Tuesday

I don't recall if I had my semi-epiphany last week or over the weekend, but I recently came to the conclusion that I needed to change back to an eating-breakfast model, so we have done that. Expect to see scrambled eggs and meat here a lot more often.

I did finally conquer the water weight and whatever it was brought on by my resistant starch divigation, and now need to wipe out at least 4 pounds of actual weight. A couple of things come to mind:

• the possibility that my really wretched sleep over the last year has been messing with the leptin mechanism - suggested by reading Grain Brain which outright says that sleep is crucial to keeping one's hormonal systems in balance.
  
• the fact that I lost a lot of weight eating breakfast consisting of eggs and meat daily unless I was doing a fast on purpose, and that we've slid out of that pattern over the past 6 months to a year.
  

So I'm working on both. Not entirely sure how I am going to solve the sleep issue, but I had thought last week about ditching the honey, and it's just too helpful in the sleep arena for me to do that. So I've restarted it again. At this moment - no idea for how long - I seem not to be having hot flashes at night, so I'm going to take advantage of that and try to sleep really hard for a while. Last night was awesome in that arena. I'm also using Sleep Cycle on my phone to track my sleep and maybe find some patterns to daytime activities that might be causing sleep issues.

We had a good long weekend - lots of puttering; I got out on Saturday for a long walk, good eating. I found myself in moderate ketosis on Sunday night despite eating a small popcorn at the movies mid-afternoon. Only a trace last night, although I ate nearly zero carb all day. Go figure. 154.4 this morning, which is my baseline for losing some weight between now and Mardi Gras in a month. I feel ketotic, if that's a word - mentally sharp and full of energy to the point of being fidgety. I was able to use that yesterday to fix some places in the kitchen paint job that had been bugging us for months.

Here's yesterday's eating:

• scrambled eggs
  
• bacon
  
• tea with cream
  
• (no supplements, but that will be resuming, too)
  
• cheese
  
• 3 milk-chocolate covered almonds
  
• steak with herb butter
  
• salad with homemade ranch dressing
  
• 1 square of 85% cacao chocolate
  
• 1 tsp honey
  

Probably the  pattern we will be following for a while. I have the Fat Fast book's broccoli cheese soup with me for lunch today, and have had eggs and turkey sausage for breakfast. Either fajitas or brats for dinner tonight (whichever we don't eat will be dinner tomorrow).

I did dry some plantain slices on Saturday, along with making chicken stock. Whatever I read about them is correct - dried, they're very reminiscent of saltines. I will be eating them with butter, I think.

Friday

I think yesterday may win the award for the most stressy mess of a day in a very long time.  I won't say "ever", because I can look back at the post-Hurricane, newborn baby move and war period in Virginia Beach, which may always win for most stress ever.  Nonetheless, here's how yesterday went.

Start with Wednesday night, when Lee got home from a meeting at about 10, reporting that he'd thrown up twice and was not feeling well (!).  He was up much of the night, I guess - I slept through some of it, but not the dogs' needing to get up and go outside at 12:30 am. He was still sick yesterday morning, so I got the world gong and left him in bed as I went to work. 

Around 10 am, I started a migraine - suddenly found myself nearly blind, and it took a minute to realize that it was an aura getting in the way of about half my field of vision.  I grabbed 3 Advil, and had to go to a meeting, where, thankfully, the aura subsided into a fairly dull headache - bearable.

Mid-afternoon, Elizabeth called to say she was headed to the doctor with a sharp pain in her lower right abdomen. By the time I hit the road to come home, she'd seen the doctor and called to say she was en route to the ER, suspecting appendicitis.  I went there instead of home - fortunately, (or not), it turned out to be an ovarian cyst - no surgery, but no relief, either. And home just in time to get on a deployment call for work at 8 pm. That went until 2 am due to problems.

I got a different sleep tracking app yesterday - Sleep Cycle, which seems to be much more sensitive.  It tells me I slept for 2 hours and 47 minutes last night, and that it took about 40 minutes to get to sleep. Not a good night.

Anyway, 157.2 looks just freaking dandy to me this morning. Here's how yesterday shook out in the end:

• tea with cream
  
• supplements (no potassium as we are out, but otherwise, same as yesterday)
  
• greek yogurt with about 1 tsp honey
  
• bean-free chili - leftover from Tuesday's dinner
  
• cheeseburger, no bun
  
• 2 french fries (the big kind)
  
• 2 squares of 85% cacao chocolate
  
• a handful of pecans
  

I did not take the honey last night. It took a long time to wind down and get to sleep, but I don't know if it would have helped in that situation, and I want to see if it reduces the sugar cravings. Obviously, we didn't make it to the gym last night.

I am starting to track step counts and weight and maybe sleep quality against one another, to see if an increase in walking helps with either of the others. And we are resuming eating breakfast and going to a meat-and-salad pattern for dinners.

Finally, I think I am starting to get rid of some of the really nasty side-effects of my resistant starch experiment. My stomach is just now starting to feel somewhat better - less bloated and backed up. As it should! I'm also working with my feet up today, to see if I can get my ankles to un-swell.

Ugh week.

Thursday

It's just getting worse - 158.0 this morning.  Something I'm doing is very much NOT working right now, so I am going to use this entry to take a look at all of it and see if I can figure out what to stop doing, and what to do instead.

Since I'm not exercising much, although a bit more than last year, I don't think it's that - and if anything, the little I have done is keeping things from getting worse. So I am not going to look at exercise, except to say that I'm going to keep on with it on Mondays and Thursdays, and I'm going to focus my use of the FuelBand on step counts, more than winning the hour and what not.

On the diet front, I admit to a lot of fail.  I'm focusing my eating on cheese and nuts because they are convenient - not having meals, and not being strict about cheats.  I had potato chips yesterday - not once, but 3 times during a meeting.  Very bad move on my part.  I seem to be fighting some cravings right now - mostly losing, too. I get home and I want crunchy and salty things, with a bit of sweetness - probably I could use shorthand and say I'm craving cookies. And instead of having a cookie or something like one, I'm going on a rampage through the cheese and nuts, trying to get that same effect. It's not working - and it's making me fat.

On the way to work, I was thinking about our eating habits and what has worked in the past.  And what has worked in the past has been the meat and salad pattern at dinner, with eggs and bacon for breakfast.  We haven't wanted to get up and cook, so I've been coming to work basically hungry and falling to temptation when offered. Not good. 

I think we need to go back to eating breakfast regularly, even if that means nothing but nuked turkey sausage. I think we need to lay in a stock of small (6-8 oz) steaks, pork chops, and start eating the chicken I bought. With salads. Go back to making dressing on weekends - it's not that hard, truly.

Berries only for sweets. And not too much. High fat, low calorie and very low carb from starch/sugar. I'm even thinking of giving up the honey at night in case it's making me crave sugar at other times of the day. I'm sure there are other ways to get my sleep dialed in.

Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• supplements - fish oil, magnesium, D3, K2, potassium, biotin, turmeric - that's the usual lot du jour
  
• the innards of 2 half-sandwiches - turkey and roast beef, with tomatoes and lettuce
  
• a pickle spear
  
• 3 helpings of potato chips
  
• cheese - aged gouda and some abomination from Hickory Farms titled "swiss-flavored"
  
• mixed nuts - mostly cashews and almonds
  
• two squares of 85% chocolate
  
• 1 tsp honey
  

That may or may not have been it for the day - I feel like there must have been more, but can't think of anything. I am currently somewhat constipated and bloated, and my ankles are twice their normal diameter, so obviously something is not right.

In an attempt to help with the constipation, I finished off my greek yogurt this morning, with honey on it. I have brought leftover chili to work for lunch. I am going to the gym tonight, I am taking the long way around to get tea water, and I will figure this thing out.

And in case anyone is wondering, yes, I've abandoned the Whole30. 

Again. 

Bother.

Wednesday

Okay, this is simply unacceptable.  I weigh 157.6 this morning, dammit.  What on earth is going on? Needless to say, I stopped the resistant starch experiment after the weekend, although I suppose it could be aftereffects.  Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
• 10 olives
• a Jimmy John's unwich with roast beef and cheese
• cheese
• bean-free chili with more cheese on top
• one holiday chocolate
• peanuts - maybe 2 handfuls?
• 1 tsp honey

The peanuts and chocolate were out of line, obviously, and the peanuts were very salty, to boot.  My feet were so swollen this morning that my shoes were tight, so water is involved, but things are very much out of hand. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do about it.  Thinking maybe it's time to go back to eating breakfast, even if I have to cook it.

My stomach is somewhat unhappy at the moment; I don't think today will be a fast, but I'm a bit constrained in how I might eat lunch, because of meetings. Possibly another unwich.

Tuesday

155.6 this morning; inflammation from working out, I hope. Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• salad with ranch dressing (commercial, heaven knows what's in it)
  
• greek salad with feta, salami, and homemade red wine vinaigrette
  
• cheese (aged gouda)
  
• BBQ pork with sauce
  
• cole slaw
  
• an after-dinner mint
  
• 1 tsp honey
  

I'm pretty sure I didn't eat after we got back from dinner, which was probably itself pretty sugary (but tasty). The honey didn't work at all well last night - I was hot, the cat was wandering the bed all night, and I woke up a lot. Not a particularly good night's sleep.

For a workout, I walked 13/11.5 of a mile (our gym's indoor track is just lame). I was going to do weights as well, but it was obvious Lee wasn't into that at all, so I didn't; we got dinner and went home.

I have olives with me today, and if the snow has stopped by lunchtime, I will probably go get a naked burger somewhere (probably McD's, since it's handy). I'm still looking into alternate options for resistant starch, and think I will start drying plantain chips as cracker substitutes. Also eating okra if I can find any.

For what it's worth, I got a lot of veg yesterday.

Monday

Over the weekend, I bought some plain greek yogurt and tried having it with potato starch and honey in it.  Didn't taste too bad, but the downstream effects were maybe more than I'd bargained for. Indigestion and flatulence, to be blunt.  Not pleasant.  So I think I'm going to come up with other means to provide an encouraging environment for the gut flora.  Probably eat more plants, specifically. Berries for pectin, another good pre-biotic. Leaves for bacterial transport and other useful stuff - in the Heisenbug blog analyses of American Gut profiles, he seems to be indicating that a plant-heavy diet encourages the butyrate-producers. And truly, apart from blood sugar control, I'm not entirely sure what the benefits of resistant starch are, yet. Since I'm not diabetic, I doubt I really need that. I will keep reading, of course.  And hoping that the indigestion will stop. Anytime, dudes.

154.8 this morning - meh. Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• greek yogurt with potato starch and honey and strawberries
  
• cheese
  
• mixed nuts (cashews and almonds primarily)
  
• boeuf bourgignon-style pot roast
  
• green beans
  
• two squares of 85% cacao chocolate
  
• 1 tsp honey
  

I got ambitious last night and made up greek salads with salami for Elizabeth and me for lunch today.  Forgetting that I have a work lunch scheduled. So it will be breakfast or something. Not sure yet. I may hold on to it - if work lunch turns out to be sandwiches, I'll need something.

Sleep last night was insane. I woke up around 3:30 trying to figure out what day it was, but had been so deeply asleep that I was just zombie-stupid and fell back asleep quickly. Again at 5:10, and that was it. The honey worked really quickly last night - I'd not been watching TV, just reading in dark rooms, and once I took it, went back to reading, but only lasted a couple of minutes before I gave that up. I could use a couple more nights like that, though - we had nasty winds on Friday night that made the whole concept a complete wash, so I have a deficit.

Gym tonight. And dinner involving plants of some sort. Along with meat and fat, obviously.

Friday

Gah.  Yesterday was just wretched. I've had some stomach problems for the past 3-4 days, unfortunately including this morning, I think, and they were front and center most of yesterday. I'd slept very poorly, and had a pain in my left hip as a result. I did almost no work standing - and that's pretty unusual these days.

Anyway, I had an incredible craving for Skittles around noon, and I went and got some.  (Note to self: the trip down to the vending machines is apparently 5 minutes worth of movement - I won that hour.) I ate them.  Was it worth it? I don't know - they didn't really make me feel better, for what that's worth. Tasted kinda good, though.

155.2 this morning; I am not surprised. No ketosis at bedtime either - surprise! Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• no supplements, I think
  
• cheese
  
• olives
  
• Skittles
  
• more cheese
  
• roast chicken
  
• salad with balsamic vinaigrette and ham
  
• dried cherries
  
• mixed nuts, mostly cashews
  
• 1 tsp honey
  

I know. By SAD standards, hardly a junk-food pigout. But not helpful to my attempt to get rid of the 5 pounds I seem to have gained over the Christmas chocolate-eating season.

Since my gut is already unhappy, I think I will try to consume some potato starch today - see what happens.

And the Whole30? I don't know what I'm going to do about it. I'm going to think about it over the weekend. Eat a lot of green veg then, too, since it apparently encourages the population of the butyrate-fermenting bacteria.

And no, I did NOT go to the gym last night.  Ugh.