Wednesday, February 3rd

Morning all.

Joey:  my heartfelt 'sorries'. Been there and in fact knocked myself out when fell into a wooden chair when the thigh Charley's horses did me in.  Poor you.  Perhaps a chat with your Dr?

Kairk your story is mine including the arrogance.  You continue to inspire.

yesterday was a bit of a food write-off.  I did a presentation within a ethnic group where feeding guests is a huge part of their culture.  A fabulous time with the only snag the fabulous food.  The food came on the plate so no control over portion size.  I ate the stew ( about a cup ) and left the mound of mashed potatoes but fell at the crisp and whipped cream.  Very hard to say no when all the time being urged to 'eat up' and ' do you like our food.'  Talk about feeling full.  This was a luncheon meal so drowsy was the name of the game in the afternoon.

walked 10,989 steps but that really did not mitigate the excess calories.

airpopped popcorn and a cup of blueberries for supper.  

Happy Wednesday everyone.

Calories for yesterday was 1238.  Wahoo!  And I didn't feel hungry or cheated at all.  Hallelujah.  Protein was 74g which I guess is decent.  Scale at 162 today.  Which it was moving a bit faster, but this is for life.  And I know I'm doing the right things.

When I got home yesterday I found the rest of my bag of frozen chicken sitting out on the counter.  Boo.  Luckily I had not forgotten to turn on the crockpot and dinner was great--so I'm only half losing my mind.

Happy Hump Day!

Today's planned eats are:

B:  3/4 of english muffin, 1 scrambled egg, coffee with creamer

S:  1/2 quest smores bar with coffee

L:  Barbecue restaurant:  1/2 of my plate of 4 oz. smoked turkey, green beans

S:  Leftover 1/2 of lunch

D:  Husband and I are headed to an NBA game.  I'm a little nervous for the calories here.  Not sure what to do.  I never give healthy food much thought at a ball game.  I know they have hotdogs, pizza, nachos, etc.  Might just eat a pack of tuna before I go and then indulge in ONE beer while I'm there.  What are y'alls thoughts on healthy game food?

Is there such a thing as healthy game food while you are trying to lose weight even in maintenance?  Our local stadiums, tho, do offer salads, etc but as you know they aren't necessarily low cal.  The next day, I think I would regret most any food from a stadium.

I would vote for tuna and a beer.  But that is me and my brain plus I am just a month into maintenance so not speaking from experience!

By the way, not to sound like I enjoy your maintenance angst, but I have appreciated your posts for their honesty.

Look for the stadium's website and search your options. I checked Yankees Stadium's website last year before going to a game and was shocked at what they offered, but it is the YANKEES. 

There is no healthy game food...lol  Yummy...yes:)  I usually take a Quest Bar or nuts.  Have fun!!!

Hello all, 

126.2 today, moving down.  I am thinking of cutting my calories back to about 1000-1100 per day (has been 1200 per day) because I think I would like to generally fluctuate in a range a couple of pounds lower than I seem to be settling into.  I don't know if trimming back like this will actually result in slow weight loss but I will find out over a few weeks. I would cut back to 800-1000 but I have some labwork coming up at the end of month and I don't want to be super low cal just before that.    Is this weirdo disordered diet mentality? 

Big day today....my passport is expiring soon so I need a new passport photo!  I am thinking of also redoing my drivers license because I get uncomfortable questions about the picture at the mall.  I can't have a clerk refuse to sell me something!  Most recently, my daughter was with and vouched for me by saying "she used to be a whole lot bigger."  True, but still!  But, I don't have the fortitude to go the DMV just yet. 

Had personal training last night which I always enjoy.  I can feel I am getting stronger in all sorts of ways and I love that he identifies specific areas that need correcting to help improve various imbalances.  A few things in yoga are already easier, kind of amazing.  

At least one yoga class today (vinyasa) and then maybe a yin this evening.  

Have a great day, everyone!

Now I'm curious! What effect would cutting back calories to 800-1000 have on your blood work? My labs were stellar during WL when I was eating so few calories. 

At the 12 month lab work my LDL had tripled from its usual 140ish to 437.  My total cholesterol was 497! HDL 45 (my usual norm), trigs 75 (my usual norm when low carbing)  

This isn't normal :)  Labs were repeated and were not an error.  I also had advanced lipid testing done which was good fun because I am a nerd. 

Usual reasons for LDL explosion were ruled out.  The best guess is that my body thought I was anorexic.  Pre 12 month labwork, I think total calories were around 580 per day.  Anorexics (with the right genetics) do have very high LDLs but the ones I have seen were in the mid 200's, not 400's!  

Also, theoretically, and again with the right genetics, ketones can feed into the lipid metabolic pathway and could increase LDL.  There is virtually nothing about this in literature and would be an atypical response to ketotic diet.   But I know lipid gurus that have seen it on rare occasion but again not to extent of my increase.

So, for upcoming labwork, I am trying not to look too anorexic to my body and not be in ketosis.  Mostly, we are just hoping for improvement so that we know I am on the right path although it might take a while for things to even out.  For one thing, the LDL might be odd shaped which would make it harder for the receptors to clear it out.  In fact, having odd shaped LDL (for whatever reason) would be another reason for very high LDL.

We didn't start a statin which feels wrong on many levels but also felt comfortable because we know this has been going on for, at most, for 6 months.  It isn't like I have had levels like this long term which would suggest greater potential for cardiovascular risk.  

I have had my cholesterol checked a million times in all past diets/weights because I run a lipid clinic and I could check myself on a whim, and I did.  Previous to this, my LDL was super stable (annoyingly so) no matter my bmi or content of diet.  

Fascinating! Really! I did not know about high cholesterol in anorexia patients. Just wow! Well, hope your numbers are far better this time around. Now I'm really curious to know how being out of ketosis affects your numbers. Keep us posted, please! 

Scale holding steady. Same as yesterday - 202.4. 

Back at the gym yesterday for the first time since tearing my quad. Felt good, but too light of a workout. I did an upper body circuit and then did 5 miles on the stationary bike using the interval setting. A very different workout than I'm used to. My quad is a bit tight this morning, so it's probably a good thing that I took it really easy. (Yes, 5 miles on the bike doing interval training is a very low key workout. LOL - who would have thought 5 years ago that I'd being writing those words!) 

Food was on point yesterday. Calories under 1200 ( can't remember the exact #). Today I'm all set and planned out, too. 

Ladies, does any one have a good recipe for a LOW CARB DESSERT (preferably chocolate)? While I love my yogurt in the evening, the yogurt is 7 carbs, the berries are 5, and if I add the cream that's another 4.5 carbs. Almost a 17 carb treat. My carbs before eating that were at 23 for the day. I think the yogurt is something I could take a break from, but it also boosts my protein. Maybe losing the berries? I don't know. Clearly, this is a treat I enjoy, so I need to decide whether lower carbs or not feeling deprived is more important. Musing out loud.... 

Enjoy your hump day!