Cataleya Means Business

[Cataleya]

9 hours ago, Hazard said:

 

 

 

Just to make sure there's no confusion, I am eating other things besides egg whites. .  An Only Eggwhites Diet would be fatal.

 

 

Ha! With 30 eggs a day, I might need photographic evidence that's not the case.  But no that is worded weird, I blame being tired from a busy day. You are eating some yolks when you eat eggs, but it's mostly whites, yeah? And of course you have other food you eat, I guess.

 

 

 

6 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

Congrats on hitting >100g protein, now you know how to make that happen, which is nothing to sneeze at. You almost doubled your protein from a few days ago. As far as fat goes, FWIW I average around 105g, going back in time a couple months. Nuts are very high in fat for their calorie count, a later goal may be to figure out when it might be best to eat them or not should that prove to make a difference. For now, it's all about the protein. Don't let the other stuff concern you too much lol. Keep it to whole foods (yolks optional, I guess) as possible and you will be doing great this week, right? 

Definitely. Trying not to get too far ahead of myself. I was just kind of surprised it jumped up as much as it did, when I was expecting it to be a bit more even between carbs and fat. I feel fine, so I don't think it's hurting anything. There's just a lot of conflicting information out there about whether fat is the devil, which kinds are the devil, and so on and so forth. I know it's mostly people being overblown but I also don't know at what level people should be concerned for me. XD

 

[Sylvaa]

13 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

Congrats on hitting >100g protein, now you know how to make that happen, which is nothing to sneeze at. You almost doubled your protein from a few days ago. As far as fat goes, FWIW I average around 105g, going back in time a couple months. Nuts are very high in fat for their calorie count, a later goal may be to figure out when it might be best to eat them or not should that prove to make a difference. For now, it's all about the protein. Don't let the other stuff concern you too much lol. Keep it to whole foods (yolks optional, I guess) as possible and you will be doing great this week, right? 

 

+1 to the bolded! Nutrition can be such a pain because it's so individualized and there are so many conflicting views on the whole subject. 

[Urgan]

49 minutes ago, Cataleya said:

Definitely. Trying not to get too far ahead of myself. I was just kind of surprised it jumped up as much as it did, when I was expecting it to be a bit more even between carbs and fat. I feel fine, so I don't think it's hurting anything. There's just a lot of conflicting information out there about whether fat is the devil, which kinds are the devil, and so on and so forth. I know it's mostly people being overblown but I also don't know at what level people should be concerned for me. XD

 

15 minutes ago, Sylvaa said:

 

+1 to the bolded! Nutrition can be such a pain because it's so individualized and there are so many conflicting views on the whole subject. 

 

Food, it's hard. Re: whether fat is good or bad, we need fat to absorb whole slabs of vitamins. They're called fat soluble vitamins, the little ones like A, C, D, and E. I take fish oil with my multi for this purpose, in the event food is long gone when I take my vitamins. Anybody pushing all fat is bad needs to educate themselves or they could hurt someone. I figure if it came from a plant or animal it's A-okay in some measure. Like Sylvaa said, there's no hard and fast rule on stuff like this, there's just eating/drinking and figuring out how it makes you feel.

[Cataleya]

 

You're welcome.

[RogueLibrarian]

Following! A little late! 

 

You have a great strategy going. You can do it.

[Talos]

Hopping on the late followers' squad! 

*waves pom-poms*

[Cataleya]

Thanks you guys! Nice to have you aboard.

So. Life. Life has been tough the past few days. Wednesday was really emotional. I went to a memorial for a mentor of mine that randomly passed away about a month ago, no warning signs whatsoever.

I'm still not really getting over it, and my whole existential thing some of you might remember popped up again. It's kind of hard to describe my reactions now, it's not really panic but like, if I'm driving and think about it I grip the steering wheel hard for a second and release (well, hands still on the wheel). It's like a flash of anger almost, anger that everything is so random and people who don't deserve to die when they do die anyway. It feels not fair. But then I'll feel like well, it doesn't matter, none of this matters. And then I feel resigned. Not really sad, but not content either. It's weird to say I'm disappointed that one day I won't exist, but I don't feel like that's the right emotion either.

Anyway, right after that I had a meeting that I had been warned was probably going to be adversarial, so I went into it expecting a fight, but instead the guy I expected to be a problem was too chickenshit to say what he'd apparently been saying (and probably for good reason, I have a reputation of not abiding bullshit and this would have definitely been bullshit). Instead he was vaguely critical of the project for a much longer period than necessary and finished up by saying he thought it was close and couldn't wait to see the finished project, and that we could probably submit the paper next week. So. Whatever. Guy's unstable, so I just try to go with it. After this is done I don't really have to work with this group anymore and frankly I'm ready for that.

Oddly enough that day I had enough willpower to get me a 31/31/38 P/C/F split, which is the closest I've been to ideal since starting back up. I guess all that willpower is where it stayed, though, as I didn't track Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. Well, Thursday I started tracking and then stopped. I did nothing Friday and Saturday.

Thursday I still hit 10k steps, but Friday I did a little under half that and Saturday I slept all day, which means I ate very little and walked even less. Less than 1k even.

Still did well on meds though. Gonna start taking two metformin Tuesday. Monday is tennis and last time I messed with my dose I was hella out of it and couldn't go.

Speaking of meds, late Friday I got a call asking me to call the doctor back. Guess my bloodwork came back and they want me to do some stuff. So I'm gonna call them tomorrow morning. I imagine they're gonna be like yeah, up metformin. I wonder if they'll change my thyroid meds at all.

I did do weights this week but the routine was weak. I just did some random moves with my adjustable dumbbells. I need to find something better. Maybe I'll find what I'm looking for this week.

So do I move on this week? I think I will add a day of running, see how that feels. Maybe next week I'll add another, since I've already kind of dropped soda unofficially. Still need to focus on protein, which is fine. I upgraded MFP to get a better idea of what's doing me in. We'll see if that helps.

[Cataleya]

Called the nurse back this morning. She got kind of shitty when she told me my "thyroid was high so she was reducing my meds," and I questioned if that was correct because typically in the past when my TSH was high, my doctor would increase my meds. She was like, "Listen, your doctor is very good," and I responded, "No, sorry, I'm not questioning her expertise. I'm just saying that when my TSH is high, I typically take more of my medication, and when it's low, I take less. My meds were switched around a bit before I moved, so if she referenced the wrong number, she may think she's increasing it, but right now she's decreasing it. So it's more me being confused because that's not in line with my medical history, not questioning her expertise." She then "checked" the record and told me my TSH was low, not high.

 

 

That's... kind of a big thing to either lie to me about or get wrong. I'm trying to set up my personal chart online to double check, but damn son, I was asking a question, not calling into question the meaning of the universe. I wasn't even suggesting I knew better, just trying to get clarification. It's not like this is my first rodeo.

 

 

(I'm not actually that bent out of shape about it, but it is kind of wtf-worthy.)

 

In any case, she is upping my Metformin (as expected) and switching it to an extended release. Wants me to take 1 this week, 2 next, and 3 the week after. I'm gonna skip 1 and go to 2 starting today, though I'll take one like normal and save the other one for after tennis (assuming we have it, I haven't seen lineups today). The extended release should help with the nausea in any case. I'm hoping eventually I can switch to something where I'm not taking 3 pills a day. I think you can get them in 850s, which is a weird number, but I'd be happy taking two of those. (Checking up on that and the stuff I'm looking at says, "Yeah we don't expect any kind of response from the patient if they're taking under 1500 a day." So... why did none of my other doctors ever catch this? I mean, the one that prescribed me the meds in the first place specialized in diabetes...)

 

She also wants me to take Vitamin D and a B-12 sublingual. So, yay. More pills. I don't know if I need more Vitamin D though. I mean PCOS and Vitamin D deficiency are pretty common, but I do take a multivitamin with 800 IU of it and I use Vitamin D enhanced stuff when possible (e.g. milk). The nurse did say the doc wanted me to take 1000 IU, so I guess I'll pick something up. That same multivitamin has 18mcg of B-12, but I know Metformin can cause B-12 deficiency if you take it for a while, so I am fine with picking up one of those. Vitamin D is fat soluable, so that's something I need to take into consideration.

 

Scheduling these pills like...

 

...Still waiting on that callback about my online chart.

[Urgan]

The joys of interacting with the doctor's office. At least maybe you'll get less nausea later on in the bargain.

[Cataleya]

So I finally got into the system. Turns out that my TSH is oddly low, at 0.41 uIU/ML (standard range is 0.55 - 4.78 uIU/ML for this hospital system (yes, they sadly vary by system, sometimes widely), but I do best under 2.0, which the doctor said was fine). So yes, a reduction is in order.

 

Other test results worth noting, along with my (laywoman's) interpretation: 

• Slightly high on ALT according to this hospital's system, which indicates that there could be some liver issues. But it's incredibly slight (their range ends at 35 U/L, mine is 37) and my other liver tests are fine, so I'm probably fine. Just to be sure I'll avoid alcohol, which I was planning on doing anyway with the exception of the occasional Glühwein closer to Christmas. ALT levels can stay high for 1-2 months and can take 3-6 months to return to normal, so I'll just keep an eye on it.
• Trigylcerides are pretty dang high, HDL is a bit high. Partially due to PCOS, hypothyroidism and being overweight, so that will probably get better by the time I get checked up on in three months. Metformin will help. Cutting carbs/sugar will also help.
  • This is also probably why my ALT is up. Both are pretty strongly related to PCOS. So the changes I'm making should help with ALT, HDL, and Triglycerides.
• T4 is fine. That's good.
• B-12 is fine for now, if a little on the lower end, but increasing Metformin intake will probably affect that, so extra help there will be useful.
• Vitamin D is slightly lower than it should be, so I'm going to see if there are low dose Vitamin D supplements available or something, but if not the range is wide enough that I should be fine.
• DHEAS seems fine, which means my adrenal gland is fine, which is good.

I did note after seeing DHEAS that I wasn't tested on testosterone, which I would like to be tested on in the future.

 

And tennis is on today! Number 1 doubles???

[Cataleya]

So after all that, when I went to CVS later to pick up my meds, they hadn't even sent my prescriptions in. So I accidentally picked up my old prescriptions. I'm hoping that if they ever DO send in my prescriptions, that I can exchange the incorrect ones for the correct ones. If not, then I guess I'll pay CVS to take them away.

It affects the Metformin less, but it doesn't really help me to take the stronger thyroid medications.

Anyway I looked up interactions and across several sites nothing new popped up. So I'll probably do the thyroid and b-12 med (liquid) since the thyroid needs to be on empty stomach and b-12 is supposed to affect energy, I guess. Then with breakfast later it'll be vitamin d and metformin 1. Then metformin 2 with lunch or late snack. Multi and inositol can wait until I get home in the late afternoon/early evening, and birth control is before bed. Yeesh. Eventually some of this won't be necessary, but until then... eugh. Part of why I'm doing this is to minimize the pills later. I don't want to end up like my parents, on all sorts of stuff. I don't want to die early, either.

Anyway, it took a tiebreaker but I won tennis for the second week in a row. I won't be able to play next week because I'll be out of town, which is sad.

I got 100g protein today and MFP told me I would be under 190lbs in 5 weeks if I kept this up. Ha. Sure. Tomorrow and Wednesday are holiday parties. We'll see how that goes. I need to weigh myself tomorrow morning. I weighed 205.2 this morning which is negative movement, but I also ate fairly late last night. If that's what I'm at tomorrow, I'll accept it. Just didn't want it to be a weird fluke.

I did go shopping and bought mostly healthy snacks for me and a mix of healthy and less healthy stuff for Schatz. Lots of reduced sugar and sugar free stuff, lots of people looking at me weird as I scoured the nutritional label of various cans of nuts. (In case anyone is curious, I settled on pecans.)

Thankfully most of the stuff I got him really isn't tempting for me. Another bonus today (in a weird way) is I thought I wanted Starbucks, so I got a lightly sweetened latte, and then I ended up only drinking 1 or 2oz of the stuff before deciding I should have just gotten tea. Waste of money, but good movement. The taste buds are changing, albeit slowly. Should put me into a good position when I get to that week. (I did have a muffin as well because I was starving and wanted to stave hunger off and it did not help the carbs! Lol)

I decided my running day would be Friday for now. So Monday is tennis, Tuesday and Thursday are weights, Friday is running.

So. What are people's favorite sources of protein?

[Urgan]

8 hours ago, Cataleya said:

So after all that, when I went to CVS later to pick up my meds, they hadn't even sent my prescriptions in. So I accidentally picked up my old prescriptions. I'm hoping that if they ever DO send in my prescriptions, that I can exchange the incorrect ones for the correct ones. If not, then I guess I'll pay CVS to take them away.

 

After what you've been through, it'd have me thinking about other docs in the area....UGH I SAY.

 

8 hours ago, Cataleya said:

I did go shopping and bought mostly healthy snacks for me and a mix of healthy and less healthy stuff for Schatz. Lots of reduced sugar and sugar free stuff, lots of people looking at me weird as I scoured the nutritional label of various cans of nuts. (In case anyone is curious, I settled on pecans.)

 

You aren't nuts, nevermind the funny looks LOL.

 

8 hours ago, Cataleya said:

So. What are people's favorite sources of protein?

 

Chicken + salsa, beans in allllll of the things, deli meat for breakfast/snacks, and bean chips because I found out those things exist and it's a boost to protein PLUS a great source of fiber.

[Cataleya]

Bean chips, you say? What are those?

 

And yeah, unfortunately there aren't a lot of options for specialists in the area. Many people go to larger cities a few hours away for an actual specialist. I'm starting to see why. I think I'll give them one more appointment (in March) but if it's crap I'm just gonna have to find somewhere else. Not looking forward to that search.

 

Adjusting to new Metformin dose okay. Mild symptoms so far. We'll see if that lasts.

 

Gonna try to frontload some of my protein tomorrow morning, given there's a party tomorrow afternoon which will probably end up being dinner. I did okay today but I ate two cookies and hi I'm at... oh. Actually only 135g carbs. I thought it was higher.

 

I need just a half hour to look up a dumbbell routine or something that could work for me. What I'm doing right now is super lame and not in line with my goals. Ugh.

[Urgan]

10 hours ago, Cataleya said:

Bean chips, you say? What are those?

 

The brand I buy is Beanitos, they are black bean chips. They are not a high source of protein vs carbs and fat, buuuut they have better numbers than tortilla chips + fiber.

 

Sorry it's being hard to get good help, hope they straighten up ASAP.

[Hazard]

On 12/5/2017 at 12:53 AM, Cataleya said:

So. What are people's favorite sources of protein?

 

steak

salmon sushi roll

chicken

steak

eggs

crab

lobster

protein powder + diet soda + blender

steeeaaaaaaakk

 

 

steak

 

 

[Cataleya]

protein powder + diet soda + blender

Wait what

I'm learning about all these weird foods and food combos

Anyway I thought food was gonna be weak today with the party but I got 105g protein and carbs and 88g fat for a 25/49/26 PFC mix. I'm still not getting up to 40 for protein but part of that is holiday food is so carby generally and secondly I am having trouble hitting 100g protein. I mean I'm successful every day at this point but I think I need to front load a bit better with a protein drink or something in the morning so I'm not eating so late at night trying to hit 100. And I like eggs but eventually would like to eat other things.

After holidays at Schatz's family (Saturday to Tuesday) I'm gonna try to get him to incorporate more salmon and steak and stuff. He's been wanting to explore with cooking so I think he'll like the suggestions.

The real test is seeing how well I do while with his family who live in the middle of nowhere and love to over cook. I need to pick up some kind of pill carrier tomorrow so I'm not carrying 2943737 bottles.

Oh right. It looks like my prescriptions finally came in so I am going to pick them up tomorrow after work and hope for the best. We'll see if the birth control is in that package.

Still no Metformin sickness. I think taking the pills far apart is helping. Hitting the rest of my goals, but hoping this week slows down enough to actually look up a good program. I remember NF having some. Might go with that for now.

Speaking of, does anyone use the Academy? Do you like it?

[Hazard]

1 hour ago, Cataleya said:

 

7 hours ago, Hazard said:

protein powder + diet soda + blender

Wait what

I'm learning about all these weird foods and food combos
 

 

 

Welcome to Hazard’s Apothecary!

 

To make Hazard’s Protein Potion of Super Awesomeness—

 

Place 1-2 servings of protein powder and 8-12 oz of any zero-calorie diet soda in a blender.  Blend for a few seconds.  Pop the blender lid.  Drink & enjoy.

 

 

[Cataleya]

 
 
Welcome to Hazard’s Apothecary!
 
To make Hazard’s Protein Potion of Super Awesomeness—
 
Place 1-2 servings of protein powder and 8-12 oz of any zero-calorie diet soda in a blender.  Blend for a few seconds.  Pop the blender lid.  Drink & enjoy.
 
 

But what does it taste like?

[Hazard]

On 12/6/2017 at 11:33 PM, Cataleya said:

On 12/6/2017 at 10:24 PM, Hazard said:

 
 
Welcome to Hazard’s Apothecary!
 
To make Hazard’s Protein Potion of Super Awesomeness—
 
Place 1-2 servings of protein powder and 8-12 oz of any zero-calorie diet soda in a blender.  Blend for a few seconds.  Pop the blender lid.  Drink & enjoy.
 
 

But what does it taste like?

 

 

Depends on the protein flavors and soda flavors you choose.  Places like The Vitamin Shop sell packets of single-serving protein powder for like $2 per packet.  If you’re interested in trying it out, I suggest buying single-serve packets of a few different flavors, and buy a few different flavors of generic diet soda.  Mix and match.  Have fun with it, and see what you like best.

 

 

 

 

[Sylvaa]

11 hours ago, Cataleya said:

Speaking of, does anyone use the Academy? Do you like it?

 

NF Academy? I purchased the Academy, but I'm actually really bad at using it as intended. I think if you are a beginner and use the system as intended, it can be really helpful - that being said, I did not. I know a lot of people who use it go back and redo the Mindset modules fairly regularly (like when they need to respawn). 

 

I think it has a lot of great pieces and points, but it's kind of clunky. I definitely did get my money's worth out of it though, so I won't "return" it. 

 

I might be going back and restarting from the beginning after the new year starts though! I'll update you then!  

 

ETA: Re: Protein - why not focus on one thing first? Worry about hitting >100g daily first, then, once it becomes second nature, start working on decreasing carbs. You might find that if you hit the protein goal, it'll be easier anyway to limit carbs. 

[Cataleya]

Re: Protein - why not focus on one thing first? Worry about hitting >100g daily first, then, once it becomes second nature, start working on decreasing carbs. You might find that if you hit the protein goal, it'll be easier anyway to limit carbs.

That's actually what I'm doing. I'm monitoring the effect on other macros, but my only goal is hitting 100g of protein right now, and bumping it up to 110g next week.

And yeah I meant NF Academy. I'm considering getting it in the New Year (give myself more time to get into the swing of things) but I'm not sure. It might be helpful, and I see some people on Habitica use it. It's hard for me to tell whether I'd find it useful though. So your experience is helpful here!

[Cataleya]

So today was interesting. Gave my final, got a hug from a student. That was nice.

Worked on some stuff. That was boring.

Picked up my meds. I'm a bit annoyed I couldn't exchange my meds, meaning I had to buy them again. Cost wise that was fine, $20 is whatever, but I would have been screwed if I was on my old insurance because they'd have charged me full price since it was within 30 days or whatever. And then I was like fine, can you guys dispose of this at least, and they were like no but you can take them to the sheriff's department.

I flushed them down the toilet.
(Yes, the FDA is fine with that.)

Then I found out they gave me the generic birth control I don't like as much. That might actually be CVS's fault. I asked for the brand name when they tried to renew it the first time and the guy sent it to the wrong doctor. I also made sure to bring it up to them the second time I tried to get it refilled, to the correct doctor, who didn't respond. So the third time I don't know if they sent the same note or left it blank, or if the doctor didn't pay attention.

What I need is a PCP again, but finding a woman friendly PCP might be hard around here. (A LOT of my female friends have had complaints so they just skip the PCP when possible.) We'll see.

So. Habits. The meds are going well. Felt no side effects at all with new Metformin (the pill is bigger though, ugh), so I think I'm ready to go up to 3x/day next week. Everything else is fine. I'm probably going to stop taking Inositol once I'm out of them. I had read they showed promise for PCOS as a way to increase glucose sensitivity and picked them up when I wasn't taking Metformin. Now that I'm working toward a dose of Metformin where it should actually help, I probably don't need the Inositol, and it'd be one less pill to take.

Protein is going well. I'm slowly edging up to 110g, so I'm going to use that as a goal for next week. As a reminder to myself, MFP is recommending about 131g of protein a day, so it'll be longer I think before I can focus on carbs and fat, though I think that's naturally been shifting. I'm not in a rush in any case. I find that many days I end up cramming my protein in the tail end of the day, which ends up feeling kind of gross. So today I had a protein drink in the morning, which worked out much better but I was full most of the day. Which is good but also funny when someone is trying to get a macro in. Calories are hovering between 1300 and 1500 with the occasional 1600, which isn't bad.

My energy has been better this week. This weekend I slept way too damn much, but I think I was going through sugar withdrawal. I had a bunch at the end of last week and then like none this weekend and it was rough. Could have also been stress. Unsure. But I was not pleasant to be around. I haven't been avoiding sugar per se but I haven't been eating nearly as much as I would have under typical circumstances, especially with two parties this week. So I'm kind of proud of myself there, as all of my teeth are sweet teeth.

Getting enough steps in now. Running will help, too. Tomorrow is my scheduled running day. I'm debating between running outside in the morning, but it'll be like 20F/-7C outside. I have the gear for it, and I probably should do it in the morning to guarantee I do it. MFP has this blog post about how running in the cold makes you lose more fat or something. Maybe true, maybe not. Haven't looked at the research. We'll see what I end up doing but part of me wants to feel like a Real Athlete and do the early morning workout. We'll see, lol.

Travel plans changed and we'll only be out of town Saturday and Sunday, so I told the group I could play tennis Monday. Don't know if I will get scheduled or not. If not I'll do another run.

I tried to do the beginner bodyweight circuit from NF and couldn't get through one set. So. I guess I have my work cut out for me. I think the weights goal is the one thing I am kind of disappointed with because I just don't know what I want out of my strength training. I want to be strong. That's great. There are a lot of ways to get to strong though, and I'm terribly unsure of how to get there.

I think that's it? Wordy as ever, Cat.

[Sylvaa]

10 hours ago, Cataleya said:

And yeah I meant NF Academy. I'm considering getting it in the New Year (give myself more time to get into the swing of things) but I'm not sure. It might be helpful, and I see some people on Habitica use it. It's hard for me to tell whether I'd find it useful though. So your experience is helpful here!

 

They also have (had?) a money back guarantee. So if you think you might use it, then buy it - you can always change your mind! I know a lot of people have kept it for nothing else other than the FB group, but I have varying degrees of success with that component. 

[Echoceanic]

You're doing well.

I'm following because this is super interesting. 

[Cataleya]

5 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

 

They also have (had?) a money back guarantee. So if you think you might use it, then buy it - you can always change your mind! I know a lot of people have kept it for nothing else other than the FB group, but I have varying degrees of success with that component. 

 

Good to know! I actually don't think I'll use the Facebook component that often if at all, but the rest might be useful!

 

2 hours ago, Echocheanic said:

You're doing well.

I'm following because this is super interesting. 

Thank you thank you! Everyone here is far more interesting than I am, so hopefully you get something out of it.