Wednesday

155.4.  Hands and feet swollen and uncomfortable.  Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• the usual supplements
  
• double quarter pounder with cheese, no bun
  
• side salad with ranch dressing (won't do that again; McDonald's salads suck)
  
• a vending package of skittles
  
• salad with blue cheese dressing and crumbles
  
• cheese soup with ham and veggies (probably flour, too)
  
• baked potato with sour cream, bacon, cheese
  
• two chocolate cherry almond clusters
  

Reasonably well balanced, not a lot of items on the list, but those skittles.  I am not entirely sure what prompted me to crave them, but it got me out of a chair and downstairs to get them.  I continue to be inflamed and swollen and cranky, but with no relief in sight.  

Brought strawberries to eat if the skittles craving strikes again today, and the plan is either a Five Guys or Jimmy John's stop for lunch.

The kitchen painting starts today.  We are at the beginning of the end.

Tuesday

154.4.  Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• the usual supplements
  
• salad with chicken and salsa in it from Chipotle
  
• hamburger with blue cheese (patty only), ketchup, mustard
  
• hot dog (no bun)
  
• small helping of potato salad
  
• small handful of potato chips
  
• strawberry ice cream
  
• two chocolate cherry almond clusters
  

That was it.  Sleep was crap; I've been awake since 2:30 worrying about things not done prior to the painter arriving.  Got up at 6 to do those things.  I'm a zombie this morning. Not good

Monday

154.6 this morning.  Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• ham, cheese, and tomato omelet
  
• a piece of bacon
  
• about a forkful of hashbrowns
  
• two chocolate-cherry-almond clusters from Costco
  
• chips and salsa and guac
  
• chicken fajitas, no tortillas (so including salsa, guac, sour cream)
  
• a small margarita
  

I think that was it.  We had family visiting all weekend, which was somewhat stressful and interfered with accomplishing much of anything; such is life.  I was down in the 153s at some point over the weekend, maybe Saturday morning, but the water returned.  Back to my routine of lunch and dinner this week, with lots of work at night for the immediate future.

Friday

I had bona fide cankles yesterday.  Ugh.  Painful and swollen - and my feet cramped up at the end of the day, probably as a result of my balancing on a step stool to paint some more.  So, no fun there.  155.4 again this morning.  I guess I should be grateful it's not worse.

Still fighting carb cravings - after work yesterday, but before dinner, I finished off a deli bag of Lays, with a small assist by Elizabeth.  I am assuming this is all hormones, but I guess I could be wrong.  Anyway, here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• the usual supplements
  
• massive salad with chicken, bacon, avocado, blue cheese dressing
  
• potato chips as described above
  
• chips and salsa
  
• cheese enchiladas with green chile
  
• 1/4 of a Hershey's dark chocolate with almonds bar
  

That was it.  Another short list, which is a good thing.  I'm working from home today, so the opportunities to eat are magnified.  I've already had 3 pieces of cheese.  

More painting this weekend, I think - trying to finish up the cabinets.  Also working on cleaning an sanding the doors and drawer fronts.  No idea when the water retention will stop - I hope soon.

Thursday addendum

I found the big-ass salad.  $10 worth, but pretty darn tasty.  It's interesting - with the shift in eating from breakfast-dinner to lunch-dinner this week, I feel like I'm getting a more varied diet - it's a second opportunity for the veg and fruits, I guess.

The migraine was mostly just the aura, although a co-worker talking to me shortly after it faded thought I had a cold - that my voice sounded stuffy.  Interesting.  I'd love to know what on earth I've been doing to trigger migraines all of a sudden - except for the weird crap-binge I indulged in last week.  That certainly could be it.  But it's been over a week since then, which makes less sense; I would have thought it would have passed through my system by now.

Anyway, this lunch thing is a bit expensive, but if I get into the rhythm of it, I guess I could start bringing the same basic stuff from home - once we have a kitchen, that is.  

Sigh.

Thursday

On the good side, I got eating under control yesterday.  On the bad side, I'm now at 155.4, and very stiff and swollen.  And am starting a migraine - the second one this week.  Ugh.

We put a second coat of paint on some of the cabinets last night, which caused my knees to swell up by bedtime.  Advil and fish oil helped with the pain, but I woke up feeling like a balloon - my eyes were swollen.  I know it's water, and I believe, under it all, that I'm probably building muscle - and my jeans fit better at the moment than they did a few pounds down from here - but it's still discouraging and annoying.  

Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• the usual supplements
  
• a Jimmy John's "unwich" - lettuce wrap - with turkey, bacon, avocado, lettuce, and tomato
  
• half of a 10" gluten free pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms, and green pepper
  
• a salad with blue cheese dressing
  
• some cottage cheese
  

That was it.  Assuming I don't eat until lunch again today, and I think I won't, I'll have achieved a tidy 16-8 IF pattern.  Still looking for a big-ass salad for lunch - Jimmy John's is just sandwiches - and no idea what we'll do for dinner.  More painting tonight, so I don't think the swelling is going to stop soon.

Wednesday

This week is not going well at all.  155.2 this morning - I don't think I've been this high since I was losing weight 3 years ago.  Not good.  

Sleep last night was elusive after 2:45 am, so I'm tired and cranky and feeling fat.  Although my jeans fit.  So that's something.  I was tired enough this morning that I put face lotion in my hair - it doesn't seem to have caused too much harm, fortunately.

Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• the usual supplements
  
• a slug of oil
  
• a Five Guys cheeseburger, loaded (2 patties, sauteed onions and mushrooms)
  
• two after-dinner pillow mints (trying to get rid of the onion flavor)
  
• shredded BBQ pork with Dreamland sauce
  
• cole slaw
  
• a very few potato chips
  
• mini Ritter Sport chocolate (milk with marzipan)
  
• ice cream with berries
  
• cashews
  

I should have skipped the ice cream - I wasn't sure I wanted it, and it didn't taste all that great.  I won't do it again, I think.  I am going to try for lunch again today, although I have meetings until 12 and resuming at 1, so the window is at the worst possible time.  But I want to find a big-ass salad somewhere.  Wondering if Jimmy John's does salads - they deliver, so I could avoid lines, theoretically.