Thursday

Weird eating day yesterday, and while I'm not feeling particularly well today, I don't think that's why - I am continuing an issue from yesterday.  Anyway, 153.8 again this morning, although my ankles are puffy.  I was in "Trace" ketosis yesterday - understandable and I'm glad it wasn't worse.  Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• cheese (a lot)
  
• full-fat Greek yogurt with honey flavoring
  
• low-carb pizza with pepperoni, bell peppers, and mushrooms
  
• 1/8 bar of 85% cacao chocolate
  
• more cheese
  
• cashews - just a few; the end of the container
  
• 1 tsp honey
  

So, very NOT Whole30 yesterday; back to business today.  I have olives with me to eat, and cheese in the work fridge if those fail to satisfy. Gym tonight.

Understandably, sleep was crap last night - I woke at 11:00, and a couple more times that I can recall, and my left hip is killing me.  One of the wakeups was because of a calf-cramp, to boot. Just lovely, and I feel horrid today (intestinal distress, bodyaches, and weariness do not make a good combination).  Probably won't be working on continuing my "streak" on the FuelBand, unless things improve dramatically.

Ugh.

I continue to read up on prebiotics and resistant starch, and feel like it could be quite helpful, if I can find a way to increase our consumption of it. Potato salad seems like a good vehicle, oddly enough - and it's something I had tried earlier in the year, without paying much attention to the results. The other thing that seems to be important is green veg - which I've certainly been skimping on more than I should.  Need to figure out how to improve that - more salads to start with, I guess. Learn to love greens, maybe - that would be a feat!

Taking one for the gut

One of the things I read yesterday in the Mr. Heisenbug blog was that honey is a pretty good prebiotic and useful for transporting live culture probiotics (bifida bacteria, for example) through the small into the large intestine.  He specifically mentioned the traditional combination of Greek yogurt and honey as an example of this.  And, since I don't know what's in my gut flora but am always up for improvements, I thought I would try it - if (a big "if) I could find some full-fat Greek yogurt. 

A little research ensued, and I thought I had a source at a nearby health food grocer. I went there at lunchtime today to check it out. In the end, they didn't have the yogurt I was looking for, but they had another one that was full-fat and included "honey powder" as an ingredient. I don't know for sure if that's indicative of honey as a source or not, but decided to try it anyway. 

Damn, that stuff's tasty! What I think I will do in future (after the Whole30 is over, probably), is take plain Greek yogurt and add a teaspoon of honey to it.  Good combo, though.

Unfortunately, today's experiment added 25g carbs, of which 19 were sugars, to my day's eating. I hope it doesn't blast the ketosis into oblivion.

Wednesday

Some of the stiffness and soreness from Monday's workout has passed, but not quite all of it. Nevertheless, I slept pretty well last night - woke between midnight and 1 am and then at 5, both times just long enough to check the time and go back to sleep.  I can totally live with that. 

I barely made my goal on the FuelBand yesterday - but I did make it. I think that means that if I make it today, I've started a streak. This thing is effective in getting me to get up and move a lot more than I did before I got it, which seems like a good thing. If I could arrange for the movement to be something other than gerbil-like spins on the wheel, that would be a better thing.  It's a start, though.

153.8 this morning, water seems to be going away. Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• two handfuls of pecans
  
• gyro taco salad with tzaziki guacamole - a recipe from Health-Bent. It was pretty good
  
• 3-5 pieces of cheese, due to the salad not being nearly big enough
  
• walnuts
  
• 1 tsp honey
  

So a short list, but too nutty. After the weekend, I am cutting way back on nuts - or trying to. I think they (cashews, in particular) were at the root of my issues on Sunday.

Ketosis continues - the "Small" reading last night was starting to look "Moderate". Whether it will help me lose any weight or not, I cannot tell, but I know I feel better in this state. That said, I read some really interesting stuff on the "human microbiome" yesterday, on a blog called Mr. Heisenbug, which is all over the Resistant Starch and gut flora enhancement stuff. I don't know if I'll break the Whole30 to do it or not, but I'm thinking of starting to get some galactooligosaccharides (if that's spelled correctly, I'll be very surprised) in my diet, possibly through some full-fat greek yogurt with live cultures and honey - supposedly, the bacteria can ride the honey through the small intestine into the large, and help improve the population there. Also maybe starting a bit of potato starch supplementation, once I understand what that would look like. But maybe not until 1/30, when the Whole30 is done. We shall see. I want to do some more reading before I launch into the potato starch, anyway.

Tuesday

Successful fast yesterday; I did not eat anything until I got home after work around 5.  I'm thinking that makes for a 21-hour fast, give or take.  Not bad. Then I had 3 pieces of cheese and went to the gym; walked a mile and did weights, and then had dinner (Qdoba naked burrito without rice or beans and with guac). 154.4 this morning. I'm not really holding my breath that it will be the start of anything, or even that it will be the same tomorrow.  Based on recent history, it won't.  I'm not going to stop my Whole30 on that account, though.

Lee and Elizabeth have stopped Whole30-ing; he had rice last night, and her comment was "I'm eating whatever I want when I'm away from home".  They're now officially on their own. I can't control them; I can only control me.

Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• the usual supplements (added Biotin to try to get my thumbnail to stop cracking)
  
• cheese
  
• Qdoba naked shredded beef burrito, with cheese, sour cream, guac, and salsa
  
• walnuts (not very many)
  
• 1 tsp honey
  

I was in "Small" ketosis last night again; hope to keep the streak going there.  No leg cramps yet - note that I figure they will show up in the near future.

Onward.  I'm very stiff this morning from the workout. I figured out weights for me - I will be doing back extensions, crunches, bicep curls, chest and overhead presses, inner and outer thighs, and leg presses. Got some baseline weights/reps numbers last night and will be doing them every time we go to the gym.  Which should be Thursday - I suspect I will become the family nag for that, too. I should just embrace the role.

Monday

Complete cocooning weekend.  We left the house only for absolute needs; it was snowing both days and just ucky.  My "Fuel" points were accordingly minuscule.  Whatever.  155.0 again this morning - starting to feel like a broken record here.  I need some of them to go away. My ankles are a bit puffy, but nowhere near what they were last week.  Ketones were "Small" (up from "Trace" last week) last night and Friday night, although nonexistent on Saturday. I feel a bit inflamed - achy overall, especially near joints - but cannot account for any of it.  Annoying.

Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• a smoothie made of a can of coconut milk, an avocado, protein powder, and a bit of pineapple juice. It was nasty.
  
• cheese
  
• salami
  
• 6-oz sirloin
  
• Caesar salad with no croutons
  
• 1 tsp honey
  

Son a short list, with the only carbs being pineapple juice, lettuce leaves, and honey.  And no weight lost. None. Did I mention I went to bed hungry? 

Since I didn't eat breakfast this morning and brought no lunch with me, I am fasting today. Especially because I have meetings at 10, 11, and 1, so the opportunity to get lunch is pretty much not there. If I get crazy, I will order an unwich from Jimmy John's to be delivered. But my plan is to just skip eating. My stomach was sore and irritated yesterday morning and I delayed eating nearly to noon as a result; it's better today, but not perfect, and would probably appreciate a rest.

Gym tonight. The plan for dinner is low-carb pizza.

Friday

155.2 again.  Annoying to be sure; I'm guessing it's still water.  Here's yesterday:

tea with cream

• roast beef - a couple of slices
  
• the usual supplements
  
• Cobb salad with no egg, blue cheese dressing
  
• hamburger patty
  
• zucchini noodles with sour cream, butter, parmesan
  
• smashed cheesy cauliflower - boursin and parmesan
  
• tea "latte" - regular tea with whole milk and maybe honey? not what I ordered at Starbucks, which was plain black tea
  
• 1 tsp honey
  

That was it. Lots of good fats, hardly any carbs. I was in "trace" ketosis at bedtime.  Sleep was reasonable; woke up at 1:50 am but was able to get back to sleep pretty quickly. Next waking was at 4:50 am.

We also hit the gym again yesterday; I walked not quite 2 miles with the graduated playlist, which meant a good bit of it was at a sprint.  With that, and with a concentrated effort to "win the hour" yesterday, I ended up with 11,000-some steps.  That was a light workday; I really don't know how anyone would be able to do the 10,000 steps thing daily if they work for a living doing something other than walking.

Today has involved breakfast already; I may or may not eat lunch. Working from home - one would think that would make the hour-winning easier, but not so far.

Thursday

Holidays on Wednesdays are an abomination.  Just saying.  Yesterday felt about as "holiday"-like as Trash Day (which it normally is, on non-holiday weeks).  We went out to breakfast, went to a movie (at 9:30 am - I'm not a fan of that time for a movie), and puttered a bit.  I got thank-you notes written.  Dinner was good, but certainly not festive.  

Anyway, 154.2 this morning - down from earlier in the week, I'm happy to say, but up from Sunday after we got back from Santa Fe.  I'd lost all the water last weekend, and gained it back this week by going to the gym and doing my "win the hour" stuff at work, I think.  My ankles are still puffy, which I seriously hate.

Really good sleep last night, finally.  Uninterrupted by animals for once, and I woke up at 4:52 for the first time all night, I think, although I semi-recall rolling over a couple of times for mild soreness in a hip or something.  

Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• omelet with ham and cheese-food (I'm betting on individually-wrapped Kraft singles) and tomatoes
  
• cheese - 5-7 pieces, throughout the day
  
• cashews - total of 2 handfuls
  
• Pork rinds from the bag, but not a huge lot
  
• Philly cheesesteak stuffed peppers - with provolone, roastbeef, onions, and mushrooms - yum!
  
• 1 tsp honey
  

Was that it?  I think it was.  I wasn't particularly hungry for lunch so I never ate it formally, but I did go back for cheese several times.

Didn't exercise much yesterday; we'll call it recovery. My "Fuel" total for the day was 902, which was the lowest so far at all. No hours won.  I meant to go for a walk, but didn't end up going; the weather was weird.  Gym tonight again; aiming for Mondays and Thursdays each week. And I will be working on fuel points today as well.  Starting now, since I just got a reminder.