Friday

So it is starting to look like my vacation cost me a month's worth of careful eating; I last saw these numbers consistently in late July. 152.4 this morning, after a light eating day yesterday.  I am assuming that I'm fighting my hormones here; this was so very easy the last time, and it's not easy at all this time.

Yesterday's eating (cheese for breakfast, mushu chicken and hot and sour soup for dinner, a little cheese after) worked out at:

• 63.3 g fat - 60%
• 38.4 g carbs - 16%
• 57.7 g protein - 24%

We didn't walk; it was cold and nasty last night. All that said, my bedtime ketones were at Moderate. So I'm still doing nutritional ketosis, which is a good thing, and am at least a bit down today, which is also a good thing.

3 pieces of turkey sausage for breakfast; still not terribly hungry. I'm rather hoping that this is a reaction to the weekend, and my body's current setpoint operating on my hunger. 

Sleep was as bad last night as the night before - nearly identical. I woke up at 1:43 and was awake for about 2 hours. What with the mood swing, these new bouts of insomnia, and a few more hot flashes per day, I'm thinking I'm ramping up a new bout of menopause. Oh, joy. At least the summer is almost over.

Thursday

Let's see.  Yesterday, I was fairly un-hungry all day; I ate breakfast, walked to dinner (and back), had a salad for dinner, some cream in my evening cuppa, and 3 salted dark chocolate almonds. Ended up here:

• 109 g fat - 72%
• 19 g carbs - 6%
• 75 g protein - 22%

Ketones at Trace by bedtime, which I tend to wonder might be a side-effect of the walking (i.e., that I'm using some of them, rather than peeing them away). 

This morning? 152.8. At least I stopped the increase, I guess. Sigh.

Sleep was crap last night - menopause rearing it's head, making it impossible to achieve a normal body temp. Any body part out of the covers - I was too cold. All body parts under the covers - I was too hot. 2 hours of this, starting at 1:45 am. Added to a weird mood swing yesterday - I spent one hour just filled with rage for no reason. And then it went away completely. I would love to say that I overcame it, but it definitely wasn't an act of will on my part. I feel like issuing a blanket apology to my family now, in advance, in case this becomes a thing.

Skipped breakfast in favor of 15 extra minutes in bed this morning, although I did eat a couple of pieces of cheese. Not actually very hungry today, either, but I tend to think that some of the weight I gained over the past year was due to skipping breakfast all the time. If I get hungry (as opposed to bored) at lunchtime, I'll add macadamias, but I'm hoping I won't. And then another walk this evening - trying hard to get into a habit here. Despite the rain, which hit us halfway on the walk back from dinner last night, along with lightning. Yippee.

Wednesday

This week just isn't going my way - it's going up. 152.8 today - up 0.2 pounds from yesterday, which was, ... well, you get the idea. Possibly to do with eating half of a LC pizza - turns out that the crust is rather high-calorie, and while I don't subscribe to the CICO philosophy of weight gain, consuming 900 calories of pizza crust at the end of a day of eating may not be the best idea ever.

I managed to get 5000 steps in, but it felt very skin-of-teeth to me - I was having to walk aimlessly around the kitchen to get the last few steps in. Kind of stupid, really - the problem is, I have no option in my current life to get movement in naturally - I have to do it on purpose. And that's really the stupid bit.

Mark's Daily Apple yesterday was all about long commutes. I have one of those - 38 miles each way, taking over an hour, morning and evening, 4 days a week. I do manage a telecommute on Fridays. His observations are spot on. Trouble is, I've tried all of the ways to make it better - soothing music, podcasts, audiobooks, courses - and I'd like to say that they help, but they don't. It's just 2-3 hours of completely useless time every stinking day. For a job at which I sit roughly 7.5 of the 8 hours I'm here. I am looking - and one of the key drivers is the commute - but things seem to have slowed down just now. Not good.

Anyway, yesterday's eating fell within the appropriate parameters, if rather caloric. And I was at Trace>Small ketosis at bedtime, so that's an improvement. And sleep was thorough, although it was a constant dream. I feel rested, though, and that's probably the critical thing.

Lee has suggested salad for tonight's dinner. Sometimes that means salad for dinner, and sometimes he gets bored and we eat out. I'm hoping that it's truly salad this time. I really wasn't hungry for breakfast.

Tuesday

I ate nearly nothing yesterday. Breakfast. A big-ass salad. Cheese. 3 salted chocolate almonds. I went for a walk. I got my 5000 steps in. I almost made goal on my FuelBand.

So of course my weight is UP today, of course it is. 152.6. Okay, not that much, but still. It's annoying.

As near as I can tell, my weight fluctuates based mostly on what I did 2 days ago, not yesterday. I guess that bears out Taubes' argument that it's not like a wallet, where if you spend the money, you have less immediately. And I know this; I was expecting not a lot of whiz-bang excitement this morning. But I was hoping for a little decline.

Maybe tomorrow.

Monday

Took a long-weekend vacation the past 3 days - we drove up to South Dakota, looked at Mt. Rushmore and various other things in that area, and then drove home. I ate reasonably well, but had wine and dessert and ice cream and sweet potato fries and chips while up there, so I'm up a bit this morning - 152.4. Not surprising, and I think about what I would have predicted. I should be able to get the momentum turned back the other direction this week again; I certainly hope so, anyway.

I tried honey for sleeping while we were gone, and it totally didn't work. I seem to be unable to sleep well right now. Last night, after getting home and back to our comfortable bed and quiet room, I took a tsp of honey and a 10 mg melatonin, and was just wired for about an hour, then woke up multiple times over the course of the night - temperature issues, to be sure, but still... I feel quasi-rested this morning, so maybe it's doing something, but I need to get my circadian rhythms reset, or something. It probably didn't help that I spent last evening watching TV and reading on my iPad, either. I need to get back to print in the evenings, or working on my cross-stitch (that I abandoned about a year ago - I'm trying to get enthusiastic about finishing it, and mostly failing).

Negative ketones last night, too. 

One good thing I noticed over the vacation - my feet stayed unswollen. That's odd for me during any extended car travel. We did get a longish bit of walking in on Saturday - Mt. Rushmore itself, also Wall Drug and the Badlands - so I went above 5000 steps and hit a goal on my FuelBand. But that doesn't normally correlate at all with foot/ankle swelling, that I can tell, anyway.

Thursday

After yesterday's eating, I rather thought that I would be down today, maybe even seeing the elusive "4" on a weekday. But no. 150.8 this morning. Still, down over half a pound from this time last week - the weekly track goes steadily down. Guess that means next Thursday will be 150.2. Sigh.

After my fat fast during the day (heavy cream and macadamias the only input), I had a fairly small Cobb salad for dinner, 2 pieces of cheese and some chocolate almonds, and a scant teaspoon of honey. The honey helped with sleep again, and I don't think it's enough (on it's own) to crater my weight loss, so I will carefully continue with it.

The day worked out to:

• 117.5 g fat - 73%
• 31.2 g carbs - 9%
• 67 g protein - 18%

Didn't get a walk in - after dinner, we had rain. Kinda annoying, for sure. Ketones at Trace-Small last night. Sleep was okay once I turned the whole-house fan on at 1:30; I had awakened at 11:30ish with the too-hot-too-cold thing going on, slept fitfully for the next 2 hours, and got up with a leg cramp, so while I was at it, I checked for the fan and it was off. Once it was on, I took maybe 10 minutes to fall back asleep and stayed that way until 5:00.  Dreams, too, although I don't know what they were.

Wednesday

And back down to 150.6. Damn good thing, too, considering that I had to get up twice for leg cramps last night - a set that would not go away. On the outside of each ankle, simultaneously, wanting to pull the outer edge of each foot up that side of my leg. Nasty. I got up once, walked them off, got back into bed, they returned as I was swinging the legs aboard. Waited a little, then got up and sprayed them with Magnesium oil, which eventually seemed to do the trick - either the oil, or the act of rubbing it in, anyway.

Yesterday was great eating until I decided to eat the chocolate mint Nestle Aero bar after dinner - 35-40 g carbs in that puppy. It was tasty, though. I followed it up with a scant tsp of honey at bedtime, which worked its usual magic - even with the St. Vitus dance I had to do at 2 am, I slept well and feel rested this morning - far better than the night before. It was colder overnight, which certainly didn't hurt, but there's just something about that little dollop of liquid sugar that makes sleep far more worth the time.

We also got a walk in before dinner - but I don't think I made the 5000 step mark. Ah, well. I keep trying, but I have a VERY sedentary job, and haven't been sleeping well. What does one do?

Yesterday's nutrition breakdown went like this:

• Fat - 126 g - 70%
• Carbs - 47 g - 11%
• Protein - 75 g 18%

Sorta-kinda fasting today.  Lee didn't fall asleep until after my legs did their fun stunt, so I told him not to bother with breakfast. I had two heavily-creamed cups of tea this morning and my vitamins, and will see what noon brings - will probably do macadamias and make it a fat-fast day. Probably big-ass salad and a walk this evening.