Congratulations!

day 68 ...

no late-night eating ... 27 days in a row ... another new world record !!!

yesterday morning i had half a pancake with breakfast, along with the accompanying syrup and butter. this is probably going to be a regular thing as it's a weekly post-workout breakfast with the grandson, so i am not giving myself demerits for it. my "clean-eating" efforts have been so good that i think i can afford the empty calories that go with it. for water intake, i think i was treading very close to "not enough", but i will also not give myself a demerit here as i was probably very close to, perhaps actually achieving, adequate intake. i just mention it because i don't want to slacken off and fall into dehydration mode.

on the headache front ... was knocked out of bed with a medium-strength headache. i had eaten no prunes, no cottage cheese but a fair bit of yogurt the day before. going to switch it up today and have some cottage cheese and no prunes or yogurt. i love the prunes, and the fibre is needed, but i consider dried fruits to be a "luxury" food, and i don't want to have them too often.

a 3 star day ... 6 in a row !

night-time eating ... WIN;
water intake ... WIN;
clean eating ... WIN.

day 69 ...

no late-night eating ... 28 days in a row ... another new world record !!!

yesterday went well. NO morning headache. as planned, i stayed away from the yogurt and had a fair bit of cottage cheese. it's only 1 day, but i am hoping that i am zeroing in on the main culprits. will have a yogurt-free day today and see what happens tomorrow morning.

i miss bread, and my body misses the large quantity of fibre that it has. i DO have 2 slices of toast with my saturday morning breakfast but that's all. when i have reached my goal weight i would like to incorporate a small amount of bread into my daily eating plan, but not sure how to go about doing it. i don't think i should keep a loaf or a package of bagels around; past experience shows that i will inhale it. i would have to make a daily trip to the store to buy just 1 bagel or 1 bun. TBD.

a 3 star day ... 7 in a row !

night-time eating ... WIN;
water intake ... WIN;
clean eating ... WIN.

day 70 ...

no late-night eating ... 29 days in a row ... another new world record !

now 2 days eating no yogurt and 2 mornings with no headache. this is a small sample, to be sure, but i am hopeful that i have discovered something, had plenty of cottage cheese, too.

real lousy weather here, cold and wet slushy west coast snow ... blah. will have to keep myself busy indoors so that i don't keep snacking all day.

the scale, after stalling out for a while, has now responded to all the good days i have strung together ... yay !

a 3 star day ... 8 in a row !

night-time eating ... WIN;
water intake ... WIN;
clean eating ... WIN.

day 71 ...

no late-night eating ... 30 days in a row ... another new world record !!!

now 3 days with no yogurt. had a very slight headache this morning, hardly worth mentioning, but when you have been dealing with morning headaches for such a long time, they are all of interest, no matter how mild. last night i had a couple of shots of baileys to try to help me sleep, as i felt wide awake, so the mild headache may be attributable to the alcohol.

when i woke up, i was feeling a little tired of the whole weight-loss thing. now that i have breakfast and coffee in me i feel much better about it. the plan is working; staying the course !

a 3 star day ... 9 in a row !

night-time eating ... WIN;
water intake ... WIN;
clean eating ... WIN.

day 72 ...

no late-night eating ... 31 days in a row ! that's a full month anyway you slice it and another new world record !!!

now 4 days with no yogurt. again, a very slight headache in the morning and the only suspect left is (lactose-free) cottage cheese, which i ate a fair bit of. would hate to have to give it up; will try to keep the intake down to a cup or less and see what happens. i believe oranges and bananas, which i also eat at least 1 of every day, contain tyramine; will have to confirm that.

edit : oranges are listed as being high in tyramine, as fresh fruits go. also, i had 2 slices of salami, also high in tyramine. love oranges, will have to watch my intake.

today is the boys' birthday dinner ... will be eating smokies and probably a cake of some kind. if there is cake or ice cream it will be very challenging to keep it down to just one serving. also, smokies, not to mention the cake, are probably crammed with wheat, so things could get painful tomorrow morning.

a 3 star day ... 10 in a row !

night-time eating ... WIN;
water intake ... WIN;
clean eating ... WIN.

day 73 ...

no late night eating ... 32 days in a row ... another new world record !!!

last night was maybe the most difficult that i have had in this glorious 32 day run. i actually took an orange out of the fridge to warm up to room temperature then spent the rest of my waking hours trying to justify eating it. in the end, i thought it would be a shame to end my winning streak so i persevered and did not eat it.

the reason it was so difficult is that earlier in the evening we had a grandkids birthday dinner. i knew that this was coming, of course, and had long ago given myself permission to have cake and some other food-like substances as well. in addition to the cake i had smokies, mac and cheese and corn chips, even a glass of orange pop. i know from experience that eating sugary stuff only results in wanting more of it, thus the powerful urge to eat later that evening.

anyhow, i got through it and the cake wasn't really that good, i would have been happier with a toasted bagel with butter and jam, to be honest. the pop was a pure sugar indulgence; refreshing for a moment but always leaves you wanting more. i enjoyed the smokies and mac and cheese, but it's good to have it out of the way and get back to clean eating (no demerit for this by the way ... it was anticipated/planned/permitted).

edit : worth noting; no headache whatsoever after all that junk. go figure.

a 3 star day ... 11 in a row !

night-time eating ... WIN;
water intake ... WIN;
clean eating ... WIN.

day 74 ...

no late-night eating ... 33 days in a row ... another new world record !!!

still tempted every single night, though. what keeps me motivated is A) wanting to keep the weight loss going, B) wanting to make this into a real life-long habit and C) not wanting to break this glorious string of victories !

now 6 days without yogurt and no morning headaches. it occurs to me that this is more important ... MUCH more important than the weight loss. yogurt is no longer a regular part of my grocery shopping list, along with aged cheeses of any sort.

tomorrow morning is the weekly weigh-in and, unless i go off the rails, i should be showing a loss of 1 or 2 lbs for the week.

a 3 star day ... 12 in a row !

night-time eating ... WIN;
water intake ... WIN;
clean eating ... WIN.

day 75 ...

no late-night eating ... 34 days in a row ... another new world record !!!

last night was very hard, and that makes 2 difficult nights in a row. i think i may be slacking off in the water department; i don't actually count the glasses but i have noticed that the last 2 days i have been snacking more and probably drinking less. going to have to re-focus on this aspect of things.

now 7 days with no yogurt and 7 days with no headache. the correlation is simply too strong to ignore.

monday is weekly weigh-in day and i have showed a loss of only 1/2 lb. for the week. better than a gain, to be sure, and the scale isn't super accurate, but this week i am going to focus on water intake and just a wee bit less snacking. i am toying with the idea of cutting back on day-time snacking and introducing a late-late night snack if i keep having difficult nights like these last two.

not giving myself a 3 star day as a wake-up call to make sure i am drinking enough water in the future.

night-time eating ... WIN;
water intake ... FAIL;
clean eating ... WIN.

day 76 ...

no late-night eating ... 35 days in a row ... another new world record !!!

last night was a lot easier, simply because i had dinner/dessert SO late. had a bit of trouble getting to sleep though, so there's that.

8 days in a row with no yogurt and no morning headache. also in the headache department, i have eaten COOKED oatmeal many times now and no headache. UNCOOKED oatmeal is still on my watch list but having determined that the main culprit seems to be yogurt and aged cheeses, i may roll the dice and try some uncooked in the near future.

came up short on the water intake again yesterday. i thought that i had this part nailed down early, so this is a bit puzzling. old habits die hard i guess. i have been snacking when i should be drinking (water) and it is definitely hurting, but not entirely eliminating, my calorie deficit when i do that.

night-time eating ... WIN;
water intake ... FAIL;
clean eating ... WIN.

day 77 ...

no late-night eating ... 36 days in a row ... another new world record !!!

will i ever get used to it though ?

9 days in a row with no yogurt, but i had 2 servings of bread in the morning and 2 servings of UNCOOKED oatmeal later in the day, along with 2 apples . woke up with a mild/middling headache and any one, or all 3, of those things have long been on the suspect list, particularly bread, but i always felt that bread , if eaten early enough in the day, wasn't causing headaches. there won't be any bread today and i will avoid uncooked oatmeal. i'll try eating 2 apples and see if i am ok with them.

got back on track with adequate water intake today, so that's good news.

a 3 star day.

night-time eating ... WIN;
water intake ... WIN;
clean eating ... WIN.

day 78 ...

no late night eating ... 37 days in a row ... another new world record !!!

that part of it just isn't getting any easier, but somehow i manage to be getting through it night after night.

fairly bad headache this morning. having had no yogurt; the prime suspect is the half-grapefruit that i had. grapefruit and oranges known to have "small" amounts of tyramine ... so there's that. no demerit in the clean-eating category as i had believed that i was ok with grapefruits and oranges. will be monitoring those two things now. threw away the remaining 1 1/2 grapefruits.

a 3 star day ... 2 in a row !

night-time eating ... WIN;
water intake ... WIN;
clean eating ... WIN.

day 79 ...

no late-night eating ... 38 days in a row ... another new world record !!!

last night was, for whatever reason, noticeably easier than other nights. will just go with it, i guess.

no morning headache ... the only "questionable" food i had was a single sourdough bun. no yogurt/prunes/grapefruit/oranges/bananas/oatmeal; so there's that.

a 3 star day ... 3 in a row ! the scale is telling a good story, too. hope it still looks good at the monday morning weigh-in.

night-time eating ... WIN;
water intake ... WIN;
clean eating ... WIN.

day 80 ...

no late-night eating ... 39 days in a row ... another new world record.

was difficult, as it almost always is, but it's the one area where a little self-discipline really goes a long way.

no morning headache; ate 2 apples, a banana and some cooked oatmeal, so those items are starting to look pretty safe for me. failure on the water intake though; got busy working outside and just never took the time to pour a glass or two, so i only had the 1 morning glass and 1 in the evening.

night-time eating ... WIN;
water intake ... FAIL;
clean eating ... WIN.

day 81 ...

no late-night eating ... 40 days in a row ... another new world record !!!

no morning headache ... 2 days in a row. again, i ate, throughout the day : an apple, 2 bananas, cooked oatmeal and cottage cheese. i was worried about over-ripe bananas because they are known to have more tyramine , and really ripe is the way i like them. might try an orange today; if not, definitely tomorrow.

today is football-watching day so probably going to indulge in some rather high-calorie chicken wings and maybe finish off the bottle of baileys that has been hanging around since before xmas. tomorrow is weekly weigh-in day and it's still looking good in that department.

a 3 star day.

night-time eating ... WIN;
water intake ... WIN;
clean eating ... WIN.