Riding the Rails

Took a train to the end of the Harlem Valley Line in Wassaic, road the rail trail there up and down, then continued south along the train tracks until my energy and time was used up, about 75 miles. Unlike the Montauk ride last week, the economy up in middle east NY is dead, and large swatches of the ride I had NO eating options, gas station or otherwise.

THE COUNT: 3565
BIKE CREDIT: 1,800

A lot of estimations, hopefully they were accurate -- came out with about a 250 calorie deficit.

BREAKFAST 1: 4:45am, whole wheat mini pancakes, iced green tea, 325 cal


BREAKFAST 2: 5:45am, whole wheat bagel with cream cheese, +/- 500 cal


BIKE SNACK: 9:45am, pancakes and bacon, diet coke, +/- 800 cal


BIKE SNACK: 11:30am, Gatorade, 130 cal


BIKE SNACK: 2pm, turkey & Swiss sandwich, Cheetos, chocolate chip cookie, water, +/- 1100 cal


DINNER: 8:30pm, whole wheat pasta with turkey meatballs and homemade sauce, 710 cal


EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, double popcorn, 480 cal

Freshman 15s

Funny, had to eat some corn chips in the afternoon to prevent myself from getting too hungry. Oddly enough, Fritos corn chips was my very first "diet" food. When I was a senior in high school, I decided for the first time I wanted to lose weight, so when I met people in college, they wouldn't know my fatter self. So I replaced the milk and apple juice my parents served me at home with diet soda, and more radically, I started skipping lunch at school, instead getting a bag of Fritos after school to tamp down my hunger. It worked, until I got to college and packed on some Freshman 15s or three.

THE COUNT: 2465


AM SNACK: 7:15am, iced green tea, .25 cal


BREAKFAST: 8am, kolon blow with whole milk, 300 cal


LUNCH: noon, 2 chicken sausage links, steamed string beans, buttered corn on the cob, 2 oz beer, water melon, 850 cal


PM SNACK: 4:30pm, 8oz diet coke, corn chips, 160 cal


DINNER: 5:30pm, Stouffer's French Bread Pizzas, baby carrots, 830 cal


EVENING SNACK: 9:45pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, 300 cal

Did I really need that shumai?

Did laundry and chores in the morning, and spent the afternoon on a sheet in Prospect Park with a very rolly Milli. Spent the evening grinding in the kitchen. Not a great eating day, but could have been worse.

TODAY'S COOKING
Knish prep/cook: Made three fillings (potato, potato pastrami, and spinach roasted garlic). 25 lbs of potato was peeled and cut up and put in the fridge last night. Dough made last week, taken out of the freezer yesterday. Caramelized onion made a few weeks ago, resting in the fridge. Did two rounds in the oven, enough for 2 orders and enough filling in the freezer for one more. A dozen for house gift for a friend I'm seeing this weekend, and enough dough and filling to make minis tomorrow for a baby shower I'm contributing to...

THE COUNT: 2,500
I conveniently made the count total my goal, despite not knowing the calorie count of my dinner or evening snack, because I was hungrier than usual from 10pm until I got to sleep around 2pm. Not chew-the-walls hungry like I was in danger of approaching before dinner, but hungry enough to say, "Hmmm, I'm hungry!"

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


BREAKFAST: 9:45am, steel cut oatmeal, water, 375 cal


LUNCH: 12:30pm, breaded shrimp, corn chips, momma salad, 7oz diet coke, 800 cal


DINNER: 6:15pm, small green salad with carrot dressing, shrimp shumai, tempura shrimp & veg, sushi platter, +/-1250
Realized after I got home, a lot of kitchen work was ahead of me so I didn't feel like making the meal I planned, and ordered in. Also, I was really hungry and probably over-ordered. Did I really need the shumai? Finding control when I get to that point, that's a skill that'll serve me in the long-haul.

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, 2 small spoonfuls of knish filling, +/- 50 cal
Can't cook 100 knishes without sampling the filling to make sure the salt/fat balance is there.

Hungry to Bed

Woke up pleasantly sore from yesterday's weight lifting, it's a nice feeling -- let's me know that NOT lifting weights today is the exact right thing to do!

Went to bed hungrier than usual -- I suspect I may have overestimated the calories in the slice of pizza I had for lunch. It occurred to me that in the past, when I get that kind of hungry around midnight/1am, the main way to get myself to sleep would be to eat something carby & heavy, probably upwards of 1000 calories to get the blood to rush to my stomach and let my brain turn off. And if it was the weekend, I might do a modified version of that, but gotta stay on point.

THE COUNT: 2500

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal


BREAKFAST: 8:45am, fage full fat yogurt with honey, almonds and vanilla, 460 cal

LUNCH: 1:45pm, cheesy slice of pizza, +/- 500 cal
Ran out of time in getting some Jamaican patties, had to get a slice on the run, way too much cheese on it, very out of balance, and sat in my stomach like a rock.

PM SNACK: 2:45pm, diet Dr.Pepper, 0 cal

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, small green salad with Italian dressing, +/- 100 cal


PM SNACK: 5:45pm, momma salad with ranch dressing, 8oz diet sprite, 150 cal


DINNER: 7pm, quarter pounder with cheese, medium fries, diet coke, 890 cal


EVENING SNACK: 10:15pm, corn chips and home made salsa, 375 cal

It's Good, It's Great

Chill day, got chores and a little knishery work done in the afternoon. Spent a few hours after Edie got out of day camp with her, Mil, a little 3 yr old friend of hers and even a few other kids who were dropped in the mix. It's a little stressful when they're cranky/hungry/poopy/whiny, but when it's good, it's great.

We had a few unexpected dinner guests, so I whipped up some scallops out of the freezer, threw some rice in the rice cooker, and made another faux-Mexican meal with things on hand. Too busy to do a count, but felt like I kept my portion reasonable, though that scoop of cherry sorbet was probably 300-400 cal all by itself.

THE COUNT: 2400

AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced green tea, 25 cal


BREAKFAST: 10:30am, smoothie, 325 cal


LUNCH: 12:30pm, whole wheat pasta with sauce and turkey meatballs, momma salad, water, 750 cal


DINNER: 6:45pm, sauteed scallops, refried beans & brown rice, roasted brussel sprouts, fresh salsa and chips, water, cherry sorbet, +/- 1000 cal


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, 300 cal