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.