Ride

Today was the NYC Century, a 100 mile ride in the city sponsored by Transportation Alternatives. This was my first 100 mile ride back in 1999, and my mom and friends met me at the finish line that year, it was quite dramatic. I've only missed it once or twice, once because I was riding my bike cross country, the other time because I was sick or in England or something.

This year it started raining about halfway through, and I ditched after the rain became steady, around 11am. Still, it was a good 70 miles all told, though the food supplied by the organizers was a bit meager. I did find by eating a minimum and taking no longer than 3 minute breaks at the rest stop, my energy level stayed pretty well even. I was feeling the burn by 11am, but mentally I was ready to go on, except for the danger of riding on wet, slick roads with cars -- on a different bike, less of a big deal, but this bike had thin, slick tires that weren't meant for this weather.

The rest of the day was bathing, ordering in Chinese food, dropping in on a neighbor's 1yr old's b-day, and taking it easy with the family.

AM SNACK: 5am, handful of chocolate covered espresso beans
BIKE SNACK: 7:15am, peanut butter on whole wheat bread, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
BIKE SNACK: 9:15am, small bag of potato chips, small cliff bar, a pretzel stick, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
BIKE SNACK: 11am, jelly on wholewheat, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
AM SNACK: 11:15am, slice of pizza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 2pm, shrimp toast, wonton soup, Singapore Chow Mei Fun, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 4pm, espresso ice cream with chocolate sauce, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 4:30pm, small serving of veg lasagna, pasta salad, alcoholic punch, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 8pm, hotdog with sour kraut, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

TCB

Spent the morning at the restaurant taking care of business, visited a neighborhood friend who sells hotdogs and sampled his wares, then met D&E for a movie before hitting up a crappy Mexican restaurant. Got Edie to bed while B got some me-time, and put myself to bed early so I could wake up for the NYC Century the next morning....

Today was September 11th. After 9 years, still feels weird.

AM SNACK: 6:45am, vanilla ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


BREAKFAST: 8am, cinnamon banana buttermilk pancakes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, 2 slice cantaloupe


AM SNACK: 11:45am, hotdog with mayonnaise sauce


PM SNACK: 1:15pm, cherry icee


LUNCH: 4pm, chips & guac, shrimp fajita, 1 beer, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8pm, Stouffer's Frenchbread pizzas, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Laughy

Edie day! After her nap, we rode bikes over to Crifdogs to meet Y, played in Tompkins Square Park, went over to Ben & Jerry's for some sweets, then home. The afternoon of not-quite-healthy eating left me satiated most of the day, and a small bowl of fresh pasta simply prepared topped me off. Edie is getting more smiley, more willful, more walky, more climby and more laughy every day.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, organic cheerios with the good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:30pm, 2 hotdogs, tater tots, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 2:30pm, chocolate ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8pm, small bowl of fresh pasta with olive oil, garlic & parm, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, multigrain tortilla chips & salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

A Hunch

On the bike ride to work, the sun was behind me and I noticed the shadow stretched before me. My shoulders were up, too close to my head, undoubtedly exaggerated by the angle of the sun, but I could feel that they were hunched. The last time I was on a tandem with the HVS, she reached out and grabbed my shoulders and pushed them down. And this past Monday, when B and I went to get back massages, the masseuse did a number on my shoulder-neck muscles that left them sore for a couple of days.

I unhunched my shoulders, sat a little bit taller and forward. Didn't feel natural. But with all this hunching, this can't be a good thing. Any advice on how to break my hunching habit?

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


BRUNCH: 11:30am, meatballs, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4:30pm, nutella and peanut butter


DINNER: 6pm, linguine with crab, a meatball, a little mushroom, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 11pm, hotdog, espresso ice cream, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Damn, ice cream!

B had off today, and before I even left they jetted off to Connecticut to be with family. Not exactly jealous, just wish I could have been on the train with them, then magically appear at work on time. I like train travel. It was odd leaving for work from an empty house, no cute little hobbit to shout "buh buh!!" at me with an uncoordinated little wave. Makes me appreciate how less my life would be if I did not have B&E in it. B&E, that would make a good name for a neighborhood restaurant concept...

Why do I constantly, unendingly, repeatedly write "hunger 4/5" after every entry if it never seems to change? Because the habit of writing it reminds me to ask myself if I was actually hungry when going to eat this item. I was raised to eat on a schedule -- breakfast, lunch, dinner -- without regard to if I was hungry or not. I'm pretty good at eating when hungry and not eating when not hungry, but this is my own constant reminder.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, organic wholegrain cheerios with the good milk, half a banana, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
AM SNACK: 10am, Manhattan Special
LUNCH: 12:30pm, 3 slices Sicilian with mushroom and onion, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 4:45pm, green salad, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 5:15pm, chocolate ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Damn, Jaques Torres has some of the best chocolate ice cream in the world. I sometimes amaze myself because when I make ice cream, it's better than any Haagan Dazz or Ben & Jerkys, but being better than a mass-produced industrial item is not that big of an accomplishment. JT's chocolate ice cream is like mine, in that it clearly is made fresh without gums or preservatives, but his balance of chocolate and the temp it is served at is so crystal clear and pure, my ice cream has only come out a few ways like this by luck, while every time I've gotten ice cream from this place, it's perfect. Damn.

PM SNACK: 6pm, 1 meat ball, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, pizza, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5


EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, multigrain wholewheat bread with nutella, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Saying vs. Doing

Woke up with seriously sore muscles at the base of my neck, from the painful back massage I received yesterday. I assume this is supposed to be good for me...

I wanted to eat breakfast, but I just wasn't hungry. How do I make sure I'm hungry for breakfast? I know it's sound nutritional science that says a big breakfast, a medium lunch, a small dinner and small snacks in between make for the best health, but saying it and DOING it are two different things.

Well, at least

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 11:45am, nutella pizza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I made the rare pizza at the restaurant as the guys set up and prepped. A few chunks of refrigerated nutella, olive oil and salt. The nutella never really spread, it started to char before it could melt. Though it looked a bit gross, it had that burnt-marshmallow caramelized-sugar flavor you get on a smores.

LUNCH: 2:45pm, green salad, sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
After my frustration with a monster 20oz bottle of soda this past weekend, it was nice to sip on a glass 8oz bottle of soda at the 'rant. They're kinda old-timey in terms of both size and shape as well as material, and because of the cold temp of the glass, one could think it tastes different, too. Ironically, this true single-serving bottle has no nutritional info on it, as it's packaged for restaurant sale, not in a market.

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, small plate of roasted potatoes, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 6pm, slice of ricotta pizza, slice of clam pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, slice of pizza, sprite, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, small amount of espresso ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Riding with B

Both B & I had the day off, but still had a baby sitter, so we took off on bikes and trekked through Brooklyn. We ate bagels from La Bagel Delite in Prospect Park, and got lunch at the ball fields in Red Hook. We got messages right before we went home, where my masseuse really did I number on my lower neck -- is this supposed to hurt this much? The HVS came over to hang in the evening, bringing all sorts of snicklesnacks. Edie was in fine form. A good day.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic chex with good milk, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


BREAKFAST 2: 10:30am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese & veg, grape juice "beverage", 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
I grabbed what I thought was juice at the bagel shop, but when I tasted it, hoping for a pure natural taste, I was surprised to find that it kinda tasted like flat grape soda. I looked at the ingredients, and indeed the second ingredient after water was corn syrup -- only 30% juice. After the words "Grape Juice"on the label, it had the word "beverage" right underneath. What a scam.
 



LUNCH: 1pm, shrimp chalupas, roasted corn, tamarind drink, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


SNICKLESNACK: 6pm, rustic bread, a little wine jam, a little olive oil, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, saag paneer & rice, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Bagel Labor

A weird eating day. Woke up at 6 to make a double batch of bagels, as well as mint lemonade, adult lemonade with gin  & lemoncello, churn custard for espresso ice cream and prep bagel condiments. We invited a whole mess of local families to meet us in a local playground for Labor Day brunch, was a lot of good baby vibes, a lot of compliments on the bagels.

Ended up not eating much, and the alcohol made me nap 1-3. Woke up weirdly hungry, and foraged through the cupboard. Yomomma was around all day, so we ordered in Indian, but mine was quite substandard and ended up eating too many donuts.


AM SNACK: 8am, snippet of espresso ice cream


AM SNACK: 10am, most of a 2oz bagel


AM SNACK: 11:45am, bite of bagel, a few cups of mint lemonade, a few cups of mint lemonade with lemoncello and gin, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 3pm, hotdog, a little chips n' salsa, chocolate and good peanut butter, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7pm, a little dry chicken tikka and rice, a little naan, 4 Entemann's donuts, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Soda

While Edie napped, I went to the Hester St Fair for a lobster roll, then a short walk over to East Broadway for some Chinese street food. I found myself desiring grape soda, and I picked up a bottle at a bodega near by. Twenty ounces -- that's more than a pint, and according to the label, 2 & one half servings. Huh? 2.5? This is supposed to serve two and  a half people? In my mind, this is a large single serving, and I think myself a thoughtful person on these matters.

At 130 calories per serving, I drank about half the bottle and tossed the rest. My desire for the soda was the same as a desire for a candy bar, rather than a drink. No way I was going to eat a massive chocolate bar, and no way I was going to drink more than a pint of sugar water. Ick. If there was an 8-oz serving bottle (an actual single serving), I would have bought that, but that ain't the way it is now...I could of bought 20oz of 0 calorie artificially sweetened ick...

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


BREAKFAST 2: 9:30am, onion bagel with butter and tomato, gatorade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2pm, lobster roll, lotus leaf wrap, fishballs with rice noodles, half a bottle of grape soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:30pm, shrimp and white rice, guac & chips, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Bread & Butter

I took B out to dinner this evening while a babysitter squat on Edie. Today we celebrated three years of marriage, and we went to Blue Hill, a restaurant we went to initially to celebrate our engagement. It's all very green and PC, associated with an upstate farm from which it gets most of it's produce. The tomato salad was unremarkable, but tomatoes this season have been a bit fneh in general. I'm not a huge veal guy, but the deliciousness of having such an un-PC item in such an earth-friendly place was just too appetizing to pass up. They really had my number!

But in the end, it's three years with B, and over all it's been a fantastic three years -- and just because of Edie this past year, though that is definitely a high point. B is my Bread & Butter!!


BREAKFAST: 9am, corn muffin, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


BREAKFAST 2: 10:30am, 1/2 a pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and sable, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4pm, a piece a of chocolate


DINNER: 6pm, tomato salad, bread & butter, veal, potatoes and string beans, chocolate bread pudding, a glass of cider, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Vittles

And on the fourth day, God said let there be lots o' Edie! Before B could even get out the door, Edie was in her bike seat jetting off to the supermarket to pick up supplies. My friend V came over and we cooked up some fancy vittles, baked some cookies, took Edles out swingin'. In the eve took care of chores and a loud wife. Looking forward to a long weekend with my family, my bike and my Edie!

BREAKFAST: 8am, iced green tea


AM SNACK: 11am, multigrain tortilla chips with salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:30pm, cod with Parmesan-dill sauce, fennel orange salad, slice of pound cake with orange syrup, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 6pm, 2 slice whole grain bread with chocolate hazelnut spread, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8:30pm, curry chicken, pork fried rice, egg roll, grape soda, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Weigh-in

(227.4 --->) 221.8 ---> 226.8

So while I may be 5 pounds over last month, I'm about a pound less then where I was the month before. I suspected last month was an anomaly due to dehydration and day-to-day variables. I'm still seeing a nice slow downward trend, which is ideal. My wifey and various people say I look thinner, and I do feel a bit lighter, and biking is going swimmingly. I suspect I've gained a little muscle mass in my lower half, too. And there ends the boring weight obsession.

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, chocolate chip cookie, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Stopped by Jacques Torres on the way to work. Not the healthiest way to start, but I was too hungry and it was too early to start wolfing down pizza.

LUNCH: 12:45pm, 2 slices pizza, sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 3:30pm, 3 meatballs, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 5:30pm, green salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 6:15pm, chocolate ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, slice with bacon and maple syrup, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, half a special brownie


EVENING SNACK: midnight, burgers and fries
No comment.


EVENING SNACK: 1am, fresh pasta with pistachio pesto, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Tasting Sodas

Slowish day in the resto. Found myself craving sugar. Hmmm, gotta get back into the habit of drinking water through the day -- a little dehydration can be mistaken for sugar-desire...

BREAKFAST: 8am, 2 banana pancakes, iced green tea, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
AM SNACK: 11:30am, Manhattan Special, snippet of freshly baked bread
Very odd, usually a bottled soda tastes pretty much the same every time, but this morning this espresso soda tasted....better. A little less overwhelmingly sweet, a little more bitter, more balanced. Still too sweet, but nice. It's made locally a few miles away, I know it's a relatively small company, but still, consistency in a product like this is key. Don't they have tasters who test every batch? I imagine dealing with a natural product like coffee beans must call for some tight controls. Maybe this is a new formula to appeal to people like me? I somehow doubt it, usually these kinds of products are dumbed down to appeal to the maximum amount of consumers....

LUNCH: 2pm, 2 slices clam & shrimp pizza, 1 small slice salad pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 3:45pm, roasted potatoes, diet coke, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I experimented with diet soda this past weekend, but I didn't really taste it. I tasted diet coke today, with mindfulness, and was surprised how lackluster it was. The lack of real sugar makes it feel more watery in my mouth, none of that coating clinginess that sugar does that feels good in the mouth but is so bad for the teeth. The sweetness was both too sweet and not sweet enough, artificial tasting compared to the real thing, which is clear and ringing. Nope, definitely not going back to a diet coke habit.

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, green salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 9:45pm, 1 small slice of pizza, sprite, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: midnight, small bowl of cornflakes and dead organic milk, 5 falafel balls with humus, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Recap

Over the weekend, B, E & I rented a car, threw my bike on the back, and went to Greenport on the northern tip of L.I. for a getaway. I road my bike to Montauk Saturday morning, and road in the Northfork Century Sunday morning.

Eating-wise, I let myself go in a slightly different way, drinking a few diet sodas here and there -- it's amazing how highly acidic Fresca is. It's so acidic, citric acid is the second ingredient on the label after carbonated water -- before flavor, before sweetener,  before all the weird-ass ingredients in that grapefruit flavored elixir... anyway, it did not do my body good, all that acid cause a flush of a certain kind, bleah.

On Friday evening, had some nice oysters with dinner. While yes, they are a bit like boogers on the half shell, their salty goodness tastes remarkably how you wish ocean water would taste like -- salty, briny, balanced with a fresh fishiness, a tender bite.

Sunday felt a little off due to the hard ride the day before and the acid working out of my system, and ate relatively light for such a long bike ride. By the end, a little wiped but felt...cleansed.











Today was moderately busy in the restaurant, it went by quickly, and after last week's rain washout, thank goodness.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, iced green tea, good yogurt with honey and vanilla, banana, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, 3 slices white Sicilian with bacon & onion, sprite, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 2:45pm, cranberry lime soda
PM SNACK: 4:15pm, small slice of pizza
PM SNACK: 4:45pm, green salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6pm,cranberry lime soda


PM SNACK: 8pm, vanilla cream soda

DINNER: 10pm, 1 slice white pizza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Cooking

Me n' Edles went to Wholefoods in the morning to collect what was needed for the evening meal, and I sample some prepared foods as I hadn't had a real breakfast, bleah. My friend V came over around noon and we prepped the evening meal, as well as bang out a tray of special brownies.

D & has new gal (which he is moving to Portland for) came over for dinner. Started with thick cut heirloom tomatoes and vidalia onion, served with a tomato-based "steak" sauce that replicated Peter Luger's. The entree was fresh linguine with a pistachio pesto, and the pesto came out much better than the first attempt (which ended in a cream sauce), but still needed work -- perhaps more oil. That was served with a side of green beans, quickly blanched than sauteed with garlic, olive oil, wine and a little lemon. For dessert was a citrus-almond pound cake and a little green tea ice cream. It was pretty good, though I should of used cake flour for a slightly lighter finished product.

The day flew by, though the hour I spent with Edie in the park in the morning was pure pleasure. During cooking, she was either napping or mostly amusing herself in the safety of her room, with breaks to come out and get some huggin'.

The fam & I are decamping to the Northfork of Long Island this weekend, so this blog will go dark until Monday, which will have a short recap. Until then, my 1.2 readers!!

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, 2 small pancakes, a chicken sausage, a lame shrimp summer roll, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM NIBBLING: 1-4pm, a little tomato & onion, a little pasta and pesto, a little ice cream, water
Didn't really eat lunch, but sampled the dishes I was making for dinner.

DINNER: 7pm, fresh pasta with pistachio pesto, sauteed green beans, tomato & onion with steak sauce, pound cake, a little green tea ice cream, 2 glasses wine, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

I love food.

Slapped on the rain suit and road over the bridge to work -- sheeting rain all morning, without pause. These slow days are more tiring than fast days.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, watermelon, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
LUNCH: 11:15am, turkey & cheese sandwich, chocolate chop cookie, Manhattan Special, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
To break up the monotony of a sheeting-rain day at the resto, I popped out to the local fancy bakery and picked up a killer sammich -- fresh semolina roll, nice creamy french stinky cheese, some sort of herbed mayo, fragrant red onion. The cookie was huge and chocolaty. Ah, food, I love you!

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, meatball
New batch made, had to test.

LUNCH 2: 3:15pm, piece of calzone, 1/2 a pint of beer
No customers, but a pair of regulars who eat for free came in, so I shared a meal with them while we chatted in the empty restaurant. Did not need the beer, but felt like the friendly thing to do.

PM SNACK: 6pm, small slice of pizza, sprite, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 8:30pm, a little salad, a little artichoke, a couple of squares of Sicilian, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 10:15pm, special cookie
No comment.

Smiley Happy

Edie woke up about an hour after I got home last night, I fed her a half bottle of milk while snuggling on the couch, but I think it woke her up more, rather than get her back to sleep when she's with her momma. I can't say I minded too much, as I missed her all day. I turned off the lights in the living room and watched Mad Men with her, hoping the drone of the tv would get her down, but after it was over, she wanted to get off my chest and run around the living room a bit -- B woke up around this time and was not amused with our 1am TV party. I brought Edles back to bedroom to relax on my tummy, it was a long evening.

Woke up tired, but woke up to Edie slamming her tummy into my head and giggling wildly, so that ain't too bad. The weather is overcast, and after the rain killing business yesterday, didn't expect too much different today. Slow days at the resto are hard to get through sometimes, but it helps to know I have a comfy home with a smiley happy wife and a smiley happy Edie.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea
BREAKFAST: 9:15am, 2 banana pancakes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 1:30pm, 3 slices white bacon & onion Sicilian, sprite, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 5pm, cranberry lime soda
DINNER: 10pm, 2 slices pizza, sprite, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, multigrain tortilla chips with salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4.5

Plant!

I saw "Inception" yesterday, so it should be of no surprise to anyone that I had a freaky dream last night. I was working, running home to sleep and play with Edie, trying to wine and dine my wife and ride my bike, too, and in the process my chest hair started really growing thick and tangled and Robin Williams-esque. I had a wound, small and round and right in between my pectorals, but because of the excessive chest hair, I forgot about it -- I just assumed it would scab up and go away.

So months later, after running around busy with life, I decided my chest hair needed some grooming -- not cutting, just some combing and washing to get the detritus out. And low and behold, where my wound was is...a plant!! A vine-like plant growing out of the wound, camouflaged by my salt-and-pepper chest hair!! Thick at the root, thin and pointy and woven into the hair all around, and basil-like small leaves sticking out here and there, Swampthing like. I freaked out and pulled the thing out by the root, immediately relieved I found it before it attacked my internal organs, but worried it would grow back.

That was basically it. What did the plant symbolize? The bigger picture? Losing the forest for the trees? Maybe I need to eat more salad... After hanging out with my father-in-law, my mind has been going back more to my parents lately, maybe that could have something to do with it, but usually when they are on my mind, they make direct appearances in my dreams, not abstract things growing from my corpus...

It occurred to me this morning that because I'm on a 40-hr 3-day schedule, my Monday is actually my Monday and half of Tuesday. And my Tuesday is a sliver of Tuesday and all of Wednesday. And my Wednesday is Thursday and Friday all rolled into one.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic wholegrain cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
 
AM SNACK: 10:45am, 3 bites of cheap pastries,  a Manhattan Special, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
 
PM SNACK: 12:45pm, green house salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
 
LUNCH: 1:30pm, 3 slices white Sicilian with bacon and onion, cranberry lime soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
 A new combination, voted pretty delicious by the staff.

LUNCH 2: 4:45pm, meatball appetizer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
 
PM SNACK: 6:45pm, apple juice

PM SNACK: 9pm, sprite

DINNER: 11pm, 5 pork dumplings, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Pancake School

It seems like such a long time since culinary school. Bike riding was cancelled today due to rain, so I hung out in the house until my father in law came over. I made banana pancakes from scratch, and all sorts of memories of what I learned came back to me.

• When wet goes into dry, mix minimally to avoid toughness i.e. gluten. Whisking is a no no
• When the banana side of the pancake goes down, wait until you smell the sugars of the banana caramelizing. There is no point to making banana pancakes until this happens
• A fish spatula is ideal for lifting sticky things out of a fry pan like, say, caramelized bananas -- it ain't just for fish.
• A cooling rack is essential if you plan to store these -- if left on a solid surface while hot, condensation will collect and you will have a permanently mushy pancake

One thing I forgot:

• One your comfortable, experiment with the recipe. It ain't the Bible.

I should of jazzed it up with vanilla bean and cinnamon, added extra eggs, supplanted some milk with cream and maybe even a subtle dash of hot pepper or hot sauce to add that little round note.

AM SNACK: 8:45am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 11am, homemade banana pancakes, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ate them as they came out of the pan. The ones that were a little too dark went into my maw, so the nicest ones are saved for B & Edles.

PM SNACK: 2pm, seltzer, "small" popcorn, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
That popcorn had 320 calories, according to the listing at the theater...

DINNER: 6pm, beef carpacio, shrimp scampi, canolli, pepper soup, water, bread, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Out with El at a nice restaurant, excellent quality but small portions...he he.


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, scallion pancake, 3 pork dumplings, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Left over from the reign of the father in law.

Stress 2

Took the father-in-law out on the bike, for Summer Streets, then took him on the SI Ferry before meeting up with B & Edles for dim sum. Very stressful. Again, a pretty horrible eating day. Tomorrow should be better.


AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:15am, donut


LUNCH: 2pm, dim sum, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5pm, ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 9pm, green salad, eggplant hero, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Stress

Got to bed around 9:30, woke up 8:30 feeling refreshed and caught up. Spent the day with the family and the father-in-law, running around, exhausting. The stress of it lead to a very poor eating day.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


AM SNACK: 10:30am, 2 donuts


LUNCH: 3pm, fish & chips, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7pm, beef lomein, shrimp eggroll, water, ice cream, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Damn good dinner

Woke up after about 5 hours of sleep feeling great but tired -- four day weekend! Edie! Edie! Edie! Edie & I went to a play group at the local community center to show off her new walking skills, and we played mock-telephone for a solid 30 minutes. We came home, and Yomomma met us so she could take Edie while I ran chores.

I found myself inordinately hungry, probably due to lack of sleep -- I know interrupted sleeping can mess with blood sugar. So I went to my favorite cheapo dumpling place and ordered a fried rice along with the dumplings -- I was the only white person in the shop, and their fried rice is definitely different in style than a take out place, really good. I got home from running errands around 2, and me and Edie immediately went to a local mom's apartment for a playdate with about 8 others -- kids a-poppin'. Though I wanted to save my appetite for the evening, I could not help but late a few cookies jump down my throat.

Home by 4:30, out on my bike by 5:30 to meet Y for dinner at Daniel. This is the rare 5-star restaurant in NYC, I even took a tour of the place when I was in C-school. It was impressive then, and eating there did not diminish that impression. I suspect they must have 2 people on staff for every customer, crazy. The prices were not cheap, but still, how do they make money?

BREAKFAST: 8am, toasted pumpernickel bagel with creamcheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: noon, shrimp fried rice, pork dumplings, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 2:30pm, a small handful of homemade chocolate chip cookies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6pm, a taste of peas three ways, garlic Parmesan focaccia, seared scallops with a chorizo crust, a bite of foi gras over melon, duo of beef (braised short rib and wagu tenderloin) with tomato veloute in a natural jus, a bite of snapper with an avocado preparation, hazelnut sable with milk flavored ice cream, chocolate peanut butter ganache, mini madelines, petite fours, water, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Dinner at Daniel with Y for her birthday. Pretty fantastic from beginning to end.

Awkward & Geeky

Got to bed around 1, up around 8, felt a little drained. But it's Wednesday, my Friday, and it has seemed to have passed in a hot flash. Tomorrow: EDIE TIME!!

During lunch service a few parents came in with their young children. One mom sat at the bar with her son, maybe 4 or 5 years old. He was skinny as a reed and had the same beady eyes and big nose as his mom, complimented by buck teeth that really tied his face together. Still, he was as cute as a button, in an oversized baseball cap, and a look of love for his mother that was just ridiculous -- like she was his mom, and his best friend and mentor and guide. They played slaps as they waited for their pizza, and when it did come, he took many little bites, finally getting one slice down many minutes after mom finished three. I sure hope puberty is kind to him, as adolescence made him quite awkward and geeky.

And how will Edie be?

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic cornflakes with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 12:15pm, 2 slices of clam & shrimp cheeseless pizza, Manhattan Special, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 2: 4pm, green salad, cup of chocolate ice cream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 9:30pm, 2 slices Sicilian


EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, 3 special tarts
No comment. At least I avoided evil burgers, as a member of the kitchen crew and I took a nice bike ride after work, and my appetite never came back.

Wine refrain

Got to bed around 2, after a couple of hours of being hypnotized by my new huuuuge television. God bless America, yep.

I had a sip of wine in the afternoon, as a server did not know whether a bottle that had been opened a few days before was still good (it was.) Even though it was only a sip, I continued to taste it for a solid 30 minutes after, and I noticed the taste evolve and get pleasant/funky/interesting before it finally cleared. I guess I could of just had some water or ate something, but I was enjoying it too much. Does that make me an alchie?

Restaurant was busy, time flew, though didn't really eat so when I made some pizzas for the staff at the end of a long day, a few slices just jumped up and ran down my mouth.



BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic chex with dead milk, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
AM SNACK: 10:45am, snippet of cinnamon cruller and wholewheat muffin
LUNCH: 12 noon, three slices of Sicilian with sausage, cream soda, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 4:15pm, green salad, chocolate ice cream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 11pm, 3 slices of Sicilian, a Sprite, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING WATERING: 12:30pm, half a quart of water

In the Tank

After draining myself all day on bike yesterday, I got to bed around 9pm, skipping all the good Sunday night TV watching (thank goodness for a DVR). I woke this morning around 7:45, after more than 10 hours of deep sleep. Edles woke up a few times in the evening, but B handled the situation -- so my renewed vigor and refreshed feeling is pretty much due to her.

Resto was steady and slow due to weather. Just two more days in the tank and I'm free for another 4!


BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla and almonds


AM SNACK: 10:45am, cranberry lime soda


LUNCH: 12pm, shrimp & clam Sicilian, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 1pm, Manhattan Special


DINNER: 6pm, half a meatball, cheeseless shrimp pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8pm, Sprite, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, multigrain tortilla chips & salsa, falafel balls, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

Ride

Woke up at 4am, got out of the house by 4:45am, rode the bike to Poughkeepsie, 80 miles. Got there by 1:15, with plenty of time to get the 1:40 train home. Between the perfect weather (low 80s, overcaste but dry) and the eating of small amounts multiple times, it was a strong, fun ride without any moments of weakness -- infact, I found myself pushing harder the last ten miles to assure a relaxed amount of time for making the train.

The rest of the day was chillin' with the ladies & Yomomma, we ordered in a pizza then a I did a run for ice cream. I wa out like a light by 9pm.

AM SNACK: 4:30am, banana


AM SNACK: 6am, caffienated clif bar


AM SNACK: 8am, gatorade, corn chips


AM SNACK: 10am, gatorade, corn chips


LUNCH: 11:15am, california roll, crappy knish, chocolate chip cookies, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1pm, gatorade


PM SNACK: 1:45pm, chocolate chip cookies


PM SNACK: 4:30pm, shrimp saag & rice, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5:30pm, cesar salad, mushroom & onion pizza, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 7pm, cookie dough ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

A nice Saturday

We woke up early, got on bikes and met a short stack of friends (also on bikes) at the Brooklyn Bridge. Edie & I cruised up to Central Park with B and the gang via the Summer Streets event, and arrived around 9:30 to lay out a nice picnic on the hill overlooking the toy-boat pond north of 72nd. The nice thing about arriving that early is it's sunny and warm, but not crowded so we could get a prime location and just...relax.

After eating too many donuts, we rolled back down casually home. A nap, an errand to restock sundries, then home to wile the day away with the ladies.

BREAKFAST 1: 7am, organic cornflakes with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


BREAKFAST 2: 9:45am, 1/2 a bagel with cream cheese, 3 donuts, seltzer, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2:30pm, lobster roll, lame ice cream sandwich, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
I visited the Hester Street Fair in the 'hood while running some chores. They have some interesting, progressive food vendors that I want to support, but they don't have it on lock down yet. The lobster roll was pretty great, but at $14 for 4oz of meat on a meager (but well toasted & buttered) potato roll is a bit pricey. They do a 2oz half for $8, but it's too small. They should have a third, more expensive option that make the first two seem cheap by comparison -- it doesn't need to sell, but it's presence may reduce the sticker shock of the other two options. "Hey, I may be paying $14 for a lobster roll, but at least it ain't $25!) I had an ice cream sandwich of salted caramel ice cream wedged between two thin slabs of brownie -- the brownie was too hard, the ice cream was too soft, and both had nice but under-concentrated flavors.

DINNER: 6:45pm, pakora, shrimp saag with basmanti rice, roti bread, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Fresh Friday

B took Lil' E to a swim class in the morning while I tinkered with the entertainment system. I took myself out to lunch, then spent the rest of the day chillin' and tweaking the system. Over all a productive but relaxed Friday.


BREAKFAST: 9:15am, chocolate babka, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1pm, vegetarian dim sum including mashed taro treasure boxes, mixed gluten, mock shrimp in rice paper roll, sticky rice wrapped in taro leaf, spring rolls, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
I ordered five dishes, too much for one person as usual. But instead of shoving down as much as possible, I ate until satiated and took about half of the food home. How ingenious of me, thank you very much!


DINNER: 7pm, large green salad, 3 ears of boiled corn, left over veg dim sum, an ounce of good chocolate with peanut butter, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Vegetarian for a day!

If your eating day centers around 1 huge meal, I guess it's better that the meal is as far away from sleep time as possible. Today I received delivery of a new entertainment system, Yomomma came over, and between setting up and running out to do chores and food shopping, I kinda forgot about eating until I started feeling that hungry/nauseous thing where you think you may puke if you don't get something down.

Went to an excellent California-style burrito place on 4th Ave between 13th & 14th. Last time I ate there I remembered everything was excellent, except for the stringy meat, so I went and just skipped any meat....and it was amazing. Between that and falafel for a late night snack, this must of been my first vegetarian day in forever...


AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10:45am, chocolate babka, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 3pm, blackbean & guac burrito, rootbeer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4:30pm, chocolate cheesecake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 11pm, falafel balls with hummus, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Workworkworkwork pt 3

Slept awfully well last night, out before 12:30 and up after 8. I wonder if it had anything to do with how I ate -- I ate quite heavy, though in smaller amounts in multiple sittings.

Edie said "Papa" a lot clearer and with more enunciation than ever before, it pretty much made my ice cold heart a puddle of warm water this morning. Can't wait for tomorrow, to have some serious Edietime!

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, iced green tea, organic chex with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
AM SNACK: 10:45am, Manhattan Special
Gave me the jitters, more than usual.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, 1 slice egg & bacon pizza, cranberry lime soda, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
The guys in the kitchen made this pizza, with jalapenos, not to my taste, but nice to see them making what they like, for themselves.

PM SNACK: 3pm, green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
We recently reformulated our house salads, as it was pretty not-good before. We replaced the cheaper escarole with a mix of bib, romaine and green leaf, and replaced the simple olive oil & vinegar mix with basically olive oil, vinegar and industrial "Italian dressing" mix, basically dried herbs, sugar, salt, MSG, guar gum and assorted nastiness. It's annoying that L didn't consult me on this, as we could of easily made our own 'mix', based on salt, sugar & dried herbs, left out all the nastiness, AND would of probably tasted better and more noteworthy than this envelope of chemicals manufactured somewhere in a warehouse out there....

PM SNACK: 6pm, 3 meatballs


PM SNACK: 11pm, 3 special mini tarts


DINNER: 12pm, hamburger, fries, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
No comment.

Workworkworkwork pt 2

Could not get to bed last night. Got home around 11:30, yomomma was looking after Edie because B was having a fuzzy-eye checked out late into the night. Between the drama, my energy level cratering to ADD levels and then my body refusing to shut down, not a great night.

But B was loving this morning, despite being cranky, Edie was full of smiles and shouts of joy for the pleasure of being able to waddle around the house, and off to work I went.

BREAKFAST: 8am, iced green tea, waffle, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: noon, 3 slices shrimp & clam cheeseless pizza, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 2:30pm, green salad, roasted potatoes, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 3-4pm, bacon, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
We were baking bacon in the 'rant, and I could not stop nibbling on it, making me think my body is really craving something fatty and decadent right now...


PM SNACK: 4pm, small cup of chocolate ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 6:30pm, slice of Sicilian, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING DRINK: 10:15pm, bottle of beer


EVENING SNACK: 11:45pm, 7 falafel balls with humus, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Monday Monday

First night I slept through since first getting sick. I put myself down a little before 11 and woke to the alarm at 7. It's nice to feel normal after feeling like a yo-yo for a solid 9 days.

Edie was all smiles and energy this morning, made it difficult to leave her (and B, who took the day to chill out at home.) Wah!

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, granola with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, Manhattan Special

LUNCH: 12:45pm, 4 slices Sicilian, ginger ale, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, slice of pepperoni and mushroom pizza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, green salad, apple juice, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 9pm, meatballs, lemonade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Mellow Sunday

After yesterday's ride let me feeling a little bit too beat up, I tried to take today easy. I still woke up at 3am and could not get back to sleep. I did a run to J&R to pick up some pieces for the impending new entertainment system I'm setting up at the end of the week, and did a supermarket run with Edie in mid-afternoon to help her get into her nap. B took off for the third night in a row to go party and go crazy, while I stayed home and fed & bathed the Edie.

Edie, with her big head of curls, unrefined table manners and absolute joy when practicing her running (!) around the house is nothing but wonderful. Part of me is "oy! this is too much!" and part of me is "I need an army of Edies!"


AM SNACK: 5am, handful of chocolate covered coffee beans


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, granola with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 12:30pm, multigrain tortilla chips with salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3pm, 7 falafel balls, chocolate babka, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9pm, garden salad, eggplant hero, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

SWEAT!!

Perhaps foolishly, I woke up with an alarm at 5:30 despite my body allowing me to sleep longer, so I could meet Danny to ride the summerstreets event at 7am. We rode over the GWB and then towards Hoboken, stopping at Matsuwa Marketplace, a huge Japanese supermarket -- huge food court, and a shopping floor as big as a Wholefoods or Pathmark, except ALL Japanese stuff -- not pan-Asian, but JUST Japanese, pretty cool.

I picket up some machta (green tea powder), the secret ingredient to make green tea ice cream, and we had a power breakfast. The food, despite being premade out of a counter, was unassailably fresh and tasty, about a 1000 times better than the stuff you get out of the relatively common Korean bodegas downtown. And I tried "yPocari Sweat", which is basically the Japanese equivalent of Gatorade. If this stuff was a strange dayglo color and packed in a Gatorade bottle, I never would of known. It basically tasted like a flat Fresca -- the ingredients were pretty standard, except for the inclusion of MSG.


BREAKFAST: 6:30am, iced green tea, banana, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 9:45am, tuna rice triangle, pork miso don bowl, half a "pocari sweat", bite of donut, bite of red bean donut, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 3pm, Stouffer's frozen pizzas, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:30pm, pasta with garlic, oil and shrimp, 1bowl, hunger 4/5

Notta Lotta Eatin' Goin' On

Woke up at 2:30am and no way to get back to bed. Indulged in some caffeine, then around 6:30 got to work making the base for American-style (eggless) hazelnut ice cream. Once B got a move on, I whipped out a batch of waffles, and as I ate them, Edie stood at my leg and I fed her little squares of waffles -- eventually, she got down almost 1/3 of a full waffle, pretty impressive for a gal who supposedly had finished breakfast only 30 minutes before!

In the waffle's defense, I used a random internet recipe that looked interesting, that took away butter and added a lot more egg -- gave a much lighter, fluffier, slightly crunchy result that was pleasing, but definitely on as filling as my previous batches of waffles.

The HVS made a guest appearance in the evening, but neither of us was that hungry, and we ended up tearing through a bucket of freshly popped popcorn.


AM SNACK: 3:30am, handful of chocolate covered espresso beans


AM SNACK: 6am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:45am, 2 fresh waffles, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2:30pm, small amount of multigrain chips and salsa, a hot dog, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6pm, freshly churned Philly style hazelnut ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Better than the last time I made Philly style, but still underwhelming in the flavor department.


DINNER: 7:30pm, pack of ramen, popcorn, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Tired & Cookin'

The recovery from the Meatloaf & Ice Cream was slow and spread out, but I'm pretty much at 90%. Still not sleeping much, got to bed around 1:30 and up around 5:30. I decided my head was too unfocused to interact with other parents at swim class and play group, so me n' Edie played hooky and went to Wholefoods to do a badly needed food shop. Ate some chocolate covered pretzels on the way home, and proceeded to spend the afternoon prepping food for the fam: took apart a fresh pineapple, made green salad, made a carrot dip B likes, a lentil salad from the Veganomicon for both B and the HVS, who will be making a special appearance tomorrow...

We popped over to a neighbor's house for an informal playdate, and by the time I got home it occurred to me that I hadn't really eaten. Started with salad, ate a brick, fed Edie, bathed her, got her down, and I followed not too far after that...

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, iced green tea, organic chex with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 10:30am, 4 dark chocolate covered pretzels

DINNER: 5pm, large green salad, beef lomein, shrimp toast, fried pork dumplings, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Workworkworkwork

Got to bed around 1 last night, but woke up like a shot around 5am -- body is still recalibrating from sick mode. Monday I was at about 30% power, yesterday maybe 60%, today was about 85%. Even though I had a thorough breakfast, by the time I got to work I felt a bit light headed and...not exactly hungry, maybe low bloodsugar? Half a Manhattan Special hit me hard, and by noon placed an order into the kitchen for lunch!

BREAKFAST: 7am, iced green tea, pumpernickel bagel with humus and lox spread
AM SNACK: 9am, banana
AM SNACK: 10am, half a Manhattan Special
Made me awfully jittery, drank a lot of water right after.


LUNCH: 12:15pm, half a spinach calzone, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5:30pm, half a green salad, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5


PM SNACK: 7pm, 1 slice of white pizza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10:15pm, special cookie


DINNER: 11:30pm, 2 burgers and fries, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
No comment.

Weigh-in

227.4 ---> 221.8

Rough night last night, fever Bieber dreamer.  Was running at about 33% yesterday, running at 65% today. Also B leaving and having 30 minutes to play with the Edie before leaving is a remarkable pick-me-up. Even changing her poopy diaper.

I weighed in the morning, and while 5.6 lbs is a lot to lose for one month, I think a solid half of that is just being wiped out from the weekend bug. Still, even before that, I knew I was losing, in a healthful way. I credit the cycling and the intense 40 hours in a resto over 3 days for it. I wish I could also say clean eating and a weight-lifting regimine, but those two elements have suffered due to the time pressures of work, the baby, time-gobbling cycling, attempting a social life, and day to day ephemera.

I don't know how realistic getting back on the weight-lifting regimine is while the restaurant AND the cycling are in the high-season -- it might be something to pursue in the colder months along with some yoga -- maybe a baby & me yoga class, which I haven't indulged in yet. But the eating, yes, tender salad greens are peaking and my input has been woefully woe, I think THAT I can dedicate to this month.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, iced green tea, handful of chocolate covered espresso beans
AM SNACK: 11am, mango-oolong iced tea, with water chaser
Bottled iced tea by a nice local company, Teas' Tea, but way too sweet. The 17 oz has only 80 calories, about 1/3 less than pop, but still kinda cringingly sweet.

LUNCH: 1:15pm, 4 slices of cheeseless red pizza with shrimp, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Seems my hunger is returning.

PM SNACK: 2pm, sprite

PM SNACK: 5pm, crandberry lime soda
PM SNACK: 6:15pm, 1 slice Sicilian

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, black cherry soda


EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, hotdog, quart of water

Bieber No!

I didn't weigh myself this morning because it wouldn't be accurate -- I barely ate anything the last couple of days because of some gastro-intestinal issues that kept me bedridden for most of the weekend. Still feeling a bit under this morning, but not bad enough to beg out of work.

It was rough at work, not having energy to more than the bare minimum. Still, I told my team I was down and would be coasting, and slack was picked up. If I were at a desk job where my mind 's sharpness was all-important, I would of just called in sick, but if I were to call in sick here, it would be a huge inconvenience to several people, and may even cause the resto not to open in a timely manner.

Got home, feeling on fire, and not in a good way. Immediately into the shower to to clean up, and found it very hard to unwind -- didn't get to sleep until close to 5am. Read an article in NY Magazine about the crazy teengirl lust and obsession around Justin Bieber -- oh my, will Edie ever fall for any of that crap? Yick. Didn't help me sleep.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, iced green tea, banana, 2 aspirin, water, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 11am, ginger ale


LUNCH: 1:30pm, 2 slices of pizza, a meatball, a cranberry lime soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
E and her T came to visit, so I sat with them and chatted while keeping one eye on the floor.

PM SNACK: 5pm, vanilla soda


PM SNACK: 10:30pm, cranberry lime soda


EVENING SNACK: midnight, multigrain chips and salsa, a few spoonfuls of peanut butter, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

BIg Hug

Got to bed in a haze around 2am, up with a great big hug from my wifey around 7:30. A very active day with relatives from outta town.

Tomorrow, B, Edles & I go away for a few days to Westport to visit some of B's family. They're taking a car, I'm riding my bike there and back. This blog will go dark until Monday, where I will recap the weekend's eating....and I guess it's time for a weigh-in, -sigh-. See y'all then.

BREAKFAST: 8am, iced green tea, handful of chocolate covered espresso beans

LUNCH: noon-4pm, a few bites of granola, a cupcake, water
Between chores, oven repair people, relatives from out of town, Edie's needs, I actually kinda skipped over lunch.

DINNER: 6:30pm, various shared Thai food, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ordered in with the relatives, good vibes. Good to have B home and joining us.

Workworkworkwork

Busy day at the resto. Had to be in early to let plumbers in, so a second night of not enough sleep. Looking forward to my 4 day weekend!

AM SNACK: 7:30am, handful of chocolate covered espresso beans, iced green tea
BREAKFAST: 10:15am, six ham and moz crostini, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Improvised breakfast, much nicer and lighter than a potato-studded garbage plate.
AM SNACK: 11am, cranberry lime soda
LUNCH: 3:15pm, 2 slices cheeseless Sicilian with clams and shrimp, sprite, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, sprite, medicinal brownie

EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, 2 burgers & fries, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
No comment.

Surprisingly Thick

Had a hard time getting to sleep after rocking really hard at the restaurant. When the night is so active and constantly pounding, getting home and winding down is difficult. It's kind of like the end of a 100 mile bike ride, but instead of being drained, energy is still pouring out. Tried to go down at 1:30, but sleep didn't reach me until 3 or so.

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
After yesterday's guilty garbage plate, I was determined to buck up. The good yogurt, a banana, acai juice, frozen blueberries, mango and cherries, freshly ground flax, a pinch of homemade vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Surprisingly thick and very tasty.

AM SNACK: 8:45am, handful of chocolate covered espresso beans
Needed a kick to get on the bike and do work chores before hitting the resto.

AM SNACK: 11:30am, slice of egg pizza, cranberry lime soda
A cook was playing around and basically poured well-beaten eggs over a raw shell with onions and bacon, finishing with pepper. Pretty good omelet pizza, though needs a little dairy to lighten it up a bit.

LUNCH: 2pm, meatballs, black cherry soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Black cherry soda is too sweet, and is a bit medicinal tasting.

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, bite of milk chocolate
DINNER: 6pm, 3 slices of cheeseless shrimp and clam pie, sprite, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 11pm, cranberry lime soda
EVENING SNACK: 12:30am, multigrain chips and salsa, the good yogurt with honey, vanilla and peanuts, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Morbid Potatoes

Strange feeling this morning. Got a short but good quality sleep, but woke up a little too late and ended up not eating anything before leaving for work (note to self: set alarm for 8am on workdays, as B and Edie are too good at not waking me up as of late!) I had a cook make me a plate of potatoes and and various pizza toppings -- not exactly a vegan green salad with extra fiber flakes.

I was sitting, looking over some work paperwork, and felt guilty -- Edie is still a baby, but someday she will be the adult and will need to care for me, as I cared for my parents. The choices I make in life will to a certain extent determine what happens then. My mom smoked most of her life, even after a cancer scare when I was a teenager, and eventually succumbed to it. My dad always had a wicked sweet tooth, and eventually his body was run-down by ongoing adult-onset diabetes. Looking back at the scheme of things. How will it end for me, in regards to how it will effect Edie?

Both my parents had a certain amount of guilt themselves about getting ill at the end -- they didn't express it directly, but when people are in such a weakened state, they are not hard to read. In particular, my mom expressed in private to a good friend and coworker of hers (who after she passed the friend expressed to me) is that my mom felt really bad that I had to deal with her illness and eminent passing so soon after dad -- she knew what was coming, and felt bad that she was "doing" this to me. I wish she had said that to me directly, so I could of helped wipe any guilt she had away, that whatever I was doing for her then, she had done for me 10x as much by bringing me into the world and supporting me emotionally, financially, culturally, education-wise and all those other things good parents just do without having to read a handbook.

Are these garbage plates threatening my health, and therefore threatening the timing and ease of my passing? I could only wish that I'm healthy until the day I pass away in my sleep, with a will and detailed pre-paid instructions on where to dispose of my hopefully not-too-fat body! Weird, slightly morbid thoughts in a restaurant over a plate of potatoes.


AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea
AM SNACK: 10am, 2 corn tortillas with a little cheese
BREAKFAST: 11am, potatoes with vegetables and sausage, Manhattan Special, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 4pm, 1 slice of cheeseless shrimp & clam pie, cranberry lime soda, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6pm, 1 stuffed artichoke


HAZE: 7-11pm, a couple of sodas


EVENING SNACK: midnight, multigrain tortilla chips and salsa

Glory

Attended a going-away party for T. at the restaurant, my friend, cooking partner and coworker. It was a good vibe, and lots of the 'special' pastries we've made over the past month or so were consumed. I left by 12:30 due to having to be back by 10 same day, but when I made my escape I was given a round of applause for the treats and I took multiple bows. I guess I must be in it for the glory, because the cash has yet to start rolling in, he he.


AM SNACK: 9:30am, fistful of chocolate covered coffee beans


BREAKFAST: 10:45am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and sable, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 4pm, a few slices of eh pizza, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 8:30pm, chicken sandwich, 2 slices Sicilian, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING NIBBLES: 11-12:30pm, 1/2 beer, a few chips, a few pieces of chocolate, water

Heat

Up at 5, out by 6:45, picked up E, rode to the SI Ferry and did a 50 mile loop around the island in the blazing heat. I usually do longer 80-100 mile rides at this point in the season, but this heat is just out of control. On the way home we rolled into the New Amsterdam Market under the FDR by Wall Street, I picked up a few bottles of interesting cider. Spent the afternoon napping and hanging with the fam, then out to meet some friends in Williamsburg for a quick drink. A tiring but good day.

By the way, Edie says, "sz``````````````````````````````````".


AM SNACK: 6am, iced green tea, fistful of chocolate covered espresso beans


BREAKFAST: 6:45am, banana


AM SNACK: 8:15am, chocolate donut


BIKE SNACK: 9:30am, gatorade, small bag of potato chips


BIKE SNACK: 10:45am, gatorade, small bag of corn chips


LUNCH: 11:45am, 6" veggie burger sub, lots of ice water, .75 bowl


PM SNORT: 1pm, about 1/3 of a pint of beer


PM SNACK: 3:45am, large green salad

DINNER: 5pm, lomein & shrimp toast, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNORT: 8:30pm, pint of cider, a few bites of savory bread, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

Pretty cool day

Did a big food shop in the morning, made grilled cheese and brownies for C and baby Autumn in the afternoon, took Edie out to a park to play before dinner. Watched a DVD with B in the evening. A pretty cool day.


AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and sable, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:30pm, grilled cheese with aged gouda, 12-grain wholewheat bread, and  quinoa salad, 2 freshly baked brownies, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8pm, sauteed shrimp and string beans, sticky rice, chicken satay, Thai dumplings, water, 2 brownies, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Summer Eating

Slept fitfully the night before, and met the day with a lot of plans -- Edie swim class at 9:30, playgroup at 10, a little food shopping after, then T came over to cook. After Edie got down, I whipped out a quinoa salad whose dorky recipe B had forwarded to me, with adjustments. Red quinoa, cooked in veg stock, doubled jalapeno, seasoned with vanilla sugar, came out pretty slammin'. I pretty much made it for B, but also served it for lunch, so me & T could focus on a bunch of "special" items -- mini almond tarts, mini vanilla blueberry tarts, and a sheet of brownies. I guess it was for the best I couldn't scarf down anything!

Went out to dinner with Y & her boyfriend in the evening, went to a Middle Eastern place in Fort Greene, near where I went to high school. A friendly, chill night. Summer eating.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


LUNCH: 1:30pm, seared scallops, quinoa salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:30pm, mezze plate with hummus, baba, grape leaves & spinach, a "pitza" with ground lamb, mint tea, water, semolina cake, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Workworkworkwork pt 3

Got to bed around 2am and my lovely wife gently woke me up at 8:45am. I guess this is why people get married -- even though I'm all tired and achy and still overheated from 13 hours in an unairconditioned restaurant the day before, being woken up by her gentle voice is just...nice. Sometimes when I don't communicate enough, she accuses me of treating her like a "roomie" instead of a "wifey" or a "luvvah", but she doesn't realize that if I ever had a roomie like her, there would be no need to ever get married!! The only thing better after being woken up was B dropping Edie into bed with me, all smiles and crawls, and her jumping on my head.

AM SNACK: 8:45am, iced green tea
The latest batch has the sweetness on the nose (3/4 cup sugar for about 3 liter bottles of tea) but don't like the flavor -- "Himalayan" green tea, tastes musky in a not particularly attractive way.

BREAKFAST: 11:15am, cucumbers, red onoins, grape tomatoes & olives, Manhattan Special, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Not perfect, but a healthier start to the day at the restaurant.

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, snippet of bread, snippet of smoked chicken, water
PM SNACK: 1:30pm, snippet of bacon
LUNCH: 2:45pm, 2 slice of clam & shrimp pizza, ginger ale, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10:15, special cookie

DINNER: 11pm, 2 burgers, fries, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
No comment

Workworkworkwork pt 2

Got home close to midnight last night, was able to get to bed by 1:30 without any big issues -- riding 80 miles in the heat the day before probably helped. When I woke to what I thought was B nudging me like an octopus (but it was only Rufus D. Cat), I found a very smiley Ediebird in the hallway as my beautiful wife showered her beautiful self. I was quite tired, but full of an optimism I haven't felt in a while. Things are just....good. Not great, but pretty darn good. Here's to appreciating the moment -- good health, a happy family, a safe secure roof over our heads, enough food to eat, a great neighborhood full of new friends and new friend's babies, and a set of bicycles to get us around!!

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Out of tea. Made a batch this morning, but needs a day to cool.

AM SNACK: 11:15am, Manhattan Special
Should I start a coffee habit? This would be great, if it wasn't so damn sweet. I should of eaten some dark chocolate covered espresso beans this morning, they're less sweet despite being chocolate.

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, snippet of bread

PM SNACK: 1:15pm, cranberry lime soda
LUNCH: 2pm, 2 slices sicilian, meatballs, sprite, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 9pm, 2 slices cheeseless seafood pizza, cranberry lime soda
EVENING SNACK: midnight, multigrain tortilla chips and salsa, water, chocolate peanutbutter, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Workworkworkwork

Woke up at 8 after a blissful 9 hour sleep. Had to rush a bit to get it together before the nanny arrived, putting my mess away from yesterday's ride. Felt tired in a good way. Didn't realize how hungry I was before I was about to step out, ate a banana while Edie watched me. She said, "aaah!" with an outstretched arm, to which I replied with a little piece of banana. I brought it to her face and she opened her mouth and stretched forward to eat it, incredibly sweet and cute. She's using her feminine wiles to mack me out of my own breakfast!!

Restaurant was pretty slow until 8pm, then all action until 10pm. Not a balanced day, but ended up pretty much not eating a dinner, though lots of water.













AM SNACK: 8:15am, blueberry iced green tea
AM SNACK: 9:15am, banana

BREAKFAST: 11:30am, potatoes with vegetables and sausage, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Had a cook make me a plate of pizza toppings over potatoes, good n' heavy, definitely feeling hunger residual from yesterday.

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, Manhattan Special
LUNCH: 3:15pm, 2 slices white with mushroom and spinach, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 6pm, small amount of white rice, green salad, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Kitchen guys brought in a rice cooker, made some nice sticky white rice with olive oil, parsley and salt. Really nice.

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, cranberrry lime soda

DONUTS!

Up at 3:30am to catch a bus to Highland, NY, to ride the Hudson Valley. It was a supported ride, meaning...DONUTS! Too sleepy to eat something proper at home, and the donuts just kept on coming through the first half of the ride. It was very sunny and warm, and the route was surprisingly hilly -- not big hills, but constantly rolling up and down. Even though I was drinking massive quantities of water from the camelback sack on my back, the first symptom of dehydration struck midday -- a tight stomach, lack of appetite, and water, despite being, well, water, tastes a bit strong and vaguely slick. But to avoid further symptoms (headache, lack of focus, extreme tiredness) I kept on drinking.

Midway I decided to abandon the 100 mile route and ended up doing 80 for the day, quite enough between the heat and the hills."Lagom" -- enough is as good as a feast. Burgers presented themselves at the end of the ride, and at home I did not get too hungry, but when I did I realized all I had to make quick were hotdogs and frozen pizzas. I gotta restock in terms of quick and healthy stuff. I would of been just as good with a hunk of watermelon last night than with a hotdog.

AM SNACK: 4am, 10 chocolate coved coffee beans
AM SNACK: 5:15am. 3 donuts, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
AM SNACK: 7:30am, 1 donut, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
LUNCH: 11am, 2 donuts, 4 pieces olive focaccia, gatorade, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 2:30pm, 2 hot oreos, water
PM SNACK 3:30pm, 1 slice apple pie, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 5pm, 2 burgers, piece of corn, lemonade, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 7pm, 1 beer, 1 small bag of potato chips
EVENING SNACK: 9pm, hotdog, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Dream

Had the oddest dreams about a nuclear bomb going off in NJ, and the only way for me to save the tristate area from assured destruction was to pedal a bike from my house to the site with some sort of anti-nuclear fluid. My bike got a flat and everyone died. I woke up, went to the bathroom, then got back to sleep.

I woke up at 4:30 because I need to be up at 4am tomorrow to get out for a century ride about 80 miles north. I picked up some chocolate covered coffee beans, a potential tool for the bike, so I tried them this morning to see how my body reacted. Tasty, though not as strong as I thought they'd be.

AM SNACK: 4:45am, 10 dark chocolate covered coffee beans


AM SNACK: 7am, granola with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 11:15am, grilled grapefruit, sable, snappea salad, margarita pizza, pomodorini pizza, nutella pizza, cinnamon & butter pizza, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3:30-6pm, a little slow roasted pork, a few chips, a few bits of cheese, 1 glass of sangria, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8:45pm, beef lomein, shrimp toast, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Chill.

A chill Friday. Woke up a little early, stayed indoors out of the heat with the Edles while B went out on her lady-date. Lazily grazing around the kitchen, stopped by my local slice joint on the way to pick up a package. I spend three days in an overheated pizzeria, yet when I have time, I find myself in another unairconditioned pizzeria for a snack.

Went to the movies with D, and went to a spectacular Yemeni restaurant after whose specialty is lamb. Very lamby, very fresh, very good. 


BREAKFAST: 7am, blueberry iced green tea, granola with organic dead milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1pm, squash risotto, multigrain tortilla chips with salsa, watermelon, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, slice of streetza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:30pm, lamb & rice, salad, soup, flat bread, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Feeding Frenzy at the Freezer

Good unwinding day after three hot, hot days in an unairconditioned restaurant with unhappy customers, unhappy staff and a sweaty bottom. Woke up refreshed from magical sleep, off to do Edie things, cooked some nice dishes with T, took myself out to dinner, got the food shopping done, and had a feeding frenzy with B...

AM SNACK: 8:30am, blueberry iced green tea

AM SNACK: 9:15am, banana
Rushed out with Edie to get to swim class, then play group drop in.


PM SNACK: 12pm, good yogurt with honey, vanilla and peanuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 3pm, crab fritter, squash risotto, pickled burdock, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
T came over and we did some free-form cooking. Basically spiked a crab salad with a bit of flour and baking powder, stiffened it in the fridge and rolled some scoops in panko before deep frying in lard & peanut oil. Risotto was standard c-school method with some sauteed zucinni and squashes thrown in. We also made some crazy-ass magical butter cookies, but it won't be soon that I taste those.


DINNER: 6:30pm, 2 hotdogs, fries, pickles, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
On the way to WF, stopped by Katz's for dinner. Really the only meal of the week that is not at the restaurant and I got to consume by myself. Very peaceful, despite being in a loud, crowded dining room. Usually only eat 1 dog, but I found myself still hungry after finishing.



EVENING SNACK: 9pm, 1/3 of a pint of Ben & Jerries, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I wasn't planning on eating this, but once B found it, she started wildly scooping it into her mouth. So I joined her, racing to get some into my own mouth before it was done. Basically, we stood in front of the open freezer with the pint and snarled while in a frenzy. Good thing Edie was asleep. I bought it because it was a new flavor -- Milk & Cookies, which was basically a lame overly sweet cookies n' cream with chocolate chip cookie dough. I'm tempted to make my OWN cookie dough ice cream, and it will be SO much better.

Workworkworkwork pt 3 (A fart to break my heart)

Last night was a bit rough. I was starting to wind down around 12:30 when Edie woke up crying like crazy, sitting up in her crib in the dark. I picked her up, patted her back and she let out the cutest little fart, a fart to break my heart. It smelled like diapers!

We ended up snuggling on the couch for an hour, but when I tried to get her down, she was up with a shout again and B had to come in and take over. -wah!-

Restaurant was sloooow in the afternoon, due to busted aircondioning and hot temps. I sent a lot of staff home, and in the evening, it was just me, T (easily the best server & manager we got) and an overcaffeinated Russian busser, and oddly enough we had a wave around 7:30 where the restaurant filled up pretty quickly to about 3/4 full. In any other combo of staff, this would be potentially crushing, but instead it was a lot of fun, all pistons pumping, and peeps was gettin' SERVED, yo. The day ended up on a high, literally and figuratively.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, blueberry iced green tea, granola with organic dead milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 1pm, 1 meatball, 3 small slices of sicilian with artichoke, mushroom and onion, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 6pm, green salad, 1 meatball, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Meatballs are hard to resist in the restaurant when they're fresh out of the oven.
PM SNACK: 7:15pm, small amount of chocolate ice cream
PM SNACK: 9pm, cranberry lime soda, .25 bowl, hunger ?/5

PM SNACK: 10pm, special shortbread
DINNER: 11:15pm, 2 burgers, fries, .75 bowl, hunger ?/5
No comment

Workworkworkwork pt 2

A reasonable eating day for a work shift in the resto. No airconditioning and a steamy day didn't help my appetite, either.


BREAKFAST: 7:30am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla & cashews, blueberry iced green tea, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 12:30, a few bits of bread, Manhattan Special


LUNCH: 1:30pm, shrimp and clam cheeseless pizza, soda, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7pm, green salad, meatball app, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Workworkworkwork

Day started on the wrong foot, with a 7am wake up yell from the ladies in the house. Got to work with notes that the air conditioning was not working properly, and small little stresses from 10 other little issues that all added up to "urgh!" But as the day went on, things worked out, it got hot but not too hot, and the restaurant got busy enough to not worry about things and just focus on the tasks at hand.

Didn't eat much today, due to the heat and the business, and didn't get hungry when I got home either. I did drink several pints of water through the day, starting in the morning when I decided a Manhattan Special might give me more of a headache than a kick.


AM SNACK: 7am, blueberry iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9am, toasted wholewheat bagel with cream cheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:30pm, 4 slices Sicilian pizza


PM SNACK: 4pm, cranberry lime soda


EVENING SNACK: 11pm, a few slices of cold pizza, .75 bowl, hunger ?/5

Grassiness

Spent the morning at a friend of B's, and ended up skipping breakfast, a very bad thing. I tried to make up for it by eating a supercharged lunch, but I ended up going for a very underpowered and cut-short bike ride in the afternoon.

Dinner made of freshly defrosted shrimp and old leftovers from a much fancier meal weeks ago were good, but the HVS's company in Edie's wind-down time was the perfect cap to the weekend.


AM SNACK: 8:30am, pint of iced blueberry green tea
Surprisingly tart. Not sweet at all -- very mildly sweet. Very blue in color, almost like a red wine. I almost recoiled at first, but as I worked down the glass I found the tart berry flavor really complimenting the grassiness of the green tea. Did I really just sound that pretentious?

LUNCH: 12:30pm, sardine & avocado on multigrain bread, pita chips, granola, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
B's pita chips look like they're all healthy n' stuff, but looking at the ingredients, it's basically the nutritional equivalent of a potato chip, with a little less oil. They include wholewheat flour as an ingredient, but its so far down on the list, to be negligible.

DINNER: 5:45pm, shrimp and pasta in pistachio pesto cream sauce, chocolate tofutti, chocolate ruggelah, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Almost all green...

Woke up too late to get in a ride before the rain hit, so I did chores -- laundry, a light shop, WD40 a door, try to add a rack to B's bike. I made green tea for the week. Tired of mint syrup, and last week it was a little too weak over all. I had blueberry syrup on hand, so I threw in a cup after steeping. Hmmm, iced blueberry green tea, hope it works. While Edie napped and B calmed down from her frenzied morning of rearranging then unrearranging furniture, I knocked out a batch of granola in advance of a visit from the HVS tomorrow...

Kinda skipped lunch by accident, due to getting Edie ready to get up and go out to visit the in laws and friends of B. We took care of some shopping shores on the bike ride to Chelsea, and when we got there, I was quite ravenous. My brother-in-law had a lot of diet sodas in his fridge, so I opted for a beer -- alcohol's flavor is so much more interesting than artificially flavored overly-sweet sodas. 


AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10am, organic wholegrain cheerios with good unhomogenized milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1pm, watermelon, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5 


LINNER: 4:30pm, shrimp peanut curry with sticky rice, chicken satay, shrimp summer rolls, 1 beer, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7pm, small bowl of granola, quart of water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, large piece of friendship bread, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Desiring sweets, found this in the back of the fridge. Sweets once a week?! I don't know if that's a realistic goal. Maybe stay in the yellow for three times a week? Three is sure less than 8+...

Blueberry syrup stains like a mofo

An odd eating day. B went out in the morning to have some time to herself, and my eating just went sideways. Right before our monthly cleaning guy arrived, I decided to quickly make a mess and churn some ice cream. After packing it, I had a good few spoonfuls left that didn't need to go to waste so I acted as human garbage can.

Once Edles woke up, I needed to get out of there and we biked over to veg dim sum. I ordered 4 dishes, but left over about 1/2 of 2 of them -- I just wasn't hungry. In the afternoon, thirsty and desiring something sweet, I mixed my new blueberry syrup with carbonated water and was surprised how authentically soda-like it was. The lime gave it the acidy kick, the blueberry juice gave a nice purplish foam.

By dinner time, I was thinking of ordering something in, but realized I've been ordering in every night this past week. Not good. I ate some green salad and felt full, but not satisfied. Due to an unscheduled nap, I was up until all hours but restrained myself to (mostly) healthful snacks.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


AM SNACK: 10am, cookies n' cream ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: noon, vegetarian dim sum including mashed taro treasure boxes, mixed gluten, fried wontons and lotus lead sticky rice, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3pm, glass of blueberry soda, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5


PM SNACK 5:30pm, cookies n' cream ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, large green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, multigrain tortilla chips with salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, multrigrain bread with hummus, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Cookin' with Edles

Edie napped through swim class, but when she woke, we hopped on the bike and made a full hour of a playdate drop in at the local community center. We ran a few chores, then in for the day on this hot day. I chopped green salad, made a chickpea dish for B (haven't toasted spices like this since c-school), cooked down some blueberry syrup with some intense blueberries from last week, then made a simple Cream Anglais custard to make cookies n' cream ice cream tomorrow with.

Funny, I feel like I've been lazy on the cooking -- lunch was a leftover, salad and a few ears of boiled corn, and dinner was ordered in. Yet, I did a lot of cookin'.  And Edie entertained herself in her high chair, and then at my feet. I can't wait until she wants to participate. Oh, the cooking we'll do!

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, wholewheat pancake, iced green tea, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1pm, wonton soup, 2 ears corn, large green salad, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, multigrain tortilla chips & salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, chirashi sushi, gyoza, shumai, seaweed salad, oreo-style cookies, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Ride in the Heat

I woke up feeling rested and well. C the Nanny came at 9, and I got out by 9:30. Starting next week, I'll be working a third day on Wednesday, but today...I rode.

I had to get out despite the heat. I went to Nyack and back, though my original plan was for an additional 20 miles. Due to 100 degree temps, I rode slow, stopped frequently for water and snacks, and generally just enjoyed the scenery and my head space. I got home around 6 and felt very out of it -- probably dehydration, despite going through a 70 oz bladder of water...3 times!

Picked myself up and went food shopping, didn't feel like moving but if I put it off, tomorrow would be very difficult with the other things I hope to get done...

BREAKFAST: 9am, banana, iced green tea, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: noon, pumpernickel bagel with butter and veg, Gatorade, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 2:30pm, chocolate muffin, Gatorade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, pork & broccoli with fried rice, egg roll, shrimp toast, water, bad vanilla ice cream, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5

Workworkworkwork pt 2

After Monday's holiday crush, most of the day at the restaurant was quiet and relaxed, interupted by the need to look after a few newbie staffers. The 100+ degree heat outside made the restaurant extra pleasant to be in (chillers on full blast at 70) and in the evening, all those not wanting to cook in the heat came out, and ordered delivery.

In the past month, I've been having issues getting to sleep after work. After the buzz of getting into the final homestretch, rushing to close up while still being accurate on a handful of things (accounting for the money, supervising the front of house, supervising the back of house, monitoring the last customers, etc etc) and getting home, the last thing my body wants to do is sleep. It wants to jump up and down and holler.

When I was kitchen manager, before Edie came into our lives, I remember with fondness going for bike rides with fellow employees after work. You start out around 11pm, do a loop around Manhattan, catch dinner at Veselka at 4:30am, go home and collapse. All is right. But with a baby (and a wifey who is crabby if she feels she is not getting the support she deserves with said baby), it's not really an option on a regular basis anymore. My lack of sleep and wired-ness has been really messing with the rest of the week. By the time my sleep is back to normal, it's time to do the two-a-week again. And this coming week it'll now be 3-a-week. Though I intended only to go back to work part time, this is now going to be 40 hours a week smooshed into 3 days.

The NY Times dining section ran an interesting article on the influence of chef culture on some of the more out-there casual food offering a few months ago. It got me thinking. Alcohol messes with my sleep. I've taken sleeping-drugs, usually when I'm sick, and while they work, usually the next night I'm sleepless. Now "herb", there is something. Weed has never made me fall asleep, but what if I was already tired?

Before 35, I was able to count the number of times I had been under the influence of "the other tobacco" on three fingers. I don't smoke anything, and the whole hippy culture is a huge turn off. In recent years, experiments in the kitchen have yielded some interesting results. Because I rarely indulge, I have a bit of a collection of 'special' baked goods in the freezer. As with anyone wary of "drugs", I had only indulged with people, pre-planned, to help make fun things more fun. Basically, the same way alcohol is treated.

But this is different than alcohol, as any legalization advocate will tell you. I decided to eat a piece of special shortbread (very mild) at the end of my shift and try to get to bed before 4am. Ate it at 11, got home around 12, helped B with a minor Edie poop-emergency involving changing sheets, ate a little dinner and was in bed asleep by 12:15.

I was woken around 7:30 by the ladies of the house up and about, and I felt...fine. Not under the influence. Clearheaded, well slept, ready. I was not going to even mention it on these pages if it didn't go well, but I think this experiment is worth replicating. It has the potential to greatly improve the quality of my life while working these hours.

BREAKFAST: 7am, toasted wholewheat bagel with creamcheese and sable, iced green tea, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1pm, spinach salad, meatballs, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5pm, seafood pizza, soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, special shortbread


EVENING MEAL: 12 midnight, 2 hamburgers, fries, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
No comment.

Workworkworkwork

Restaurant was extremely busy on this Monday of a three day holiday weekend. I'd like to think because of my amazing managerial skills and fortitude that everything went without a hitch, but I lucked out with some top-rank coworkers who really showed me how it's done.

It was a 13 hour day that kind of passed by in a blink, featuring an appearance by B & Edie & Yomomma. Food was eaten here and there. I suspect tomorrow will be a different thing.

BREAKFAST: 7am, iced green tea, 1 wholewheat cinnamon pancake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


WORK DAZE: 11am-11pm, 3 or so slices of pizza, 2 or 3 sodas, 1 beer, a couple snippets of bread, 1 bowl, hunger ?/5


EVENING WATERING: 1am, a quart

July 4

On this July 4th Sunday, the original plan was to get out of the house around 4am on bike, but I didn't feel right when I woke, and due to the extreme heat I stayed in doors and on the couch. Extreme lazy eating. 

BREAKFAST: 5am, iced green tea, organic whole grain cheerios with organic dead milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: noon, Stouffer's French Bread pizzas, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5pm, ice cream & cookies, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5