Kolon-Bloe

Today was to be a bike day, but last night as I was installing my new calorie-reporting cyclometer, I noticed my rear was flat. Three tubes and three instant flats later, I realized something was wrong with the rim and have to take the wheel in for professional intervention -- no way I want to be out by Montauk, catch a perma-flat, and have to spend $$$ getting home. So Montauk hopefully next week, and I'm gonna try to get a night ride to Coney in early next week, if not sooner.

Felt a bit pent up while staying in this morning and did a few negative pull ups and a few assisted pull ups, hopefully I'll feel them tomorrow.

Not tracking protein and fat vs carbs, but was aware of it today. Maybe I should dig deeper and go there?

TODAY'S COOKING:
Whole rice blend with lentils & TVP: Cup of rice blend (brown ice, wheat berries, wild rice, rye berries), cup of red lentils, cup of dried textured vegetable protein. 5 cups of water, tbsp of butter, tsp of salt, a sachet of bay leaves, a small pack of dried morels ground up, corriander, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, a few turns of fresh pepper. Idea is a big taste, but also a high-protein low-fat side dish.

THE COUNT: 2490

AM SNACK: 8:45am, iced green tea, 25 cal
New batch, "Dragon Well" green tea. Nice, suble, a little nutty. Again each gallon sweetened with 1/4 cup sugar for just the removal of any bitter notes created by my clumsy American method of brewing and steeping, he he.

BREAKFAST: 9am, "Muligrain Oatbran Cereal" with whole milk, 300 calories
New cereal for me, tastes surprisingly good, like cornflakes with a broad grainy flavor. On the edge of sweet, sweeter than I though a hippy-dippy cereal packaged in a big bio-degradable plastic bag would be, but OK with high amounts of protein & fiber, and comparatively little sugar. They do have to do something with that name, call it "Healthy-Os" or "Kolon-Bloe" or something.

LUNCH: noon, wholegrain rice blend with lentils and tvp, turkey meatballs, baby carrots & kimchi, 12 oz diet sprite, cherry sorbet, 795
Turkey meatballs are a frozen pre-packaged thing I'm experimenting with, up the protein while keeping fat in check. I checked out all the different kinds of pre-made meatballs, drawn to beef and pork, and found surprising the fat and calories in the red meat. So THAT'S why people have an issue, he he!

Thought I was going to eat half the batch of rice, but as I'm filling up the bowl on the scale, realized it would be way too much food. So that gave me some calorie room for 40g of cherry sorbet (90 cal), which is a shockingly small portion, he he.

PM SNACK: 6pm, watermelon, 260 cal

DINNER: 7:30pm, Stouffer's French Bread pizzas, 860 cal


EVENING SNACK: 8:45pm, tortilla chips and homemade salsa, 250 cal
Funny, I measured out only enough to meet the budget, and it was enough.


1380
0860
2240

Shoveling into My Mouf

I knew I was eating a late dinner this evening, it was a little difficult to hold off until then. The diet soda and the watermelon did it's job in holding me down, but looking back, maybe I should have filled up on vegetables -- sweet was my go-to when getting that hungry, but may not be the best choice for longer-term satiety.

Another thing is getting used to the anxiety of just not knowing how many calories are in the food in front of me. I could spend an hour on the internet and calorie-count books to try to get a rough estimate of what today's dinner was, but in the end, I know I did not pig out and the portions were small. I got to bed again not feeling stuffed but with space to eat more, so that feeling has to be an answer to my anxiety for now.

THE COUNT: 2685

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


BREAKFAST: 9:15am, Fage full fat yogurt with honey, almonds, vanilla, 460 cal


LUNCH: noon, PBJ on whole wheat, fresh salsa with chips, 800 cal
Salsa made yesterday is pretty good. Funny how 135 cal (1 oz) of chips is barely enough to shovel 60 cal worth of salsa into my mouf.


PM SNACK: 4:30pm, 12 oz diet sprite, 0 cal


PM SNACK: 5:45pm, watermelon, 225 cal

DINNER: 8:30pm, bean salad, squid and beet on flatbread with a white sauce, frito pie, mussels, fried potato cubes, small quennelle of almond ice cream with mascerated cherries and almond cake, water, +/- 1,200 cal
Hadn't seen E one on one in quite a while, and I'm her maid of honor at her wedding in a month, so there had to be some good eatin' going on. Went to a resto with small plates, the portions were reasonable but definitely highly caloric. I'm guessing a high number simply because it feels guiltily like I went over my budget, though maybe I didn't -- the portions were really restrained.

Trashy Shoppin' & Big Gay Dessert

When out with the kids, did a small food shop: diet sprite, big bag of tortilla chips, jug of beer. One would not think the consumer of these things was on a big ol' life-altering change of eating style that would hopefully transform his life in a huge way. OK, also got a pound of string beans....

Got a work out in this morning, amazes me that my muscles feel bigger all over now -- just need to lose some weight so someone other than myself can see! Still no successful pull ups, thinking of adding a few one-legged assisted pull ups to the negative pull ups to help get a little more sore. M & W were work outs, F will be a bike ride.

THE COUNT: 2,425

TODAY'S COOKING
Cherry Sorbet: Didn't whip up in the ice cream maker, so I put the maker into a colder freezer, and set a cube of the stuff to freeze, too. Take another crack at it tomorrow.


Tomato Sauce: Onion, olive oil, carrot, thyme, oregano and garlic cooked to a good base, deglazed with a cup of white wine, added 4 cans of milled tomato and let a stringed bunch of basil and a cheese-clothe bag full of hard-cheese rinds simmer for a few hours. Calculations came to 1,200 cal for the whole batch, so when I way it, I suspect this will be pretty light stuff.


Fresh Salsa: Basic stuff: chopped roma tomatos, minced onion, minced garlic, small can of V8, 2 tbsp of olive oil, splash of red wine vinegar, minced bunch of cilantro, salt. Caluculations got .4 cal/g, which means a large 100g bowl of the stuff will be only 40 cal. Need to get some baked chips and get on that!

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea, 25 cal


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, brown rice cereal with whole organic milk, banana, 430 cal


LUNCH: 12:30pm, sardine & avocado on whole wheat bread, baby carrots, water, 620 cal


DINNER: 6:45pm, Bahn Mi sandwich, 2 summer rolls, large soft serve ice cream with chocolate dip, water, +/- 1,350 cal
Meeting up with Y to eat. Old friend, haven't seen her in forever, and our thing when we get together is we EAT. We love to eat together. This was actually a reasonable meal together, at a Vietnamese sandwich shop then the Big Gay Ice Cream shop for dessert. Calories are a guestamation, based on similar foods listed on dark corners of the internet. Judging from my saiety, I think I'm close to my daily budget...


EVENING SNACK: 9:15pm, 12 oz diet sprite, 0 cal

Bag o' stringy beans

I am enjoying the budgeting aspect of keeping to 2500 calories. A light lunch and a 4x vegetable serving at dinner allowed me two relatively satisfying evening snacks.  It's satisfying know despite the questionable accuracy of some of my calorie counts, when I'm ready for bed I feel un-full, not so much hungry but can definitely eat a meal if presented. Hopefully this level of hunger will be enough to lose weight, for now.

TODAY'S COOKING
Cherry Sorbet Components: Got a mass of cherries from the CSA, which I combine with the cherries I got from the market yesterday. Pitted, simmered, blended for about a quart of pulp. Made a quart of sorbet syrup, which is water, sugar, corn syrup, gelatine and some sour salt. Also made some cooked merengue out of egg whites and sugar. After chilling all over night, will combine tomorrow and churn.

TODAY'S COUNT: 2490

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


BREAKFAST: 9:45am, smoothie, 390 cal
Kinda thought this would be more calories, it seems kinda decadent, sweet, fruit punchy, cold, thick and smooth.

LUNCH: 12:45pm, shrimp patty, vegetable patty, 690 cal
Tasty fast food from Golden Krust. Could easily down a third. Vegetable party suffers from canned peas and carrots, should have gotten the soya or spinach.

DINNER: 6:15pm, chicken garlic & herb sausage, turkey Italian sausage link, 1.5 ears of corn, steamed bag of string beans, 8oz of beer, 970 cal
Got a bag of string beans, as the loose stuff at the market looked a bit sad. The whole 12 oz bag was 4 servings, but I ate the whole thing, only 100 calories. Just zapped it in the micro for 2 minutes, came out perfectly just slightly steamed.

EVENING SNACK: 7pm, watermelon, 175 cal

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, popcorn, 16oz diet sprite, 240 cal
1/4 cup popcorn kernels, 1 tbsp peanut oil, dash of salt, actually makes for a satisfyingly large bowl of popcorn.

Keeping the Bugdet

Pretty much kept to the calorie budget today. At the end of the day, noticed I only had 80 calories left, so I had a very small evening snack -- made me appreciate just how calorie dense nuts & chocolate are. No wonder they taste so great together in a candy bar....

WEEKEND REPORT
Felt hungrier than usual on Saturday, I suspect the calorie deficit was larger than just a few 100. Didn't officially count calories, but was aware when possible -- breakfast of two pancakes (420 cal) instead of three, replacing a third with 4 slices of bacon (200 cal) which soon became six (for a 720 cal breakfast, with a skew to fat and protein rather than just carbs) Spent the day with Edie, riding up to the Little Red  Lighthouse, and scarfing a plate of salmon and rice from a food truck for lunch. Made homemade pizza for dinner with MAP as a special guest.

Did Jim Lehey's no-knead 24 hour room-temp rise pizza dough, shockingly good and flavorful. Why haven't I been making this version of pizza dough forever? The dough  uses 1/8 the amount of yeast I'm used to, so when left out at room temp for such a long time it only doubles, not a big overblown airy mess. The depth of flavor made by the fast fermentation is a revelation.

Sunday was chill. Had tea then rushed out to get Edie in the open air before going on a mass run of destruction. Ended up at the local diner for breakfast, shared a corn muffin and some bacon and a diet coke for me, and lunch at home -- 4oz of whole wheat pasta, 4 oz of shrimp, home made sauce, about 550 cal or so. Single serving of shrimp, double serving of pasta, hmmmm. Had a nice snickledinner with HVS & the fam with rice & beans, some CSA salad and some vegan sweets trucked in from HVSland....

THE COUNT: 2580

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, steel cut oatmeal, banana,  500 cal

AM SNACK: 11:30am, momma salad, 85 cal
Knew no veg was going to come with lunch, so threw down some carrots to help with the feeling of fullness.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, pork katsu with curry, shredded cabbage, white rice, pork gyoza, water, 1 bite of a mochi, +/- 850 cal
Out in midtown with an old friend, at Sapporo. Total guess on the calorie count, but skipped 2/3 of the huge lump of white rice on the plate, and left feeling not that crammed up.


DINNER: 5:45pm, grilled chicken breast, sauteed spinach, gnocchi with homemade sauce, water, 960 cal
Large piece of thin cut chicken breast, 4x the suggested serving of spinach and 1x the serving of frozen potato gnocchi. Despite that, the gnocchi had 3x the calories of the spinach, but on the plate, it was a huge cover of chicken, a big-ass pile of spinach, and a quite little lump of potato dumplings.

EVENING SNACK: 8:45pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, 160 cal
There are not very many peanuts or chips in a 160 cal serving, but I ate it slowly and in 15 minutes it felt like enough. It was maybe 1/4 what I'd usually eat as an evening snack, but I was aware it was pushing me over my 2500 cap.

EVENING SNACK: 9:15pm, 8oz diet sprite, 0 cal