But only for the time being! Just until my sprained ankle, which as you know, I sustained while running with YOU, is better. However, I am s-l-o-w-l-y lobbing my fat self back on track. Today, I cleaned the house for 4 hours (the Hubs was really batching it up while I was on "vacation" - you would not believe some of the places I found his dirty socks)! Surprisingly, I gained NOTHING in the month that I was away (this was in part because I cooked most of the meals, but also because I wouldn't let Grammy bake any cakes or goodies, which resulted in a rash of cake-baking and pie-fixing the day before I left, supposedly because Uncle Walter was coming to visit, but really so she could send half a pound cake home with me!).
It wasn't until we got back to VT, and had company for a week who wanted to sample all of VT's culinary offerings (read: beer, Ben&Jerry's, cheese, and more beer), that I started "puffing" up. Yes, I said "puffing" - imagine a startled blowfish, without the spikes. It's more than just general bloating...it's like my arms, legs (especially my ankles), and middle all just swell up - and it usually happens when I drink a lot of beer, sadly. Is it water retention? Is it air? It remains to be seen whether real pounds were gained, but I definitely puffed up a pants size.
Luckily, our farm share has started and is providing us with bountiful produce - the perfect excuse to increase the proportion of veggies to meat and starch on our plates, which should reduce the puff effect. We've been having fantastic salads with butter lettuce and micro-greens, and last night I cooked up a pot of turnip and beet greens with a new recipe I found that uses no salty meat for flavoring, but instead uses garlic and onions. I even threw the peeled turnips in there and the Hubs loved them. I also roasted our first farm chicken and it was the leanest, most chicken-y chicken I've ever tasted. I am surreptitiously pushing us toward a lower-carb diet...shhhh, don't tell Hubsy!
So, how are we running this new challenge? Are we counting days? Percentage lost? Should we have rewards or incentives?
The puffing is probably just water retention. Remember, WATER PUSHES WATER, so just drink tons of water and you will lose that bloat fast! You could also try Midol - make sure it has the diuretic in it, which will relieve bloat.
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