And Now The Comedown

Monday, December 2, 2024

After a long weekend of feasting, it's time to get back on track.  While I'm not looking forward to the work, I am looking forward at least a little to the routine.  It just needs to be adjusted.

Scale up, went to bed way too late, was very tired this morning.  All predictable.

Breakfast:  3 CF sausage patties, orange juice, coffee

I think in the future I think two would be sufficient.

Lunch:  2 eggs scrambled, leftover potato pancakes and chorizo gravy, sour cream

Quick and easy.  

Dinner:  2x mexican 2x american tacos, 12 oz All Day IPA.  Will have a glass of chocolate milk later

All good.

Exercise:  Nope.  As mentioned, very tired this morning and very late in getting up.

106.8

End Of Stretch

Sunday, December 1, 2024

Thankful for one more weekend day.  It's been great.  A lot of cooking, enjoyable eating and cleaning.  I still have more to do today but my home is the cleanest it's been in months.  Things are picked up, I changed a couple decor items, my holiday decorations are out, it's all good.  The only thing I haven't done that really needed attention was time at the office.  Maybe I'll fit in some this afternoon.

Another night of straight through sleep.  Seven hours, waking up at 6:00.  Except this time I only woke up briefly.  Didn't even get out of bed, back to sleep for an hour.  Repeated one more time and I finally got moving at 8:00.  In a sense, anyway.  It's been a very very slow go.  Really vivid dreams in those last two hours too.

Even though I'm up again on the scale and several pounds higher than earlier in the week, I'm still calling November a decent success.  Down almost ten pounds, blood pressure improving, much less eating out, much less seed oil.  More work to be done but it's getting better.

Breakfast:  Lazy bagels with chive cream cheese, coffee

Always good.  Although I'm quite satisfied with this quantity, I should probably reduce it by a third.

Later, a V-8 mixer Bloody Mary with a couple olives and a Bubbies dill pickle:

 Much better with ice. Quite satisfactory.

Lunch:  Scrambled eggs, chorizo gravy, mashed potato pancakes fried in beef tallow, sour cream and guac.  Orange juice.

Pretty tasty.  And it was fun (okay maybe that's the wrong word) frying the potatoes in tallow.  It worked well and I'll keep some on hand for future pan frying experiments.

Dinner:  Busy day casserole, cheesy green beans, NSA peaches, roll with butter, 12 oz Miller Lite, peanut butter and lemon meringue pie

Sunday dinners.

Exercise:  Nope.  Again nothing scheduled, just a decent amount of movement as I do projects around the house.  Not nearly as much as yesterday.

104.4

Complete Reversal

Saturday, November 30, 2024

Well that was a pleasant change.  I slept straight through, uninterrupted, from midnight to 7:00 am.  No cramps, no wakeups for anything.  It was very pleasant.  Of course I'm still behind on sleep, but this helped.  A lazy morning and I didn't really start accomplishing anything until 9:00.  Yikes.

One thing I did manage to do was to make a list of all those things.  It's a long one.  We'll see how much of it I can get done.  Already I know that I won't be able to get to a lot of it, some is purely aspirational.  But much needs to be done and I also need to spend time at the office before the weekend is over.

Scale was up some.  Not a surprise, I ate a lot of starch and drank a lot of water last evening.

Breakfast:  2 buttermilk pancakes with butter and maple syrup, 5 strips CF black pepper garlic bacon, orange juice, coffee

A very tasty breakfast.  I would have been happy with less bacon, but I cleaned it up.

Lunch:  2x McRib

Had to have a McRib at least once during the season.  It was honestly a little strange going through the drive thru - I mean it hasn't been THAT long, but it still was weird.

Dinner:     Home cracker crust pepperoni pizza, 24 oz All Day IPA, lemon meringue pie

Never got around to making yeasted dough, so I made the ol' cracker.  It was delicious.  Used Mid's sauce with sausage for something different.  Have quite a bit left, so I'll probably have another one mid-week.

Exercise:  Nothing formal, but a super, super active day.  Got a LOT done around the house.

103.6

Unfigured Out

Friday, November 29, 2024

Argh.  I will never get things completely sorted.  The human body makes no sense.

I was up late last night, due to the holiday party and taking a while to wind down.  I finally managed to make myself go to bed when I started nodding off in the recliner around 11:30.  Was asleep before midnight.  Promptly woke up an hour later with a vicious foot cramp.  Worked it out, went back to sleep.  Was awakened again at 3:00 with an even worse one.  Couldn't easily get it sorted, so I had a glass of electrolytes.  Which promptly resolved the issue.  This time I hit the recliner and went back to sleep ... until 5:00 when I was jerked awake right in the middile of a vivid dream with, you guessed it, another vicious foot cramp.  I gave up.

So the good news is that I got up at 5:00 am again, which is when I'd like to wake up.

Bad news, I got no more than five hours of sleep and I'll be dragging big time all day.  I have things I would like to do, but we'll see how many of them get done.  I may need a nap.

Also, pleasantly surprised to see only a moderate gain after eating all the food.  Not bad.

Breakfast:    Lazy bagels with cream cheese, coffee

Different cream cheese today, Good Culture chive.  It's good, but I think Tillamook is likely to remain the regular.

Lunch:  2 eggs scrambled with peppers and onions, 4 strips CF black pepper garlic bacon, homemade bread toasted with butter and grape jam

Cleaned up the dozen eggs and tried out the jam I got from the farm where I joined the herdshare.  Not bad, but I prefer strawberry and raspberry to grape.

Also a glass of chocolate milk later.

Dinner:  Leftovers - turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls w butter, green bean casserole, cranberry, jello salad.  Slices of lemon meringue and peanut butter pie

 

No mac and cheese and no booze, otherwise the same as yesterday.

Exercise:  Nope.  Very active around the house cleaning and doing projects, but no dedicated exercise.

101.8

The Thankful Tier

Thursday, November 28, 2024
Thanksgiving

Easily a top tier holiday coming up.  A day for cooking, food and family, followed by an additional three day weekend.  Ahhh.  Much needed, even if I'll work some in all likelihood.

Off to a good start.  Woke up at 5:00, wasn't real awake but also didn't need to go back to sleep.  Gave myself until 5:30 to make a decision as to whether to go for a walk or to wait for the Y to open at 7:00.  Chose walk and I'm glad I did, it was nice out there and it's supposed to be snowy for the next week so there will be plenty of inside time.

Pleasantly surprised to see a (small) drop on the scale.  Wasn't sure what to expect, given that I had a massive and carby dinner, but I did also get the system back on schedule.  Pretty sure I won't see another one tomorrow!

Breakfast:  Lazy bagels with cream cheese, coffee

A bonus day of bagelling.  Which I should not do, but I am.

Lunch:  Oops eggs (scrambled eggs, CF garlic pepper bacon, hash browns in EVOO, sour cream)

They need a name, but oops eggs works for now.  I needed a little refresher on separating eggs for my meringue, so I used the mistakes for lunch since I was planning on that anyway.  I also bought a much larger container of sour cream than I need, oops.  Chopped up three strips of bacon I cooked this morning, added hash browns and stirred it up.  Pretty good.

Later, 12 oz All Day IPA

Dinner:  The feast.  Turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, mac and cheese, cranberry, jello salad, crescent roll with butter, 12 oz Miller Lite, a couple glasses of cava, lemon meringue pie, peanut butter pie

 

Whew, I think that's all of it.  I was pleasantly full but not hurting.  Feels good.  Leftovers tomorrow.

Exercise:  Walk, 26 minutes, just over 2,500 steps.  Not a major feat, but a nice early morning walk.  Took on the hill early so I spent most of the walk in the zone.  I'm super slow - got dusted by a couple of people walking their dogs.  C'mon man.  But happy to have gotten out there for once.

100.6  

Still Sometimes Shocked

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Even after all these years I can be surprised what the scale says on any given day.  Sure, most days I have a pretty good idea of whether I'll be up or down and most days I can predict the number within a half pound or so.

Today was not one of those days.  This morning's calculus - didn't sleep enough, slacking on exercise, ate a bunch of spaghetti for dinner, feel "dense" in the midsection and rather backed up (which may be related) - said I'd be up a couple pounds.  NOPE.  

Which, okay, great.  Happy to be wrong!   I'll definitely be trying the spaghetti again soon (if only because I have 2/3 of a box left) to see if I really can tolerate it.  Would be nice, since it was tasty and easy, especially if I already have some meat sauce on hand slash made in advance.  I could even freeze some.

I have a super busy holiday weekend planned, plus it's supposed to snow.  Boo.  And heaven help me, I think I am going to brave the store this evening for a couple supplies.  Maybe I'll push it to tomorrow morning if it's too busy.

Breakfast:  CF sausage links, 3 slices sharp cheddar, orange juice, coffee

A bit much, actually.  I ate the odd slice of cheese to finish the package but could have done without it.

Lunch:  Leftover lasagna

Last of the lasagna.

Dinner:  Thanksgiving plate (turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes with gravy, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes and cranberry)

Annual tradition from a local restaurant.  Pretty good, though a lot of food! I could not finish the brussels and barely touched the sweet potatoes and I'm stuffed.  Scale will DEF be up tomorrow.

Add a glass of chocolate raw milk later.

Exercise:  Nope.  Although I woke up early enough, I was still very tired and it took well over an hour to get going.  Needed to be to work early, so today was not going to be the day.

101.2

No Real Explanation Available

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Unusually positive today.  I went back to work after dinner last night and over the course of three or so hours got quite a bit done including catching up some personal business.  Felt good.  I did not have an easy time getting to sleep, it was after midnight.  Woke up around 5:00 and though it didn't feel good, after a half hour or so it was better.  Got moving and into the office before 7:00.  Got a bunch more stuff done this morning so it's been a good stretch.  It helps that the phone is quiet with the holiday coming.

At least that's the best explanation I have.

Breakfast:  CF sausage links, 2 slices sharp cheddar, orange juice, coffee

Yup.  Added the cheese to bump the protein a bit.

Lunch:   Soup and mash, 2 slices sharp cheddar

Again.  Not a very soupy week.  Satiety button broken so I grabbed cheese on the way out the door.

Dinner:  Spaghetti with leftover meat sauce and parmesan, 12 oz Coastie IPA

I bought a box of Bionaturae sourdough spaghetti on a whim and gave it a try with some leftover sauce from the lasagna making.  It was quite good.  We'll see how the body reacts to it, but I certainly enjoyed eating it.

Will also have a glass of chocolate raw milk later.

Exercise:  Nope.  Moving around a bunch but nothing purposeful.

103.6

Shortweekin

Monday, November 25, 2024

Glad it's a short week, though that usually means cramming more work into the work days.  I have a million things that need doing, hopefully I can be focused.  Only an average morning, though, so we're not off to a great start.

Definitely could have used some more sleep this morning.

Scale was predicably up again.  I need to do a lot better on weekends.

Breakfast:  CF sausage links, orange juice

Tasty.

Lunch:  Leftover lasagna, Jovial sourdough einkorn rosemary crackers

Also tasty.   The crackers were a reminder not to have snackable stuff lying around because I WILL eat it.

Dinner:  2x Mexican 2x American tacos, 12 oz All Day IPA

Tacos were not as fat as usual but still tasty.  Planning to have a glass of chocolate raw milk later.

Exercise:  Nope.

104.4

Not Living Or Dying By Trend

Sunday, November 24, 2024

A happy Sunday.  Okay, fine, it's happy as of 6:30 a.m.  We'll see about the rest of it.

It was certainly nice to have the day off yesterday.  Did boatloads of laundry, hit two farms, made meals plus a batch of spicy beans, watched football and drank too much cava.  Thankfully no hangover and I'm functional so far on five hours of sleep.  It wasn't great to wake up at 4:00, but that's life.

Paid a price, no surprise, on the scale.  So be it.  I have to be better if I'm going to lose significantly, but weekends are what they are.  Not going to live or die based on the scale.  Oh, and I have a birthday party to attend tonight.

Breakfast:  Lazy bagels with cream cheese, coffee

Always enjoyable.

Second breakfast:  CF garlic black pepper bacon.

Cleanup.  Not quite ready for lunch yet.

Lunch:  Leftover ovencheeseburger with PK ketchup, mustard and guac

Solid.

And because I'm destined to graze, some avo oil chips and organic dip during football later.

Dinner:  Lasagna, salad no dressing, garlic bread, birthday cake and ice cream

Party food.  I make a good lasagna.

Exercise:  Nope.  Need to fix this pronto.

103.6

Scale Your Disappointment

Saturday, November 23, 2024

TGIS.   Looking forward to a day of house projects and cooking.

Woke up in the 4:00 hour and could not get back to sleep, so I've been up for hours by the time I'm starting this.  No accomplishments in the first three hours, that's for sure.   Just aimless doom scrolling.  Need to break that habit.  For good.

A bit disappointed with the scale this morning.  I'm definitely retaining some stuff and I certainly ate plenty yesterday so it's not a surprise, it's just more than I would have anticipated.  It's not enough to worry about too much - on a scale of one to ten it might be a two - but it is still disappointing.  And it probably won't go down over the weekend either, especially since I have a birthday party tomorrow.

Adding:  I did something out of the box, I signed up for a herdshare.  Going to start getting some raw milk on a regular basis.  Finally found a farm that's close enough for it to make sense.  Sort of, anyway.

Breakfast:  Buttermilk pancakes with butter and maple syrup, CF black pepper garlic bacon, orange juice, coffee

Oh man was this good.  10/10 no notes.  I think gradually turning over my supplies to better quality ingredients is paying dividends.  I think I'm going to freeze the extra pancakes in two packs instead of three packs, so they're more of an accompanying item than a feature.

Lunch:  Brisket w bbq sauce

Grocery store brisket.  Again mediocre, but even mediocre brisket is edible.  Fatty, which was a plus.  Overcooked, so even though it was sliced it fell apart.  Not a fan of the BBQ sauce - I bought some Primal Kitchen to try but didn't open it.  Price was right and I think the girl gave me more than the standard.

Will have some jala Good Crisps as a snack later.

Dinner:  Home ovencheeseburger with mustard, home tallow fries with a little Primal Kitchen ketchup

First time making tallow fries.  Used the blanch/freeze/fry method, next time I may try double frying, but they were still good.  Also changed the seasoning on the burger and it was great.

Going to top the day off with some cava, I think.

Exercise:  Nope.  Active, busy day but nothing specific.

102.8

End Of Week Zen

Friday, November 22, 2024

Very glad it is Friday.  I was notably serene this morning, it was a good feeling.  Scale was up a thoroughly insignificant amount, mostly due to a bit of backup.  No worries.

I have come to the conclusion that fixing my sleep really needs to be a high priority.  I did things wrong last night, ate a bit too much, stayed up too late (got sucked into a basketball game that I really did not need to watch), didn't wear the blue blockers, had trouble winding down and went to sleep way late.  Felt like I slept okay and was okay waking up.  But it's not sustainable to be short sleep and I definitely did not feel as good when I took the stairs at work.  Yesterday was notably better.  So I need to fix it.  I plan to give the bedroom a deep clean this weekend in hopes of wiping out a bunch of dust.  May move a spare air cleaner in there.  Refresh all the bedding.  Anything else I can think of.  Other than that, I just need some discipline, to bed early and at the same time every night, up at the same time each morning.  Lose the weight and get exercise to improve sleep quality.

You know, nothing major.

Breakfast:  CF black pepper garlic bacon, orange juice, coffee

Bacon was really tasty this morning.  And I had a little extra OJ to finish off.

Lunch:  Grilled roast beef and cheese sandwich, bubbies dill pickles

This was a bit much, actually.  But I cleaned up the roast beef and both kinds of cheese.

Dinner:  Keto bowl, a small glass of chocolate milk

Always good.  Very busy tonight.  Probably need to demote to an occasional treat -- it's restaurant food, it's gotta have a bunch of seed oils.

Exercise:  Nope.  I did my grocery shopping and walked a few work-related blocks, but not quite enough to count.

100.6

Dairy And Dust

Thursday, November 21, 2024

Someday I'll figure out exactly what it is that causes sinus swelling.  It's not painful but it sure is annoying, not being able to breathe through your nose.  Could be dust, could be dairy, could be a lot of things.  It's common at work at the end of the day, intermittent at home.  I have been laying off the Afrin but there have been several days lately where it's sure been tempting because this drives me nuts.

Anyway, I gave up and went to bed early last night - in bed by 8:00, though I don't think I slept until after 9:00.  Still, it was earlier than usual.  Woke up a couple times starting in the 3:00 hour, but only momentarily.  I was able to suppress the need to get up and go, so I ended up in bed until just before the 6:30 alarm.  As a result I am a bit more rested today.  It's not helping much with focus -- which is why I'm typing this at work which I never do -- but at least I feel a little better.  Just not a lot of pep.

Weight, happily, was not up despite the multiple slices of bread.  Thankfully that will not be a daily thing.

Breakfast:  3 CF sausage patties, orange juice, coffee

Last time for the week.  Hoping to hit the farm to restock a couple things.

Lunch:  Italian sandwich on ciabatta, a couple bites of pasta salad, coffee

Catered box lunch, darned seed oils.  I managed to not eat the potato chips or cookie.

Dinner:  3 eggs scrambled, hash browns in EVOO, CF black pepper garlic bacon, guac, home bread w butter, 12 oz Coastie IPA

A bit much.  Kinda sad that the part I enjoyed most was the bread and butter though it was all good.  And I'm going to have a glass of chocolate milk too since I have a little good milk to use up.

Exercise:  Nope.  Maybe I can get some this weekend.

ETA:  Didn't get any this morning, but I did get in a couple walks during the work day of several blocks each, so not a complete fail.

100.2

More Mysterious

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Another head scratcher this morning, though it was the good kind.  I didn't feel like I had a great day eating yesterday, did not get any exercise, did not sleep well or a lot and yet I managed to let go of some extra water this morning and there was a nice drop on the scale.

It's a mystery.

A little lower stress level today, which is good.  Not sure how much that played into another mystery, which was my blood pressure reading this morning.  Much lower than it has been.  I even took it twice to see if maybe I screwed it up, no the second reading was very very close.  I'll take it.

Breakfast:  3 CF sausage patties, orange juice, coffee

Again.

Lunch:  Soup with mashed potatoes, homemade bread with butter

Again with the soup.  Needed to slice and of course test the bread, quite tasty.  It's simple stuff - French flour, salt, yeast, water - and about as "okay" as anything wheat can be.  Planning to stick most of it in the freezer for now.

Dinner:   Roast beef and cheese sandwich, 12 oz Coastie IPA

Just fried tonight, so I abandoned any plans of cooking and went easy.  Ate WAY too much bread today, but life goes on.

ETA:  a handful of super dark chocolate chips.

Exercise:  Nope.

100.4

A Steady Diet of Stress

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Another stressful morning, another matter pushed off into the future.  Sigh.  I still get the stress, just without the release of being done.  Might need to change some things at work.

On an unrelated subject, I think I'm going to have to make tacos my default dining out option when I need something and brisket and such are not available.  Of all the carb heavy options they seem to have the least impact.  Eating at home 99% of the time is the goal, but life doesn't work that way.

Breakfast:  3 CF sausage patties, orange juice, coffee

Good as usual.  It's a bit much, I would probably be fine with 2, but I don't want to stretch this over more than 4 days in the fridge.

Lunch:  Sausage and cheese omelet, English muffin, coffee

Invited out to lunch.  Darned seed oils.

Dinner:  Leftover chuck roast and carrots, sliced cheese, 12 oz Coastie IPA

Not bad.  I'll probably also have a spoonful of mashed potatoes since I'm about to make a batch.

Exercise:  Nope.  

102.4

Just Pushed Off

Monday, November 18, 2024

Sigh.  It was a high stress day, and that's despite the key driver being delayed a few weeks.  Oh well.  Another one coming right up tomorrow, unfortunately.  I should be working tonight but I'm fried.  

On a more positive note, I slept decently last night.

Breakfast:  3 CF sausage patties, orange juice, coffee

I've got four days worth.  A solid start to the day.  And very easy.

Lunch:  Soup and mash

Rushed.  But tasty as always.

Dinner:  2x Mexican 2x American tacos, 12 oz All Day IPA, a few avo oil chips and onion dip, raspberry kefir

Wasn't the plan, but was fried.  Cleaned up the chips and dip and kefir.

Exercise:  Nope.

104.6

Work Off

Sunday, November 17, 2024

My mood has been off due to a high-stress work thing that's being dealt with today and tomorrow.  Looking forward to that being done.

Did something different last night, I actually read a book for an hour before going to sleep.  It's been a while.  I used to read voraciously, but have gotten away from it.  Needing reading glasses sapped some of the enjoyment, no doubt.

Breakfast:  Lazy bagels with cream cheese, coffee

A notably good batch.  Much more surprising to me was unusually good satiety, I wasn't hungry for hours and didn't have lunch until about 2:30.  That never happens with lazy bagels!

Lunch:  Brisket, BBQ sauce

My first visit to a Dickey's BBQ Pit.  It was fine.  On about par with the grocery store version I had yesterday, but a lot more expensive.  Unfortunately the local places I know and went past in my travels are closed on Sundays, there are at least two that would have been convenient and much better.

Later, some avo oil chips and onion dip.

Dinner:  Chuck roast with gravy, mashed potatoes, carrots, 12 oz Miller Lite, ice cream with Oreos.

Other than dessert it was fine.  Almost forgot the photo.

Exercise:  Nope.

104.4