A run, a weigh in and Food for 8/12

Friday has been my weigh day for a long time. I try not to stress over the numbers, but I do like to have an idea of what's going on from week to week and admittedly, a high number will bother me.  In the lead up to cutting the crap out of my diet was a month long trend up and an increase in discomfort, intestinal issues, tight cloths and cramps. So far, the lack of grains/carbs has certainly relieved a lot of these issues and that has been true in the past.

So, from last week I am down about 4lbs. Don't get too excited, I was also on my period last  week and now tapering off which can mean anything from a 2-5lb adjustment as I cycle through.  It's way more important to me that I feel better. But I won't lie that trending downward in weight does make me happy.

I've consciously upped my water and a bit of salt and that has helped some intestinal side effects I'd experienced. Feeling good in general.

Went for a run on the treadmill.  Way too hot and humid to run outside today. I ate breakfast before I went. Usually I eat after a run, but I got a late start and was hungry.  I sweat more than usual, but that could be due to any number of things. It was my typical run otherwise.  Didn't feel like I had any special challenges.

Food Diary 8/12

Breakfast
Yogurt with pecans

Lunch
grabbed a handful of peanuts (roasted, salted) when I got in from errands
leftover spinach and chickpeas

Dinner
Stir fry with frozen carrots, cauliflower, broccholi and tofu-tiny bit of honey in the sauce

I probably snacked, but can't remember what or when.

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 ;-)