Loosening

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

This week is flying by. Trying to cram in as much work as possible while still preparing to leave for vacation means that I'm on the go constantly.  It was helpful that I got up an hour early today, meant that I could get my blood draw and hit the store for some things before work. Need to clean out the car tonight, hope the weather cooperates.

Anyway, a blip up on the scale today.  While I'm not happy about it, I'm taking it philosophically.  I had that McLunch yesterday, which while relatively clean in terms of carbs still had too much salt and seed oil cheese.  Dinner had dextrose in the dogs and a tortilla.  When I'm back I should try harder.

Probably the main reason I'm not crankier is that this weekend I noticed for the first time that the clothes are fitting better.  The pants, in particular, are very loose.  Too big, even.  Which is nice.  Long long way to go but a little positive biofeedback is a good thing.

Breakfast:  2 oz Cabot sharp cheddar, coffee

 

Again.  Any other week and I probably would have gone to a smaller serving size, but this way I'll eat up the package just before I go.

Lunch:  Breakfast burrito - 3 eggs, 3 strips leftover bacon, a little Organic Valley spicy cheddar and Siete bolana sauce.

 

Very tasty.  Was going to add an avocado but it was bad.  Disappointing.

Dinner:  Bison meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, 16 oz Two Hearted

 

Work dinner.  All very good.  I have about half of the meatloaf and the cornbread left over for tomorrow, ate the rest and I am rather full.

Exercise:  Nope, not unless you count running around.

95.0 

All Fast Foods

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Super super busy day.  No time for much of anything.  On the plus side I got lots of work done.  Not enough, of course, but I did get lots done.

No change on the scale, which felt like a win. Didn't get in much exercise and had a big lunch.  Now the real test will be how bad tomorrow is.  See meals below for why.

Breakfast:  2 oz Cabot seriously sharp cheddar, coffee

 

Again.

Lunch:  2 McDonalds double cheeseburgers, minus buns, ketchup and onions

 

Ended up with about one solid bite of bun.  These were well prepared, but rather salty.  Can't say I felt the best after eating them either.  That's what happens when you take six minutes for lunch and were not planning on that.  I certainly could have packed a lunch if I had known.

Dinner:  3 cheese hot dogs in a tallow tortilla with Siete bolana sauce and chopped dill pickle

 

Pretty tasty.  Air fying the dogs works well, these are the ones from the BBQ place, made in house.

Exercise:  Nope.

94.0 

Countdown On

Monday, September 22, 2025

Well that weekend went by quickly.  Four days of work -- and a lot of extra hours -- coming up followed by vacation.

Another good morning on the scale and with the BP numbers.  Lowest yet on both.  I suspect it's mostly the exercise, but it's nice to see a drop when I didn't exactly suffer diet-wise.  Now I just need to hang in this week, which should not be hard, and then not explode too badly during vacation.  There will be deviations, no doubt, and ten or so days of exclusively eating out is not ideal, but I do hope to keep it reasonable.  Plus there will be exercise every day, so I would think chances are decent that I won't gain.

Breakfast:  1 oz sharp cheddar, coffee

 

Again.

Lunch:  Smoked turkey, mashed potatoes

 

Ate the rest of the turkey from the BBQ place.  It was very good.  A little on the pricey side, but if they were closer I'd get it on a regular basis.  Made the potatoes this weekend to clean up the remnants of the bag from last week's potato salad.

Dinner:  3 mexican style tacos plus avo and jalapenos

 

Standard Monday night fare.  Very good tonight. 

Exercise:  Nope.  With no exercise and the big lunch I'm expecting to be up tomorrow.

94.0 

Pushing And Pushing

Sunday, September 21, 2025

Ahh, that's a bit more like it.  After a busy day and a solid workout, a nice number on the scale.  It took some effort to clear the system but it was certainly a good thing once it was done.

Otherwise, nothing much of note happening.  Much to do, not enough time and only so much pep.

Breakfast:  1 oz sharp cheddar, coffee

 

Standard.

Lunch:  Leftover brisket and cheesy potatoes, smoked turkey

 

Nice to get a second meal out of my brisket combo.  I bought a pound of smoked turkey as well with no clear plan other than using some tonight so I 'beefed' up my meal with a couple ounces.  All reheated in butter, very tasty.

Dinner:  Turkey BLT wrap using a tallow tortilla, 12 oz Miller Lite, blueberry pie

 

Sunday dinner was BLTs, so I did mine in a tortilla and added the turkey.  Also used Siete bota sauce instead of mayo.  Very tasty.  Made a half blueberry pie so I decided to sample a small piece.  It was good.  We'll see how much I pay for this tomorrow.

Exercise:  18 holes with cart, lots of walking.

95.2 

Sometimes You Don't Mind

Saturday, September 20, 2025

Okay then.  Scale was up but today I'm okay with it.  System backup and no time to deal with it.  All good.  Felt decent, a little on the tired side.  Got a crazy low reading for pulse, even felt like it was slower than normal, but it hasn't affected anything and I'm sure it's normal as I type this hours later.

Breakfast:   2 eggs over medium, hash browns, 3 strips bacon, raisin toast w jam, coffee

 

May not be too many more pre-golf breakfasts out this season but hoping for some.

Lunch:  Brat with mustard, onions and chopped dill pickle, 12 oz Miller Lite

 

Came with golf today.  Had about one bite's worth of bun.

Dinner:  Brisket, cheesy potatoes 

 

Not sure how much of it is the brat, or eating dinner early or just eating less, but I'm going to get two full meals out of this.

Exercise:  18 holes with cart.  Good walking, including some elevation change.

98.0 

More Viewed

Friday, September 19, 2025

It seems like my posts have had more views lately.  I'm sure it's just web crawlers and the occasional person who misclicks on a google search, but it's interesting.  To me anyway.

A bit of a rebound drop this morning despite more carbs yesterday.  Still a bit annoyed but overall more philosophical.  Weight loss would sure be easier if you could do exact CICO, just set at a little more than a 1k deficit and lose two pounds a week. 

Of note, last night's home burrito provided excellent satiety.  I had the purely psychological urge to eat more when I finished, but once I got past that the satiety stuck around all the way to bedtime. 

Anyway, it's going to be a busy, busy weekend.

Breakfast:  1 oz sharp cheddar, coffee

 

Same.

Lunch:  3 eggs sunny, Alexia hash browns in butter, 4 Smithfield sausage links

 

Also same but with different sausage.  I was going to get a package of NR bacon sausage but they were out. 

Dinner:  Keto bowl

 

Looked at the bowl, decided it was smaller than usual, then I started eating it.  Oh.  Meat-heavy.  Less lettuce.  Yes, please. 

Exercise:  Nope

97.2 

You Shall Not Pass

Thursday, September 18, 2025

Welp.  I got my answer.  Was better yesterday but didn't matter,  scale was minimum up.  Crap.

As a practical matter what this means is that I won't hit my goal, let alone my stretch goal, for weight before vacation.  Just the way it is.  I'll keep at it and hopefully knock of a couple more pounds over the next week, but it would take something crazy to get to the target.  Body composition is weird man.  I think what this means is that when I get back I'll need to be stricter on the carbs and push the exercise.  Even if I can't do my preferred walking I can do some upper body and stuff that doesn't rely on the damaged leg.

Otherwise, it's been an okay morning.  I actually woke up before my alarm and it wasn't caused by anything in particular.  I took the opportunity to laze about for a while, which was nice.

Breakfast:  1 oz sharp cheddar, coffee

 

Again.

Lunch:  3 eggs sunny, Alexia hash browns in butter, 4 Thousand Hills beef breakfast sausage links

 

Again.  Tasty, again.

Dinner:  Home burrito

Take two.  Just taco meat, cheese, jalapenos and guac. 

Exercise:  Nope.  Not been a good week for that.

98.0 

30 30 Vision

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

I realized last evening that it had been thirty days since this project kicked off.  Thirty days of eating I have been almost entirely happy with.  One unsatisfying visit to Dominos, one campfire dog, a few lesser bobbles.  But no blowouts, much less takeout and drive thru food, mostly better choices.  And in looking at the numbers, I was fractionally under dropping thirty pounds.  Sure, the first fifteen of that was water, but I'm always happy to lose 15 pounds of regulation fat in a month.  

So that was the happy stuff.

I woke up this morning and it didn't take long to be PISSED.  Actually it started earlier, I drank some electrolytes before bed and they frankly let me down, had two episodes of nasty cramps.  Don't know that they've failed me before like that.  But I got a little extra sleep, got up and hopped on the scale, UGH, up two full pounds.  Biggest jump in weeks.

Let's break down yesterday.  I had less cheese at breakfast.  I had no potatoes for lunch.  Really the only meaningful difference was I had a large tallow tortilla for dinner.  If CICO were true, I would have consumed 7,000 extra calories, which obviously isn't the case.  If anything I was a little light.   It has to be water weight.

Which leaves me wondering, is wheat really that toxic?  One 10 or 12 inch tallow tortilla is enough wheat to send my body into toxic shock, to hold on to that much water?  Really?  Yikes.  I mean, what else could have caused it?  I have no idea.

Breakfast:  1 oz Ruminao sharp cheddar, coffee

 

Again.

Lunch:  3 eggs sunny in butter, Alexia hash browns in butter 4 Thousand Hills smoked beef breakfast sausages

 

New sausage choice, pretty tasty.  And yes, I had potatoes at lunch again.  If it works I'm going with it.

Dinner:  Soup, nonfat greek yogurt with frozen strawberries

Soup was fine, as was the yogurt.  Let's see what the scale says tomorrow.

Exercise:  Nope.  I got some movement in with my new steam cleaner, but not enough to count.

97.8 

First Time Home Burrito

Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Well that kinda sucked.  I had to deal with a situation and it kept me up insanely late.  I got to sleep shortly before 3:00.  And promptly woke up at 4:00 with a foot cramp.  Oof.  Fortunately I got right back to sleep and was out until the alarm went off at 7:00.  Definitely felt it but overall today went better than expected.  Still experienced a significant dropoff in productivity.  Need to crash early tonight.

I tried the sleep mask for the first time and I thought it went well.  It was nice to have it be pitch black, though flipping it up to hit snooze a few times wasn't ideal.  It'll get an extended trial run but so far so good.

Minor dip on the scale, another set of good BP numbers, it was a solid start.

Breakfast:  1 oz Ruminato sharp cheddar, coffee

 

Opened a package of the good cheese and cut my serving down to one slice, which was fine.

Lunch:  2 hard boiled eggs, 6 strips Meijer thick cut bacon

 

I ended up with about ten minutes for lunch.  Thankfully I had the extra eggs from the weekend and could add a double serving of bacon.  Tasty and fast.

Dinner:  Home burrito - tallow tortilla, ~5 oz taco meat, a little Organic Valley spicy cheddar, avocado and jalapenos 

 

I didn't even notice I bought large sized tallow tortillas until I went to toss one in a pan.  Oops.  I was just glad they had some at the fancy health food store.  This was very good, will eat again.  Probably six times, lol. 

Exercise:  Nope.  Crashing out.

95.8 

Discouraged To Encouraged

Monday, September 15, 2025

Here we go again with another week.

Have to say I was pretty discouraged yesterday.  I didn't sleep well Saturday night, too many aches and pains and I was just off.  Didn't have a lot of pep yesterday and after golf I was trying to do some yard work and had one of those power outages where I just felt exhausted.  I haven't had a lot of pep period but it's been really depressing how quickly I get tired and how drained I am when these spells hit.  It makes me quite worried that there is a bigger problem.

I didn't feel great when I went to sleep last night, but I woke up in a better frame of mind.  I got six plus hours before I woke up and when I did nothing was hurting of note.  Snoozed a while, I certainly could have slept longer, but I got going without incident.

And then I was encouraged by a nice drop on the scale - despite eating potatoes at two meals yesterday and only nine holes - and I got another fabulous set of bp numbers.  I would love to be able to ditch the bp medication whenever my next appointment is.  We'll see, but that's two days in a row.  Feels good.  And I really was happy to see the weight go down in a bit of a bigger chunk.

Breakfast:   2 oz sharp cheddar, coffee

 

Last of the package of the Cabot seriously sharp.  I think I'll buy some more this week, I'll be heading to that store for the first time in a while. 

Lunch:  3 eggs sunny, Alexia hash browns in butter, 3 strips Meijer thick cut bacon

 

Excellent.  Let's see what happens if I have potatoes for lunch today too.  I really enjoy the Alexia hash browns, it's too bad the only place that carries them is quite a distance away.   

Dinner:  3 tacos mexican style plus avocado and jalapenos

 

Again.  Honestly 2 probably would have been enough (I used to get 4).  If I start paying with cash maybe I'll try just ordering two (since I'd be under the credit card minimum).

Exercise:  Nope. 

96.0 

Adding The Scraps

Sunday, September 14, 2025

Did not get enough sleep last night.   Was very late falling asleep, after midnight.  Woke up at 4:30.  Ugh.  Did manage to get some more sleep, but with a lot to do today it was still an early start.  We'll see how much I pay for it later.

Too many carbs yesterday.  Scale up the minimum, but I got a really low (for me) BP reading this morning.  

I need to make sure I add the bits of things I eat when cooking - yesterday, for example, I had a slice of bacon from the package I cooked up. 

Breakfast:  2 oz sharp cheddar, hard boiled egg, coffee 

 

Extra egg from this morning's project.

Lunch:  2 eggs sunny in butter, hash browns in butter, 4 strips Meijer thick cut bacon

 

Excellent. 

Dinner:  Burger patty w mustard and pickle, 2 slices sharp cheddar, bacon, a little potato salad, salad no dressing, 12 oz Miller Lite

 

Birthday party, it was surprisingly easy to skip the cake and ice cream. 

Exercise:  9 holes with cart.  Pretty good with the extra walking.

98.2 

Had A Snappy Title, Forgot

Saturday, September 13, 2025

Glad to make it to the weekend.  Sluggish start this morning, had a late tee time so I could take it slow.  Scale was good, all the numbers in order, just not a lot of pep until I had coffee and breakfast.

I made a list of what I need to do this weekend last night and there is no chance I'll get it all done.  Yikes.

Breakfast:  1/2 oz sharp cheddar, coffee, 3 eggs sunny in butter, hash browns in butter, 3 Meijer sausage links

 

Spread out a bit but had to eat what I would have had for lunch about 10:30.

Lunch:  16 oz Mich Ultra

After golf.

Dinner:  Qdoba brisket bowl

 

My burrito artist recognized me as a recent regular and hooked me up pretty good.  Quite full.

Exercise:  18 holes with cart, not much extra walking.  Got tired the last couple holes.  I'd do more extra walking but since it's generally painful (leg, knee, you name it) I don't.  I'm just happy to be out there.

98.0 

Big Sigh

Friday, September 12, 2025

That sigh you heard was one of relief, both that it's Friday and that I finally broke through on the scale.  A nice little drop that for once wasn't the minimum.  Nothing special, either - no big exercise, no long sleeps, nothing like that.

Needless to say that has had me in a good mood all morning and it was productive.

Breakfast:  ~ 2 oz Cabot seriously sharp cheddar, coffee

 

Glad I had another package of cheese on hand, this is still a favorite kind.  Only one cup of coffee, I was that busy.

Lunch:  3 eggs scrambled in butter, 4 Meijer sausage links

 

Only three links left, I've been pleasantly surprised that they have been decent.  I'd much prefer cleaner, but they have done the job.

Dinner:  Keto bowl

 

It seems to work to drive to get the keto bowl and hit the fancy health food store for groceries on Friday evenings.

Exercise:  Nope.  I did walk a few blocks for work stuff, but did not attempt the big stairs due to knee discomfort.

99.0 

Never Forget

Thursday, September 11, 2025

Another day, almost there.  I was in a somber mood last night, so I didn't go back to work, and it has carried over into today.  Life.

Not much to report.  Minimal drop on the scale, it's taking a long, long time to drop below the next mile marker.  Which is a little furstrating tbqh.

But on we go.

Breakfast:  2 slices Meijer sharp white cheddar, coffee 

 

Last of the package.

Lunch:  3 eggs scrambled, 4 Meijer sausage links, leftover butter biscuit

 

All fine.

Dinner:   Soup, nonfat greek yogurt w frozen strawberries

 

I think I like the soup better without the crushed tomatoes.

Exercise:  Nope.

100.2 

Body Goes To War

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

I'm weirdly encouraged.  My body had a conversation last night as I was eating the crap (domino's stuffed cheesy bread) and afterward.

Mouth:  Ooh, hey, this is pretty tasty.

Stomach:  WTF is this crap bro?

Rest of Body:  Hey we don't want to have to deal with this junk, GTFO.

Brain:  Okay, fine

I basically felt like low-grade crap after eating it, stomach and all.  So hopefully next time I'll remember that and be like nope.  In fairness I did consider and reject a lot of other options first, ultimately it narrowly prevailed over just eating some yogurt at home and only because it was free.  I think the only other meaningful points I have for free food are at Wendys.

Anyway, happy to see no change on the scale.  Let's be good today and hope for no delayed impact.

Breakfast:  2 slices Meijer sharp white cheddar, coffee

 

Again.

Lunch:  2 eggs scrambled, 5 slices CF black pepper garlic bacon

 

Too lazy to grab another package of eggs so I went with the two eggs I had.  On the plus side, two days in a row they were really good.

Dinner:  Soup, 2 butter biscuits

 

The butter biscuits are interesting, just a mix of butter powder and egg, from someone I follow on X.  I'll probably mess around with some variations while I use up the butter powder. 

Exercise:  Nope.

100.4 

Complain, Get Results, Rinse, Repeat

Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Apparently complaining about the scale produces results.  Good morning today, nice to see a drop.  Insert shrug emojis here.  It will always be a mystery.

Not much else going on.  Busy work week but not insane.  Barely.

Breakfast:  2 slices Meijer sharp white cheddar, coffee

 

Again.

Also, one of my co-workers made and brought in cookies so I felt like being polite and ate the smallest one I could find.

 

 It was quite good.

Lunch:  3 eggs scrambled in butter, 5 strips CF garlic pepper bacon

 

Now that's more like it.  Best effort on the eggs in quite some time.  I had the cookie about 45 minutes before lunch and it definitely confused my body.  I think it thought that was lunch and all of lunch.

Dinner:  Pulled pork, grilled chicken, 24 oz Miller Lite.  

 

 

Golf banquet.  It was okay. 

Also:  Dominos stuffed pepperoni bread

 

The price was right, it was free.  Otherwise, it was wrong. 

Exercise:  9 holes with cart, decent walking.

100.4