. Wish I'd left one of the pounds of our new grassfed ground beef out to thaw!
Apart from that eating and the mid-day snacks, I had a bunch of leftover pork roast yesterday, and some cashews. I think that was it. Back to 142.4 again this morning. Lee was out of town until around 7 last night and apparently ate well - said he had fasciculation (bubbling) in his calves overnight - just shy of cramps. We'll keep with the straight and narrow and get him down below 200 again soon, I think.
Breakfast this morning was eggs and real bacon. I have a bunch of cut-up strawberries to eat throughout the day - bought a big box of them at Costco over the weekend, and they're very sweet, so I don't want them to go to waste. Don't know what we'll do for dinner. Wish I'd left one of the pounds of our new grassfed ground beef out to thaw!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Tuesday
If I could type this without my right forefinger, I would; I removed a small area of fingertip with a mandoline slicer yesterday, slicing potatoes for an experiment - Pommes Anna in the crock pot. I wish I could say it was worth it, but all I managed to prove is that 11 hours on "High" is too long. So I don't think we'll do that for Easter - probably try an au gratin version in there instead. It did smell good, though.
I didn't really eat dinner last night - had chips (aagh!) and salsa, cheese, and a little chocolate and nuts instead. Just the all-snack evening. Lee's out of town again, so I also am fasting breakfast. 143.0 this morning, lost some of whatever it was I put on over the weekend.
I got some size 10 pants from LL Bean yesterday in the UPS. Also some shorts. I tried on the pants, and they're woefully too small, despite my matching the size 10 measurements on their size chart exactly. So the pants go back, I think. The shorts, on the other hand, also size 10, are fine - roomy, even. Not sure what's going on; it may be the style I went with on the pants. What's really irritating, though, is that I have the same pants in a 12, and they're tentlike. So I have no options, except maybe to go with a slightly different style of pants - one like the shorts. I guess. Can't sew right now; the sewing room is where my clothes are while we're redoing the master bathroom. It's just a bit annoying.
My new order of grassfed beef arrives today - I found a local source, Sun Prairie Beef, that has ground beef for less than what we're paying for bison at Costco. And given that bison is grain finished (at least, I'm fairly sure that the brand we buy is), it will be healthier for us. So that's pretty exciting. If this is any good, I'll look into some of their other offerings - steaks and roasts and what not. I feel like we could get some significant health benefits from switching to grassfed - that, and trying harder to get away from the franken-oils; we still get a fair amount of that stuff through processed food (like chips) and at restaurants. So worth the effort, I think.
I didn't really eat dinner last night - had chips (aagh!) and salsa, cheese, and a little chocolate and nuts instead. Just the all-snack evening. Lee's out of town again, so I also am fasting breakfast. 143.0 this morning, lost some of whatever it was I put on over the weekend.
I got some size 10 pants from LL Bean yesterday in the UPS. Also some shorts. I tried on the pants, and they're woefully too small, despite my matching the size 10 measurements on their size chart exactly. So the pants go back, I think. The shorts, on the other hand, also size 10, are fine - roomy, even. Not sure what's going on; it may be the style I went with on the pants. What's really irritating, though, is that I have the same pants in a 12, and they're tentlike. So I have no options, except maybe to go with a slightly different style of pants - one like the shorts. I guess. Can't sew right now; the sewing room is where my clothes are while we're redoing the master bathroom. It's just a bit annoying.
My new order of grassfed beef arrives today - I found a local source, Sun Prairie Beef, that has ground beef for less than what we're paying for bison at Costco. And given that bison is grain finished (at least, I'm fairly sure that the brand we buy is), it will be healthier for us. So that's pretty exciting. If this is any good, I'll look into some of their other offerings - steaks and roasts and what not. I feel like we could get some significant health benefits from switching to grassfed - that, and trying harder to get away from the franken-oils; we still get a fair amount of that stuff through processed food (like chips) and at restaurants. So worth the effort, I think.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Monday
We had a pretty good weekend - it was sunny and warm (84) here on Saturday, so I was able to get my vegetable garden cleaned up and ready for the season, and even planted some lettuce and spinach seeds, since they prefer colder weather. It felt so good to be outside, lifting some mildly heavy things (bags of composted manure) and creating Vitamin D.
Yesterday was another season entirely - started out warm, but ended the day alternating between rain and snow, and below freezing overnight. It was 21 this morning. Good timing with the rain/snow mix, though - it watered my seeds in for me. We spent most of the day sitting around, staying warm and dry. I was a little achy from the exercise of the day before, but not much. A couple of extra fish oils do seem to help with that a lot.
We tried to eat well this weekend, and mostly made it, but I had gained a goodish bit by this morning - 143.8, according to the scale. I was a little surprised. It may be muscle tissue, or some inflammation water from being stiff and sore. I guess it's a wait and see item - what will tomorrow look like?
Yesterday was another season entirely - started out warm, but ended the day alternating between rain and snow, and below freezing overnight. It was 21 this morning. Good timing with the rain/snow mix, though - it watered my seeds in for me. We spent most of the day sitting around, staying warm and dry. I was a little achy from the exercise of the day before, but not much. A couple of extra fish oils do seem to help with that a lot.
We tried to eat well this weekend, and mostly made it, but I had gained a goodish bit by this morning - 143.8, according to the scale. I was a little surprised. It may be muscle tissue, or some inflammation water from being stiff and sore. I guess it's a wait and see item - what will tomorrow look like?
Friday, April 1, 2011
April Fool's Day
Sad but true - I spent time this morning trying to figure out where the apostrophe goes in "April Fool's Day" - and I still may not have it right. Pretty sure one is needed, though.
On to germane topics. I had a conversation with Liz yesterday, while she was trying to find some lunch. She was in one of the on-campus convenience stores, and wondered aloud how she'd ever survived her first two years eating "that way". Said something about two weeks eating nothing but Spaghettios, and then wandered out to find some place that would give her tuna, either on Subway's "thin bread" or maybe on lettuce. No, she's not fully on board with abandoning wheat products, even when they give her nasty digestive symptoms, but she is trying, and she does seem to "get it" - that we shouldn't be going heavy on the starchy grain-based food. It's a start.
Lee and I went to Chipotle for dinner - he had a bowl with no beans, but with rice, and liked it better that way. I had barbacoa tacos on soft corn tortillas - ate 2 of the tortillas and the last taco's filling with a fork. You can eat pretty darn well there with not a lot of effort, really. He is stalled again - saw the underside of 200 for a couple of weeks, then went on travel for a while and lost the momentum. I told him we could get religious for a while - much more low-carb - and get him back on track, and we can.
I linked to Dr. Harris' Paleo 2.0 post yesterday, and just want to say again how on-target he is. Let the science lead, and eat in ways that don't cause harm. We include dairy, occasional rice, and occasional corn (and occasional bad cheat days!), and have improved our health across the board (granted, Liz has traded digestive issues for balance issues, but I think would still say she is happy to have lost the digestive issues). I should also admit that I'm drinking a Red Bull (sugar-free) right now - something that surely would not have been available to Grok or his tribe. (I'm still fighting night sweats, and haven't slept well for going on a week now - although I do remember dreaming about running in a 5K or something last night - wouldn't have done that while awake.)
I did have some chocolate and some coconut after dinner last night - also rather a lot of cheese, now that I think of it - we were both starving after dinner, for some reason. 142.2 this morning. If we do go stricter low-carb for a while to get Lee re-started on weight loss, I imagine I'll see that go down a bit. Probably not much, though - I do think I'm where my body thinks it ought to be.
On to germane topics. I had a conversation with Liz yesterday, while she was trying to find some lunch. She was in one of the on-campus convenience stores, and wondered aloud how she'd ever survived her first two years eating "that way". Said something about two weeks eating nothing but Spaghettios, and then wandered out to find some place that would give her tuna, either on Subway's "thin bread" or maybe on lettuce. No, she's not fully on board with abandoning wheat products, even when they give her nasty digestive symptoms, but she is trying, and she does seem to "get it" - that we shouldn't be going heavy on the starchy grain-based food. It's a start.
Lee and I went to Chipotle for dinner - he had a bowl with no beans, but with rice, and liked it better that way. I had barbacoa tacos on soft corn tortillas - ate 2 of the tortillas and the last taco's filling with a fork. You can eat pretty darn well there with not a lot of effort, really. He is stalled again - saw the underside of 200 for a couple of weeks, then went on travel for a while and lost the momentum. I told him we could get religious for a while - much more low-carb - and get him back on track, and we can.
I linked to Dr. Harris' Paleo 2.0 post yesterday, and just want to say again how on-target he is. Let the science lead, and eat in ways that don't cause harm. We include dairy, occasional rice, and occasional corn (and occasional bad cheat days!), and have improved our health across the board (granted, Liz has traded digestive issues for balance issues, but I think would still say she is happy to have lost the digestive issues). I should also admit that I'm drinking a Red Bull (sugar-free) right now - something that surely would not have been available to Grok or his tribe. (I'm still fighting night sweats, and haven't slept well for going on a week now - although I do remember dreaming about running in a 5K or something last night - wouldn't have done that while awake.)
I did have some chocolate and some coconut after dinner last night - also rather a lot of cheese, now that I think of it - we were both starving after dinner, for some reason. 142.2 this morning. If we do go stricter low-carb for a while to get Lee re-started on weight loss, I imagine I'll see that go down a bit. Probably not much, though - I do think I'm where my body thinks it ought to be.
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