I forgot to say that I ordered more test strips yesterday. Having gout is expensive if you want to manage it properly. But now I have been using the UASure uric acid meter for two weeks. I have learned a lot that does not say in the manual, so check out the experience page I made to celebrate.
Breakfast: All the different leftovers that migjt go
bad during our trip. I got the milk and tofu, which I did not mix.
Lunch: Spaghetti Genovese in the hotel restaurant. And a beer.
Snack: Apples. Although Fukushima, where we are, is more famous for its peaches. And very rightly so.
Dinner: We had a five-course gourmet meal with a great wine (Hungarian Tokaji Furmint from 2017).
Todays UA reading: 7.7 mg/dL. But I had to use three test strips to get there, since I put on too little blood and got 3.0, which is not possible. If you get UA readings that low suddenly, measure a couple of times again before calling your doctor.
This weeks weight (since it is Saturday): 122.6 kg. Slight improvement, but I am trying to keep down uric acid, weight loss is a nice side effect.

It is finally Friday, but we have a four-day holiday here and we will use it to travel a bit in the neigborhood. Staying in hotels and getting away from it all for a few days, as it were. And eat purine-rich foods. Watch my UA...
Breakfast: Cheese and egg sandwich with vegetables
Lunch: Yesterdays tahine plus brown rice and quinoa from Costco.
Snack: Made Good cereal balls
Dinner: Tahine again, now with a different set of vegetables - and hamburgers at the bottom instead of bacon. The veggies tastes of hamburger and your kids will eat tons!
​Todays UA reading: 5.7 mg/dL

You may wonder what the deal is with all these snacks. Yes, Covid-19 stay-at-home did not help my waistline. But we eat dinner fairly late, since my wife usually cooks when she finishes work
(we both work at home due to Covid-19). So I need a snack to keep going. And so do the kids, who come home from school about 3.
Breakfast: Bagel with egg - and bacon. Hope it will not have any ill effects... And grapes.
Lunch: Rice, beans, kimchi, salad and a sandwich. These were fermented beans so they are even richer in purines than ordinary beans, but since it was leftovers there were not that much left over.
Snack: Konyakkujelly with peach taste, and apple sauce (in Costco pouches). Both very low in sugar, and supposedly very healthy.
Dinner: Vegetable tahine. You take this enormous tahine casserole that we bought at IKEA by mistake, line it with bacon (it has to be high quality), fill it with vegetables, and let it stew on slow flame until steam comes out at the edge. Then you give the bacon to the kids and eat the vegetables. They are perfect, at the verge of being burned, but infused with bacon flavor. You can do it in a dutch oven as well. Unfortunately we had a lot of mushrooms and asparagus, which are high in purines, but the kids ate those. I had three helpings.
Todays UA reading: 5.4 mg/dL, but it took two test strips to get it. The UASure meter indicated "low" at first, but that just meant I had not put in enough blood, even though it beeped - not that I had a concentration of less than 3 mg/dL as the manual says. So be aware of that.

I tried to wake up early since I wanted to attend a webinar in the US west coast time zone. But I ended up not to. The sun rises at 0530 and the mornings are starting to get chilly, so staying in bed until I normally raise was more attractive.
Breakfast: Cheese and French toast.
Lunch: Omelets, garlic rice - leftovers again.
Snack: Sandwiches leftover from breakfast.
Dinner: Ma-bo dofu with noidles and fried eggplant (we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant, it has been a while).
Todays UA reading: 8.0 mg/dL, and I fumbled a bit so I had to use two test strips. Better order more soon. It takes a couple of weeks for them to get here.

I usually take a walk in the morning, when the kids have gone to school. I have been doing it since May, when the kids had their delayed school start. It used to take me an hour, now I can do it in 45 minutes.
Breakfast: Vegetable and cheese sandwiches, coffee
Lunch: Hijiki rice, salad, boiled eggs, and nachos with guacamole. In other words: Leftovers.
Snack: I made a quesadilla for the kids, but they liked it so much they ate all of it. So I had granola with milk.
Dinner: Japanese dumplings (gyoza), but I was still full from the snack.
Todays UA reading: 8.7 mg/dL uric acid, which is still too high. But no stiff joints today.

So my UA is still pretty high. I need to focus on getting it down. More vegetables, I guess.
Breakfast: Vegetable and cheese sandwiches, scrambled egg.
Lunch: Onigiri (rice ball) and leftover spaghetti and cheese.
Snack: Umai-bou and some of the kids leftover rice crackers.
Dinner: Rice with hijiki seaweed, a cup of steamed egg custard with seafood (chawan-mushi), and my daughter made a salad (at 6, she has a long time to develop into a great chef).
​Todays UA reading: 8.4 mg/dL, and my fingers were indeed a bit stiff this morning too.

Today was Sunday. My finger joints were stiff this morning, I had not really associated it with gout before, but now I realize it is gouty arthritis. It was easier than yesterday to be healthy. Hope it shows in tomorrows UA reading.
Breakfast: Tomato and cheese sandwich, coffe.
Lunch: Rice, sauce made from leftover carbonara sauce.
​Snack: The kids wanted to see a movie, so we had popcorn (and watched Porco Rosso, one of Miyazakis most underrated films). Good for your gout as long as you go easy on the salt and sugar.
Dinner: Costco beef garlic rice (minus most of the beef), mango shrimp salad (with only a few shrimp). The dressing for the latter was delicious, by the way.
Todays UA reading: 8.6 mg/dL, so those glasses of wine and the prosciutto did have some effect.

Today is Saturday so I stepped on the scales and weighed myself. Just like the UA reading, the weight goes up and down, but the important thing is to get on a downward trend.
Breakfast: Bread, sausages, Nutella (the kids love it), and of course cheese. We did not go shopping yesterday, so no vegetables.
Lunch: Spaghetti Carbonara again, although I had sweet potatoes and carrots.
Snack: Susnhi (vegetarian)
Dinner: Rice with furikake, and two glasses of wine.. plus a small plate of prusciotto. Wonder if I will see that tomorrow?
​Todays UA reading: 7.7 mg/dL
This weeks weight: 123 kg, 19.369 stone or 271.16 lbs. Yes, it is dangerous being fat.

This morning I accidentally opened two test strips. They are stuck together so that can happen. Better be careful, they are not that cheap. And of course I failed to get the first one to work (did not get enough blood in the right place) so it was good that I had two. Which means when you travel, for instance, you need to be sure to have more than one strip per day. Always have a few extra.

TODAYS MENU:
​Breakfast:: Breakfast burrito with cheese, no beans.
Lunch: Leftover fried rice and nachos with guacamole
Snack: More nachos and guacamole.
Dinner: Spaghetti with cheese and bacon sauce. One candied chestnut for dessert.
Todays UA reading: 9.4 mg/dL, so bye-bye glass of wine with dinner....

Todays UA reading is continuing the low trend. I hope I will be able to continue it - in that case there is no risk for a gout attack. And higher probability for a glass of wine this weekend.
Breakfast: Pancakes with cheese and prosciutto.
You just make pancakes using the Crust-Eze mix from Costco, but make them a little thinner and longer. Put cheese and prosciutto on half and when the pancake is ready, fold it over the cheese and prosciutto. Serve with a salad.
If you use a tasty cheese like Havarti or sharp cheddar, it complements the sweetness of the pancake (yes the mix has added sugar).
​The prosciutto can be skipped and you can add boiled vegetables like carrots (but I like it better in a salad on the side). Adding wet vegetables like tomato does not work so well.
With cheese only, zero purines. And additional plus: Our kids love them.
Lunch: Leftover soup and a sandwich (cheese and tomato).
Snack: One bag of Made Good Mixed Berry Granola Minis (my kids ate all the chocolate ones).
Dinner: Breaded pork cutlets, couscous, pickles, prunes, and apples. I had half a cutlet and mist of the rest, although my son ate all the pickles.
​Todays UA reading: 5.9 mg/dL (before breakfast).