Another rant, imagining an ideal world.

I'm not one to fat-shame, but if your job requires you to be fit to do your duty....

I feel like there is a loop running in the back of my brain. Whenever I sit down to find a new topic to write about on this weekly blog, it gets a little louder: Regardless of right wing politicians who deny climate change to protect the interests of the energy concerns who pay their bills, insurance companies are reacting swiftly and with precision to the rising chances of losing their fortunes due to future flooding, black outs, famine and storms. And regardless of the propaganda put forward by Big Food that eating is a personal choice which government should keep from regulating or legislating, the fact is that people's habits of over consumption has caused a defined and real public health crisis. 

I've already written here about problems with child obesity and the military's problem with having a volunteer army that's fit enough to fight. Now the FBI has sounded the alarm about agents who are too fat to serve.

“The lives of your colleagues and those you protect may well depend upon your ability to run, fight and shoot, no matter what job you hold,” James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, said in October in an internal memo to agents that was obtained by The New York Times.
The fitness tests, which started at the end of last year, are a return to a tradition begun by the F.B.I.’s first director, J. Edgar Hoover, who obsessed about his agents’ weight, as well his own considerable girth. More significantly, the tests are a response to concerns throughout the bureau about how its transformation after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, has put more stress on the agents and given them less time for fitness.

Over-consumption in our culture seems to have sneakily become synonymous with happiness, comfort, celebration, wealth and care. It should be synonymous with what it used to be associated with: gluttony, greed, sloth, laziness, waste, unfairness and imbalance. You just need to watch some commercials to see it. This feels like the same story over and over again, it's making feel a little bit batty!

In an ideal world, the culture of accountability put forward by he FBI and the military should expand to everyone -- accounts, lawyers, doctors, teachers, just about anyone will be a benefit to society if they are fit and eat right -- though it'll be at the expense of Big Food and the consumer culture. Do you want a gluttonous, overweight smoker as your primary care physician? Do you want someone who eats fast food 3 times a day teaching your child? You may be born a certain race or with a certain sexual preference, but socially shared self-destructive habits shouldn't be the basis of a protected class of people, no matter how hard manufacturers of fizzy corn syrup water try to associate their product with a vague concept of "freedom". Ill health is slavery. Those who profit from it are slave masters.

Freedom. (Feel free to replace soda cans & woman with guns and a corpse...)

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2667
Intense work week, in a good way. Depended on the rote eating habits to get me through,

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MONDAY COUNT: 2805

SLEPT: 11pm - 5:30am, 6.5hrs

AM SNACK: 5:45 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 8am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, Steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal  

LUNCH: 2pm, falafel, split pea soup, health salad, pickle, 620 cal

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, momma salad, cheezits 310 cal

DINNER: 7pm, tilapia, asparagus,  poppa salad with dressing, 665 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7:45pm, popcorn, +/-400 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, kind bar, 200 cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2500

SLEPT: 8:30pm- 5:15am, 8.75 hrs

AM SNACK: 5:30 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 8am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, fage whole yogurt with honey, vanilla, almonds, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, chicken meatballs, steamed string beans, lentil curry, pickles, 680 cal

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 7pm, pork tenderloin, brussel sprouts, poppa salad with dressing, ice cream, +/- 900 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT:3015

SLEPT: 9pm - 2am,  5 hrs

AM SNACK: 2:15 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 7am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST: 11am, steel cut oatmeal 450 cal

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, poppa salad with dressing, 180 cal

PM SNACK: 3pm, momma salad, cheezits 310 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, cashews, 235 cal

DINNER: 6:15pm, Chipotle burrito, 880 cal

EVENING SNACK: 6:45pm, pint of ice cream, 800 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT: 2350

SLEPT: 8pm -3am, 3:30am- 5:30am,  9 hrs
Woke up to ride, but quickly realized I was overtired and could make myself sick without additional sleep.

AM SNACK: 5:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, Cabot yogurt with honey, vanilla, almonds, 500 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, work sandwich, poppa salad and dressing, +/- 480 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 7pm, Meatball sangweech, salad, bruscetta, half a chocolate crepe, +/- 900 cal

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BIKE CREDIT: 320
FRIDAY COUNT: x

SLEPT: 12am-3am, 3 hours

AM SNACK: 3:15amam, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 7:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, fruit smoothie, cal

LUNCH: 2pm, work sandwich, poppa salad and dressing, +/- 480 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 7pm, pizza, ice scream, I don't quite remember, it's Sunday night writing this up and my brain is scrambled...

The Food Industry wants your money at any expense.

I'm going to keep this entry short and sweet and direct you to this cover story of the NY Times Magazine this week. This blog was rebooted and repurposed a little less than a year ago with the belief that the Food Industry is on the verge of undergoing the same transformation undergone by Big Tobacco a few years ago:

• both industries have a product that is massively profitable
• both industries have a product that is greatly ingrained in American culture and habit
• both industries have a product that is killing us at epidemic proportions

One industry has undergone a great deal of legislation, regulation, fines and a more honest discussion of how dishonest they were in manipulating the American public to simply make a buck. The other is just starting to realize they may be on the less fortunate path if they don't do something fast.

The piece is an excerpt from what promises to be a muck-raking book about what Big Food doesn't want you to know, Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss, and it starts off with a meeting of the top executives from many of the major food companies at Pillsbury HQ. One, Kraft Vice President Michael Mudd gave a PowerPoint presentation...

Mudd then did the unthinkable. He drew a connection to the last thing in the world the C.E.O.’s wanted linked to their products: cigarettes. First came a quote from a Yale University professor of psychology and public health, Kelly Brownell, who was an especially vocal proponent of the view that the processed-food industry should be seen as a public health menace: “As a culture, we’ve become upset by the tobacco companies advertising to children, but we sit idly by while the food companies do the very same thing. And we could make a claim that the toll taken on the public health by a poor diet rivals that taken by tobacco.”

The piece only gets uglier from there, looking at secret documents of experiments and lab reports designed to make foods addictive. Not ha-ha I got the fever for the flavor of a Pringle, but literally addictive.

Warning: May be fever inducing. Symptoms include upon a single pop, not being able to stop.

From scientifically designing the flavor of a soda pop to reach a "bliss point", to refining carbohydrates that are absorbed so quickly they impose the opposite reaction of feeling satiated, to creating prepacked lunch kits with super-processed sugar-dosed meat and cheese and super-sweet yogurt products packed in tubes to give children the idea that they are in command while tricking parents into thinking they are giving them something healthy, this excerpt is a pretty chilling reminder of what capitalist hunger for profit looks like when decoupled from any responsibility: personal, corporate, moral, ethical or otherwise.
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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2242
Another week comfortably in my budget of 2200-2350. Friday evening had dinner with an old friend I hadn't seen since last winter, she was beside herself with compliments, saying she didn't recognize me from a distance because of my slimmer shape, that my skin was healthy, blah blah blah. After last month's dramatic 10 lb loss in part due the double whammy of the flu and preparing for a colonoscopy, let's see what the scale says next week, huuurg....
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MONDAY COUNT: 1910
Definitely felt a calorie hang over from the weekend, so it was easy to stay below budget. Stomach was weirdly unhappy in the morning, full but empty, so I kicked off the eating day with fresh juice instead of something solid. I think this may become part of my breakfast rotation.

AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 11:30am, apple/beet/kale juice, 115 cal

PM SNACK: 1:45pm, momma salad, 100 cal

LUNCH: 2:30pm, chicken sausage, bengal lentils, steamed string beans, 7oz diet coke, 545 cal

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, beef jerky, 160 cal

DINNER: 8:45pm, shrimp, brown teff, health salad, poppa salad, 7oz diet sprite 690 cal
Teff is a weird grain. This is the second time I made it. The package says use 3x the water to grain, but last time I tried, it came out as a thick paste. This time I did 4x the water, and it was good but soupy. I was able to throw the shrimp in to make the dish, but it was a bit bland and watery. Still, for a grain, relatively low calorie....

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, Frito's, 300 cal
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TUESDAY COUNT: 2355
Surprisingly not sore at all from the pull-up drops yesterday, which makes me think I need to hit it harder ASAP. Came in low on the budget, thought briefly I could get away with a low-cal day, but within 45 minutes of my first evening snack, I found myself with sugar cravings -- thinking how dark chocolate chips and peanuts is actually relatively low glycemically, and if I just eat 300 cal worth, it'll be in budget. My mind was trying to justify eating sugar even though I made a promise not to eat sugar during the week.  So I double-downed on another snickity snack, which still kept me in budget and while it wasn't satisfying, it definitely took the edge off and allowed me to get to sleep at a normal time.

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 10am, Fage whole yogurt with agave, almonds and vanilla, 415 cal

PM SNACK: 1pm, beef jerky, 160 cal

LUNCH: 3:15pm, almond butter & jelly on whole wheat, momma salad, 7oz diet coke, 630 cal

PM SNACK: 7pm, poppa salad, 150 cal

DINNER: 8:30pm, sauteed beef tenderloin, broccoli, butternut squash soup, 7oz diet sprite, 400 cal
Didn't mean to go so low-cal, only realized it after doing the math after I've eaten. Weird, such a large piece of beef, a big mound of broc and a proper bowl of soup would add up to so little.

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, Fritos, 300 cal

EVENING SNACK: 10:15pm. cheesy poofs, 300 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2305
Had some relatives I don't see often over for dinner, so I did a full-court press. Mac n' cheese, roasted brussels, butternut squash soup, chicken for their son and I, ice cream I also made over the weekend. I spent a part of the day making chocolate babka, which is a multi-hour ordeal. However, I somehow skipped dessert, despite all the effort, despite my family and relatives all eating it together, complimenting me on it, etc. It was both hard and easy to resist -- telling myself come Saturday morning, I'm gonna murder a large piece of babka kinda made it easier.

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, steel cut oatmeal, 375 cal

LUNCH: 1:30pm, hake fish, steamed string beans, mushroom takatak, momma salad, 7oz diet coke, 660 cal
Another precooked micro-pack of Indian food, was meh. Gonna stick with lentils, more protein anyway.

PM SNACK: 4pm, apple/carrot/kale/beet/ginger juice, 160 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, sauteed chicken breast, roasted brussel sprouts, mac n' cheese, half glass of wine,  +/- 800 cal
In addition to skipping dessert, I included some mac n' cheese in this meal just so we were all eating the same thing. However, I needed to keep it to 100 cal: 100 cal of homemade mac n' cheese is not a lot of food. Two ounces is a piece about 1" x 1" x 2", about 1/6 of a seemingly moderate portion. Still, I enjoyed the hell out of it's richness and it was enough.

EVENING SNACK: 8:45pm, poppa salad, 150 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, Frito's, 7oz diet sprite, 160 cal

Bad sugar cravings. Could the half glass of wine or mac n' cheese set it off? Serving a decadent dessert to everyone after dinner? And damn, only had enough budget for half my usual Frito's, which happened to be the "suggested serving size". One measly ounce of Frito's, who the hell thinks this is a suggested serving?

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THURSDAY COUNT: 2255
Did laundry last night and woke up early to lift weights before B split for work, as didn't want to sacrifice this because Edie is out of school this week.

AM SNACK: 7:15am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, steel cut oatmeal, 375 cal

LUNCH: 12:30pm, 4 small slices fancy pizza, small green salad with creamy dressing, water, +/- 700 cal
Out with the kids in Brooklyn visiting C and her family. We needed something close by and convenient and her local pizza shop was, for some unknown reason, a French pizzeria. The 16" pie had unusually thin, cracker-like crust, the sauce was delicate, the moz was offset with something like Gruyere. Very good, very not filling, he he. I ate half the pie and estimate the caloric load as less then 2 normal slices of streetza.

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, momma salad, 100 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, beef jerky, 160 cal

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, poppa salad, 150 cal

DINNER: 8:30pm, chicken meatballs with shirataki noodles and homemade tomato sauce and Parmesan, 7oz dier sprite, 590 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8:45pm, Fritos, 180 cal 
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FRIDAY COUNT: 2385
Despite having a night out with friends, still pretty much kept on track. Feeling slightly hungry when I got into bed confirmed it.

AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 9am, Fage whole yogurt with agave, vanilla and almonds, 415 cal

LUNCH: 11:45am, almond butter and grape jelly on whole wheat, momma salad, 7oz diet coke, 500 cal

PM SNACK: 2:45pm, apple/carrot/beet/kale/ginger juice, 130 cal

DINNER: 6pm, hijiki tofu patty, spinach salad, french onion soup, water, +/- 700 cal

EVENING SNORT: 8:15pm, whiskey, +/- 100 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, potato chips, 240 cal

EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, slice of streetza, +/- 300 cal

Over Consumption

Feed a lot, too.

Over consumption is not a part of the problem. It's the WHOLE problem: obesity is merely a side-effect, and increasing consumption is what makes our economic system function. I sometimes marvel at the fact that all discussions of the obesity epidemic don't revolve around money and economics. Things are set up to make us fat because it is profitable to do so.

You can argue that it is not profitable: the human cost in terms of health is great, and the financial cost in terms of health care wipe out any profit, but that ignores the question of who profits and who pays. Private industry profits and taxpayers pay. Or if you accept Big Food & Big Gov's reasoning that acts of individual responsibility will solve the obesity epidemic, then more accurately it is: Large corporations profit and individuals pay.

That's not to say that the need created to stop obesity isn't profitable, either (hello, never ending diet-industry!) The New York Times recently threw a spotlight on a restaurant trend: charge the same money for less food!

Hank Cardello, director of the obesity solutions initiative at the Hudson Institute, a public policy research organization, has been studying the impact that lower-calorie menu options have on restaurants’ business. “Lower-calorie menu items were driving restaurant growth over the last several years, no doubt about it,” Mr. Cardello said.
The results of his research were published Thursday in a report financed in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The Obama administration’s health care act, which was passed in 2010, included a provision requiring restaurants and food establishments with 20 or more locations to post the calorie counts of standard items on their menus. The final regulations are expected soon, with compliance likely to be required by 2014.
Some restaurant chains have already begun posting calorie counts.

Gubbermint tyranny!

It's nice to see Big Government doing exactly what it's supposed to: effect change for good through public policy, regulation and common sense limits on things that effect the public health. Unless, of course, those regulations have no teeth, like if they were to depend on the industry to label their own products, with out any system of oversight in place...

I'm a calorie-counter five days a week. I depend mostly on this database for the values of the food a prepare at home, but when I do eat prepared and restaurant food, most the time I depend on the labeling to tell me the calories of what I'm eating. 

• The Bad News: Though the law requires calorie information in chain restaurants in NYC (and soon federally), there is no mechanism to actually check the accuracy of the numbers. It's all self-reported. Unsurprisingly, a spot check of 5 foods sold in NYC revealed four of the five to have enough unreported calories to equal two Snickers bars. 
• The Good News: The only food that actually had less calories than advertised is a Subway sandwich, the only thing on the list that I eat even occasionally. OK, maybe that's good news for me.

So even when there is an attempt to inform the public of exactly what they are eating, private industry can really not be depended on to err on the side of avoiding over consumption. Because it's that extra is where the profit lies. I imagine there are many graduate school theses out there which expound on the relationship of capitalism and obesity a lot more elegantly than this little blog-post, but hey, as I struggle from week to week to measure and limit my consumption, certain things just seem more and more obvious.

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2329

Another week decent week. Went over here and there, but got small bike ride in and kept up on the vegetable consumption, both raw, cooked & juiced.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2240
Worked out this morning, the soreness in my pull-up muscles only really faded after almost 4 days, and could feel a weird weakness while doing my altered routine. However, when I got to bench presses, I could barely get the dumbbells over my head, which has never been a problem before -- I guess what I'm doing to get to one damn pull up is wreaking havoc on my upper torso. And that's a good thing, I hope.

Thought I could come under budget today due to excess eating over the weekend, but started to get crazy-hungry as the night went on, and it wasn't sugar-cravings, either. I guess every day is a new day, only minimally effected if you came under or over calorie budget the day before.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, steel cut oatmeal, 375 cal

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, momma salad, 100 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, chicken sausage, madras lentils, steamed string beans, 7oz diet coke, 510 cal

AFTERNOON SNACK: 5:45pm, apple/carrot/beet/kale/ginger juice, 140 cal cal

DINNER: 8:45pm, shrimp and mushrooms with shirataki noodles in sesame oil and soy, poppa salad with homemade dressing, 7oz diet sprite, 605 cal
Found real shirataki noodles at my local supermarket -- not tofu shirataki, but 100% yam starch, with 0 calories. I actually liked the texture more, a little chewier, reminds me very closely of glass noodles. I don't know if it's related, but my digestive system fully "released" a few hours later. Hmmm.

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, Frito's, 300 cal

EVENING SNACK: 11:45pm, cheezits, 210 cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2260
(BIKE CREDIT: - 600)
Woke up very sore in the upper torso, particularly the backs of my upper arms. Though uncomfortable, looking forward to this soreness getting less and less, and hopefully will result in....one....damn....pull up! Had kid-free time in the afternoon and the weather pushed into the 40s, so I rode out to Coney Island slowly on the commuter bike, and took the train back from there. According the Bicycle Magazine's calorie calculator, I burned about 950 calories, but I know when I compared that calculator to my calorie-tracking cyclometer on my road bike, the website over-estimates by about 1/3, so a 600 cal credit feels about right....because even with the extra snacks, I still went to sleep moderately hungry.

AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, Fage whole yogurt with agave, almonds and vanilla, 415cal

LUNCH: 1pm, almond butter & grape jelly on whole wheat, momma salad, 7oz diet coke, 630 cal

BIKE SNACK: 4:15pm, beef jerky, 60 cal

BIKE SNACK: 5:30pm, cheezits, 210 cal

DINNER PT 1: 6:45pm, poppa salad, butternut squash soup, 250 cal

DINNER PT 2: 8:15pm, hake loins, quinoa, roasted broccoli, pickle, 7oz diet sprite, 585 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8:45pm, Frito's, 300 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, Stouffer's French bread pizza, 430 cal
I was craving sugar but it wasn't too hard to suppress. However, it did occur to me that no healthy snack really appealed to me in this moment. Apples were still sugar, almonds or peanuts could have done it but needed chocolate chips to pair with, already vegetable'd-out from earlier in the day.
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2165
Took B out for a nice meal at a resto in the early evening, as she already had plans tomorrow night and V-day at a good resto is always high pressured, overpriced and underwhelming. Was able to still eat a relatively healthful meal, though the +/- 8oz steak had so few (deliciously prepared) string beans, that the presentation even riffed on it -- the plate comes and all you see is a steak with a ring of butternut squash cream, and tucked underneath the meat is a small thin bed of greens.

Had slight sugar cravings in the evening, and was slightly hungry, but not enough to push me into a snack -- a small can of diet soda was enough business for my hands/mouth/stomach to be satisfied.

AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 10am, steel cut oatmeal, 375 cal

AM SNACK: 11:45am, momma salad, 100 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, sardine & avocado on whole wheat toast, health salad, 7oz diet coke,  620 cal
Made health salad a few days ago, from the 2nd Ave Deli recipe. As with the name, it's probably the healthiest thing on the menu. It's shredded raw cabbage marinated in white vinegar, a bit of olive oil, some white sugar and a little salt and white pepper. It's a bit caloric for a "salad", but hey, if your going to get raw cabbage down, a little sugar goes a long way.

PM SNACK: 4pm, apple/carrot/kale/beet/ginger/celery juice, 170 cal

DINNER: 7:15pm, marinated skirt steak with a few string beans, one small potato croquette, small portion of deep-fried lightly breaded cauliflower, bite of fennel & goat cheese flat bread, sip of wine, small taste of berry crumble, +/- 900 cal

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, 7oz diet sprite, 0 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT: 2425
I intended to do a grain with dinner, but when doing the math, realized I would not have budget for an evening snack, and it was the smallest, most calorie-dense thing on the plate so it was easy to cut. However, after my evening snack, I felt a different kind of craving, somewhere between sugar lust and a normal hunger. Could I be just craving carbs, any carbs? I busted the budget with a half-serving of Frito's, which hit the spot, and still went to sleep a little hungry, so I don't feel bad about slightly going over.

AM SNACK: 7:15am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, fruit smoothie, 375 cal
Funny, I did a count on this smoothie for the first time in a while, as it's a new fruit mix, a new juice, variable banana etc, and it almost came out at 375 on the nose.

PM SNACK: 12:15pm, momma salad, 100 cal

LUNCH: 1:45pm, chicken meatballs, brussel sprouts, jodpur lentils, 7oz diet coke, 665 cal

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, poppa salad, 150 cal

DINNER: 7pm, grilled boneless pork chops, roasted asparagus, health salad,  675 cal
Picked up some thin cut chops from the local market. I cooked them hot and fast on a grill pan like I do chicken, and they came out a little tough, momma-style. Next time will cook them a little less. I know, it is unAmerican to not incinerate pork, I'm freaky like that.

EVENING SNACK: 9:15pm, cheesy poofs, 7oz diet sprite, 300 cal

EVENING SNACK: 10:15pm, Frito's, 160 cal
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FRIDAY COUNT: 2555
Woke up sore again from the previous day's work out, particularly in my pecs -- after doing the slow pull-up drops, I did chest-flys which were harder than usual but still accomplished my reps. Not as sore as previously....could one damn pull up be in my future?

Went to a yoga class with T and her posse. Had a nice vegan dinner afterwards, which was right on portion but oddly heavy on bread and light on veg. We went to get some dairy-free ice cream afterwards to celebrate the warm weather and broke my 5-day sugar ban, but it felt right -- with good friends, a shared pleasure. But I think I'll start Saturday off a little low key to make up for it!

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, Fage whole yogurt with agave, almonds and vanilla, 415cal

PM SNACK: noon, poppa salad, 150 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, grilled pork chops, health salad, whole wheat cous cous, pickle, 7oz diet coke 740 cal
Marinated the chops in oil and wine, with a little sage and salt. Cut grilling time to 3.5 minutes, came off medium-well instead of the slightly dry well done yesterday. Will do 2.5 minutes next week to get a nice medium, with a slight hint of pink in the middle. Nice to work with a cut my mom fed me, but a zillion times tastier. I can feed this to my kids, and instead of being horrified, they'll enjoy it...

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, apple/carrot/beet/kale/ginger juice, 150 cal

SNICKLEDINNER: 7:45pm, falafel with tahini, hummus, lentil bulgar salad, pita, water, vegan chocolate ice cream, +/- 1100 cal