I haven't posted in a while - been on a bit of an internet-presence hiatus in general for personal reasons - but I've been doing the Milk Cure again as a spring cleanse and I wanted to revisit this thread. It's interesting to see where I was versus where I am now, and the connection between the two. During the fall my life was such a mess. I experienced great success doing the milk cure but I was not in a position to sustain it at first, and then my milk supply dried up until last week. I'm still not really trying to lose weight right now, as I am focusing on healing a damaged metabolism, but I am certainly trying not to gain. My whole life I have been either gaining or losing. I don't think I have ever stayed within three pounds for more than a week.
After my initial success on the milk cure, I gained ten pounds back over the course of about a month, during which time I was either out of town or entertaining company every weekend. Over the holidays, I continued to bulk up (as seen in my defunct "Fresh Start for 2015" diary). Since then I've taken several more trips out of town, started having panic attacks again (which I thought I had shaken when I went grain free), and gained a few more pounds. Because of menstrual irregularities, I decided to increase my carb intake by adding a sweet potato at dinner. My usual day consisted of 3-4 eggs in the morning, sometimes with a couple of slices of uncured, dry-rubbed bacon, and a spoonful of sauerkraut; lunch might be a grass-fed ground beef patty with zucchini noodles in butter and a salad of spring greens; for dinner a piece of chicken or fish with cauliflower and a sweet potato (always plenty of healthy fats with my veggies). I was aiming for an intake of 2000-2500 calories for weight maintenance. Exercise consisted of body weight exercises a couple of times a week and occasional walks, but mostly taking it easy to avoid undue stress to my metabolic system. My weight had more-or-less stabilized around 188 for about a month but then a couple of weeks ago my grandmother passed away and I spent a week in the food desert that is my father's hometown. As usual, I managed to stay grain-free and sugar-free, but that's about all I could say about it. I doubt anyone in that town has even heard of coconut oil.
So I started back on the milk cure two days ago at 192.4. I haven't weighed today, but I have measured, and my waist is UP two inches. And it doesn't feel like bloating. It feels like fat. It's like my body is having the total opposite response to the milk than it did in September.
I'm going to keep up the milk for now anyway because I'm almost broke and I have to go out of town for a week in a few days, which will be expensive. Thankfully my parents are coming to see me for my birthday a few days after I get back, so I will only have to go hungry for a couple of days if I run out of money, milk, and canned salmon (which I always keep in the pantry in case of budget crisis). I only hope that I can still fit into my work clothes by the time I get to the conference.
I just want to wear a bra size that's sold in stores one of these days.