Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Tuesday

Well, huh. My menopause has, er, paused, I guess, explaining a whole lotta stuff that's been going on since Christmas and allowing me to shed more weight (water) yesterday. I'm down to 155.2 this morning and damn glad to see it. My ankles feel relatively normal, which, unfortunately, means that what's left must be actual weight. But I did some more research yesterday and have some ideas that might help with that.

First, it appears that menopause is accompanied by crazy bad carb cravings - the sort of thing that would lead a girl to make an effort to find and eat potato chips of an afternoon, not once but twice. That would provide her with a little voice in her brain that spent a solid month muttering "I want cookies!". Stuff like that. According to something I read on Nora Gedgaudas' blog, the cravings may be a search for improved serotonin levels, and I may be able to circumvent them with supplemental L-tryptophan. I'm going to try that, see what happens. As soon as I can get to a store that sells the stuff - probably Natural Grocers somewhere. So that's step 1.

Second, I read, probably on Bill Lagakos' blog, that melatonin suppresses metabolic rate, and that helps us survive without as much food during winter (darker earlier and longer means more melatonin production). I've been supplementing with it regularly for the past year as a sleep aid, but I think I can go with just honey (tried that last night with no problem), and maybe try a bit of blue-blocking (using my amber-lensed ski goggles) in the evening to keep my natural production from being wiped out by the TV.

So a plan - another plan. I'm feeling a bit more hopeful just now, which is either faith in the plan or the end of a long and obnoxious bout of PMS. Or both.

Here's yesterday:
  • scrambled eggs
  • turkey sausage
  • tea with cream
  • the usual supplements
  • cheese
  • macadamia nuts
  • shrimp sauteed with peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes, in butter and olive oil, over zoodles
  • two squares (1/4 bar) of Lindt 85%
  • 1 tsp honey
I don't THINK I had any toblerones yesterday, but I might have. We went to the gym after dinner, which kept me from sitting around eating mindlessly - but the urge to do so has subsided a bunch. I walked a mile using my progressive speed playlist and did my weight circuit as well - pushing most of the exercises as close to muscle exhaustion as I could. Bit sore this morning, which is a good thing. 

Pork tenderloin and collard greens for dinner tonight - to try, anyway. I'm crock potting the latter with pork hocks and a bit of garlic olive oil. They're supposed to be seriously good for us; we shall see. If I can't eat them, I will have sauerkraut, I think. Other than that, I'm trying a semi fat fast day - heavy cream in excess for breakfast (the tea was almost chewy), and two servings of macadamias to eat at work when (and only when!) I get hungry.

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