I may be on to something—a few somethings, really

My new, stricter diet is working, I think, especially now that it's paired up with increasingly vigorous walking. I've lost almost ten kilos after a bit more than two weeks (maybe this new regime is working too well...?). As always, I'm way fat, so no one's going to notice the weight loss but me and my scale, and a good deal of the initial weight loss is doubtless water weight. I'm hoping that, as I progress with the strength training, my metabolism will roar back to life, and I'll start burning more calories even while doing nothing. Of crucial importance is avoiding snacking at night: I have to learn to keep my itchy hands out of the fridge, where I'm liable to grab any number of keto-ish goodies. (Even keto-ish goodies like nuts, berries, and cheese are bad for you if you eat too many of them.)

I did, however, stumble upon a little snack that is apparently harmless to my blood sugar: Hershey's sugar-free chocolate chips added to clotted cream. I've mentioned this before, but it seems utterly random to me that smaller Korean groceries have, in recent years, chosen clotted cream as something to sell as part of their array of international goods. The cream is sold in tiny bottles with openings too small for a spoon, but wide enough to allow knives or spoon handles in. This forces you to remove disciplined amounts of the cream (like all no-sugar-added dairy products, clotted cream is keto but packed with calories). Three times now, I've dug out about a tablespoon's worth of cream and added maybe a half-fistful of chips and mixed everything together in a small bowl. Delicious. No need to sweeten the cream (which already tastes good on its own terms); the chips are sweetened with Stevia. I normally would never credit Hershey's as a quality chocolate (many Europeans think it tastes vomitous; see this video), but Hershey's sugar-free chocolate chips are a damn sight better than other, more hippie-friendly brands like Lily's (which tastes awful to me). So I dig out my clotted cream, add my chips, and try my best to eat the small snack slowly, which is a new thing for me since I normally Hoover up everything in front of me.

The good news I woke up to this morning was that, after yesterday's all-day fast and slightly brisker walk, I had lost a bit more weight, and my blood sugar was down to 80. I've eaten my usual Paris Baguette lunch today, so I'm sure my BS is well over 100 right now, but with exercise and more meds, the numbers'll be down tomorrow morning—maybe in the 90s or, at worst, somewhere under 110.

Another bit of news: I got my curcumin tablets. I had just finished choking down a turmeric drink (one tablespoon of turmeric mixed with water, then rapidly shotgunned down—nasty*) when I remembered the pills that had just come in the mail. I opened the pill bottle and, as I often do with multivitamins and other pills, I sniffed the bottle. The odor wasn't particularly turmericky, but there was something pleasantly earthy about the pills. 

I took two of the large tablets. Turmeric was a recommendation I'd seen online for people dealing with sclerotic heart muscle and blood vessels: the curcumin in turmeric softens your heart and blood-vessel walls, which has the side effect of improving your circulation and lowering your blood pressure. Sure enough, when I woke up this morning and took my BP, I got the best reading I've had since having my heart meds taken away: 112/73, with a pulse of 68 (anything in the 60s makes me happy). So it could be that turmeric actually works. I'll keep using it, and if results are consistent, I'll be buying more curcumin tablets soon. Two tablets a session, with 60 tablets in a bottle: a 30-day supply. I might need to buy several bottles.

Today is strength-training day; I'm practicing the "cat crawl" when I do animal flow, and it's nearly impossible for me to move. I'm simply too weak and not used to moving like that. But over time, I expect to get better. Same for all the other nonsense I'm doing: triceps pulldowns (resistance bands), chest flys (6-kg dumbbell), stairwell crawls (also super-awkward), lateral raises (6-kg dumbbells), and more. Tomorrow, I fast, and I'll be walking again.

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*I actually love turmeric as a spice used along with other spices when making something Indian-ish, Mediterranean, or Middle Eastern-ish. But by itself, straight turmeric is brutal. The tablets are a huge improvement, but I'll keep taking the turmeric powder along with the tabs. If I take 4 tablets a day to avoid the powder, that's only a 15-day supply.