Junk Food Armageddon

ADDENDA:
My first summer at summer camp, we had parent's day right in the middle of the month I was away. It was the very first time I was away from my parents, and I struggled with home-sickness for the first week. I was OK for the second, but then my parents visited.

It was a glorious day, and I cried when they left, probably the first time I ever cried for my parents (I was 10). One thing I remember clearly....most of the other campers were from Long Island, and came from much wealthier homes than I did. The camp fed us 3 squares a day, 'family-style', meaning you could as much as you wanted. No one was in need of food. Regardless, other parents would mail their kids all sorts of junk-food which counselors would collect and put into big plastic barrels to keep the animals out.

But when parent's day came, it was JUNK FOOD ARMAGEDDON. Parents would just bring tons of crap to eat all day, take their kids out off campus into the wilds of Pennsylvania to get 'real food', etc. I don't remember what we ate that day, but I do remember a small blue cooler which had some simple things for a light lunch, probably bread and cheese and fruit. My parents never gave me sweets, so it was a huge treat for my mom to give me a plastic baggie full of chocolate chip cookies she made (undoubtedly the recipe off the back of a Nestle's morsel's bag) before they split. I cried, hugged, it was difficult for the three of us.

That evening, the counselors and staff had all the kids take out the huge amount of junk food crap they received that day and put it on the picnic table in the middle of our bunks. Basically, we were told this has to be eaten now, whatever's left thrown away. I had not eaten a single one of my cookies because I wanted to wait till I was hungry and try to make them last for the 2 weeks I had till I saw my parents again. But, it was share and eat and throw away, and I really didn't want to share or throw away, so I took my bag of cookies and ate the whole thing - all these kids had this horrible store-bought cheesy-poof crap in vast quantities, and all I had was my bag of cookies, a little part of my mom right with me. I distinctly remember eating the whole bag, taking a few steps, and chucking my guts out. Wasn't pleasant, but I was glad those stupid kids didn't get any of my cookies, they wouldn't of appreciated them anyway. Still kinda glad.

(When I did a google image search for 'Junk Food Armageddon', this Hulk Hogan pic came up - he was at the height of his popularity when I was arounf 10....)

Brought my Easter candy to the office today, some others also brought theirs in, and put it on the lunch table for whoever to eat. Kinda like the adult version of the parent's day picnic table.

Weighed myself this morning, perhaps not what one is supposed to do the day after Easter dinner, 234. Though others might be disappointed, losing a pound over a few weeks seems right to me. Still, gotta step it up.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, 1 fuji apple, .5 bowls, hunger 3/5
Feel like I have a food-hangover, but I need to go into a client's to pop out some work, would be foolish to eat nothing.

LUNCH #1: Noon, tomato soup, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Swung by B's office and we went to lunch together. Not very hungry and just ordered soup, but once I ate it, it went down my throat fast, guess I was hungrier than I thought.

LUNCH #2: 2:15pm, handful of cocktail shrimp, prime rib sandwich on super hippy bread with b&b pickles, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Left overs from last night's feast, 20 seconds in the micro and still tender and juicy and yummy. Matched well with the toughness of the superhippy. Tried the Rick's Picks super-expensive pickles, was good, not as cloyingly sweet like industrial bread n' butters, but still, not a big deal, not worth the money. Guess I'm just not a pickle fanatic.

PM SNACK: 5pm, a headless solid dark chocolate bunny, .5 bowls, hunger 4/5
A little bit too much. Threw out the remainder of the Easter sweets.

DINNER: 8pm, 2 little rice balls, 2 little fried olives, spoonful of eggplant parm, 1 meat ball, gnocchi with sausage in a light cream sauce, about 2 teaspoons worth of various chocolates, 1 glass prosecco, water, 2 bowls, hunger 3/5
Birthday dinner for a close friend at a nice local restaurant, really good vibes. Cupcakes were also distributed, showed a rare restraint because after the tiny bits of fancy chocolates, the last thing I wanted was a cupcake.

Eat-ster

ADDENDA:
B & I went to deep dark NJ to a friend's family's house for Easter dinner, my first. It's an eating holiday, and there was about 3x more food than necessary for the 7 guests. After a huge spread of appetizers, I got B & her friend out on the 3 rusty bikes in the garage to pedal around the neighborhood for a wee bit, but when we got back were confronted by a gob-smackingly large dinner. It was fun but goyishly weird.

The other day at Grimaldi's Pizza, the server was slow with refilling our water glasses. Around us, almost every person in the place had 20-oz bottles of coke, diet coke and 7-up at their sides. For a hot second I wished I had a bottle of diet coke to wash down the pizza, then it hit me in another hot second - diet coke tastes like battery acid, what I really want is hydration and a palate cleanser, for which either still or sparkling water is ideal. It's the consumer culture, the push to charge me more, which tries to present sodas as the logical choice, when really it's quite insane and unhealthy.

BREAKFAST #1: 8:30am, fuji apple, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
B still asleep, feel 100% better, glad I didn't go out last night. Don't feel like eating, but the slight pangs in my tummy say otherwise. Apple beats caffeine hands down.

BREAKFAST #2: 10am, waffle, bacon, homefries, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Dragged B out to the East Broadway Cafe in our hood, a Polish diner of the old school where I used to go regularly with my parents on weekends. The food was definitely better (and less pretentious) (and a whole lot cheaper) than the place we went to brunch yesterday. Bacon was too salty, given, but sitting in the same seats where I used to sit with mom and pop with B at my side, made any sin of bacon a lot more tolerable.

DINNER: 3-9pm, shrimp cocktail, fritos with various dips including 'caviar pie' and chili cheese goop, bread with sundry dried meats and cheeses, water, prime rib, potato au gratin, asparagus, spinach, salad, chocolate, apple & blueberry pie, vanilla ice cream, weird spicy cookie, short bread, 1 glass wine, 1 glass prosecco, water, 4 bowls, hunger 4/5
So many tchokes on the table, we couldn't find the salt & pepper...

Emilabar

ADDENDA:
Made these yesterday afternoon, adjusting a recipe that was passed on by Ilsa. I replaced the dried fruits with chopped almonds, organic brown rice crispies, shredded dried apples and dark chocolate chips, and added a shot of almond extract. It's ok, but could be a lot better. The three eggs in the recipe make it overly spongy, I'd like it denser. The rice crispies lost their crispness, not sure how to overcome that. The dried apple bits are too large, gotta chop them finer. The recipe calls for peanut butter, that's a nice note, should up the amount, goes well with the almond extract. Maybe experiment with other extracts on the next batch. Regardless, this should be a good bike-food this season...

I've eaten Cliffbars on the bike for the last 8 or 9 years, I could see a refined recipe taking over. Hmmm, what should I name them? Dude named his bar after his father, Cliff. Emilbars? Emilabar? Emilobar? Sounds a little bit like one of those meal-replacement bricks....

Got home around 5pm, feeling much more tired from the casual ride than I should, so I skipped yoga. Spent some time going through the earlier portions of this blog, tagging things to make them searchable. Noticed I got into my yogurt habit around the time I did a week-long desert-fast, wonder how that's related.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, boca burger on toasted sprouted wheat with ketchup and red onion, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10am, half a homemade powerbar, hunger 4/5

AM DRUGGING: 11:30am, 500mg Vitamin C
Got a headache, feeling tired and achy. Got 6 hours, disturbed several times by Betsy's repeated alarm. Inner ear a little achy, may be an infection starting.

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, 2 brownies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Quick snack before a casual bike ride. Needed to finish them.

LUNCH: 3:30pm, sausage and veg pizza, half a small cup of rich hot chocolate, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Took B's cuz and a few of her friends on a bike tour of the tip of Manhattan, then over to Brooklyn Heights with a stop at Grimaldi's. Took a quick walk over to Jacques Torres. Really nice.

PM SNACK: 8pm, 3 halves of small chocolate bunnies, .25 bowls, hunger 2/5
Snacked on a few bits from Jacques Torres with my B. One was white, one was milk and the third dark. Nice contrast, underlines that dark is the yummiest.

DINNER: 9pm, baby carrots with a little ranch, 1 homemade power bar, .75 bowls, hunger 3/5

EVENING SNACK: 1am, small superhippy bread cheese sandwich, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
To help get to sleep.

Eating Through the Holidays

ADDENDA:
Like stirring cooking milk and bringing up black bits unintentionally, the relatives staying with me have brought up some emotions from the family strife I endured when my mother passed away. It's unintentional and I hold no grudge (towards my guests), but it's still a bummer.

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, good yogurt with honey, raw nuts, vanilla, hunger 3/5
Immediately from breakfast I whipped up a batch of hummus and mac n' cheese for B's cousin's Jewish Xmas thing.

AM MEDICATION: 11am, 2 tums
Knifing sensation in my chest, over my stomach and below my throat. I suspected it was an acid thing, so I took 2 tums and it promptly went away. I've never had a pain like that before. I suspect it's emotion/holiday-related.

LUNCH: 2pm-5pm, bagel with hummus & smoked salmon, 3 large butter cookies, 10 or so small pieces of Jaques Torres chocolates, medium portion of homemade mac n' cheese, 1 glass presecco, water, hunger 4/5
Holiday party at B's cousin Cathy's house. This is the third time I've been to this party since I've known my wife, it's nice to see how these things remain stable year after year. My mac n' cheese came out pretty good, I've been refining the balance of ingredients and I think I'm getting closer. The hummus I made was way too garlicky, gotta pull back on that. Felt stressed thinking about my own family, overdid it on the chocolates, and my acidy stomach came back again.

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, 1/4 homemade cookie, 1/2 apricot turnover, seltzer, hunger 2/5
Stopped by another cousin of B's on the way home, an excellent baker he is.

PM MEDICATION: 7:30pm, 2 tums

PM SNACK: 9pm, small handful of tortilla chips, 2 saltless pretzels with peanutbutter, hunger 3/5

The Long Weekend is Here (or: Food is All Sorts of Love)

ADDENDA:
At 11am, B is bringing me to Union Square for a 4-hour surprise involving pizza. I'm going to assume it's a pizza-making class or a pizza tour. Tonight, a multi-course dinner party at a friends house. I suspect today, like the last few days, will be an eating disaster. But underlining it is the association: food is love. Or perhaps the conduit of socializing on all sorts of levels.

Thinking about the last few days, I don't think I'm purposefully trying to fatten myself up, it's the holiday season. (Well, except for that Chinese brick incident, grumble grumble...) I would of thought my eating doesn't change much during this time of year, but I've never kept an obsessive blog about what I eat....

ADDENDA II:
A few months ago after reading about this particular pizza tour, I suggested off-handedly that it would be cool and weirdly romantic if we were to do an intense foodie-pizza journey together. So for Hanukkah, Betsy surprised me with this pizza tour today. Basically, if these two tours were ice cream, today's tour would of been a Carvel Fudgey the Whale, and the tour I wanted a fine selection of artisinal gelatos over a freshly baked puff pastry. We were on a tour-bus with a bunch of families from Florida, and the tour guide spent most of the time talking about movie locations and standard factoids about the city, interrupted by a total of two (2) pizzerias, one of which (Grimaldis) is good but kinda over rated. So once we figured out we weren't really the target audience, we decided to ditch at the first stop - which happened to be at Brooklyn Bridge Park right in front of Bubby's, where we got married!

The tour guide dude, Tony, was actually nice, and offered to arrange for someone else to use our tickets in the future. He then said, heeey, I know you.....you're Adam from Sliceny.com! (See picture to the right, huh, he actually DOES look a bit like me!)

So if you (or a couple of friends from out of town) would like free tickets for the Slice of Brooklyn Pizza tour (which is really a tour of Brooklyn with a couple of stops at pizzerias thrown in), give a hollah!

BREAKFAST: 8am, 3 spoonfuls of mint chocolate chip ice cream, hunger 3/5
Small but satisfying.

AM SNACK: 11:45am, 12 oz wicked hot chocolate from Jaques Torres in DUMBO, hunger 3/5
After ditching the pizza tour, we stopped by and bought a YOOOOJ box of chocolates for Jewish Xmas gathering at B's cousin's. We also got their famous hot chocolate, which I never had before. Basically it's melted chocolate in whole milk and cream, with a dash of spicy spices...yummy....but after only having a few spoonfuls of ice cream in the morning, found myself with not quite an upset stomach as much as a total lack of desire to eat anything....til...

LUNCH: 3:30pm, 2 sweet sopresseta sandwiches on sprouted whole wheat bread with grated parm, local mustard and a big side of leftover vegetables from Monday's party, hunger 4/5
Left overs made a good lunch. Sopresseta is kinda gross on it's own, but in the context of a thin layer on a sandwich with complimentary tastes, was quite good. Was good on that pizza, too. Funny how something by itself is nasty, but compliments foods so well.

PM SNACK: 4pm, small handful of tortilla chips, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6pm, 3 slices mozzarella with balsamic vinegar, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:30pm, 2 bacon-wrapped dates, 3 vegan stuffed mushrooms (much superior to mine), 1 piece of bruscetta, a handful of mini-blinis with smears of really good caviar, small amount of mashed potatoes, 1 small slice of foul-tasting sausage, small amount of pigeon-peas n' rice, 2 beers, 1 glass champagne, hunger 3/5
Pleasant dinner party in Brooklyn at Erikka and Martha's. One guest had a boss who received a gift of a $1500 tiny tin of caviar at the office, but was already gone for the holidays so he gave it to her. The only caviar I regularly come in contact with is the roe in sushi, which I absolutely despise. This black stuff was a different food altogether - I never tasted anything quite like it. It basically tastes like a good fresh mild smoked salmon minus the smokey part, salty in a neutral way, but somehow the consistency was both mushy and firm at the same time. And when you pressed it in your mouth with you tongue, the flavor intensified like if you were turning up the volume of a piece of music that you particularly like at just that moment. It was yummy, but not worth the $200-odd amount of it I scarfed.

In Praise of Dirt Pills

ADDENDA:
Though I don't really mention it, I've been taking 1 multivitamin a day since I dedicated myself to improving my well-being through diet. Yesterday, I ran out of a 90 tablet bottle, marking about 4 straight months of consuming these religiously. I was a bit suspicious when Ilsa recommended them - shouldn't I be getting all the nutrition I need from the food I eat? But if it wasn't going to do harm, I'd try it.

Unfortunately, I implemented a number of changes at the same time I started taking these tablets, so I can't say with certainty what they've done for me, but they certainly have not harmed me. The combination of cutting back the sweets, cooking more, thinking more about what food does to me, being married n' stuff.

BREAKFAST: 8am, organic wholegrain crispex with whole homogenized organic milk, banana, hunger 3/5

AM WATERING: 9:45am, 24 oz still

BP: 10:15am, 133/90

LUNCH: 12:15pm, curry ramen soup, 3 pork gyoza, 1 large chocolate chip cookie ice cream sammich, hunger 4/5
Didn't get the pork, as I porked out last night. The ramen soup was curry-ful, but unsatisfying, not tasty enough and not enough food! So I got this dessert from the commissary in the building, very industrial tasting....but satisfying. Still, something is lacking in it. Like McDonalds, it's over-processed and full of shitty ingredients, so it gives the impression of the food it's supposed to be, but doesn't quite deliver.

PM SNACK: 3pm, handful of m&ms, hunger 3/5
Snarfed these in the common area, immediately regretted it. I blame the holidays.

DINNER: 6pm, sampling of hummus, baba, redbean stew, zuchini pancake with yogurt, bread, entree of grilled lamb and veg with rice and potatoes, 1 glass wine, small sampling of sweets including almond pudding, halava, weird moist grainy cake, baklava, water
Dinner at Turkish Kitchen with B, Corinna and Tom, a proper holiday-time couply get together over food. Ate a bit too much.

The Morning Afer

ADDENDA:
I brought some green M&Ms to work this morning, thinking I didn't want to eat them but peeps will. However, I had an unopened 2 liter bottle of Coca Cola I didn't think twice about pouring down the drain. Over lunch I just read the final parts of the third of the Ominvore's Dilemma about corn, and of all foods that are derived from corn, soda is 100% from that plant. I poured corn down the drain, which was grown with fertilizer that was refined from the same barrels of petroleum that gasoline is refined from. Pouring oil down the drain. Such a tremendous waste, no wonder countries with food shortages hate us.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic cheerios with organic homogenized milk, hunger 3/5
I could taste the difference in the homogenization, just tasted....less milky, more watery, despite being full-fat.

AM WATERING: 9:45am, 24 oz still
On the ride to work in the cold, I was actually looking forward to drinking water. The good thing about riding a desk for a living (and keeping this blog) is I'm starting to appreciate how this little things make a bigger difference than I thought. Maybe I should start watching my water intake closer on the weekends.

BP: 10:15am, 126/90

LUNCH: 1pm, setain sesame medallions over broccoli with brown rice, 2 spring rolls, large scallion pancake, 2 glasses water, hunger 4/5
Nice sit down lunch at Zen Palate.

PM WATERING: 3pm, 24 oz still
I guess I was a little dehydrated.

PM SNACK: 4pm, 1 small chocolate-coated ice cream nugget, hunger 3/5
Giving buckets of this stuff away at the general staff meeting. I'd rather have sick days paid. Is there any food stuff that can't be processed into nugget form?

DINNER: 9pm, baked cod with butter and garlic, 2 baked potatoes, large piece of mud pie, pint of seltzer, hunger 4/5
Never cooked cod before, did it very conservatively, came out eh. Realized afterward I cooked it EXACTLY like my mom would cook it. Grease pan, place pieces of hard butter over the top, through on a little crushed garlic in lumps, into the oven. Next time I will melt the butter in a pan, infuse it with sliced garlic, reduce some white wine into it, then kind of bathe/poach the fish. Maybe a little bit of sea salt, a few mushrooms or maybe stringbeans in the pan to enjoy the bath. Now THAT could be good.

Got the mud pie on purpose, just one large serving so as to not to let it roll over a few days that would otherwise be potentially sweet-free. In the past, I've gotten this cake to go along with store-bought gelato. Without it, it was just not that remarkable. Didn't enjoy it as much as I did, and the fact that it wasn't extinguishing some sort of sugar lust didn't help.

Feel like la-la-la-latkes tonite!

ADDENDA:
Not surprised my BP is a little high this morning, feel a slight headache, know I haven't been eating as well as I normally do lately. Today is the day to snap back. Started with a good breakfast, packed a lunch even the HVS would approve of (minus the raw goat's milk cheese to compliment the apple), and tonight I'm going to hit up the market for supplies then attempt a latke recipe out of Saveur magazine.

My grandmother made latkes, but my mom never did. The recipe in the mag is surprising straight forward - grated potato and onion, matzo meal, egg, chive, salt and pepper and oil. They do, however, get all fancy pants and suggest alternates to apple sauce or sour cream, like creme fraiche...hmmmm. I kinda feel like I'm in the experimental stages of creating a new tradition, so when my kid/kids come along, I'll already have something yummy up my sleeve to pop on them.

Just received the Global sharpening steel in the mail today, I feel like a kid with a new toy - I can't wait to hone my blades tonight before chopping something!

My recent stress at work has been getting a lot of news coverage lately. Though it's hitting the papers now, I feel for the most part it's over, at least for me.

BREAKFAST: 8am, organic wholegrain chex with good milk, 1 small banana, hunger 4/5

AM WATERING: 10:15am, 24 oz still

BP: 11am, 132/96

LUNCH: 1pm, superhippy peanutbutter sammich, baby carrots with homemade hummus, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, apple and a small amount of funky cheese, hunger 4/5
I think my funky cheese turned or something. Oh well.

PM SNACK: 5pm, Roberts Smart Puffs, hunger 4/5
Very hungry, don't want to go nuts as it'll take an hour or so to make dinner once I get home. Craving sugar, cookies looked good, but damn, after eating crappy for the last 4-5 days, I gotta focus on making sweet-free days not so special!

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, unsalted pistachios in shell, hunger 4/5
Picked these up as a potential interesting daytime snack, but felt too hungry to start cooking without a handful of something.

DINNER: 7:30pm, curry lamb sausage with mushrooms, homemade potato latkes with creme fraiche, seltzer, hunger 4/5
Oh my. This came out good. I thought I used a lot of salt, as the preparation called for salting the shredded potatoes and onion over a sieve to sweat out the liquid. I guess salt got sweated out too, because the final product was not salty at all - I imagine some might even call it bordering on bland (but was just right for me!) Couldn't find chives at the market, next time if I can't I'll go nuts with some scallion, that might excite the flavor profile.

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, 1.5 oz chunk of Sharfen Berger 70% dark chocolate, hunger 3/5
Betsy snarfed those horrid soy ice cream sandwiches right after dinner, I couldn't be bothered. However, after an hour I started craving sugar and by 9:30 the drums were so loud in my ears. I went to into the kitchen, thinking, "Good! I know there is no sweets here so I'll be able to resist!" Unfortunately, on the top shelf there was a high-quality piece of cooking chocolate, left over from my gelato-making. I only ate 1/3 of it, and for the next 30 minutes I craved more, but it passed.

I was surprised - I had a very satisfying, heavy meal for dinner. Maybe it was because of the potato factor?

Off to Las Vegas

ADDENDA:
I passed the fresh scene of this accident on the way to work yesterday. It's my normal bike route, and the cops rerouted me off the bike lane into traffic to avoid it. I saw the red pick up track, the ownerless bike propped against the truck, and the panel truck parked in my lane 20 feet ahead. Sad.

I'm leaving straight from work early to catch a flight to Vegas with B, to meet my father-in-law for the first time, to peep the Hoover Dam, and totally go crazy on an all-u-can-eat all-pork buffet (Ilsa, I'm kidding!!....about the all-pork part, at least)....

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, toasted onion bagel with good butter, banana, hunger 3/5
Thinking of the crap I'll be eating this weekend, tossed in a banana for good measure.

AM WATERING: 9:40am, 24 oz still

BP: 9:45am, 130/78

NOON SNACK: noon (duh), nice crisp apple with a little funky-ass cheese, hunger 4/5

PM WATERING: 12:45pm, 24 oz still

PM SNACK: 1pm, 2 oz bag of fritos, hunger 4/5
Kinda regretted this as I was eating it, as these are easily available in an airport, but I just feeling like eating something different.

LUNCH: 1:30pm, 3 potato samosas, brown rice w/ curry sauce, cold pumpkin noodles & sesame tofu, hunger 4/5
A mostly organic, mostly vegan food bar, something I won't be seeing in Vegas...

PM SNACK: 2:15pm, 1 dark chocolate gelt, hunger 3/5
The HVS gave me 2, but after eating one, remembered that Hanukkah gelt are usually poor-quality chocolate. Usually they are milk chocolate, so this was a step up, up still a little crumbly in the mouth. I'm sure B will gobble the other one up on the flight...

DINNER: 6:30pm, fish & chips, water, hunger 4/5
Crappy food in the airport.

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, shortbread & dark chocolate, seltzer, water, hunger 4/5
Snacking on the airplane.

Will today be a sugar-fast by default?

ADDENDA:
Forgot my apple n' cheese this morning, and am out of bananas. I wonder how my sugar-lust will go today. Didn't pack lunch as have social obligations for lunch.

BREAKFAST: 7am, toasted wholewheat bagel with a thin shmear of organic cream cheese, hunger 3/5
Spent the morning chopping salad to open the pizza-freakout tomorrow...

AM WATERING: 10am, 24 oz still

BP 10:45am: 128/83

LUNCH: 12:30pm, chicken tonkatsu with curry sauce over rice, hunger 4/5
Asked for pork, but it was a little dry, tasted a little plain, the meat was a little whiter than usual, and rather than homogeneously thick, got thicker at one end. I was half way through when I realized it wasn't pork! Didn't ask for a new dish because I ate so much already, felt silly.

PM WATERING: 2:30pm, 24 oz still

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, 2 potato samosas, small amount of pumpkin noodles, hunger 4/5
Hungry, don't want to be starving and obsessing about chocolate when I see Ilsa!

DINNER: 8pm, green salad, sauteed shrimp in parsley sauce over long grain brown jasmine rice, hunger 4/5
Good home cooked dinner, the shrimp came out a little too boiled instead of sauteed due to not clearing the ice off them before dumping in the wok. I gotta work on that.

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, 3 oz dark chocolate, hunger 3/5
Wasn't craving it, but I cooked the custard that is the basis of the chocolate gelato. Of the 7 oz bar, 4oz went into the recipe and rather then sticking my fingers in and sampling as I went along, I just ate the left over chocolate. Kept me up till 1am.

PCW (Pounds of Chocolate Per Week)

ADDENDA:
This dessert fast thing was kind of a weird shock to the system, and my minor illness at the end of it a small revelation. I sure feel healthier than I did since starting to consult with Ilsa and write this blog. Where do I go from here?

Do I want this to become a blog about discovering cooking, or a blog about losing weight and keeping it off? Does that have to be incompatible? Maybe I should work up some weekly stats about how many meals I made or prepared myself, and how many were eaten out? Fruit vs. dessert intake? Pounds of chocolate per week?

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, organic chex with good milk, banana, hunger 3/5

AM WATERING: 9:45am, 24 oz still

BP 10am: 133/102
Weird because of recent illness? First time I had a really high BP measurement at the docs was after an illness.

PM WATERING: Noon, 24 oz still

LUNCH: 12:15pm, veg Indian combo plate with rice, hunger 4/5
Spicy mouth, thought about getting dessert, as I CAN if I want to, but decided against it, got cheese n' apple with me. Probably get a meaty thing towards the end of the day to get me through the class tonight.

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, apple & onion edamer raw milk cheese, hunger 3/5

LUNCH #2: 4:30pm, lamb on pita, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:30pm, cup of bitter greens liquid, coleslaw with plum-mustard dressing, aduki squash stew, long grain brown rice with parsley garlic sauce, sauteed kale with mushrooms, 2 jelly almond torte cookies, hunger 4/5
Cooking class was a demonstration of preparation of all these vegan dishes, flashes of interest but mostly boring and silly. I don't need a demonstration how to cook rice (especially since I now own a rice cooker!) During the class, I was thinking of going out to get hot dogs & tater tots, an old favorite meal I haven't indulged in in quite a while. The first thing I tried was the liquid from the kale she was cooking. Very bitter, at first I was 'yuuuuk!' but then, I don't know, I just kind if LIKED it's differentness and drank the whole cup. The food was a bit dorky in a 70s vegan kind of way, but other than the stew (too much ginger), it was all quite delicious and I plan to make the parsley sauce for rice tonight....to compliment some PORK, yo!

I think I will experiment with the kale/escarole/spinach thing, sauteing with mushrooms n' stuff. The only concern I had about the food is she really did not go light on the salt. It was sea-salt, but still.

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, veggie booty, hunger 4/5
Something tells me this is a newly emerging habit that Ilsa will not be fond of.

Baby, I like it raaaaw, etc etc

ADDENDA:
Went to the farmers market to collect a salad and miscellaneous. Got a half pound of interesting edamer raw-milk cheese, and I asked if they had any raw-milk for sale. They did not, but gave me a web-address for a distribution club. Raw milk is illegal to sell, but if you join a club where you cooperatively own a cow, you can legally drink it's raw milk. I read a lot from different sources about the history of milk, and how there's actually nothing wrong with raw milk if it's unadulterated by a lot of the industrial methods that gave it a bad name. In fact, it's a whole food that is supposedly better for you and more importantly....tastes better. I want to taste it for myself. The cheese is fantastic. I hope it's richness will help me avoid sweets next week.

BREAKFAST: 6am, good pancakes, hunger 4/5
To sleep early, woke up early. Made a new batch of mix, this time upping the whole wheat flower from 1/3 to 1/2. Can taste it more....and I like the taste of whole wheat....

AM SNACK: 11am, 3/4 of toasted bagel with hummus, hunger 4/5

LUNCH #1: Noon, slice of pizza, hunger 4/5
From local shop, focused on tasting the sauce. It's good, what is mine missing? Maybe dried red pepper?

LUNCH #2: 12:30pm, white rice, hunger 4/5
First run of the rice cooker, just ate the rice straight. Rice tastes good, but bland. Better than just in a pot. 1 serving is a half cup of dry rice, I made a full cup and it wasn't that much. Ate about 3/4 of the bowl.

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, 6 freshly baked cookies, hunger 4/5
In a grouchy mood, crappy weather. Rather than ride, sat around the TV and baked up the cookie dough, something I won't be able to do next week.

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, half a good dark chocolate bar, hunger 2/5
Amazing how easy it is to eat good chocolate, even without hunger or a craving for sugar.

DINNER: 8pm, vegetable dumplings, light crisp pancake with curry dipping sauce, fried spinach toasts, curry fried rice with odd mock-duck, 1 beer, water, hunger 3/5
Dinner with the Hungry Vegan Society at Pukk, a HVS-friendly Thai joint on 1st.

Feelin' a Little Snotty

ADDENDA:
Nose a little mucousy this morning, body is starting to fight something. Feel fine, but this can be the precursor to a sickness. In the past I wold aim to eat healthier and take a vitamin C, but between my daily dirtpills and eating as well as I can already, not sure what additional preventative measure I can take other than just use common sense...

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, organic crispex and good milk, hunger 3/5

AM WATERING: 8:30am, 24 oz still water

BP: 8:45am, 130/92
New cuff is big and not as easy to use, may do this at home before bed instead of at work.

LUNCH: 12 noon, peanut butter superhippy bread sandwich, pretzels, celery, hummus, 24 oz still water, hunger 4/5
The Hungry Vegan Society got militant and commandeered 1/4 of my sandwich! And a pretzel, too!

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, brown rice tortilla chips, hunger 4/5
The HVS shared the wealth. Kinda salty, slight headache, I wonder if it's from the salt. Haven't had a food-related headache in a while.

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, 6 smallish cookies, hunger 4/5
Two packs of Linden's cookies - 3 is never enough, but 6 is a bit too much. Gonna make pizza from scratch tonight, hopefully won't need sweets after it.

Having a good work day, drinking extra water, the snottiness has resided for now.

DINNER: 8pm, small green salad, homemade pizza, large piece of dark chocolate, hunger 4/5
Fun making pizza with B. This time I got the oven hotter and the crust was crisper. Used garlic in the uncooked sauce, made it a little bitter that a dash of sugar will balance next time. Julienned some fresh basil on top and man did that hit the spot. Still not restaurant-ready, but definitely better than the local slice joints.

Even though I was full, I went for the dark chocolate. Part of me knew I shouldn't, but the bratty kid in me said "Fuck you and fuck it! I want what I WANT. NOW." Didn't feel guilty after so much as hmmmm, how should I approach getting this under control without pissing off the kid? Needs more thought...

Freedom from the Need to Be Free

ADDENDA:
Odd day spent mostly napping and chilling. Plans got cancelled, so we relaxed on this rainy Saturday.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, excellent pancakes, a little seltzer, hunger 4/5
In the past, I would of gone downstairs to the local diner diner for pancakes and bacon, with all the ingredients gotten cheap, in bulk and very industrial. You can taste the industrial. I love my pancakes, with garnish and traditional syrup they'd definitely pass muster in a nice restaurant.

LUNCH: 1pm, 12 boiled mixed perogies, hunger 4/5
Delivered from a different local diner, tasty.

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, moderate amount of dark chocolate, hunger 3/5
Reading an interesting article in the New Yorker about one dude's search for the perfect cacao bean and the dark-chocolate industry (comparing them to vinters.)

DINNER: 7pm, vegetarian Ethiopian food, dark-chocolate crepe, hunger 4/5
Nice meal out with the B.

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, popcorn, seltzer, hunger 3/5
At the movies. Too salty.

Chocolate Covered Aspirins

ADDENDA:
I definitely lost focus on what I spoke with Ilsa this past week, about curbing my appetite after riding - but I only road 20 miles or so, not really a real super-appetite inducing exertion, but enough to rev it up a bit. I think I AM comfortable enough to start paying attention more to what I eat on the weekends, rather than take that time 'off' from any restrictions. Still no fries or chips, one desert a day, eat more home cooked stuff than out (though I suspect all 3 meals today will be eaten out due to family and social obligations!)

BREAKFAST: 8am, onion bagel with butter and hummus, good yogurt with honey and vanilla, hunger 4/5
Still hungry from yesterdays ride, doubled up on breakfast.

AM SNACK: 11:30am, 1 small square of good dark chocolate, hunger 3/5
I gave a gift of good Jaques Torres chocolate to a friend's mom who is the hospital, who promptly opened it and offered me some. How could I of said no? Of course after eating it I promptly got a thumping headache.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, small handful of olives, a few pieces of cured meat, roasted string beans, excellent wood-fired organic sausage pizza, hunger 3/5
Lunch at Franny's with B's family, wish I was hungrier.

PM SNACKS: 2pm-5pm, a little bit of JT chocolate here, there and 2 aspirin, hunger 3/5
Gave B's cousins kids some chocolate gifts that got spread around, then headed over to my friend Erikka's place, where she was under the weather, so I gave her the chocolate baggy I had bought for myself and had some of that, too. Common sense would dictate I would cut out the chocolate because of the headache, but instead I took 2 aspirin....mmmmm, chocolate covered aspirin!

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, small bowl of organic baby carrots with a dash of sea salt, pint of water, hunger 3/5
Headache in remission, but looking at what I ate, I see I haven't had much water. Will drink a pint right now....

DINNER: 7:15pm, pork egg roll, string beans with shrimp and brown rice, a large high quality dark chocolate bar, hunger 4/5
The brown sauce was surprisingly bland, but resisted putting more salt in this take out dish. Craving chocolate like crazy, took a bar out of the locked freezer. Looking over the day, I ate chocolate at all times during the day, but in very small quantities. This time, however, was not small. So I guess the next time I complain about how I'm not losing weight, dear reader should point me back to this entry!

Mofungo does not reheat well.

BREAKFAST: 8am, handful of wholewheat non-salted pretzels and a little water, dirtpill, hunger 1/5
I had a wonderful 9 hour sleep, but I think the cookies sat in my stomach a little.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, large brick of food from Green Symphony, including 2 potato samosa, penne in meat sauce, and lightly dressed cold pumpkin noodles, hunger 4/5
Very busy Monday morning, ate this brick at my desk (though I know via Tamar that Ilsa frowns on this practice - but I don't do it too often.) The food was yummy and filling, lotta carbs still being craved from yesterday's exertion.

PM SNACK: 4pm, dry roasted edamame, hunger 4/5
Walked over to Green Symphony again for a non-sweet snack. Thought these would be more like peanuts, despite it saying "70% less fat and 40% more protein than peanuts". The mouth feel was kind of brittle and dry and airy, and now 20 minutes later my stomach feels really weird, so I only ate a handful. This may of been a failed experiment...

DINNER: 7:30pm, large green salad, mofungo with rice and beans and weird red sauce, quarter box of Entemenn's cookies, half a bar of very dark organic chocolate, hunger 3/5
Stomach weird and acidy since the edamame. Some of the reheated mofungo was good, but it's so heavy and dense that there was a large cold dry and fatty ball left over, big as a baseball (and probably about as nutritional, too!)

I don't know when she did it, but B went to town on the cookies sometime between last night and this morning....hrumph!

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, 2 tumms tablets
Stomach still a little acidy.

Recovering with Mofungo

ADDENDA:
Nice ride today with my friend Erikka, about 60 miles. From Prospect Park to the Verazanno, around to Coney Island, down to the Rockaways and Breezy Point, back over through Broad Channel and back through East New York and a lot of sketchy neighborhoods.

I introduced Erikka to cycling years ago, and now she's a much stronger, faster rider than me. I took my fully-geared roadbike and she road fixed single-speed, and still moved faster than me with more energy by the end. It was fun to ride a little outside my comfort zone, though it was probably a little slow for her.

Hot day, weirdly summer-like. Drank over 150 oz. of water through out the ride.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, half a good organic dark chocolate bar with salt-free peanut butter, hunger 3/5
Hang-over sweets desire from the night before.

SNACK #1: 9:15am, 1 and a half good donuts from the local shop, hunger 4/5
Imported the donuts to Brooklyn to help us start off right.

SNACK #2: 10:30, handful of cheese fries from Nathans, hunger 3/5
Erikka needed to eat at Coney, so she went to Nathans and got cheese fries and a huuuge diet coke. As she smoked her cigarette, I thought it cool that despite our radically different approaches to eating (not to mention bike nutrition), we're pretty much BFFs.

SNACK #3: Noon, handful of saltless wholewheat pretzels, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, BLT on whole wheat bagel, small side of macaroni salad, water, bite of breaded chicken cutlet, swig of diet coke, hunger 3/5
Erikka was chowing down on an overstuffed chicken cutlet sandwich, so I had a bite. It was OK, but it reconfirmed my taste opinion that chicken is pointless. She was on her 2nd huge diet coke, which made me think that only 3 months or so ago I'd totally be there with her, enjoying a bottle with her. So I had some of hers, swished it around my mouth and grimaced. It was pleasantly sweet, but over-carbonated and tasted so acidy. Yik! I guess I could relearn to like this stuff....but why would I want to?

DINNER: 6pm, breaded shrimp with yellow rice and black beans, mofungo with spicy red sauce, full bottle of pelegrino
Ordered in from the local Spanish restaurant, heavy but suited the mood perfectly. Mofungo is so weird but so yummy - it's mashed plantains with lots of garlic and pork skin. VERY heavy. Lots of mofungo left over, good for dinner tomorrow... Kind of want sweet, but none in the house.

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, about half a large box of Entemann's chocolate chip cookies, water.
Went out and got some. I need to stock some frozen cookie dough so to avoid eating boxed stuff in the future.

I think I should have an 8pm sweets curfew...

Noodlelove!

ADDENDA:
I'm on the last pages of Animal Vegetable Miracle....I'm worried, we're entering the winter....nothing I like is in season in the winter!! If I shop seasonally, my green salad will be a mere shell of it's former self. I gotta get a list of what is in season when, then maybe try to be more open minded on trying new veg and fruit. OK, OK, I'm 36 years old and my parents have past away, but finally I'm ready to eat all that creepy healthy stuff they tried to train me to like all those years ago...

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, yogurt with raw cashews and a dash of honey and vanilla, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 9:30am, 24 oz still water

LUNCH #1: 1:30pm, spaghetti noodles with barely any dressing, hunger 4/5
Oh lordy, those noodles were good. Didn't really need anything on them, the noodles themselves were a perfect texture, nice firm bite, just so....noodely. After I finished them, I patted myself on the back (hope no one saw!) This bring your-lunch-to-work ain't so bad, if I just have good left-overs on hand...

To think that B almost washed her soapy hands over them when they were resting in the sink, sniff sniff!

LUNCH #2: 4:30pm, fresh peanut butter on superhippy bread, hunger 4/5
Starting to feel nervous about yoga tonight. Damn, if only I didn't make Tamar take that bikeride....

DINNER: 8:45pm, 3 vegetable dumplings, half a vegan scallion pancake, Singapore-styled curry rice noodles, basil mooshoo rolls, water, hunger 4/5
Dinner at Zen Palate with B & T after my first experience with yoga. Still digesting the experience, will try to express my feelings tomorrow. Feel...weird about it. Weirdly familiar.

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, medium hunk of good dark chocolate, hunger 3/5
Occurred to me when I got home, I had no sweets the entire day. Briefly considered making today my first sweets-free day in recorded Noah-history, but then thought, "I just did yoga - I deserve chocolate!!" Not helping me fall asleep, though...

Anxiety

ADDENDA:
After my shower, Betsy suggested I step on the scale. She's been complimenting me left and right all weekend about how good I look. Me, I feel good, but haven't noticed any changes in my body. Stepped on the scale, 230, pretty much the same as it's been for the past 10 years.

Turned on the TV, it was a paid infomercial on the Food Channel. Chunky woman blubbering how when she got on a rollercoaster with her kid, she was too fat for the bar to come down over her big belly. But with this program, she never had to go the gym and she never had to starve blah blah blah.

Felt anxious. I want to lose weight, but I'm comfortable in my skin and how my body works. I fit in the rollercoaster! But I also want to be healthy, and losing weight will help control blood pressure, if not now then in the future. I don't want to be in this crazy vain body-conscious circus, but I want to feel like I can be free of worry.

I was a chubby kid. My mom gave me a hard (but loving) time about it, and I went through a couple of phases in life where I lost a lot of weight, felt good about it, but eventually my body adjusted to the lowered calories, I got discouraged, and fell into old habits within a year or so. I know I can lose a good 20lbs and keep it off for 9-12 months, but then what?

BREAKFAST: 7:45am, toasted whole wheat bagel with good butter and fancy smoked salmon, dirtpill, hunger 3/5
Got this overpriced Charlie Trotter-branded citrus-flavored salmon, cured with sea salt instead of the usual. As I was eating it, found I didn't like it that much and thought if I'm going to experiment with foods to expand my palate, it SHOULD be friggin' low salt! Just don't want to get bored....

BP 8:15am 126/85

AM SNACK: 9:15am, 24 oz still water

LUNCH #1: Noon, 2 small cool slices of crappy pizza, hunger 4/5
Meetins 11am-3pm straight, though a middle meeting provided pizza. Not very good, but got me through without falling apart.

LUNCH #2: 3:15p, fried whiting on whole wheat, 4 unadorned falafel balls, hunger 3/5
Weird, wasn't too hungry but once I ate the sandwich, got very hungry and got the balls. Got them as an appetizer rather than a sandwich, could taste it alone. Surprisingly salty.

On the first Tenacious D album, there is a skit where the two guys go to a drive in window of a generic fast food place. The gag is that while Jack Black is ordering almost the entire menu, at the same time he is ranting that he is on a diet - ordering stuff like a large cola - half regular and half diet, 3 small orders of fries because their small and not large. And of course, the fillet-of-fish sandwich, because, as he exclaims, "Because it's FISH! It's healthy!".

The whiting sandwich was yummy, but between the grease, the breading, the questionable origins of the fish and the nutrient-light tomato and lettuce, the term 'healthy' would be stretching it...

PM SNACK: 5pm, 24 oz still water

DINNER: 7:30pm, spinach gnocchi with homemade tomato sauce and grated cheese, big green salad, big square of dark chocolate with peanut butter, a little seltzer

EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, full portion of yogurt with peanuts, honey and drop of vanilla extract, hunger 4/5
When I realized how hungry I was, I knew I did not eat enough for dinner. In the past at this point I would start binging, starting with the sweets, with the idea that sugar would kill be hunger, but it wouldn't do it fast enough so I'd continue to eat.

I knew I'd have to blog about my sins, so I just ate a (reeeeally) early breakfast, and 2 minutes after I wanted more, but 10 minutes later I started to feel contented and sleepy. Hmmm.

Sundays with Betsy

ADDENDA:
Because of riding, didn't get to hit up the greenmarket in Union Square. Went to the local greenmarket this morning, pretty scarce, but did buy more local honey for yogurt, the upcoming oatmeal season and a future tofu pie. Bought ingredients for a full salad at Wholefoods, mostly organic.

The check-out kid asked if the romaine lettuce was green-lettuce, fair enough question. Then he asked me if the celery was asparagus! When he rang up the $4/lb shallot as a yellow cooking onion ($.99/lb) I didn't correct him... maybe I'm not as unknowlegable about food than I thought....

Spent the day with my wife, was really nice. We pedalled over to Brooklyn for brunch walked my friend back to her house and found ourselves on the edge of Prospect Park. We grinded up a wooded hill, found a spot to read the Sunday Times for a while, then pedalled out of the park through Clinton Hill to the Williamsburg Bridge. All evening I de-jewelcased my record collection into little plastic sleeves while she did work, it was very comfortable. (However, I only got through about 1/10th of my collection, oy....)

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, yogurt with honey and peanuts, hunger 4/5
Left over hunger from yesterday's exertion.

AM SNACK: 10am, banana, hunger 4/5
Forgot about these. Flecked with black, perfectly sweet and firm. Does this count as a sweet? I guess in competition with gelato, donuts and cookies, Ilsa would say "No"....

AM SNACK: 10:45am, 2 pieces whole wheat toast with hummus, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, 2 huge pieces of french toast slathered with nutella in the middle, bacon, small glass of OJ, a few sips of tea, water, hunger 4/5
Brooklyn brunch with friends, this dish came with a side of syrup, a side of dulche de leche, and caramelized banana on top. The chocolate inside already made it ridiculously sweet and deserty, who the hell would want all the other sweets on top of that? Yuk!! Real meal or no, this was definitely the sweets for the day.

PM SNACK: 5pm, 2 pints of water

DINNER: 8pm, 1 spinach knish with mustard, one small frozen pizza, hunger 4/5
Freezer fishin'. Unlike the past, this frozen pizza has been sitting around for a full month - usually, they'd disappear at a rapid rate. Wasn't very good, in fact was quite crappy, and this was a fancy expensive gourmet brand that I used a pizza stone to get the crust cripsy/chewy. I gotta make my own...

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, 2 large squares dark chocolate, hunger 3/5
Sweet craving. Eh, it's Sunday, a little indulgence won't kill me.