Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Tuesday

Well, I was right.  All that water retention was hormonal, and leading up to something.  Guess I'm not quite done with the roller-coaster.  I certainly hope this doesn't mean I have another round of bloody hot flashes yet to come, even if I've found a way to survive them this time.  In any event, I am hopeful that I will lose any remaining water, feel significantly less ugh in a couple of days, and be able to go about my business (and maybe lose some of this confounded weight!).

151.4 this morning, not that I should be there.  Here's yesterday's eating:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • salami (2 slices)
  • Lindt 85% chocolate (2 squares)
  • 6 oz bacon-wrapped filet
  • green beans with bacon and pecans
  • salad with blue cheese dressing
  • rather a lot of dried strawberries (so much for not snacking last night)
  • 3 pieces of cheese
Was that it?  I guess it was.  I keep thinking I'm eating badly, but that was actually a pretty stellar day - good fats, meat, dairy, and what the literature is now referring to as "cellular" carbs. As opposed to sugar and flour, which are acellular, I believe.  The former are said to be something we're adapted to eat.  Cool by me - whatever.  It does make sense, when you think about it; although Early Man could have acquired sugar/sucrose through honey occasionally, it wouldn't have been anywhere near as large a component of his diet as, say, fruit or tubers or leaves. 

Fasting today.  Slept rotten last night - my stomach was unhappy for some reason that I don't really understand, and it woke me up a couple of times with vivid, rather disturbing dreams.  I've been very distressed or angry in dreams this past week - which I will also put down to the hormones.  I hope that's the cause - I would like things to calm down a bit at night.

In any event, the fasting is for convenience - I have a haircut at 6:00 and will likely spend the dinner hour trying to get there from work, and it was tough to get moving this morning, so what the hey!  If I end up having some salami mid-day, I won't worry about it much.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Monday

We worked our butts off over the weekend, figuratively speaking.  Painting, moving furniture, moving books, cleaning up after same.  I am a bundle of ache.  And 152.2, still.  Saturday morning the scale said 150.something (8?  I truly cannot recall), but it was gone the next morning. 

I ate sorta-kinda well all weekend - the odd chip-and-salsa on Friday with carne asada for dinner; salad with chicken for lunch on Saturday after a breakfast of bacon.  Naked burgers that night for dinner. And fries.  I shoulda asked for them to be omitted.  You'd think I'd know by now.

I do have ankles again, which is nice.  I don't know if they'll stay put, or if I'll see them disappear in a pool of retained water as the week goes by.  Guess we'll see.  But I think this is the first time they've been back since the 4th, so that's a good thing.

Sleep has been okay of late - I'm taking magnesium at bedtime instead of melatonin, and it seems to be working.  I do find myself waking in the pre-dawn hours; generally a dream touches too near the surface, and blammo! I'm checking the time, and it's 3-4 am pretty much regularly.  A trip to the restroom, a little old-time radio and I'm back to dreamland very quickly, so I can live with it.

Here's yesterday's eating, as near as I can recall:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • cheese (a couple of pieces)
  • walnuts (several times)
  • chocolate cherries (about 10, spread over the day)
  • salad with blue cheese dressing
  • a couple of hunks of tri-tip in a Guy Fieri marinade - the ingredients list had franken-oils, but well down on the list and nothing else bad, so we will probably do it again; it was pretty tasty
I think that was it.  I tried pretty hard to keep things under control, and I did show a "small" level of ketosis at bedtime.  My focus for this week is going to be on snacking, since I think it is causing me issues.  Things are a bit more stressful than I would like just now - we've been busier in the evenings than normal, what with moving Elizabeth out and getting the guest room set up in her former bedroom (she did admit that it was a bit disconcerting to see us do it so quickly - but I want my sewing room back, and the painting and what-not was a prerequisite for moving the furniture).  Work has been fine, but the commute has been getting to me - it's routinely more than an hour to get home each night.  And the house has been topsy-turvy with the new couch and the partial rearrangement of stuff to work with it until we could get bookcases in place.  Well, that's all finished now - part of the weekend's work - so I think we can start a "puttering" phase to get the last bits tidied and settled, and it shouldn't be so stressful.  I hope that's the case, anyway.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Friday

The fasting was successful - I went yesterday with no more nutrition than what is included in the heavy cream I added to two cups of tea.  Spent the evening painting - finished the ceiling and got a reasonable coat of primer on the walls.  Went to bed un-hungry and woke up in the same state.  I think I begin to understand how one might live for a year off a sufficient quantity of body fat.  All told, the fast ran for about 34 hours, I think.  I had breakfast this morning - the usual.

All that said, I am still stiff and swollen, and feeling quite tired, despite another night of solid sleep.  I even tried taking a pretty cold shower this morning - the whole shower, not just a burst at the end - to see if perhaps I could get some of the inflammation to subside.  It hasn't yet.

So, I'm at 152.4 this morning; will it stick?  I tend to doubt it, but will do my best to stay busy and away from the snack foods this weekend.  Not like there isn't plenty to do - finish painting, move furniture, and on and on.  It should be a busy weekend.  Probably lots of slow movement and lifting heavy things.

Oh, and here's yesterday's eating:
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
Just thought I'd throw that in there.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Fasting

... is different in menopause.  I'm no hungrier than on an earlier fast; mild stomach growling that subsides if I leave it for 10 minutes or so - certainly, I'm not feeling homicidal, shaky, headachy or any of those nasty carb-crash hunger things.  But my appetite is talking to me.  I had to go downstairs for a meeting a few minutes ago, and as soon as I hit the stairwell, a little voice was telling me to go all the way down and hit the machines up for a snack.  At another meeting, I was coveting my neighbor's sandwich in the worst way.  Thinking about what to eat for dinner.  Thinking about chocolate. 

I wouldn't call it cravings, exactly, but food is pretty much constantly on my mind right now.  Fortunately, my horror at my recent weight trend is much stronger than that.  And I will beat this, somehow.

Thursday

Here's yesterday's eating:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • cheese
  • beef jerky
  • a square of Lindt 85%
  • a Chipotle bowl consisting of double Barbacoa meat, two salsas, guacamole, and cheese
  • iced tea
  • a small thing of Strawberry Haagen-Dasz
So, of course, after that giant pig-fest, I gained another pound.  154.2 this morning.

I am fasting today.  I am probably ordering a ketone meter. 

I am also in pain all over.  The kind of body aches that make me feel extremely tired and cranky.  I stopped taking melatonin yesterday, on the off chance that it was contributing to my issues, and actually slept quite well, even with getting up at about 3:20 am to use the bathroom.  I also moved my magnesium intake to evening, since it is supposed to help with sleep.

I don't know what else I can do.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Wednesday

Potato chips and chocolate cherries.  My feet remain swollen up, I hurt all over, and I weigh 153.2 this morning. 

Life sucks.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Tuesday

Um, nutsoid evening yesterday.  I didn't eat what I intended to, and I ate what I hoped not to.  Such is life - especially when you eat at a restaurant.  152.6 this morning.

Here's yesterday:
  • tea with cream
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • beef jerky
  • two squares of Lindt 85% (spread over lunch and dinner)
  • naked Philly cheese steak
  • fries (dammit)
  • walnuts
  • 3 chocolate cherries
That was it.  Interspersed with helping move the guinea pigs and working on painting the corners of the ceiling in what was Elizabeth's room.  They look great this morning, but the ceiling paint is a different color from the corner ceiling paint.  It would be.  So we will have to do the whole damn thing now.

Fasted this morning just for the hell of it.  I have a bit of indigestion from yesterday's dinner.  And I would just like to say that Chili's puts something addictive in their fries.  They must be the best tasting ones on the planet.  Seriously.  I shoulda had the salad.

Picnic this afternoon - I'm bringing a spinach, goat cheese, cranberry, and walnut salad with balsamic vinaigrette.  And a chicken for dinner.  Good idea - I think we're starting to run short on chicken broth, so I can throw the carcase into the crock pot after.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Monday

Very slight, baby-steps, progress.  152.2 this morning; I saw 151.2 on Saturday, I think (maybe 151.6), but the swelling kicked back in some overnight and I was up yesterday to 152.6.  I think I ate pretty well all weekend, generally, and am starting to see my ankles again, at least in the early part of the day. 

We pretty much worked our butts off this weekend.  Saturday was the last push of the moving week - hauling the last boxes, breaking down the big furniture, bringing in movers for the really heavy and awkward stuff, things like that.  Add to it that we gave Elizabeth our giant sectional couch and got a new one, and that the new one beat the movers taking away the old one by about 20 seconds, which just added to the merriment.  Once we were back to a single couch-like piece of furniture, I spent probably an hour assembling the backs onto it (the ends recline - sue me) and coaxing it into the approximate place we want it in the living room.  Thing weighs a couple of bloody tons, seriously.  I had to walk it into place because the most I could move it in one step was about 2 inches.  Got that done, then had to move two bookcases and their contents, and the TV stand, so that we could see the latter from the couch - the whole room is reorienting 90 degrees.  I was one tired and achy puppy on Saturday night.  Fish oil and Advil are the bomb, though - on Sunday, I got up, painted woodwork in Elizabeth's former, now empty, bedroom, and then went to her place and helped hang curtains (which was a mixed success - she has vertical blinds already in there, that are not to be removed, and they got in the way of perfect curtain placement.  On the other hand, the curtains should help retain the air conditioning in the apartment - it is a bit leaky in that regard.

I don't actually feel all that awful this morning, nice to say.  A few mild aches and pains along my biceps and outer shins, but otherwise, pretty mobile.

Here's yesterday's eating:
  • tea with cream
  • cheese (2 -3 oz somewhere?)
  • naked fajitas - beef with peppers, guac, cheese, sour cream
  • a few bites of black beans and rice (I paid for every bite, too)
  • iced tea
  • about 4 chips with salsa
  • meatza - been wanting to make it, and it was quite good, although messy - pepperoni, mushroom, and green pepper
  • 3 chocolate cherries
  • one square of Lindt 85%

I think that was it.  Probably not ketotic - I'm thinking that I need to hit the meat-and-leaves thing pretty hard this week, remember to add fat, and avoid anything that is overtly carbs.  Should be interesting tomorrow, since our part of work is having a summer picnic thingie in the afternoon.  But certainly doable.

The water is not all gone, by the way - my fingers are still swollen, and my shoes are still tight.  Better, but not wholly fixed.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Friday

Garf.  I think I achieved some level of ketosis last night - or something.  In the evening, my ankles were still wider than my feet as we were doing furniture assembly at the new apartment, and I figured the nasty-sweet strawberry shake that Lee brought me (McDonalds - 112g carbs, which for me is 2-4 days worth) would crater all my good efforts for the day - especially as it was low-fat.  I did finish it, for what that's worth.

Anyway, we got home and I was sitting with my feet up, hoping they would drain a bit, when my left foot started cramping up badly, right in the arch.  I went out, to try to walk it off, and grabbed a Gatorade (10g more carbs, but also salt and potassium, so I was hoping it would help).  Drank that down quite quickly and things seemed to subside.

Until I had gone to bed and started falling asleep.  Both legs.  Shins and calves and feet and ankles, simultaneously.  For a while, I could not move, because picking a foot up off the ground put it into a position that made it impossible to put it back on the ground (it was dark, but at one point, I was quite willing to swear that the top of my foot was on the bottom and vice versa).  Worked the first wave out, went to the bathroom and got back in bed.  Started to drift off and BAM!  They came back.  I think this happened 3 or 4 times between 9:30 and I don't know what time.  At some point I went into the kitchen and grabbed 5 potassium tablets and took them - that used to help a bit when I was having leg cramps regularly, or I thought it did.  But when I was having leg cramps regularly, they were nothing as bad as last night.  Eventually, they stopped, and I got to sleep. 

I will note in passing that waking up to the news of the shooting in Aurora overnight was incredibly distressing - I'm both livid and inclined to weep right now.  I hope they are able to get some sort of explanation from the gunman, before hanging, drawing, and quartering him.

Here's what I ended up eating yesterday:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • 2 pieces of cheese around 2 pm (probably 3 oz)
  • another half ounce of cheese (dinner)
  • 4 slices of salami (dinner)
  • 2 french fries
  • the idiotic strawberry carb-bomb shake
  • a medium sized bottle of G2 Gatorade (10g carbs' worth - the label said the bottle held 2 servings)
  • 3 more pieces of cheese (1.5 oz total)
So, apart from the shake, I was doing pretty well, keeping carbs to a minimum, and it did (finally) start to make the water go away.  153.2 this morning.  I will continue to try to achieve SANE eating as much as is in my control (there was some politeness/family harmony stuff contributing to my drinking that shake; certainly I would have preferred not to).

I think I will have a bouillon today at some time, see if I can keep the cramps from returning at the same intensity tonight, although, as I've observed in the past, sometimes my eating has a delayed effect on me, so it's possible that the shake will make tonight uneventful, even if I eat or drink nothing else all day today.  Guess we'll see.

My feet are still swollen, so we're not done with the water just yet.  But I'm feeling a bit more hopeful.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Beginning to see the light, I think

Another gut-check in the links this morning.  I really like the message in this post on MDA.  And, like the ketosis reminder on Fat Head last week, it made me take a hard look at my current eating practices.

What do I see when I do that?  I've slipped.  A quote from the link:
SANE—or high quality, fat burning, and health promoting foods—are rich in water, fiber, and protein and are the basis of a Primal lifestyle: non-starchy vegetables, seafood, meat, eggs, berries, citrus, nuts, seeds, etc.
Even looking at yesterday, which was a relatively good day, I see some non-SANE items.  Doritos are not SANE.  Chocolate chips are not SANE.  And going over old posts of mine, more evidence:
Fortune cookies are not SANE.  Godiva Pearls are not SANE.  Chocolate blueberries are not SANE.  Boursin cheese spread is not SANE.  Ice cream is unlikely to be SANE. 

So my current actual weight, whatever it might be, is, I think, the result of eating in a non-SANE way.  I'm not getting nutrition with enough of my calories that my body is asking me to please try again - and stuffing the not-so-useful stuff away to get it out of my bloodstream.

Changes would look like this, I think:
  • Avoid the junk food more strictly.
  • Let Lee and Elizabeth go to Cold Stone without me, if they believe they need to go (they don't, but I'm tired of being the food sheriff).
  • Swap in - as I did last night - more ketogenic options (i.e., healthy fats like olives and cheese) and more food closer to its natural state (like the cherry tomatoes fresh off the plants). 
  • Limit the treats - make them treats again.   And make them high quality stuff - a square of Lindt 85%, rather than a milk chocolate almond or some m&ms.
That's doable.  And it will - eventually - help with some of the achiness and general ugh I've been feeling over the past couple of weeks.

Thursday

Wow.  Time flies when you're waiting to shed a bunch of retained water, and helping your daughter move (how did she acquire so much stuff before turning 23???).  More hauling of boxes and what-not yesterday, first out of my parents basement into a truck, and then out of the truck up another half flight of stairs to her apartment.  If nothing else, we are getting exercise this week.

The weight, she stays the same, basically.  154.2 this morning.  If we are to be following the pattern of this week, tomorrow I will wake up at 155.6.  I certainly hope not, but am past thinking that I have any idea what's going on.  As of bedtime last night I was in mild ketosis, for what that's worth.  Somewhere, fat is being burned.

Here is what I ate yesterday:
  • fat-bomb smoothie (1 can coconut milk, scoop protein powder, berries)
  • the usual supplements
  • tea with cream
  • cheese (2 pieces, probably between 2-3 oz)
  • grassfed burger pattie (1/3 pound) with worcestershire and various seasonings
  • canned green beans
  • sliced tomato and a few homegrown cherry tomatoes
  • a few shards of nacho-cheese doritos (maybe 3 chips' worth)
  • 1 almond-flour chocolate chip cookie
  • 2 more oz cheese
  • 10-15 olives
That was it.  I went to bed hungry.  And cold.  Once I got to sleep, I slept solid until around 4:30, I would guess, then fell back asleep quickly until the alarm woke me. 

As of this morning, my feet (right one in particular) are so swollen that my shoes are starting not to fit.  This definitely sucks.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Wednesday

Yesterday, this is all I ate:
  • scrambled egg (about 1; I undercooked them and runny eggs nauseate me)
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese (total of 2 pieces, maybe 3 oz max)
  • a cup of hot and sour soup
  • mushu chicken with no pancakes - chicken, bok choi, bamboo shoots, onions in a light sauce
  • one fortune cookie
  • a handful of walnuts
It boils down to 84g fat (66%), 34.6g carbs (12%), 63.4g protein (22%), and 1115 calories.  Under no circumstances should that cause me to gain weight - at worst, I might have maintained. 

So, it stands to reason that I weighed in this morning at 154.6 freaking pounds.  It's water; the laws of physics demand that it be water, for starters.  Also, I had cankles at bedtime last night - bad ones, and no urge to pee it out between then and now.

I can only blame the menopause.  I have no other explanation.  I ache from head to toe, so much so that when the dog woke us up at 3 am to go outside (this was trip 2 of the night), I hurt too much to get back to sleep for a good hour and some.  I was asleep when the alarm went off, though, so I must have managed it somehow.

The cankles are reminiscent of our cruise the summer of '08 when I decided to use birth control to delay my period a week.  I had to get a lymphatic massage to get rid of them that time.  But hormonal in origin, which is why I suspect hormones are at the root of this.  I will continue to eat as healthy as I can and aim for ketosis as a means of coping.  And did I mention that we're spending the week lifting awkwardly-shaped heavy objects as part of helping Elizabeth move?  That has contributed to the achiness, for sure.

I did go back to the melatonin last night.  It helped me get back to sleep after the first dog interruption.  I hope she's not starting to develop an issue, because we need our sleep right now.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Tuesday

It continues.  153.2 this morning.  Very irritating.  I'm quite tired this morning, to boot, and my eyelids are twitching.  I went yesterday without any of the menopause support stuff, to make sure that I'm not getting completely dependent on the melatonin to sleep, and while I was able to sleep without it, the quality was quite different - and not in a good way.  Didn't fall asleep until after 10:30, and woke at 4:00 in order to toss and turn for the next 90 minutes.  Blecch.

Here's yesterday's eats:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements (minus menopause stuff)
  • chips and salsa and a little guacamole
  • two cheese enchiladas with green chile
That was it.  Too many chips, I know, but other than that, it could have been worse.  Tonight - something with ground beef in it, although no idea what.  In any event, I am hoping to go this week without eating mid-day.  And without snacking.  When I look at things objectively, I can see that I've slowly crept into some bad habits and I want them to go away.  So I'm trying to conquer a few of them - one at a time.  Hopefully, that will help.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Monday

It's still happening.  Not that I helped it along any - I ate carbs beyond my normal intake nearly all weekend.  Just bad.  153.4 this morning, that's how bad.

Here's what I think I ate yesterday:
  • bacon
  • tea with cream
  • chocolate blueberries
  • cheese
  • salami
  • chips and salsa
  • a handful of cashews
  • walnuts
  • coconut chips
  • a pork chop
  • salad with salami, feta, and greek vinaigrette
  • a giant (well, medium) ice cream from Cold Stone
  • probably more crap I just can't recall
I blame hormones; right now I'm just craving carbs.  Was driving around either Friday or Saturday with a giant yen for spaghetti.  I have not had spaghetti, however.  Just chocolates and ice cream and chips. 

So, back on the wagon this morning.  Egg-and-bacon breakfast; will try to limit the cheese consumption throughout the day and wrap things up with a paleo-Chipotle selection (no beans, no rice, double meat, guac).  Elizabeth will be moving starting today (wrapping up Saturday, we hope), and we're on tap to help, so there shouldn't be much of a window for eating.

Sometime over the weekend, I slept wrong on my right shoulder or something; whatever happened, I'm about dying now.  Icy hot is not helping this time (tried it for the past two nights), and the pain runs from my neck down to my elbow.  I think it's a pinched nerve.  Not fun.  Advil for breakfast this morning.

On Saturday, Elizabeth and I made "bread" from a recipe I found online - eggs, cream cheese, cream of tartar, and salt.  I wasn't sure it would be good, but yesterday she took two of the pieces and achieved a reasonable facsimile of a grilled cheese sandwich.  Better living through (food) chemistry, I'd say.

Onward.  I will get this sorted out.  Somehow.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Friday

Well, this was just a stellar week - stellar.  151.6 this morning.  Crap sleep last night, due to work - I was able to go to bed just after midnight, and got up at 3:30 with the damn dog, and 6:00 with the day.  I am not a happy camper.

I do not know what the hell is going on with me.  I feel like the guy in Flowers for Algernon, as the stuff that made his brain work started wearing off.  I'm fighting some bad cravings for carbs right now, swelling up like a balloon, cranky as all get out - if I weren't menopausal, I could tell you exactly what this was.  And maybe next week I'll find that it's exactly something of the sort.

I'm not putting yesterday's eating into LoseIt - I already know it was complete crap.  Here's the list, best I can recall:
  • cheese (2 pieces, breakfast time)
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • more cheese (one piece, lunchtime)
  • a frozen "strawberry colada" bar (18.6g carbs, 16.1g sugar)
  • beef jerky, I'm fairly sure
  • gyro meat with tzaziki sauce
  • tea with cream
  • chocolate blueberries (about 20 overall, I think)
  • 7-8 potato chips
  • possibly some more cheese
At this point, I was trying to stay awake, so I wasn't paying much attention to my eating.  And now that I look at it, the frozen thingie (they were wandering the halls at work distributing the damn things - and yes, I could have abstained, and should have), blueberries, and potato chips were really my only bad items, and while high for me, hardly reach "crap-fest" levels.  If nothing else, I guess it demonstrates that, while not eating causes me to gain weight, going to the opposite extreme isn't going to make me lose weight - just thought I'd avoid the definition of insanity there.

I have not had breakfast.  I was too tired to get up in time for that - practically too tired to eat, really.  If that makes this a fast day, fine by me; if not, I'll be having a couple of pieces of cheese at some point today, since if I don't eat them, they may get "cleaned" out of the fridge over the weekend.

FWIW, I have been trying oil-pulling for a couple of days now - not to detoxify myself or anything, I don't actually believe in that, but to see if it's useful for teeth cleaning.  I have to say, what it was good for this morning was speeding up my shower - I didn't want to spit it out in there, so I had to wrap things up quickly in order to spit elsewhere.  This may end up being a 2-day experiment, since Lee's back next week and I don't think I want to try to explain this one.  And after 2 days, I can't really say I see/feel much difference.  Probably takes longer for actual results, right? 

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Thursday

This doesn't seem to be working.  First, here's my eating for yesterday:
  • tea with cream
  • bacon (2 pieces)
  • the usual supplements
  • one piece of cheese
  • one square of Lindt
  • big-ass salad with ham, cheddar/swiss, and blue cheese dressing
  • a cup of Haagen-Dasz (their snack-sized one)
  • a few walnut pieces
  • one potato chip
Really, not too bad, to look at.  But here's the breakdown:
  • Fat: 127.5g (71%)
  • Carbs: 38g (9%) with 22.1g sugars
  • Protein: 81.9g (20%)
And, this morning, damned if I'm not up some more - 151.2.  It feels like water - it has to be water, doesn't it?  I mean, even in old-school terms, I only ate 1602 calories.  Driving me absolutely nutsoid.  I can't not eat - and besides, at the rate things are going, not eating would only gain the weight faster.

I'm quite achy and swollen this morning, for what that's worth - my feet are too big for my shoes, and my fingers are swollen enough that my ring feels tight.  And I hurt all over.  I took extra fish oil and turmeric this morning in hopes of calming down whatever inflammatory stuff is occurring.

I took the elevator this morning.  In addition to everything else, I had crap sleep last night, due to the dog needing to visit the yard twice, and the aches and pains keeping me awake after the second outing.  And while I did lower-ab crunches/hip lifts (whatever those things are) last night, tonight, I'm doing nothing but recovery.  Quite apart from everything else, I have evening work tonight, anyway, so time will not be available.

This week has not played out at all as planned, I must say.  Major bummer.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Wednesday

Hmm.  Maybe this explains a few things.  I'm up to 151 this morning, and cranky as hell about it.  Some of it is probably water, but I'm not sure all of it is.  Here's what I ate yesterday, with a breakdown as well.
  • tea with cream
  • cheese (1 piece)
  • beef jerky
  • another piece of cheese
  • double quarter pounder with cheese, no bun
  • baby carrots with herb boursin cheese
  • one almond-flour chocolate chip cookie
In general, that doesn't seem too awful, but I put it into my calculator thingie.  Here's the results:
  • Fat: 100.6g 
  • Carbs: 48.5g (25.4g sugar)
  • Protein: 78.7g 
  • Calories (why not): 1393
So, if I'm trying to keep the protein down below 57g, I failed yesterday.  Good feedback to have, I think.  And back to salads with meat for dinner tonight.

As for the water, I continue in my quest to get some sort of exercise.  Did 70 curls with the situp jig, and 10 counter-level pushups yesterday, and did the 2 flights of stairs necessary to get to my desk.  Not great, but it's something - a little (too little!) movement and some lifting of somewhat heavy things.  I am going to rest my upper abs tonight and do some lower ab work - the whole stick-legs-in-air-and-lift-hips thing.

Elizabeth is still feeling really tired.  I am going to try to figure out how to get her more fat - I think she isn't getting enough energy throughout the day.  Not sure yet how to achieve that, but maybe make some sort of almond-flour carrot cake with cream cheese/butter frosting?  Not too carby of a base, and not too sweet, but full of fats.  And heaven knows, we have plenty of carrots around the house.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Hmm...

So, I finish my mini-rant, publish it, and refresh to see it, and this pops up: http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2012/07/09/low-carb-ketosis-not-necessarily/.  A good reminder, and needed; based on the protein RDA in one of the comments, I should be eating no more than 57g protein per day (and similarly low carbs).  I also put yesterday's eating in the LoseIt tracker on my phone, and came up with this breakdown:
  • Fat: 79.6g
  • Carbs: 23.5g, of which 13 were sugars
  • Protein: 44.1g
  • something like 963 calories
Always good to get data occasionally.  More of my days should look like this.

For what it's worth, the 963 calories were more than satiating.  Just sayin'.

Tuesday

It's just irksome.

I do understand that calories-in/calories-out isn't valid.  I get that there are other forces acting on how my metabolism handles food and energy expenditure.  But it's bloody annoying to get up after a day of very low energy intake in which I had some purposeful activity, and find that I've gained half a pound somewhere.  150.2 this morning.  And here's what I ate:
  • bacon (2 pieces)
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese (1 piece)
  • Lindt 85% chocolate (1 square)
  • Big-Ass Salad with salami, feta, and a fabulous greek vinaigrette
  • one other piece of cheese
  • two almond-flour chocolate chip cookies
As for energy output, I walked up (and down, obviously) 5 flights of stairs in our office building, each of which is 26 steps.  Once I got home from an unexpected outing last night, I did 63 situps and 13 pushups on the bathroom counter (much more effective than the wall) - both to exhaustion, or as near as I could get without a drill instructor.

I'm not buying that I expended 1800 fewer calories than I ate yesterday, especially given that I almost certainly didn't eat 1800 calories (in other words, for c-i/c-o to work, I'd have had to spend the day in a sensory deprivation chamber, trying not to breathe).  I believe that I'm still retaining some water, and would very much like the hormonal issues to go away and bother someone else, so it would leave me.

Stress could be a factor, but, ... well, here's what happened.  We went out after dinner to buy some groceries, so I could make some beef vegetable soup for a neighbor who had a very bad surgery experience and just got home from the hospital this past weekend.  Got the stuff, put it in the car, and turned the key, to find that it wasn't interested in starting.  Called (in this order) AAA, Lee, my parents, AAA again, my parents again, and Lee a couple more times.  Suffice it to say that my parents will be returning an unused car battery to the auto parts store this morning, and that the AAA guy turned out to be not so great at hooking up his jump-start rig to a Mini Cooper - I ended up getting towed to the dealer, which was mercifully still open at 8:30 last night, and they were able to diagnose the dead battery correctly, replace it, and send me on my way home by 9 pm.  Yikes.  So that should have been stressful.  Instead, I went into my handle-emergency mental state, sent Elizabeth in to buy ice and a cooler for the groceries that needed it, and really wasn't much bugged by the situation.  So maybe I secreted cortisol, and maybe I didn't - when I drove home, I was kinda chuffed at how well I'd handled things.

I'm fasting this morning - started to have a piece of cheese in lieu of cooking but decided to push hard today and see if I can get something to break.  It may not - I accept that menopause is a nasty piece of work - but it may, and if it does, I'll see if I can take advantage of any momentum thus gained.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Monday

I tried - and partly succeeded - to eat a bit lower carb over the weekend.  Not perfect, especially yesterday, but adequate.  149.6 this morning, and a drop over a weekend is always slightly miraculous.  Here's yesterday:
  • cheese
  • bacon (4 pieces)
  • milk chocolate-covered almonds (least offensive movie snack)
  • a very large "small" drink, which I filled with fizzy water
  • about 3 tortilla chips with some nacho cheese abomination
  • more tortilla chips with a layered dip (refried beans, guacamole, sour cream, cheese, tomatoes and onions) - maybe 5 or 6 of them
  • two hamburger patties with mustard, catsup, and pickles
  • cole slaw
  • some potato chips (less than a vending bag's worth, I think)
  • a glass of wine
  • iced tea
  • two almond-flour chocolate chip cookies
  • another piece of cheese
Saturday was much cleaner - had a monster omelet for breakfast and ate mostly cheese and a few almond-flour chocolate chip cookies between that and dinner, which was meat loaf and green beans.  Yesterday was made difficult by an unprepared trip to the movies (and I wanted to see what the new movie snack facility at the theatre was like - nice, but still not much use to me) and a family birthday gathering where my mother lovingly prepared a carb-fiesta.  In addition to the bean dip thing (what is wrong with veggies and dip???), she offered for dessert two items: ice cream sandwiches and ice cream drumsticks - both had ice cream, which I could probably eat, and in both cases, the ice cream was surrounded by things made of flour, which I do not eat.  I picked out the things that were least damaging and ate them and didn't make a fuss about the rest, and went home and had dessert there.  Which, I should add, I didn't really need - I felt full once we got there, and overfull by bedtime.  My bad.


Elizabeth and I are on our own this week.  I had bacon only for breakfast, and we're planning on greek-style salad with salami in it for dinner.  Should be tasty.  I'm thinking we are eating a lot of salads (granted, they'll be what Mark Sisson calls "big-ass salads") this week, for the sake of both our weights.  Since I have the dogs and cat to care for in the mornings as well, I anticipate a couple of fasting days just for time tradeoffs.  I also did 50 curls in the situp jig last night, and about 10 wall pushups as low as I could get them - may switch over to slanted ones on the bathroom sink counter tonight, since they didn't seem too hard.  And I'm continuing with my "building has no elevators" workouts each morning and as needed between meetings.

The almond flour cookies, by the way, were made for Lee to take on the road - I'd got some chips while shopping, planning to make some for Elizabeth as a housewarming - she gets her new apartment next week - and he hinted rather strongly that it would be nice to have some to take with him, so I ended up making not quite 5 dozen of them, and sent most of them with him - but not quite all.  They are addictive - a strong testament to Guyenet's theory about palatability, I must say - so I am trying hard not to eat the first one as much as possible.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Friday

Very successful fast yesterday.  I ate nothing (save heavy cream) from rising until well after 5 pm.  Several cups of hot tea, but no food, no calories.  So this morning?  150.0.  Gee, thanks.  Got Hormones?  Apparently I do.

There are claims that fasting in women is a cortisol-provoking practice, and the cortisol leads to weight gains.  I don't find it even remotely stressful, so n=1 says that's not likely for me.  Some of the weight is water - I can feel it, and my feet are quite swollen in the afternoons just now.  Some of it is fat - I have become more sedentary since February, now that I'm not walking from the car to the office, and I think that's allowed my metabolism to slow down.  Not good, and I'm working on remedying that - as of yesterday, my building no longer has elevators.

Here's yesterday's eating:
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • 1 piece of cheese
  • steak and wedge salad at Lone Star, with blue cheese dressing, bacon, and blue cheese
  • a few green beans
  • iced tea
And after that, I stopped.  Got home, thought about having something else, but I didn't really want it, so I refrained.  The fast itself was remarkably easy to sustain - don't know if I was tired or what, and it was a busy day, so I didn't have hours to sit at my desk and think about food (unfortunately, today is one of those days), but while I was mildly hungry around lunchtime, I was easily able to do absolutely nothing about it.  I am going to try that same practice again today, although I did have breakfast today.

Lee's gone next week, so my mornings will become much busier, and I anticipate no more than tea with cream and the usual supplements most days.  Maybe some cheese in the mornings - I've done that one before.  So it could be a lot of 16-hour/8-hour fast-feeding stuff.  We shall see.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Thursday

I am fasting this morning because I wanted the extra 10 minutes of laying in bed.  It was important, since we got to bed at 11 last night.  I fell asleep pretty quickly, I'm glad to say, and stayed asleep, so what I got was probably decent stuff, but this morning is painful.

Scale said 150.6, and I'm rather grateful it isn't higher - we went to the lacrosse game and fireworks last night, and walking out of the stadium, my feet and ankles were nasty-swollen for some reason, and I don't think I got rid of the water.  In addition, I'm feeling a bit hormonal just now, and I think that involves water weight, so no idea what is coming down the pike.  That said, will I make it a full-day fast?  I don't know.  Maybe.

Ate pretty light yesterday, I think.  Here's the breakdown:
  • tea with cream
  • cheese (1 piece)
  • salami (about 8 pieces, I think)
  • walnuts - maybe a handful
  • potato chips with fake sour cream and onion flavoring
  • grassfed beef burger with cheddar cheese
  • tomatoes and cucumbers in homemade zesty italian dressing
  • half a chicken-apple sausage
  • raspberry fool (raspberry puree with sugar, lemon juice, cointreau mixed with whipped heavy cream with a bit of sugar and vanilla)
  • a beer
That was it.  I spent the day mildly sedentary, although I did get in a mile-and-something walk to get more heavy cream for the fool.  Will try to get more walking in tonight.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Tuesday

I have no idea what I weigh today - we spent the night in a hotel so Lee didn't have to drive home after what he thought would be a late meeting - in the end, it was over before 8 pm.  Whatever.  I fasted until around noon yesterday, then didn't eat much the rest of the day, so it's probably no worse than yesterday.  Here's the list:
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese (3 pieces)
  • Godiva pearls (about 15 - I was hungry)
  • 1 square Lindt chocolate
  • a bag of beef jerky
  • naked burger with cheddar cheese, and pickles
  • broccoli with parmesan on it
  • iced tea
  • 3 french fries
That was it.  One semi-good thing about staying at a hotel is that it has no pantry to raid.  I was intending to work out, until I read the description of their facility - a treadmill, a stairmaster, and a stationary bike.  So I didn't.  Maybe we'll get to the gym tonight - a minimum of once a week seems to be vital.  And if not, I'll get out the situp jig and do some abs work.  Something.

Holiday tomorrow, with a Lacrosse game to go to.  Should be fun. 

Monday, July 2, 2012

Monday

Well, bugger.  Another weekend inexplicably packing on the pounds.  If this is menopause, I don't want it.  150.6 this morning - after waking yesterday to 148.2, and not eating all that badly yesterday, I think.  Here's the list:
  • scrambled eggs
  • bacon (rather a lot)
  • green chile (not very much - like maybe 2 tablespoons - and thickened with corn starch from the look of it)
  • tea with cream
  • cheese 
  • a handful of chocolate almonds (probably 5)
  • iced tea
  • Chili's Santa Fe Chicken Salad - had corn tortilla strips in it, and franken-oils, but otherwise, shoulda been okay)
  • the top off half a Domino's pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms, and green peppers 
  • a bit more cheese
  • another handful of chocolate almonds
I'm pretty sure that was it.  Not really sure what caused the issue, but the issue is there.  Maybe just inflammation from artificial foodstuffs.

Spent the weekend puttering.  Found Elizabeth an apartment, a bit of shopping, removed large kinda ugly flowers from the garden, rearranged the desk in the kitchen, stuff like that.  The sink backed up for the second time this summer, which is why we ate pizza (top) for dinner - we have found that ordering a thin-crust feels a bit less wasteful.

Tonight is a hotel night - Lee has a late meeting near my office and doesn't want to drive home after, so we're staying in the area.  Frankly, bleah.  But my plan is to break a fast with a salad (fasting means no dishes to wash and no use of the backed up sink) and hit some of the exercise equipment afterward.  If there's anything decent to use, that is.  Looking for more leg presses and a treadmill, I think.  Nothing too fancy.