Tuesday

Yesterday was sort of back to normal - maybe the first normal day since vacation, as far as eating goes.  150.2 this morning, to boot.  Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
• the usual supplements
• scrambled eggs
• sausage
• pot roast with reduction gravy
• braised cabbage
• chocolate almonds (2, I think)
• candied almonds (the olive ones - finished the jar, but fewer than 9, which is a 'serving')

That was it.  Seems like days with short lists (even if the multitude of things on the long list involved one bite of each) are better.  Sleep was not good, and I've resumed the iodine.  I don't think the bad sleep is from iodine supplements, but from estrogen variation.  And nothing seems to help with that at all.

Mardi Gras today.  I believe we will be having one last Mardi Gras mimosa this evening, and then shutting sugar consumption down for Lent.  I'm fasting weirdly tomorrow - lunch will be my sole meal, and it will be a salad.  We're doing church at 6:15 am, because no other time works - Lee has some sort of golf meeting in the evening.

Monday

I'm not sure whether the scale was off all weekend, or if yesterday's eating did it.  150.8 this morning after two mornings at 149.0.  We introduced rice - and possibly got along too well.  We shall see.  Here's yesterday:

• scrambled eggs
• bacon
• ham
• tea with cream
• no supplements (oops)
• cheese
• walnuts
• a very few potato chips
• chocolate almonds - about 4
• roast chicken
• rice cooked with chicken broth and mirepoix, with a few peas thrown in
• candy almonds (the ones from a couple of Christmases ago, that look like olives) - about 6 of them

Not a great day, actually.  Spent the weekend cooking; made some intense beef stock along with the chicken, and had stuffed peppers for dinner Saturday.  Pot roast is going in the crockpot as we speak - we'll be having it with braised cabbage for dinner.  

I did re-read PHD over the weekend.  I'm thinking I need to pay attention to the cravings and figure out what they're saying about nutrient deficiencies.  Salt seems to be one thing I crave, certainly - crunchy salty things.  Chocolate sometimes, but that seems to be slowing down - possibly the copper supplements are helping?  Maybe the salt craving speaks to iodine after all?  Dunno.  I should try eating the pickles when I'm in that mood - instead of the walnuts, certainly.

Interesting week ahead - fasting for Ash Wednesday, except that I have a lunch thing with a staffing supplier scheduled.  So I will be fasting breakfast and dinner, and eating a salad for lunch.  Best I can do under the circumstances, I think.

At least I got some sleep last night - Saturday night was utter crap.  So, something.

Friday

We ate pizza last night.  Real pizza, crust and all.  It was quite good, but honestly, so is Meatza and pizza-top and any number of other pizza-like things I've created over the past 3 years.  Nonetheless, kinda nice to know that if the world gets grim, I can give Dominos $30 and eat something that isn't hopelessly bad for us.  And interestingly enough, it was very satiating - I had some chocolate after, but didn't need to keep chewing all night, so only that.  150.6 this morning, so about 2 pounds of water gone to boot.  A good day.  But I doubt I hit the PHD nutrient proportions at all - and I don't think I'm going to calculate them.  Here's the whole day:

• tea with cream
• the usual supplements (by the way, I'm stopping the iodine for a while; I've heard it's bad for sleep and my sleep is utter shite right now)
• strawberries with a little cream
• chili leftovers
• more strawberries
• gluten-free crust Dominos pepperoni pizza
• 1/3 of a 70% cacao chocolate bar

And that was it.  

As a part of making a few incremental changes over the next weeks, with an eye toward leaning out a bit and getting the nutrition in order, I've parked my car as far from the building as I can while leaving it in our parking lot - at least, I think it's the farthest point.  Seems like the reduction in walking involved with this job has been a bigger impact than I would have thought - I was getting maybe 1/2 mile per day before, so I guess it could.  So I'm trying to get it ramped up a bit - add a little walking on weekends, as well, which should help with leg stamina.  And I might go to the gym and use the leg press this weekend.  Or something.

In addition to re-reading PHD, I bought the Kindle version of the Primal Blueprint, and will be reading it as well.  A little refresh of principles, throughout.

Beef stock this weekend - cooked to gelatine.  And a pot roast with the intent of braising it with cabbage for one dinner.  And maybe a roast chicken.  Cooking is good.

Thursday

152.8 this morning - maybe could have been worse.  Here's yesterday:

• Tea with cream
• the usual supplements
• a spoonful of coconut oil
• beef jerky (ultimately, 2 bags)
• two clementines
• a bag of peanuts
• two helpings of bean-free chili
• a handful of shredded cheddar
• a small handful of cashews
• half an orange-dark-chocolate candy bar

That was it - 1677 calories (for what that's worth), 90g protein, 94g carbs, 92g fats - 23%-24%-53% ratio.  I got as far in the PHD last night as the recommendation to aim for a body-composition ratio, which is 65% fat, 22(ish)% protein, and 13% carbs.  So that's my goal going forward.

Today so far, I've had a bowl of strawberries with cream, and tea with cream - and I brought the rest of the chili for lunch.  It was really good, and I got it cooked in about 1/2 hour - same recipe as I let stew in the crock pot all day, just made quickly on the stove.  So I'm wondering if there's some point to do the crock pot at all for it.  

I'm considering doing a Domino's GF pizza for dinner - will first see what the rest of the family thinks - and I think we'll need to order more than 1, since they're supposedly rather small.

Wednesday

So.  On a day in which I ate 7 pieces of cheese (call it 7 oz; might be less), 3 clementines, and 2 chocolate cherries, I gained over a pound.  Could someone please explain how that works?  I put it in LoseIt, and came up with a substantial caloric deficit along with a high-fat ratio to carbs and protein, although the carbs were over 30g.  Still, it doesn't make much sense to me.  152.6 this morning.

Had Rolfing last night for hip flexors - much less painful than having MAT on the muscles just in front of my spine, so not a big deal.  She was also able to sort an issue I'd created with my left hip at the ball, so that feels much better.  That said, as I type this, I'm starting to sweat profusely, and I'm still suffering from having been at sea - the world won't stop moving.  I do wish that didn't happen to me each time we go on a ship - 2 weeks to get back to normal.  Payback for the transition to shipboard balance being so easy, I guess.

I'm putting together a plan to get nutrition and fitness on track now that we're back.  I want to gain strength in my arms and legs, and tone up overall, as well as balance my nutritional needs - I think that I'm lacking something and the lack is causing me to snack too much and eat things that are not good for me.  PHD has been retrieved from the bookcase, and I'll start on it again tonight.  And I think I'm giving up sugar for Lent.  Still working out what that might mean.

Tuesday

I was starving yesterday - most of the day.  So I ate.  151.4 this morning - ironically, the weight that started me on my Paleo way of eating was 191.4, just after our previous cruise.  And two Mardi Gras' ago, I weighed 141.4.  And will again.  Here's yesterday:

• the usual supplements
• tea without cream
• a few walnuts (to take Advil with)
• two bags of peanuts
• double quarter-pounder with cheese, no bun
• small McDonalds fries
• salad with greek dressing
• gyro meat
• saffron rice 
• strawberry-mango juice
• cheese
• walnuts
• chocolate cherries

Too much food, I think.  I haven't got PHD out of the bookshelf yet, but will be.  Today will be a light eating day - I've had a couple of pieces of cheese so far, have clementines with me, and will probably avoid dinner prior to Rolfing since it's a session that deals with a lot of abdominal muscle attachment points and is supposed to be easier on an empty stomach.  Not a fast day, exactly, but not not, either.

Monday (after vacation)

All things considered, I think we did pretty well on vacation.  4 days in New Orleans followed by a 7-day cruise, and I'm at 150.2 this morning, possibly on the way down from a high of 153.4 (suspect, though, since I weighed myself on the ship and don't know if the scale is similar or not).  The dress fit fine and so did my jeans after they came back from the shipboard laundry - phew!  We only ate partly well in New Orleans - it's hard to eat there without consuming flour (roux), and the food is across-the-board awesome.  On the ship, it's possible to spend 7 days eating, with breaks for drinking, but I think we did well.  We ate a lot of fruit, which is a bit of a change - I don't really think I ate a whole pineapple, but it sure seemed like it at times - we got a section, sliced up, along with 3 kinds of melon, also sliced, every afternoon, and since I don't eat melon, I ate all the pineapple many of those days.  

We also walked a lot - hard to avoid in the Quarter, truly, because bringing a car in there is seriously insane.  On the ship, we did at least a mile on 3 or 4 days, and our last shore day, probably walked more than 4 miles alone, shopping in Cozumel.  Also lots of stairs - we did pretty well avoiding elevators for all trips of 4 or fewer decks.  My knees need work, though - they're just not strong anymore.  I think a leg press machine is in my future.  Use of one, that is, not purchase.

Yesterday's eating is trackable, since there wasn't much of it, so here it is:

• the usual supplements
• berries with a tablespoon of whipped cream (sweetened)
• tea with half-and-half (several of those)
• 3-egg omelet with ham, cheese, tomatoes
• possibly a little bacon
• turtle soup with sherry (definitely roux-based, but nearly the best thing to eat there is)
• salad with blue cheese dressing
• cheese
• walnuts
• chocolate cherries

The last three were eaten after arriving home, as I was too tired to shop or cook, and was pretty darn hungry.

So, today?  Back to the usual patterns to start with, but I think I'm going to re-read the Perfect Health Diet, cover to cover, and make some of their recommended changes beyond the supplements.  Though I must admit I'm rethinking the iodine supplementation - read something somewhere that hinted it might be behind some real sleeping issues I've been having lately.  I probably do have more energy during the day from it, but I think I'd rather have the quality sleep.  Still considering.