Now to Level Off

It's been a while.  Been somewhat busy, but mostly simply not inspired to write.  Seemed like a good idea to check in before the holidays hit.

I've hit my goal weight and have now lost a little bit more.  (see my menus, etc here) That's actually not so good. I now need to stop losing weight but also not go back to eating a ton of carbs and sugar. was wayyy down on my calories yesterday.  Right on track with carbs, but low on fat and calories.  I hunted around the house and ended up eating some sun dried tomatoes, but I don't really like eating just to up my intake.  I wasn't especially hungry.

Not the worst problem to have, but still something I need to keep an eye on as the holidays kick in.

Halloween went well and the three days prior visiting Katie at school, where I ate an enormous amount of carbs and candy (relative to the past couple of months, not compared to what I was doing while I was gaining a pound a week!). I felt a bit bloated, but felt better when I got back on track at home.

Pete had a two week staycation and it was nice having him hanging around!  Now that he's back at work, I feel like I didn't see him at all.  Really we need him to take a month off so we can include winding down from work, getting some rest, getting a little trip in and some home projects.  Two weeks is not enough!

In other news, my hormones are kicking my ass.  Sweats, sleep disruption, moody.  Nice. All that and getting old too! What a deal!

One success was I checked in with my GP who is also a homeopath and got back on vitamin B.  That should help with the mood stabilization and the 3pm blahs I've been getting.  When I went to see her, I was on day three of a headache and possible virus.  She suggested I see the chiropractor in the office and was able to fit me in right then.  My neck had been hurting for about a month and no amount of anti-inflammatory or massage seemed to be helping so I was thinking it was maybe time to consider chiropractic.  Sure enough, he cracked my neck in three places and I left headache free.  A little sore, but nothing I couldn't sleep through and it was mostly gone by the next day. Miracle!  I will definitely use him again.

Zack had his first interview.  They had him work several hours and then decided it wasn't a good fit.  He was very disappointed. That first job hunt is so hard. Hope he lands something soon.

He and I are both fighting off some virus going around.  Not sure if we picked it up in Katie's dorm or from friends around here.  It's running around both places.  I'm hoping to stave off the worst, entirely if I can, but at least through Sunday.  We have a busy weekend including my first time doing a demo for someone else's Tupperware party.  This is where I see if I can make a go of this thing, so send me some good vibes!

The trees are turning and maybe the weather is going to stay fall like?  It was crazy hot this week (or was that just me?!).  It's unnerving to have it so hot in November, but I may as well enjoy the outdoors before we wreck the whole planet.

A recent visitor to the yard.

Tuesday is the election, and I can't wait for it to all be over.  Once again, I will go to bed at a decent hour, remembering that my watching or not watching the exit polls doesn't actually affect the outcome! Hope to wake to a peaceful day regardless of how it all goes. Or at least sunny mild weather, right?

New Food Tracker

Surfing around the web I came across a rec for a food tracking site called My Fitness Pal  It adds up my carbs for the day plus calories, fat, protein and salt intake and sets a goal for the day based on my target weight.  Not taking it that seriously but will be using it instead of keeping a food diary here.

If you're interested you can see my logs at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/LizEN1.
 
In other news, we're getting used to only having three people in the house but it is still very weird.  I am appreciating technology.  We hear from Katie in a variety of ways and pretty often.  I doubt the frequency will keep up once classes start getting more demanding and her social calendar fills, but it is great to know she is doing well and taking good care of herself.

Zack is back on the hunt for a job. Pete and I both grew up with family businesses so we're not much of a resource on how to get a first job, but I'm sure he will find something.

I am planning to tackle a lot of household projects, but first have to catch up on a lot of housework. Never a fav!

 

Catching up--get used to it!

Yeah, well, maybe it would have been fair to warn you that I'm a flighty blog-keeper.  Sometimes I feel like posting a lot.  More often I start doing other things and then remember this exists.

In any case, it was way more important to spend a lot of time with my daughter before she went away to college and once we got back from dropping her off I had to attend to all the other things I put off while we were getting ready.

It was my goal to go pretty low-carb for about a month and I made it just about through August.  But I had every intention of being very liberal with carbs when I got close to Katie leaving.  I wanted to make a lot of her homemade favs and hit a few restaurants we like and then, during drop off, I knew we would have to be eating some school and restaurant food.

When I'm on a food program, I try to make better and conscious food choices.  On a menu, I try to make the best selection I can from the choices I have.  If I think I'll be indulging, I try to pick my times and keep to the plan for the rest of the day.

This has worked out pretty well.  I kept asking myself "is this what I want to spend my carbs on?"  The answer has been yes for cookies and tarts at a reception; tuna casserole; fruit; a doughnut from the Apple House; real NY style pizza; papdum and maybe the sauces at an Indian restaurant; packaged peanut butter and some things I've forgotten but you get the idea.  Not worth it to me were rice; bread; crap pizza; ice cream; chocolate milk; candy and a bunch of other carby things.

Lots of cheat days! I even skipped a couple of workouts!  Still, the bloating has remained at bay, I enjoyed many good times with my family and I even lost a few more pounds (about 5lbs total now).

In other news, I made two kinds of Cloud Bread.  The original recipe was good but then I found one for a loaf of cloud bread and I tried that one. Both were pretty good.  Have to say I like them better right out of the oven, they seem to taste eggier once refrigerated.  But everyone here liked them overall and I was nice to bite into something bready for a change. Not hard to make, but I do need my mixer which means hauling out the ten-ton Kitchen Aid. I'll make it every now and then. It sure is pretty out of the oven.

Lowish not no/possible effects on the family/Food Diary 8/10

Sometimes I'll be filling this in throughout the day and publishing later, so I may screw up the verb tense as I go along.

Breakfast
3 egg omelette with leftover veg from dinner-mushrooms, onions, asparagus
handful of blueberries

Snack?
Coffee with half and half with a friend.

Lunch
Leftover steak from dinner
Baybelle cheese

Weird full/not full feeling so decided to wait and see if the desire to eat more subsided.
Still peckish a half hour later so had
5 pitted prunes.
That seems to have done the trick--also, not a good idea to eat too many prunes!

Dinner
Ordered in because we all got in so late.  I used Foodler to order from Namaste, a Nepalese restaurant (similar to Indian food).

Chicken Tikka Masala
Chicken Curry
Saag (creamed spinach) with chickpeas

I had some of each and skipped the rice and naan that came with the meal.

I haven't been including non-veg carbs with dinner lately, figuring the family was probably getting enough throughout the day. This isn't very uncommon even pre-low carb for me.  Zack has also been having trouble sleeping through the night.  Not exactly aligned with my food changes, but he really loaded up on the rice last night so it will be interesting to hear if he slept better last night. If so, I might need to adjust the dinner menu for the family.

Read up a bit on low carb, high fat diets (LCHF) online last night and this morning.  I've been doing what I usually do when I make a diet change--just going with my intuition at first.  So, I learned I've been on a moderate low carb diet and certainly not a no carb, tho some meals probably have been no carb. Apparently, I've been eating too much of "nature's candy" (fruit), oh well.

That's all fine with me, but still worth reading about.  Learned that there can be side effects and that most of the ones I've been experiencing are likely from not drinking enough water (typical for me anyway) and possibly low salt intake. Salt intake is tricky for me.  My homeopath/MD told me to up the salt, but because I can get vertigo, the ENT docs tell me to limit the salt.  Since I haven't been having a problem with vertigo lately, I will probably up the salt a bit and it's good to know to keep an eye on it.

The only positive I feel so far is the lack of that bloated feeling.  My clothes still fit the same and I only weigh myself on Fridays so have no idea if that's changed yet. But one day in and I didn't feel all blown up and if that's the only benefit, it's worth it!

I try not to stress about food.  Having to prepare meals is a really stressful activity in and of itself for me, so I try not to pile on or I end up really being mindless about what I eat. I don't have a carb intake goal, a target weight (not really, though I always have a number I'd love to get back down to, I try to ignore it!) and I have no intention of doing this perfectly or not going back to the occasional slice of pizza, baguette or bowl of pasta.

As one of the sites I've looked at said: "Don't eat processed crap." Good enough long-term goal for me ;-)