BREAKFAST: 8:30am, 3 burnt pieces of bacon, 1.5 bialies with sable, seltzer, soylent green pill, hunger 4/5
Feel good! Sore, but good.
LUNCH: 2pm, guacamole with soft tortillas and chips, grilled shrimp with rice and pepper sauce, hunger 4.5/5
Spent the day returning gifts. (If you're someone who gave us a gift, don't worry, yours is great. It's all the other ones that we exchanged!). By the end of it, starving to the point of feeling woozy, and the sore legs and stingy shoulders from yesterday's exertion didn't help. Went to Rosa Mexicana on 18th street, the guac was made table side, saw the good 1/2 teaspoon of salt poured into it! That's 25% of my daily right there. Noticed the saltiness of the shrimp and rice I ate - funny, as I was eating it thinking how the saltiness was kind of icky - it made the flavors a bit cartoony and loud.
Though normally I would have desert, I realized I wasn't hungry - I could comfortably skip it at the moment and try to have one desert today, despite it being the loosy-goosy weekend!
I haven't hit a 5/5 on the hunger scale since starting this log. Basically, when I just lose it from hunger and will eat anything to get unhungry, that'll be a 5/5. I once fasted for 4 days, the morning of the second day was a 5/5, but by the afternoon it disappeared. Unless my circumstance prevents me from eating all day, I hope to not have to experience a 5/5 anytime soon.
PM SNACK: 4pm, large hunk of varhona dark chocolate, hunger 4/5
We went food shopping, through this in the cart. When I got home, rolled up on the TV and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had a slight headache between lunch and coming home. I thought this chocolate might increase it - it actually made it go away about 20 seconds after chomping on the chunk. Hmm.
DINNER: 7pm, large green salad, whole wheat pasta with pesto and grated cheese, hunger 2/5
Looking back, I wasn't very hungry, I ate this meal more out of habit of having to have "3 squares a day" like my parents insisted. Perhaps I would of been better off with just the salad and a handful of pretzels...
Sunday, August 19
Saturday - Day O' Sweets
ADDENDA:
Rode bikes with Danny to Nyack and back. Between the waking up early and pushing the bike a little, my stomach just stayed tight and closed most of the ride. By the time I started to get hungry, I was already on the West Side bike path, within an hour of home.
BREAKFAST: 5:15am, toasted onion bagel with sablefish, a large number of 2-bite brownies, small amount of seltzer, hunger 3/5
I think I was able to stuff down those brownies without blinking is because I barely had any carbs for dinner the night before - even for me, a half tub of gelato is a lot, but it was not offset by carbs. I guess this was a continuation. I ate the brownies because the donut shop wasn't open yet, and I needed the sugar rush to get me on my bike and start moving.
AM SNACK 1: 8:30am, 2 fresh donuts from farm stand, lots of water, Hunger 2/5
Tip of northern NJ, didn't feel too hungry but was careful not to become hungry either.
AM SNACK: 10:30am, 20oz bottle of gatorade, lots of water, Hunger 2/5
The last 2 experiments to replace gatorade failed, but I still need to attempt to create a home-made sports drink. Reading the label, it's really liquid industrial candy with a few additional chemicals thrown in. I can't believe I used to drink this stuff casually at home. Still, my stomach was tight and it went down easy, giving me the needed sugar rush to get me over the cliffs on 9W.
LUNCH: 2pm, mushroom potato knich, apple cheese knish, botle of seltzer, hunger 4.5/5
Home! Munchies! Would of eaten more but fell asleep on the couch watching a DVD, snuggled tightly on the couch wedged between a warm woman and a warm cat.
DINNER: 6:30pm bread and whitebean salad, 4 pieces of tomato and roasted garlic bruschetta, linguine in meat sauce, dirt pillhunger 4/5
Went to Supper with B, a nice Italian restaurant with a slightly off-beat, Northern menu. I went there a few times with mom, she loved it so much she took some of her own friends there. The fact that it was in the East Village and usually had a line of people, mostly in there 20s, waiting to get in, she found that incredibly hip.
B was a little irritating, criticizing me for not engaging her. Thing is, I was there, I wasn't being rude and reading a paper or playing a video game. We were at the bar, facing the open kitchen and I was watching the people prepare ours, and everyone elses, food. On top of that, I was really hungry, really tired, and really sore from the day's activity. I thought being there together was enough, chilling out together and enjoying the same experience. Why does every minute have to be a gabfest?
The meatsauce was eh, but the roasted bulbs of garlic on the grilled bread was amazing. I must learn the technique to roast garlic this way - it's like an almost buttery garlic spread, but mellow instead of sharp.
Forgot the multivitamin this moring, so I took it befoer we left for dinner.
PM SNACK: 8pm, 2 cupcakes, hunger 3/5
Too full to eat dessert at the restaurant, we stopped by Sugar Sweet Sunshine on the way home. B refused to get her own, ended up eating half of one of mine.
PM SNACK: 11pm., handful of saltless pretzels, hunger 3/5
PM SNACK: 12:30am, cherry italian ice, hunger 3/5
Craving sugar, enough so to keep me up. Gave me a slight headache as I nodded off to sleep.
Rode bikes with Danny to Nyack and back. Between the waking up early and pushing the bike a little, my stomach just stayed tight and closed most of the ride. By the time I started to get hungry, I was already on the West Side bike path, within an hour of home.
BREAKFAST: 5:15am, toasted onion bagel with sablefish, a large number of 2-bite brownies, small amount of seltzer, hunger 3/5
I think I was able to stuff down those brownies without blinking is because I barely had any carbs for dinner the night before - even for me, a half tub of gelato is a lot, but it was not offset by carbs. I guess this was a continuation. I ate the brownies because the donut shop wasn't open yet, and I needed the sugar rush to get me on my bike and start moving.
AM SNACK 1: 8:30am, 2 fresh donuts from farm stand, lots of water, Hunger 2/5
Tip of northern NJ, didn't feel too hungry but was careful not to become hungry either.
AM SNACK: 10:30am, 20oz bottle of gatorade, lots of water, Hunger 2/5
The last 2 experiments to replace gatorade failed, but I still need to attempt to create a home-made sports drink. Reading the label, it's really liquid industrial candy with a few additional chemicals thrown in. I can't believe I used to drink this stuff casually at home. Still, my stomach was tight and it went down easy, giving me the needed sugar rush to get me over the cliffs on 9W.
LUNCH: 2pm, mushroom potato knich, apple cheese knish, botle of seltzer, hunger 4.5/5
Home! Munchies! Would of eaten more but fell asleep on the couch watching a DVD, snuggled tightly on the couch wedged between a warm woman and a warm cat.
DINNER: 6:30pm bread and whitebean salad, 4 pieces of tomato and roasted garlic bruschetta, linguine in meat sauce, dirt pillhunger 4/5
Went to Supper with B, a nice Italian restaurant with a slightly off-beat, Northern menu. I went there a few times with mom, she loved it so much she took some of her own friends there. The fact that it was in the East Village and usually had a line of people, mostly in there 20s, waiting to get in, she found that incredibly hip.
B was a little irritating, criticizing me for not engaging her. Thing is, I was there, I wasn't being rude and reading a paper or playing a video game. We were at the bar, facing the open kitchen and I was watching the people prepare ours, and everyone elses, food. On top of that, I was really hungry, really tired, and really sore from the day's activity. I thought being there together was enough, chilling out together and enjoying the same experience. Why does every minute have to be a gabfest?
The meatsauce was eh, but the roasted bulbs of garlic on the grilled bread was amazing. I must learn the technique to roast garlic this way - it's like an almost buttery garlic spread, but mellow instead of sharp.
Forgot the multivitamin this moring, so I took it befoer we left for dinner.
PM SNACK: 8pm, 2 cupcakes, hunger 3/5
Too full to eat dessert at the restaurant, we stopped by Sugar Sweet Sunshine on the way home. B refused to get her own, ended up eating half of one of mine.
PM SNACK: 11pm., handful of saltless pretzels, hunger 3/5
PM SNACK: 12:30am, cherry italian ice, hunger 3/5
Craving sugar, enough so to keep me up. Gave me a slight headache as I nodded off to sleep.
Friday, August 17
A Second Chance Stir Fry
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, toasted everything bagel with good butter, soylent green pill, hunger 3/5
Though I didn't ask for it, an everything bagel ended up in the freezer's paper bagel bag. Tasted ickily salty.
BP 8:45am: 115/75
AM SNAK: 10am, 24 oz water
BP 11am: 126/86
LUNCH: 1pm, bowl of sliced beef over white rice, udon noodles in soup, 2 shrimp shumai, water, hunger 4/5
Lunch with BFF Erikka in Times Square (she works close by), to the Japanese shop I don't love too much. Ordered a special plate with a list of a whole lotta stuff, but what I got was different - I guess they choose out of the list what they want to serve to you. The beef was unsauced so it was reasonable, and I ate the noodles but skipped the soup. Enjoyed catching up with Erikka more than the food.
Erikka suggested dessert after, and I glumly said I couldn't because I was restricting myself to one dessert a day. She cracked up, I guess it IS kind of funny. Still, if I were to eat dessert, the idea of having the rest of the day without sweets is uncomfortable. One dessert in the evening means I can look forward to it.
BP 1:45pm 116/80
PM SNACK: 4pm, a bag of Robert's Smart Puffs, hunger 4/5
Only 150mg of sodium for a big salt taste. Kind of like crunchy packing peanuts with a cheese powder coat. Would rather be eating chocolate or cookies right now. God. My palate needs to grow the f@ck up.
BP 4pm 123/86
DINNER: 7:30, large green salad with italian dressing, large bowl of shrimp stirfry with weird tofu/yam noodles, chocolate hazelnut gelato and three 2-bite brownies, hunger 4/5
Experimented with the left-over ingredients and a few new ones. Stirfry had the left over veg and dill, frozen shrimp from early in the week, got a new vegetable stock (not low sodium, but naturally about 50% less than the chicken stocks on the shelf). Rather than rice, found this odd low carb low calorie Japanese noodle made from soybeans and yam flour - tasted pleasantly slimey and weirdly airy. Watered down the stock and boiled it with corn starch - didn't have any wine, unfortunately. This time it wasn't bland, but still wasn't all that. Not ready to serve to guests, but this stir-fry thing with a thickened sauce has something to it - gotta find some hardcore old Asian recipes to figure out how to do it right. Gelato and brownies heavenly.
EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, 3 one bite brownies, hunger 2/5
Sitting watching a DVD with B, my lust for more sugar really didn't dissipate after dessert, so after an hour, I somehow thought, hey, I haven't really finished with dessert! Now that the lust is gone, I know that was really a second round of sweets. But hey, its almost the weekend - I have next week to get it right!
Though I didn't ask for it, an everything bagel ended up in the freezer's paper bagel bag. Tasted ickily salty.
BP 8:45am: 115/75
AM SNAK: 10am, 24 oz water
BP 11am: 126/86
LUNCH: 1pm, bowl of sliced beef over white rice, udon noodles in soup, 2 shrimp shumai, water, hunger 4/5
Lunch with BFF Erikka in Times Square (she works close by), to the Japanese shop I don't love too much. Ordered a special plate with a list of a whole lotta stuff, but what I got was different - I guess they choose out of the list what they want to serve to you. The beef was unsauced so it was reasonable, and I ate the noodles but skipped the soup. Enjoyed catching up with Erikka more than the food.
Erikka suggested dessert after, and I glumly said I couldn't because I was restricting myself to one dessert a day. She cracked up, I guess it IS kind of funny. Still, if I were to eat dessert, the idea of having the rest of the day without sweets is uncomfortable. One dessert in the evening means I can look forward to it.
BP 1:45pm 116/80
PM SNACK: 4pm, a bag of Robert's Smart Puffs, hunger 4/5
Only 150mg of sodium for a big salt taste. Kind of like crunchy packing peanuts with a cheese powder coat. Would rather be eating chocolate or cookies right now. God. My palate needs to grow the f@ck up.
BP 4pm 123/86
DINNER: 7:30, large green salad with italian dressing, large bowl of shrimp stirfry with weird tofu/yam noodles, chocolate hazelnut gelato and three 2-bite brownies, hunger 4/5
Experimented with the left-over ingredients and a few new ones. Stirfry had the left over veg and dill, frozen shrimp from early in the week, got a new vegetable stock (not low sodium, but naturally about 50% less than the chicken stocks on the shelf). Rather than rice, found this odd low carb low calorie Japanese noodle made from soybeans and yam flour - tasted pleasantly slimey and weirdly airy. Watered down the stock and boiled it with corn starch - didn't have any wine, unfortunately. This time it wasn't bland, but still wasn't all that. Not ready to serve to guests, but this stir-fry thing with a thickened sauce has something to it - gotta find some hardcore old Asian recipes to figure out how to do it right. Gelato and brownies heavenly.
EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, 3 one bite brownies, hunger 2/5
Sitting watching a DVD with B, my lust for more sugar really didn't dissipate after dessert, so after an hour, I somehow thought, hey, I haven't really finished with dessert! Now that the lust is gone, I know that was really a second round of sweets. But hey, its almost the weekend - I have next week to get it right!
Thursday, August 16
It's Gonna Be a Bright, Pancakey Daaaay....
ADDENDA:
That's to the tune of I Can See Clearly Now, btw....
BREAKFAST: 7am, 3 golden pancakes, chow-pill, hunger 3/5
We went to sleep without addressing wedding stuff, so I woke up at 6am and made us pancakes, on a new pan we got as a gift, with extra milk to see how it would be, and it was good. Turns out this evenings plans got smooshed, so we just chilled and we're going to spend this evening on wedding stuff. But this time, I think we're going to order in or eat in the neighborhood for efficiency's sake. I used to order in 3-4 times a week....wow, how did I do that?
BP at 8am: 117/77
AM SNACK: 24 oz still water
BP at 10:30: 121/83
LUNCH #1: 12:45, green salad from home, hunger 4/5
Busy working (on wedding stuff, he he), almost forgot to eat. Almost.
LUNCH #2: 2pm, .75lbs from organic salad bar of Thai beef and sesame noodles with tofu, 24 oz still water, hunger 3/5
Walked to a 'healthy' place a few blocks away with friends. For a healthy place, they do a strong business in burgers and pizza. Sure, they're probably hormone-free and whole wheat crusts, but is this really healthy? The definition of 'healthy' seems so amorphous to me right now.
BP 121/82 at 3:30pm
PM SNACK: 4pm, bag of Robert's Pirate Booty with cheddar, hunger 4/5
Really craving sweets, determined to keep it to one-a-day.
DINNER: 6:45pm, half a small lightly-cheesed pizza, a large serving of eggplant parm with a lot of cheese, a small side of pasta, 4 pieces of bread, one hoegaarden beer, hunger 4/5
B & I went to the new Isabella's Oven on our street, it's been getting raves from the Pizza Cognoscenti for a few weeks now. Though pizza and cheese are not yet on a list of Ilsa's banned-substances, I know it is a salt-bomb. Thing was, I was thinking more 'pizza' than 'cheese', and the pizza was a) light on the cheese as a good pizza should and b) AMAZINGLY yummy and well worth the indulgence. And it was an appetizer, not a big feast. However, the eggplant parm was dripping in cheese, about the equivalent of half a large pizza full o' cheese. But I was really hungry, I ate it all, and I was even too full....for a sweet dessert!!!
PM SNACK: 9pm, 3 fresh baked chocolate chip cookies from frozen dough, hunger 2/5
Walking home from the restaurant, I realized I was going to be jonesing for sugar when my stomach felt less full. The donut shop next door was closed, so I decided to get a small one-serving box of Entemann's chocolate chip cookies from a drug store. B lightly scolded me, but I explained to her how I'm a little like a junky, I don't need my fix right now but I can anticipate and moderate.
The Rite Aide did not have the dollar-boxes - they only had the big size, and this time it was "25% MORE FREE!" - an extra-fat-ass box! I waited on line, getting more and more pissed off about it. Why wasn't it 25% cheaper instead of 25% bigger? Why didn't I have the option of buying a single serving? And now I'm going to have this big box of temptation in the house that looks like a PM snack, breakfast and AM snack, too. Through more food out the window? Maybe I should just make my own and screw these guys and the industrial complex thats helping me get fat?!
Then I remembered I had a container of cc cookie dough in the freezer, a nice healthy brand that has just about the same ingredients I would use if I was making it from scratch. Because they take a good 30 minutes to make from start to finish, it's not the kind of sweet snack I can be tempted by too easily - it's not just open the box and toss them back, it takes effort. So I put the box of cookies back and walked out.
That's to the tune of I Can See Clearly Now, btw....
BREAKFAST: 7am, 3 golden pancakes, chow-pill, hunger 3/5
We went to sleep without addressing wedding stuff, so I woke up at 6am and made us pancakes, on a new pan we got as a gift, with extra milk to see how it would be, and it was good. Turns out this evenings plans got smooshed, so we just chilled and we're going to spend this evening on wedding stuff. But this time, I think we're going to order in or eat in the neighborhood for efficiency's sake. I used to order in 3-4 times a week....wow, how did I do that?
BP at 8am: 117/77
AM SNACK: 24 oz still water
BP at 10:30: 121/83
LUNCH #1: 12:45, green salad from home, hunger 4/5
Busy working (on wedding stuff, he he), almost forgot to eat. Almost.
LUNCH #2: 2pm, .75lbs from organic salad bar of Thai beef and sesame noodles with tofu, 24 oz still water, hunger 3/5
Walked to a 'healthy' place a few blocks away with friends. For a healthy place, they do a strong business in burgers and pizza. Sure, they're probably hormone-free and whole wheat crusts, but is this really healthy? The definition of 'healthy' seems so amorphous to me right now.
BP 121/82 at 3:30pm
PM SNACK: 4pm, bag of Robert's Pirate Booty with cheddar, hunger 4/5
Really craving sweets, determined to keep it to one-a-day.
DINNER: 6:45pm, half a small lightly-cheesed pizza, a large serving of eggplant parm with a lot of cheese, a small side of pasta, 4 pieces of bread, one hoegaarden beer, hunger 4/5
B & I went to the new Isabella's Oven on our street, it's been getting raves from the Pizza Cognoscenti for a few weeks now. Though pizza and cheese are not yet on a list of Ilsa's banned-substances, I know it is a salt-bomb. Thing was, I was thinking more 'pizza' than 'cheese', and the pizza was a) light on the cheese as a good pizza should and b) AMAZINGLY yummy and well worth the indulgence. And it was an appetizer, not a big feast. However, the eggplant parm was dripping in cheese, about the equivalent of half a large pizza full o' cheese. But I was really hungry, I ate it all, and I was even too full....for a sweet dessert!!!
PM SNACK: 9pm, 3 fresh baked chocolate chip cookies from frozen dough, hunger 2/5
Walking home from the restaurant, I realized I was going to be jonesing for sugar when my stomach felt less full. The donut shop next door was closed, so I decided to get a small one-serving box of Entemann's chocolate chip cookies from a drug store. B lightly scolded me, but I explained to her how I'm a little like a junky, I don't need my fix right now but I can anticipate and moderate.
The Rite Aide did not have the dollar-boxes - they only had the big size, and this time it was "25% MORE FREE!" - an extra-fat-ass box! I waited on line, getting more and more pissed off about it. Why wasn't it 25% cheaper instead of 25% bigger? Why didn't I have the option of buying a single serving? And now I'm going to have this big box of temptation in the house that looks like a PM snack, breakfast and AM snack, too. Through more food out the window? Maybe I should just make my own and screw these guys and the industrial complex thats helping me get fat?!
Then I remembered I had a container of cc cookie dough in the freezer, a nice healthy brand that has just about the same ingredients I would use if I was making it from scratch. Because they take a good 30 minutes to make from start to finish, it's not the kind of sweet snack I can be tempted by too easily - it's not just open the box and toss them back, it takes effort. So I put the box of cookies back and walked out.
Wednesday, August 15
Human Chow in a Pill
ADDENDA:
Getting to work, I'm 113/90, that's odd. I really got to calibrate this thing against another machine. I've taken Ilsa's, B's, and Tamar's pressure with it, and they all came in low.
Ilsa did say that after reading this blog, she doesn't think I'm getting the nutrition I need, so she pointed me to this multi-vitamin supplement derived from food sources.....mmmmm, human-chow in pill form! Soylent Green circa 2007!
Thinking about the session I had with B and Ilsa last night, I think the pressure of the upcoming wedding is affecting me more than I thought. I think I need to settle in tonight and focus on all the details. It's only a few weeks away...
BREAKFAST: 9am, toasted onion bagel with the good butter, chow-pill, hunger 4/5
Too tired to make salad last night, so chopped all this morning, worked up my hunger.
LUNCH: 1pm, chirashi and small bowl of miso soup, water, hunger 4/5
Feeling fish. Wished it was healthier. The soup was a salt trap, and the lovely sushi rice bed the fish laid on could be brown. Now a meal from home of a bucket of brown vinegary sushi rice with some amature raw cut fish, that could be fun.
In the middle of the first few chapters of Animal Vegetable Miracle over lunch, starting to feel guilty for my gluttony. Maybe Ilsa is too nice to call a spade a spade, but I can call it whatever I want, and my sweet tooth brings out the glutton in me. Though maybe it's a bit too early, I gotta to try to seriously curtail my sweets intake. Cutting out diet coke and fries was too easy. This is the elephant in the room.
I wanted ice cream after the chirashi, I put it on hold. Maybe I can get by with ONE dessert a day? One sweet treat a day? Well, that'll have to be the ridiculously wonderful milk chocolate gelato waiting for me at home....
At this moment, my bp reads 115/77. Slight beginning of a small headache, maybe need to drink water. If my bloodpressure really is closer to normal, no wonder why those meds wrecked me a few months ago...
PM SNACK: 4:45, Bag of Robert's Smart Puffs, 24 oz still water, hunger 4.5/5
Really wanting sweets. Sitting around, thinking about wanting sweets, then thinking maybe I should eat something small but not sweet, like a potato....duh! A bag of something savory. This bag of cheesy poofs only had 150mg of sodium, could be a lot worse. Planning to do grocery shopping after work, don't want to be insanely hungry while doing that.
As I'm eating my cheesy poofs, a coworker puts a box of dark-chocolate covered macadamia nuts under my nose and asks if I want any....I felt like crying, felt like explaining if I ate one, then I'd have to write about in my blog how lame I am....but I didn't. So I didn't, and I'm not!
DINNER: 8pm, large green salad, scallop and vegetable stirfry in a low-sodium broth/wine sauce over wholegrain black rice, a small piece of chocolate cake and half a pint-tub of milk chocolate gelato, a glass of wine, hunger 4/5
Funny, I usual only make such a complicated effort to cook on special occasions, but on this average-ish Wed night, cooking like this made it special in itself. The internet-found recipe called for a little wine, so B brought home wine and we had a glass, it was calming. This was the first time I ever cooked with either corn starch or broth or black rice, and the final product was just ok, a lot of things could of been better (was too bland, for one - I gotta make my own stock in the future, the low-sodium stuff is eh) Regardless, it was a lot of fun and B seemed to appreciate the effort.
Went a bit crazy on the gelato, but it sure was good. Guaranteed no snacks for the rest of the night!
Getting to work, I'm 113/90, that's odd. I really got to calibrate this thing against another machine. I've taken Ilsa's, B's, and Tamar's pressure with it, and they all came in low.
Ilsa did say that after reading this blog, she doesn't think I'm getting the nutrition I need, so she pointed me to this multi-vitamin supplement derived from food sources.....mmmmm, human-chow in pill form! Soylent Green circa 2007!
Thinking about the session I had with B and Ilsa last night, I think the pressure of the upcoming wedding is affecting me more than I thought. I think I need to settle in tonight and focus on all the details. It's only a few weeks away...
BREAKFAST: 9am, toasted onion bagel with the good butter, chow-pill, hunger 4/5
Too tired to make salad last night, so chopped all this morning, worked up my hunger.
LUNCH: 1pm, chirashi and small bowl of miso soup, water, hunger 4/5
Feeling fish. Wished it was healthier. The soup was a salt trap, and the lovely sushi rice bed the fish laid on could be brown. Now a meal from home of a bucket of brown vinegary sushi rice with some amature raw cut fish, that could be fun.
In the middle of the first few chapters of Animal Vegetable Miracle over lunch, starting to feel guilty for my gluttony. Maybe Ilsa is too nice to call a spade a spade, but I can call it whatever I want, and my sweet tooth brings out the glutton in me. Though maybe it's a bit too early, I gotta to try to seriously curtail my sweets intake. Cutting out diet coke and fries was too easy. This is the elephant in the room.
I wanted ice cream after the chirashi, I put it on hold. Maybe I can get by with ONE dessert a day? One sweet treat a day? Well, that'll have to be the ridiculously wonderful milk chocolate gelato waiting for me at home....
At this moment, my bp reads 115/77. Slight beginning of a small headache, maybe need to drink water. If my bloodpressure really is closer to normal, no wonder why those meds wrecked me a few months ago...
PM SNACK: 4:45, Bag of Robert's Smart Puffs, 24 oz still water, hunger 4.5/5
Really wanting sweets. Sitting around, thinking about wanting sweets, then thinking maybe I should eat something small but not sweet, like a potato....duh! A bag of something savory. This bag of cheesy poofs only had 150mg of sodium, could be a lot worse. Planning to do grocery shopping after work, don't want to be insanely hungry while doing that.
As I'm eating my cheesy poofs, a coworker puts a box of dark-chocolate covered macadamia nuts under my nose and asks if I want any....I felt like crying, felt like explaining if I ate one, then I'd have to write about in my blog how lame I am....but I didn't. So I didn't, and I'm not!
DINNER: 8pm, large green salad, scallop and vegetable stirfry in a low-sodium broth/wine sauce over wholegrain black rice, a small piece of chocolate cake and half a pint-tub of milk chocolate gelato, a glass of wine, hunger 4/5
Funny, I usual only make such a complicated effort to cook on special occasions, but on this average-ish Wed night, cooking like this made it special in itself. The internet-found recipe called for a little wine, so B brought home wine and we had a glass, it was calming. This was the first time I ever cooked with either corn starch or broth or black rice, and the final product was just ok, a lot of things could of been better (was too bland, for one - I gotta make my own stock in the future, the low-sodium stuff is eh) Regardless, it was a lot of fun and B seemed to appreciate the effort.
Went a bit crazy on the gelato, but it sure was good. Guaranteed no snacks for the rest of the night!
Tuesday, August 14
120 over 88
ADDENDA:
I got my blood-pressure cuff last night. I've measured myself several times, and it's ranged from 117/75 to a high of this morning's 128/89. I know the #s that freaked my doc out was 140 over 100.
From Wikipedia (my italics)
I just retook my pressure: 120/88!! I know you can't just say everything is fine from one reading, but initial measurements suggest my blood pressure is just a little high, not oh-my-god-Stroke-is-imminent high. This is interesting. I will continue to montitor my bloodpressure through the next few days to see if there are any patterns or exceptions.
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, oatmeal with a little honey, butter and salt, hunger 4/5.
Only a teaspoon of butter, but it gave the oatmeal such a more satisfying flavor and mouth feel.
AM SNACK: 10:15am, mint, 16 oz still water.
LUNCH: Noon, fresh turkey on whole wheat with swiss, LT&O, mustand, bag of sunchips, small amount of water, hunger 4/5
Rather then go pile drive a pizza or a brick of chinese food, I think I'll hold off till I'm more certain about my health. Seeing Ilsa (with B) tonight, a good time to reevaluate.
PM SNACK: 3:30pm, 6 linden cookies, 24 oz still water, hunger 4/5
Again, hungry and desiring sweets. BP right after cookies: 117/81, hmmm. Is this thing working right? That's slightly LOW. Maybe I should have a doc's appt sooner and calibrate my monitor vs. his wall-mounted blood pressure-oscope.
ADDENDA: 4pm. Small headache from the cookies. BP 130/88. Hmmmmm....
DINNER: 7:45pm. 5/8s of a pizza with onions and mushrooms, half a large green salad (with one olive), one roll with olive oil.
What a better way to eat after a meeting with a nutritionist than to indulge in that which one should not. The meeting didn't really go into food as much as B & I's relationship, touching on how we relate through food - we eat very differently. B eats a little too much like a girl, and I think Ilsa may be implying I eat a little too much like a boy. Maybe our goal should be to eat a little more gender-neutrally!
Kinda wanted pepperoni on the pizza and to eat all the olives, but it would of tripled my sodium intake for the day.
PM SNACK: 9pm, 2 scoops of milk chocolate gelato, hunger 3/5
Got a lot of good healthy stuff from Whole Foods on the way home....and this. He he. What's pizza w/o ice cream? B only had a spoonful. (Ooo, should I be writing about B's eating? Does that make me a snitch? God knows I don't to help her be insecure about what she eats!)
I got my blood-pressure cuff last night. I've measured myself several times, and it's ranged from 117/75 to a high of this morning's 128/89. I know the #s that freaked my doc out was 140 over 100.
From Wikipedia (my italics)
Typical values for a resting, healthy adult human are approximately 120 mmHg systolic and 80 mmHg diastolic (written as 120/80 mmHg, and spoken as "one twenty over eighty"), with large individual variations. These measures of blood pressure are not static, but undergo natural variations from one heartbeat to another and throughout the day (in a circadian rhythm); they also change in response to stress, nutritional factors, drugs, or disease.Huh. Does this mean my blood pressure is under control? A little high? Still a lot high? Maybe my blood pressure was so high at my doc's because I road my bike there (hard, in the rain)? More from Wikipedia:
Home blood pressure monitoring
Up to 25% of patients diagnosed with hypertension do not suffer from it, but rather from white coat hypertension. Thus, well-performed, accurate home BP monitoring can prevent unnecessary anxiety, as well as costly and potentially dangerous therapy in many millions of people worldwide. Home blood pressure monitoring provides a measurement of a person's blood pressure at different times and in different environments, such as at home and at work, throughout the day. Home blood pressure monitoring may assist in the diagnosis of high or low blood pressure. It may also be used to monitor the effects of medication or lifestyle changes taken to lower or regulate blood pressure levels. Home monitoring of blood pressure is especially useful for patients who suffer from white coat hypertension, where blood pressure levels are elevated in the Physicians office.
I just retook my pressure: 120/88!! I know you can't just say everything is fine from one reading, but initial measurements suggest my blood pressure is just a little high, not oh-my-god-Stroke-is-imminent high. This is interesting. I will continue to montitor my bloodpressure through the next few days to see if there are any patterns or exceptions.
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, oatmeal with a little honey, butter and salt, hunger 4/5.
Only a teaspoon of butter, but it gave the oatmeal such a more satisfying flavor and mouth feel.
AM SNACK: 10:15am, mint, 16 oz still water.
LUNCH: Noon, fresh turkey on whole wheat with swiss, LT&O, mustand, bag of sunchips, small amount of water, hunger 4/5
Rather then go pile drive a pizza or a brick of chinese food, I think I'll hold off till I'm more certain about my health. Seeing Ilsa (with B) tonight, a good time to reevaluate.
PM SNACK: 3:30pm, 6 linden cookies, 24 oz still water, hunger 4/5
Again, hungry and desiring sweets. BP right after cookies: 117/81, hmmm. Is this thing working right? That's slightly LOW. Maybe I should have a doc's appt sooner and calibrate my monitor vs. his wall-mounted blood pressure-oscope.
ADDENDA: 4pm. Small headache from the cookies. BP 130/88. Hmmmmm....
DINNER: 7:45pm. 5/8s of a pizza with onions and mushrooms, half a large green salad (with one olive), one roll with olive oil.
What a better way to eat after a meeting with a nutritionist than to indulge in that which one should not. The meeting didn't really go into food as much as B & I's relationship, touching on how we relate through food - we eat very differently. B eats a little too much like a girl, and I think Ilsa may be implying I eat a little too much like a boy. Maybe our goal should be to eat a little more gender-neutrally!
Kinda wanted pepperoni on the pizza and to eat all the olives, but it would of tripled my sodium intake for the day.
PM SNACK: 9pm, 2 scoops of milk chocolate gelato, hunger 3/5
Got a lot of good healthy stuff from Whole Foods on the way home....and this. He he. What's pizza w/o ice cream? B only had a spoonful. (Ooo, should I be writing about B's eating? Does that make me a snitch? God knows I don't to help her be insecure about what she eats!)
Monday, August 13
Beef Cheek Hangover
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, 3/4 of a toasted sesame bagel with good butter, a pint of lime perrier, hunger 2/5
Got to bed 1ish, had good sleep despite being full of organ meets and freddos. Not hungry, but wanted to start the week off on the right foot.
AM SNACK: 10:30am, 24 oz of still water.
LUNCH: 1:30pm, Indian combo, saag paneer, chickpea curry, yellow lentils, basmanti rice, a little yogurts sauce, a small bit of raw onion, plus a chocolate icecream cone, hunger 4/5
Tried the paneer to change things up. I was expecting this Indian cheese to be salty, but it wasn't at all, it reminded me of tofu (and according to wikipedia, it IS saltless!) Score!! I just started reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal Vegetable Miracle" over this meal, and after reading for 10 minutes, got the vibe I'm in for a treat. I also realized that even though I finished eating 10 minutes ago, I was still hungry. Not very hungry, but the kind of hunger that does not go away by itself. My mouth still hot, had a soothing chocolate cone. I'm happy to report that it wasn't a sugar craving that lead me to it, but more of it's sensory qualities.
PM SNACK: 4:30pm, organic marble pound cake, 24 oz still water, hunger 3/5
Working my way around the organic baked selection downstairs, still too sweet. Regardless, my desire for sweets seem to becoming clearer, overlaid over simple hunger. I was a little hungry.
DINNER: 7pm, sizzling seitan medalions in orange sauce, sticky rice, a couple of vegetable dumplings, a couple basil-mooshu rolls, half a piece of chocolate cake.
Dinner at Zen Palate in Union Square with B and her friend Lisa, after some vegetable shopping in the green market. Mostly vegetarian day, after the organ-meat fiesta of the day before. Betsy was so hungry she got cranky and a bit out of sorts, not very good.
ADDENDA: I didn't have any snacks til bed!!
Got to bed 1ish, had good sleep despite being full of organ meets and freddos. Not hungry, but wanted to start the week off on the right foot.
AM SNACK: 10:30am, 24 oz of still water.
LUNCH: 1:30pm, Indian combo, saag paneer, chickpea curry, yellow lentils, basmanti rice, a little yogurts sauce, a small bit of raw onion, plus a chocolate icecream cone, hunger 4/5
Tried the paneer to change things up. I was expecting this Indian cheese to be salty, but it wasn't at all, it reminded me of tofu (and according to wikipedia, it IS saltless!) Score!! I just started reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal Vegetable Miracle" over this meal, and after reading for 10 minutes, got the vibe I'm in for a treat. I also realized that even though I finished eating 10 minutes ago, I was still hungry. Not very hungry, but the kind of hunger that does not go away by itself. My mouth still hot, had a soothing chocolate cone. I'm happy to report that it wasn't a sugar craving that lead me to it, but more of it's sensory qualities.
PM SNACK: 4:30pm, organic marble pound cake, 24 oz still water, hunger 3/5
Working my way around the organic baked selection downstairs, still too sweet. Regardless, my desire for sweets seem to becoming clearer, overlaid over simple hunger. I was a little hungry.
DINNER: 7pm, sizzling seitan medalions in orange sauce, sticky rice, a couple of vegetable dumplings, a couple basil-mooshu rolls, half a piece of chocolate cake.
Dinner at Zen Palate in Union Square with B and her friend Lisa, after some vegetable shopping in the green market. Mostly vegetarian day, after the organ-meat fiesta of the day before. Betsy was so hungry she got cranky and a bit out of sorts, not very good.
ADDENDA: I didn't have any snacks til bed!!
Sunday, August 12
Stomach in my Stomach (Sunday)
ADDENDA:
I know I loosen up on the food obsession on the weekends, but this was not a normal Sunday - for today was Betsy's bridal shower, and I had no idea of what that entailed, food or otherwise...
BREAKFAST: 10am, 3 pancakes and 3 pieces bacon, hunger 4/5.
Residual hunger from yesterday's ride, good thick sleep. This was my opportunity to make pancakes from scratch for Betsy and her mom, experimented with adding more milk and whipping the eggs in the mixer, they came out fantastic (my horn: toot toot!) Really good vibe to cook for B's mom. When my mom was ill and I was taking care of her, I made pancakes and bacon often, it reminded us of when my dad would cook breakfast.
AM SNACK: 11:30am, medium wedge of watermelon, hunger 3/5.
B and Momma gone, alone. B implied there would be food at the bridal thing, so I resisted eating a full lunch.
PM SNACKS: 2-4pm, a few crustless finger sandwiches, fancy chocolate cookies, a piece of coconut cake, a little mozz & tomato salad, a few bites of a gingerman cookie, a few chocolate pocky, a couple of glasses of seltzer.
When I nervously entered B's cousin's house (Hi Cathy! Hi Janet!), Momma quickly grabbed me by the arm and threw me to the wolves, but not before an impromptu photo session. Someone behind me stuck a gingerbread man cookie in my hand, and not knowing the significance of it, promptly bit it's arm off - I was hungry! A few crustly sandwiches, some yummy cookies, the gourmet fumes of a party well presented. The meet n' greet aspect, like a bike ride, kept my stomach tight n' quiet, fortunately, but the sweets did give me a headache after a bit. I found there was a matching bride-cookie, uneaten - doh! Good thing I didn't eat the head. The paraplegic groom and the well-dressed bride cookie came home with me and B.
On two side notes, I was surprised when Janet told me she was reading this blog. A) I haven't really advertised it, but I keep in public to help me stay honest and B) it's kinda boring, isn't it? But it was really nice talking to her about it and her own diet dilemmas. I told her that I obsess about everything that goes into my mouth here, on my blog, so I don't have to obsess about it at all other times - that never really occurred to me till it popped out of my mouth! And on a second side note, during a conversation with another about the diet this person ate to lose weight, she mentioned something called 'diet bread'. That gave me the heeby-jeebies on a few different levels. Not quite sure why yet, but maybe I'll work it with Ilsa!
LUNCH: 6pm, 3/4 of potato spinach kinish with mustard. 3/4 of a can of diet Sprite.
Not starving, but knew I was going to be hungry soon, and dinner wouldn't be until later. This was the last can of Sprite in the house, couldn't finish it because it just tasted.....thin and chemically bitter under a false sweetness.
DINNER: 9:45pm, (add the adjective 'wonderful to al the following) a few pieces of bread, 2 marinated chickpea bruschetta, a large portion of warm tripe a la parmegiano, a bit of green salad, a fistful of tender cold green and white beans, beef cheek ravioli with truffles and a goose liver reduction, pistachio chocolate semifreddo, 5 little samplings of different sorbets, one glass presseco, lots of water.
This was a meal to remember, to celebrate life with, to bond with and recognize life-long friends. My BFF Tamar took me out to a dinner of my choice to celebrate the end of my bachelorhood, as she originally couldn't make my bachelor party. I was a bit tentative about choosing a restaurant, as Tamar is a strict vegan (she eats no animal products what-so-ever). I love and respect that about her, and enjoy changing up and eating vegan-friendly when I'm out with her, but if given a choice of any restaurant, it'll by default probably involve tasty animals.
So I threw out Babbo, Batali's premier spot, and she scored reservations. I've never been, and had an idea of what to expect judging from his television shows, writings, cook books and interviews I've taken in over the years. I did know I would have to eat stuff I didn't normally go for, and that stuff would not be shared with Tamar. I know Ilsa wants me to expand my palate, but I don't think this is what she had in mind.
Everything was exceptionally fresh and well presented. The waiter was mercifully totally prepared to arrange a menu to suite Tamar's needs, and she was pleased as punch, which made the shared enjoyment of this meal more so. Uhhh, pleasing. The green bean appetiser was cold, but the beans were blanched then iced to a perfect crisp but not fibrous consistency - I gotta dig up the technique in the cook book. I've never eaten tripe, so this was a challenge. The portion was surprisingly large (I guess it's not flying out of the kitchen!) and looked really good, like little strips of a cross between fajita meat and octopus, bathed in a fresh tomato sauce with just a sprinkling of cheese on top. Putting it in my mouth, my first thought was, "Hmmm, tastes like what a zoo's monkey cage smells like!" - very gamy to the point of funk curling up my nose a little. The feel, the bite of the meet was wonderfully moist and just the right amount of springiness. The grilled bread that came with it cut the funk nicely, and before I knew it the plate was gone, and my stomach was full of stomach. Next time I have Chinatown dimsum, I'm definitely gonna join Danny for a selection of tripes (a cow does have 4 stomachs, after all!)
The beef cheek ravioli is as signature Batali dish, so I had it thinking, hey, how weird can a beef ravioli be? Again, gamey. This cut of meat is very flavorful, and how it was prepared with the liver and truffle seemed to accent the gaminess rather than hide it. The pasta wrapper had a nice bite to it that was similar (but somehow better) than the pasta I've made....something to aspire to.
I didn't know what a semifreddo was (why not just go the whole freddo?) but the pistachio chocolate thing (a pistachio mouse with a chocolate shell over a thin chocolate cookie surrounded by a pistachio sauce) was really good, and thankfully not gamy at all. Despite not eating most of the day, I was beyond stuffed and slowly pedalled my way home. Tamar is da bomb. I hope something good happens to her soon, so I can take her (and B) back there soon.
I know I loosen up on the food obsession on the weekends, but this was not a normal Sunday - for today was Betsy's bridal shower, and I had no idea of what that entailed, food or otherwise...
BREAKFAST: 10am, 3 pancakes and 3 pieces bacon, hunger 4/5.
Residual hunger from yesterday's ride, good thick sleep. This was my opportunity to make pancakes from scratch for Betsy and her mom, experimented with adding more milk and whipping the eggs in the mixer, they came out fantastic (my horn: toot toot!) Really good vibe to cook for B's mom. When my mom was ill and I was taking care of her, I made pancakes and bacon often, it reminded us of when my dad would cook breakfast.
AM SNACK: 11:30am, medium wedge of watermelon, hunger 3/5.
B and Momma gone, alone. B implied there would be food at the bridal thing, so I resisted eating a full lunch.
PM SNACKS: 2-4pm, a few crustless finger sandwiches, fancy chocolate cookies, a piece of coconut cake, a little mozz & tomato salad, a few bites of a gingerman cookie, a few chocolate pocky, a couple of glasses of seltzer.
When I nervously entered B's cousin's house (Hi Cathy! Hi Janet!), Momma quickly grabbed me by the arm and threw me to the wolves, but not before an impromptu photo session. Someone behind me stuck a gingerbread man cookie in my hand, and not knowing the significance of it, promptly bit it's arm off - I was hungry! A few crustly sandwiches, some yummy cookies, the gourmet fumes of a party well presented. The meet n' greet aspect, like a bike ride, kept my stomach tight n' quiet, fortunately, but the sweets did give me a headache after a bit. I found there was a matching bride-cookie, uneaten - doh! Good thing I didn't eat the head. The paraplegic groom and the well-dressed bride cookie came home with me and B.
On two side notes, I was surprised when Janet told me she was reading this blog. A) I haven't really advertised it, but I keep in public to help me stay honest and B) it's kinda boring, isn't it? But it was really nice talking to her about it and her own diet dilemmas. I told her that I obsess about everything that goes into my mouth here, on my blog, so I don't have to obsess about it at all other times - that never really occurred to me till it popped out of my mouth! And on a second side note, during a conversation with another about the diet this person ate to lose weight, she mentioned something called 'diet bread'. That gave me the heeby-jeebies on a few different levels. Not quite sure why yet, but maybe I'll work it with Ilsa!
LUNCH: 6pm, 3/4 of potato spinach kinish with mustard. 3/4 of a can of diet Sprite.
Not starving, but knew I was going to be hungry soon, and dinner wouldn't be until later. This was the last can of Sprite in the house, couldn't finish it because it just tasted.....thin and chemically bitter under a false sweetness.
DINNER: 9:45pm, (add the adjective 'wonderful to al the following) a few pieces of bread, 2 marinated chickpea bruschetta, a large portion of warm tripe a la parmegiano, a bit of green salad, a fistful of tender cold green and white beans, beef cheek ravioli with truffles and a goose liver reduction, pistachio chocolate semifreddo, 5 little samplings of different sorbets, one glass presseco, lots of water.
This was a meal to remember, to celebrate life with, to bond with and recognize life-long friends. My BFF Tamar took me out to a dinner of my choice to celebrate the end of my bachelorhood, as she originally couldn't make my bachelor party. I was a bit tentative about choosing a restaurant, as Tamar is a strict vegan (she eats no animal products what-so-ever). I love and respect that about her, and enjoy changing up and eating vegan-friendly when I'm out with her, but if given a choice of any restaurant, it'll by default probably involve tasty animals.
So I threw out Babbo, Batali's premier spot, and she scored reservations. I've never been, and had an idea of what to expect judging from his television shows, writings, cook books and interviews I've taken in over the years. I did know I would have to eat stuff I didn't normally go for, and that stuff would not be shared with Tamar. I know Ilsa wants me to expand my palate, but I don't think this is what she had in mind.
Everything was exceptionally fresh and well presented. The waiter was mercifully totally prepared to arrange a menu to suite Tamar's needs, and she was pleased as punch, which made the shared enjoyment of this meal more so. Uhhh, pleasing. The green bean appetiser was cold, but the beans were blanched then iced to a perfect crisp but not fibrous consistency - I gotta dig up the technique in the cook book. I've never eaten tripe, so this was a challenge. The portion was surprisingly large (I guess it's not flying out of the kitchen!) and looked really good, like little strips of a cross between fajita meat and octopus, bathed in a fresh tomato sauce with just a sprinkling of cheese on top. Putting it in my mouth, my first thought was, "Hmmm, tastes like what a zoo's monkey cage smells like!" - very gamy to the point of funk curling up my nose a little. The feel, the bite of the meet was wonderfully moist and just the right amount of springiness. The grilled bread that came with it cut the funk nicely, and before I knew it the plate was gone, and my stomach was full of stomach. Next time I have Chinatown dimsum, I'm definitely gonna join Danny for a selection of tripes (a cow does have 4 stomachs, after all!)
The beef cheek ravioli is as signature Batali dish, so I had it thinking, hey, how weird can a beef ravioli be? Again, gamey. This cut of meat is very flavorful, and how it was prepared with the liver and truffle seemed to accent the gaminess rather than hide it. The pasta wrapper had a nice bite to it that was similar (but somehow better) than the pasta I've made....something to aspire to.
I didn't know what a semifreddo was (why not just go the whole freddo?) but the pistachio chocolate thing (a pistachio mouse with a chocolate shell over a thin chocolate cookie surrounded by a pistachio sauce) was really good, and thankfully not gamy at all. Despite not eating most of the day, I was beyond stuffed and slowly pedalled my way home. Tamar is da bomb. I hope something good happens to her soon, so I can take her (and B) back there soon.
Apple Turnovers from Heaven (Saturday)
ADDENDA:
I woke at 5am to make a 6:20 train to Garrison with my road bike. Off the train at 8, my lungs were burning and my legs were screaming about five minutes later as I pushed my way up the steep grade from river to hilltop. Three miles east lay my parent's gravesite, which I visited and had a good cry and an outloud conversation, saying things I would of taken great pleasure in saying to them if they were here.
Thing is, I did this journey a few weeks before I left for my cross country bikeride - I wanted to attack and climb the hills of the Hudson Valley to get me ready for the climbs of the California mountains and Ozarks. This time I went more to commune with the folks, get my head clear as we come closer to my wedding day.
On the previous ride, I distinctly remember my hunger and what I ate - a slice of pizza outside of Croton-Harmon and a big plate of Chinese food around Irvington. Add to that a huge case of the runs in the public bathroom outside the 1 train in Van Cordlant Park.... This time, my mood was more....serene. The ride went by in a flash, the hills weren't as challenging as I remember (bumps compared to the Ozarks) and what I ate was considerably different....
BREAKFAST #1: 5:30am, toasted bagel with good butter, hunger 2/5. Not hungry, but too early to buy donuts. Even Dunkin' doesn't open till 6am.
BREAKFAST #2: 10am, BLT bagel, bag of linden cookies (lots of water), hunger 3/5. Outside the graveyard at Adams Corner's, me and mom ate snacks here several times when we visited my father. The smell of bacon tempted me. This is the first time having conventional bacon in a while, and I was kinda surprised how much I didn't like it - salty to the point of unpleasantness, it actually interfered with the porky, smokey flavor that makes bacon so good.
AM SNACK: 11:30ish, swig of fizzy water (lots of water). Ilsa gave me a packet of something as an alternative to Emergen-C, which I was hoping to use as a low-sodium replacement for Gatorade. Emergenn-C tasted like pee to me. This stuff tasted like burnt pee. I think I'm going to invent my own sports drink involving fresh citrus and apple juices (from a juicer), honey, water etc. Doesn't this Emergen-C stuff come in a pill?
PM SNACK: 1pm, apple turnover (lots of water), hunger 2/5. I passed through a huge farmers market in Peekskill about 10 miles away from Adams Coerns, but I was still bacon-stuffed. Another 20 miles up and down, I was grinding up the hill in Ossening, I remembered the farmers market there from the previous mountain bike ride, but I just was not hungry. As I squeaked past the turnoff, the idea of CIDER DONUTS raced through my mind, and I immediately turned back and shot down the hill. The donut peeps were there, but this time I had a big apple turnover.
Oh man. Growing up, I loved them hostess apple pies, with the little bits of dehydrated white apple in syrupy apple bath enveloped by a flakey crust. As an adult, I rarely eat these, as they're way too sweet and kinda crappy tasting. This apple turnover was the adult version. The crust was light and flakey, encrusted with granulated sugar but more buttery than sweet. The insides was a dark brown apple mush, equal parts sweet and tart, and overwhelmingly apple-y - absolutely no syrup, and didn't need any. I got a good slow sugar rush, that pushed me back up the hill.
PM SNACK: 4:30pm, large wedge of watermelom, hunger 4/5. Taking the train home from Van Cordlant, I realized I had enough energy to ride all the way home, but not enough time. Had a cliff bar on me, but just wasn't hungry. By the time I got home and relaxed, my stomach loosened and my jaw slackened and down went the watermelon. Yum!
PM SNACK: 5:30pm, 3 graham crackers with organic peanutbutter, hunger 4/5. Ravenous.
DINNER: 7:00pm, large mostly vegetarian Ethiopina meal, hunger 4/5. Ate with B and her mom, whose never had Ethiopian food before. Ordered a weird beef n' kale thing to go along with, my muscles were a little burnt and long-chain proteins like beef help quicken recovery.
PM SNACK: 9pm, cherry italian ice, hunger 3/5. Jonesing for sweets, felt good.
PM SNACK: midnight, one bite of gnochi, small bowl of rice crispies and whole milk, hunger 3/5. Hunger from the day's activity reared up again. Tried making some frozen gnochi, but didn't let the water boil and it became an unappetizing porridge. The small bowl of cereal satisfied me.
I woke at 5am to make a 6:20 train to Garrison with my road bike. Off the train at 8, my lungs were burning and my legs were screaming about five minutes later as I pushed my way up the steep grade from river to hilltop. Three miles east lay my parent's gravesite, which I visited and had a good cry and an outloud conversation, saying things I would of taken great pleasure in saying to them if they were here.
Thing is, I did this journey a few weeks before I left for my cross country bikeride - I wanted to attack and climb the hills of the Hudson Valley to get me ready for the climbs of the California mountains and Ozarks. This time I went more to commune with the folks, get my head clear as we come closer to my wedding day.
On the previous ride, I distinctly remember my hunger and what I ate - a slice of pizza outside of Croton-Harmon and a big plate of Chinese food around Irvington. Add to that a huge case of the runs in the public bathroom outside the 1 train in Van Cordlant Park.... This time, my mood was more....serene. The ride went by in a flash, the hills weren't as challenging as I remember (bumps compared to the Ozarks) and what I ate was considerably different....
BREAKFAST #1: 5:30am, toasted bagel with good butter, hunger 2/5. Not hungry, but too early to buy donuts. Even Dunkin' doesn't open till 6am.
BREAKFAST #2: 10am, BLT bagel, bag of linden cookies (lots of water), hunger 3/5. Outside the graveyard at Adams Corner's, me and mom ate snacks here several times when we visited my father. The smell of bacon tempted me. This is the first time having conventional bacon in a while, and I was kinda surprised how much I didn't like it - salty to the point of unpleasantness, it actually interfered with the porky, smokey flavor that makes bacon so good.
AM SNACK: 11:30ish, swig of fizzy water (lots of water). Ilsa gave me a packet of something as an alternative to Emergen-C, which I was hoping to use as a low-sodium replacement for Gatorade. Emergenn-C tasted like pee to me. This stuff tasted like burnt pee. I think I'm going to invent my own sports drink involving fresh citrus and apple juices (from a juicer), honey, water etc. Doesn't this Emergen-C stuff come in a pill?
PM SNACK: 1pm, apple turnover (lots of water), hunger 2/5. I passed through a huge farmers market in Peekskill about 10 miles away from Adams Coerns, but I was still bacon-stuffed. Another 20 miles up and down, I was grinding up the hill in Ossening, I remembered the farmers market there from the previous mountain bike ride, but I just was not hungry. As I squeaked past the turnoff, the idea of CIDER DONUTS raced through my mind, and I immediately turned back and shot down the hill. The donut peeps were there, but this time I had a big apple turnover.
Oh man. Growing up, I loved them hostess apple pies, with the little bits of dehydrated white apple in syrupy apple bath enveloped by a flakey crust. As an adult, I rarely eat these, as they're way too sweet and kinda crappy tasting. This apple turnover was the adult version. The crust was light and flakey, encrusted with granulated sugar but more buttery than sweet. The insides was a dark brown apple mush, equal parts sweet and tart, and overwhelmingly apple-y - absolutely no syrup, and didn't need any. I got a good slow sugar rush, that pushed me back up the hill.
PM SNACK: 4:30pm, large wedge of watermelom, hunger 4/5. Taking the train home from Van Cordlant, I realized I had enough energy to ride all the way home, but not enough time. Had a cliff bar on me, but just wasn't hungry. By the time I got home and relaxed, my stomach loosened and my jaw slackened and down went the watermelon. Yum!
PM SNACK: 5:30pm, 3 graham crackers with organic peanutbutter, hunger 4/5. Ravenous.
DINNER: 7:00pm, large mostly vegetarian Ethiopina meal, hunger 4/5. Ate with B and her mom, whose never had Ethiopian food before. Ordered a weird beef n' kale thing to go along with, my muscles were a little burnt and long-chain proteins like beef help quicken recovery.
PM SNACK: 9pm, cherry italian ice, hunger 3/5. Jonesing for sweets, felt good.
PM SNACK: midnight, one bite of gnochi, small bowl of rice crispies and whole milk, hunger 3/5. Hunger from the day's activity reared up again. Tried making some frozen gnochi, but didn't let the water boil and it became an unappetizing porridge. The small bowl of cereal satisfied me.
Friday, August 10
Eatin' Like I Mean It
ADDENDA: Summer friday off work, too rainy to ride. Laundry, food shopping, cooking....
BREAKFAST: 10am, pancakes and 4 pieces bacon, a little seltzer, hunger 4/5. Experimented with adding more milk for a thinner pancake, much better. Also, paying attention to WHY this is good, I could taste everything clearly, milk, eggs, flour, the butter it was cooked in. Wolkfing down pancakes from mix, you pay too much attention and you notice the weird industrial flavors....
LUNCH: 1:15pm, whole wheat totinni with pesto and sauted mushrooms, lemon seltzer, hunger 4/5. Went to pathmark for groceries just before, thought to look for lunch too. Felt like pasta, but on Ilsa's advice, thought it best to experiment with whole wheat. Only two brands had whole wheat versions, Barilla had a 'whole wheat blend' which involved plain white flour, eggs and a chemical mix of vitamins. Only Renzi, imported from Italy, was just plain whole wheat semolina, period. Not even water! Made it, not as bad as I remember, still there was a certain iffiness to it's chew. Can try boiling it an extra minute next time.
PM SNACK: 2:15pm, cherry italian ice, hunger 2/5. Craving sugar.
DINNER: 7pm, pork over cold rice noodles, a vegetable dumpling and a piece of grilled eggplant, hunger 4/5. Not enough food.
EVENING SNACK: 9pm, 2 donuts from dunkin' donuts, hunger 4/5. Craving sugar. Hungry. Worried about effecting tomorrow's ride.
BREAKFAST: 10am, pancakes and 4 pieces bacon, a little seltzer, hunger 4/5. Experimented with adding more milk for a thinner pancake, much better. Also, paying attention to WHY this is good, I could taste everything clearly, milk, eggs, flour, the butter it was cooked in. Wolkfing down pancakes from mix, you pay too much attention and you notice the weird industrial flavors....
LUNCH: 1:15pm, whole wheat totinni with pesto and sauted mushrooms, lemon seltzer, hunger 4/5. Went to pathmark for groceries just before, thought to look for lunch too. Felt like pasta, but on Ilsa's advice, thought it best to experiment with whole wheat. Only two brands had whole wheat versions, Barilla had a 'whole wheat blend' which involved plain white flour, eggs and a chemical mix of vitamins. Only Renzi, imported from Italy, was just plain whole wheat semolina, period. Not even water! Made it, not as bad as I remember, still there was a certain iffiness to it's chew. Can try boiling it an extra minute next time.
PM SNACK: 2:15pm, cherry italian ice, hunger 2/5. Craving sugar.
DINNER: 7pm, pork over cold rice noodles, a vegetable dumpling and a piece of grilled eggplant, hunger 4/5. Not enough food.
EVENING SNACK: 9pm, 2 donuts from dunkin' donuts, hunger 4/5. Craving sugar. Hungry. Worried about effecting tomorrow's ride.
Thursday, August 9
Binge-man Vs. Breakfast Zero
BREAKFAST ZERO: Last night I was determined not to eat any sweets or snacks. Ilsa said at some point I'm going to have to sacrifice to see any changes. This french fry ban is fine, but I'm not a big french fry dude. Obviously, my sweets intake is driven by something big.
I felt fine at 10:30 when I got home, though I heard the dulche gelato kind of calling me. I didn't say anything, but it must of been written on my face, because Betsy sweetly asked me to not eat gelato so late at night. Part of me wanted to eat some just so she didn't think I wasn't eating it because she told me not to. But if I ate some, I'd have to write about it here, and how lame is that? So I showered, watched some TV, read more in the food-education book, put myself down around 12:30.....hungry, easily 4/5.
I remembered how when I travelled Europe by backpack, my food intake dropped drastically because of the language barrier, lack of cash and the lack of an open kitchen to graze in late at night in youth hostels. I went to sleep hungry often, because I had no choice. I lost weight. But now, 1:30am and staring at the ceiling, wide awake....I'm of the theory that if you can't sleep, you should get out of bed and do something till you feel like sleeping....but all I wanted to do was eat! Eat gelato.
So I got up to zoom in on the boob tube, and it occured to me. Weekends I can loosen up a bit and indulge. But 5 work days, I have eat in a more goal-oriented way. It's 2 in the morning. Rather than snack, let's do breakfast. Breakfast Zero! Toasted a garlic bagel, slathered it in the good butter. Enjoyed eating it. Clock said 2:12. Still hungry. Want more. This is the begining of a binge, I thought. OK, I will wait 8 minutes, and after those 8 minutes, I'll eat gelato. For the first 2 minutes, my eye kept wandering to the time, but then the TV distracted me and all of a sudden it was 2:30. Huh. Felt sleepy, went to bed. In the battle of binge vs. breakfast zero, zero won. I had a small twinge of pride - I didn't avoid late eating, but I did go waking hours without sweets.
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, large bowl of hot oatmeal and a small banana, small amount of lime seltzer, hunger 3/5. Would of been hungrier, but was groggy and not feeling too hot. The organic oatmeal had no discernable difference than the usual Quaker Oats. I put in a pinch of sea salt and a pinch of evaporated cane suger - noticed it tasted too salty! Need butter and maybe milk next time. Banana was oddly satisfying, maybe my body is in a bit of a sweets-riot mood?
AM SNACK: 10am, 24 oz still water, mint.
LUNCH: 12:30, turkey and swiss on whole wheat, big bag of sunchips, hunger 4/5. At the deli accross the street, the smallest bag od sunchips was the 99cent bag, but the whole bag had 20% daily sodium, which for a pile of chips is low. When I ordered the sandwich, the counter person asked, "fresh turkey?" to which I said yes - it was real baked sliced turkey breast, not a salty pressed mess! It was a little dry and stringy, but tasted pretty salt-free. And only 2 slices of cheese, so what I thought would be a salt-bomb of a lunch was actually pretty reasonable. An hour later in a meeting, I found myself having energy and felt good.
PM SNACK: 5:15pm, 6 lindens cookies, hunger 4.5/5. Feeling very tired, groggy, very hungry, slammed by meeting all day. Almost went for a haagen dazz bar, but thought I should save ice cream for the good gelatto. Lindens are not organic, but at least they're baked in NYS. About 10x more ingredients than the organic cookies, and now that I'm payiing more attention to them, they leave a slightly unpleasant bitter feeling in my mouth after eat them which I don't get from the organic cookie. Hmmm. Wanted this snack because I'm going to Trader Joes after work to pick up something to go with the corn, didn't want to be starving...
DINNER: 8pm, sauted shrimp and mushrooms, sweet corn on the cob, gelatto. Hunger 3/5. Fun cooking raw frozen shrimp from trader joes, in a simple preparation of butter, garlic, lime juice and tabasco (and a dash of sea salt) - for some reason I never ooked shrimp, it was surprisingly easy, encouraged by the instructions on the bag. I want to learn how to peel and devein myuself, so I can get frsh from chinatown. The sweet corn from the farmers market was horrible, not sweet and a little gummy. Gelatto ruled as usual.
I felt fine at 10:30 when I got home, though I heard the dulche gelato kind of calling me. I didn't say anything, but it must of been written on my face, because Betsy sweetly asked me to not eat gelato so late at night. Part of me wanted to eat some just so she didn't think I wasn't eating it because she told me not to. But if I ate some, I'd have to write about it here, and how lame is that? So I showered, watched some TV, read more in the food-education book, put myself down around 12:30.....hungry, easily 4/5.
I remembered how when I travelled Europe by backpack, my food intake dropped drastically because of the language barrier, lack of cash and the lack of an open kitchen to graze in late at night in youth hostels. I went to sleep hungry often, because I had no choice. I lost weight. But now, 1:30am and staring at the ceiling, wide awake....I'm of the theory that if you can't sleep, you should get out of bed and do something till you feel like sleeping....but all I wanted to do was eat! Eat gelato.
So I got up to zoom in on the boob tube, and it occured to me. Weekends I can loosen up a bit and indulge. But 5 work days, I have eat in a more goal-oriented way. It's 2 in the morning. Rather than snack, let's do breakfast. Breakfast Zero! Toasted a garlic bagel, slathered it in the good butter. Enjoyed eating it. Clock said 2:12. Still hungry. Want more. This is the begining of a binge, I thought. OK, I will wait 8 minutes, and after those 8 minutes, I'll eat gelato. For the first 2 minutes, my eye kept wandering to the time, but then the TV distracted me and all of a sudden it was 2:30. Huh. Felt sleepy, went to bed. In the battle of binge vs. breakfast zero, zero won. I had a small twinge of pride - I didn't avoid late eating, but I did go waking hours without sweets.
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, large bowl of hot oatmeal and a small banana, small amount of lime seltzer, hunger 3/5. Would of been hungrier, but was groggy and not feeling too hot. The organic oatmeal had no discernable difference than the usual Quaker Oats. I put in a pinch of sea salt and a pinch of evaporated cane suger - noticed it tasted too salty! Need butter and maybe milk next time. Banana was oddly satisfying, maybe my body is in a bit of a sweets-riot mood?
AM SNACK: 10am, 24 oz still water, mint.
LUNCH: 12:30, turkey and swiss on whole wheat, big bag of sunchips, hunger 4/5. At the deli accross the street, the smallest bag od sunchips was the 99cent bag, but the whole bag had 20% daily sodium, which for a pile of chips is low. When I ordered the sandwich, the counter person asked, "fresh turkey?" to which I said yes - it was real baked sliced turkey breast, not a salty pressed mess! It was a little dry and stringy, but tasted pretty salt-free. And only 2 slices of cheese, so what I thought would be a salt-bomb of a lunch was actually pretty reasonable. An hour later in a meeting, I found myself having energy and felt good.
PM SNACK: 5:15pm, 6 lindens cookies, hunger 4.5/5. Feeling very tired, groggy, very hungry, slammed by meeting all day. Almost went for a haagen dazz bar, but thought I should save ice cream for the good gelatto. Lindens are not organic, but at least they're baked in NYS. About 10x more ingredients than the organic cookies, and now that I'm payiing more attention to them, they leave a slightly unpleasant bitter feeling in my mouth after eat them which I don't get from the organic cookie. Hmmm. Wanted this snack because I'm going to Trader Joes after work to pick up something to go with the corn, didn't want to be starving...
DINNER: 8pm, sauted shrimp and mushrooms, sweet corn on the cob, gelatto. Hunger 3/5. Fun cooking raw frozen shrimp from trader joes, in a simple preparation of butter, garlic, lime juice and tabasco (and a dash of sea salt) - for some reason I never ooked shrimp, it was surprisingly easy, encouraged by the instructions on the bag. I want to learn how to peel and devein myuself, so I can get frsh from chinatown. The sweet corn from the farmers market was horrible, not sweet and a little gummy. Gelatto ruled as usual.
Wednesday, August 8
Soy 'Milk' is gross.
ADDENDA: Wore my il lab T-shirt to work today. Lordy, thats some good stuff. Ten pint tops get a free t-shirt. We're working on one for Betsy right now. Sorry, Ilsa.BREAKFAST: 8:30am, bowl of cornflakes with unsweetened soy milk, hunger 3/5. Even though I got the good milk yesterday, I forgot about the oatmeal, and now that I think about it, some bananas would rock a breakfast, too, and maybe help with the sweets thing. I still have this unsweetened soy milk in stock, and it would feel dumb to throw it away, so I had it with the cereal. It's kinda like slightly chalky water, now that I really focus on what it tastes like, and especially after eating cereal with the good milk last week.
AM SNACK: 10am, 24 oz still water, mint, hunger 3/5. Hot out. My breakfast wasn't big enough. I think that's a constant problem. Maybe I should have a second breakfast, like I have multiple lunches? Maybe something I can regularly pack?
LUNCH: Noon, falafel 'platter', shrimp & rice platter, hunger 4/5. Went out for falafel, felt like I needed something more substantial than just a sandwich. Got the so-called platter, which was just the sandwich packaged in it's individual components, with a little more lettuce. Walking back, saw the good lamb cart, got their nicely spiced shrimp with veg and basmanti, brought it back to the office. Now feel really full, in a good way. As I was walking between the carts, I thought about what I craved specifically....not sweets, it was a craving but also a stomach-clenched hunger....I craved carbs! Rice, potatoes, pasta, heavy starch. Weird, never thought of it that way. Maybe because I skipped out on a heavy starch last night?
PM SNACK: 2:30pm, organic chocolate chip cookie, 24 oz still water. hunger 2/5. Big lunch is sitting in my stomach nicely, but the cravings for sugar came on strong. These mad moose products are too sweet, which is odd, as they are not fat-free or something dumb like that. Like the person who formulated the recipe wasn't confident that the quality of their ingredients wouldn't shine, so they've decided to mask it by knocking you out with sweetness. About 30 minutes after this cookie, got a headache...
DINNER: 7:15pm, large cold sesame noodles, large spinach salad, hunger 4/5. Quick dinner at Dojo before the movie. The carrot ginger dressing tasted salty, used it sparingly. Ordered a big mass of noodles on purpose, see how it would make me feel, how it would satiate me. Well, I felt fine through dinner and when I went to Whole Foods on the way home to pick up oatmeal and bananas, I didn't feel like buyinig any sweets.
Tuesday, August 7
Sweets Memory
ADDENDA:
Over the ice cream cone after lunch #2 today, I was thinking about my sweet tooth, which impresses Ilsa so strongly. Part of it is physiological, undoubtedly, but part of it is emotional, going back to the gooey Parental memories. I only have really strongly positive and really strongly negative memories when it comes to sweets. I remember going to Clove Lake Park with my mom and brother when I was a little kid and she got us soft-serve ice cream cones. I remember mine was a swirl of chocolate and vanilla, and absolutely huge, as big as my head, and I ate every bite. Another was again with my mom and brother, outside of a shopping strip, and a woman was giving out free samples of Twix, which was a new candy bar then. I remember sitting in the car with my mom and brother, eating those small candy bars, wishing I had another but really enjoying it - a candy bar not only with the approval of my mom, but actually eating one with her.
I guess those are really the only two purely positive memories of sweets. Most of my memories involve sneaking cookies and brownies from the cupboard, and hoping my parents wouldn't find out. And I remember finding my dad's stash of candy and chocolate in his office at the top of our house - it had the same excitement as finding a stash of porn (but that's a conversation for a different kind of blog, he he). He too had a massive sweet tooth that my mom didn't approve of or indulge. My dad had vague memories of the sweet shops of his childhood in Vienna, which are famous for all sorts of cream cakes and tarts. I snuck candy (sno-caps: my first encounter with dark chocolate!) from my dad's shelf. Chocolate, sweets craving, love, guilt, all mixed in a sloppy stew.
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, toasted sesame bagel with hummus, hunger 4/5. Woke up hungry, thought about making the last of the bacon but felt lazy. Wanted something heavy, realized I was out of oatmeal. Wah! Mmmm, oatmeal with butter n' bacon!!
AM SNACK: 11am, 24 oz water, mint, hunger 3/5. How is an altoid any different than a lifesaver, really? They're like the rounds left over from making the holes in the lifesavers.
LUNCH #1: 12:15pm, large green salad n' dressing, hunger 4/5. Brought in from home
LUNCH #2: 1:15pm, lamb pita and a chocolate cone, hunger 4/5. From my favorite cart on 45th and 6th, where the chef used to cook at the Russian Tea Room. I was paying attention to it's flavor - it tastes VERY strong and full bodied and, uh, tasty, but only tastes a little salty. Does this mean it has only a little salt in it, or was it the hand of skilled chef who used a large amount of salt appropriately?
PM SNACK: 4:45, samosa chat, hunger 4/5. After making plans to go to Whole Food to pick up groceries and make a healthy fun dinner for me & B, I realized it would be almost 4 hours till then, so I went out looking for something more than a snack, less than a meal. First thing that popped into my mind was PIZZA, but then I thought I should save the indulgence for salty 'za when the 'za is something special, not just to get me through the day. The second thought was FRIES, from McDonalds, very convenient if not a little evil, then I remembered fries have been sacrificed. So I went by the Indian joint on 46th, usually packed out with people, nice and empty - so I ordered something from the kitchen instead of the trays. Two fried potato samosa with chickpeas in a weird white sweetish and red vinegar sauce. Still felt hungry after eating it, thought of more ice cream or a cookie. Ten minutes later, it passed.
DINNER: 7:45pm, breaded sea scallops with bacon, steamed asparagus, corn on the cob, small bowl gelato, hunger 4/5. Went a-shoppin' at Whole Foods and got asparagus, and sweet corn too as a backup incase it wasn't good. Found simple directions online, steamed the aspargus for 10 minutes. The first few spears were ok to good, but I noticed they got mushier as they sat on the plate - AH, that's why they give this kind of stuff an ice bath on TV! The corn is in season and amazing, I could eat it everyday. I think I just might try that....corn n' mints all day long....I found a recipe for baked sea scallops on line, which involved an egg and bacon - two ingredients I had. Made the bread crumbs in the blender with a roll, they came out really good, a lot of fun to make. No salt in the recipe, other than what came off the lower-sodium bacon.
EVENING SNACK: 10pm, small bowl gelator, hunger 3/5. I wasn't in the mood for sweet right after dinner, but Betsy HAD to have some, so I ate along with her. A few hours later, I was in the mood. Dulche de Leche flavor, oh my.
EVENING SNACK: 11pm, small amount of saltless pretzels, hunger 2/5. Why did I eat this? I was feeling restless....
Over the ice cream cone after lunch #2 today, I was thinking about my sweet tooth, which impresses Ilsa so strongly. Part of it is physiological, undoubtedly, but part of it is emotional, going back to the gooey Parental memories. I only have really strongly positive and really strongly negative memories when it comes to sweets. I remember going to Clove Lake Park with my mom and brother when I was a little kid and she got us soft-serve ice cream cones. I remember mine was a swirl of chocolate and vanilla, and absolutely huge, as big as my head, and I ate every bite. Another was again with my mom and brother, outside of a shopping strip, and a woman was giving out free samples of Twix, which was a new candy bar then. I remember sitting in the car with my mom and brother, eating those small candy bars, wishing I had another but really enjoying it - a candy bar not only with the approval of my mom, but actually eating one with her.
I guess those are really the only two purely positive memories of sweets. Most of my memories involve sneaking cookies and brownies from the cupboard, and hoping my parents wouldn't find out. And I remember finding my dad's stash of candy and chocolate in his office at the top of our house - it had the same excitement as finding a stash of porn (but that's a conversation for a different kind of blog, he he). He too had a massive sweet tooth that my mom didn't approve of or indulge. My dad had vague memories of the sweet shops of his childhood in Vienna, which are famous for all sorts of cream cakes and tarts. I snuck candy (sno-caps: my first encounter with dark chocolate!) from my dad's shelf. Chocolate, sweets craving, love, guilt, all mixed in a sloppy stew.
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, toasted sesame bagel with hummus, hunger 4/5. Woke up hungry, thought about making the last of the bacon but felt lazy. Wanted something heavy, realized I was out of oatmeal. Wah! Mmmm, oatmeal with butter n' bacon!!
AM SNACK: 11am, 24 oz water, mint, hunger 3/5. How is an altoid any different than a lifesaver, really? They're like the rounds left over from making the holes in the lifesavers.
LUNCH #1: 12:15pm, large green salad n' dressing, hunger 4/5. Brought in from home
LUNCH #2: 1:15pm, lamb pita and a chocolate cone, hunger 4/5. From my favorite cart on 45th and 6th, where the chef used to cook at the Russian Tea Room. I was paying attention to it's flavor - it tastes VERY strong and full bodied and, uh, tasty, but only tastes a little salty. Does this mean it has only a little salt in it, or was it the hand of skilled chef who used a large amount of salt appropriately?
PM SNACK: 4:45, samosa chat, hunger 4/5. After making plans to go to Whole Food to pick up groceries and make a healthy fun dinner for me & B, I realized it would be almost 4 hours till then, so I went out looking for something more than a snack, less than a meal. First thing that popped into my mind was PIZZA, but then I thought I should save the indulgence for salty 'za when the 'za is something special, not just to get me through the day. The second thought was FRIES, from McDonalds, very convenient if not a little evil, then I remembered fries have been sacrificed. So I went by the Indian joint on 46th, usually packed out with people, nice and empty - so I ordered something from the kitchen instead of the trays. Two fried potato samosa with chickpeas in a weird white sweetish and red vinegar sauce. Still felt hungry after eating it, thought of more ice cream or a cookie. Ten minutes later, it passed.
DINNER: 7:45pm, breaded sea scallops with bacon, steamed asparagus, corn on the cob, small bowl gelato, hunger 4/5. Went a-shoppin' at Whole Foods and got asparagus, and sweet corn too as a backup incase it wasn't good. Found simple directions online, steamed the aspargus for 10 minutes. The first few spears were ok to good, but I noticed they got mushier as they sat on the plate - AH, that's why they give this kind of stuff an ice bath on TV! The corn is in season and amazing, I could eat it everyday. I think I just might try that....corn n' mints all day long....I found a recipe for baked sea scallops on line, which involved an egg and bacon - two ingredients I had. Made the bread crumbs in the blender with a roll, they came out really good, a lot of fun to make. No salt in the recipe, other than what came off the lower-sodium bacon.
EVENING SNACK: 10pm, small bowl gelator, hunger 3/5. I wasn't in the mood for sweet right after dinner, but Betsy HAD to have some, so I ate along with her. A few hours later, I was in the mood. Dulche de Leche flavor, oh my.
EVENING SNACK: 11pm, small amount of saltless pretzels, hunger 2/5. Why did I eat this? I was feeling restless....
Monday, August 6
Minted Monday
ADDENDA: Went by the local greenmarket yesterday afternoon, it was looking a bit anemic, and the lone veg seller had a small, wilty selection. Will try to stop by the world-renowned Union Square green market on the way home for a full salad. I hear they have meats n' other good stuff, too....
BREAKFAST: 8am, one altoids mint, hunger 1/5. Last night's mac n' cheese attack was weighing on me this morning. I wonder how long I can go on mints before needing real food....
AM SNACK: 10am, another mint, hunger 3/5. A little hungry, but bizzy with work. Ah, Ilsa will be thrilled with this nutritional experiment....
LUNCH: 12:45pm, megasoy burritto with black beans, chips and salsa, mint & 24 oz still water. hunger 4/5. Haven't been back to Burrittoville since starting to think about my diet more. I thought it would be much saltier than it was, oddly enough. Eating the corn chips, I started to feel a bit guilty - these are really the equivalent of french fries, aren't they? Was tempted to get an organic cookie when coming into the building, but thought I'd have a mint now, and go for a sweet when I REALLY craved it this afternoon. Got a VERY slight headache after, but I think it's because I haven't been drinking (mint and water eaten after walk back to office)
PM SNACK: 3:30pm, organic chocolate brownie, 24 oz still water, hunger 3/5. Too sweet, this 'Mad Moose' brownie is front loaded with sugar and too light on the dark chocolate. Funny, I'm jonesing for sugar but when I eat this thing, it's too sweet. I bet I can make a much better all-organic brownie....
PM SNACK: 6:30pm. Small handful of saltless pretzels from the green market, hunger 4/5.
DINNER: 7:30pm, large green salad and italian dressing, 2 ears sweet corn with salt, butter, grated cheese, bowl of left over mac n' cheese. Hunger 4/5. We went to the green market in Union Square and bought the ingredients for a glorious salad, wow, it tasted good. The jersey corn tasted like it was injected with sugar, so good and fresh. Unfortunately, it was not enough and I finished last night's mac n' cheese, which again tasted salty.
EVENING SNACK: 9pm. saltless pretzels and peanutbutter, hunger 4/5. Good thing that chocolate wasn't here, or it would of been gone. This snack was Betsy's suggestion, and it did the trick. Got a good night sleep after. No serious sweets!
BREAKFAST: 8am, one altoids mint, hunger 1/5. Last night's mac n' cheese attack was weighing on me this morning. I wonder how long I can go on mints before needing real food....
AM SNACK: 10am, another mint, hunger 3/5. A little hungry, but bizzy with work. Ah, Ilsa will be thrilled with this nutritional experiment....
LUNCH: 12:45pm, megasoy burritto with black beans, chips and salsa, mint & 24 oz still water. hunger 4/5. Haven't been back to Burrittoville since starting to think about my diet more. I thought it would be much saltier than it was, oddly enough. Eating the corn chips, I started to feel a bit guilty - these are really the equivalent of french fries, aren't they? Was tempted to get an organic cookie when coming into the building, but thought I'd have a mint now, and go for a sweet when I REALLY craved it this afternoon. Got a VERY slight headache after, but I think it's because I haven't been drinking (mint and water eaten after walk back to office)
PM SNACK: 3:30pm, organic chocolate brownie, 24 oz still water, hunger 3/5. Too sweet, this 'Mad Moose' brownie is front loaded with sugar and too light on the dark chocolate. Funny, I'm jonesing for sugar but when I eat this thing, it's too sweet. I bet I can make a much better all-organic brownie....
PM SNACK: 6:30pm. Small handful of saltless pretzels from the green market, hunger 4/5.
DINNER: 7:30pm, large green salad and italian dressing, 2 ears sweet corn with salt, butter, grated cheese, bowl of left over mac n' cheese. Hunger 4/5. We went to the green market in Union Square and bought the ingredients for a glorious salad, wow, it tasted good. The jersey corn tasted like it was injected with sugar, so good and fresh. Unfortunately, it was not enough and I finished last night's mac n' cheese, which again tasted salty.
EVENING SNACK: 9pm. saltless pretzels and peanutbutter, hunger 4/5. Good thing that chocolate wasn't here, or it would of been gone. This snack was Betsy's suggestion, and it did the trick. Got a good night sleep after. No serious sweets!
Sunday, August 5
I Coulda Killed Someone with that Chocolate
ADDENDA: Betsy found the kilo of Jaques Torres chocolate, openned it and ate a big piece. That made it irresistable to me - when it was sealed, it was off limits and awaiting baking. Once openned, I found myself craving it more and more. After the second piece, I realized unless it disappeared, it would be chocolate for dinner and breakfast for the next few days. So I tossed it out the window - I couldn't bear to toss such an high quality piece of chocolate in the garbage, as I'd probaby go into the garbage at a later point to dig it out and clean it off.
Almost 5 pounds in block form - if that hit someone, it would of made a heck of a headline in the next day's Post - "DEATH BY CHOCOLATE" "WIFE'S CHOCOLATE CRAVING LEADS TO MAD KILO TOSS", etc. If there is a next time, it'll go in the chute in the hallway to the compactor.
Betsy got me a box of wintergreen altoids mints to help me with my sweets cravings. I'm kinda hesitant to believe in their power as much as Betsy, but I'm willing to give it a shot.
BREAKFAST: 10am, half bagel with good butter, lot of water.
LUNCH #1: Noon, veg dim sum (mock shrimp in rice paper roll, mashed taro tresure boxes, mini sticky rice in lotus leaf, small mixed gluten, red bean thingy, spinach dumpling)
PM SNACK: 1pm, wintergreen altoids mint
LUNCH #2: 4:30pm organic low-sodium bacon on toasted bagel, large square of dark chocolate, seltzer
DINNER #1: 7pm, half a trader joes pizza.
EVENING SNACK: 8pm, half square of chocolate, then out the window!
DINNER #2: 9pm, bowl of Annie's mac n' cheese. Hunger 3/5. Salt fiasco. This box of pasta and sauce powder has been in my cupboard for a while - the entire box (of which I'd usually eat) has about 125% of the daily recommended sodium. I ate half the box, and again, this is the first time I realized how salty it tastes.
Right now, I'm reading How I Learned to Cook, (Witherspoon), a collection of essays by famous chefs. On the way to work, one mentioned when he discovered salt - without it, a steak was just eh, but with it, it brought all the flavors to life. More notably, he cooked steak after steak, starting with a few grains then going up till it was just right and more until it tasted salty instead of good. Hmmm. That mac n' cheese tasted salty more than it tasted good. I'm going to make a simple mac n cheese with whole wheat pasta, lots of good butter, and grate a high quality parmesan for the correct balance of salty cheesiness. It won't be a low-sodium meal, but it'll be a lot less than that box crap.
Almost 5 pounds in block form - if that hit someone, it would of made a heck of a headline in the next day's Post - "DEATH BY CHOCOLATE" "WIFE'S CHOCOLATE CRAVING LEADS TO MAD KILO TOSS", etc. If there is a next time, it'll go in the chute in the hallway to the compactor.
Betsy got me a box of wintergreen altoids mints to help me with my sweets cravings. I'm kinda hesitant to believe in their power as much as Betsy, but I'm willing to give it a shot.
BREAKFAST: 10am, half bagel with good butter, lot of water.
LUNCH #1: Noon, veg dim sum (mock shrimp in rice paper roll, mashed taro tresure boxes, mini sticky rice in lotus leaf, small mixed gluten, red bean thingy, spinach dumpling)
PM SNACK: 1pm, wintergreen altoids mint
LUNCH #2: 4:30pm organic low-sodium bacon on toasted bagel, large square of dark chocolate, seltzer
DINNER #1: 7pm, half a trader joes pizza.
EVENING SNACK: 8pm, half square of chocolate, then out the window!
DINNER #2: 9pm, bowl of Annie's mac n' cheese. Hunger 3/5. Salt fiasco. This box of pasta and sauce powder has been in my cupboard for a while - the entire box (of which I'd usually eat) has about 125% of the daily recommended sodium. I ate half the box, and again, this is the first time I realized how salty it tastes.
Right now, I'm reading How I Learned to Cook, (Witherspoon), a collection of essays by famous chefs. On the way to work, one mentioned when he discovered salt - without it, a steak was just eh, but with it, it brought all the flavors to life. More notably, he cooked steak after steak, starting with a few grains then going up till it was just right and more until it tasted salty instead of good. Hmmm. That mac n' cheese tasted salty more than it tasted good. I'm going to make a simple mac n cheese with whole wheat pasta, lots of good butter, and grate a high quality parmesan for the correct balance of salty cheesiness. It won't be a low-sodium meal, but it'll be a lot less than that box crap.
Saturday, August 4
The Discovery of Pancakes
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.
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.
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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