quiet house

Back to the post i was writing before that infuriating newsletter started pushing my buttons....

Whoa, that was a busy week!  Before school started, our daughter and SIL and their two kids came to visit for a week.  Our backyard project is far from complete, but the interior of the sunroom is at least "functional," and they wanted to experience it.  We also got a visit from our "borrowed daughter" and her fiance -- LM lived with us for a couple of years, because she was in an abusive home from which she moved out when she turned 18.  Her mother left her and her sister with a MONSTER when she divorced him, and LM was strong enough to get out as soon as she legally could;  we were delighted to help her.

Well, we toured and feasted and hot-tubbed and went through a case of wine!  I put on fat -- i can feel it -- but am now back on the VLC wagon, to my great physical relief.  Even amidst all the jollification, i learned things:

• The warmth-thyroid-carb connection is far more complicated than anyone has ever written about, to my knowledge.  My carb intake was highER, but not high.  I felt as warm as i usually do -- uncomfortably so a few times.  On the other hand, i had some symptoms i haven't felt for awhile, including puffy eyes.  I would have a burst of energy right after eating which faded into increased fatigue, leading me to the next point...
• FATIGUE.  Granted that on a few days i was sleep-deprived, this was the kind of fatigue that made me sequester myself to recharge.  It was the kind that kept me less communicative for a full 36 hours after everyone left.  And it was the kind that had me pawing among my sporadically-used supplements for a boost.  Guess what helped?  High-dose sublingual methylcobalamin.  I was getting "enough" from my liquid vitamin and diet, but some of us just don't absorb it in the digestive tract well enough!  More evidence that malnutrition (this time, via malabsorption) is a cause of some symptoms of hypothyroidism....
• Ten thousand steps is a HELL of a lot of exercise.  We went to the City Museum and a special event at the Missouri Botanical Garden and covered a LOT of ground ... and i never reached the goal according to my fitbit.  As i mentioned before, its accuracy isn't perfect, but probably pretty close.  On the museum day i logged 26 flights of stairs (a flight being defined by it as walking upward ten feet)!  We all arrived home completely tuckered out, and the step count was only eight-thousand-something....
• That hot-tub is going to be a very good sleep-promoter!  :-)  

The " California Contingent" flew back home on Friday afternoon, but the Texas bunch stayed till Saturday morning;  the last evening's dinner was a beginning sushi-rolling party.  J and i had practiced a little beforehand, but for L and S it was new.  It was a moderate-carb night, what with the rice, but at least we didn't make the sweet sauces that can be found on the restaurant rolls.  Our technique has improved to the point that i'm ready to try the riceless rolls, made with grated vegetables in place of the starch.  Starting with smoked salmon or even leftover meats, this could turn into a favorite quick supper for us!  A bowl of broth with a little miso stirred in, plus some mushrooms or green onions or seaweed, a few rolls ... i'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

Once again, fat-fasting is a lifesaver for reestablishing a ketone/FFA metabolism.  I can understand why some people dare not increase their carb intake during holidays and vacations -- the temptation to continue the practice is strong.  After the van took off southward, i napped and coffeed and ate LC leftovers like pork rinds, guacamole, tapenade and deviled eggs till dinnertime when we cooked up a couple of steaks to go with our SF coleslaw ... or was it the red cabbage that evening?  :-)  No matter -- we're back on the Atkins wagon, and completely happy about it!