ADDENDA: I rarely eat popcorn at home, but I felt the urge to make it late last night, but not with the airpopper, but fried in oil. Is this a symptom of me not wanting to deny myself anything? At the movies a few nights ago, I skipped the popcorn because the sodium would of been over the top....
BREAKFAST: 11am, humerous pancakes with a little water and nothing else, hunger 3/5. After last night's binge, my stomach was a little queazy this morning, but I was so looking forward to making panckaes from scratch. I used the mixer we got from the registry for the first time, making a batch of dry mix, using all organic ingredients. Then I took a measure and mixed in some organic whole milk and eggs, and fried them up in the good butter. Oh my. If I got these pancakes in a restaurant, I'd be DAMN, these are some fine pancakes! Fluffy, just a tinge of sweetness, you can taste notes of fresh egg and milk, nice chew. Wow. I totally forgot to fry up some bacon, and didn't need it, this was enough to focus on.
LUNCH: 3pm, BLT on whole grain with sprouts, avocado, diet black cherry soda, watermelon, hunger 3/5. Nice ordered-in sandwichs with B and old HS friend in town for tonight's bachelor party. Funny how bacon appealled because I skipped it this morning.
DINNER: 7pm, various pizza with little cheese (lardo, pepperoni, spicey cheeseless), vegetable and meat crudo, various gelato, 1 beer and 2 glasses wine. This was my bachelor party's dinner at Otto, mmmmm pizza and icecream! As with real good pizza, a little cheese goes a long way. And the Lardo (basically a crust that has a little bit of garlic, olive oil and squares of cured pork fat) was really weird but tasty. Pork fat pizza.....
EVENING: 9pm-1am, 3 beers, one shot. The dinner kept me 75% sober.
Saturday, August 4
Friday, August 3
Cuffed
ADDENDUM: I just ordered a one-touch digital blood pressure wrist cuff from Amazon. After my dad's stroke, my parent's got an old school blood pressure cuff, with the inflation, the deflation, the needle going round. They took each other's pressure regularly and took mine. I wish I paid more attention to what they were doing and talking about, I wish I could talk to them about it now.
BREAKFAST: 7:15am, hot oatmeal and half a diet sprite, hunger 3/5. Hadn't made oatmeal since the winter, it's usually a cold weather food for me, but I was craving something heavy, and another bagel is a little boring. So I prepared it as I always do, with water, a dash of sugar and a dash of salt....hmmm. Just finished the Quaker tube, gonna look for an organic brand. And use the evaporated cane sugar, the sea salt, and maybe whole milk and the good butter to make it a real treat. The diet sprite AGAIN tasted a bit....fakey and thin. Not different, just realizing that after cutting off the diet coke, I don't particularly LIKE diet soda!! Weird. It was such a staple for me for so many years. Ilsa warned me this might happen, discovering stuff that I was in the habit of eating might be found distasteful upon cutting back on them and reflection.
AM SNACK: 10:15am, 25 oz of still water from the sippy cup. Hot day, road the good bike to work, going to leave early and shoot out to Coney & back. I just learned it's 4 miles door to door to work. Thats 40 miles on a bike a week, just for going to work! That's so cool!
LUNCH: 12:15, shrimp curry & basmanti, dal, one pakora, 2 small pieces of nan, water, hunger 4/5. Relaxed afternoon lunch with Erikka. Cheap n' tasty.
PM SNACK: 1:15pm, 3.5 oz dark chocolate bar, hunger 3/5. After lunch went to the Hershey's tourist trap store to buy a 'Cacao Reserve' bar - Consumer Reports named it #1 in dark chocolate, which surprised my chocolate-snob self. On one hand, it's friggin' Hershey and it contains both milk fat and milk, which means technically it's milk chocolate and not proper chocolate (properly snobby chocolate only uses cocoa butter as it's fat), but after eating it, I must say it was damn good, a nice balance of bitter and sweet, smoothness. As I'm slowly eating it, hoping not to like it, I thought of the 'mindful eating' document Ilsa gave me. Without purposefully doing it, I was paying close attention to what I was eating, how it was interacting with my mouth and taste buds, how it felt from touching my lips to going down the hatch - it really does increase the pleasure. Regardless, the chocolate was really good, but in more of a generalized 'dark chocolate' way - Jaques Torres chocolate is still more interesting and tastier. So there.
DINNER: 7:30pm, sauted brocolli and mushroom with seitan over brown basmanti, small green salad, chocotlate hagen daaz bar. Hunge 3/5. Was good, but not as good as the first time, too bad as Betsy was eating with me. Maybe overcooked teh broc a little. Seitan wasn't as yummy as I remember it, from when I was vegan. After the meal, I was unsatisfied. I craved.....meat?
PM SNACK: 9pm, small amount of onion rings, hunger 4/5. Remainder from the freezer, not as high in sodium as I thought, but still not a health food. At least it had whole onions, unlike that weird industrial onion ring stuff I ate the other day.
PM SNACK: 12 midnight, bagel and humus. hunger 4/5. -sigh-
PM SNACK: 12:45am. Popcorn fried in olive oil, a little sea salt. hunger 4/5. Just hungry. Should of had meat. Thought of eating something sweet, but not desiring sweet, oddly enough. A different kind of hunger.
BREAKFAST: 7:15am, hot oatmeal and half a diet sprite, hunger 3/5. Hadn't made oatmeal since the winter, it's usually a cold weather food for me, but I was craving something heavy, and another bagel is a little boring. So I prepared it as I always do, with water, a dash of sugar and a dash of salt....hmmm. Just finished the Quaker tube, gonna look for an organic brand. And use the evaporated cane sugar, the sea salt, and maybe whole milk and the good butter to make it a real treat. The diet sprite AGAIN tasted a bit....fakey and thin. Not different, just realizing that after cutting off the diet coke, I don't particularly LIKE diet soda!! Weird. It was such a staple for me for so many years. Ilsa warned me this might happen, discovering stuff that I was in the habit of eating might be found distasteful upon cutting back on them and reflection.
AM SNACK: 10:15am, 25 oz of still water from the sippy cup. Hot day, road the good bike to work, going to leave early and shoot out to Coney & back. I just learned it's 4 miles door to door to work. Thats 40 miles on a bike a week, just for going to work! That's so cool!
LUNCH: 12:15, shrimp curry & basmanti, dal, one pakora, 2 small pieces of nan, water, hunger 4/5. Relaxed afternoon lunch with Erikka. Cheap n' tasty.
PM SNACK: 1:15pm, 3.5 oz dark chocolate bar, hunger 3/5. After lunch went to the Hershey's tourist trap store to buy a 'Cacao Reserve' bar - Consumer Reports named it #1 in dark chocolate, which surprised my chocolate-snob self. On one hand, it's friggin' Hershey and it contains both milk fat and milk, which means technically it's milk chocolate and not proper chocolate (properly snobby chocolate only uses cocoa butter as it's fat), but after eating it, I must say it was damn good, a nice balance of bitter and sweet, smoothness. As I'm slowly eating it, hoping not to like it, I thought of the 'mindful eating' document Ilsa gave me. Without purposefully doing it, I was paying close attention to what I was eating, how it was interacting with my mouth and taste buds, how it felt from touching my lips to going down the hatch - it really does increase the pleasure. Regardless, the chocolate was really good, but in more of a generalized 'dark chocolate' way - Jaques Torres chocolate is still more interesting and tastier. So there.
DINNER: 7:30pm, sauted brocolli and mushroom with seitan over brown basmanti, small green salad, chocotlate hagen daaz bar. Hunge 3/5. Was good, but not as good as the first time, too bad as Betsy was eating with me. Maybe overcooked teh broc a little. Seitan wasn't as yummy as I remember it, from when I was vegan. After the meal, I was unsatisfied. I craved.....meat?
PM SNACK: 9pm, small amount of onion rings, hunger 4/5. Remainder from the freezer, not as high in sodium as I thought, but still not a health food. At least it had whole onions, unlike that weird industrial onion ring stuff I ate the other day.
PM SNACK: 12 midnight, bagel and humus. hunger 4/5. -sigh-
PM SNACK: 12:45am. Popcorn fried in olive oil, a little sea salt. hunger 4/5. Just hungry. Should of had meat. Thought of eating something sweet, but not desiring sweet, oddly enough. A different kind of hunger.
Thursday, August 2
He-Man Hi-Bloodpressure Club
ADDENDA:
My friend Patrick just called me up and said, "Dude, I didn't know you have high blood pressure." I said, "HOW THE HELL did you know that?" Google. Huh. How about that. These internets are pretty nifty. He's on a medication which he is happy with. I gotta get a cuff to start seeing what mine is doing. If in the end my genetics trump my diet, it's an option I may revisit.
Over today's lunch I finished the Real Food book. The last chapter is about the Omnivore's Dilemma - for example, a Koala eats nothing but eucalyptus leaves it's whole life, and gets everything it needs from it. The downside is if the tree dies, so does the Koala. People can eat just about anything, and to get what we need nutritionally, have to eat a wide variety. The downside is not automatically knowing what to eat, but if a tree dies, we can move next door and eat the bush, or the animal in the bush. I really enjoyed the book, which is a de facto rational argument both ecologically and nutritionally against extreme diets and the effects of capitalism on our food, and scientific exploration of why whole traditional, non-industrial foods like raw unhomogonized diary, organic grass fed meat and wild fish, fresh organic fruit and veg are the way to go. (Real Food: What to Eat and Why, by Nina Planck, Bloomsbury 2006) Next up: a compendium of essays by various well-known chefs about how they came to love cooking and food....
(BTW, the title is reference to the Little Rascal's "He-Man Woman-Haters Club" - oh those rascally un-PC kids!)
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, toasted onion bagel with the good butter. Hunger 1.5/5. Not hungry after last night's late night nosh, but surprisingly tired. I've been staying up late (till 1am ish) the past few nights, but this is the first morning I'm kind of exhausted.
AM SNACK: 10am, 24 oz of water. Hunger 3/5. Really thirsty when I got to work, maybe the high temp? Sippy cup rocks!
LUNCH: Noon, roasted herb turkey breast, onion rings, baby carrots, Hunger 4/5. The side options were greasy looking plantains and mushy, pale looking veg. Fries looked appealing, but no fries, so onion rings....as I was eating them, I felt guilty....sure it's not fries, but isn't this the nutritional equivalent? This ain't the Attorney General trial, ignorance is no excuse. But they were damn tasty, though really tasting it, I noticed it's not really onion, but an onion mince that is shaped. I bet I could make an AWESOME wholly organic onion ring. (At some point after I get married in September, I'm going to go over this blog and figure out the things that would be healthier and funner to make myself). Turkey was actual real meat, not a roll or processed, but still tasted salty, and the 'gravy' didn't help.
No dessert there appealled to me, so as an experiment had the baby carrots to help with sugar cravings. Immediately after eating, my first instinct was "SUGAR NOW!" but thinking about it, I think that was more just habit than that gut-feeling of physically needing sugar. That so-called craving dissipated once I got up and split the caf.
PM SNACK: 3pm, 1 oz organic chocolate pieces, hunger 2/5. Not so much hungry as craving sweet. Back to the bad-sushi spot to explore their organic sweets, got a little baggy of small square chocolate pieces. Though not advertised as such, this was non-dairy dark chocolate, but they amped up the sweetness to mask the natural bitterness of the cocoa, not cool. As with pizza, I've expanded my palate over the years to appreciate chocolate like some dig wine. (I'm so classy - I'm a pizza & chocolate snob!) Though the sweet kick is coming from organic cane sugar and not corn syrup or malt, it's just unnecessary and makes the chocolate taste a little like an imitation of dark chocolate. At least there was no sodium in it...
DINNER: 7:15pm, 7 boiled perogis (meat, potato, kraut mushroom, spinach cheese), a smear of sauted onions, side of kasha with mushroom gravy, water. Hunger 4/5. Excellent yumminess at Veselka. I noticed that their kasha was a lot less salty-tasting than the frozen stuff. Makes me think I can really make it at home in a low sodium version....
EVENING SNACK: 8pm, bottle of chimay red beer, 1 small piece of fried sausage. hunger 3/5. Birthday drinks for a friend of B's, was slightly craving sweet, the beer damped it but didn't meet it. The little piece of snausage was SO tasty, but I wasn't that hungry and wasn't hard to deny myself from pigging out on it. If I didn't eat before hand, I would of gobbled up several fistfuls of that delightfully salty treat.
EVENING SNACK: 10pm, cherry italian ice, hunger 3/5. Maybe the last few nights sleeplessness was from the icecream late? Gotta find something without cornsyrup and all that crap. Slept well.
My friend Patrick just called me up and said, "Dude, I didn't know you have high blood pressure." I said, "HOW THE HELL did you know that?" Google. Huh. How about that. These internets are pretty nifty. He's on a medication which he is happy with. I gotta get a cuff to start seeing what mine is doing. If in the end my genetics trump my diet, it's an option I may revisit.
Over today's lunch I finished the Real Food book. The last chapter is about the Omnivore's Dilemma - for example, a Koala eats nothing but eucalyptus leaves it's whole life, and gets everything it needs from it. The downside is if the tree dies, so does the Koala. People can eat just about anything, and to get what we need nutritionally, have to eat a wide variety. The downside is not automatically knowing what to eat, but if a tree dies, we can move next door and eat the bush, or the animal in the bush. I really enjoyed the book, which is a de facto rational argument both ecologically and nutritionally against extreme diets and the effects of capitalism on our food, and scientific exploration of why whole traditional, non-industrial foods like raw unhomogonized diary, organic grass fed meat and wild fish, fresh organic fruit and veg are the way to go. (Real Food: What to Eat and Why, by Nina Planck, Bloomsbury 2006) Next up: a compendium of essays by various well-known chefs about how they came to love cooking and food....
(BTW, the title is reference to the Little Rascal's "He-Man Woman-Haters Club" - oh those rascally un-PC kids!)
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, toasted onion bagel with the good butter. Hunger 1.5/5. Not hungry after last night's late night nosh, but surprisingly tired. I've been staying up late (till 1am ish) the past few nights, but this is the first morning I'm kind of exhausted.
AM SNACK: 10am, 24 oz of water. Hunger 3/5. Really thirsty when I got to work, maybe the high temp? Sippy cup rocks!
LUNCH: Noon, roasted herb turkey breast, onion rings, baby carrots, Hunger 4/5. The side options were greasy looking plantains and mushy, pale looking veg. Fries looked appealing, but no fries, so onion rings....as I was eating them, I felt guilty....sure it's not fries, but isn't this the nutritional equivalent? This ain't the Attorney General trial, ignorance is no excuse. But they were damn tasty, though really tasting it, I noticed it's not really onion, but an onion mince that is shaped. I bet I could make an AWESOME wholly organic onion ring. (At some point after I get married in September, I'm going to go over this blog and figure out the things that would be healthier and funner to make myself). Turkey was actual real meat, not a roll or processed, but still tasted salty, and the 'gravy' didn't help.
No dessert there appealled to me, so as an experiment had the baby carrots to help with sugar cravings. Immediately after eating, my first instinct was "SUGAR NOW!" but thinking about it, I think that was more just habit than that gut-feeling of physically needing sugar. That so-called craving dissipated once I got up and split the caf.
PM SNACK: 3pm, 1 oz organic chocolate pieces, hunger 2/5. Not so much hungry as craving sweet. Back to the bad-sushi spot to explore their organic sweets, got a little baggy of small square chocolate pieces. Though not advertised as such, this was non-dairy dark chocolate, but they amped up the sweetness to mask the natural bitterness of the cocoa, not cool. As with pizza, I've expanded my palate over the years to appreciate chocolate like some dig wine. (I'm so classy - I'm a pizza & chocolate snob!) Though the sweet kick is coming from organic cane sugar and not corn syrup or malt, it's just unnecessary and makes the chocolate taste a little like an imitation of dark chocolate. At least there was no sodium in it...
DINNER: 7:15pm, 7 boiled perogis (meat, potato, kraut mushroom, spinach cheese), a smear of sauted onions, side of kasha with mushroom gravy, water. Hunger 4/5. Excellent yumminess at Veselka. I noticed that their kasha was a lot less salty-tasting than the frozen stuff. Makes me think I can really make it at home in a low sodium version....
EVENING SNACK: 8pm, bottle of chimay red beer, 1 small piece of fried sausage. hunger 3/5. Birthday drinks for a friend of B's, was slightly craving sweet, the beer damped it but didn't meet it. The little piece of snausage was SO tasty, but I wasn't that hungry and wasn't hard to deny myself from pigging out on it. If I didn't eat before hand, I would of gobbled up several fistfuls of that delightfully salty treat.
EVENING SNACK: 10pm, cherry italian ice, hunger 3/5. Maybe the last few nights sleeplessness was from the icecream late? Gotta find something without cornsyrup and all that crap. Slept well.
Wednesday, August 1
State of Denial
ADDENDA: Before I begin, an answer to my own question. From the American Heart Association website (www.ameicanheart.org)
ONE FRIGGIN' TEASPOON!??! Anyway, met with Ilsa yesterday, good vibe. The takeaway from our meeting is that I have to start denying myself SOMETHING, anything. Obviously, the big gorilla in the room is Salt, with his mate, the ever-sexy Chocolate. (Mmmmm, salty chocolate!) But if we start with the biggun's, I just won't be happy so we're starting small. I eat french fries more out of habit than because I really like them, so they are the first to walk my nutritional plank. It should be easy, as it'll be messing more with convenience than flat-out desire.
Also on the agenda, is to focus on the breathing thing again, meditate for a minute or two on how I'm taking in air and releasing, ummm, co2 or whatnot. Thirdly, the broccoli was a good start, gotta work my way in the produce aisle a bit deeper. We also addressed a topic that's come clear from keeping this journal blog - I like them sweeties. I don't think I'm going to purposefully cut down on them more than I'm comfortable with, but I should focus on whats going on in my head and in my body cravings when I do indulge. Sweets may not be directly connected to my high blood pressure, but it's definitely connected to being a little bit chubby (which, in effect IS connected to blood pressure) and future diabetes.
I was hoping to make a low salt pancake from scratch this weekend, but what the hell is up with baking soda = sodium? Gaaah!
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, large piece of watermelon, hunger 3/5. Second night of insomnia, got to bed around 1ish, think the rich food the night before didn't help. With a sweet tooth in mind, thought a big piece of fruit would help curb it later in the day...in theory....maybe they can genetically engineer a chocolate watermelon?
AM SNACK: 11am, 24 oz still water, hunger 3/5. On Ilsa's sheet about sugar addiction, it says sometimes dehydration can be mistaken for sugar cravings.....B gave me a new water bottle for our anniversary, all over-designed n' everything. Now I don't have to move my neck to take a big swig!!
LUNCH #1: 11:45am, green salad and Italian dressing, hunger 4/5. After yesterday's bad sushi and last night's nudge from Ilsa, brought in the salad, this time a bit of dressing in a small plastic container to avoid the mystery stuff from the caf.
PM SNACK: 1pm, 24 oz still water. This new water bottle is, if we are honest, an adult sippy cup.
LUNCH #2: 2:30pm, fried flounder on hero with lettuce, a little Italian dressing, hunger 4/5. Meetings kept me from going earlier. From the "FOOD IS LOVE" food cart. The bulgogi and gyoza looked tempting- an American-styled food cart that has random Korean items, because the proprietor is Korean - could be either really good or really bad. Wolfed it down walking back to office. Thinking about dessert and sweet teeth, decided to wait a little before something sweet to see how my craving goes.
PS SNACK: 4pm, a large organic chocolate chip cookie. Hunger 4/5. Poked around the same stall I got the suspicious sushi, noticed they are now carrying a line of organic cookies and brownies, made in Brooklyn. Huzzah! The last three ingredients are organic baking soda, organic baking powder and....salt. Not sea salt or organic salt, just salt. Bleah. And no clue of how many mgs of sodium, either.
I was intending to sit and mindfully eat this cookie, but I was so driven to eat it, I started munching it on the elevator then kind of sat infront of the computer and did business while it disappeared into the center of my face. How'd dat happen?! I enjoyed it, but I didn't really appreciate it as much as I could of. Is that how I eat sweets? Ewww.
DINNER: 8:30pm, bibimbop, small amount of japjae, kimchi and weird fibrous veg, hunger 3/5. Went to movies with Danny, was hungry and usually would of gotten popcorn to indulge my hunger, but didn't want to write about the copious amount of salt here. Dinner in Koreatown, really good, though the kimchi was pickly but so good, and the japjae was spectacular as always but I was more concious of it's soy dressing.
EVENING SNACK: 10pm, chocolate haagen daaz baar. Hunger 4/5. Craving sweets. Got these bars as an experiment, as one feels a little bit small, but 2 too much. With a tub of gelato, it's a free for all. Relatively little sodium in this.
EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, 3 small Jaques Torres dark chocolate cornflake clusters. Hunger 4/5. Oh my, these are tasty.
EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, about one third of a dollar bag of ranch-flavored sun chips. Hunger 4/5. Didn't notice these before, Betsy's. Foraging. Tasted surprisingly good, except for the fake-flavoring, but the grainy flavor of the acutal chip was appealing. According to the labelling, pretty low-sodiumish and not too fatty.
EVENING SNACK: 12:30am, largish hunk of potato nik, hunger 4/5. Just hungry. Craving more chocolate, but I know that would keep me up. Potato nik surprisingly tasted a little salty, not expecting that. I think I didn't eat enough at dinner.
Healthy American adults should eat less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day. This is about 1 teaspoon of sodium chloride (salt). To illustrate, the following are sources of sodium in the diet.
- 1/4 teaspoon salt = 575 mg sodium
- 1/2 teaspoon salt = 1,150 mg sodium
- 3/4 teaspoon salt = 1,725 mg sodium
- 1 teaspoon salt = 2,300 mg sodium
- 1 teaspoon baking soda = 1000 mg sodium
ONE FRIGGIN' TEASPOON!??! Anyway, met with Ilsa yesterday, good vibe. The takeaway from our meeting is that I have to start denying myself SOMETHING, anything. Obviously, the big gorilla in the room is Salt, with his mate, the ever-sexy Chocolate. (Mmmmm, salty chocolate!) But if we start with the biggun's, I just won't be happy so we're starting small. I eat french fries more out of habit than because I really like them, so they are the first to walk my nutritional plank. It should be easy, as it'll be messing more with convenience than flat-out desire.
Also on the agenda, is to focus on the breathing thing again, meditate for a minute or two on how I'm taking in air and releasing, ummm, co2 or whatnot. Thirdly, the broccoli was a good start, gotta work my way in the produce aisle a bit deeper. We also addressed a topic that's come clear from keeping this journal blog - I like them sweeties. I don't think I'm going to purposefully cut down on them more than I'm comfortable with, but I should focus on whats going on in my head and in my body cravings when I do indulge. Sweets may not be directly connected to my high blood pressure, but it's definitely connected to being a little bit chubby (which, in effect IS connected to blood pressure) and future diabetes.
I was hoping to make a low salt pancake from scratch this weekend, but what the hell is up with baking soda = sodium? Gaaah!
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, large piece of watermelon, hunger 3/5. Second night of insomnia, got to bed around 1ish, think the rich food the night before didn't help. With a sweet tooth in mind, thought a big piece of fruit would help curb it later in the day...in theory....maybe they can genetically engineer a chocolate watermelon?
AM SNACK: 11am, 24 oz still water, hunger 3/5. On Ilsa's sheet about sugar addiction, it says sometimes dehydration can be mistaken for sugar cravings.....B gave me a new water bottle for our anniversary, all over-designed n' everything. Now I don't have to move my neck to take a big swig!!
LUNCH #1: 11:45am, green salad and Italian dressing, hunger 4/5. After yesterday's bad sushi and last night's nudge from Ilsa, brought in the salad, this time a bit of dressing in a small plastic container to avoid the mystery stuff from the caf.
PM SNACK: 1pm, 24 oz still water. This new water bottle is, if we are honest, an adult sippy cup.
LUNCH #2: 2:30pm, fried flounder on hero with lettuce, a little Italian dressing, hunger 4/5. Meetings kept me from going earlier. From the "FOOD IS LOVE" food cart. The bulgogi and gyoza looked tempting- an American-styled food cart that has random Korean items, because the proprietor is Korean - could be either really good or really bad. Wolfed it down walking back to office. Thinking about dessert and sweet teeth, decided to wait a little before something sweet to see how my craving goes.
PS SNACK: 4pm, a large organic chocolate chip cookie. Hunger 4/5. Poked around the same stall I got the suspicious sushi, noticed they are now carrying a line of organic cookies and brownies, made in Brooklyn. Huzzah! The last three ingredients are organic baking soda, organic baking powder and....salt. Not sea salt or organic salt, just salt. Bleah. And no clue of how many mgs of sodium, either.
I was intending to sit and mindfully eat this cookie, but I was so driven to eat it, I started munching it on the elevator then kind of sat infront of the computer and did business while it disappeared into the center of my face. How'd dat happen?! I enjoyed it, but I didn't really appreciate it as much as I could of. Is that how I eat sweets? Ewww.
DINNER: 8:30pm, bibimbop, small amount of japjae, kimchi and weird fibrous veg, hunger 3/5. Went to movies with Danny, was hungry and usually would of gotten popcorn to indulge my hunger, but didn't want to write about the copious amount of salt here. Dinner in Koreatown, really good, though the kimchi was pickly but so good, and the japjae was spectacular as always but I was more concious of it's soy dressing.
EVENING SNACK: 10pm, chocolate haagen daaz baar. Hunger 4/5. Craving sweets. Got these bars as an experiment, as one feels a little bit small, but 2 too much. With a tub of gelato, it's a free for all. Relatively little sodium in this.
EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, 3 small Jaques Torres dark chocolate cornflake clusters. Hunger 4/5. Oh my, these are tasty.
EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, about one third of a dollar bag of ranch-flavored sun chips. Hunger 4/5. Didn't notice these before, Betsy's. Foraging. Tasted surprisingly good, except for the fake-flavoring, but the grainy flavor of the acutal chip was appealing. According to the labelling, pretty low-sodiumish and not too fatty.
EVENING SNACK: 12:30am, largish hunk of potato nik, hunger 4/5. Just hungry. Craving more chocolate, but I know that would keep me up. Potato nik surprisingly tasted a little salty, not expecting that. I think I didn't eat enough at dinner.
Tuesday, July 31
Everything in the World is Salty.
ADDENDA:
Today I meet with Ilsa, so I need to recap the last couple of weeks, can't go in there with an empty head. Ofcouse, immediately after, I will be taking B to shmancy restaurant to celebrate our 2nd anniversary since our first date, where I will violate all sorts of rules and scripture. Actually, the restaurant local sources most of it's product, so it'll be a step above KFC.
I salted the brocolli yesterday. Exactly how much salt is a miligram? The low-salt cook book Ilsa gave me at my last meeting scares me a little - each recipe is obsessive about how much salt, down to measuring the trace amounts of salt in salt-free ingredients. EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD HAS SALT IN IT. I get it, let's move on. Plus, a lot of the recipes call for scary industrial things like 'low-salt bullion cube' and name some brand. I thought cooking means you use the unprocessed elements, and you use them like blocks to build something more than the sum of it's parts. Some of this low-salt cooking is more like low-salt preparing. Boiling dry pasta in salt-free water and throwing jarred sauce over it is preparing. Making pasta from flower and water by hand and throwing sauce over it you made yourself is cooking. I've been preparing for years, just like my mamma used to. I wanna cook.
My friend Tamar is going to ride the NYC Century with me in early September - she's not a dedicated cyclist, so this is a big deal for her. I would love to have her for company on a ride like this, so motivate her I promised that if she completed the century, I would take a month of yoga classes. I've never done yoga and think it's all a bit trendy and hyped, but she's just as hardcore about yoga as I am about cycling, and in September after the wedding, I'll have a head to focus on stuff more constructive than menus, guest lists and registries.
Rereading this blog, I don't know what I've learned these past few weeks...I guess my sweet tooth is larger than I thought, it took recording it open my eyes. My dad had a big sweet tooth, too, it lead him to diabetes in later life. Kicking diet coke was no big deal, don't think about it or desire it. Chocolate gelato, on the other hand....5 donut Sundays.....he he he.
I got broccoli and not asparagus yesterday because I was feeling lazy and never cooked asparagus before. I've seen veg like brocolli cooked on various food television shows and dealt with it before, but Asparagus is the great unknown...I've had it at restaurants, usually it's good, but....I gotta get out more.
BREAKFAST: 8:15 am, off-brand rice crispies with unhomogenized whole milk, hunger 4/5. A little insomnia last night, strong sugar cravings but knew it would keep me up longer. Couldn't sleep because felt excited about me and B's 2nd anniversary the next day, Tamar riding with me and yoga, good things at work. Woke up hungry, which is a nice feeling. You know you're alive. Fun to shake the milk, too. This was my first time drinking this milk, I only used it for pancakes before. Wow. It has this dairy flavor to it, and thickness to it, too. Sweet but not cloying.
LUNCH #1: 12:15am, 2 small trays of sushi, hunger 4/5. From the lobby shop of the building, absolutely horible, must of been sitting there for a few days. Just craving sushi. Did not use soy sauce. Reminds me of when I was a kid, was at some boyscout summer camp my older brother was attending, me and mom went on visiting day. Went into 'town' to a bar that had food. They mostly did burgers, but there was pizza on the menu. Both my brother and I desperately wanted pizza, but my mom warned us it was not wise to order pizza in a burger joint. We got it anyway, and despite our large appetites, could not eat most of it - it was disgusting. (I've since learned it unwise to order pizza anywhere except in the 5 boros and Italy) Don't order pizza in a burger joint and don't buy sushi in a corporate lobby.
PM SNAK: 20 oz still water
LUNCH #2: 3:45, falafel sandwich from kosher cart, hold the pickle, hunger 4/5. Funny, my stomach went from feeling queazy for hours after that suspicious sushi to hungry in the space of 5 minutes. Avoided a salty pickle, but the falafel balls themselves taste kinda salty, the same way the kasha did, but not as intense. Felt good to be hungry again.
PM SNACK: Didn't want to eat it, tried to resist, but there was a birthday in the office, tried not to go over, but unfortunately I like the people in my office. Was hoping to feel a little virtuous right before going to see Ilsa, oh well....
DINNER: 7:30pm, roasted pork loin with cheek, fragrant sausage, small amount of gnochi in butter sauce, heirloom tomato salad, fava and pecorino salad, few pieces of bread n' butter, water, 1 glass presecco, half a choclate & peanut butter tart with caramel icecream, hunger 2/5. Unfortunately that dumb cupcake destroyed my appetite, but this was STILL a fabulously tasty meal with a fabulously tasty woman, my 2nd anniversary with B. The only thing I didn't think was 5 stars was the desert, the tart was good but underwhelming.
Today I meet with Ilsa, so I need to recap the last couple of weeks, can't go in there with an empty head. Ofcouse, immediately after, I will be taking B to shmancy restaurant to celebrate our 2nd anniversary since our first date, where I will violate all sorts of rules and scripture. Actually, the restaurant local sources most of it's product, so it'll be a step above KFC.
I salted the brocolli yesterday. Exactly how much salt is a miligram? The low-salt cook book Ilsa gave me at my last meeting scares me a little - each recipe is obsessive about how much salt, down to measuring the trace amounts of salt in salt-free ingredients. EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD HAS SALT IN IT. I get it, let's move on. Plus, a lot of the recipes call for scary industrial things like 'low-salt bullion cube' and name some brand. I thought cooking means you use the unprocessed elements, and you use them like blocks to build something more than the sum of it's parts. Some of this low-salt cooking is more like low-salt preparing. Boiling dry pasta in salt-free water and throwing jarred sauce over it is preparing. Making pasta from flower and water by hand and throwing sauce over it you made yourself is cooking. I've been preparing for years, just like my mamma used to. I wanna cook.
My friend Tamar is going to ride the NYC Century with me in early September - she's not a dedicated cyclist, so this is a big deal for her. I would love to have her for company on a ride like this, so motivate her I promised that if she completed the century, I would take a month of yoga classes. I've never done yoga and think it's all a bit trendy and hyped, but she's just as hardcore about yoga as I am about cycling, and in September after the wedding, I'll have a head to focus on stuff more constructive than menus, guest lists and registries.
Rereading this blog, I don't know what I've learned these past few weeks...I guess my sweet tooth is larger than I thought, it took recording it open my eyes. My dad had a big sweet tooth, too, it lead him to diabetes in later life. Kicking diet coke was no big deal, don't think about it or desire it. Chocolate gelato, on the other hand....5 donut Sundays.....he he he.
I got broccoli and not asparagus yesterday because I was feeling lazy and never cooked asparagus before. I've seen veg like brocolli cooked on various food television shows and dealt with it before, but Asparagus is the great unknown...I've had it at restaurants, usually it's good, but....I gotta get out more.
BREAKFAST: 8:15 am, off-brand rice crispies with unhomogenized whole milk, hunger 4/5. A little insomnia last night, strong sugar cravings but knew it would keep me up longer. Couldn't sleep because felt excited about me and B's 2nd anniversary the next day, Tamar riding with me and yoga, good things at work. Woke up hungry, which is a nice feeling. You know you're alive. Fun to shake the milk, too. This was my first time drinking this milk, I only used it for pancakes before. Wow. It has this dairy flavor to it, and thickness to it, too. Sweet but not cloying.
LUNCH #1: 12:15am, 2 small trays of sushi, hunger 4/5. From the lobby shop of the building, absolutely horible, must of been sitting there for a few days. Just craving sushi. Did not use soy sauce. Reminds me of when I was a kid, was at some boyscout summer camp my older brother was attending, me and mom went on visiting day. Went into 'town' to a bar that had food. They mostly did burgers, but there was pizza on the menu. Both my brother and I desperately wanted pizza, but my mom warned us it was not wise to order pizza in a burger joint. We got it anyway, and despite our large appetites, could not eat most of it - it was disgusting. (I've since learned it unwise to order pizza anywhere except in the 5 boros and Italy) Don't order pizza in a burger joint and don't buy sushi in a corporate lobby.
PM SNAK: 20 oz still water
LUNCH #2: 3:45, falafel sandwich from kosher cart, hold the pickle, hunger 4/5. Funny, my stomach went from feeling queazy for hours after that suspicious sushi to hungry in the space of 5 minutes. Avoided a salty pickle, but the falafel balls themselves taste kinda salty, the same way the kasha did, but not as intense. Felt good to be hungry again.
PM SNACK: Didn't want to eat it, tried to resist, but there was a birthday in the office, tried not to go over, but unfortunately I like the people in my office. Was hoping to feel a little virtuous right before going to see Ilsa, oh well....
DINNER: 7:30pm, roasted pork loin with cheek, fragrant sausage, small amount of gnochi in butter sauce, heirloom tomato salad, fava and pecorino salad, few pieces of bread n' butter, water, 1 glass presecco, half a choclate & peanut butter tart with caramel icecream, hunger 2/5. Unfortunately that dumb cupcake destroyed my appetite, but this was STILL a fabulously tasty meal with a fabulously tasty woman, my 2nd anniversary with B. The only thing I didn't think was 5 stars was the desert, the tart was good but underwhelming.
Monday, July 30
Monday, Time to Start Right Again.
ADDENDA:
After yesterday's salt-fest, want to try to start out right this week. Gonna focus on the produce this evening, then go home and cook for myself. The kasha yesterday gave me a slight headache, and after the watermelon, still greatly craved sugar. It took some will-power not to munch on the 2.2 lb bar of dark chocolate I got at Jaque Torres for baking....
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, 2/3 of toasted bagel with good butter, pint of still water, hunger 2/5. Felt tired but good, had good sleep. Not particularly hungry but want to start the week on the right foot.
LUNCH: 1:30pm, channa masalla, 2 dals, basmanti rice, raw onion, chocolate icecream cone, hunger 4/5. Meetings delayed me from eating earlier, got really hungry. This indian food was a little bland, but the little side of raw white onion that came with it really made it good - I never ate the onion that came with this meal until today - it's a kind of salt replacement. Meal was satisfying, but seriously craving sugar and something to cool my spicey onion mouth after.
PM SNACK: 20 oz of still water
DINNER: 8pm, cajun rubbed salmon fillet, stir-fried brocolli and portobello mushrooms, large green salad, haagen dazz icecream bar, small amount of JT dark chocolate cornflake clusters. Hunger 4/5. So I went back to Whole Foods to check out the veg, this time relaxed after a beer with B at a friend's going away party. I was hoping to be more experimental, but the onl hing that really grabbed me was the brocolli. I've cooked it a few times before, but it was never very good. So I thought I'd give it another go, it's been a few years. Got a piece of marinated salmon and some mushrooms. Stirfried the brocolli with the mushrooms with fresh garlic, ground pepper and some sea salt over high-heat till the green of the broc started shining. The fish smelly oddly like my cat's stinky breath.
The brocolli was GREAT! The wok was given to me a few years ago, but never really used it in any sort of traditional style like I've seen on tv - highest heat, keep everything moving, only cook for a few minutes. The brocolli was just the right combo of tender and crunchy, and the garlic, salt and pepper with the olive oil took away the bitterness and added a comforting buttery flavor to it (next time, gotta use butter!) The fish was surprisingly good, too - I never order salmon in restaurants because it's boring, but I cooke the fish close to medium rare - I chose a fatty cut, and it really added to the flavor. Nice being able to control that.
Not satisfied after, hoped another dose of chocolate icecream would turn me off, but it didn't. A handful of Jaque Torres dark chocolate corn flake clusters finally stopped me.
After yesterday's salt-fest, want to try to start out right this week. Gonna focus on the produce this evening, then go home and cook for myself. The kasha yesterday gave me a slight headache, and after the watermelon, still greatly craved sugar. It took some will-power not to munch on the 2.2 lb bar of dark chocolate I got at Jaque Torres for baking....
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, 2/3 of toasted bagel with good butter, pint of still water, hunger 2/5. Felt tired but good, had good sleep. Not particularly hungry but want to start the week on the right foot.
LUNCH: 1:30pm, channa masalla, 2 dals, basmanti rice, raw onion, chocolate icecream cone, hunger 4/5. Meetings delayed me from eating earlier, got really hungry. This indian food was a little bland, but the little side of raw white onion that came with it really made it good - I never ate the onion that came with this meal until today - it's a kind of salt replacement. Meal was satisfying, but seriously craving sugar and something to cool my spicey onion mouth after.
PM SNACK: 20 oz of still water
DINNER: 8pm, cajun rubbed salmon fillet, stir-fried brocolli and portobello mushrooms, large green salad, haagen dazz icecream bar, small amount of JT dark chocolate cornflake clusters. Hunger 4/5. So I went back to Whole Foods to check out the veg, this time relaxed after a beer with B at a friend's going away party. I was hoping to be more experimental, but the onl hing that really grabbed me was the brocolli. I've cooked it a few times before, but it was never very good. So I thought I'd give it another go, it's been a few years. Got a piece of marinated salmon and some mushrooms. Stirfried the brocolli with the mushrooms with fresh garlic, ground pepper and some sea salt over high-heat till the green of the broc started shining. The fish smelly oddly like my cat's stinky breath.
The brocolli was GREAT! The wok was given to me a few years ago, but never really used it in any sort of traditional style like I've seen on tv - highest heat, keep everything moving, only cook for a few minutes. The brocolli was just the right combo of tender and crunchy, and the garlic, salt and pepper with the olive oil took away the bitterness and added a comforting buttery flavor to it (next time, gotta use butter!) The fish was surprisingly good, too - I never order salmon in restaurants because it's boring, but I cooke the fish close to medium rare - I chose a fatty cut, and it really added to the flavor. Nice being able to control that.
Not satisfied after, hoped another dose of chocolate icecream would turn me off, but it didn't. A handful of Jaque Torres dark chocolate corn flake clusters finally stopped me.
Sunday, July 29
Brain off, Sunday gets Salty
BREAKFAST: 9am, rice crispies with unsweetened soy milk. Gonna try this with the unhomogenized whole milk. The soy milk is kinda watery and flat. No pleasure from it.
BREAKFAST #2, 11am, fresh onion bagel with hummus. Went to farmers market to get salad stuff, and picked up fresh bagels from kossars. Their bagelly warmth and fresh unfrozen smell drew me in instinctively.
LUNCH: 1:30pm, blt with fries, half a piece of pie, half glass of wine, a biscuit. At Bubby's where we are going to get married. With B and 3 others, planning the wedding. Intense. Food was OK, not really that great, wasn't paying attention. A lot of salt upon reflection.
DINNER: 7:45pm, large green salad with italian dressing, diet black cherry soda, frozen satchet of kasha varneshges. The kasha is a food I gre up with, comfort food, bowtie eggnoodles in a moistish compote of buckwheat and ground pepper. I read the nutritional info - the whole thing had more than 1000mg of sodium!! After the afternoon fries, realized this was a bad day for my bloodpressure. Next time I eat this dish, I will make it myself. I'm pretty sure this is a dish my grandmother used to make for my mom, but my mom just bought frozen for me and my brother growing up.
EVENING SNACK: 10pm, hunk of watermelon. Not so much hungry as craving sugar.
BREAKFAST #2, 11am, fresh onion bagel with hummus. Went to farmers market to get salad stuff, and picked up fresh bagels from kossars. Their bagelly warmth and fresh unfrozen smell drew me in instinctively.
LUNCH: 1:30pm, blt with fries, half a piece of pie, half glass of wine, a biscuit. At Bubby's where we are going to get married. With B and 3 others, planning the wedding. Intense. Food was OK, not really that great, wasn't paying attention. A lot of salt upon reflection.
DINNER: 7:45pm, large green salad with italian dressing, diet black cherry soda, frozen satchet of kasha varneshges. The kasha is a food I gre up with, comfort food, bowtie eggnoodles in a moistish compote of buckwheat and ground pepper. I read the nutritional info - the whole thing had more than 1000mg of sodium!! After the afternoon fries, realized this was a bad day for my bloodpressure. Next time I eat this dish, I will make it myself. I'm pretty sure this is a dish my grandmother used to make for my mom, but my mom just bought frozen for me and my brother growing up.
EVENING SNACK: 10pm, hunk of watermelon. Not so much hungry as craving sugar.
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