260 (but I have a really good excuse, I swear!)

After going through a few flaming hoops last week to get my next 90-day supply, I have decided to go off of my diuretic blood pressure medication.  Now nobody start freaking out on me because of this; I'm taking good care of myself, I promise.  But diuretics or "water pills"--while rather effective at dealing with mild to moderate hypertension--are not very helpful when you're doing a low carbohydrate diet.  As a matter of fact, they are anti-helpful, and actually keep you from entering ketosis.  As a result of the combination of constipation and retaining a bit of water, I'm back up to 260.  But I want my numbers to be real numbers.  I need them to be real.  I'm okay with 260.  It's still quit a bit of progress over these past months.

Diuretics tend to tweak your kidneys so that they pass lots of fluid out of your system (by design).  However, in the process, they tend to leech lots of vitamins, minerals, aminos and important acids out of your system before they're actually done with their important jobs.  It's a trade-off: trade excess fluid that builds blood pressure for an inefficient body pH and malabsorption of bio-available nutrients.  When hypertension is moderate to high, there's no question that it's a good trade-off.  But I have actually been feeling so much better blood-pressure-wise that I know that I'm needing them less, and frankly, taking diuretics when you don't actually need them isn't very wise either.  To top it all off, diuretics actually exacerbate constipation, so there's even more reason to try life without them.

I had lunch with a buddy yesterday at our tavern of choice.  It was a bit of a challenge.  I'd never read the "meat" menu.  I wound up with a ginormous Mediterranean chicken salad that was rather good, and made with actual GREEN lettuce, and not just empty iceberg or romane.  But there's scant else on the menu I can eat.  Lots of beef (which I won't touch because it's not organic), and the rest of the sarnie side is just that: bread, bread, bread, bread, bread.  At least I have that salad.  My buddy commented on how much better I'm moving around.  Hell, for me, that's as much a compliment as "you're looking great!"  This falls squarely into the realm of "I'll take what I can get"-ville.  People noticing means there's externally noticeable progress, and that's all good.  It matches up with how much better I feel physically and internally (minus the constipation, of course).

Afterwards, I spent the evening with my friend JB who is serious low-carb, and was a bit of an impetus to me in trying this ANA for myself.  She brought over a "test loaf" of a turkey meatloaf she made, which was stellar.  I tossed it on the grill along with the rest of the Johnsonville brats (that I had that needed to be cooked before I left town anyway).  We chatted about how nice it is to have people in your life that you're close to doing this eating-style as well.  And it certainly is.  No question.  We had a really nice evening of low-carb chit-chat and reinforcing each-other.  She's a Wisconsin girl, and appreciated the mothers-milk bratwurst, too.

My daughter's headed over here in a tick.  Yesterday, she had me prepare her rice. RICE!  I had none of it.  Not one grain.  I even prepared her the stir-fry she was going to make, but when the time came, she was where?  On the phone.  I was comforted in making her the food regardless, and while I have joked with her about her evilness at demanding carbs, it really didn't phase me at all.  I really didn't feel tempted by it all that much, and it didn't seem to negatively impact me or cause a craving that I felt the need to push down.

I had been chatting with JB about how one of the things I like most about the ANA is that I have a consistent level of energy throughout the day now, as opposed to these highs and crashes that come with unstable blood-sugar from both a high-carb diet and with low-cal dieting.  Even when I'm hungry, I'm not on fumes like I was.  That's a huge help to me.  My mood is stable, my brain is more clear, and I have no real cravings like I used to.  That alone is enough to keep me at this.