Friday

I slept pretty soundly last night. Woke very briefly shortly after 2 am and was able to get right back to sleep, which is good. Slept leaning on my too-full bladder, which bowed my spine, which is bad. So when the alarm went off at 6 and awakened me (good!), I could barely move (bad!). 

It sorted itself out. I'm fine now, but it was fairly painful early on. I really need to just get up and go, even if it is chilly in the house.

159.8 tonight. Yesterday evening ended in a fistful of salted peanuts, so I'm not too surprised. Here's yesterday to the best of my ability to recall:

• tea with cream
  
• lemon jello water
  
• the usual supplements
  
• scrambled eggs
  
• pork sausage
  
• 4-6 almond flour chocolate chip cookies
  
• a bunch of grapes
  
• 2 pieces of cheddar
  
• a small bowl of cashews
  
• chicken caesar salad with roasted chicken and no croutons (Boston Market)
  
• 2 pips of milk chocolate Ritter Sport bar with coconut filling
  
• the aforementioned handful of peanuts
  

Long list. Almost always indicative of weight gain. 

I was thinking this morning after stepping off the scale that I'm not trying very hard right now - not taking the effort to lose weight or straighten the diet out very seriously. Nor I am. I'm not looking at a "burning platform" situation with my current weight, and I haven't managed to do anything to make me think that keeping really clean would continue some momentum - which is to say, I've not got any momentum. Something to think about, for sure. So we should eat from home tonight, right? I hope so. Bought a bunch of meat yesterday - pork tenderloins and pot roasts - and we could have some of it for dinner. Probably the former, since they're so easy.

Oh, and we have adopted another dog today; Facebook is dangerous. He showed up on a friend's feed as being hours from being put down, and now that we're close, it was impossible not to do anything. We get him Sunday after he's been fixed, and I really hope he and our current two get along. He's 2, and smaller than both of them, so I'd imagine they'll be able to work things out. 

Thursday

Mexican food yesterday. Chips and queso. Enchiladas. And a margarita. I don't do well with discipline in a Mexican restaurant.

159.0 this morning. I wasn't surprised. Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• lemon jello water
  
• the usual supplements
  
• scrambled eggs
  
• sausage patties
  
• 2 pieces of cheddar
  
• a small bowl of cashews
  
• about 4 cookies
  
• chips and salsa and queso
  
• a margarita
  
• cheese enchiladas with Suiza sauce (tomatillos)
  
• bits of refried beans and rice
  
• a square of dark chocolate
  

There may have been more. I'm not sure. 

Sleep was okay - or would have been; I didn't wake up - except for the fact that our sheets came loose and I spent a lot of time fighting them. One launch for a leg cramp, but at 10:30, so I got back to sleep and slept through until about 5:30. Really not bad, but I feel a bit tired today.

Overall swelling and pain is better. I haven't got rid of all of it, but my feet are feeling a bit better today. I took an Epsom Salts bath last night before bedtime, and I think that also helped a bit.

Still no morning walks. We're just not there yet.

Wednesday

Sleep was better last night; at least, I didn't wake up until almost 4. Leg cramps. One per leg, but the calf-cramp ones, stomp-out-able. It took about an hour to get back to sleep, but I was out right about 5, and slept through the alarm, more or less, waking up for real around 6:30. I think that adds up to 8 hours, pretty much.

Bodyaches from last week's fall are starting to ebb, finally. The arnica seems to be helping a lot. The toes on my left foot are better, but still bruised and swollen right at the base, which isn't fabulous. My quads are functional again, and that's a huge deal.

158.0 this morning, water, most of it. Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• lemon jello water
  
• the usual supplements
  
• scrambled eggs with ham and cheese
  
• 2 pieces of cheddar
  
• a total of 4 almond flour chocolate chip cookies
  
• a few peanuts
  
• greek-marinated chicken breast
  
• greek salad with salami and feta and vinaigrette
  
• small bowl of Haagen-Dasz strawberry
  

That was it. The cramps certainly point toward a return of ketosis, and that's a pretty low-carb day. Eating at home is key, I think. It's so much easier to control it here.

I was hoping, a few weeks ago, to start seeing some improvements in how I'm feeling from a return to proper eating. It's a bit too soon to tell, but I'm feeling a bit less logy, even with scruffy sleep right now. And my skin is smoothing out - the keratosis pilaris that I developed at Mom and Dad's house is going away. That could be the increased humidity, certainly, but I think it's dietary, since it went away shortly after we originally went Paleo. 

Onward! Haven't figured dinner out yet, but I will, and it will be healthy. And I have 2 chicken carcases in the freezer, and need to get going on some stock. Probably this weekend.

Tuesday

Sleep last night started out better, but my leg cramped up again - same place as the previous night, so unmanageable - at 3:30. Did the magnesium oil thing again, and fell back asleep pretty quickly. Only to be awakened to a crashing noise around 5 (I think) as one of the suction-cup baskets in the shower took a dive. It's just a little too lively around here at night.

158.6 this morning. My feet are still pretty swollen and my ankles stiff; I expect other parts are as well. I hunted down the arnica yesterday and put it on the swollen places and bruises, and it seems to be helping with the latter, at least. 

Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• the usual supplements
  
• scrambled eggs
  
• sausage patties
  
• a Gatorade
  
• cheddar cheese (2 pieces)
  
• a total of 4 almond-flour chocolate chip cookies through the day
  
• a 1/4-lb hamburger patty
  
• salad with blue cheese dressing
  
• small bowl of strawberry ice cream
  
• a few peanuts
  

Better. Definitely less snacky and overall lower carb. Again, today's goal is 3 cookies in total, and the plan is to fast lunch. I am noticing that my appetite is diminished, a bit.

I don't know if the Gatorade helped or not. I went back to lemon jello water this morning after forgetting it yesterday, and threw a pinch of sea salt into it, for a few more minerals. So I probably won't do Gatorade today.

No sleep means no walk in the mornings. Which sucks, but I wake up just wiped out after nights like that. Try again tomorrow. And in the meantime, I may go get an aspirin or two - I've re-applied the arnica, but am pretty achy.

Monday

That fall on Friday was longer-lasting than I hoped it would be - I'm still feeling after-effects. If I had to guess, I strained my left knee and sprained the last 3 toes on that foot - the tendons along the top of the foot that operate those toes. Nothing really bad, but some pain and bruises and swelling. In addition, my quads acted all weekend as if they'd been stretched and allowed to snap back - and had stayed snapped back. Very stiff and painful right above both knees. They're better this morning.

159.4. What with all the swelling I'm dealing with, I can't say what my actual weight is right now. I ate pretty well yesterday, though. Here's the day:

• tea with cream
  
• a few peanuts
  
• a salad with turkey and avocado and maybe cheese, ranch dressing
  
• one french fry
  
• ham
  
• baked sweet potato with butter and sour cream
  
• 4-5 almond flour chocolate chip cookies
  

I think that's it. I can't say that I'm in ketosis - mostly because I haven't found the test strips recently after our move - but I'm seeing a reduction in appetite. So maybe.

Sleep last night was great until I got an unmanageable cramp in the outside of my left calf/shin area - one that I couldn't stomp off. I had to get up around 3 am and root around in the bathroom for the magnesium oil; it worked, but made my leg all sticky the rest of the night - and once I was awake, I couldn't ignore the pain in my legs. Sigh. I don't know if it will help or hurt, but I'm having a Gator-Ade today to try to improve my electrolytes - something is out of balance.

We did go for a walk yesterday morning - about a mile and a half, I think. And did a lot of stairs, moving un-hung pictures into temporary storage while we figure out what else to hang. I hit goal on my FuelBand - and then some.

The cookies may prove to be an issue - I hope not, and they hit the spot last night. I think I will revert to my pre-Christmas discipline from year 1 of Paleo and limit myself to 3 per day, to be eaten in whatever combination I like, but once the 3 are gone, I'm done for the day.

We have signed up for the program that will give us gym access at the Junior College across the street, so now we just need to find it and find out how to use it.

Friday

Ugh. 159.8 this morning. Not good. Another day of progress to start with, that disintegrated toward nighttime. As I had thought when at my parents' house, evening snacking is probably one of my issues. And I did a goodish bit of it yesterday.

Here's the day:

• tea with cream
  
• the usual supplements
  
• lemon jello water
  
• 2 hot dogs with mustard
  
• about 10 tortilla chips
  
• a mini Ritter-Sport milk chocolate bar with yogurt filling
  
• probably some almonds
  
• a pork chop
  
• smashed cheesy cauliflower - about 1/3 of a head of cauliflower
  
• 4 "pips" of a full sized Ritter-Sport milk chocolate bar with coconut filling
  
• a single-serve vanilla Haagen-Dasz
  

Lots of sugar. Seems to be an issue these days.

I need to do a few things.

1. have a serious talk with Lee about lunch, since we're both at home. I don't eat it, and as much as I appreciate his thoughtfulness in making it for me, it's making me gain weight.
2. Not eat unless I'm actually hungry. This is a big problem right now.
3. Stop with the effing candy, already. Geez.

So, today, we ate at Cracker Barrel, and I found out that it's possible to get their low-carb double-meat breakfast even if it's not on the menu, so that's what I had. 3 eggs, about 6 bacon. Should be enough food to last until dinner, as long as I don't cave into boredom. If work ever slows down, that is. Bad morning.

What else? I fell down the stairs this morning - basically did the Wile E. Coyote step off the second step as if I'd already hit the ground floor. Twisted my left knee and toes. Seems not to be seriously damaged, but achy. Feels like I banged my right elbow in the drop, as well.

Sleep was actually quite good. Woke up at 5:48 because we got a reverse-911 call on our cellphones about a bear in our old neighborhood.  But that was the first waking of the night. Quite nice, I think.

Glad I thought through what was needed. I am going to try to resist the munchies tonight, see if that helps. I can't guarantee that I will be able to skip lunch, but I hope I'll be able to. 

Thursday

This week has whizzed by so far. Things are starting to get put away where we can find them again (always nice!), and a routine is developing.

I did really well eating yesterday. Until dinner. 159.0 this morning. I need to get my stuff together. Here's yesterday:

• tea with cream
  
• lemon jello water
  
• cheese
  
• almonds
  
• a mini Ritter bar with yogurt
  
• chips and salsa and "green sauce" (sour cream and jalapenos)
  
• a chicken fajita salad with a dressing similar to the green sauce (with more tortilla strips in it)
  
• a margarita (it was not a good day)
  
• 4 "pips" of Hershey's special dark chocolate bar with almonds
  

I think that was it. I didn't stint on the chips, I'm afraid. The margarita wasn't helpful, either. Up to that point, I'd had a very low carb day.

Sleep last night was good. I switched to a 1-hour playlist on my iPod, and had to use it twice, but fell back asleep both times quite quickly - and did NOT reawaken when it ended. So I'll stick with that for now. One thing I'm noticing here; I'm getting quite chilly as bedtime approaches. With the AC set on 70. It's very helpful in falling asleep, I think. We have not put the mattress pad heater on our bed yet - it certainly shouldn't be needed in a climate where 100 is far from unknown - and maybe I will resist using it even this winter, if we put it back at all.

I do still feel puffy and sore. I've doubled up on anti-inflammatories at vitamin time - 2 fish oil and 2 turmeric. Not helping much. Which leads me to think we got a lot of commercial seed oil and other inflammatory stuff over the past few months, and it's taking a while to work them out. I hope that's all it is. I'd like to feel better.