Wait What Is This Feeling

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

I had a jarring revelation walking out to my car this morning.  I feel pretty good!  I add the qualifier out of habit, but truth be told, I feel just plain good.  Not great, but good.  No active major pains or other issues.  Enough pep that I had zero issues going up the stairs.  Clothes are fitting looser, my gait is improved, it's just all good.  Sure, there are a dozen nagging issues, but they're being managed to the point where they aren't crushing my quality of life right now.  And, oh yeah, it did not hurt one bit that tacos worked their magic again.

Sleep was OK last night.  Onset was delayed due to another unsuccessful effort to see if I could fall asleep on my back, but at least I used that time to mentally plan out meals for the next week.  And other stuff.  Stupid brain.

I was wondering as I added a chunk of cacao butter to my coffee this morning if my body will treat that as a meal, and if so whether I'd be better served waiting until later in the morning to consume it.  I guess we will find out if it makes a difference.

Just for fun, I tried to plug today's menu into myfitnesspal to see what the macros were.  It won't be exact since I didn't measure anything, but it should be relatively close given that I didn't eat anything too complex.  Results:

2,677 calories, 114g carb, 209g fat, 78g protein, 3,069 mg sodium, 19g sugar

MFP thought I was a bit over on calories, way short on carbs, WAY over on fat, good on protein, a bit high on sodium and good on sugar.  I obviously don't subscribe to their dietary model -- I sure don't need 326g of carbs daily -- but it was interesting to look at.

A rough calculation on what Polish Atkins (the Optimal Diet) would suggest for weight loss to get to my "ideal weight" (which is not that much more than half of what I weigh now and a number I haven't seen in decades) --

1,872 to 2,736 calories, 48g carb, 144g-240g fat, 96g protein

Calories and fat are within range, at the high end.  Protein is close.  Carbs are about double what it should be.

TCD suggests, loosely, fat being 50-70% of calories (type matters too).  Looks like I was at
70% today, which felt like about the top end of possible.

Fun times.  Playing with the numbers is more enjoyable when you aren't forced to do it.

Lunch:  Walmart all butter croissant with butter, salami, 2 slices extra sharp cheddar, medium avocado, Fage cherry TruBlend yogurt

A bit much, but all good.  May drop the avo in future weeks.  Picked up the croissants last night during my walk, had read about them and since I didn't have any bread baked a shortcut was in order.  Of course they don't use enough butter so I added some.  Not bad at all.  I was hungry - cacao butter effect? - but not any more.

Incidentally, I think this about as much fat as I can handle in one sitting, especially after having the cacao butter coffee.  I wasn't sick to my stomach, but there were definitely some questions being asked by my digestive system.  Not uncomfortable, just an odd feeling.

Dinner:  2 Kiobassa beef sausages, TCD style mashed potatoes with lots of butter, a little homemade sauerkraut, jalapeno mustard

Very sated after eating this.  I was hungry but not starving when I got home, so I was in no huge hurry to eat, it was easy to relax for a bit before starting dinner.  The sausages are pretty good and they're certainly easy, but I think I want to make another batch of the spicy stewed beef to pair with the potatoes.

Exercise:  Not so far, but I don't really have an excuse not to get out there.  We'll see.  Edit:  Yes.  Made myself get out there, pedometer said 1.07 miles in 23 minutes.   Slow pace.  Pretty nice night even if it's a little chilly.

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