Everyone is fat nowadays, and we're all getting fatter. I've been fat since the early '70s, biters! And now I'm looking to get thin before the chunky trend goes out of style...
Yay! I lost a pound! Let's get triple cheese burgers!
It's easy to be cynical and see the bad side of things. Holy crap, anyone within media-ear shot of this week's Republican debates could not be blamed for thinking our democracy is being subsumed by idiots, clowns and he-man woman-haters. Despite those same right wing lunatics insisting climate change isn't real despite all evidence to the contrary, major projects at my doorstep are being planned to account for the rising sea levels, regardless of any politician's anti-science dogma.
Republican Party, circa 1930
But the thing that motivates this blog is more narrow. It's my health and the health of my children and everyone else's too, and the food that we consume that affects it. Well, maybe it's not a lost cause.
Calories consumed daily by the typical American adult, which peaked around 2003, are in the midst of their first sustained decline since federal statistics began to track the subject, more than 40 years ago. The number of calories that the average American child takes in daily has fallen even more — by at least 9 percent.
That is a mouthful, and is huge, if you believe it. Lies, damn lies, and statistics....but I'm going to go and believe it, given the seemingly credible multi-year wide-ranging studies the piece cites. Doesn't hurt that my anecdotal evidence -- which is recorded here every week for years and years, as well as my awareness of how I feed my own kids -- seems to fit neatly into the hypothesis.
The encouraging data does not mean an end to the obesity epidemic: More than a third of American adults are still considered obese, putting them at increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Americans are still eating far too few fruits and vegetables and far too much junk food, even if they are eating somewhat less of it, experts say.
OK, sometimes it's totally legit to hate on fruit.
As can be seen by my monthly weigh-ins and the trends that can only really be seen in annual-increments, what all this information is saying is that we might finally be past our maximum-fatness, but we still have a ways to go to get back to where we were....before sugar became cheap, plentiful and processed into a plethora of foods to make them cheaper. And there is no other source of concentrated, cheap sugar than soda.
The anti-obesity public health campaigns have focused on one subject more than any other: beverages.
Anti-soda messages hit their target. Americans, on average, purchased about 40 gallons of full-calorie soda a year in 1998, according to sales data from the industry trade publication Beverage Digest analyzed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. That fell to 30 gallons in 2014, about the level that Americans bought in 1980, before the obesity rates took off.
If we want to get serious about the realities of what climate change is doing, it's probably too late to just cut carbon emissions -- we have to start building walls to keep the oceans out of our urban centers. And if we want to get serious about the realities of what sugar is doing, addicting people to cheap food and corporations to easy profits, there has to be a campaign similar to the one that got us hooked off of cigarettes and tobacco. Once sugar and excess calories are recognized as a addiction-manipulated health threat on the level of nicotine cancer-sticks, then maybe we'll have a change at real progress in our life times. The cause is not lost.
WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2866
OK eating week, not great but not an embarrassment. Bike riding is starting to come back to me, feeling a lot of gratitude about being healthy.
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BIKE CREDIT: 550 cal MONDAY COUNT: 1970
SLEPT: 11pm-6am, 7 hrs
AM SNACK: 6:15 am, iced green tea BREAKFAST 1: 10:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal
BREAKFAST 2: 1pm, Fage with almonds, honey and vanilla, 450 cal PM SNACK: 2:30pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal BIKE SNACK: 4:30pm, homemade granola bar, 350 cal DINNER: 6:45pm, mahi mahi, asparagus, poppa salad with dressing, 650 cal EVENING SNACK: 7:15pm, large piece of watermelon, +/- 400 cal EVENING SNACK: 8pm, 2 child granola bars, 200 cal -----
TUESDAY COUNT: 2690 cal
SLEPT: 9pm-6am, 9hrs
AM SNACK: 6:15 am, iced green tea BREAKFAST: 8am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal BREAKFAST 2: 10:15am, steel cut oatmeal 450 cal LUNCH: 1pm, almond butter and grape jelly on whole wheat, health salad, pickes, 600 cal PM SNACK: 4:30pm, momma salad, 100 cal DINNER: 7pm, French Bread Pizza, poppa salad with dressing, 1080 cal EVENING SNACK: 8pm, large piece of watermelon, +/- 300 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 3320 cal
SLEPT: 11:30pm - 5:30am, 6 hrs
AM SNACK: 5:45am, iced green tea BREAKFAST: 8am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal BREAKFAST 2: 10am, fruit smoothie, 450 cal
PM SNACK: 3pm, momma salad, cheezits,310 cal PM SNACK: 5pm, poppa salad with dressing, 200 cal DINNER: 8pm, chipotle burrito, ice cream, 1180 cal EVENING SNACK: 10pm, nutella, +/- 400 cal -----
THURSDAY COUNT: 3440
SLEPT:11pm-6am, 7 hours
AM SNACK:6:15am, iced green tea BREAKFAST 1: 10am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal BREAKFAST 2: 12:15pm, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal
PM SNACK: 1:15pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal LUNCH: 4pm, poppa salad with dressing and grilled chicken, 720 cal DINNER: 8pm, burger, fries, diet coke, +/- 1200 cal EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, nutella, +/- 500 cal
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FRIDAY COUNT: 2910
SLEPT: 12am-4:30am, 4.5 hours
BREAKFAST: 5am, iced green tea BREAKFAST 1: 9:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal
BREAKFAST 2: 11:15am, Fage with almonds, honey and vanilla, 450 cal
LUNCH: 2:30pm, sauteed shrimp with mushrooms, poppa salad and dressing, 630 cal
PM SNACK: 3:30pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal DINNER: 5:15pm, hot dog, fries, ice cream, +/- 1000 cal EVENING SNACK: 8pm, beef patty, 360 cal
Why do you think I'd even CONSIDER eating the fruit, you silly photographer?!
A few weeks ago a bunch of retired, grandfatherly generals & admirals issued a report warning that kids today are too fat, too stupid, too stoned and too poor to adequately staff the military of the future, not to mention to drive the growth of our economy or prevent a total collapse of our health care system. Most of their suggested solutions involved drafting Congress to legislate school policy, mainly healthier meals and more physical education.
A few weeks later, reports are zinging around the Internet tubes that because of the recent upgrade of healthiness in national school nutrition standards, kids are rebelling in full force.
Because the lunches must now include fruits and vegetables, those who clamor for more cheese-laden nachos may find string beans and a peach cup instead. Because of limits on fat and sodium, some of those who crave French fries get baked sweet-potato wedges. Because of calorie restrictions, meat and carbohydrate portions are smaller. Gone is 2-percent chocolate milk, replaced by skim.
“Before, there was no taste and no flavor,” said Malik Barrows, a senior at Automotive High School in Brooklyn, who likes fruit but said his classmates threw away their mandatory helpings on the cafeteria floor. “Now there’s no taste, no flavor and it’s healthy, which makes it taste even worse.”
The preferred fruit of today's students.
The results of the new standards are in: Lots of fruit and veg are appearing in cafeteria garbage cans and kids are complaining that they are not being fed enough. Almost makes me wish those retired generals would come on down to the schools and give those kids a good ol' fashioned talkin'-to.
So what is there to do? Perhaps nothing.
But the most effective strategy, several food service directors said, may simply be waiting. Research shows that children must be exposed to vegetables 10 to 12 times before they will eat them on their own, said William J. McCarthy, a professor of public health and psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
I am all for the government using policy to protect the interests and health of the people. But for policy to be effective it must decide which is more important: the health of the nation's physical well-being or the health of the nation's entrenched economic interests. The fine folks behind the Too Fat to Fight reports don't go far enough. Legislating healthier lunches and more gym classes is fine but is what it's not what's happening during school lunching hours that's making them obese; it's everywhere else.
We need to balance the needs of a food industry that demands growth & profit at all costs in the same way we need to look at a health care industry that also demands profits over anything else. Rational food supply and sane health care are universal rights, not privileges to those who can afford it. Capitalism should not run unfettered and all-consuming but needs to be fair and balanced (if you'll pardon the Fox). Perhaps banning advertising of unhealthy foods the way we did with cigarette advertising is a step in the right direction. Or creating national portion standards like NYC's soda ban. Or legislate price supports for fruit and veg and new taxes on junk food. Rather than reporting on a bunch of whiny lil' kids complaining about the burden of having to throw away fruit every day, let's start agitating for policy that makes fruit a more familiar, affordable, and common part of the young American diet.
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A major problem of rapid weight loss is pubic hair turning into measuring tape that spreads out across one's torso.
We are flooded with media messages and images about losing weight: PSA campaigns, sneaker ads, reality shows, before and after commercials, in which celebs beam with joy in photos proving that they've slimmed down. They're often perfectly toned, in a bikini, grinning ear to ear.
In reality, if you drop a ton of weight quickly, you're going to be trapped in a skin-suit a few sized too big for you, particularly if you are older. Julia Kozerski's is that person, and her photographs brought up a lot of feelings, in regards to attempting to change my body after so many years of being on the plumper side. Have I ruined my body after years of abuse? If my flesh does that, will I be comfortable or will I desire to be fat again? Will my flesh do that? Do I care, does my vanity trump my will to be healthy? Or do they reinforce each other?
Have no fear dear reader, no matter which way my flesh goes, I will be writing about it, not taking nudie photos of it....
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Amurika, F-yeah!
On Thursday, burnt out from cooking all day, I went to the local supermarket to pick up something...and happened upon something I hadn't seen before: Jack Daniel's Pulled Chicken. I saw that it was fully cooked, it was chicken and it was saucy.
I am not a big BBQ person but a few years ago I rode my bicycle cross-country and found that BBQ in Kansas was one of the most delicious foods on the planet. With that sense memory in the back of my head, I bought a packet of the chicken. What the hey, perhaps a shot of booze in the sauce will give it a nice heat.
When I heated it, portioned it and put it on the plate, it looked a little watery but so what. When I put it in my mouth, all I tasted was....syrup. This is chicken in sugar syrup. No smoke, no heat, no spices, no meatiness, just sweet. My first thought was, "Did I just put a dessert in my mouth by accident?" My second thought was:
Sugar-sweet slammin' shredded bird, duderino!
I tried to eat my portion, but I could not, it was just too sweet. What I failed to do was read the ingredients closely enough.
What I originally saw was a lot of words for chicken at the front. What I failed to see was that the chicken was "tumbled with sugar," and the sauce's 1st, 2nd, 8th, and 9th ingredients were all forms of sugar. Actual Jack Daniels? 15th, less than salt. My taste buds were not lying -- the "sauce" literally was sugar syrup with a few other things thrown in.
Maybe it's because I've been naturally decreasing my sugar consumption over the last few months that my taste buds went wild (in a bad way) when eating this stuff. One thing for certain, my stomach felt queasy for the rest of the night and only snacking on some starches and even some mildly sweet dark chocolate chips brought me back to feeling myself. People eat this stuff out of habit? And liking it? Jebsus.
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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2275 cal ESTIMATED REFINED SUGAR %: 12.5%
Good weekly average due to refocusing after finding I only lost 2 lbs last month. Refined sugar higher than I'd like because of Thursday's mistake with that horrible pulled chicken.
MONDAY COUNT: 2165
Put myself to bed hungry, but it wasn't so bad as I was leveraging the excess calories from the weekend. Lifted weights, lower back still a little sore but definitely better than last Thursday. The lift for the back routine was for mid-back, so it went fine. Started holding my negative pull-ups to the count of 5 instead of three, definitely feel it. Will October be the month of the first real pull-up?
Today and tomorrow, Edie has no school due to the Jewish holidays. Almost broke down and made frozen pizza for lunch, but figured that would be a bad way to kick off the new month.
AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal BREAKFAST: 9:30am, fruit smoothie, 375 cal LUNCH: 1pm, sardine & avocado on whole wheat bread, health salad, baby carrots, 7oz diet coke, 715 cal
PM SNACK: 3pm, banana, 135 cal DINNER: 7pm, sauteed shrimp, roasted brussel sprouts, baked potatoes with butter, 7oz diet sprite, 915 cal ------
TUESDAY COUNT:2365
Edie off from school again, feeling a bit stressed. Finding stress is a good way to not think about food -- just eat enough, then move on. Got really hungry in the evening, the kinda hunger I know will keep me up, fortunately I had enough leeway in the budget to make a big bowl of popcorn -- it' a great snack because there is a lot of jawing and grabbing involved, takes a while to eat.
AM SNACK: 8:00am, iced green tea, 25 cal
BREAKFAST: 9:30am, kolon bloe with whole milk, 300 cal
LUNCH: 12:15pm, 2 peanut butter & jelly sandwiches on whole wheat, momma salad, 750 cal
PM SNACK: 4pm, small handful of animal crackers, +/- 50 cal
Taught culinary for the first time since last Spring. First class is always fun, lecturing on food and kitchen safety, making some basic stuff using lots of knife work. Last time I taught was during my 'old' way of eating. Smoothies were pretty reasonable, based on the non-refined sugar, fruit-based recipe from home. I forgot to add oil to the salsa, still came out good and the kids loved it, so I took some home with an estimated calorie value. I had my graduates make 4 sheets of brownies, 3 for the school to sell at a flea market, and one to eat. I served it hot out of the oven, and it looked AMAZEBALLS, but I avoided it, as well as the full-sugar soda supplied to the kids. Before, I would of ate 2 brownies (+/- 500 cal) and at least 12 oz of soda (120) and come home and eaten a big dinner anyway.
AM SNACK:8:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal
BREAKFAST: 9:15am, kolon bloe with whole milk, 300 cal
LUNCH: 12:45pm, whole wheat pasta in red sauce with chicken sausage, string beans, 2 pickles, 14oz diet coke, 860 cal SCHOOL SNACK: 5-7pm, tastes of various student smoothies, small plate of fresh salsa, guac & chips, +/- 150 cal DINNER: 8:30pm, Stouffers French bread pizzas, momma salad, 7oz diet coke, 1020 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT: 2715
Lifted weights in the morning, went well -- did some lower back exercises successfully without pain, still achy but 90% better. Baked knishes in the afternoon for sale, did taste the mix a few times for salt but I'm not going to get THAT anal about putting in maybe a +/- 50 cal taste. Though I did eat the momma salad right before cooking just to make sure I didn't mindlessly put more in my mouth than that...
AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal
BREAKFAST: 9:45am, Fage full fat Greek yogurt with honey, vanilla and almonds, 340 cal LUNCH: 12:15pm, quarter pounder, fries, 20oz diet coke, 900 cal PM SNACK: 2:30pm, momma salad, 100 cal DINNER:7:30pm, pulled bbq chicken, school made salsa and Tostidos corn chips, pickle, 850 cal
Felt like something different and easy, picked up some corn chips and packaged container of BBQ chicken. I should have stayed away from it, as the first ingredient in the sauce was brown sugar, and the second ingredient was....sugar. Blech, like chicken drowning in syrup, could not finish it. I guess that is the taste of America.
EVENING SNACKS:9-10pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, potato chips, tortilla chips, +/- 500
That sweet chicken stuff left me feeling weird, sugared up and it drove my appetite wonky. Took comfort in the fact I had a bike ride scheduled tomorrow to hopefully even out the budget for the week.
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BIKE CREDIT: 1760
FRIDAY COUNT: 1785
Left out early and spent half the day on the bike, riding to Staten Island. Good energizing ride after so many rainy days. Tried to be conservative with the eating, I think it might have helped me, never had any up/down swings in energy over the 75 miles.
AM SNACK: 6:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal
AM SNACK: 7am, 2 donuts from Donut Plant, +/-400 cal
BIKE BREAKFAST: 10am, whole wheat bagel with cream cheese, 20oz Gatorade, +/- 500 cal
BIKE SNACK: 12:45pm, 20oz diet Dr Pepper, 0 cal
BIKE LUNCH: 2:15pm, 3 Jamaican meat patties, 1220 cal
DINNER: 7:15pm, Pad Prik King with tofu and sticky rice, fried shrimp roll, Thai salad, +/-1400 cal
If you read the daily news about the latest in obesity research, you may find yourself getting stupider by the day. On one hand, society is heading over a cliff o' fatness and we're all doomed, and on the other hand, fat people seem to be healthier than thin people. Cum on feel this noize!
A report from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was recently issued, entitled, "F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2011". In a one year period, sixteen of the 50 states got more obese, and none declined. The report also looks at figures for the last twenty years: back then no state had an obesity rate over 15%, while now two thirds of all states are over 30% obese, and now only one state out of fifty is less than 20% super-chunky.
“Today, the state with the lowest obesity rate would have had the highest rate in 1995,” said Jeff Levi, Ph.D., executive director of TFAH. “There was a clear tipping point in our national weight gain over the last twenty years, and we can't afford to ignore the impact obesity has on our health and corresponding health care spending.”
Bobby "Wood" Johnson was teased about his name by fat kids growing up. Little did they know that he would get the last laugh....
There are break downs by race and income (summary -- the darker and poorer you are, the fatter you tend to be) and policy recommendations (summary -- the beverage industry will not be amused), as well as individual reports by state. My family's home state, NY, is the 11th least obese state, woooo! Still, at 24.1% of New Yorker's officially being Fatty McFattfatts, that doesn't seem so hot. Trimmest state? Colorado at 19.8%. State most super-sized? Mississippi at 34.4% Guess they need all those extra i's, s's and p's to help expel air as they try to pull up their pants.
Colorado rush hour commute. The fattest ones get eaten by bears.
To add some color to the story, the study's author gave some good quote to ABC News:
"With 6 million new cases of diabetes, 5 million cases of heart disease and stroke, and more than 400,000 cases of cancer in the next 20 years, we are on a tragic course that will have a horrible impact on the quality of life of millions of Americans and could overwhelm an already over burdened health care system," said Dr. Jeffery Levi, study author and executive director of Trust for America's Health.
We are heading over a cliff, sooner or later we will all be economically hobbled tubs o' goo enslaved to our P90X-worshipping overlords. Or will we?
In study after study, overweight and moderately obese patients with certain chronic diseases often live longer and fare better than normal-weight patients with the same ailments. The accumulation of evidence is inspiring some experts to re-examine long-held assumptions about the association between body fat and disease.
So what explanations are offered for this paradox?
More food delivers more calories, but also more nutrition. Skinny peeps might be skinny but under-fed.
Thin people are genetically programmed to become sick. Evolution has caused our bodies to seek out calories, and a survival-of-the-fittest has screened skinny people into the less-likely-to-survive group over millions of years.
Doctors give less attention to pretty skinny people than ugly fat people.
McDonalds is delicious so shut up. There is so much hype about obesity that we're missing a different factor.
And what could that factor be? The article hints that it may be "fitness".
Research that does tease apart weight and fitness — like a series of studies conducted by Steven Blair at the Cooper Institute in Dallas — shows that being fat and fit is better, healthwise, than being thin and unfit. Regular aerobic exercise may not lead to weight loss, but it does reduce fat in the liver, where it may do the most metabolic damage, according to a recent study at the University of Sydney.
I'm living under the working assumption that to lose weight, I must eat less calories, but to feel good, I must maintain a certain level of fitness. This article would suggest that my "feeling good" also means maintaining a healthy, well-functioning body - regardless of weight.
There is another piece in the NY Times recently that looks at a study which looks at the relationship between exercise and weight-loss. In short, you do nothing, you lose no weight. You do some moderate exercise, you lose weight. You do a whole lot of exercise, you lose....less weight.
The men who had exercised the most, working out for 60 minutes a day, had managed to drop some flab, losing an average of five pounds each. The scientists calculated that that weight loss, while by no means negligible, was still about 20 percent less than would have been expected given the number of calories the men were expending each day during exercise, if food intake and other aspects of their life had held steady.
Meanwhile, the volunteers who’d worked out for only 30 minutes a day did considerably better, shedding about seven pounds each, a total that, given the smaller number of calories that they were burning during exercise, represents a hefty 83 percent “bonus” beyond what would have been expected, says Mads Rosenkilde, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Copenhagen who led the study.
The researchers suspect that the 60-min-a-day exercisers were not being totally accurate in reporting there calorie intake. Basically, the theory is that if you work out hella-lot, you get a lot more hungry and:
it becomes easier to over-eat.
encourages more periods of sedintariness as you're blown out from hard work outs.
A more moderate work out will leave you less hungry, less likely to over-eat, and instead of drained, you will be energized to be involved in a more active lifestyle.
Mitt Romney: "Perhaps if they were to exercise less and go get jobs, they'd be less hungry."
Not to brag (OK, I'm bragging), I kinda already knew this. I've been doing 100+ mile bike rides over the last decade, riding to work and riding for fun. (That's, uh, three separate things, not 100+ mile fun bike rides to work.) And yet, multiple friends over the years have commented about how amazing it is that I ride so much, but still retain a nicely obese frame. Well, I ride off a certain number of calories, then I would thoroughly enjoy eating a certain number of calories... and then a certain number of calories more.
When discussing my weight routine with a close friend who shirked her own routine because it became too much for her, I told her I worked out twice a week for about 45 minutes. She was shocked, implying that wasn't nearly enough. I guess if you pay for a gym membership whose reason for existing is to get you to work out as much as possible, they're not going to direct you to the minimum it takes to see long-term results. My 2x weights, 1x long bike ride per week is working for me. I don't know if I'm "fit", but I'm definitely feeling good.
I feel the noize, and I'm trying to float above it while keeping my cool and not just throwing my hands up and giving in to my cravings for brownies and television. I had a close friend in 2000 who lived here but had residence in Florida, and she chose to use her absentee ballot to vote for Ralph Nader because she could not see any difference between Bush and Gore. She ain't my friend anymore. She could not feel the noize.
This is not a political blog, but when Big Beverage, Big Food and Big Farm kick up so much dust to create confusion about health to protect their profits, how can one not try to wade through the conflicting messages?
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Falling doesn't hurt that much with a pair of gigantic invisible testicles.
I took a yoga basics class with the HVS Friday evening, and an essential yoga truth was unveiled to me during the class. All those yoga people in crazy positions, like balancing their whole bodies on their pinkie fingers while splaying their legs? It's not because they are connecting to some magical spiritual force that allows them to deny the laws of physics. It is because they are as strong as hell. I guess a heady mix of vegan diet, comfy clothes, babbling in Sanskrit and doing stretches all day will do that to a person.
I only noticed because this was the first time I practiced yoga since I've purposefully been trying to lose weight and gain muscle. At first the poses seemed magically more easy and comfortable....am I connecting with the great Googamooga or Ghee or Yogurtmonster? No, I thought, I'm just a little more fit from regularly lifting up big round dumb pieces of iron. It would be nice to credit myself as being closer to the Ur-Spirit of Bacterial Enlightened Dairy, but I gotta keep it real.
At the KIR Church, they are strictly athiests, because they KEEP IT REAL.
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Housekeeping: Next Monday is the 1st, weigh-in day, so the next entry will be delayed by one day.
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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2339 cal REFINE SUGAR %: +/- 10%
Seems every Monday I glide out the day easily while staying under my budget minimum, while by Friday it's almost impossible to stay below the budget maximum. I think this means two things:
I'm having a "calorie hangover" from the weekend of eating above the calorie maximum.
When I reach my final goal, my maintenance calorie budget will be higher than my current maximum.
This week's average was within budget, so that's a very good thing. While things that are straight up sugar (brownies, vegan ice cream, iced green tea) are counted, I do not count the sugar of the ricotta pancakes, the teriyaki pineapple meatballs, the smoothie, all of which are savory but have some sugar in them (other than the smoothie, which is sweet but has all the fiber and nutrition of whole fruit in it.) I'm of two minds, trying to get down to one....
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MONDAY COUNT: 2075
The weekend's eating was kept reasonable, with a ride to City Island on Sunday and a little bit too much homemade apple crisp and pie-spice ice cream that evening. While food shopping in the evening with Edie, decided I wanted to eat something fun for dinner -- had a very healthy lunch, could indulge for dinner. Got a box of 6 White Castle sliders, noticed the whole box's calorie count could work into my budget. A side of veg instead of fries and it's a reasonable dinner.
A year or two ago, at the end of a hard week at the restaurant, I'd get a box of these burgers, maybe match them with some frozen onion rings, then complete the meal with between a half and a full box of Entemann's donuts. Replacing onion rings and donuts with 6oz of string beans, it's what's for dinner now.
AM SNACK: 8:45am, iced green tea, 25 cal BREAKFAST: 10:15am, kolon bloe and whole milk, 300 cal LUNCH: 1pm, chicken sausage, roasted Brussel sprouts, baked potato with butter, 7oz diet sprite, 860 cal
PM SNACK:3pm, momma salad, 60 cal
DINNER:6:45pm, White Castle burgers, steamed string beans, 7oz diet sprite, 830 cal
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TUESDAY COUNT: 2200
Started the day with a homemade breakfast, finished the day with a dinner with two veg and without a starch component, wound up hitting my minimum. Went to sleep a little hungry, but was feeling down/angry/anxious about unrelated things, which I kinda harnessed into not eating more.
AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced green tea, 25 cal
BREAKFAST: 10:15am, lemon ricotta pancakes, bacon, 685 cal
Had another kid and parent over for breakfast before they took Edie out for the day, so I made a nice breakfast. Did not know the calorie count until after eating. I actually served myself about 440 calories, but since Edie did not eat some of her meal, I ate it for her and POOF, 685. So easy to over eat.
PM SNACK: 1:15pm, momma salad, 100 cal LUNCH: 2:45pm, vegetable patty & a jerk chicken patty, 730 cal PM SNACK: 4:15pm, 7oz diet sprite, 0 cal
DINNER:7:15pm, teriyaki pineapple chicken meatballs, health salad, string beans, 660 cal
Had to remove the planned whole wheat cous cous to hit the calorie budget after this morning's pancakes. Large pile of cabbage and string beans helped a lot, only 150 cal all together. The rest went into 12 meatballs, out of a large pack I picked up at Costco. Suspiciously juicy, I had to check the ingredients after I tore through them. "Teriyaki" simply means sweetened with sugar, salted up with soy sauce, and dosed with umami with some miso. The sugar syrup probably added to the juiciness. Still, surprisingly palatable, not overly sweet or pineapply. ------
WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2305
Lifted weights in the morning, rode bike to Red Hook to do recruiting for my culinary class. Offered samples of brownies to lure them in, as tempting as it was to eat a bunch, it wasn't that hard to abstain. Took Edie up to Grandma's house in the afternoon. Despite an unmeasurable restaurant meal, felt hungryish in the evening so probably did not surpass my maximum budget.
AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal
BREAKFAST: 10:15am, smoothie, 380 cal
LUNCH: 1:30pm, quarter pounder, fries, diet coke, 900 cal
PM SNACK: 3:30 pm, momma salad, 100 cal
DINNER: 5:30pm, shrimp scampi over white rice, side salad, water,+/- 900 cal
Diner on the UES. Too many choices. Relatively healthy, but when this dish came, the whole surface of the plate was just a huge mound of rice. Pushed about 1/3 of it to the side, and other than a few nibbles of Edie's french fries, kept it relatively reasonable.
EVENING SNACK: 8pm, 7oz diet sprite, 0 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT: 2630
Went over the budget with a snack quickly following an unsatisfying dinner. After riding around 2 tots on a bike all over Brooklyn, was too tired to cook meals for the kids AND make myself proper dinner, so I popped in some pizzas. Got too hungry to wait, and micro'd some pancakes. After eating, just not feeling satisfied, and ate some of Edie's chicken and the remnants of homemade brownies in the fridge. One thing you can say for sugar, when you consume it at the end of the meal, it switches off your hunger fast.
Don't feel too bad about going over the budget, the bike riding probably off-set it to a reasonable degree.
BREAKFAST: 8:45am, full fat Fage yogurt with honey, vanilla & almonds, 365 cal LUNCH:12:45pm, two almond butter & grape jelly on whole wheat multi grain bread sandwiches, momma salad, 7oz diet coke, 965 cal PM SNACK: 4:30pm, 14 oz diet sprite, 0 cal DINNER: 6:45pm, Stouffer's french bread pizzas, 2 lemon ricotta pancakes, 1000 cal PM SNACK: 7pm, piece of breaded chicken breast, homemade brownie, +/- 300 cal ------
FRIDAY COUNT: 2485
A good day, got some chores done in the morning, had a nice afternoon out with the kids and friends. Got to take an over-due basics yoga class with the HVS and friends. A nice end to the week.
AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal
BREAKFAST: 9am, kolon bloe with whole milk, 300 cal
AM SNACK: 11:30am. momma salad, 100 cal LUNCH: 1:30pm, veggie burger sub, potato chips, diet coke, 760 cal SNICKLE SNACK: 8:15pm, black cod teriyaki, hijiki, basmanti rice, "corn bread", +/- 600 cal SNICKLE SNACK: 9:30pm, vegan ice cream cone, +/- 400 cal EVENING SNACK: 11pm, slice of streetza, +/- 300 cal
