Tuesday

About mid-morning yesterday it occurred to me that I'd been retaining water. Apparently so! 157.6 this morning.

Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• an apple
  
• 4 pieces of cheese
  
• a few peanuts
  
• steak
  
• Southern-style green beans
  
• a single-serve Haagen-Dasz strawberry
  
• a Lindt truffle
  

I didn't eat breakfast, because my stomach was still upset. Once I was ready to eat, though I was pretty hungry - so I inhaled dinner. I was so tired yesterday that I had to fight off sleep on the drive home, something that hasn't happened before. I hope it doesn't happen again.

Didn't do much yesterday - work, dinner, a stop at PetSmart, and then home. Snuggled with the dogs, who were all happy to be home. I should have done my shoulder exercises, but didn't. Need to do them tonight.

Sleep was good - but then, I took a benadryl, so it was helped along. I'm still a bit groggy.

Monday

Survived the weekend; it actually went quite well. Although Lee wasn't happy with me in general - and I know why. I was pretty surly last week, and I need not to do that.

Anyway, I ate bread on Saturday. Part of a croissant at breakfast (mine are better). Bread pudding at lunch. A small piece of King Cake after dinner. And beer. And my stomach rebelled. I'm still getting through it. 

So I guess I'm really truly done with wheat. Can't eat it anymore. It makes me sick.

That should simplify things in a few weeks. 

Anyway, stress source is over and done with, and I do hope I can relax now. Even with Mardi Gras itself still to come - for that, I'm fairly sure that all we have to do is go where people tell us, and spend a bit more money. A pittance, in comparison with what's been done up to now. Hair, makeup, second-line beads. I think that's it. A few meals, probably.

159.6 this morning, although really I would have thought I'd lost several pounds yesterday. Maybe I did... Here's yesterday:

• tea with half-and-half
  
• an omelet with ham, cheese, and tomatoes
  
• grits with butter
  
• pulled pork BBQ and cole slaw
  
• homemade potato chips 
  
• half a Domino's gluten-free pizza, extra pepperoni
  
• salad with vinaigrette
  

Not the best day's eating by any means, but far better than Saturday.

We did get a lot of walking in. Beat goal 3 days in a row, including Friday. That will probably stop abruptly today. Yet it took so little to do it - we walked a few blocks to breakfast yesterday, and that was nearly enough by itself. My goal's up to 5600ish this morning as a result. Sigh.

Friday

The "raveled sleave of care" is knit back up. One Benadryl last night, and I had a 2-hour stint where, according to Vivofit, I pretty much didn't move. So needed. I'm much less likely to kill people and break things today. And I've been up since 5. So there.

158.8 again today. I ate sugar at work (more of the blasted Cashew Crunch), and at home (several truffles). Also an apple, which is what I brought with me. And potato chips and cashews, that I bought because the apple wasn't enough. So not a great day for eating.

I have cheese and another apple with me today; have had tea with cream so far (and one of the pieces of cheese). Probably nothing good for dinner; flying to NOLA directly from work (plus-or-minus commute time). Possibly nothing at all for dinner, which is why I made sure to have cheese. I'm not in condition to fast extensively right now.

No significant walking yesterday. But up from the day before, which is something, I guess. Since I got up early today, I did my shoulder exercises this morning. I have a knot under my left angel wing, and the exercises didn't kill it, but they seem to have calmed it down a bit.

My plan for the weekend is to attempt to stay sane. I do hope I can manage it.

Thursday

Well, I weigh less today. 158.8.  Managed not to eat candy while at work. Tried harder to walk in response to the red bar of doom on my Vivofit, and that sort of helped. My step count went up from the day before, anyway.

I seem to be operating on the minimum possible brainpower right now. Autonomic nervous system functions and the ability to drive a car may be all I'm capable of. I guess I hope that more will surface after this weekend, but I guess I won't be super surprised if it doesn't.

Sleep was utter shit last night - our phone was out, and the alarm system beeped approximately 2800 times while I was supposed to be asleep. I dreamt about it. I managed to fall asleep with it going, but every time I surfaced even a little bit, I heard it again. Finally, at 5, I just got up and mucked with the cable modem (again) to see if it would stop, but it turned out to be the cable company's issue, and nothing I could fix. I think it finally subsided around 6:30. 

The sleep tracker indicates that I slept a total of less than 7 hours, with just over 3 in deep sleep. That feels about right. Well, wrong, but accurate. Benadryl tonight, I think, possibly 2 of them, taken around 8:30.

Didn't do my shoulder or back stuff last night, either. Because of needing to pack and to talk with my folks, who got here yesterday to go to Lee's luncheon - I'm on my own - even dog-free - until I get to New Orleans on Friday night. 

Wednesday

Just a bad week. More sugar yesterday - cashew crunch, this time, and very stale it was. I walked marginally more yesterday than Monday, but other than that, did nothing. Not even stretches. I was in a putrid mood, stressed out by last minute Mardi Gras stuff. I really hate to think that I'm going to be enduring it this year, but that seems to be the trend at the moment. Not good. Something I just need to work on in myself, I think.

159.6 this morning. No real surprise there. suffice it to say that eating was just out of control.

I slept with Benadryl - and apparently needed it. I feel a bit better this morning, more rested. I'll probably repeat that tomorrow night, when I will, for about 15 hours, have the joint to myself entirely - no dogs or anything. Shoot, I may fall asleep as soon as I walk in the door.

Guess that's enough for today. Will try to improve over yesterday.

Tuesday

Yesterday, I had bad cravings for chocolate, and ate all sorts of crap. We'd sent old Halloween candy and Hershey's nuggets to work last week, and by this week, were down to stale Nestle's Crunch bars and Butterfinger things - both single-bite sized. 

Thank Goodness for that, at least. Because I ate probably 6 or 7 of the Crunch bars, a couple of Nuggets, and 2 Butterfingers.

Also pecans. For good measure. I had a nasty headache on the way home, that subsided after eating dinner.

159.2 this morning. Not surprised, I guess. Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• lemon gelatin water
  
• the usual supplements
  
• scrambled eggs
  
• sausage patties
  
• chocolate as described above
  
• 1/4 cup of butter-roasted pecans
  
• 2 brats
  
• about 1/2 cup of live sauerkraut
  
• some potato chips
  
• a Lindt truffle ball of some sort
  
• a few walnuts
  

I think that was it. Very weird, altogether.

No walking - I didn't even respond to my Vivofit going all red during the day. I did get my shoulder PT exercises done - and I can feel that this morning!

Monday

Wow. Let's see how the weekend went.

Thursday night we went to bed around 9 and went to sleep sometime well after midnight, surrounded by freaked-out dogs. Always delightful, fireworks.

Friday night, I went to bed and to sleep (to start with) before 8 pm, but spent from 11:30 to after 2 am up with horrible leg cramps. I finally got up and went out to the garage for a Gatorade, drank the whole thing, and that allowed me to sleep.

Saturday and Sunday nights, I got pretty good sleep, with nothing but melatonin. 

The weather mostly didn't permit a walk, until yesterday, when we got out, but to hit the mall. Epic fail there. We need to acquire a treadmill. Also to use it once acquired, obviously.

Wednesday night I had a really hard time finishing my shoulder exercises, and did nothing since then. I will resume tonight. The thinking is that I got my 3 sets in on Saturday/Monday/Wednesday for last week and am getting started on the right schedule today.

Eating - not so great. I was so annoyed by the utter failure of the fat fast that I pretty much reverted to SAD for the weekend. However, we ate meat and salad last night and have plans to repeat that process until my parents get here on Wednesday. After that, outlook is dim, at best, since we are going to New Orleans with eating as at least part of the point of the trip. I'll do my best to behave.

159.0 this morning. Full of water - all my joints ache, and my fingers are stiff. Full of other things too - rebound reaction from being ill a week ago? Not sure. I would like not to be full.

I did manage to hit my step goal on the Vivofit yesterday - a combination of a morning spent matting and framing things and an afternoon trip to the mall. Of course, that means that today's goal is higher than yesterday's. We will arrive at equilibrium eventually.

I restarted lemon gelatin water in the morning today - partly to start working through our lemon crop. We have a lot of lemons in the house. And a lot of lemon juice saved from making limoncello (which is starting to look possible - the vodka is brilliantly yellow and the zest is starting to look somewhat washed out).

All right, then. Here's to a good week!