My other blogs --alter egos.

In case you guys didn't know--I am making a better effort to post more relevant content on my other blogs.  Meaning, on Boo's Juicy Bits... that's more in-tune with what it was created for--health, weight loss, anything relevant to health, and.. it may or may not get racy at times (just as a heads-up).  All Things Ephemeral.. can be more reflective, or maybe a literal 'alter ego' to this blog.  Either way, I've been lazy in the past because it was made known to me that no one wanted me to delete any of my blogs (3).  So, I was making it easy on myself by just mostly copying and pasting from one to the other.

No more.

I'm stepping up and making a decision to try and keep things separate as possible.  So if you read just one, you may miss out on something else.  Unless I happen to mention it in another...

Can't say for sure how it will all go.  But I do find that once I've gotten one feeling or topic or what-have-you out of my system... I often don't feel like talking about it again somewhere else.  Just saying.  So... keep that in mind if you want to know everything that's going through mine. ;p

Now, THIS post WILL be posted on all three blogs.

Now... If you look in the sidebar.. you will find the links to my alter-egos should you dare to read.  As my sleep improves... there is honestly no telling what I may talk about.  Keep your curiosity in check,  or not. lol  Read at your own risk. ;)

*smooches*

The disingenuous scale

Well, as far as 'weight' goes, the scale does this ridiculous up and down thing, hovering on digital insanity.  Appearances can be deceiving, so I'm not worrying about it, but it is really is nice when you can SEE and measure progress in numbers when it comes to this whole fat loss thing.  Damn scale, how I loathe thee.

But then, my appetite still hovers in the deep abyss that even I can't reach or understand.  Although, I have experienced a slight twinge of hunger a couple of times lately.  Maybe that's a small start of something more 'normal' in terms of...well, of whatever.

Yesterday was a total bust though, as I wasn't able to take in more than about 700 calories.  Yeah.  I know.  Dangerously low.  But many days I fight to get in 1300 to 1500 on average, and I have to get that in at one meal.  Low carbing means I can load up on the healthy fats and raise the calories enough to sustain life.  ha ha.  That really was supposed to be humorous.  But without a good appetite, getting enough to eat is a struggle, and it is as hard to lose fat NOT eating enough as it is when you're eating too much.

The good news is that I'm finally OFF the protonix!  THANK GOD!  Took popping carafate and going through discomfort, but I'm off.  I'm on another class of OTC medication for reflux as a bridge until things settle, then I can wean myself off of that.  But so far so good!  And one of the side effects, or lack thereof, of getting off of the PPI is that I can sleep better again!  I knew getting off that crap would be a good move.  :D

Well, I have about 21% power left to do some research for the rest of the master bath restoration.  And I mean, this is a full-on restoration.  The whole bathroom is being gutted and replaced.  :)  So I'm off to do that....

Laters!

And when the magic happens anyway.....

Well, I've found my sweet spot and have lost about 5 lbs in 5 days!

After about a week of not really understanding how the NEW Atkins WOE worked (due to contradictions, thank you very much), I decided to go with what Dr. Atkins had originally designed...and it's working.   Goes to show you... if it aint broke, don't fix it... is still the best course of action.

(stop staring at the woman with the cat already!)

As for anything else I can note today:  On the down-side.. I've been waking up a couple of hours after sleeping and not getting back to sleep for an hour or two or more.. ugh.  Not sure what that's about, except that I'm suspecting it's stress-related.  Oooooh, but I'm sure it's that!

Energy, despite the lack of decent sleep, is on the rise a bit.  Improvement is definitely something to celebrate, right?  Right!  So I will continue with this WOE and keep plugging along.  So far I'm pretty happy with the result.  It's early, so there will be much to tell as the days pass.

At this point I'm not sure what plans I have as far as how long I'll remain on Induction, but we'll see.  I'm just happy with what's going on right now.

Yay!

Now...if I could just get the rest of my life to sort itself out, that would be awesome. ;p

Slow but sure in this low-carb world

Plugging along and thinking that I could have done better without all of the conflicting information!  Thanks, whoever decided to change the way Dr. Atkins was doing things!  If it aint broke, don't fix it!  Hey, some cliches are still worth reciting and remembering!

For starters, I wasted money on the new edition of the Atkins book.  No joke.  Too much changed, and conflicts out that wazoo!!!  I mean, seriously??!!???  What in "High fat, low calorie" makes sense on ANY planet???

You should have seen me struggle to make THAT work.  No.  Really.  You shouldn't have.  8  days was enough.  Sheesh.  After coming to my senses I ordered the 2002 book and will use that from now on.  Hindsight and all that junk.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I'm winging it and trying to adjust a few things to make it work.  Not easy, but not that difficult either.  Just takes a little perseverance on my part, and a whole lot of asking questions from the group I belong to.  One must never underestimate the power of such resources, trust me.

Feeling crappy overall, but after being stupid and using salt the way I did... hopefully I'll feel a little better over the next couple of days.  Heart isn't behaving as erratic since I've backed off the salt and upped the water, so that's good.  And I think I need to start taking my Vit-D again (5,000 mcg daily).  I tend to get deficient easily, so that could be one reason I'm feeling low.  Also ordered multi-vitamins that are sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free... basically crap-free.  Those will be here soon.

Begun using more of the pure virgin coconut oil in place of the olive oil, backed down my protein servings by 2 oz each and upped the fat/oils a bit.

So with all this said and done, we will see how things progress from here.

I'm tired and am way late for lunch.

Laters non-taters! lol ;p

It's been a rough few days

Atkins.  Day 3.  Okay.  Easy.  No cravings.  Going through carb withdrawal is fairly east as well because I wasn't eating much in the way of starchy carbs or sweets (only once or twice in the past month really).  Smooth sailing so far.

I'm going to give it a few days and see what happens with the carb withdrawal symptoms.  Not giving up or anything like that, mind you.  It's different than the way I'm used to eating, and it's also very weird for me as well.  Just a wait and see situation for the most part.

Life is weird as well.  Weird.  Weird.  Weird.  Most days I feel like I've woken up and found myself on another planet and have NO idea why the hell I'm here.  That's another talk show.

And those damn dreams.  STILL freaking weird.  WTH is up with that?

Odd.

MacroWHAT? Decisions, Decisions, Decisions.

Just a quick check-in as I've an appointment to get to.  But the bottom line is this, really:  Macrocytic Anemia (aka megaloblastic anemia, depending on what doctor you're speaking with).  Translation... "It sucks a$$."

Long story short as possible.. a couple of years ago I was in a situation where I was forced to go on the proverbial 'Ramen Noodle diet."  Needless (Noodless?) to say, it really didn't end well.  All guesswork on the doctor's part is that I ended up with Macrocytic Anemia.  Basically, this is not like iron deficiency anemia where your blood cells get very small and larger in numbers.  This is where your blood cells become very LARGE and fewer in numbers.  Most of the time it's due to a B12 deficiency, but not in all cases.  Many times it can be brought on by malnutrition... which they believed was my case.  I wasn't getting much in the way of anything other than, well, Ramen noodles.

Skipping all the symptoms etc. etc. etc. of the anemia part, since it's not the topic here... I will say that sublingual drops weren't doing that much good.  BUT, once I began eating a normal diet again the anemia began to slowly resolve itself.  Blood work I had several months ago showed signs of the blood cells enlarging, but the MCV (mean corpuscular volume) wasn't coinciding with that.. so the doctor wasn't worried.  There are actually 3 things that show Macrocytic Anemia.

Also, and unbeknownst to me.. I was also vitamin D deficient as well and remained so up until a few months ago.  I only barely came out of THAT one by taking 12,500 mcg of Vit D for 30 days (emulsified), then 5,000 mcg per day from thereafter.  I stopped the ongoing because I didn't like the idea of taking that much for so long, or.. forever.  Anyhoo.....

Now, going to an all plant-based diet does have it's complications, and you DO have to supplement.  It's not a 'perfect' eating plan for humans as much as most vegans would have you believe.  It's moral,  it's ethical, but... when it comes to vitamin D, B12, and even calcium... you have to supplement.  And if you have an issue, it may not be the best time to make the switch.

Weight loss.  There are many ways to do that, and since I'm doing gluten-free either way... I'm leaning towards Atkins... and choosing fish as my main protein.  My doctor will have a fit and tell me without red meat in my diet I'm going to get myself in trouble.  There is a lot I'm facing, especially since I really could take or leave meat and am not that big of a meat eater.  Even as a meat eater I would eat everything else first on my plate, saving the meat for last.  Well, except for salmon.

Morally... when it comes to animals... that's another story, and not the basis of the topic here in this blog.  I will only say I love animals, have my share of rescues, and am against unethical practices with regards to animals.  But that is all I will say on the matter here in this blog.  Again, this blog is about health, diet, weight loss, etc.  There are a ton of wonderful blogs out there for all the other topics regarding animals.

Time to run.  But I'll be back later on all the other stuff....