Five Years: Goodbye!

Hi! I've been fat since before it was cool. Back when I was a little kid in the 70s, I was husky -- that's 70s lingo for fat-ass. Early in my adult life, I worked on such things as "personality" and "doing interesting things" to overcome the problem that being lardy brings --  a lack of attention from the opposite sex (or for some of you, the same sex, I ain't hatin'.) But I'm 41 now, married, have a bouncy 3 year old and a chillaxing 7 month old, and trying to ease into my midlife crisis gracefully. I'm not so worried about attracting any ladies other than my wifey, but I would like to set up some healthy environmental vibes for the kids and roll into old age without diabetes, rusty joints and no hope of ever being trim again.

I've collected the tools over the last 5 years to lose the chunk, but haven't really used them. I've been keeping a blog for FIVE YEARS, of which this is the last post -- and starting a new blog, of which this is the first post. I have a basic understanding of what is good and what is bad to eat -- I've read all about nutrition, my book shelf is full of titles like Nestle's Food Politics and Pollan's In Defense of Food. I can now cook well for myself and for my family -- I've gone to culinary school, completing certificates in culinary arts and management. I now understand why restaurant food is so stealthily unhealthy -- I spent a few years after c-school working in restaurants, from line cook to manager.

Self-reflection, check. Basics of nutrition, check. Cooking for myself and my family, check. Connecting with the bigger food environment I'm in, check. And yet I'm still Fatty McFatfat.

My current BMI is 34.4, making me officially obese. According to some data-crunchers, I'm fatter than 88% of the USA and 99% of the world. I need to get from +/- 230 to 196lbs  for my height and age to be simply overweight, 15% of my body mass. I have to lose almost 30% to be 160 lbs, which is "normal weight".

Despite all that, it was a TV show that has inspired me to reset the blog and take a new tact that starts using the tools in my tool box. Weight of a Nation is an HBO documentary that bluntly lays out the obesity problem in the USA -- why it's here, what it's doing to us, and most importantly, what can be done about it. It's even handed and places blame in various places, not JUST the individual. Unfortunately, with the state of politics, economy and our food supply, it falls to the individual on the front line to take the first steps to solve the problem. From the 2nd episode, here are their 5 things to lose weight.

1. Start with small steps: I first tracked calories without restriction for a couple of weeks to see wasssup.
2. Make realistic goals: get to a "over weight" BMI of 196 lbs in 3 years.
3. Seek support: Friends, Romans, countrymen.... Hello, readers! 
4. Keep portions under control: a work in progress, guided by freakishly small recommended portion sizes on labels.
5. Track your caloric intake: I've been doing this for about a month now, and it's a lot of work, a lot of mental noise, a lot of little bits of research, a lot of developing a new sense of what calories feel like when there is no numbers present...

.....and ALWAYS make physical activity a part of your life: I lift weights twice a week, and get a 50-100 mile bike ride in every week, currently. It's a challenge finding the time, but one makes time for what's important, and what keeps them sane.

Weight of the Nation recommends the #1 thing to cut weight: cut out soft drinks, the only foodstuff directly related to obesity. Even a twinkie or potato  chip have SOMETHING nutritional in them. And don't fool yourself like the NYC public school system does: juice is equal to soft drinks -- fruit minus the fiber is just a soft drink.

So welcome to FatBeforeItWasCool.blogspot.com! Thanks for memories, LearningToFeed.com! This blog is, on it's face, a food diary and weight-watching journal. Wary of the slog of calorie-counting, I'm going the Tom Cruise method. According to legend, Tom Cruise has cooks and nutritionists who control every bite that enters his maw.... five days a week. On weekends he's free to feed himself barley water and Scientol-ios and ding dongs. Unlike the previous blog, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays are a time chill out.

Three main ways this blog will be different/improved from the last...

Tags: Every post will be tagged to be searchable. Important for me to have easy access to calorie count research and monitoring my progress, as well as being aware of how often I eat what. Important for you, for it'll provide quick answers to whatever shorthand I develop. Because I know you want a bowl of kolon-bloe! 

Graphics: Imma let you finish, but first check this out:

All my favorite blogs have pictures to help tell the story. This nifty chart here tracks my weight over the past 2 years or so, since I started weighing myself. I'll ponder the story being told on here on the 1st of every month, when I weigh in. First of the month: that's the biggie entry where things are thought over, summarized and chewed on.

Humor: Previously, my blogging was a bit belly-button consuming and really not considering others were reading this. Well, I enjoy being funny (y'know, funny ha ha, not funny what's that smell?) and keeping things light will, umm, help keep things light.

If your a regular reader of LearningToFeed.com for some reason, please change your bookmarks to 

fatbeforeitwascool.blogspot.com

Even better, pop your email into the "FOLLOW BY EMAIL" box to get new entries emailed to your inbox and make me feel good by all the people who love me! Who really love me!

Snickledinner somehow now decadent!

Woke up to a cranky household, but powered through and kept focus. Lifted weights, laundry, took care of bebe.

By the way, tomorrow will be FIVE YEARS since I started this blog. Watch for a big ol' announcement.

THE COUNT: 2500
Dinner was wild card, but I rolled out not feeling stuffed, and I went to bed with a stomach that felt like it could eat a snack, so I probably wasn't too far from the mark. I did get very hungry in the afternoon, but the small diet soda and a bike ride into Brooklyn worked well at tamping down the discomfort.

WEEKEND REPORT:
Had a reasonable eating weekend, despite challenges. Saturday was a kids's party in the morning with all-u-can-eat pizza and cake, and a baby shower in the afternoon with all-u-can-eat burgers, corn, apps, etc. Sunday we visited friends on SI and started with an all-u-can-eat buffet at a Sri Lanken restaurant. All three I ate my fill, but not so much that I was bursting. Sunday eve out in Wiliamsburg with MAP, a  nice night of conversation trumping food, first for a pint of cider at an outdoor table, then some super-cheap dumplings and a small ice cream cup at a bodega. Enough, not too much.

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


BREAKFAST: 9:15am, steel cut oatmeal & banana, water, 490


LUNCH: 12:45pm, whole wheat pasta with sauce, shrimp and Parmesan, 900 cal
Probably could have used some vegetable component in this meal and less pasta, but the cupboard is bare until I food shop tonight and pick up the CSA veg tomorrow.

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, 8oz diet sprite, 0 cal

SNICKLEDINNER: 8pm, mini green salad, a few fried curry samosas, Genereal Tso's soy protein with steamed broc and brown rice, half a peanut butter bomb thing, water, +/- 1085 cal
Out with the HVS in her hood, to a vegan spot. Even though I leaned into the fried stuff, there were still a bunch of veg and whole grains in this meal. The desert was pleasantly decadent, well-shared with the hardcore vegan across the table!

1415

Riding the Rails

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

THE COUNT: 3565
BIKE CREDIT: 1,800

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

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


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


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


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


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


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


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

Freshman 15s

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

THE COUNT: 2465


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


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


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


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


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


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

Did I really need that shumai?

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

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

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

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


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


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


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

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

Hungry to Bed

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

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

THE COUNT: 2500

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


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

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

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

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


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


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


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

It's Good, It's Great

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

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

THE COUNT: 2400

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


BREAKFAST: 10:30am, smoothie, 325 cal


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


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


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

Ride

Took the train out to Montauk in the morning, dropping me off at 11:30am. A cool ocean breeze made the heat tolerable, and made it to Babylon at the sun started to set around 8pm. Funny how the idea of keeping track of my calories keeps me to large chains or prepackaged food, so I have an idea of what I'm taking in. I guess when I ride on weekends, I'll try to eat a bit more locally and naturally.


THE COUNT:4029
BIKE CREDIT: 2,200
According to my new bike computer, I burned 2200, but according to an online bike calorie calculator, it was more than double that. Hmmm. If I include my daily 2,500 budget, I'm about 700 calories in deficit. Maybe on-line is including the calories I use just by living, and the bike just calculates the energy needed to propel the bike and my weight?

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, 4 mini pancakes, iced green tea, 325 cal


AM SNACK: 8:15am, large chocolate chip cookie, +/- 250 cal


BIKE SNACK: 11:15, granola, 855 cal


BIKE SNACK: 12:45, Gatorade, 130 cal


BIKE SNACK: 2pm, 6" veggie burger sub, potato chips, diet coke, 630 cal


BIKE SNACK: 3:45, Gatorade, 130 cal


BIKE SNACK: 5pm, 2 donuts, 590 cal


BIKE SNACK: 6:45pm,  twix candy bar, 250 cal


BIKE SNACK: 9:30pm, slice of pizza, +/- 200


DINNER: 11pm, pint of chocolate milk, roti canai, singapore rice noodles, water, +/- 1200

Corny

Slept in and woke to a sleeping baby and an empty house. Nicely sore from yesterday's work out, particularly in my shoulders and chest -- my negative pull ups are becoming noticeably slower, which makes me think I might actually be able to do a pull up in my life time!
At the end of the day, I was surprised how close I came to my budget. I made a technical mistake by eating corn, rather than something like a string bean. Corn is considered a carb rather than a vegetable, and I think stuffing myself with Brussels or cabbage would've made me feel a lot less hungry in the evening. So I drank a quart of water and I was able to get to sleep at a good time, lesson learned.
THE COUNT: 2395

AM SNACK: 9am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 9am, steel cut oatmeal, 400 cal


LUNCH: 1pm, sardine & avocado on whole wheat, momma salad, kimchi, 700 cal


DINNER: 6:15pm, grilled chicken breast, 2 ears boiled corn, kraft whole grain mac n' cheese, glass of beer, 8oz diet sprite, 1270 cal

4th o' July

B had the day off, Edles was home from summer camp. In the morning took Edie to the supermarket to do a full shop, right after delivering the groceries we two went to the public pool for an hour, so much fun. Cooked up in the afternoon, the fam went to a nice party in a garden in the early evening.

After hours and when every one was asleep, took  the big bike to Brooklyn to the HVS's pad and we rode bikes with a book case attached to me. For the record, every single time me and the HVS have rode across the city hauling furniture by bike, there has been fireworks.

Today's count is a bit of a guess, but I did have a noticeable pang of hunger as I was going to sleep, which was encouraging.

THE COUNT: 2380

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


BREAKFAST: 9:45am, kolon bloe with whole milk, 300 cal


PM SNACK: 12:45pm, watermelon, 130 cal


LUNCH: 1:30pm, homemade pizza, small scoop of cherry sorbet, diet sprite, +/- 900 cal
B had some good friends over who rarely make an appearance, so did the full court press with pizza. Brussel sprout/scallop/no cheese is a slammin' combination, sooo much better than that mess of a pie I got at Motorino. Too hands on to count calories, but limited myself to two tiny scoops of sorbet, though I felt like eating 4x more than that. When those desires go away some day, I'll know I've achieved something, though I accept they may never.

DINNER: 6pm, mystery meat hot dog, 3 jalapeno poppers, some tortilla chips and avocado & bean salsa, small cub of noodle kugel, 1 1/2 small berry cheesecake cupcakes, water, +/- 900 cal
At a really nice 4th of July party in a Greenthumb park in Alphabet City. Never had a "jalapeno popper" before -- a jalapeno stuffed with cream cheese, wrapped in bacon, grilled. Kinda gross, but I was hungry and it was the first thing out. Fortunately, there was no good beer available so I easily avoid 300 cal or so there. If I wasn't watching what I was eating, I easily would have eaten a 2nd hot dog and more desserts, but I left feeling satisfied but not full.

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, watermelon, 125 cal
I realize why watermelon is so satisfying: I can eat a very large, outsized wedge and only consume the calories of a dainty 1oz bag of chips.

Crappy Eating

Not a good eating day. Stayed with in calories, but ate for convenience at McD's then some frozen pizzas. Thought I was going to get a bike ride in in the evening, but again, felt tired from the kid thing. Biking is definitely a morning thing for me. Maybe the lack of energy is from eating the wrong foods...

TODAY'S COOKING
Pizza dough: Did Jim Lehey's no-knead dough again, rising room temp over night. The 4 pizza batch has 1820 cal, or about 60 cal of dough per small 1/8 slice. My sauce is easily 20 cal or so a slice, so I imagine the load will be coming from toppings like cheese n' shiz...

THE COUNT: 2465

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


BREAKFAST: 9am, steel cut oatmeal, 400 cal


LUNCH: 12:45pm, quarter pounder with cheese, fries, diet coke, 890 cal


DINNER: 5:45pm, Stouffer's french bread pizzas, baby carrots, 8oz diet sprite, 900 cal


EVENING SNACK: 8:15pm, popcorn, 240 cal

Weights & Measures

229.8--->225.4--->223.4


This is how I used to express my month to month weight measures, looking at the trend over 1/4 of a year. It is much more informative, however, to look at the trends over 2 years....

Ah, OK then. Seems I dip in the summers, expand in the winters. This time last year I was actually 2.5 pounds lighter, but truth be told, I was under duress because of leaving the restaurant, and I literally was barely eating due to the big knot in my stomach. Not a healthy eating plan. Why the mountains and valleys? I think despite my big eating after bike rides, I still burn more than I take in, and the valleys kind of look like how much I get to do big bike rides.

WEEKEND REPORT:
Ate awfully. Or more precisely, bounced back to the old normal. Kinda needed it, like when you need a break from a hard job, but still, I look forward to getting back to the new way of eating. I kept the amounts under control, except Saturday night, when momma-in-law come over to help out, we ordered in Chinese, I finished up other left overs and had a triple portion of my cherry sorbet.
----
I measured myself  on Sunday, nice it's going down but feels less impressive in the context of the data. My goal, I suppose, to to make break the cycle and get close to the bottom of the graph and stay there.

I originally intended to do a 30 mile bike ride out to Coney after dinner, but had a wave of tiredness once I ate. I helped look after another 3 year old for a few hours after school, which was surprisingly exhausting, plus I lifted weights in the morning. Hopefully tomorrow...

THE COUNT: 2385


TODAY'S COOKING
Pancakes: Didn't get around to this over the weekend, so ripped off a batch. Light butter milk in addition to whole milk, doubled the eggs to six, and split the 24 oz of flour between half white and half whole wheat. Got 55 small pancakes out of the batch, for 75 cal each.

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


BREAKFAST: 9:45am, fruit smoothie, 320 cal


LUNCH: 12:45pm, broiled cod, pancakes, baby carrots, 900 cal
Broiled in my caste iron grill pan. Forgot it's a bad idea to do fish in caste iron, unless you plan to use it for only fish. Had to smoke up the house to get the fish off.

DINNER: 6pm, whole wheat pasta with sauce & shrimp, slightly steamed string beans, watermelon, glass of nut brown beer, 890 cal
Huge pile of string beans, only 90 cal. Funny, haven't eaten string beans in years but I remember loving them as a kid because my dad loved them. He'd steam them in a steamer basket with thin slices of garlic, then dress them with a little melted butter and salt. Maybe I'll do that when I serve them to others, but for myself, just trimming, cleaning, putting in a plastic bag then zapping for 2 minutes gives it the right amount of 90% snap to 10% cooked. Don't need salt as long as I mix mouthfuls with other things on the plate, the slight carry over salt gives it all it needs. Wow, I'm really looking hard into my belly-button now...


EVENING SNACK: 7:45pm, glass of chocolate milk, 250 cal


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, 8oz diet sprite, 0 cal

Kolon-Bloe

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

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

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

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

THE COUNT: 2490

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

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

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

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

PM SNACK: 6pm, watermelon, 260 cal

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


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


1380
0860
2240

Shoveling into My Mouf

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

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

THE COUNT: 2685

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


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


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


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


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

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

Trashy Shoppin' & Big Gay Dessert

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

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

THE COUNT: 2,425

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


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


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

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


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


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


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


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

Bag o' stringy beans

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

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

TODAY'S COUNT: 2490

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


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

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

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

EVENING SNACK: 7pm, watermelon, 175 cal

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

Keeping the Bugdet

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

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

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

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

THE COUNT: 2580

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

Biking on calories

Woke up at 4:30 to ride my bike over the GWB, down Jersey to Staten Island and did a loop. Was a bit slow going due to highs in the 90s and thick humidity. I have a cyclometer that  calculates calories on order, but for now I used this website to come up with the figure for how many calories I expended.

Nutritionally, not a spectacular day -- where are the fruits and veg? But what I ate got me through. If I wasn't counting calories, I probably would have ate another 1000+ calorie meal where I have an evening snack, but was able to think about the hunger I was feeling and go smaller. So I guess that makes this effort good for something, no?

THE COUNT: 4,230
BIKE CREDIT: +/- 4,600


Does this mean I'm in deficit by 370 cal, or do I include the 2,500 I'm budgeted to live a normal day, making it a deficit of 2,870? That would result in almost a pound of fat in one day, which strains credibility. I'm sure the answer is complicated and somewhere in the middle.


BREAKFAST: 4:45am, iced green tea, homemade granola with whole milk, 850 cal


BIKE SNACK: 7:45am, 20oz Gatorade, 3oz fritos, 590 cal


BIKE SNACK: 10:45am, 20oz Gatorade, 2oz potato chips, 420 cal


BIKE SNACK: 12:15pm, Drakes apple pie, 470 cal
Was shocked how many calories in this rather small treat. Tasty, but so not worth the calories if I wasn't in desperate need of a kick to keep going.


PM SNACK: 3:15pm, handful of tortilla chips, fresh salsa, +/- 100 cal


LINNER: 4pm, roast beef sandwich on brioche, handful of fries, handful of cheesy spatzle, water, +/- 1000 cal
Out with B&E and friends at Prime Meats in Cobble Hill.


PM SNACK: 5pm, small cherry Italian ice, +/- 150 cal


PM SNACK: 6pm, 8 oz Nesquik chocolate milk, 170 cal
Got this free sample from a street fair. Chocolate milk is supposed to be a good recovery drink. Think I should just get some real chocolate syrup and make it with my whole milk on demand, as this stuff is weirdly industrial.


EVENING SNACK: 8:45pm, hotdog with mustard, another Nesquick, 480 cal

Ready, set....go?! Yeah, go!

Part of me says, "Oh, I'll start restricting my calories next week" but there is a part of me that needs to be early -- on time is the same thing as late. So without totally thinking it through, today I'm going to try to keep my intake during the week to under 2,500 or so. It's not as low as the nutritionist recommended (2,200-2,350) but for now I think it's a reasonable goal.

Lifted weights in the morning, still feeling the stress of just bumping up the amounts. Still, it's great that I can do 20 push ups without pausing -- in high school, my peak push-ups was 10. Rereading that sentence, yes, midlife crisis! Gonna ride this crisis to my advantage, dang it.

THE COUNT: 2,420

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, steel cut oats, a banana, 520 cal


AM SNACK: 11:30am, momma salad with ranch, 145 cal


LUNCH: 1:15pm, health salad, chicken nuggz, whole wheat spag with homemade sauce, 800 cal
For the first time eva, I prepped and ate 1 official serving of pasta: 2oz, 210 cal undressed. I guess in the scheme of a meal as a side dish, it makes sense. Edie's whole-grain breaded chicken nuggets are not the greatest source of protein, but it's what I have on hand.

PM SNACK: 2:45pm, 21 oz diet coke, 0 cal
This was a small fountain drink, for f@ck's sake.

DINNER: 6:30pm, 2 ears corn with butter, roasted brussel sprouts, 1 pancake, 8oz beer, 930 cal
Originally it was going to be 1 corn, but as I was taking my broiled cod out of the oven, the sizzling juices spread enough to the cooler part of the glass pan that it made it shatter, -sigh-. I guess this is why people use broiler pans, will note that for the next broil-a-thon.

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, 8oz diet sprite, 0 cal
Hmmm. Not a great habit to get into, diet soda. Am I on a precipice?

Accidental Onion Stock & a Visit to the Nutritionist

So I visited a nutritionist for the first time since about 5 years ago, when I briefly consulted a nutritionist-in-training and started this blog because of it. I'll skip the flighty talk and abstract impressions and cut to the chase. This was the take-away:

1. I eat too much. To lose about 2 lbs a week, I need to restrict myself to a goal of 2,200-2,350 cal/day.
2. I eat too many carbs. Based on review of the my eating Sunday-Tuesday, I'm eating 75-80% carbs, the balance in fat and not enough protein. I need to aim for a 40/30/30 balance of carb/protein/fat.
3. I'm scared of being hungry. I should never let myself get so hungry that I lose control, but learn to listen to hunger to allow it to prompt my eating.

The nutritionist gave me a list of recommended foods, many of which I will eat perhaps when I'm dead. (Egg white omelet? Turkey bacon? No fat yogurt? Uh, no.) I've never thought in terms of carb/fat/protein before, as the fact is a calorie is a calorie is a calorie.

HOWEVER. The nutritionist did point out that if I get my sources of calories into line, I will feel fuller on less calories. I will consume less calories and NOT be equivalently hungrier. This evening, for dinner I made two sides in about equal amounts -- mac n' cheese out of the box, and quickly sauteed chopped spinach. They looked equal on the plate, but one had about 700 calories and one had about 150. In the future, I'll half the mac and double the spinach and get closer to my calorie goal....without suffering...too much.

Starting ASAP, probably with the next food shop, I'm going to get more lean meats and fish in, more vegetable salad options, more cooked veg and start focusing on fruit as a snack. I'm not going to try to restrict (the bad, non nutritious) carbs so much as crowd them out.

Fact is, I'm starting to see results of my weight training that I amped up since getting sick around New Year's. Hopefully by this coming New Year's, I'll see results from this revised approach to my eating.

Mid July, this blog is going to undergo a revamp. Watch for it!

TODAY'S COOKING:
Onions: Making a batch of caramelized onions for knish making either next week or the week after that. Did the calculations, the whole batch will be about 9,400 calories. However, in the interest of accuracy, after the onions came out the oven, I reserved the liquid that I take off the onions and put it in the fridge. The next morning, the fat had hardened on the top -- almost 3,000 calories worth! And the fat-free brown liquid.... oh my. Concentrated caramelized onion flavored water! Gonna go into the making of my next batch of rice.

TODAY'S COUNT: 3055

AM SNACK: 8:45am, iced green tea, 25 cal


BREAKFAST: 9:15am, full fat fage with honey and almonds, 380 cal
A full serving of honey is a teaspoon, but halved that because it seemed too much.

LUNCH: 11:30, Stouffer's French Bread pizzas, 860 cal
Ironically, due to the fact I needed to rush to get out the door to see a nutritionist, this was my lunch of convenience...

PM SNACK: 2:15pm, large chocolate chip cookie, +/- 400 cal


DINNER: 6:45pm, sauteed fillet of turkey breast, cooked spinach, whole grain kraft dinner, 8oz beer, 1265 cal
My not-so-big serving of the boxed mac n' cheese was over 600 cal! WTF!

EVENING SNACK: 7:15pm, watermelon, 125 cal
Felt like chocolate and nuts, but knew I was already passing 3000 with this snack...