Friday, June 29, 2012

Friday

Nothing day yesterday.  Not nearly enough to do at work, so I ate more chocolate than I might have otherwise.  Having the Lindt handy (initially spelled that "handty") was helpful, I think - one square of that seems to stop chocolate cravings cold, if I eat it slowly enough.

148.6 this morning, after a screaming leg-cramp somewhere in the middle of the night.  I remember getting out of bed very rapidly to stomp it out, and being asleep almost immediately after I laid back down.  Melatonin is good stuff.  I woke up for real for the first time at 5:25 am.  And, come to think of it, the night included a phone call at 9:52 pm, well after we'd given it up and turned the lights out - from a demon of a phone survey company that literally doesn't know when to stop (aren't there laws against late night commercial calls?).

Here's yesterday's eating:
  • scrambled eggs
  • tea with cream
  • bacon
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • chocolate - both Pearls and Lindt
  • chicken breast
  • salad with blue cheese dressing
  • more cheese
And then I stopped eating.  We watched swimming for a while and then switched over to track and field, mostly people doing the 5000M run on a quarter-mile track.  I like a good 5K, myself, but it's at least partly for the scenery.  I think the race ran 12-1/2 laps or something.  Surprised the boredom didn't kill off a few competitors, really.


Weekend coming up.  Not sure what we'll get done; I have some megalithic "wildflowers" to remove - they came in one of those packets of mixed seeds and are now taller than anyone in the family with mostly foliage and some fairly lame yellow flowers.  They'll be getting trimmed back or dug up this weekend at some point, I think.  That may be my only outdoor/exercise activity.  I hope not, but we seem to be kind of overcommitted, at least on Saturday.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Thursday

Yesterday involved cat-grooming, no other exercise - and I was sore.  So, 149.2 this morning; here's what I ate yesterday:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • Lindt (2 squares)
  • Pearls (about 10, I'd guess)
  • beef jerky
  • more tea with cream
  • more cheese
  • quarterpounderwithcheesenobun
  • about 10 fries
  • walnuts
  • strawberry ice cream
  • a bag of salt and pepper potato chips (not as bad as that sounds)
The last was because my throat was unhappy due to the smoke all around, and I thought something intensely salty would help.  Problem was, these were artisanal chips and not nearly salty enough.  I still finished the single-portion bag.

Probably will go back to my core isometrics today, as my abs are slightly less painful.  That and some situps tonight, but I am hoping to spend the 7-8 hour watching the Olympic swimming trials.  That was the plan for evenings this week, and so far, we've managed the whole hour exactly once.  Yikes.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Wednesday

I did 40 situps yesterday - until I could sit up no more.  My abs are painful.  I have also been doing something I like to call "suck in your gut until either you can't anymore, or a bright shiny object distracts you" throughout the day at intervals, because the crunch jig we have (bent metal tubes with a headrest) seems to focus on the upper abs only, and sucking in my gut works the lower ones - or so I think.  In any event, it all hurts this morning.

No other gym stuff yesterday - we had stuff to do during that hour - and we have stuff to do tonight as well.  I'd rather do the gym, but it's not going to happen.  Some of the stuff we had to do last night was eating Mexican food for dinner, so I expected to be up today, and I am a bit - 149.2.  I kept my chip consumption down, though, and had only 2 chocolate almonds after we got home.  Here's yesterday:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • beef jerky
  • chips and salsa
  • cheese enchiladas with green chile (flour is an ingredient)
  • about a tablespoon of refried beans
  • ditto rice - maybe less
  • iced tea
  • two chocolate almonds
I brought one of my Lindt bars in to work today.  Don't intend to gorge or anything, but I think it will keep me away from worse-for-me chocolate options, and a little goes a very long way.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Tuesday

Went to the gym last night; I am determined to work on strength, and my general sense is that bodyweight exercises might be a bit too heavy for me.  Sad, indeed.  So I used the leg press machine, set to 90 pounds, which felt very heavy indeed (almost too much to move), to as near exhaustion as I could get it, and then did the chest press machine, set to 0, which was almost too much as well.  Walked on a tricked-out treadmill for 10 minutes after, at 3.5ish mph.  Progress will happen, as long as I keep doing this stuff.  Every other night, I think.

Went home, had miscellaneous grilled meat and a salad for dinner, and two pieces of cheese for dessert - trying to ramp down the sugar intake again.  And did situps while watching the Olympic trials.  Thought I saw one of the 5K athletes wearing Vibrams, but in retrospect, they probably weren't.

149.0 this morning.  Here's yesterday:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • 3 Godiva pearls (all I had left, so easy to count)
  • a beef burger patty (not grassfed)
  • a hot dog
  • mustard and ketchup
  • pickles
  • salad with blue cheese dressing
  • more cheese
That was it.  Something I ate over the weekend was bugging my stomach a bit yesterday, but that seems to be quieting down a bit.

Also signed Elizabeth and myself up for a 5K in August - all downhill, one of our favorites.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Monday

I thought I ate pretty well all weekend.  I thought.  149.4 this morning, although both yesterday and Saturday said 148.8, and I ate so well yesterday that I was expecting it to drop, not rise.  Annoying, that.

Here's yesterday:
  • 4 pieces of bacon
  • tea with cream
  • half an omelet from IHOP, with ham, cheese, tomatoes
  • basically no supplements (except the AM menopause stuff)
  • a salad with sesame dressing (probably poisonous, but small)
  • maybe a piece of cheese?
  • salad with blue cheese dressing
  • cole slaw
  • a small portion of potato salad
  • a venison burger, bunless, with ketchup, mustard, and pickles
  • iced tea
  • a glass of gewurztraminer
  • berry crisp with almond crust and a bit of cream
  • a few potato chips
I think that was it.  I certainly hope it was - it looks worse now than it did at the time.  Or at least, it looks like a lot of food.

Sleep continues to go very well.  I have suggested to the family that we resume hitting the gym before dinner tonight, with the intent of working on my strength in particular, and of getting in a bit more walking - with all the wildfires here, the air outside is gnarly and it's very hot these days, so we're not walking anywhere if we don't have to - and I realized recently that I'm not getting any walking in now that I'm parking at work instead of several blocks away.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Friday

Let's see.  Start with the food list for yesterday, or go straight to the confession?  Be brave.  I have gained weight in my waist and hips.  There.  I know this because I was buying underwear over the internet, and without being able to stretch it across your fully-clothed hips, you just can't be sure of a size without breaking out the measuring tape.  And there it was - several inches increase in both measurements.  I am nowhere near apple-shaped, but it bears watching.  And getting more fresh air and routine exercise than I have been.  I think it's possible - barely - that the lack of the two-block walk I had to and from work up until February just might have made a difference.  Now I just come inside from the front parking lot - a shorter distance.  That, and probably a bigger than I want to admit uptake in my sugar intake over the past year.  Stops now, by the way.

I'm happy to say that Elizabeth is back being hardcore low-carb.  And, unfortunately, having fun with leg cramps again.  I gave her extra potassium at breakfast and told her to have Gatorade en route to work.  Hope it helps.

Back to the usual.  149.2 this morning, so I did no harm yesterday.  Always good.  Here's the breakdown:
  • scrambled eggs (nasty pale ones that have NO taste)
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • Godiva pearls (lots of them - see below)
  • steak-and-wedge salad with blue cheese, tomatoes, bacon bits, and blue cheese dressing
  • iced tea
  • walnuts
  • more cheese (I was hungry after dinner)
That was it.  As for the pearls, I got a horrible craving for candy just around lunchtime yesterday, and had gone so far as to take a dollar bill down to visit the candy machine, which contained plain M&Ms.  But the machine would not take the dollar, no matter how I presented it, so I was saved from myself, and fell back on the Godiva.  Many fewer of them than would have been in the M&M bag, and certainly fewer than a "serving" - what was that, 68 pieces? 

Since it's summer and the fruit is going crazy (I suspect a trip to the raspberry bushes tonight or tomorrow will bring in more than we've eaten so far), I won't start a sugar detox right away, but I think one is called for.  In the meantime, I need to recall that we have a package of salami in the fridge, and to eat that when I feel snacky.  That and olives.  Dilly beans, and pickled okra.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Thursday

Not much to say, today.  149.6, flirting with 150.0 on the scale this morning (it could not make up its mind).  Here's yesterday:
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • Godiva pearls
  • hot dogs
  • sliced tomatoes
  • raspberry/blueberry/nectarine crisp with almond crust (yum!) and heavy cream
  • walnuts
Slept like much of a log again last night, despite a dream in which I'd stolen a police car - it woke me up for a short time, around 4, I think.

The crisp used up the berries I'd picked up to yesterday - but I went out after dinner and picked nearly that many raspberries again.  They are wonderful, and really like the garden!  We are also doing well with the blueberries for a second season - I will continue to mulch them with pine needles, to keep the pH on the acidic side.  Strawberries, on the other hand, were a bust this year - the bearing plants were buried in raspberries and I didn't net them early enough, and the transplants are getting nicely established this year, but aren't bearing.  Ah, well.  Maybe next year.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Wednesday

Yesterday was just, well, weird.  Started at 5:51 am with an emergency call for work, and wrapped up around 7:30 pm, with another emergency call for work.  In between, it appears that I didn't eat all that much.  Here's the list:
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • beef jerky
  • Godiva pearls
  • cheese
  • chips and salsa (more than I should have, but they're seriously addictive)
  • chicken fajitas, no tortillas, with green chile
  • ice cream with coconut and strawberries in 
That was it.  I guess all days should be that busy.  That said, the scale acknowledges only a slight dip in weight - 149.0.  But given that it was Mexican for the third day in the space of a week, I guess I should be heartily grateful.

Sleep continues to be good - even when I have to get up for a bathroom run in the middle of it, it's as uninterrupted as possible, and feels in the morning like rest occurred.  I have stopped standing on one leg and am just relying on the melatonin - but that stuff is a serious keeper.  As are the new menopause supplements - they are magnificent.  Yes, hot flashes still occur, but not very often, and not very hard.  I can live like this - and when this whole thing hit me for the second time a few months ago, I couldn't.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Tuesday?

My workday started at 5:50 am with an emergency, so I'm a bit muddled.  I think the scale said 149.4 this morning, but what really registered was that there were numbers displaying, not so much what the numbers were.  Whatever. 

Sleep continues good - still attributed to the melatonin.  Woke abruptly with a calf cramp about 5:00, which isn't too bad, considering.  Here's yesterday's eating:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual Monday supplements
  • cheese
  • raspberries
  • Godiva pearls, I think
  • about 2/3 pound grassfed ground beef in patties, with ketchup and mustard
  • pickles
  • cole slaw
  • possibly a couple of chocolate almonds
  • walnuts
I'm not quite fasting today - no breakfast proper as we were out of eggs, and I was on the phone for work until 8 - but I did have some beef jerky for breakfast once I got into the office, and have had some Godiva pearls already (it's 10:30). 

Dinner will likely be out, since I have a haircut shortly after work.  Worse, it will likely be (yes, again) Mexican food, since our favorite Mexican restaurant is near the haircut place.

Onward.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Monday

As of yesterday morning, I thought I was doing pretty well - and I ate well yesterday.  So, 'splain this to me: yesterday morning the scale said 148.2; this morning it says 149.4.  Sheesh.

I think the melatonin in the "PM" portion of the current menopause relief stuff is going to be a total confounder in my attempt to see if standing on one leg helps me sleep better.  As an example, I went to bed on Saturday (after a late night Friday working) at 8:30, was asleep well before 10, and didn't so much as have a fleeting semi-conscious thought until 6 on Sunday.  I cannot recall the last time I slept like that without taking something with Benadryl in it.  It was lovely.  Last night was similar, although I woke at 3:30ish briefly because I'd turned on the mattress pad at some point and got too hot.  Turned it off, turned on something on my iPod, rolled over, and knew nothing until 5:20, just before the alarm went off.  So the question becomes, am I going to continue standing on one leg twice a day?  I don't know.  I have the reminders in my work calendar for another week or so - guess I'll see what I feel like doing once the next one goes off.

Here's yesterday's eating:
  • scrambled eggs
  • lotsa bacon (we ate out)
  • sliced tomatoes
  • tea with cream
  • cheese
  • chocolate almonds
  • wine (ultiimately, 3 glasses)
  • a little more cheese
  • a couple small handfuls of mixed nuts - cashews, almonds, hazelnuts
  • ham
  • fruit salad (grapes, blackberries, banana slices, strawberry bits)
  • baked beans (not many - they had a very sweet sauce)
  • the ice cream and frosting from an ice-cream cake
I feel like I had more in mid-day, but I cannot for the life of me recall what it might have been - maybe just multiple slices of cheese, truthfully.  Friday and Saturday we had Mexican for dinner, although at least on Saturday, I had fajitas - slight improvement over Friday's enchiladas.  Both nights, I partook of the chips and salsa.

Probably taco salad or burger patties tonight for dinner, depending on what we feel like when it comes to cooking.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Friday

I don't know if it's the melatonin or the standing, but my sleep quality is definitely improving.  Thank goodness!  I was pushing zombie earlier in the week.

Removing the M&Ms was definitely the right move.  They're much easier to ignore in the house than they were here.  I could see possibly loading up the Godiva Pearl container with them at some point, to limit the damage, but it's possible that they have something in them making them more addictive and the risk exists that I'd empty the can each time I opened it for "just one".  So maybe not.  In any event, without the damn things, I'm back down to 148.8 this morning, and the ankle swelling is improved if not perfect.

Here's yesterday:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • beef jerky
  • a few Godiva pearls
  • salad with tuna and Kalamata olives, with a lemon dijon vinaigrette
  • iced tea
  • vanilla ice cream with raspberries from the garden mashed in (serious yum)
The new menopause supplements have Black Cohosh, with added biotin in the morning dose, and the aforementioned melatonin in the afternoon dose.  So far, they seem to be keeping things under control at least as well as the Estroven did - of course, it may take a few days for the soy estrogens to work themselves back out of my system, so I'm withholding judgement for now.  The biotin is supposed to improve my skin - not sure what menopause does to the skin in the first place, or how biotin might improve it, so I'll be reading up on that at some point.

No serious exertion planned for the weekend - probably some minor gardening (keeping up with the lettuce and raspberries is the prime task right now, and it doesn't take much time) and puttering around the house.  I think Lee is playing golf both days so I'll have a lot of time available for that.  Late night work tonight; that's always interesting.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Thursday

I have removed the M&Ms from my cubicle.  My thrifty side couldn't quite bear to toss them outright, so they're home, in a cupboard in the utility room, a place I used for candy stash when I first decided to try out this "Paleo Diet" thingie - in case things didn't work out, I could resurrect the candied almonds and peppermint bark from Christmas of 2009.  Come to think of it, that stuff may still be in there as well.  Probably time to get rid of it.

Anyway, I made it through a day without going berserk on sweets, with more to come, I think.  150.6 this morning.  I had huge water retention yesterday - my feet and ankles swelled up so much that I could feel the swelling while putting in the clutch on the nearly-endless commute home.  Not gone this morning, to look at my left ankle.  No idea what caused it.

Here's yesterday:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • beef jerky
  • a very few Godiva pearls
  • Qdoba naked burrito with no rice or beans, double shredded beef, guacamole, sour cream, and cheese
  • iced tea
  • a sugarless (maltitol-sweetened) chocolate
  • two raspberries and a strawberry, from the garden

I'm switching menopause support products, to one that is soy-free.  While the Estroven seems to help, I am just not comfortable about eating more soy products.  The new stuff is taken twice a day, and the bedtime dose includes melatonin, to help with sleep.  I think it did help, and may still be helping - I was pretty groggy this morning and am fighting now to stay upright.  I plan on taking the evening dose a bit earlier tonight - perhaps around 8:30.  I do hope it works at least close to as well as the Estroven; the thought of returning to the feeling of almost being ill with each flash is not pleasant.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Wednesday

The effing M&Ms are going home, where it's a 50-50 chance that they will head directly into the trash.  I ate lunch - LUNCH! - yesterday and still felt compelled to down a couple of handfuls before leaving.  I might as well have a bag of heroin in the desk drawer.  150.8 this morning, possibly as a result.

Could be that, could be the Estroven.  Could be a lot of things - and I know that.  But why risk it?  I have something in my office, where I spend most of my waking hours, that is bad for me.  I need not to have it there.

So, fine.  I managed one set of one-leg stands yesterday; the second set got lost in the shuffle of a late meeting.  I still slept really well last night - didn't wake at all, that I can recall, although I sort of remember turning off the heated bed pad (it was actually cold last night, and we were running the swamp cooler to try to filter the smoke from the wildfire out - don't think it worked, though), and maybe throwing the duvet off once.  Nothing else.

On the hot-flash front, either the Estroven is working pretty well, or I am needing it less.  I would certainly prefer not to be bombarding my system with phyto-estrogens from soy, so at a minimum, when the box is done, I will be switching over to another product that does not include such things - both were available at Costco and I chose the one with the soy for my first pass.  I think the other one is cheaper, too.  In any event, life has become manageable again, and I am grateful for that.

Here's yesterday's eating, as much as I remember.  Yesterday was a bit foggy, for some reason.
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • Cobb salad (no egg) with blue cheese dressing
  • iced tea
  • two handfuls of M&Ms
  • sausages (chicken-apple and something to do with bacon)
  • homemade sauerkraut
  • cole slaw
  • a few potato chips
  • a glass of Riesling
  • two chocolate almonds
  • a piece of cheese
I think that's all of it.  I've been thinking, especially as I've been struggling with weight a bit recently, and it seems to me that the family's overall diet has slacked off a bit.  Things like potato chips creep back into the house.  I buy M&Ms.  We have containers - small ones, I grant you - of ice cream in the freezer.  These are no longer treats, but are becoming everyday items again.  That seems to be a problem, to me, at least.  Probably not to Lee or Elizabeth, who never truly got on board with my approach.  Lee can tell a waiter, "we don't eat bread" with a straight face, and turn around and order breaded, fried oysters in the next breath.  Same with Elizabeth, who won't eat pasta but will eat chicken nuggets.

I think I'm going to have to learn to cope with this; I cannot eat those things without gaining weight, and I don't want to eat them, because they degrade my health.  I have managed to exist in the world outside of the home by recognizing that some of the items other people eat are just not "food" to me, and I guess it will have to work that way at home, as well.  Can I do it?  I have to.

Oh, and by the way - total fail this morning in the shower.  I realized I hadn't put any cold water on about 5 minutes after I'd been out of it.  I will keep trying.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Tuesday

Execrable day yesterday.  4+ hours of straight meetings, including a lunch meeting at which they served pasta.  I was tired and achy and cranky, and felt a bit off, so I ate bad things to make it worse.  4-5 handfuls of the dark chocolate M&Ms; so much for ignoring them, or disliking them.  None today, thank you.  150.2 this morning, unsurprisingly.

Got a good night's sleep last night - so good that I don't recall if I had any hot flashes - and this was without any sleep aids.  I'm all for that sort of night.  I don't know if it was the standing on one leg or not, but I did do it yesterday.  And will do it again today.

What else?  Not much.  Here's yesterday's eating:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • M&Ms (too many)
  • salad with balsamic vinaigrette
  • cheese
  • hot and sour soup
  • cashew chicken
  • two fried noodles 
  • a fortune cookie
  • a very tiny homegrown strawberry
  • a few walnuts
That was it.  I guess, on review, it wasn't that bad - but the M&Ms were over the top.  I was insane to have bought them, and the right thing to do at this point would be to donate them to charity or something.  Will I?  I don't know.  Maybe.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Monday

So, you know how I said of the Bolder Boulder that I didn't "leave it on the course"?  Not quite the same results this past weekend, and I'm still stiff.   I did a 5K to pass some time while we were in Cheyenne, and passed 44 minutes and 8.31 seconds.  Quite a bit hotter pace than in the BB, although over less ground.  And on not much sleep - for whatever reason, the hotel bed struck me all wrong on Friday night, and I had one of those nights where you're absolutely sure you didn't sleep, although you recall the odd semi-dream.  Coconut milk saved me - I took a can with us and drank about three-quarters of it before the race.  But that last tenth of a mile was a killer.

It was quite hot on Saturday, to boot - easily in the 80s before I was done with the race.  Went back to the hotel with a partial intent of taking the cold shower or bath advocated for good recovery - and I sorta did.  I ran cold water over my right shoulder and glutes for as long as I could stand it - don't know if it helped or not, really - and later in the afternoon, I took a nice hot bath as well, which may have undone the good of the cold stuff.

Eating was a mixed bag over the weekend.  I had some of the dark-chocolate M&Ms on Friday at work; I'm finding them less satisfying than I hope each time, so the 3 bags could last me a very long time.  A salad with chicken in at Wendy's for dinner because I really wasn't very hungry.  Then dessert once we got to Cheyenne, which was creme brulee - AND a brandy Alexander because I'd never had one.  It wasn't bad - fairly egg-noggy.  But I walked out of the restaurant feeling overstuffed.  Saturday was breakfast, nuts, more Wendy's (double cheese, no bun, adequate), and dinner was at a restaurant with a chef from South Carolina - I had a salad and shrimp-and-grits, which was good, but spicy.  Left a lot of the grits.  Yesterday breaks down like this:
  • bacon
  • sausage (bland!)
  • strawberries
  • cottage cheese
  • tea with cream
  • 3 raspberries
  • cheese
  • a bag of potato chips
  • walnuts
  • filet mignon (from Costco, I think, and absolutely tasteless)
  • salad with homemade zesty Italian dressing
  • tea
  • a strawberry Haagen-Dasz cup
  • chocolate almonds
I think that was everything.  Not organized, so lots of small things.  Elizabeth and I were on the road before 8:00 am, and home by 10ish.  I was able to putter around the house much of the afternoon - picked lettuce and a few early raspberries (they're just starting to ripen, but when the main wave hits, I'm going to struggle to keep up with them!), made salad dressing, stuff like that.

148.2 this morning, and damn glad to be there.  Hoping to keep things in that neighborhood or lower this week - also hoping that my return to racing may improve my muscle comp in the hips/legs area.

I remembered to cool down my shower this morning - it actually felt rather good - and will be continuing the standing experiment this week.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Friday

Fairly successful inadvertent fast, I'd say.  Not in a weight-loss sense - I dropped about half a pound - but in ease of achievement.  I ate cheese at lunchtime, but I wasn't ever intending to go another 22-24 hours.  Scale says 148.2 this morning.

And a report on the n=1s.  I have managed 2 straight days in which my shower finishes with a gasp, and this morning, I even remembered to hit the cold water before turning everything off, so that's an improvement.  Can't say much about my mood - it's good enough, I guess.

I did stand on each leg twice yesterday, until they got really sore, but I don't think I hit muscle exhaustion - I've hit that before doing slow burn pushups, and my legs never collapsed on me as my arms did then.  Sleep?  Pretty nasty, as a matter of fact.  I had some fasciculation in my calves, and my feet tended to want to bend in funny directions - not exactly cramps, because I could control it, but distracting.  I woke up around 4:40 am - possibly for the first time - but not feeling any more rested than normal, that I could tell, and my sense is that I had a disturbed night, that I wasn't ever really fully asleep.  I don't think a single night is enough to judge, though, and I have reminders on my work calendar to stand on one leg twice a day for the next two weeks, which should give me a reasonable sample. 

Here's yesterday's eating:
  • cheese (ultimately, 3 pieces; 2 at lunch, one after work but before dinner)
  • burger with cheddar cheese and green chile
  • regular and sweet-potato fries, with catsup
  • a glass of Chardonnay
That was it.  It was plenty, and all consumed between noon and 8 pm, so I even hit the magic 16-8 window, if that matters.

We're on the road this weekend, so I have the advantage of being separated from easy snack food, with the disadvantage of restaurant dining.  I have lost weight in this situation before, and I am planning on that 5K tomorrow, so I'll be getting some exercise as well.  And lots of sun, I hope. 

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Some n=1s in progress (recent)

It's that kind of summer, I think.  Did a 10K to keep my daughter company and realized how much I missed doing road races, so plans arose to do more.  Read a couple of blogs with self-experimentation in them, and thought I'd give them a try. 

First, Mark Sisson had a thing earlier this week about cold water immersion.  Supposedly it improves mood.  I can always use a little mood improvement, so I thought I would try to end my showers with a cold blast for a few seconds (or as long as I could stand it - if that improves, maybe I'll do the final hair rinse in cold water or something).  The plan was to start that either yesterday or the day before, but I forgot at least once, maybe twice.  Finally had to restart the shower, this time cold, this morning, just to kick things off.  Am I in a better mood?  I dunno - I'm fairly tired this morning, so it's a bit hard to tell.  If I can get it to be a routine, I should be better able to judge.

Second, I got re-pointed to Seth Roberts' blog this morning by a link from Hunt.Gather.Love and was re-introduced to his findings that standing on one leg to exhaustion several times a day would improve sleep.  Given my state this morning, that one interested me a lot, so I'm going to try it.  I've already done it twice (once each leg) and will shoot for his optimal 4 tries per day with rest time in between.  If it works for me, I will pass it on to the family (who will definitely find the idea very funny).  If the improvements are quick, I might just get them to try it enough to effect some improvements.  We shall see.

Thursday

I heard the lamentations of my daughter yesterday, and ventured to cook something that wasn't grilled-meat-and-salad for dinner: Shrimp Etoufee, based on the Paleo Comfort Foods recipe.  Crawfish isn't exactly readily available in the Denver suburbs, after all.  It was legitimate.  Good stuff, although it ended up being rather spicy - I might cut the heat next time.  Their recipe used Almond flour for the roux, and while I'm a fan of Almond flour for a lot of uses, I can't see basing gravy off it, so I used rice flour, my standby since our first Paleo Thanksgiving.  Worked like a champ.  And we had real rice; I've been hearing too much from the family about cauliflower substitutes and didn't want to risk that version.  Anyway, that recipe is a keeper, for sure.

Of course, after dinner, Lee wanted ice cream - he's got a minor addiction to Cold Stone Creamery going this summer, so off we went.  I had something that involved their sweet cream flavor ice cream, with strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries in it - it was really good that way, and I don't think the berries had added sweeteners, so not as sweet as my other standby there - coconut pineapple.  Probably a higher carb day than I would have wanted, but not horrid.  And I was down to 148.6 this morning.  Here's the full breakdown:
  • tea with cream
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • shrimp etouffee with rice
  • ice cream as described above
  • three homegrown strawberries (the netting appears to be working)
That was it.  I went to check my netting after we got back from the ice cream jaunt, and found two tiny, very tart strawberries and one normal sized very sweet strawberry in the box, and picked and ate all three.  One of these years I'll have enough of them to gather for saving, but as things stand, if I see one, I grab it and scarf it down.  The raspberries are starting to turn red - I think we'll be able to start picking a few of them next week - and there are millions of them.  Raspberry canes really seem to like our environment.  In fact, one of them has emerged outside the raised bed, meaning things could get a bit out of hand in the next few years.  There are worse problems, for sure.

Fasting this morning due to crap sleep overnight.  We had a nasty storm blow through around midnight, and one of the dogs was having gastric difficulties resulting in two trips outdoors.  I feel functional, but not brilliant, this morning.

Trying to work out a way to do the 5K this weekend on coconut milk - given that we're in a motel, it may have to be consumed straight from the can, like I did in Seattle.  It works, but not my favorite thing to drink that way.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Wednesday

Easy fast yesterday - I wasn't even bored-hungry all day, and made it nicely until 6 pm without eating anything.  So I think that works out to 22 hours - one of the longer fasts I've done on purpose, I think.  Broke it with a trip to the local purveyor of Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food for gyro meat and salad - maybe gyro meat is not pure paleo, but it is darn tasty and very low carb, which is good enough for me.

149.4 this morning, a bit down.  I feel better - less crave-y, I think.  Will continue to work on eating a bit cleaner - more (seasonal) veg and less sugar.  Here's yesterday:
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • about 1/2 pound of gyro meat
  • salad with a sort of middle-easternish dressing (no idea, it could be Safeway house-brand "italian" for all I know)
  • strawberry-mango juice (my one major indulgence at that place, and it's wonderful)
  • cheese
  • one sugarless chocolate truffle
That was it.  I was too absorbed in following the Wisconsin elections on Twitter to eat, and we all crashed pretty early.  There's a cold going around at work, and I was feeling a bit nasal, so I took a couple of supplementary vitamin D3s and an Airborne after dinner, and that, with the early sleep, seems to have settled it - no sign of anything this morning.

We are going to Cheyenne for the weekend coming up, so Lee can play in a golf tournament.  Normally for me, that means a weekend of utter rest, as there isn't much to see in town that I haven't already seen.  Lounging by the pool, reading - that sort of thing.  But this weekend, I am thinking of doing a 5K, since they're running one in town on Saturday.  And then I'll revert to lounging by the pool, reading.  But the roadrace bug seems to be biting more this year than it has in a while, so I'll go with it.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Tuesday

Wrested a micron more control over myself yesterday.  Not perfect, but trending correctly.  I realized en route to work this morning that I've been eating unhealthy of late - not a good balance of stuff, but an emphasis on 3 or 4 items alone.  That can and will be fixed, starting at dinner tonight.

Still at 150.0 this morning.  Here's yesterday:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • cheese
  • bloody dark chocolate M&Ms - but fewer than a vending bag would have contained, I think
  • beef jerky
  • spare ribs braised in bone broth, tomatoes, peppers, onions, mushrooms, and a bit of soy sauce and molasses - good stuff!
  • mashed cheesy cauliflower
  • sliced tomatoes
  • walnuts
  • a bit of dark chocolate
I did get outside after dinner, but not for long.  The wind kicked up almost immediately, which made my mission - getting some netting around the strawberries, since they're disappearing rapidly - rather difficult.  Still, I think I managed it.  Had a magpie sitting on the fence nearby watching the proceedings - very unafraid of humans, as he let me get about a foot away before walking calmly to a slightly more distant point on the fence.  We chatted - or rather, I explained to him what I was doing as I was doing it. In all likelihood, he was watching to see how to get back into the strawberries after I finished my work, but it was nice to have that close of an encounter with wildlife.  After that, I more-or-less managed to keep my hands busy while reading, and will continue with that.  Although we really do have enough dish-drying towels, so what I move to once this is finished is beyond me.

Fasting this morning - planning on keeping it up until dinner.  I need to do a reset.  My plan for dinner is the tuna salad I've been planning for several weeks, now.  I hope Elizabeth is okay with that plan, since she and I are the only eaters tonight, Lee being at a meeting until later.  Think I'll try for a walk tonight, as well.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Monday

Gaaaah.  150.0 this morning, again.  The lowest I saw in all the water-retention-and-release follies was the 148.6 on Friday.  Because I have been snacking.  And I need to stop.  Boredom eating is a habit, and I really need to break it.

Anyway, I did a fairly longish walk on Saturday morning - went with Lee to the golf course, ate breakfast, and then walked home along a parks-and-rec trail between the two.  It's the same walk Elizabeth and I did about 3 weeks ago, only the other direction, so I think it was 4 miles and a bit.  Perfect morning for it, too.  Had a bit more of the "catch" sensation in my left ankle that bugged me during the Bolder Boulder, but later in the walk - and I cannot figure out what is causing it.  Exaggerated ankle movements on both sides seems to make it stop.

Not sure I can come up with yesterday's eating, but here's an attempt:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • no supplements (except Estroven in the afternoon when I realized I'd been overheated and sweaty about 3/4 of the morning)
  • two hot dogs with mustard (no bun, obviously)
  • about 4 tortilla chips with salsa
  • cheese
  • salted almonds
  • chocolate almonds
  • steak-and-wedge salad with blue cheese dressing
  • iced tea
  • one sugarless dark chocolate truffle (found them at Costco, on a limited availability; they use maltitol and are not bad at all)
  • tiny cup of Haagen-Dasz vanilla (the usual size we get, whatever that is - 1/2 cup?)
I was able to spend the morning outside gardening and/or running errands, so I really didn't eat anything after breakfast, but in the afternoon, I sat down and started reading, and that just leads me to want to snack.  Very bad.  Same with the evenings; after dinner is over, I just want to keep putting things in my mouth and chewing.  Going to start working on breaking that habit tonight - I have a kitchen towel I'm embroidering, and will work on that to the exclusion of other activities.  And I need to net off the berry plants from various shy wild creatures - they're already beating me to any strawberries that approach ripe.  And maybe also do a short walk with everyone - just to keep us moving.

Tonight's dinner is braised short ribs with peppers, onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms, and mashed cheesy cauliflower - we meant to have it last night, but I didn't get it started in the crock pot until 10 am, so at dinner time, the meat was still solid like a thick woody branch.  So we'll reheat it for dinner tonight.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Friday

At last, some of that damn water is gone.  Not all of it; my ankles are still thicker than normal.  But I'm down to 148.6 this morning and not as sore as yesterday.  That's all good.

And here we are on the brink of another weekend.  Unlike past years, this 4-day work week actually felt short.  Kinda nice, and unexpected.  My regular weeks are feeling short these days, as well - I credit the new job, which is yards better than the old one.  Hope it stays that way!

Lee wanted to get a new laptop last night, so we didn't sit around after dinner and eat.  On the other hand, sitting around and eating would have cost less than his new Macbook Pro - but when he decomissions his old laptop, we will be an all-Mac family.  Their stuff just works - I've had no issues whatsoever with mine, and it's what, 5 years old?  So that was fun.  We stopped by Target on the way home, so Elizabeth could get something for a sore toe, and I ended up buying 3 "Medium" bags of dark-chocolate M&Ms, with the idea of using them, over a long time, to allay any chocolate cravings I might get at work.  Got to work this morning, and could only wonder, "What. The. Hell. Was. I. Thinking????"  I have stuffed them in a drawer for now, and am trying to forget they exist.  I figure if I make it through today without opening a bag, I'll be fine, since we have a weekend in which to forget.  Seriously, though - M&Ms are not Lindt, not even close.

Here's yesterday's eating:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • beef jerky
  • grassfed beef burger with swiss cheese, catsup, and mustard
  • salad with green goddess dressing (our own lettuce)
  • 2/16ths of a Ritter Sport dark-chocolate-with-hazelnuts bar (darn good, too)
  • 4-5 chocolate cherries
  • 1 mini Altoids (not so sure about the green goddess dressing; it is fairly onion-y)
My plans for the weekend include being outdoors in scanty clothing (shorts and tanks) both mornings if at all possible; saw some interesting posts this week about the critical importance of vitamin D.  One of them pointed to a paper hypothesizing that coronary disease is microbial in origin and that D deficiency might leave one vulnerable.  Interesting, although not entirely sure their logic holds up.  I think it's time to start removing the lambs-ear from the big flower bed again, so that's one morning's project; don't know what I'll do the other, but something outdoors-y.  And if I'm even semi-serious about that half-marathon, it's probably time to strap on the Vibrams and start walking more regularly.  Maybe I'll go to breakfast with Lee before his golf, and then walk home.