Calories eaten yesterday: 1205
Fat: 63g (49%)
Carbs: 34g (12%)
Protein: 70g (24%)
Calories burned in exercise: 0

I've been having to cut back on tomatoes. While I love them, they do tend to be rather carby, so I've limited myself to half a tomato a day. Cucumbers are low in carbs and calories and I can pretty much eat as much as I want, and I'm trying to add avocados in (a whole one if possible) to get my fat intake up without raising my protein also the way pork rinds do. They are fairly low in net carbs because of the high fiber content and don't have the heavy salt of the pork rinds.

Still sick today. The sugar-free cough drops seemed to help yesterday, but sugar-free doesn't mean carb-free, so I've had to use them sparingly. Sad but true. I slept semi-sitting up last night to keep my coughing at bay. Didn't give me a very restful sleep (kept waking up), but at least I managed to fall back asleep each time.

I feel pretty proud of myself for getting through the holidays without the weight gain most people experience. But it's true - when I cut my carbs back to about 40g a day I don't crave all the sweets that abound at this time of year. I even made it through the dreaded church Christmas party without eating any of the sweets that Becky made. I brought sugar-free chocolate cheesecake and just had that. :)

Now the holidays are pretty much over, but I'm trying to keep my carbs in the 40g range to see if I can get these last pesky pounds off. I'm still sipping a can a day of chicken broth (thanks Brad!). It seems to go down easy and is a "food" I tolerate well. It's true that chicken soup is good when you are sick, and for a low-carber, chicken broth fits the bill. :) I can also drink carbonated water better than plain right now.

My blood sugar was in my normal range this morning at 89. The more days I can have like that, the more I'll know I'm recovering from the toe surgery. It's draining less so it is getting better. But sheesh...I've gone through 2 four pound packages of Epsom Salt.

I have some good news I forgot to mention when it happened. As you may recall, I walked to work Sunday, New Year's Eve day, from the BART station. On the way I stopped at WalMart to pick up a couple items, then cut across the huge parking lot to Starbucks to treat myself to a latte since I wasn't counting calories or carbs that day. (I'm not supposed to have milk because of the high sugar content.) Anyway, I got a small latte with low-fat milk, two shots of espresso, and sugar-free vanilla syrup. It was yummy.

As I crossed the parking lot I spotted something on the ground and bent down to pick it up. I unfolded it and realized it was a $20 bill! Wow! I looked around and considered my options, then finally decided it was my lucky day and tucked the bill into my purse. :) Thank You, God! A nice little new year's gift. :) I did feel bad for whoever dropped it, however.

I got a couple of music CDs in my Vicki box this year, but the CD drive in my computer has given up the ghost. It spins the CDs, but won't read them. I called the computer guy and he said he'd come over today with an external CD drive. He did.

I guess he figures this is an easier way to deal with the problem than try to fix the CD tray on my ancient Mac (I probably bought it in late 1998). He was there for about 50 minutes and I made sure that it would recognize and load music CDs before he left. I plan to put the actual CDs onto iTunes when I get home tonight, then transfer them to my iPod. He charged me $50 even for the used drive and labor.

I can't afford a new Mac so I need to keep this old one limping along as long as possible. So far it's proved to be a mighty machine that needed only one expensive repair.

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