Wednesday

Back to 158.8 this morning; super tired, and the Benadryl is, as usual, not working every night. I slept until around 3, I think - and not all that well. My cold isn't doing much, I have laryngitis, but nothing else. Mucinex is not budging it, though. Still, could be worse; Lee has bronchitis with bacterial things going on, and is on all sorts of meds. He didn't sleep last night until about 5:30 am, and then got up to feed the dogs at 6, which was kind of him, but unnecessary.

Anyway, we were to have gone to a do in San Antonio this weekend. That's off. 

Yesterday went like this:

• tea with cream
  
• 25000 IU of Vitamin D
  
• cheese
  
• carrots and cherry tomatoes and blue cheese dressing
  
• a cup of vegetable soup
  
• chef's salad with blue cheese dressing, including another piece of cheese
  
• a couple of dark chocolate salted almonds
  

I think that was it. We went to Cracker Barrel for dinner, and I couldn't finish the salad - too much work. Not a good sign.

No exercise yesterday. If I can get this stupid thing to vamoose, I will restart walking at night - even if by myself. But until then, I'm conserving energy.

I made egg custard things last night to have for breakfast. They were supposed to be quiche lorraine flavored - and they might be - but mine tasted rather nasty this morning. That's been Lee's complaint all week, that food didn't taste good. He's lost 9 pounds since we got back. And while I wouldn't mind losing 9 pounds myself, I don't think I really want to do it that way.

Tuesday

I think I forgot yesterday. 

So, 160.0 today, down from yesterday, which was up a goodish bit after a weekend full of eating chips (carbs AND polyunsaturates).

Lee caught a cold on the heels of Mardi Gras, failed to keep on top of it, and probably now has pneumonia. He's been threatening to go to a doctor for about 3 days, but didn't do it yesterday, and I'm mad about that. Not that it's in my control or anything, but he didn't have to get this sick.

I have the beginnings of the same damn thing, unfortunately. But I'm back on Sudafed and Mucinex, and anticipate keeping it from moving into my chest. I could be wrong - the virus will do what the virus wants to do - but it's worked before.

All that said, this whole getting sick repeatedly is pure shit. And needs to stop. We have been sliding away from eating for nutrition a lot lately, and the added stress of moving should have made it more imperative that we stay on track. Noted. It may take a while to dig back out of it, but I do mean that we shall.

Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• 25000 IU of Vitamin D
  
• an apple
  
• 6 pieces of cheddar
  
• walnuts
  
• meatballs and spaghetti sauce
  
• salad with blue cheese dressing
  
• a handful of cashews
  

I think that was it. The walnuts and cashews would have had PUFA in them, albeit in a more natural form than corn chips do, so I'd imagine that the impact on insulin sensitivity would be less. Today I have veggies and more blue cheese dressing, and more cheese, for breakfast and lunch. No idea what for dinner, but I may only be feeding myself. There's a ham steak in the freezer; may have Lee get that out to thaw.

I did manage my shoulder exercises last night (on the right side only). I'd love to do some walking, but I feel a little under the weather and think I won't risk making it worse right now. One of us has to stay upright - and I have no PTO, so I can't stay home sick.

Sleep was okay - drugged, but I feel rested this morning. Better than yesterday.

Friday

I read a super interesting blog post from Dr. Michael Eades yesterday (no link; got it in email), about the effect polyunsaturated oils may have on insulin sensitivity and weight gain. If his information is correct, all polyunsaturated fatty acid chains make tissues more insulin sensitive, so that they store fat from glucose as well as the fat itself. Which makes less energy available in the blood, which makes us eat more, besides making us fat from the storage. Not much different from straight sugar, and maybe worse.

What that tells me is that our eating more from restaurants and less from home is very much contributing to my problems maintaining the weight loss I did. Not that we didn't eat at restaurants during the year I lost the weight, but Lee and Elizabeth were gone much of that year, and my reaction was to eat burgers on the grill at home. And I stopped eating lunch at restaurants, by and large. So in addition to going VLC/ZC for months on end, I drastically reduced eating seed oils.  I still ate nuts, which are a natural source of PUFA - and I still do. And I notice that a) they're bloody addictive, and b) anytime I eat them, I tend to stall out on weight loss. That fits nicely with the information he provided. And, from a natural sense, completely convincing - nuts ripen in the fall, and are used by various animals to store energy for winter - either as body fat, or to be eaten to replenish body fat.

Now that I have this information, while I don't imagine that we will stop eating out completely, I can at least watch carefully what I do eat. Steak is okay. Hamburger is okay. Fries are not okay. Salad dressing is not okay. Green beans are okay. Baked sweet potato is okay if the butter is real. And so on. And if I ever find somewhere that still fries in tallow, I can have fried stuff there.

As for nuts, I can look out for macadamias again, since they're fully saturated. And with knowledge, I can make sure I'm fairly restrained in eating the PUFA nuts that are already in my house. Maybe even make them a seasonal thing, once we've finished off what we have.

All that said, I am at 157.8 this morning. Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• walnuts
  
• cheese (3 pieces)
  
• an apple
  
• steak
  
• salad with blue cheese dressing
  
• a handful of salted dark chocolate almonds
  
• a handful of cashews
  

That was it. Today will be similar, because Lee is feeling fairly awful, and I told him to stay in bed.

I did manage my shoulder exercises yesterday. I'm at 5 lb for 2 of them, and need to go to 10 lb on the third. I don't necessarily think that I gained strength prior to Mardi Gras by using the 3 lb weights, more that they were too light. And my shoulder is already feeling better. But with the new weights, I probably need to start back doing both arms again - I was just doing the messed up one to start with.

No walking yesterday. Probably not tonight, either. Maybe tomorrow morning.

Thursday

Starting to think the no-Benadryl plan was not so great. Lee has a cold with a cough, and when he's not feeling well, thrashes around at night a good bit. I would really like some good sleep - I got sleep last night, but it was choppy, since every thrash tossed the bed around and nearly woke me up. If I'm still struggling tonight, I may succumb.

158.8 again today (sigh). Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• the usual supplements
  
• lemon gelatin water
  
• scrambled eggs
  
• sausage patties
  
• 3 pieces of cheese
  
• carrots and cherry tomatoes with blue cheese dressing as a dip
  
• a stuffed pepper - no rice, just beef and tomatoes
  
• a handful of salted dark chocolate almonds
  
• about a cup of cashews (I was hungry at bedtime)
  

All in all, a good eating day, really. If I'd stopped after the first half-cup of cashews, it would have been darn near perfect. Even so, everything was real food. No breakfast today - not formally, anyway, because Lee was so done in this morning that I told him not to worry about it. I had an apple and cheese planned for "lunch", and added a bag of walnuts to flesh it out a bit - I've had some of the cheese and walnuts already.

We did not walk much last night - made it to the end of the block and came back. The wind was blowing something fierce, and Lee already didn't feel well, so we went home. So no goal-making yesterday, and doubtful today. I took a long bath after dinner, and pretty much went to bed (if not to sleep - we watched a movie) after that.

Back at it today. If nothing else, I'll aim to do my shoulder exercises tonight, since I didn't get them done either.

Wednesday

Water. Like I said. Some of it's gone today - 158.8. Always nice to lose a couple of pounds overnight, right?

We managed meat-and-leaves yesterday, and I think stuffed peppers are on today's menu. Hopefully not much rice. But still clean eating, and that's all good. And I have veg and dip and cheese with me for eating during the day.

Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• the usual supplements
  
• scrambled eggs
  
• sausage patties
  
• an apple
  
• walnuts
  
• steak
  
• salad with blue cheese dressing
  
• several handfuls of salted dark chocolate almonds
  

I think that was it. I can tell I've been off the wagon for a while now, with bodyaches (joints, especially) and the return of keratosis pilaris on my legs, so it's time to get things straight in those areas.

Sleep was okay - I was watching a video on my iPad until around 10 pm, which is not sleep-inducing at all, so I suspect I got less than usual (for being at home, anyway). 

We got another walk in last night - turns out that the route we're taking is 1.33 miles, not 1.75. In any event, I got my stride length calibrated so my Vivofit now agrees with the GPS on the Nike Running app. And I hit goal again last night.

Shoulder exercises tonight. I moved to 5-lb weights on Monday and will stick there; I think that the 3-lb ones were a bit light for that.

Tuesday

The plan for yesterday was to eat meat and salad. We ended up, due to a propane deficiency, with Chinese. 161.0 this morning. I still think a lot of it is water.

Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• the usual supplements
  
• scrambled eggs
  
• bacon
  
• cashews and trail mix
  
• hot and sour soup
  
• 2 fried noodles
  
• mushu chicken, no pancakes
  
• a fortune cookie
  

That was it. Not great, but not awful. I have an apple and walnuts with me to eat today if I get hungry.

We managed a walk last night. Per Nike Running App, it was a mile and 3/4. Per Vivofit (which doesn't use GPS), it was 1.18 miles. I think I need to adjust my stride length or something. That's okay, though. We got a walk in after work! And I did my shoulder exercises. I put a stake in the ground for normal life again, one that I hope is legit.

Sleep last night was maybe better than it could have been, given that Charlie was on the bed. Not a lot of deep sleep, and I was more or less awake from 4:30 on. I'm hoping - but not holding my breath - that he'll be kenneled tonight, and stay there. Now that we're through Mardi Gras, I'm stepping away from the Benadryl except in a dire emergency, and working on getting my sleep naturally.

Monday (a week later)

Back from our Mardi Gras week, and slightly exhausted. Not terribly fat, though - I think I ate pretty well all week. Until yesterday, that is, when I had a donut to be polite. Also some chips and a York peppermint patty. One day. Not a huge deal.

Still working on the best way to get through that week without hitting a lot of pot-holes. Bad sleep, meals completely out of my control, alcohol, all mark the way we do the celebration. I avoided bread thoroughly until yesterday, drank very lightly, and did the best I could with sleep (mostly it worked). So I think I'm in better shape than I could be - but I really would like to do better than we normally do, even so.  Oh, well, I have a year to think about it.

I did get in a LOT of walking. 12K steps yesterday - on a day when we spent 6 hours in a car driving home (and the Vivofit doesn't count driving as steps like the Nike did). I think the sunlight is sufficient in the evenings now to get back outside after work, so we are going to start walking after I get home again. I hope that helps.

Anyway. 160.4 this morning, with puffy fingers and ankles, and sore joints. So I know what at least some of it is. Lee says he lost 2 pounds over the week. Noted without comment...