Insufficient Power

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Well, it looks like homemade tacos do not have the same power as those from the tacquiera down the street.  Too bad.  I'll have to puzzle out why, but my initial guess is that mine have more carbs (thicker tortillas) and I definitely used extra meat yesterday.  I guess I'll have to keep investigating, you know, for science.  And because tacos are delicious.

Stayed up way too late doing a laundry project after retrieving a couple of boxes of clothes from storage.  Holy cow do I have too many clothes.  It's incredible.  Placing a moratorium on buying more right now.  There may be things I'll have to replace but I'm so incredibly overstocked that I should be able to hit the closet and find just about anything I need.

Breakfast:  Coffee with cocoa butter (x2)

Lunch:  Armour deli roast beef, 2 slices extra sharp cheddar, mini loaf of bread with butter, Fage cherry TruBlend yogurt

Very good.  I'm not usually a roast beef guy but this was tasty.  Makes me wonder how much corn syrup is in it.  Or other horrible things.  Bread was excellent, frozen from earlier bake, defrosted and reheated in the oven.  Nice and crusty.

Dinner:  Keto sausage balls, yellow not labeled yukon gold potatoes mashed with butter TCD style

I bought the potatoes a while ago for a soup project that I never managed to get to (in part due to low freezer space).  Decided to try them as mashed.  Not bad, certainly, but I'll stick to russets.

Exercise:  Nope.   Need to change the schedule and also a lot of work stress right now.

107.0

Just Desserts Part Infinity

Monday, February 17, 2020

You get what you get.  Actions have consequences.  Pick your favorite aphorism, it's going to apply here.  I did not expect positive news from the scale after yesterday and I got what was expected.  The good news is that it's mostly just getting a shrug, I still feel positive about the direction of things and I'm not going to let it derail me, not when I'm just starting to see and enjoy some benefits.  Dietary principle number six (I think) - don't sweat the small stuff.  Let's keep this small so it doesn't need to be sweated.

Not great sleep, same story.  On the plus side again not much snoring.  I think a topper may be in order.

Breakfast:  Coffee with cacao butter (x2)

I definitely think my body treats this like food and that the end result is that I'm hungrier than I otherwise would be come lunch time.  It's not particularly annoying but it's there.

Lunch:  Leftover homemade deluxe pizza

The other half of the one I made Saturday night.  Have I mentioned that I love Monday lunch?  Was particularly good cold and is sure does not get any easier than that.

Dinner:  Leftover homemade tacos (w/ fresh tortillas)

Day three (and fin) for the tacos and just as delicious.  I decided to single-tortilla them since I had a lot of beef left to try and maintain the right proportions (and make them, you know, edible without a fork) and it worked very well.  I think because my tortillas are thicker than those from my local restaurant they're good singled up.  I may even be able to scale down the recipe a bit to produce 4 or 5 good sized tortillas.

I very much doubt that my tacos have the same power as those from the local tacquiera, but we'll get another data point in the morning.

Exercise:  Nope.  Sloppy messy evening not condusive to being outside.   Doing home projects instead of going somewhere to walk inside.

107.0

Days Of No Sun

Sunday, February 16, 2020

Another glorious weekend day.   Now if only I had tomorrow off for Presidents Day.  Alas, I do not.  I guess that I had better make the most of it.

No expectations when I stepped on the scale this morning.  I would not have been surprised to see a gain, given how I ate yesterday.  Many carbs, not as much fat compared to what I have been consuming.  I was pleasantly surprised to see a small drop.  Could the power of tacos extend to the homemade version?  Not ready to write it off yet, that's for sure.  Today will be another dodgy eating day -- I have a birthday party to attend -- but I hope to get to the convention center for a couple of hours of walking around.  Maybe I'll even remember to bring the pedometer.

Sleep was another night of periodic wakeups and what felt like little deep sleep.  On the plus side, not that much snoring.  There must have been some deeper sleep as I did have a fantastically vivid dream from which I was glad to wake up.

Breakfast:  Walmart croissant with extra butter, 2 strips bacon, coffee w cacao butter

Last of the croissants.  I'd buy them again but I will probably stick to homemade bread for the most part.  Also:  Experimenting with photos at a larger size.  Not sure if I like it not yet.

Lunch:  Homemade tacos with beef, onion, cilantro, avocado and TB fire sauce

Fresh tortillas, did a little better job today.  Otherwise, working with leftovers.  I have quite a bit of beef left, I may have to have homemade tacos instead of taco monday tomorrow night.  Very tasty.

Dinner:  Ham, turkey, cheese sandwich, a bite of salad, homemade macaroni and cheese, chocolate sheet cake with chocolate ice cream

Oof.  There was a bit of a menu change versus what I was expecting.  Ate more than planned.  Choices could have been better, but at least the only oil probably was in the cake.  Intended to have a bite of the cake but my request was misinterpreted as a bite of ice cream with my cake.  Sigh.  After all the effort the cook put in I ate her dinner, kept my mouth shut and will live with the consequences.  My body is kinda "WTF" though after the sugar.

Not even the (limited) power of (homemade) tacos is going to save me from this one.

Exercise:  Yes.  Low intensity, sure but I went and walked around a show at the convention center for an hour and a half.  My phone says about 3,000 steps for that, I forgot to bring the pedometer.

105.6

Sat

Saturday, February 15, 2020

With great relief, we have reached another weekend.  I was pretty wiped out last night.  Regrettably it didn't lead to an early bedtime and an epic night of sleep, instead it was the usual lateish night and oversleeping until about 8:00 in order to get a decent complement.  I woke up a number of times, the first at 2:00, and never really seemed to get into a deep sleep.  Snorelab says things weren't notably bad on that front at least.

Lots to accomplish today, though most of it will just be the usual weekend chores, laundry, cleaning, that sort of thing.  Not too many cooking projects, I'm pretty well stocked.  Speaking of food, it's interesting how I seem to have settled into a routine for the most part.  I'm pretty happy eating the deconstructed sandwich and yogurt for lunch most days and a protein and buttery starch for dinner.  Tacos and pizza.  Some stuff in the freezer for when I want a change.  I won't lose weight eating this way forever but so far it's going just fine and I'm glad.  I'm even enjoying cooking more, though I rarely do anything complex outside of weekend mornings.  Pretty sure that'll become even less once the weather improves and half the weekend is again consumed with golf, but that's okay.  

One random thing I did last night was plan a reward for when I hit my next milestone.  It's one worth celebrating and I decided what I want to do when it happens.  It'll be nice and until then it may keep me on track.  Probably about two weeks away, I think, if things continue.

Breakfast:  2 strips Wright thick cut applewood bacon, Walmart croissant with extra butter, coffee with cacao butter

Brought the chunk cacao butter home, will use it up on weekends.  A pleasant and leisurely breakfast that will easily keep me sated until I decided to get moving on lunch. 

Lunch:  Homemade tacos with seasoned ground beef, cilantro and onion, avocado and TB fire sauce.

Today's cooking project.  I bought a tortilla press and my first ever bag of Maseca.  Overall I'd give them a grade of about 7/10, maybe 8.  There is room to improve my tortilla game, but for a first effort they were definitely not bad.  The texture of the beef was better than my usual, since I used a boil method I found online instead of the usual pan fry.  Keeper, I think.  Seasoning was homemade, or at least home mixed.  Next time -- tomorrow -- I'll make the tortillas a little bigger and make fewer of them.  I just watched a Rick Bayless video on youtube and picked up a few tips.

If I keep making these (i.e. if they prove to be compatible with losing weight) I think I'll invest in some taco holders.  I think I have plastic taco plates somewhere but they aren't robust at all and I doubt they'd hold the tacos up very well during prep.

Oh, and I only used half the avocado on the tacos so I guess I better eat the other half.  Done.

Dinner:  Homemade pizza with pepperoni, ham, sausage, mushroom, red pepper, black olives, green olives and roma tomato.

Lots of stuff on hand, decided to make a loaded pizza, close to a tribute to the late great antipasto pizza from a much missed local place.  Super delicious and I could actually eat the whole thing, but I'm doing well with pizza self-discipline.  I'll enjoy the rest on Monday.

Exercise:  Nope  Surprisingly inactive today, just did not have much pep.   Also have had a fun new issue pop up, pain in the upper right abdomen when I raise up after bending over.  Google suggests many possibilities, we'll see if it resolves.

106.0

The Anticipation

Friday, February 14, 2020

February is half over.  That's the only important thing about today, right?

I overslept this morning after turning off my alarm.  Woke up wondering what the scale was going to say - I had quite a few calories last night, different food (almond flour in the sausage balls), and no exercise.  I was particularly lazy.  So no idea what to anticipate.  It was very pleasing to get good news.

Breakfast:  Coffee with cocoa butter (x2)

I rather enjoy the combination.

Lunch:  Croissant, smoked ham, 2 slices extra sharp cheddar, Fage vanilla TruBlend yogurt

A dine and dash lunch.  Did not heat up the croissant so I didn't add any butter either.  Didn't have much time.  I was so pressed, in fact, that I forgot my phone, which meant I took a photo on my old phone and didn't have easy access to the tool that lets you rotate it.  FAIL.

Dinner:  Leftover keto sausage balls, cheddar cheese buttery popcorn

Repeat of last night.  I was going to get a meatball sub like last week, but since I didn't eat the sausballs for lunch I figured I'd better clean them up.  Which left a little room for popcorn.

Exercise:  Nope.  Going to be very lazy tonight.  It's frigid outside and windy too.

106.8

Getting Thru Thur

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Getting there.  Weekend in sight.  It cannot arrive quickly enough.  And only four weeks until minivacation.  I'm definitely overplanning for it already but that's okay, it gives my mind something to do during downtimes.

Unexpectedly productive yesterday evening, I accomplished everything on my list except for one thing.  I have a cooking project that I haven't been able to push myself into doing, in part because I don't really have any room in the freezer.  It's weird but right now I have more ideas and plans than I do meals at which I would consume these things.

One of the boxes I pulled out of storage yesterday was a box of pants.  Ran them through the laundry and I have pairs in each of the next four sizes down.  I might test one size down today, since the current size ones are feeling pretty loose.  Edit:  Nah.  I'm not crazy about the pants one size down - one is okay but they're black and don't really go with anything other than a sweater.  I have a pair two sizes down that's the same as my usual go-to so hopefully in a few more weeks I'll be into those.  Then I have several pairs of the same four sizes down, which I assume I wore in '13 when I was at my lowest.  On my next trip to storage I'll pull out the box of dress shirts ... I know I have a good selection of nice ones two sizes down.  At least a month away for those too.  Maybe longer.

I think I managed to fall asleep on my back last night - it was very late when I shut things down.  Looks like it doesn't make a difference what position I'm in -- the trend seems to be quite a bit of snoring for the first hour or two then not that much afterward. Weight loss is really the only major plan for dealing with it at this point.

Prospects for outdoor walking are grim the next couple of days, it's supposed to be bitterly cold and windy.  We'll see if I can motivate to do some indoor hiking somewhere.

This evening I scanned back through the archives.  Looks like I have two pounds to go to get to my lowest weight in at least three years, eight pounds to get to my lowest weight since the end of 2013.  At least if I've tracked things consistently -- and I'm mad at myself for the times I didn't weigh at all.  Of course I gained a bunch the second half of 2013, I have more than 70 to surpass where I was earlier that year. It was quite an eye opener to see the yo-yoing over the last few years.

Breakfast:  Coffee with cocoa butter (x2)

I received some different cocoa butter (how they spell it) via Amazon yesterday.  These are in uniform wafer form and much, much easier to deal with than the chunk and kibble form I got from the health food store.  They seem to be melting more uniformly, hopefully there will be less residue to clean up.

Lunch:  Walmart croissant with extra butter, smoked ham, 2 slices extra sharp cheddar, Fage cherry TruBlend yogurt

This seems to have become pretty standard, though I'll probably go back to homemade rolls.  It's easy, relatively quick and did I mention easy?  Also quite satisfying.

Dinner:  Keto sausage balls

Tweaked the recipe by cutting the almond flour and baking powder in half.  Was probably a little generous with the cheddar, I didn't bother measuring it.  Turned out tasty.  I'm sated, but I have something I want to try...

Dinner Part 2:  Cheddar cheese popcorn

You can't really tell because it's King Arthur white cheddar cheese powder, but yup.  A scant 2T of popcorn popped in about a T of coconut oil, then topped with a T of melted butter, a pinch of salt and a T of powdered cheese.  Yum.

Exercise:  Nope.  As mentioned, it's frigid out there and windy.  Decided to have a lazy evening at home, not even tackling projects.

108.6

Recompositioning

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

The week rolls on.  The rest of it should be fairly quiet with lots of time at the office, hoping to get a lot of work done.

This morning's musing is just ruminating on the idea of body recomposition.  Obviously there are things you do that change your body -- you eat less or exercise and you shrink, you eat right and engage in strength training, you build muscle, etc etc.  But one of the theories that's out there suggests that a properly constructed diet can have an outsized -- i.e. not just part of general weight loss -- impact on visceral fat.  I think that's one reason for me why that theory is attractive, I have a lot of my excess weight concentrated as visceral (abdominal) fat, and reducing it would significantly improve my appearance and quality of life.  If sharply reducing or eliminating seed oils and certain other fats will make a difference, that's something I'm very willing to do.

On that subject, I enjoyed again the fact this morning that my clothes are fitting better.  It's hard to see small changes, but the fit doesn't lie.  I really should measure so that I have something concrete to refer to -- we'll see if I get motivated enough to do that.  For now at least I'll "track" the scale and enjoy the progress in the form of looser fitting clothes.

Breakfast:  Coffee with a little cacao butter (x2)

I should probably report and track these since they do have energy content.  It has seemed so far (after a whole two days) that my body does treat it as eating and that it results in my being hungrier by lunch.  If that continues, I may change to just having regular coffee in the morning and an enhanced decaf after lunch.

Lunch:  Salami, 2 slices extra sharp cheddar, Walmart croissant with an extra knob of butter, Fage vanilla TruBlend yogurt

Better job on the quantities today, I am pleasantly full without any sense of it being too much.  A slice or two less salami -- probably switching to ham tomorrow -- and no avocado.  Feels good.

Dinner:  2 Kiolbassa beef smoked sausages with jalapeno mustard, TCD style mashed potatoes

Good stuff.   I skipped the kraut tonight and the potatoes were a bit smaller.  Still very satisfying.

Exercise:  Yes TBD.  So far I stopped at storage and grabbed four boxes, then walked around Home Depot for 15 minutes or so.  Later, I'll unload the boxes, if I can make myself walk too that would be great.  Edit:  I'm counting it.  Spent nearly a half hour lugging boxes and moving stuff.  Also unpacked the four boxes and mostly have stuff put away (plus two loads in the laundry), which is an accomplishment if not exercise.

109.2

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.

109.4

Missed Opp

Monday, February 10, 2020

Woke up this morning feeling like this weekend was kind of a missed opportunity.  I had a chance to get going on the exercise program.  Tighten the screws on what I eat.  Get lots of stuff done.  Go to the office and work on that situation.  Instead, I didn't really do any of that, though I did get some projects done around the house.  And given the way I ate I should be happy that I didn't have a big gain.

Something new this morning, I picked up some cocoa butter and added a little to my second cup of coffee this morning.  I found that I liked it.  Tasted kind of cocoa-ish.  Not quite chocolatey but in that general vicinity, without being sweet.  I didn't add all that much - certainly no more than 1T - since I didn't know if it would be good.  It's a way to get a little bump in stearic acid consumption without, you know, buying stearic acid.  And more SA efficient than bulletproof coffee.  Edit:  I had a little more in a cup of decaf after lunch.  Again enjoyable.  I'm going to roll with this for a while, see how it goes.

Lunch:  Leftover pizza (pepperoni, ham, green pepper, onion, mushroom)

Saturday night's leftovers, delicious as always.  This one was particularly good cold.

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

Have I mentioned that I love Mondays?  Food-wise at least.

I had a strawberry Spindrift sparkling water last evening and it tasted like a dessert (despite having 9 calories total and no sweetener), might do that again tonight.

Exercise:  Edit:  Yup.  Nope.  I'm typing this just after dinner and I have enough energy that I could go do something.  Haven't so far, however, and I do have projects to do around the house tonight.  Edit:  Went and walked around Walmart.  Only 0.75 miles and 16 minutes according to the pedometer but I'm counting it.

On that subject, it's been an unusual evening.  I felt more like a normal person walking and had a little pep in my step.  I'm not to the point of running or anything, but I had some get along and it's been a WHILE since I could say that.  It was really, really nice.

110.8

Lux Life

Sunday, February 9, 2020

Yesterday was certainly indulgent.  I lazed about, ate a bit much, accomplished little and didn't feel too bad about that fact.  I do wonder if I had managed a nap whether I might have been a bit more productive but so it goes.  Nothing too ambitious planned for today, either.

I didn't pay too steep of a price.  A bit of puffiness this morning, a small tick up on the scale, but nothing of consequence.  I suspect if I'm a bit more active today that it'll end up a wash.

Breakfast:  Oatwaffles with lots of butter, 5 strips Smithfield thick cut bacon, coffee

Nine strips of bacon in the package.  I bet if I bought 12 oz packages (the ones I usually buy are 24, the Smithfield was 16) it would be the perfect size for two weekend morning breakfasts.  I'll have to look and see if there are any in thick cut.  Or I could just eat better bacon and deal with it.

Oh, and I had the end of a stick of softened butter to use up so use it I did.  It was glorious.

Lunch:  Leftover pork tenderloin with mushroom gravy, cheese roll, homemade kraut.  

This was just OK.  It needed something, maybe cayenne, to really be good.  It also could have been heated longer.  Oh well.  I ate most of it.  I'll probably have a Light Hearted Ale at some point too.  I like the kraut, though next time I'd probably use fewer carraway seeds.

Dinner:  Meatloaf, four cheese potatoes w butter, cheesy green beans, roll with butter

I loaded up the potatoes (ugh box potatoes with "ingredients") and roll with lots of butter.  Ate a bit more meatloaf and another half roll.  And yes, I did have a beer mid-afternoon.

Before I left I threw on a hoodie and ... it was loose?!  Wow.  I mean it's generously sized, but it actually fits really well right now.  And it was obvious to me.  A nice little boost.

Exercise:  I'm counting it.  Moved a bunch of stuff for a half hour of concerted effort including books and furniture.  Not ideal, but I did work up a sweat.

110.8

Wondering About The Stall

Saturday, February 8, 2020

Very glad it's the weekend.  Of course.

I found myself wondering after posting yesterday when I'm going to hit a stall.  I mean, my diet yesterday wasn't exactly clean.  I ate fast/restaurant food twice.  I ate wheat bread at all three meals.  The macros, if I tracked them, wouldn't fit with any diet, except maybe a pure calorie in/calorie out just because I'm so fat I have a high base metabolic rate despite being lazy.

It's going to happen sometime, but until it happens I guess I won't worry too much about it.

I will say that I was glad not to see a spike this morning after yesterday's mediocre decision making.  I've got a bunch of cooking projects lined up today, we will see how many I get through.  I'm enjoying the food I'm preparing (okay, except for the occasional FAIL) but will admit that it would be pretty nice if I could have a Friday night meatball sub and not pay (figuratively) for it.

This is going to be a long day.  I went to bed early but -- this is why I need to ban myself from electronics in the bedroom -- got caught up searching for something on my phone and didn't even try to sleep until after 11.  Probably got to sleep by 11:30, woke up at 4:45 and going back to sleep just wasn't possible.  So I got up.  Yikes.  Also, that's one more reason I was relieved not to see a jump on the scale this morning.

Breakfast:  Oatwaffles with a little butter, 4 strips Smithfield thick cut bacon, coffee

Consumed in stages, I decided not to run the blender at 6:00 a.m. so I had the waffles later when I finished making them.  Three sets packed away in the freezer for future consumption.  They're a great vehicle for butter, the bites with lots of butter were exquisite.

Lunch:  Pork tenderloin with mushroom gravy, homemade sauerkraut, bread with butter

A very homemade lunch.  Made mushroom soup from scratch for the gravy, made the kraut last weekend - this was the first time trying it - and baked the bread this morning.  All quite tasty.

"Snack":  12 oz Bell's Light Hearted Ale

A "Lo-Cal" IPA.  I've had Founders All Day IPA which is pretty good.  This definitely tastes like Two Hearted's lighter cousin to me.  Not bad.  Decided to have it before dinner so I can close the eating window, probably going to crash early.

Dinner:  Homemade pizza with pepperoni, ham, mushroom, green pepper, onion, various cheeses

Exquisite.  Love pizza night.  A fine capper to a day of feasting.  Did the now usual eat half, save half for Monday, though I will say the beer set off some cravings, some hunger.  Thankfully I'm sated after half.

Exercise:  Nope.  Disappointed in myself.

110.4

A Less Common Weekday Thing

Friday, February 7, 2020

Always TGIF.  Always.

Scale was kind despite last night's big dinner out, so things got off to a very good start.  I definitely noticed that my right leg, the good one, looks more and more like that of a normal person.  I've also observed some improvements in the jowl area.  As always, still super fat, but I like to see progress.

Ok night last night.  Woke up at 3:45 (bladder), went back to sleep, rest of the night so-so.  Snorelab said it was moderate early, then not much of an issue later on.  I don't think I'll ever solve that mystery but if I ever find something that works (I mean I assume weight loss will help) it'll be a great day.

Breakfast:  CFA chick-n-minis, coffee

I was a little hungry and wanted more coffee just before 10 so I stopped since I was in the area.  If I hadn't had a free offer for the minis I would have skipped them, but I did and so I didn't.  I should have asked for butter, but they were fine just not good for me.

Lunch:  Ham, medium avocado, 2 cheese rolls with a little extra butter

Out of yogurt and I decided not to have additional cheese beyond what was in the rolls.  All good and I was plenty satisfied.

Dinner:  Meatball sub

Not ideal, probably, but pretty good none the less.  Local place, though I don't think the meatballs are homemade.  Nothing fussy, just meatballs, a little sauce and mozzarella on a Turano roll.  Very good and quite satisfying.  I bought some beer at the store tonight but since it was warm I'll probably wait until tomorrow to try one.

Exercise:  Not really.  Spent almost an hour at the grocery store but I don't count that.  Forecast isn't great for the weekend but I definitely want to get out and do something. 

111.6

Creeping Closer

Thursday, February 6, 2020

Five weeks until a mini vacation.  It's just on the very outer fringes of within reach, but I can feel it's out there and that is a very good feeling.  And just a little bit motivating.  I have my real goal and stretch goal for where I want to be when that day rolls around.  Scale was good to me this morning -- despite two days in a row of mashed potatoes with lots of butter and little activity -- so that's a plus.  I have to go out to dinner tonight for work -- how weird is it that I don't want to -- so we'll see how that goes.  I'm definitely getting used to cooking and eating at home.

Sleep was ok last night.  Went to bed early, around 9, but didn't go to sleep until after 10:30 I think.  Woke up once around 2:45, slept so-so after that.  Snore score was higher, though not too terrible and very much concentrated in the first several hours.  Didn't really learn anything from that.  I tried to fall asleep on my back, which unsurprisingly didn't work, but at least it was pretty comfortable.

Lunch:  Deconstructed ham sandwich, medium avocado

Yup, ham >>>>> turkey.  This was Hormel natural choice smoked ham and it was quite good.  I didn't quite eat all the bread, it was quite stale.  Did eat all the butter though.

Dinner:  Bistro steak with lime butter, calabrese potatoes with sour cream, brussels sprouts with bacon walnuts and balsamic, roll with a bit of olive oil, pint of Amber Ale

Fancy restaurant dinner.  Quite good, but I would have been just fine with a meal at home.  I was very pleasantly satisfied and not bloated.  We'll see how much I pay for it on the scale.

Exercise:  Nope.  I did get up earlier this morning (and got to work earlier) but did not use the time for exercise.  Hopefully this weekend I can kick off a routine.

112.4

A Few Musings On The Plan

On January 18 I posted the following guidelines of how I wanted to eat --

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

So, a first draft:

1.  It needs to be obvious enough that I don't have too many "can I eat this?" questions.  
2.  I shouldn't have to track macros or do any other detailed calculations. 
3.  Eat protein liberally, fat generously and carbohydrate sparingly.
4.  Avoid vegetable and seed oils like the plague and minimize other consumption of unsaturated fats / lineolic acid.
5.  Eat when hungry but it's okay to be hungry.
6.  Don't sweat the small stuff

Now, 2 1/2 weeks later, I'd like to post some thoughts.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with how things are going.  Over the course of those 17 days I have lost about ten pounds, despite a couple stumbles and without feeling deprived at all.

Looking at the individual rules:

1.  I haven't really had any questions.  A couple times I have eaten things, e.g. Chick Fil A, which don't fit the rules (eff you peanut oil).  But for the most part it's been pretty question-free.

2.  I haven't tracked any macros or done any calculations.

3.  Only partial success here -- I've been pretty good at getting my protein and fat but I've perhaps been over liberal with the carbs.  I'm not going to freak out about it as long as the scale continues to tick down, but I could probably cut them by about half.

4.  Pretty happy with the oil avoidance.  I've used a bit of olive oil here and there, no more than a couple tablespoons total.  I mentioned CFA.  Other than that cooking and eating at home has allowed a drastic reduction in "vegetable" oil consumption -- I'm sure it's hidden in some products I've consumed but I sure haven't voluntarily added any to anything I've cooked.  I have had a bunch of avocadoes so I haven't exactly eliminated the unsaturated fats.

5.  Excellent job with this one.  I haven't been hungry for breakfast during the week, so I don't eat it.  No unnecessary calories consumed.  And with the liberal consumption of fat I've been sated.  Honestly, I'm rarely very hungry.  This is helping with portion control too, e.g. eating half as much pizza at a sitting. 

6.  Not much sweating going on.  I do wonder some about the conflicting advice that's out there and as mentioned above I dock myself some points for eating too many carbs, but I'm not going nuts.  Again, while things are progressing nicely I'm not going to be too concerned.

I'm still super, super fat.  I suspect that no matter what I eat as long as it's in moderation I'd lose weight right now.  The degree of difficulty will ramp up once I've lost all the easy weight and I have to figure out how to eat to continue to lose.  But that's a problem for way down the line.

Getting Labs

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Hump day.  No humping will be involved, though one might be busted.

I'm starting to look forward to the day I can stop giving sleep updates.  Another not great night last night, though it was interesting I guess.  Went to sleep relatively early, before 10:30.  Woke up at 12:45, then again at 2:00 and at 4:15.  Knee soreness.  I didn't use a sleeve, just the knee pillow which only has so much usefulness since I seem to change positions an awful lot.  Wasn't ever awake for very long, but I was awake enough to check the time.  I did get at least a little REM sleep later on, since I had a dream about being driven to the airport.  Still, it felt somewhat inadequate.

The interesting part was that I used the Snorelab app for the first time in quite a while and it had me for a much lower level of snoring - both in terms of frequency and volume - than I had experienced before.  Some of that may just be positioning of the phone, since it's not quite as close as on the other bed.  It may well be accurate -- I'm not particularly tired or sleepy despite the interrupted sleep and I didn't have a headache when I woke up, so who knows.  Something else to watch while I try to figure this out.

Lunch:  Deconstructed turkey sandwich, Fage vanilla TruBlend yogurt, medium avocado

Same as yesterday, just with vanilla yogurt.  I've decided that turkey is about my ninth favorite lunch meat and there really isn't any reason to buy or eat it.

Dinner:  2 Kiolbassa beef smoked sausages, TCD style mashed potatoes

Pulled out some Kerrygold for the potatoes.  Good stuff.  Really, this meal couldn't be much easier.  Peel potatoes, put them on the stove, stick stuff in oven, see you in 25 minutes.

Exercise:  Nope.  On the plus side I felt more mobile this evening, so the weight loss is having a positive impact even if I'm still gimpy.

113.8

Another Win For Tacos

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

It's getting so that Tuesday morning is a highlight of the work week.  I get to see what magic Taco Monday has wrought.  Good news again this week, even though I was not active yesterday.

Sleep experiments continue.  I went with a knee sleeve and attempted knee pillow last night.  I was able to fall asleep okay though it took a little while, but woke up at 4:15 with (sigh) knee pain.  I did get back to sleep, though it was suboptimal.  It felt a little odd and I'm not entirely comfortable with wearing the sleeve overnight but at the same time I did manage to get nearly six hours before I woke up and the knee otherwise feels fine today. I do think I should measure and get a properly sized knee sleeve, the ones I have are generic L/XL and I don't remember how well sized they were when I purchased them.

Lunch:  Deconstructed turkey sandwich, cherry Fage trublend yogurt, medium avocado

Avocadoes have been on sale so I have quite a few stocked up.  It may have been a bit much to add it to the mix.  I didn't have any butter left out so it doesn't look as nice as usual.  Bread turned out nicely, just made a freeform boule using the Artisan Bread in 5 Days method.

Dinner:  2 Kiolbassa beef smoked sausages, TCDish mashed potatoes, some oven roasted green pepper and onion, jalapeno mustard

Good stuff.  I think this is my favorite of the Kiolbassa products I've tried.  Heated them in the oven with the peppers and onions, timing worked out beautifully.  Potatoes must have been bigger than usual, the potato-butter ratio was off, though I didn't measure the butter.

Just because it was so pretty, before going in:

And guess what, I'll be eating almost exactly the same thing tomorrow.  Different yogurt tho.

Exercise:  Nope.  It's going to be after 8:00 by the time I get everything cleaned up.  Need to move on this.  Even though I'm gimpy I really need to improve my fitness level before vacation.

114.4

Bounce Back From Bowl

Monday, February 3, 2020

Okay.  Super Bowl excess has been excessed, now it's time to excise that excess.  Or something like that.

Not a good night of sleep.  Awoke repeatedly with knee pain, never found a comfortable position that would last.  Dozed fitfully for an hour in the recliner after getting up before the alarm.  At least my back didn't grumble when I got up, though I was careful to take it easy.  I hate the idea of taking unnecessary pills but I may need to explore whether I can take over the counter anti-inflammatories.  I may also have to try sleeping with a knee compression sleeve on, though that makes me a little nervous.

Lunch:  Leftover homemade pepperoni mushroom pizza

My thoughts are so off today that I'm thinking that if I could just eat very low carb at the other meal of the day I could get away with eating pizza for one meal ... and that I should try it.

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

Love Mondays. 

Exercise:  Nope.  I mean, probably not, there's always a chance I squeeze in a short walk.

116.2

Life Upgrades Modest Division

Sunday, February 2, 2020

In a great mood this morning.  Hoping it continues, this is nice.

First night on the new mattress gets mostly positive reviews.  Went to bed early, decided to watch a few minutes of TV before going to sleep.  Bed was comfortable and I had no trouble falling asleep as soon as I turned the TV off.  Did wake up a couple times with knee pain and a full bladder but I was able to go right back to sleep - neither of course is a mattress issue.  A bit of back pain getting up.  I do have to tweak the setup with a more visible clock because I had no idea what time it was when I got up, ended up being 7:30.  Physically it feels like I got some decent sleep.  So I'm giving it a B+.  Their literature says it takes 30 days to get fully adjusted, we'll see how it goes. 

Incidentally, there is no connection between my good mood and the fact that I had pizza yesterday and still saw a little dip on the scale.  Nope.  None whatsoever.

Breakfast:  Leftover oatwaffles with butter, 2 strips leftover Kiolbassa pepper bacon, coffee

Last of these leftovers.  Other than taking a while to heat up the waffles in the oven -- I don't currently own a toaster -- this couldn't be easier.

Lunch:  Cheeseburger egg strata, Fage 5% plain greek yogurt

Well, I suppose I was due for a fail.  I mean, the dish turned out, it just doesn't taste great.  It tastes overwhelmingly like the mediocre ground beef that went into it.  I didn't add onion for reasons and bacon might have helped too.  Ate about half my piece and gave up, went for the yogurt to supplement.  I'll give another piece a shot with a bunch of primal kitchen ketchup but I'm not optimistic.  Oh well.  And it's not like I won't be eating 5000 calories on Super Bowl Sunday.

Dinner Part 1:  Super thin crust pizza with pepperoni, sausage, mushroom, green pepper

Not bad, but not as good as homemade.

Dinner:   Ham, salami and cheese sandwich w mustard, a few tortilla chips w guacamole salsa, celery sticks, cheesy potato soup

To my surprise -- realized as I was headed home -- no beer.  A highly unusual super bowl.  I did have a mini sandwich in addition to what is pictured.

Exercise:  Nope.  I went to Wal Mart for an item and wanted to walk around for a while, but I wore a different pair of shoes after throwing some inserts in ... which did not make them comfortable.  Ouch.

115.2

Matt Day

Saturday, February 1, 2020

How about that, the first month of the year is in the books, we're that much closer to spring and oh did I mention that I'll get to sleep on my new mattress tonight for the first time?  Yeah, I might be just a little too excited about that and not just because I had another crappy night of sleep on the old one.

I'm not going to do any particular recap on January, but I will say that it was quite successful.  I think takeout meals numbered in the single digits and outright fails were even less.  The scale said just under 20 pounds vanished.  Of course that's the easy weight and a lot of it was just water, but it's still gotta go and I won't miss it.  I have just under six weeks to vacation and I'd love to see a similar amount hit the road.   It would be even better if my leg would cooperate and I could start walking.  I'm cautiously optimistic.

Breakfast:  2 strips leftover kiolbassa pepper bacon, 2 frozen oatwaffles with butter, coffee

Inspiraion strikes again.  Since I have no bread products currently made, how about something from the freezer like a couple oatwaffles?

Lunch:  Beef stew and two cheese buns

It's been a busy day of cooking so far.  Stew, cheese buns and bread dough all complete.  The freezer will be well stocked.  Still need to try baking a mini loaf since I need bread for another project.  This is also generating a LOT of dishes, thank goodness for dishwashers.

Dinner:  Homemade pepperoni and mushroom pizza

Another pizza success.  I really like how these turn out.  This one was a bit greasy since I used more pepperoni than usual but that's not a bad thing.  And once again I ate half (admittedly of a large pie) and will have the other half for lunch on Monday.

Exercise:   Yes.  Went for a walk after dinner.  Only 15 minutes, not even a mile, but I'm counting it.  If I have to suffer I'm counting it.  I'd much rather walk in the morning, but I figured I'd go downtown and get in a few blocks.  It remains to be seen how much I pay for this tomorrow.  Some grumbling from the knee (mostly the PCL from the feel of things) and thigh and foot but it was tolerable.

117.2