This report covers the last two weeks or so.

Weight:
I’ve only lost about a pound. I just didn’t feel too concerned about weight these last two weeks, there were other things going on that felt a lot more important (see “Exercise” down below). My cycle came, and arrived on time and ended on time, which was a great sign. While I doubt that losing a pound contributed greatly to the positive change, it was still a welcome sign of possibly bettering health that has kept my morale up.

I still feel strongly that Weight Watchers and other similar programs aren’t helpful for me. I listen to others talk about their WW experiences, and nothing resonates anymore. Instead, what feels good is just what I’m doing: loosely tracking food and weight, and just noticing trends. I feel that changes will come with time, and that it’s this watching that feels important. The TPS Reports are a good way to consolidate what I’m learning.

Food Lessons:
I’ve learned by direct experience what I already knew intellectually: that things made with white sugar (which I just appropriately began to mistype as “shit”), and white flour, cause me to feel bloated and miserable. I learned this during a few days when I was trying to go Paleo. I wasn’t eating any grains, and then when I did, the bloat was astounding. I’d eat two pieces of bread and gain four pounds in a single day. Note that I am NOT attempting to vilify grains, nor to say that people shouldn’t eat them. 

Rather, my experiment was to eat no grains at all, and then when my system felt “clear”, to eat a few items made from refined white sugar and/or flour. What did I learn? That these refined flour products cause in me: 

• impressive water weight gain (if I ever have to gain ten pounds in a week, I’ll know how)
• muscle soreness the next day (sometimes it’s hard to even get out of bed)
• cranky mood (ironically craving the thing that got me into this mess; RAWWWR GET ME A TWIX BAR NOW, YOU MINIONS!)
• can contribute greatly to anxiety and/or a panic attack by leaving me feeling sugar crashed and generally fragile (emotionally and physically)
• general lethargy and lack of energy
• confused, inability to focus, feel frustrated by otherwise simple tasks
• constipation (is this why some guy named “Colon Health” just started following me on Twitter?)

If you’d asked me before whether white flour/sugar -based junk caused any of these problems, I of course would have said YA DUH. But there’s a difference between knowing something intellectually because I read it all the time in my perusal of nutrition articles, and really feeling the effect of going without them for awhile and then tossing them back in. The contrast was quite a learning experience. 

What would be interesting would be to try the same experiment but instead of breaking the grain fast with JUNK, break it with some whole grains, maybe something delicious whipped up in my pressure cooker. I’ll try that next time. 

Exercise: 

Unfortunately between TPS #2 and #3 I had a bit of a health scare. My left calf muscle has been hurting for about three weeks now, and I’ve spent the last couple of weeks going to the doctor every few days, while they measure it, palpate it, and draw blood to see what’s going on. Finally he admitted he was flummoxed, and sent me in today for a vascular ultrasound. While I don’t have the results back, I suspect from today’s events that things are fine, and I’ll be able to get back to exercise this week. During this period, the doc didn’t want me working out, getting massaged, or doing anything else that could potentially dislodge a clot. Thankfully I think the scare will be over tomorrow, when I get the call from my doc’s office. 

The whole vegan/paleo/raw debate: 

I’m still interested in all of these lifestyles, and read about them frequently. I really enjoy the reading, it’s like nutritional sociology. I debate posting things here, because I’m afraid it will come across as endorsing rather than encouraging conversation, but heck, it’s my blog, I should just do what I want, right? 

Going into this week: 

• I’ve realized that dairy is not my friend. I’m still trying to avoid it. I’m currently in discussion with some aliens regarding having all cows shipped off-world. 
• While my body does seem to do better on a little meat, I’m not sure I’d ever be able to eat paleo (hey! moderation….it’s calling my name…..). 
• Need to experiment a little more with beans – it feels like they give me heartburn every time, as well as brain-fog and anxiety problems. I’ll need to isolate them a bit more before I can be sure these problems are legume-related. 
• Hopefully some exercise!