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. 

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

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

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

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

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.