Even if salt isn't that big a deal, knowledge is still power.

I've spoken a little about salt here before, and my conclusions were mild at best: studies have shown again and again super-low and no salt diets not only do NOT cure high blood pressure caused by non-food issues, but are actually very harmful. And if your high blood pressure is caused by salt...

Yes, salt raises blood pressure....temporarily. If your system takes in too much salt, enough to mess with the chemical balance of your blood, the body literally starts a pleasant combination of holding water (bloating) and/or flushing it out (pee) to dilute or get rid of the salt to bring you back into balance. These fluctuations in the amount of liquid sloshing around the pipes of your veins literally raises the pressure within. However, once it's gone, it comes back into balance - permanently - until you eat too much salt again.

If you stop eating too much salt, you're blood pressure will literally normalize in the time it takes to pee it out. The problem lies in the constant flow of salt in our diets, and it's not from the salt shaker on the restaurant table or the little pot of salt you use to season your homecoooking.

It comes from over processed food. As I was taught in culinary school, salt is added towards the end of a recipe and you keep tasting until you have just enough to make it delicious. Once it's delicious, there is a window -- you can keep adding it get a diminising return, but soon enough it'll go from delicious to disgustingly salty, and you have to throw it out and start again. There is only so much salt a food will take, unless...

Pretzels with salt on the outside taste super salty because pure rocks of salt hit your tongue first thing. However, if you dissolve that same ratio of salt and bake it into a muffin or process it into a breakfast cereal, it won't be noticed. Why process the salt as such? There is a flavor benefit, but also by adding more and more salt, the shelf-life the the food-stuff is extended, meaning a more efficient industrial food chain, meaning more profit at the expense of your blood pressure.

It's the same thing with sugar, which also has a preservative effect when processed into food. Coca Cola adds caffeine to their product for various reasons, but the main one is flavor -- not because caffeine is delicious; caffeine is one of the most bitter substances we consume. Without caffeine, Coca Cola's sugar makes it way too sweet for human consumption -- caffeinating it lowers the sweetness profile to trick you into finishing a whole can, or bottle, or whatever.

So it's good news that there is a plan afoot to label high-sodium foods on menus in NYC, just as NYC was the leader in calorie labeling on menus of chains with more than 15 outlets, now a national law. It's not even about the exact amount of salt, only when the amount is totally bonkers:

Some will surely use the study to conclude that the “war on salt,” as Scientific American called the political protest around it several years ago, is unjustified. But the city’s measure to place symbolic saltshakers next to individual menu items with at least 2,300 milligrams of sodium — again, the full, recommended daily allotment — is far from a call to arms. Beyond that there is an inequality argument to be made in the name of such labeling.

The OTHER NRA (National Restaurant Association) is of course against it, as they represent food profit at all cost, just as the the NRA represent gun sales at all cost. The fact is crappy food with tons of preservative salt fall on the the diets of those who can afford the impact of bad health the least. If society is measured by how we protect the weakest among us -- children, elderly, the physically handicapped and mentally ill, prisoners, minorities and the poor -- then this law (as well as restrictions on hyooooj soda portions) is good governance and the moral thing to do. Of course, if you just want to sell sell sell it's to your advantage for the buyer beware, and more specifically, the buyer unaware, because what we are talking about here is not a restriction, but the arming of the populace with information against those who see them as nothing but profit centers.

WEEKLY AVERAGE:2496
Trending in the right direction. Bike season ramping up.
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BIKE CREDIT: 1530
MONDAY COUNT: 1943
SLEPT: 9:30pm - 6am, 8.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced green tea, 150mg caffeine

BREAKFAST 1 : 7:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BIKE SNACK: 10:30am, homemade granola bar, 330 cal

BIKE SNACK: 11:45am, gatorade, Fritos, 770 cal

BIKE SNACK: 2pm, donuts. 620 cal

PM SNACK: 4:15pm, momma salad, cashews, 350 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, chocolate milk, 500 cal

DINNER: 7pm, stouffer's french bread pizzas, poppa salad, 1040 cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2600

SLEPT: 9pm-12am, 1am-6am,  8 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:30am,  iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11:30am, steel cut oatmeal,  450 cal

LUNCH: 1:30pm, beef patty, chicken soup, momma salad, pickles, 600 cal

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, cashews, 250 cal

DINNER: 7pm, lemon sole, roasted asparagus, poppa salad, 650 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, kind bar, nutella, 490 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2730

SLEPT: 9pm-10:30pm, 1:30am-6am, 6 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced green tea

AM SNACK: 8:30am, 3 turkey sausage patties, +/- 250 cal

BREAKFAST 1: 10:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 12:15pm, fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 4:15pm,  grilled pork tenderloin,  poppa salad with dressing,  600 calcal

PM SNACK: 5pm, momma salad, and cashews, 350 cal

DINNER: 7:45pm, burrito, diet coke, 920 cal
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BIKE CREDIT: 1020 cal
THURSDAY COUNT: 2330

SLEPT: 10:30pm-1am,  11:45am-1pm, 3.75hr

AM SNACK: 3am, iced green tea, 150 mg caffeine

BIKE SNACK: 5:30am, homemade granola bar, 300 cal

BREAKFAST: 9:30am,  Fage with honey, almonds and vanilla, kind var, 650 cal

LUNCH: 1:30pm, good grilled cheese, momma salad, +/- 900 cal

DINNER: 5:30pm, skyline-style chili with cheddar over buttermilk waffles, pop salad, chocolate creme brûlée, +/- 1500 cal
Homecooked, not resto.
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FRIDAY COUNT: 2880

SLEPT: 9pm-5:30am, 8.5hrs

AM SNACK: 6am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, fishball noodle soup, pork and vegetable dumplings, tea, +/- 1000 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, popcorn popped in bacon fat, momma salad, +/- 900 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, chocolate chips & cashews, +/- 600 cal

EVEING SNORT: 9:30pm, whiskey, +/- 200 cal

Sugar & Salt, revisited

Know your macronutrients. Up your protein, watch your fat, and let the carbs sort themselves out.

It is profitable to demonize one macrotnutrient (like fat, carbs, or protein) because it prevents a bigger conversation that would probably demonize what is profitable:

• hyper processed food
• excess consumption 
• misinformation via advertising

If all food can be demonized for a common macronutrient, then in effect no food can be demonized, either.

All food is made up of some combination of fat, carbs and protein, with a little bit of "other", usually left to the bottom of the ingredient list like flavorings, stabilizers, preservatives, thickeners, enhancers, proofers, anti or pro-coagulants. Of this class, there is one that stands above all else for being as demonized as the big three has ever been. It's not a fat, carb or protein -- it is a mineral. Common wisdom over the years has implied that the level of salt in our diets, due to hyper processing and our taste buds needing more and more to get it's flavor-enhancing effect, is leading to a holocaust of high blood pressure and it's friends, heart disease and stroke.

When I was in culinary school, during the first few days of classes, the chef-instructor told us to throw out everything we knew and feared about salt. The main difference between a home cook and a professional cook is knowing how much salt to use. Using too much salt will make any dish pretty disgusting, but using too little salt vs just the right amount of salt can make the difference between a humdrum dish and a plate of $3 ingredients that'll make someone perk up and say, "Damn, I'd be happy to pay $24 for that again!" When introducing the importance of tasting for salt and it's proper application when I became a culinary instructor myself, I'd stress that unlike any other food additive known to man, it is the only one that we need to live. Without salt, the electrical impulses of our brain would malfunction and the nutrition-carrying services of our saline blood would stop working, and we'd keel over and die. (Do we need a lot? No, even those on "no-sodium" diets get enough to live, to be fair.)

A few years back, my general practitioner was concerned about my year-over-year increase in blood pressure. The year or two before my kidney stones, my doc said I was on the edge of becoming pre-hypertensive, and prescribed some blood pressure meds. I was only on them for a week or so, because every time I stood up I would get dizzy and nearly faint, and there were other disturbing effects in the downstairs plumbing I won't get into here (this is a family-friendly blog, after all!) He also recommended I strive for a salt-free diet, or at the very least, avoid Chinese food.

Several large studies have found little solid evidence that (salt consumption) limits improve health generally, and a few indicate that extremely low sodium intake may be harmful.

Say WAH?!

Yes, salt raises blood pressure....temporarily. If your system takes in too much salt, enough to mess with the chemical balance of your blood, the body literally starts a pleasant combination of holding water (bloating) and/or flushing it out (pee) to dilute or get rid of the salt to bring you back into balance. These fluctuations in the amount of liquid sloshing around the pipes of your veins literally raises the pressure within. However, once it's gone, it comes back into balance - permanently - until you eat too much salt again.

I suffered from high blood pressure for years, but miracle of miracles, I cured myself 100% and in effect lowered my risk of all the horrible things that come with it. How did I do that? I lost a relatively large amount of weight and have retained that loss over a period of time. Big Food would love to sell you low-salt heart-healthy versions of their entire product lines, but they sure as hell would not be interested in selling you the real solution to high blood pressure, which is less of everything.

So if salt ain't no thang, and fat is not the demon that manic pixie dream girl Susan Powter insisted, and carb-free diets are ridiculous, and protein-demonization is a vegan's happy day dream, then a calorie is a calorie is a calorie, right? Too many make you fat, limit them and spend time exercising and you get skinny, right, right?

"A calorie is a calorie is a calorie" is a false equivalency. All calories are equal in the same way a pound of feathers and a pound of bricks weight the same -- I'd much rather be attacked by a mugger with a 10 lb bag of feathers. A 2300 calorie day consisting of a mix of raw fruit and vegetables, cooked green vegetables, lean protein and a tiny dessert is going to be feathers, while a 2300 calorie day mad eup strictly of Coca Cola is going to be bricks.

Big Food would love to sell you low-calorie, diet-friendly versions of their entire product lines, but they sure as hell would not be interested in selling you the real solution to obesity, which is less of most things and none of some. Sugar is special in that it is several things:

• a food that nourishes
• an additive that increases palatability
• a preservative that adds shelf life
• a bulking agent that cheapens costs
• a drug that makes the user feel good
• a drug that creates cravings for a food
• a drug that makes the user want bigger and bigger doses, sooner and sooner together

While certain politicians put on the PR show for people to just get up and exercise, it's really just the equivalent of Nancy Reagan mindlessly chanting, "Just say no." There is a rising tide of popular consciousness that all calories are not equivalent, because unlike the previous decades, the science is finally in, and there is no more need to choose one macronutrient on a dart board to demonize. It's just not as simple as just saying no. Everyone's gotta eat.

Among the many things shuffled in my life during some personal upheaval in late '13/early '14, I put down the book Sugar Salt Fat only about 1/3 of the way into. Since then, I've gotten back into the habit of reading without distraction about 30 minutes a day, and have just picked up this book again. Unlike last time, I'm working through it with a highlighter and pen, and will give you, fine reader, a proper book report whenever I'm damn good and ready!
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The long national nightmare is over. My oven and range has gas again. It only took about 1 week to get the pipe replaced, another week for workers to rebuild and repaint back to better-than original, and almost 2 months for Con Ed to stop sh!tting the bed and get through their inspections.

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2711

Might have been a mistake to formally up my calorie budget, because then I feel obliged to eat up to it -- better to be obliged to eat down to a lower number, and just carve out exceptions on the fly if I can trust that the hunger I feel is real and not sugar-induced cravings, stress looking to be released, or foggy tiredness. Still thinking this through.

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MONDAY COUNT: 3295

SLEPT: 11pm - 5am, 6 hrs
Oven is back on! Dinner did not go as planned and ended up over-eating.

AM SNACK: 5:15am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 9am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, steel cut oatmeal, 400 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, falafel with hummus, health salad, Fairway tomato basil soup, pickles, 720 cal

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, momma salad, Grazebox almond and cornuts, 250 cal

DINNER: 6:15pm: Hake, Stouffer's pizzas, poppa salad with Italian, 1265 cal
Originally had asparagus instead of pizzas, but they went bad in 2 days in the fridge for some reason. Still, first meal out of the oven! Wooo!

EVENING SNACK: 6:45pm, cheetos, one digestive cookie, a little popcorn, +/- 500 cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2640

SLEPT: 8:30pm - 4:15am, 7.75 hrs
Baked up a huge batch of granola in the morning. Cheetos slipped in there, wonder if I really ndeeded it.

AM SNACK: 4:30am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, Fage with honey, vanilla and almonds, 490 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, chicken meatballs, steamed string beans, punjab eggplant, pickles, 705 cal

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, momma salad, Grazebox cheesy crackers, 230 cal

DINNER: 6:15pm: sautéed chicken breast, roasted brussel sprouts, poppa salad with Italian, 755 cal

EVENING SNACK: 6:45pm, cheetos, 300 cal

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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2255

SLEPT: 8:30pm - 3:30am, a hour in the afternoon at work, 8 hrs
Baked off granola bars in the AM, damn those things are a lot of work (and expense, non-common raw nuts ain't cheap.)  Felt good about the sub 3000 cal day yesterday, wonder if it has anything to do with coinciding with my gas being back on.

AM SNACK: 3:45am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, steel cut oatmeal, 400 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, grilled chicken breast, brussel sprouts, quinoa, pickles, 595 cal

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, momma salad, Grazebox italian crackers, 220 cal

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, poppa salad with Italian dressing, 180 cal

PM SNACK: 6pm, cashews, 340 cal

DINNER: 8pm: shirataki noodles with shrimp, shitake mushrooms and oyster sauce, 360 cal

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BIKE CREDIT: 640 cal
THURSDAY COUNT: 3005

SLEPT: 10pm - 2:45am, 4.75 hrs
Good ride in the morning, a little too moist so didn't hit it as hard as I would have liked. Cut my granola bars a little small, may double up or take one along in the future.

AM SNACK: 3am, fresh homemade granola bar, 100mg caffeine, iced green tea, 310 cal cal

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

BREAKFAST 2: 9:45am, whole Fage with honey, vanilla and extra almonds, 570 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, extra vegetarian meatballs, mushroom masala, roasted brussel sprouts, pickles, 780 cal

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, momma salad, Grazebox Thaicrackers, 180 cal

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, poppa salad with Italian dressing, 180 cal

DINNER: 6pm, Subway 6" veggie burger sub, diet coke, 665 + chips

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

EVENING GORGE: 10pm, chocolate chips, cashews, +/- 800 cal

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FRIDAY COUNT: 2362

SLEPT: 11:15pm - 4am, 4.75 hrs
Ate reasonable during the day, nice early evening with my daughter.

AM SNACK: 4:15, iced green tea, 0 cal 

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

BREAKFAST 2: 9am, Fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, sardine and avocado on whole wheat toast, heath salad, pickles, 610 cal

DINNER: 5:15pm, cesar salad, hot dog, fries, ice cream, +/- 1300 cal

BMI & Magical Canadian Eyebrows: Related

AREN'T MY EYEBROWS FANTASTIC?! OOT N' AHBOOT!

I'm almost at my 1st main goal: lose enough weight for my BMI index to go from "obese" (230s) to merely "overweight" (starting at 196 lbs). I'm starting to think of a second goal: reduce to get my BMI index down to the classification of "normal", which for me is a 164 lbs. To get to that weight would mean to lose over 30% of my body mass. (As it is, I've shed a little less than 15%) Which brings up a host of questions: Is this a healthy goal? Is it realistic? What should I weigh? Specifically, is the BMI index what I should be calibrating my goals to?

The eyebrows with the man attached to them in the picture above is a health & nutrition guru named Yuri Elkaim, one of the most aggressively opinionated Canadians I've ever listened to. He's a holistic nutritionist railing against a lot of the traditionally accepted ideas about nutrition through his blog, podcast, and a multi-media kit he sells on-line. I still haven't made up my mind about him, as he seems to teeter between selected scientific data, friendly enthusiasm and thinly disguised hucksterism, but so far there seems to be enough interesting content to follow his podcast on iTunes and occasionally check out his blog. One entry really resonated with me:  "How much should I weight?"

BMI is useful for most people. It’s really…it’s fine for the majority of the population. The only times it becomes a bit of an issue in terms of not being very reliable is when we’re dealing with athletes, because you might—this is actually very common with rugby players and football players—you might get a guy who’s, let’s say, 5’10″, 220 pounds, and if we’re to look at that according to (their BMI scores) —5’10″, 220 pounds—he would be considered just outside of overweight and just on the brink of obese.

So Yuri gives BMI a pass -- unless your really muscly and super fit, chances are the BMI index is fine. The Body Mass Index is simply a calculation of a ratio of height and weight. According to some internet thinkin', BMI is not very good for people of way-above-average height, as the formula acts in a straight line, making much heavier tall people fall into more moderate BMI classifications.

What is generally agreed upon is while BMI is a convenient tool for the majority of an adult sedentary population, the only accurate and important measure of weight in any person regardless of height, age or build is body fat percent, which can not be measured simply with a few numbers in a formula.

How an ugly lady becomes a man.

This image from Yuri's blog gave me pause. The man on the top left was who I was about a year ago, and I'm certainly nowhere near the Ken doll on the lower right. I guess with about 15% loss in weight, I'm somewhere between 25% (Mr. Tubbz) and 20% (Senor Jelly Roll.) (Freakier still, is how Mr. Fatty McFatfat has the same exact thin head as Mr. Male Model.) Regardless, it illustrates that fat percent is where it's at for a clear view of what's up with if you be a porker or you be a, ummm, norker?

How does one measure a fat percent? The best way involves being submerged in a tank full of water, and how much water you displace (i.e. how much you float) tells you your fat percent because fat is less dense than muscle, bone and other tissues. Other ways are callipers that pinch fat rolls, but it's not as accurate because you have to hit the exact same spot every time, and if your body is changing, then the spot is moving a bit -- it's more of an art than a science. The most common way is electrical impedance. Fat conducts electricity differently than other tissues when a current sent through the body is measured. There are devices, like the Tanita scale I use at home, which uses this method to give a reading of fat percent.

The problem with it, and the reason I gave up reporting on the fat percent readings, is electrical impedance measures of fat can vary wildly due to hydration. My fat percent will be very different before and after a bike ride simply because I'm dehydrated, or if I'm holding water because of excess salt consumption. If you measure at the same time of the day, after a few days of relatively similar activity and sweating and diet, the measure will be within a few percentage points. I think I'll give it a go again next weigh in -- my fat percent was dependably in the mid 30s when I was paying attention to the readings.

So in conclusion, if you're not too tall, not a kid and are relatively sedentary, BMI is fine as a general measure of fitness. If you really want to get a more accurate read, measuring fat percentage is the way to go.
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Salt has been in the news this week. Uhh, the other salt....

Up until this point, I've avoided addressing the issue of salt in diet because despite commonly accepted wisdom, my gut says salt is not the hobgoblin it's made out to be....but I haven't really done the research to get a grounded opinion, either way. However,  the NY Times recently reported on a massive new study that concluded that super-low salt diets are completely ineffective in terms of reducing stroke & heart attack risk, and implies that weight loss is much more effective in reducing blood pressure than sodium intake. It does not go so far to suggest a dietary guideline for salt consumption.

I see this as a confirmation of my gut feeling: like many things, salt is not good for you if you consume too much or too little. Up until recently, it was accepted that low and no salt diets were a "no brainer" for any one's health, and it seems that just ain't true - it's more complicated than that. It seems when people demonize salt, or fat, or carbs, or protein or whatever, what's really happening is the result of looking for a simple solution to a complex problem. Everyone, stop buying diet books and start your own blog!

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2310

Monday bike ride really did seem to make me hungrier for days after, but was able to keep a lid on it by eating more earlier and less later. Over all, a good week though the weekend found me eating more than usual, maybe an echo of feeling a little bit more deprived than usual during the week.

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BIKE CREDIT: 2180
MONDAY COUNT: 2405

To reward myself for Friday's pull-up, I woke up at 4, geared up, took a train to Van Cordlandt Park then road up the Old Put Rail Trail straight to Putnam County, visited my parent's graves, then took a wandering route back down the Hudson. Got home around 5:30, showered, dressed, drank a pint of chocolate milk then met some other obligations in the world with wobbly legs but a happy head.

Very happy with how my new approach to bike-eating worked on this 90 mile ride. Basically ate enough every 1.5-2.5 hours to stay ahead of the calories burned calculated on the cyclometer. The final 1/4 of the ride my stomach tightened and I just wasn't hungry at all, but the numbers don't lie, and if it were not for the final 3:30pm 500 cal bike snack, I would probably bonked by the time I got home.

Funny how 2000 calories can so easily fit into a small hydration pack when you're just dealing with relatively calorie-dense, processed foods. If I tried to eat 2000 calories of baby carrots on the bike, I'd have to strap on a feed bag while pedalling and a bucket under my saddle to catch all the poo. Not unlike a horse!

AM SNACK: 4:15am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 4:45am, fruit smoothie, 400 cal
First time I've made a smoothie in advance the night before. Tasted fine but not a habit I'm going to get into. Replaced pomegranate juice with cranberry, less sugar but definitely tastes tarter.

BIKE SNACK: 7am, granola bar, 345 cal

BIKE SNACK: 9am, granola bar, 345 cal

BIKE LUNCH: 11:45am, almond butter and grape jelly on wholewheat, chocolate digestive biscuits, 1020 cal

BIKE SNACK: 2pm, granola bar, 345 cal

BIKE SNACK: 3:30pm, almond butter and grape jelly on wholewheat, 500 cal

PM SNACK: 5:45pm, chocolate milk, 500 cal

PM SNACK: 7:45pm, momma salad, 100

DINNER: 9pm, whole wheat pasta with shrimp, snow peas, parm and homemade sauce, 730

EVENNG SNACK: 10pm, Fritos, 300 cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2405

Fell asleep by 10:30 last night, but the 9 hours sleep wasn't enough, woke up weak and muddy headed....in a good way. Maybe I should of double-downed on chocolate milk? Did my morning work out, though a little weaker than usual, and though I tried in earnest, I could not replicate my one damn pull up from last Friday. Not beating myself up about it, a 90 mile bike ride will take something out of the best of us.

Weird eating day. Ate dim sum at a proper Chinatown dim sum house with friends visiting from England, and wanted that experience. Hard to cal-count it, but guessed from how my stomach felt. Was not hungry again until 8pm, and thought I could get away with juice, salad and Frito's, but hunger got the best of me. Still kept it in relative control.

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

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, steel cut oatmeal with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla & salt, 350 cal
Didn't have a cup of dry oats left, hence the slight reduction in calories.

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

LUNCH: 3pm, assorted dim sum, +/- 800 cal
Lots of dumplings, weird sausage rolls, a chicken foot, and something I never did before I ate better, a pile of sauteed Chinese kale. Bulked up on rice, which probably lead to more calories than I preferred.

PM SNACK: 8pm, apple/carrot/beet/celery/cucumber/ginger/kale/cayenne juice, 145 cal

DINNER: 9pm, spinach papa salad with homemade Italian dressing & Frito's, 450 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, cheesy poofs, 300 cal

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, 2 frozen white castle burgers, 260 cal
Left over from the weekend. Was craving sugar, but the soft white bread (which probably had a ton of sugar in it) did the trick.

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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2130

Edie off from school today and tomorrow because of Shuvuot, went to C & Autumn's house in the morning. Packed yogurt with me to keep to my normal eating, but lunch was a social thing, picking up vegan sandwiches from the neighborhood. I did a rare act of human-garbage can, eating up Edie's unwanted sandwich. Overall, not a bad eating day, and ended hungry enough that I had reasonable confidence in my calorie guesstimation.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, Fage full fat yogurt with almonds, agave & vanilla, 320 cal

LUNCH: 12:30pm, chickpea salad and pickles on whole grain rye sandwich, moz, tomato and pesto on sour dough sandwich, water, +/- 800 cal
My sandwich was good but very light and not very satisfying, so Edie's sandwich got tossed back pretty easily, weighed down by real cheese and pesto. This meal was mostly....bread, which while not unusual by today's standards, sticks out to me like a sore thumb. I think it didn't mess with me too hard was because the bread was mostly whole grain, and probably came from a small outfit that didn't add much/any sugars.....and I don't indulge in bread n' wheat that often.

PM SNACK: 5pm, momma salad, 100 cal

PM SNACK: 8pm, momma salad with miso tahini, 100 cal

DINNER: 8:45pm, stir fry with shirataki noodles, shrimp, snow peas, broccoli, shitaki mushrooms in black bean sauce, 510 cal


EVENING SNACK: 9:15pm, Frito's, 300 cal

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THURSDAY COUNT: 2305

Getting hungrier earlier. An extra snack of carby fatty junk at 6:15 did the trick and allowed me to stay in budget and feel fine after hours.

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

BREAKFAST: 10am, steel cut oatmeal with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla & salt, 350 cal

LUNCH: 12:30pm, chicken sausage, madras lentils, steamed string beans, momma salad, 540 cal

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, apple/carrot/beet/celery/cucumber/ginger/kale/cayenne juice, 135 cal

PM SNACK: 5:45pm, poppa salad with miso tahini, 100 cal

PM SNACK: 6:15, cheesy poofs, 300 cal

DINNER:  7:45pm,grilled chicken breast, roasted broccoli & cippolini onions, kimchi, 580 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, Fritos, 300 cal

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FRIDAY COUNT: 2305

Fine eating day.

AM SNACK: xam, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 8am, Fage full fat yogurt with almonds, agave & vanilla, 320 cal

NOON SNACK: noon, momma salad, 100 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, broiled flounder, roasted asparagus, sofrito black beans, kimchi, 575 cal


PM SNACK: 2pm, apple/carrot/beet/celery/cucumber/ginger/kale/cayenne juice, 135 cal

PM SNACK: 6:15pm,  poppa salad with miso tahini, 100 cal

DINNER: 8:15pm, chicken meatballs, roasted brussel sprouts, wholewheat couscous, 775cal


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, Fritos, 300 cal