Accidental Onion Stock & a Visit to the Nutritionist

So I visited a nutritionist for the first time since about 5 years ago, when I briefly consulted a nutritionist-in-training and started this blog because of it. I'll skip the flighty talk and abstract impressions and cut to the chase. This was the take-away:

1. I eat too much. To lose about 2 lbs a week, I need to restrict myself to a goal of 2,200-2,350 cal/day.
2. I eat too many carbs. Based on review of the my eating Sunday-Tuesday, I'm eating 75-80% carbs, the balance in fat and not enough protein. I need to aim for a 40/30/30 balance of carb/protein/fat.
3. I'm scared of being hungry. I should never let myself get so hungry that I lose control, but learn to listen to hunger to allow it to prompt my eating.

The nutritionist gave me a list of recommended foods, many of which I will eat perhaps when I'm dead. (Egg white omelet? Turkey bacon? No fat yogurt? Uh, no.) I've never thought in terms of carb/fat/protein before, as the fact is a calorie is a calorie is a calorie.

HOWEVER. The nutritionist did point out that if I get my sources of calories into line, I will feel fuller on less calories. I will consume less calories and NOT be equivalently hungrier. This evening, for dinner I made two sides in about equal amounts -- mac n' cheese out of the box, and quickly sauteed chopped spinach. They looked equal on the plate, but one had about 700 calories and one had about 150. In the future, I'll half the mac and double the spinach and get closer to my calorie goal....without suffering...too much.

Starting ASAP, probably with the next food shop, I'm going to get more lean meats and fish in, more vegetable salad options, more cooked veg and start focusing on fruit as a snack. I'm not going to try to restrict (the bad, non nutritious) carbs so much as crowd them out.

Fact is, I'm starting to see results of my weight training that I amped up since getting sick around New Year's. Hopefully by this coming New Year's, I'll see results from this revised approach to my eating.

Mid July, this blog is going to undergo a revamp. Watch for it!

TODAY'S COOKING:
Onions: Making a batch of caramelized onions for knish making either next week or the week after that. Did the calculations, the whole batch will be about 9,400 calories. However, in the interest of accuracy, after the onions came out the oven, I reserved the liquid that I take off the onions and put it in the fridge. The next morning, the fat had hardened on the top -- almost 3,000 calories worth! And the fat-free brown liquid.... oh my. Concentrated caramelized onion flavored water! Gonna go into the making of my next batch of rice.

TODAY'S COUNT: 3055

AM SNACK: 8:45am, iced green tea, 25 cal


BREAKFAST: 9:15am, full fat fage with honey and almonds, 380 cal
A full serving of honey is a teaspoon, but halved that because it seemed too much.

LUNCH: 11:30, Stouffer's French Bread pizzas, 860 cal
Ironically, due to the fact I needed to rush to get out the door to see a nutritionist, this was my lunch of convenience...

PM SNACK: 2:15pm, large chocolate chip cookie, +/- 400 cal


DINNER: 6:45pm, sauteed fillet of turkey breast, cooked spinach, whole grain kraft dinner, 8oz beer, 1265 cal
My not-so-big serving of the boxed mac n' cheese was over 600 cal! WTF!

EVENING SNACK: 7:15pm, watermelon, 125 cal
Felt like chocolate and nuts, but knew I was already passing 3000 with this snack...