Headed in the right direction

How can it be?

I had a two beers and a cookie on Tuesday, a doughnut on Wednesday, and another cookie on Thursday.  I lost weight the morning after both cookies.

I'm completely sold on the idea that the gain after Wednesday was not the doughnut (which is already tested to be friendly), but the banana I tested at breakfast.

So.....

When I saw this on the scale this morning, I figured that when I went out for coffee this morning that I'd have a cinnamon bun. 

Yum!

Let's hope the joy factor is working in my favor today.

I'll refrain from testing anything else today and calling it a cinnamon bun test.

It seems like all the sweets tend to test fine.  Anything else is a little shady.  Ugh.

I certainly didn't expect that. 

Now I just need to go down another 0.4 lbs to end the week where I started it.  Wish me luck.  I'd really like this week to result in forward progress.

B

Bad banana!

Oh boy.  I'm finally sure about a food I tested.  Bananas and I are not friends.

I gained 0.6 lbs.

I'm sad.  I love bananas! I've eaten them everyday for breakfast for the last year....maybe more.  Maybe that's part of the problem. The Plan book says that you can create a sensitivity.  While I'm not about to eat another one anytime soon, maybe I can retest again in a few months.

This is probably a good time to mention the third tab above.  I needed a way to log my testing results, so I created a simple matrix to do so.

It's not fancy, but it gets the job done.

I suppose that it's not something that I NEED to post on the blog, but it won't hurt. 

I'm hoping to refine my logging method, so we'll see if I manage to evolve it at any point!

B

The Joy Factor

There's only one way to explain yesterday.  It has to be the joy factor.

Yesterday was probably the most stressful day I'll have at the office all year.  So when it was over, I had dinner at home, then went out for a beer with a coworker. 

Two beers later, chased with a cookie, I was relaxed.

So this morning I was greeted with this

I'm down 0.6 lbs. 

It must be the joy factor.

I'm honestly struggling to explain what I'm seeing on the scale.  When I perfectly behave myself, I gain.

When I have a treat like ice cream, a cookie, or a doughnut, I lose.

Grrrrrrrr!!!

This seems to go against everything I know about dieting.

I'm going to go eat a doughnut now.

B

Stress

This must be stress.

I gained 0.2 lbs on a day where I ate only safe foods.

I admit I was probably a bit short on my water....mostly because I drank four cups of coffee in the morning. 

The coffee wasn't stress.  It was to medicate the migraine I'd had for three days.  It worked, or at least got me through the day.

I was really hungry yesterday morning.  So hungry that I ate my snack at 10am.  I'm thankful that I plan snacks every day and that I have the food on hand at the office.  I really thought I would have a second snack in the afternoon, but my morning munchies led to a late lunch and I didn't even notice that I skipped my afternoon snack until it was time to go home for the day.

Back to the stress.  Today's a big one.  We have a software release and two webinars today!  The whole week is a big one, but once I get today under my belt, it's smooth sailing....just fast sailing!

I'm on my fourth day of my migraine.  I popped a caffeine pill this morning in an attempt to medicate the migraine and reduce my coffee consumption.

I'm not testing today.  I really look forward to seeing the scale start dropping so that I can get back to testing.  I think next up is bananas (since I have a ripe one at the house.)  Keep your fingers crossed that I can manage the stress better, drink all my water, and get the scale moving in the downward direction!

B

Migraine (day 2) and a rash

Yesterday was pretty rough.

It was the second day of a migraine that had me either in bed or on the couch.  When it's like this I struggle to get up.  I try to minimize getting up as much as possible....which meant I didn't drink much water.

That must be the reason for this:

That's a 1.4 lb gain in a day.  Grr. 

I'm sure the Velveeta I was eating on the couch at midnight and the late night swigs of OJ from the carton didn't help.

That's another problem with migraines.  There comes a point where I just need to eat.  It demands to be fed.  I usually end up with chips or crackers.  Last night it was Velveeta.

I don't even know why I keep that crap in the house.  It's what I call "plastic food" because when you read the ingredient list, it's almost all processed and chemical.

Still, Velveeta is one of my guilty pleasures.

I also started to get a rash yesterday.  I think it's a stress response.  This is the third time I've had a rash in the exact same place.  I've been taking Benadryl at a pretty high dose and it's keeping the rash from getting ugly. 

I wonder what the Benadryl does inflamation-wise...Anybody have experience with this?

Back to blogging

I've never been good at keeping a journal. I'm good at starting them, but REALLY bad at keeping up with them! This blog ended up being a bit like my other journal attempts. All I have to do is miss one day, and I'm on the slippery slope to hell.

When I was blogging before, I found that it made me think more critically about my results, my efforts, and the choices I was making. Then I went through a spell of bad choices, derailing my progress with too much beer. I didn't want to share it, so I didn't blog. Well, I'm back to blogging now. But first, I had to make the choice to adjust my lifestyle to one that will promote success on the plan.

I know that the occasional beer is just fine. I even tested beer at one point. I just can't save more than one (occasionally two) in a day, and I should limit that to one to two days a week. Not two plus beers, three days a week. I can still go out, I should just have a glass of red wine and chase it with a little water.

Now that we've gotten a few of my personal issues out of the way....I'm excited to share a few of the things that I've learned in the last few weeks.

First, ice cream is friendly! I had a migraine yesterday and medicated it with two scoops of ice cream and I lost a pound! Score! Now, I know better to think that I can have it every day, but it's nice to know the occasional scoop of mint chocolate chip won't slow down my progress!

I also found that I can drink tea again. This is just as big as being able to drink red wine again! I haven't had either in about 10 years. Now and then over the years I've tried to test them and just a little bit caused me to drift into the migraine zone. Now I'm drinking a glass of red wine everyday (that I don't already have a migraine.)

Last week at the office I tried a mug of hot tea and was fine! It really proves the point that many of the ailments or sensitivities one suffers from isn't really what it seems. Apparently my tannin sensitivity was only because my body was already in a state of ill health. Now that I'm healing my body I can have tea and wine.

I have to admit that even though I've tested well on tea and red wine, that I'm still approaching it with a touch of trepidation. I have so many years of evidence that these two things made my sick that it's hard to trust my new state of health that allows me to have them.

Now that I'm back to blogging, there's just one more thing I need to do....post my weigh in results.

 I'm not entirely happy with it. I got as high as 200 lbs again in the last few weeks. I've found that one day off plan can cause as must as two pounds gain, but my average loss in a day is half a pound. It's so frustrating to take 3-4 days to undo one day off plan.

That has a lot to do with why I wanted to start blogging again. I need to accountability to keep me focused. I'm heading into an incredibly busy week at the office...maybe the busiest since I've been there. I'll keep posting and hope that it will help keep me on plan. I could sure use some encouragement!