Fifteen Yards Excess Bread

Thursday, January 23, 2020

Amazing how fast this month is flying by.  Reserved some dates for a long weekend trip in March and happy that it is within sight at about six weeks out.  Really could use a break soon.

Fair sleep last night, temporary recliner only night two.  It was hard to fall asleep and I did wake up about 4:00 with a vicious foot cramp - one issue with the recliner is that my legs are too long for the platform and the one foot is all messed up anyway.  I dealt with it and went back to sleep.  Felt reasonably good when I woke up, like the sleep was of acceptable quality.  No word on the mattress front, I was hoping they'd ship before the end of the week so I could maybe be sleeping on it by next weekend.

Lunch:  Salami, 2 slices extra sharp cheddar, buttermilk wheat bread with butter, Fage vanilla TruBlend yogurt

Late lunch due to work commitments, needed something fast.  This loaf of bread turned out well, I tried to influence the shape a bit more.  Also trying Organic Valley cultured butter, it's fine but I think I like Kerrygold best.

Dinner:  Leftover carnitas with Frontera avocado tomatillo salsa, green beans, bread with butter

This was OK.  Did the job.  Debating whether to have something more.  I should have made potatoes instead of eating more bread but I didn't run the dishwasher last night.  Oops.  Didn't feel like a hand wash project before dinner.

Decided to have a little popcorn.  Popped directly in butter -- tasted fine but I didn't care for the visual browning.  Should ghee-ify first I guess.  Added a little smoked paprika.  Good stuff.

Exercise:  No, though I again limped less today.  Might try pushing it this weekend a bit.

122.2

Team Recliner For A Day

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Today is off to a good start, something positive to report on the sleep front for once.  After recent misery I decided to give just straight sleeping in the recliner a shot and to my surprise it worked.  I had only mild difficulty falling asleep, stayed asleep all night and felt notably better than usual when I woke up.  No lingering grogginess or urgent need for additional sleep.  I didn't get up early, so I figure I got roughly seven, maybe even seven and a half, hours of acceptable quality sleep.  I expected that I wouldn't be able to fall asleep, since I'm not a back sleeper and usually only doze in the recliner if I was already asleep.  Happy.  We'll see how the rest of the day goes.

Some improvement in the leg, it's not quite as tight today, though it's still not normal and the knee remains unstable.  We'll see how it goes, but it's definitely a downer after it had been doing pretty well as recently as the weekend.

Lunch:  2 slices of pizza, coffee

Mid-day meeting, someone bought pizza.  Restraint achievement unlocked.

Dinner:  Pork carnitas with Frontera avocado-tomatillo salsa, butter-heavy mashed potatoes, green beans

First taste of the carnitas I made several weeks ago and sent to the freezer.  Pretty good, reheated well.  I did not eat all of them, only a bit more than half.  Need to adjust my freezer portion sizes if I'm going to eat other things.  We'll see if it reheats again well tomorrow night.

Exercise:  Sadly not really possible, so no.  Some improvement today though.

122.6

Working Title Ow My Leg

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Ugh.  Rough night, rocky morning.  Awake too late, terrible interrupted sleep, got out of bed at 5 and limped to the recliner.  Bad leg is seriously tight and sore, this is different and not good.  About the only positive news is that I did get a couple hours of what felt like OK sleep in the recliner, at least I didn't wake up during.  It took several snoozes to get up and going.   It is going to test my patience to the max waiting for my new mattress to be built and shipped cross country.  Hopefully in two weeks it'll be ready for me to sleep on it.

Lunch:  Keto sausage balls, homemade buttermilk bread with butter

Forgot to take a photo so recycling yesterday's pic -- bread was a bit larger (and quite stale), less butter.  The sausage balls are good, though my stomach isn't thrilled about them for some reason - possibly the almond flour, though I've never noticed problems when I ate almonds.

Dinner:  Salami, extra sharp cheddar cheese, popcorn popped in coconut oil with butter and salt

Had plans to cook stuff, wasn't feeling it when I got home.  Decided to go with easy.  First time popping corn on the stovetop, turned out very good though I did over-salt it.  Will be interested to see what happens.

Exercise:  Not a chance.  Limped around most of the day.  Knee is quite unstable, leg muscles tight and out of whack, everything swollen.  Dunno what I did but OW.

123.0

Deficits Adding Up

Monday, January 20, 2020

Regular work day for me.  Rough start.  Another night of little sleep, though at least this time I don't think I woke up until almost 6:00.  Tonight's project will be looking at mattresses.  I don't want to spend the money but in order to change my sleep arrangments (to a different bedroom) I need one.

Lunch:  Keto sausage balls, slice of buttermilk wheat bread with butter

In hindsight, this was a bit much and I should have divided the balls into thirds.  Oh well.  Still good, though I didn't heat them up enough for my taste.

Dinner:  4 ground beef tacos, mexican style plus avocado and hot sauce

Standard Monday GOAT dinner.  Quite stuffed.

Exercise:  Nope, no chance.  Tired.

---

Ketoballs

Sunday, January 19, 2019

I was curious to see what the scale was going to look like this morning.  I ate three meals including a lot of carbs - bread and pizza crust - yesterday.  It didn't feel like I was letting go of enough water compared to what I drank.  And I had a truly miserable night of sleep -- to bed before 11, asleep by 11:30, awake at 1:15 and then again 25 minutes later after an intense dream, 3:45, 5:15 up and to the recliner but no additional sleep.  Yuck.  On the positive side, I was quite active yesterday considering I never left the house.

You know what?  There was a small drop.  Yes!  

The usual caveats apply, of course.  It could just be random variance or scale error.  But I'll take it.  Also pleased that despite the ongoing lack of sleep I'm not particularly sleepy this morning.  I'll probably get fatigued at some point, but I'm not sleepy.  There may be hope that I'll accomplish something.

Breakfast:  Slice of buttermilk wheat bread with butter, 2 strips thick cut applewood bacon, 1 medium avocado, coffee

Remembered to eat the leftover bacon from yesterday.  An excellent breakfast.

Lunch:  Leftover KAF recipe homemade deep dish pizza with pepperoni

Almost as good reheated.  Why wouldn't it be, it's pizza.

"Snack":  Keto sausage balls

I have had this in the queue to make for a while, finally got around to it this afternoon.  Of course I had to eat one (edit: THREE!) for quality control purposes!  I'm undecided as to whether to split the remaining quantity into two servings or three.  We'll see how hungry I am tomorrow at lunch.

Dinner:  Chicken, spanish rice, cheddar cheese, a few black beans, about a dozen tortilla chips with Frontera tomatillo avocado salsa, 12 oz Miller Lite

I didn't eat much.  In addition to what's pictured beans, one more small scoop of rice, the chips and salsa.  Managed not to eat any cake or ice cream.  If I hadn't had the sausage balls I'd think I came up short in the fat department this evening.

Exercise:  Nothing specific.  Pretty active again today, trip to Home Depot etc.  But no extended time I can point to and say that qualifies.

123.8

A Day With Too Much Bread And Only So Much Ambition

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Thank goodness for another weekend.  Last night wasn't too different from the night before, though I did manage to go to sleep sometime after 11.  Woke up at 3:30.   Slept fitfully after that, finally giving up at 7:00.  On the plus side, I'm not too terribly tired and not sleepy so that's a plus -- the worst days are the ones where I'm so sleepy I can't get out of the recliner.  This is not one of those days.  Still, I'm probably not going to be too ambitious.  We also have another winter weather event going on, so most of the day (or all of it) will be spent at home.

Breakfast:  2 strips Wright thick cut applewood bacon, slice of homemade buttermilk wheat bread with lots of Kerrygold butter, coffee

Let's see how the new phone camera does.  Made a few strips of bacon to have some for dinner and some grease to season up the cast iron pan.  Of course I did the bacon in the oven instead of the cast iron because I'm ridiculous.

Lunch:  Ham and bacon and bean soup, bread and butter

Intended to be yesterday's lunch.  Good stuff, if a bit much.  Thankfully most of the extra volume is just water/stock.

Dinner:  King Arthur Flour Crispy Cheesy Pan Pizza with Pepperoni

This is their "recipe of the year" for 2020 and since it's pizza you know it's going to be good.  And it was.  Highly enjoyable.  I ate half (successful again!) so I have lunch for tomorrow all set.

Ah, nuts.  I just remembered that I had saved the other two sliced of bacon from this morning to throw on the pizza.  Oh well, hopefully I remember them tomorrow.

Exercise:  I'm counting it.  Worked on assembling a bed frame (plus many other house projects), worked up quite a sweat doing that and it took a couple hours.  Not the same as a nice walk, but movement and some heavy lifting.

125.4

Diet Specifications

Saturday, January 18, 2020

So I've been thinking.   

I've read a lot of information about various diet plans.  A lot of it conflicts.  My read yesterday was the Optimal Diet, also known as Polish Atkins.  There's a lot of overlap there with other lower carb plans, but not complete overlap.  Some of the stuff is just the opposite.  There will never be any way to completely harmonize all the different plans.

What I need to formulate are a list of rules for myself.  "How I Eat". 

In making that list, for a starting point anyway, I should take into account the material that I've read.  Atkins, Eades, Optimal, Nourishing Traditions, TCD, all the different sources.  Yeah, I'm not going to consider vegan sources -- I'm satisfied that I'm designed to eat protein and fat from properly raised and wild animals.  Also, I'm going to take into account the things I've learned about myself from past success -- and failure.

So, a first draft:

1.  It needs to be obvious enough that I don't have too many "can I eat this?" questions.  

The rules need to be simple, easily applicable and repeatable.  As part of that I think it will be helpful to think out in advance a few things I can eat at any given restaurant that I'm likely to visit.  

2.  I shouldn't have to track macros or do any other detailed calculations. 

I've used My Fitness Pal to track things and frankly, it's kind of a pain.  Reporting here is as much as I want to do.  I don't want to have to.  Which is not to say that I will entirely refrain -- I think it will be interesting to try and do calculations from time to time.  But I don't want to have to plan meals based on macros.  Really, it's simple:  People managed not to be fat in the past without tracking, so no reason I shouldn't be able to do the same.

3.  Eat protein liberally, fat generously and carbohydrate sparingly.

The core principle.

My chosen sources aren't too far apart on this.  Sure, they differ.  Carnivores advocate zero carbs.  TCD thinks they're necessary to get enough fat and for the body to process it optimally.  Whatever success I've had in the past was mostly with carb restriction.   I don't think I'm at a point where zero carb would be sustainable, so let's try and restrict them and consume them with fat following the other rules.

4.  Avoid vegetable and seed oils like the plague and minimize other consumption of unsaturated fats / lineolic acid.

This is going to be a new one.  And a challenge.  Processed and restaurant food contains "vegetable" oil.  It's the blessing and curse of civilization.  I can control it somewhat by cooking and eating at home, from scratch, with real ingredients.  But as above, I need to be prepared when I'm not.

It's virtually impossible to completely avoid unsat fats, since pretty much everything that has fat has a combination.  But if I can avoid the worst of the worst that'll be a huge improvement.  Bye bye restaurant french fries.  Potato and tortilla chips.  Lots of stuff.  I don't eat a lot of some things that I would avoid under this rule, like mayonaise.  I can live without avocadoes, though I do enjoy them and have seemend (see taco night) to tolerate them well.  They may make a comeback.

5.  Eat when hungry but it's okay to be hungry.

I think this will settle in at two meals a day during the week, usually, with three on the weekends when I am home or on the road for golf.  If so, it'll work a lot like intermittent fasting during the week without any special effort to fast.

6.  Don't sweat the small stuff

This is really a corrolary to rules 1 and 2.  A little bad stuff won't kill me.  A little sugar here.  A little extra flour there.  Sure, I'd probably lose weight faster if I slavishly followed some very restrictive rules, but honestly I'm fat enough that the weight should come off steadily for now with just these basics.

I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with some of the issues like Sunday family dinner.  I can control what I eat, of course.  I may just have to be more assertive / take more control.

Anyway.  There it is, for now.  Let's see how it goes.  Today and tomorrow have some off-plan things lined up already, but there are things I can and will do to get going.

Post Details Later

Friday, January 17, 2020

In the abstract not a very interesting day, but to me I guess it was.  Horrible night of sleep, didn't fall asleep until after 1, woke at 3:45, dozed fitfully until 6 and then just gave up.  So very little rest.  Ended up feeling fine all morning, faded a little right after lunch, then finished OK.   Still, I should go to bed early.  May or may not happen.  Oh, and I didn't pay a price on the scale for last night's dinner debacle.  Yay.

One thing I definitely have to do is change when I get groceries.  It was super busy tonight, to the point you didn't want to stop to pull anything off the shelf because you might get run over.  I guess Friday nights aren't the answer.  Probably should do early mornings ... or just shop elsewhere.

Breakfast:  Slice of homemade buttermilk wheat bread with Kerrygold butter, coffee

Baked a loaf last night, decided to try it.  Good stuff.

Lunch:  CFA spicy chicken sandwich, 8 pc nuggets, mac and cheese

Picked up my new phone at lunch, which meant a fast meal.  Being close to a CFA and free nuggets was attractive.  Plus I know (see tomorrow's post) I'm going to need to avoid this stuff as part of my new plan.

Dinner:  Meatball sub, fries

Another reason not to shop on Friday nights, dinner at 7:30 or later.  Like I want to cook then.  I don't even want to take pictures, so here's one of the inside of the bag.

Exercise:  Nope.  Soon.

126.0

Eliminating The Elimination Diet Or Something

Thursday, January 16, 2020

I got so inspired I started this post last night.  Go figure.

Another slow start.  Didn't fall asleep until well after 1:00, so I was less than perky come morning.  But, frankly, not as bad as I expected.  Which is a good thing.  Still, very glad tomorrow is Friday.

A thought I had last night on the conflicting information that's out there:  I'm going to experiment to find things that work for me.  I think the internet calls it N=1.  One example, TCD says no to avocadoes since they're mostly unsaturated fat.  Keto/lowcarb/etc says yes to avocadoes because they don't particularly spike insulin.  (Or something like that, I'm grossly oversimplifying).  I have some avos in the fridge I bought before reading about TCD.  I'm sure I'll still eat them, but I don't know if I'll buy more, it'll depend on how it goes.  There are plenty of other things I can and think I will eliminate -- for example, the Donkey tortilla chips.  They're tasty but they're fried in corn oil, which is about the worst fat out there according to TCD and they're not kosher on any diet focused on carb restriction.  We'll see if I eat the rest of the bag first though.  Probably will.

Lunch:  Wendy's double with cheese, plain, minus bun and one slice of cheese

That other slice of cheese stuck to the bun so completely that it was a complete loss.  I may need to resort to triples in the future, though this wasn't particularly good so it's not likely to happen too often.

Dinner:  Poor man's brisket nachos (Donkey chips, shredded cheddar, can of diced jalapenos, a medium avocado, leftover chuck roast, can of Herdez salsa)

Holy mother of something, I should not eyeball stuff when I'm hungry.  That was enough for 3 people and I didn't come remotely close to finishing it.  I did eat the entire avocado and the salsa, but the rest, not remotely close.  It was decent, if not quite great.  Did clean up a bag of cheese, the last of the chuck roast and much of my remaining bag of Donkey chips, so that's good.

Still ate too much and I'm quite stuffed.

Exercise:  Nope.  Going to stick around the house tonight.  Getting close to the point where I need to get moving though, excuses are weak and I've been feeling a little better.  I do think about ten more pounds and I'll see a definite bump in how I feel.

127.2

Cold Pizza Diet Wanted

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

A little sluggish this morning.  My schedule is definitely a couple of hours off and I need to try and fix that over the next few days.  I have an early start on Friday so I'll definitely get a nudge there whether I like it or not.  I still think it would be glorious to wake up early and rested.  Some day.

Was also a bit bloated.  Not sure if was eating pizza after 8:00 pm or the chips and salsa verde or a combination of both but I definitely was holding on to some extra liquid.  We'll see if it goes away today.

In other news, I noticed yesterday that I'm finally getting into this.  My interest level the past few years (and many attempts) is best described as superficial.  You probably have to go all the way back to the successful period in 2012-2013 to find a time where I was actually super invested in what's going on here.  Otherwise, just recording stuff.  This is a very good sign and makes me hopeful.

And it's not just the novel-length posts!

Another sign of being into it is that I've been reading more stuff online about different eating plans.  I've read more about keto, carnivore, croissant, French, whatever.  Of course there is a ton of conflicting information, but it's been interesting trying to puzzle some things out.  One thing I do wonder is if I'm super sensitive to vegetable/seed oils, since I do better when I don't eat them.  I should ask the mexican place if the corn tortillas they used are fried in lard instead of corn oil.  Could blow my whole theory right up.  (Insta-edit:  Looks like soft corn tortillas aren't even fried in any kind of oil.  Note to self, buy some masa harina.).  Obviously it's incredibly difficult to avoid them in 2020 USA but it is possible.

I think I'll be experimenting with some things, trying to see if I can keep the trend line moving downward while still enjoying food.  I should have room to do so since I have lots of extra weight.  Just a question of whether I can consume some level of carbohydrate while still losing.  On a related note I found this morning that Walmart carries a quality brand of animal fat (Fatworks) so I picked up some lard and some tallow.  I can get lard from the farm I patronize but have no local source of tallow.  Looking forward to frying up a potato or two.

Lunch:  Cold leftover pepperoni mushroom 4 cheese pizza

Good stuff and about as quick and easy as it gets.  If only every day were that simple.  I'll have to look and see if I can tweak pizza any to fit better into any reasonable diet plan.  Only eating half at a time is a step in the right direction at least.

Dinner:  Leftover chuck roast with green peppers, TCD style mashed potatoes.

Decided to only re-heat half of the last portion of the roast (since it would be too much) and to try the super-buttery mashed potato recipe from the croissant diet page.  300g potato is about 45g of net carb, which isn't as much as I would have guessed.  It's also more potato - 2 of what I would call medium potatoes came out to 283g.  4T of butter is a lot of butter, probably double what I would use normally and I always though I was pretty generous with the good stuff.

Anyway, this greatly improved my enjoyment of the roast.  Very delicious and I'm quite full.  Since I only did maybe half of my last container of roast I'll probably do this again tomorrow night, especially if I don't retain a bunch of water.  Maybe I'll have some green beans or something since I'm now out of the roasted green pepper.

Exercise:  Nope.  A pretty sedentary day.  I should go out now and do something, but it's already after 7:30 and an early bedtime is the best idea.  I'm also quite full.

127.2

Arguing For Tacos

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

I have noticed that my weight tends to be lower on Tuesday than it is on Monday.  I always weigh in the morning before I get dressed for the sake of "consistency".  Jokingly I've attributed that to my habit of indulging in takeout Taco Monday at the local mexican place -- they're good and it's hard to beat $1 tacos.

Today because I am a moron and because I don't really want to be at work I decided to attempt to quantify the impact of tacos.  I determined that I ate these tacos and recorded my weight both days 24 times since the beginning of 2019*.  On the day after eating TACOS my weight was lower 19 times, higher 5 times, with an average loss of 1.3 pounds. 

Sounds like I need more taco nights.  A lot more taco nights.  I could be at my goal by summer!

I know, I know.  I'm not serious about suggesting that this "proves" anything.  It may be mostly lag from the weekends where I'm usually much more active.  On two of the five increase days the gain was explicable due to fast food lunches, but two others showed a 1 lb increase despite "clean" eating.  It absolutely could just be variance with the scale -- three of the five increases were just 0.2 lb -- or with fluid retention.  I certainly don't trust the accuracy of the scale since I'm up there not too far from the capacity limit.

(* Data is incomplete since there are stretches of no reporting.)

 Now, with all those disclaimers, I will say that it's pretty amusing that tacos "could" be a weight loss food.  When you are as fat as I am that is.

Anyway, since I'm in active avoidance mode I will also say that getting a new chromebook has been very helpful as far as keeping up with posts.  It's just so much more pleasant to use than my old one which was having screen issues.  It would be great if I could track the entire year.  Also:  I'm not going to get carried away with goals, especially weight-related ones since I know how hard I can fail, but I think it would be reasonable to try and be down 25 lbs before my next trip in about two months.  I should have at least ten of that in easily disposed water weight, the rest would be attainable just by eating on plan for a stretch ... he says as he plans another testing night of homemade pizza.

Lunch:  Leftover italian beef style chuck roast, a little way past prime spelt rye bread.

Satiety!  What a concept!  This was too much food.  I ate maybe 2/3 of it and then I ... stopped eating.  I could get used to that.

Dinner:  Donkey chips and a can of Herdez salsa verde, homemade pepperoni, mushroom, 4 cheese pizza.

More satiety.  I am not even remotely considering eating the other half of the pizza that's cooling on the counter.  I'll be satisfied to eat it tomorrow.  It was delicious by the way.   Now, once I get through this bag of chips, I should see about not buying more.

Exercise:  Nope.  Super tired today plus I worked very late.

126.8

Redirected By Fed X

Monday, January 13, 2019

Ah, the dawn of another week.  I spent a few minutes this morning compiling a list of things to do ... as usual it's infinitely longer than the list of things I'll actually get done.

Paid the price a bit this morning for yesterday's crap eating.  It requires a lot of activity to offset the garbage and I did not get there.  At least today will be better in the eating department.

Had a nice experience with Fed Ex today.  I wasn't home to accept a delivery, so they dropped it off at a Walgreens three blocks away and left me a voice mail.  It couldn't have been easier to pick it up and so much more convenient than the Fex Ex office which is a good 20 minutes away.

Lunch:  Deconstructed chicago italian beef

Okay, I just like the name.  I used a recipe from the food network yesterday to cook my chuck roast to get approximately the flavor of an italian beef.  I roasted a green pepper and added some giardiniera to my bowl, along with some past-its-prime rye spelt bread with the end of a stick of butter.

Very tasty.  Will eat again -- tomorrow, in fact.  Minus the bread though, unless I can salvage a bit more.  I will say that I should have made more portions, this was a LOT of food.

Also, as mentioned, I'm not going to bother listing breakfast unless I actually eat something.  Just assume that there was coffee.  I don't drink as much, but usually one or two cups are part of the routine.

Dinner:  4 tacos mexican style with cilantro, onion, avocado and hot sauce

Standard taco Monday.  Best deal in town.

Exercise:  Nope.

129.4

Ice Semifizzle

Sunday, January 12, 2020

I haven't been outside yet but it sounds like iceamageddon wasn't as bad as projected.  Certainly enough to be annoying, but without the widespread power outages.  I'm happy about that.  And shaking my head at the people on social media criticizing the local meterologists. 

Not a lot of sleep last night or pep this morning.  Decided to do my roast in the crock pot instead of the oven, it's just easier and I might want to venture out if it's not too bad.  We will see.

Breakfast:  2 eggs over medium in butter, spelt rye bread with butter, coffee

Decided to make today a three meal day with the early start.  Quite delicious.  The bread is past its prime and probably not edible beyond tomorrow, so I will probably mix up another batch.  I think I'll try making a half loaf size but restricting the horizontal spread in the pot using aluminium foil and parchment paper. 

Lunch:  Chips and salsa, 2x Taco Bell beefy fritos burrito, shredded chicken burrito, fire sauce

Alas, my roast was not done at lunch time.  I had some chips and salsa after a successful run to Walmart for can Herdez while I waited for the roast, then it wasn't done.  So I got Taco Bell in between trips to the storage unit.

Dinner:  American style goulash w parmesan cheese, garlic bread, 12 oz Miller Lite, 2x McChicken

Fail.

Exercise:  I'm counting it.  Moved a lot of heavy bed pieces and boxes.  Pretty active day.  And I am completely and utterly wiped out at 9:00 pm.

128.8

Waiting For The Ice

Saturday, January 11, 2020

It's going to be a quiet day.  No plans.  Managed to sleep in a little and delay doing anything until about 9:30, soon to be followed by some low key weekend chores like laundry.  About a zero on the excitement meter but I'm perfectly fine with having a rest day.  No ice yet as far as I know but it could happen any time. 

Breakfast:  Coffee

Yup.  If was going to bother posting breakfast: coffee going forward I'd probably have to start taking mug shots.

Lunch:  2 jumbo eggs over medium, kiolbasa breakfast sausage, sharp cheddar, Alexia hash browns in butter, coffee

Breakfast bowl.  This was a bit much, though it did do a good job of keeping me not hungry for eight hours or so.  The sausage was the weak link, I just don't seem to get it hot enough for my liking even though I heated it for quite a while.   Oh well, it was still good.

Dinner:  CF beef bacon, Donkey chips with Herdez roasted tomato salsa

The other half of last night's dinner.  Tried eating the beef bacon first to see if I'd eat fewer chips.  Maybe it worked.  Maybe.

I have a roast to cook tomorrow, hopefully it's done in time for lunch.

Exercise:  Nope.  A moderately active day including a little heavy lifting but nothing sustained.

128.2

Double Donkey

Friday, January 10, 2020

Getting ready for a major winter storm this weekend.  By that I mean I joined eight million other people at the grocery store and am now home, hunkered down and waiting for it to hit.  No plans to go anywhere tomorrow, not sure it would even be possible.

Breakfast:  Coffee

Yup.

Lunch:  Kiolbasa breakfast sausage, 2 slices extra sharp cheddar cheese, spelt rye bread w butter

Good stuff.  Went a little heavy on the bread due to a thick slice.  And I just realized that I posted this photo upside down.  Oops.

Dinner:  Donkey tortilla chips with Herdez roasted tomato salsa,  CF beef bacon with black pepper and garlic

Extreme salsa closeup!  It's just a standard cereal bowl, not some enormous monstrosity.  Half a jar.

No cans of Herdez at the store tonight, guess I'll have to try Walmart.  Bought extra Donkey chips because storm.  Or something.  Seriously though, just on a kick.  I'm sure I'll be done shortly.

Exercise:  Nope.

128.8

Donkeys Down

Thursday, January 9, 2020

A day that was okay.  Decent sleep, including something like six hours before interruption.   Felt like I'd had enough rest, a good thing considering that I had to be out the door early.  A relaxing evening of doing very little.  All good and tomorrow is Friday.

Breakfast:  Coffee

Yup.  Glad I had k cups and an insulated mug on hand since I needed to hit and run.

Lunch:  Homemade spelt rye bread with Kerrygold butter, Applegate sliced turkey, 2 slices extra sharp cheddar cheese, Fage TruBlend yogurt

A/K/A Deconstructed turkey sandwich!  (with yogurt).  I enjoyed this more than expected -- it was a quick pit stop lunch break.  The full sized loaf of bread turned out fantastic.  I even enjoyed the turkey, which usually is good for only a meh.

Dinner:  Ham and bacon and white bean soup, Donkey tortilla chips

Made the beans last month, still great.  This was a larger jar than usual, most of the extra was liquid.  This was definitely soup-y.  Like those Donkey chips, would get again even though I shouldn't eat them.  Cleaned up this bag.

Exercise:  Nope.

131.6

Mourning The Sleepthru

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

All things being equal, I'm glad that the sugar withdrawal wasn't rougher.  Hopefully I'll be clean or close to it for a while.

Another interesting night of sleep.  Went to bed earlier, was asleep by 10:30.  Woke up at 3 (knee, bladder), moved to recliner and again was sound asleep when my alarm went off at 7.  At least I wasn't as fatigued this morning.  Sad, however, that sleeping straight through appears to be a thing of the past.  I'm going to miss that.

Breakfast:  Coffee

Not at all hungry this morning.

Lunch:  Leftover homemade pepperoni mushroom pizza

Ate it cold.  At 2:00.  It was a weird day.  Did the job.  And, YES!  Success with not eating all the pizza until gone.  Very pleased by that.  That's twice in a row.

Dinner:  Chips and salsa verde, a little spelt rye bread and butter, 3 slices of Applegate Farms turkey, 2 slices of extra sharp cheddar, Fage TruBlend strawberry yogurt.

Keeping the weird theme going.  Attacked the chips and salsa verde when I got home, then decided I was pretty satisfied and that I didn't want to eat my planned dinner -- which I'll just eat tomorrow, no big deal.  Then I decided to make a plate of something and I ended up with this.  It looks like more than it was since the bread was past its prime and the outside layers too tough to enjoy so I didn't eat those parts.  Bought some Kerrygold and I had a nice butter to bread ratio.

It was still a bit much.

Exercise:  Nope.

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Observant

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

So I was reading some of the archives last night and it hit me ... I used to eat less.  When being good, I mean.  Maybe I should pay more attention to that.  And, you know, be hungry once in a while.

Another bumpy night.  Went to bed only a little later than intended, more like 11 than 10.  It took about two minutes to become uncomfortable -- ankle this time.  Moved to the recliner and fell asleep relatively quickly.  It felt like I slept OK, had a dream, but when the alarm went off at 7 I was still very tired and sleepy.  I may need to allow more time, though in the past that hasn't really done much for me as I generally can't force early sleep.  We will see.

Mid-day update:  Not a very pleasant morning.  Tired, no energy, slight headache.  It took until almost lunch to realize what's probably going on here -- I didn't think of the keto flu because I didn't exactly cut all carbs yesterday, this is likely its close cousin sugar detox.  Duh.  Stupid sugar.

Evening update:  Felt much better this afternoon.  If I'm struggling tomorrow morning I'll need to remember to eat something with a few carbs.  I can worry about those after the sugar has been cleared out.

Breakfast:  Coffee

After this week will only note breakfast if I eat something.

Lunch:  Leftover quasi-hungarian goulash, spelt rye bread with butter

Also added some black pepper today.   Definitely good and will make again, especially since it's ridiculously easy.

Dinner:  Chips and salsa,  homemade pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms

Experiment ongoing.  I had a nice big dough ball which made a good sized pie -- the photo above is half of it.  The other half is lounging on the cutting board, waiting to be packed up for the fridge.  Will it make it there before I eat it?  Stay tuned!  Science!

Seriously, though, the plan is to eat the other half tomorrow.  It's be easier to justify eating the pizza if I didn't eat quite so much at a time.

Chips were a new kind to me, Donkey brand.  Liked them.  Salsa was a little can of Herdez, which is my favorite.  Sadly the cans are getting harder to find.

Exercise:  Nope.  We'll see if I can get my legs under me for a few days first.

133.8

Seen Before, Will Be Seen Again

Monday, January 6, 2020

Back to the regular routine.  The holidays are great, but at the same time there is something to be said for a consistent schedule.

More of the same this morning.  Chased out of bed early by discomfort and bladder, snooze in the recliner.  I was definitely getting back to sleep each time I hit the snooze, thankfully if this happens tomorrow I can just set the alarm for a later time and maybe get an extra hour.

Breakfast:  Coffee

Back to trying for two meals a day.  If I were a hipster I'd probably refer to it as 'intermittent fasting' and there seems to be some evidence that not eating for >12 hours is a good thing, but I think I'll just call it not eating as much.  Not hungry today in the morning.

Lunch:  Quasi-hungarian goulash, homemade spelt rye bread with generous butter

I perked up the goulash with some smoked paprika, cayenne and salt and it was quite good.  Reheated very well.  I will most likely make it again, possibly playing around with the recipe some.  Really pleased with how the bread turned out.

Dinner:  4 tacos mexican style plus avocado and hot sauce

You've seen this before.  I was quite hungry by the time I got home, so these were devoured quite quickly.

Also:  A few pretzel chips and cheddar cheese spread.

Cleaned up.  I think I'm down to a bag of tortilla chips (and salsa) for on-hand junk.

Exercise:  Nope.  Very tired this evening and it was all I could do to perk up sufficiently to put in a half hour picking up around the house.  At least I did that.

137.0

Making Lists This Time In Volume

Sunday, January 5, 2020

Next week will be rough, getting back to a full week of the usual routine.  Ended up sleeping in, sort of, this morning.  Chased out of bed at 6 by a full bladder and a draft, dozed in the recliner, maybe some sleep, finally roused at 9:30.  Which puts me behind on chores but at least I feel a little better than I did at six.

I've been making lots of to do lists the last couple weeks (and checking some things off for once).  Made a fresh one this morning which is cleaner than the full weekend one I was working off yesterday -- it's super dumb, but there is something about having a shorter, cleaner list that makes it easier to get going.  I moved some of the project stuff I wanted to do to a side list which means the main list isn't so daunting.

Breakfast:   Leftover domino's pizza, coffee

Yep, actual leftover pizza.  A rare thing in this universe.

Lunch:  A few Meijer knockoff ranch doritos, Coke

Cleanup, aisle this.

Actual Lunch:  A little hungarian-ish goulash, spelt rye bread with butter

This week's cooking projects.  I thought the goulash was okay, it really could have used some heat.  We'll see how it is on reheat, maybe I'll add some cayenne or something.  The bread turned out really nice.

Dinner:  Chuck roast w gravy, potatoes, green beans w cheese, roll w butter, 12 oz Miller Lite, pecan pie with vanilla ice cream

Also:  McD 2x McChicken, cheeseburger, large Dr Pepper

Exercise:  I'm counting it.  Busy much of the day, including an intense stretch of moving heavy things.   I am quite tired.

137.0

Seriously I Guess It Could Be Worse

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Sigh.  I had a pretty good plan for the day.  And then I did other stuff.  I did not eat on plan.  At all.

Tired today.  Felt like I slept OK and got something like 7 hours.  Physically, though, by late afternoon I was hurting pretty good.  Of all the reasons to get back off sugar (and lose a few pounds), losing the aches and pains rates up there. 

Breakfast:  2 oatcake waffles with butter, 4 strips thick cut bacon, coffee

I had a brilliant insight last night that I could do oatcakes in the waffle maker.  So I did.  I only ate two, since I knew it was going to be a three meal day.  The rest went in the freezer.

Lunch:  Five Guys little cheeseburger, little fries

Later:  Coke

Have about a third of a bottle left, probably going to kill it tomorrow and see if I can get off it again starting Monday.

Dinner:  Domino's pan pizza, pepperoni ham and green olive

Have a little left over for tomorrow.  It was OK.

Exercise:  I'm counting it.  Quite active, lots of movement all day.  Broke down a bunch of boxes, made a Target run, moved stuff around.

137.6

Garbage Assembly

Friday, January 3, 2020

Welp.  Rough day food wise.  Didn't feel great either.  Need to do better.  I did go to the grocery store tonight and only bought about two items that qualify as awful, the rest was good solid food.  I have a couple cooking projects on tap for Sunday.  Let's try to do better.

Breakfast:  2 big asiago bagels with veggie cream cheese.  Coffee

New local place opened today, so I checked them out.  Good stuff but so bad for me.

Lunch:  McD 2x cheeseburger, 2x Mcchicken, large Coke

Late late lunch in a very short window.  I really need to stop eating while driving, it's dumb.

Dinner:  TB 2x beefy fritos burrito, shredded chicken burrito, fire sauce, Coke

Bah.  I should do my grocery shopping after dinner, not before.

Exercise:  About 45 minutes of grocery shopping.  Hardly counts but it does.

138.0

The Ungolden Hour

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Not a great day.  Felt like I slept decently, though I could easily have slept longer.   Not much pep.  But an okay day at work I guess.  Motivation level was moderate.

One thing that I really noted is how much my enthusiasm level drops between 5 pm and 6 pm.  I usually don't leave work until 6 and by then it's pitch black this time of year and the last thing I want to do is cook something or exercise or do much of anything.  I managed to drag myself home but I couldn't go directly to fixing dinner, that took some time which meant that I didn't eat until almost 8:00.

Really not sure what I'll do about it though.

Breakfast:  Entemann's frosted donuts, coffee

Done with those, cleaned up.

Lunch:  CFA spicy chicken sandwich, fries, lemonade, 8 pc nugget w a little Polynesian sauce

Not much time, not close to home so it was lunch on the go.

Pre-dinner:  Pretzel chips with cheddar cheese spread, Coke

Dinner:  Tacos with cheese and fire sauce

At least tacos are pretty easy and don't really take that long.  I'll eat the leftovers tomorrow.  I also managed to clean up two half-eaten bags of shredded cheese.

Oh.  Later I had maybe an ounce of potato chips.  Cleaned them right up too.

Exercise:  Nope.  I made a point of putting it on the to-do list, but like I said, my pep level just goes off a cliff after 5:00 pm.  We'll see if I experience an evening surge later on.

137.6

Time To Draw Down

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Happy new year!  New decade!  Same fat guy.

I ended up staying awake past midnight, though I think that's a function more of a messed up sleep schedule than anything else.  I went to bed earlier, but as usual didn't sleep.  Woke up before 5 but thankfully was able to go back to sleep until 7.

I've never been big on new year resolutions, but it is a convenient day to set out plans and goals and to give yourself a kick in the pants, and so even though I don't believe in starting before January 2 here are some plans:

1.  Gradually improve the diet by (a) cooking and eating at home and (b) drawing down my stocks of bad food and not replacing them.  Seriously.  If I don't eat out, especially drive thru/takeout/pizza and if I don't have crap on hand I don't eat crap.  Incidentally, no, today's menu is not a "diet" menu.  Crap drawdown.

2.  Get at least some minimal level of exercise nearly every day.  I'm not talking running or weight lifting.  Just walking or some kind of sustained movement.  Probably no more than 15 minutes to start, but I want to progress to at least 30 and ultimately back to 60.  I don't know when I've felt better than when I was walking an hour every morning.

3.  Post everything I eat here.  One of my justifications for getting a new Chromebook was that it would make it easier and more enjoyable to post.  Plus, it's accountability.

4.  Build on the momentum I've had lately with house projects.  One thing that I'm really happy about is this.  I still have lots of stuff in storage and boxes to be sorted and purged.  If I can get rid of about half of my stuff that would be great. 

5.  Less concrete -- There are some improvements that can be made at work.  Maybe I'll detail that later.

Breakfast:  Entemann's rich frosted donuts, coffee

As mentioned I have a bunch of junk to draw down.

Lunch:  2 jumbo CF eggs over easy in butter, large avocado, 3 strips thick cut bacon, slice of homemade buttermilk wheat bread with butter, glass of whole milk

Bacon was a minute overdone and it's better with hash browns but still tasty.

Snack:  Pretzel chips with cheddar cheese spread, Coke

Dinner:  Ham, a couple scalloped potatoes, 2 rolls with butter, christmas cookies and ice cream with hot fudge

Also:  2x McD cheeseburger, McChicken, large Dr. Pepper

Exercise:  Yes.  30 minutes of steady (if very very slow) walking.  Went to the grocery store and meandered around, not stopping, for that long.  I only bought one item and did very little looking so it was pretty easy to stay in motion.  Not exactly high intensity, but it's *something*.   And it didn't require me to walk on the icy sidewalks.  Considering how lousy I feel, I'm quite happy.

136.8

Last

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Last day of the year.  It hasn't been a strong finish in many respects.  Bad eating, no exercise.  And yet I've gotten more projects done around the house in the last two weeks than I accomplished in six months before that.  So it's a mixed bag.

Slept okay last night.  I didn't get enough sleep and I woke up an hour before the bell but it was okay.  A small positive step.  I randomly ordered a couple new pillows with some accumulated Sears points last night so in a few days I'll have something else new to try.

Breakfast:  Homemade buttermilk wheat bread with butter, coffee

Grabbed a couple small slices on my way out the door.  Pretty solid stuff.

Lunch:  Italian beef sandwich, fries, coke, brownie

I have to say, sugar makes me feel like crap.  I won't miss that even if it proves to be torture to give it up.

Dinner:  12" pepperoni sausage thin crust pizza

Also:  A shot of Sobieski vodka with grapefruit sparkling water

Exercise:  Nope.  Icy out there today.  Moved some stuff around and was active, but it doesn't count.

138.0