Requiem for a Corporate Beheamoth

Never Forget

I visited McDonalds over the weekend with my kids. Funny thing is, they didn't even particularly want to -- it was me who wanted something fast, easy, cheap and wouldn't cause any sass from the little ones. I had forgotten about some of the sweeping changes this downward trending corporate monolith has been making lately. Over the months was the cringeworthy, employee-abusing "Feel the Love" campaign, then came the sad self-concious series of behind-the-scene videos that tried to convince us that McDonalds actually does serve "real food", and never forget the unsettling "sexy" Hamburglar. 

But now they've gone and done what my daughter would have commanded them to do as of this past summer: breakfast all day. McDonalds resisted this for pretty much as long as the Egg McMuffin existed -- the McDonalds kitchen is a feat of modern efficiency and design, and to allow mass-production of such a uniform product, something like a poached egg and a burger could not be cooked on the same griddle temperature, and fries and hash browns could not be cooked at the same deep fry temp. But as they jam in an ever expanding and complicated menu into the same space, they now also have found a way to combine day parts.

Thing is, my kids didn't care today. They've lost interest in the Egg McMuffin - now that they can have it whenever, it's become a "whatever".  I ordered a "3rd Pounder Steakhouse" burger thing, and I was shocked -- even by McDonalds standards, this was not good. The burger was unnecessarily large, it missed the usual toppings and instead had a flavorless white cheese and mess of greasy cooked onions and mushrooms redolent of MSG. Whose idea of a "Steakhouse" is mushrooms and onions? I guess if you were a poor person who only splurged on the shittiest steaks who need to be smothered in mushrooms and onions to hide it's lack of flavor and toughness....

I was surprised how few kids were here. Lots of tourists who don't know any better, asking for mayonaise with their french fries. This was not the all-encompassing inevitable fast food of my youth, this was sad and strange. The food is trying to be all things to all people at all times but in the current setting, the things and the people have become much more diverse: to try to be all things today to compete with all these new options is to become nothing. The people are not from here, they are from somewhere else and they drink lots of coffee. My kids ate their nuggets, most of their fries, left behind the apple slices and apple juice, content to drink water from my bottle. 

The crappy toy just isn't enough anymore. I think we'll get pizza or hotdogs for lunch next time. And scrambled eggs and bacon at a local diner for breakfast, or as it has always been, at any time of day.

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2690

Decent eating week.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2550

SLEPT: 9pm-8am, 11 hrs

AM SNACK: 9am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, fage yogurt with honey, vanilla, almonds, 450 cal

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

LUNCH pt 1: 1:30pm, hotdog, 300 cal

LUNCH pt 2: 3pm, hotdog, diet coke, 300 cal

DINNER: 6pm, pork tenderloin, health salad, chests, +/- 800 cal

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

HUNGER SNACK: 7:45pm, kind bar, 200 cal, 9/10
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TUESDAY COUNT: 2960

SLEPT: 10pm-7am, 9hrs

AM SNACK: 7:15 am,  iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11:45am, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1:45pm, chicken meatballs, mushroom curry, steamed string beans, 640 cal

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 6:45pm, flounder, asparagus,  poppa salad with dressing, 650 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 8pm, nutella, peanut butter & chocolate syrup, pringles, +/- 750 cal, 9/10
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2810

SLEPT: 10pm-6am, 8 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced green tea

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

BREAKFAST 2: 11:45am, fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2:30pm, bacon, poppa salad, 440cal

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

DINNER: 9pm, pasta, perogies, ice cream, +/- 1450 cal
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BIKE CREDIT: 1100 cal
THURSDAY COUNT: 2570

SLEPT: 11:30pm-2:15am, 2.75 hours

AM SNACK: 3am, iced green tea

BIKE SNACK 1: 4am, kind bar, 150mg caffeine, 200 cal

BIKE SNACK 2: 6am, homemade granola bar, 300 cal

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

BREAKFAST 2: 11:30am, Fage yogurt with honey, vanilla, almonds, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1:30pm, beef patty, chicken soup, poppa salad with dressing, 750 cal

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

DINNER: 5:45pm, ethiopian food, babka, +/- 1000 cal

EVENING HUNGER SNACK: 10pm, pringles, whiskey, +/- 500 cal

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FRIDAY COUNT:2560

SLEPT: 11pm-6:30am, 7.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:45am, iced green tea

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

PM SNACK: noon, momma salad, 100 cal

LUNCH: 1:15pm, meatball sandwich, small salad, +/-700 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, poppa salad, 200 cal

DINNER: 5:30pm, chicken cutlet, mushrooms, mashed potato, hotdog, a little fries, ice cream +/- 1200 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, 4 pork dumplings, +/- 200 cal

I love you, Fatty Fatty

I've gone on here before about the absurdity of some people's continued obsession with "low fat" foods as a key to dietary balance. Between the processing it takes to make what was once relatively whole foods into fractionated "diet" food and the ill health brought on by the imbalance as well as trying to make up for the dearth of flavor and satisfaction created by removing fat (hello, Snackwells!), it's very satisfying to see trend pieces that tout an increase in the consumption of foods that retain it's fat.

Public health authorities have long urged Americans to cut back on foods high in saturated fat like butter, meat and whole milk. But a new report on dietary-fat consumption suggests that the public is increasingly eating more, not less, of these foods.
The new report, which was published last week by the Credit Suisse Research Institute, found that sales of butter in the United States rose 14 percent last year and climbed another 6 percent in the first three months of 2015. Sales of whole milk rose 11 percent in the first half of this year, while skim milk purchases fell 14 percent. The report also predicted that consumption of red meat and eggs would climb in the coming years.
The trends reflect what appears to be a shift away from processed foods and toward those that are considered more wholesome, even when they contain saturated fat and other macronutrients that were once vilified as unhealthy, such as dietary cholesterol, said Stefano Natella, the Global Head for Equity Research at Credit Suisse and an author of the new report.
“I think this is part of a trend toward more natural foods — more organic, unprocessed and simple foods,” he said. “All these foods have a natural characteristic attached to them. Full-fat milk sounds a lot more natural to people than 2 percent or skim milk. Cows don’t produce skim milk. You have to process it to take out the fat.”

Regardless, when you get down to it, regardless of what macronutrient is vilified or celebrated, the cornerstone of any shift in nutritional thinking needs to be "all things in moderation". We shouldn't start slamming pints of heavy cream and start banning any and all sugar from our diets; we should perhaps make small changes, see how we feel as individuals, and slowly change our own diets accordingly.

Despite the rant below criticizing the federal school lunch program, I'm grateful there IS a school lunch program, happy people in government are actively doing something, and Michelle Obama is fantastic. OK?

But of course, when it comes to BIGG GUBBERMINT, such nuanced and micro-tweaks are impossible when trying to feed almost every single child 5 to 10 times a week in a school cafeteria.

MORE than 30 million children trundle through school cafeteria lines every day in the United States and thanks to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which took effect in 2012, they are no longer served greasy pizza, salty French fries and sauced up chicken wings. Meals must now be lower in fat, calories and sodium and contain lean proteins, more fruits and vegetables and whole grains. And kids from coast to coast are wrinkling their noses.
Food and nutrition directors at school districts nationwide say that their trash cans are overflowing while their cash register receipts are diminishing as children either toss out the healthier meals or opt to brown-bag it. While no one argues that the solution is to scrap the law and go back to feeding children junk, there’s been a movement to relax a few of the guidelines as Congress considers whether to reauthorize the legislation, particularly mandates for 100 percent whole grains and extremely low sodium levels, so school meals will be a bit more palatable and reflective of culinary traditions.
“Other than mandating more fruits and vegetables, the new regulations haven’t really changed anything except force manufacturers to re-engineer products” so they meet the guidelines but not children’s taste expectations, said Bertrand Weber, director of culinary and nutrition services at the Minneapolis Public Schools. “Now kids get whole grain doughnuts — whoop-de-do.”

The guidelines of the school lunch program is not keeping up with current nutritional thinking. They're cutting fat, cutting salt, cutting sugar -- three things kids love, and adding things kids hate -- fruits & veg. What they SHOULD be doing is using their economic power to get higher quality whole ingredients, amping up the good fats and flavor and reducing portion size. Paying for on site from-scratch cooking rather than pre-fabricated space-meals from a central commissary will be more expensive, but the kids will like it more, it will taste better and be fresher, and in the end serve it's purpose -- feed our kids good, not save a buck or allow Big Food untold profits. 

Fat is good for food, for flavor, for health, for kids. Anecdotally speaking, too many women (and, uh, "metrosexual" men) of my generation seem to conflate healthy eating, low-fat food and femininity itself. I hope my daughter (and my son) figure out for themselves what foods make them healthy and happy before a profiteering harpy like Susan Powter comes along and messes it up for everyone.

Never forget.

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2593

Not a bad week, not a good week. Livin' it.

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BIKE CREDIT: 1140
MONDAY COUNT: 2110

SLEPT: 8:30pm-6am, 9.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:30 am, iced black chai tea

BREAKFAST 1: 9:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

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

BIKE SNACK: 1:30pm, homemade granola bar, 320 cal

BIKE SNACK: 2:40pm, homemade granola bar, 320 cal

BIKE LUNCH: 3:45pm, subway veggie patty hero, corn chips, diet coke, 750 cal


DINNER: 6:30pm, mahi mahi, roasted asparagus, poppa salad, 650 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm popcorn, +/- 400 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 8pm, kind bar, 200 cal, 9/10
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TUESDAY COUNT: 2820

SLEPT: 9:30pm-6:15am, 8.75hrs

AM SNACK: 6:30 am,  iced black chai tea

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10:45am, fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1:30pm, sardines and avocado on whole wheat toast, chicken soup, momma salad, pickles, 720 cal

PM SNACK: 3:45pm. cheezits, 210 cal

DINNER: 6:45pm, French Bread Pizzas,  poppa salad with dressing, 1080 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 8pm, kind bar, 200 cal, 8/10
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2795

SLEPT: 9:30pm-6am, 8.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced black chai tea

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, 2 sausage patties of indeterminate animal and 4 mini pancakes, +/- 200 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

LUNCH: 1:30pm, grilled chicken, poppa salad, 700cal

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 8pm, burrito, diet coke, ice cream, +/- 1425 cal
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BIKE CREDIT: 735 cal
THURSDAY COUNT: 2560

SLEPT: 11:30pm-6:45am, 7.25 hours

AM SNACK: 7am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10:15am, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

BIKE SNACK: 11:45am, homemade granola bar, 325 cal

LUNCH: 1:45pm, cheezits, poppa salad with dressing, 410 cal

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, kind bar, 200 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, 1 slice streetza, +/- 500 cal

PM SNACK: 8pm, watermelon +/- 400 cal

DINNER: 9:30pm, instant ramen, 850 cal
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FRIDAY COUNT: 2680

SLEPT: 11:30pm-6:30pm, 10am-1:30pm, 10.5 hours
An active night with not the deepest sleep, good thing I had no where to go but sleep in the morning.

AM SNACK: 1: 7am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 9am, corn muffin, bacon, +/- 500 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 2:15pm, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

LUNCH: 3:30pm, grilled pork tenderloin on toast, momma salad, 780 cal

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, kind bar, 200 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, bigos, potato pancake, peanut butter pie & ice cream +/- 1000 cal

Pause

Started feeling a little run down early in the week, ended up spending a lot of time on the couch and sleeping by mid and late week. Eating didn't go to hell, but found it hard to eat vegetables and healthier, lower-density foods. Decided to just not write, no blog or journal, just focused on kids and the ones closest to me. Will return refreshed next week.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2620

SLEPT: 11:30pm-4am, 4:30am-7am, 7 hrs

AM SNACK: 7:15 am, iced black chai tea

BREAKFAST1: 9am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST2: 10am, Fage with almonds, honey, vanilla, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, falafel, health salad, pickles, chicken soup, 650 cal

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

DINNER: 7pm, flounder, roasted asparagus, poppa salad, 650 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 7:30pm, popcorn, +/- 400 cal, hunger 8/10
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TUESDAY COUNT: 2730

SLEPT: 9pm-5am, 8hrs

AM SNACK: 5:15 am,  iced black chai tea

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10:45am, Steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2:15pm, chicken meatballs, steamed string beans,lentil curry, pickles, 700 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad, 100 cal

DINNER: 7pm, beef patty, nutella, pringles, kind bar, 1320 cal
Not feeling well, skipped salad, just ate what felt palatable in the moment.
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WEDNESDAY COUNT:2295

SLEPT: 9pm-6:30am, 9.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:45am, iced black chai tea

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, vegetarian dim sum, +/- 900cal

PM SNACK: 2:45pm, momma salad, cheezits,  310 cal

DINNER: 8pm, burrito, diet coke, +/- 925 cal

Monthly Weigh In

I

206.8-->209.8-->206.8

This path month I headed my own advice and double-downed on restricting sweets during the week, accurately monitoring my calorie intake, and allowing myself to be hungry as long as it felt in control. A few times it became a little too much to handle and I just had to eat to get straight, but I'm now much more conscious of it -- this is something that'll take time to refine and work on and hopefully eventually eliminate. I'm creating a "user's manual" for my own individual body, something I suspect many people wish they had but look for easy answer to a highly personalized, nuanced question. 

I think that search underlies crazy stuff like the "paleo" diet, which supposes that before modern culture, whatever food was available was some how the "correct" diet suited perfectly to our systems. Of course that's ridiculous -- humans have dominated the world not because they are suited to it, but because a) they were able to adapt to whatever was available and b) they were able to adapt the world itself to it's own "modern" needs and wants.

Outside the limited scope of this blog, things are going really well in my professional & personal life, and seeing my kids unfold into the people they will be is indescribable. Undoubtedly the strength and gratitude being generated from this side of things helps me embrace and manage a little bit of daily hunger. (But only a little bit, the siren song of eating disorder is not audible yet, but I hear it follows a similar melody.)

I'm just going to keep doing what I did this past month, and refine it. The weigh-in today did give me a pause of satisfaction, but this is only the tentative first step in another year (or several years) to get to an maintain a healthier weight. As the weather gets colder and the bike riding becomes secondary, going to pick up some weekly weight lifting again. As the heavier fall food comes back, just be vigilant in proportion and keep the fun stuff to the weekend....

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2746

A little higher than I would like, but still over all a good eating week.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2800

SLEPT: 11pm-7am, 8 hrs
Recently got pringles single-serve cans for the kids, had one in hunger, did NOTHING to blunt hunger, should have known better. Think I was unusually hungry today because I actually ate relatively conservatively on Sunday, a day I've habitually ate too much but am getting better.

AM SNACK: 7:30 am, iced black chai tea
Mixing it up, tasted really yummy.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, Fage with almonds, honey, vanilla +/- 450 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

LUNCH: 1:30pm, sardine & avocado on whole wheat toast, chicken soup, momma salad, 740 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 6:15pm, kind bar, 200 cal, 9/10

DINNER: 7pm, mahi mahi, roasted asparagus, poppa salad, 650 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 7:30pm, pringles can, peanut butter & chocolate syrup, +/- 600 cal, hunger 9/10
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BIKE CREDIT: 725 cal
TUESDAY COUNT: 3325

SLEPT: 8pm-5:30am, 9.5hrs

AM SNACK: 5:45 am,  iced black chai tea

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10:45am, Steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

BIKE SNACK: 12:30pm, homemade granola bar, 430 cal

LUNCH: 2:15pm, chicken meatballs, steamed string beans,mushroom curry, pickles, 640 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad, pringles, 290 cal

DINNER: 7pm, French Bread Pizzas,  poppa salad with dressing, 1080 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 8pm, kind bar, 2 kid granola bars, nutella, pirate booty, 1000 cal, 8/10
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WEDNESDAY COUNT:2665

SLEPT: 9:30pm-6am, 8.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced black chai tea

BREAKFAST: 8am, Fage yogurt with honey, vanilla, almonds, 450 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, grilled shrimp mushrooms, poppa salad, 630cal

PM SNACK: 3pm, momma salad, 100 cal

HOLIDY SNACK: 5pm, half a pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and a lot of salmon, +/- 400 cal

DINNER: 8pm, burrito, diet coke, +/- 925 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT: 2730

SLEPT: 10:30pm-6am, 7.5 hours

AM SNACK: 6:15am, iced black chai tea

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1:15pm, beef patty, poppa salad with dressing, pickles, 620 cal

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, momma salad, 100 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, fancy pizza, salad, water, +/- 1000 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 8:30pm, ice cream, +/- 400 cal
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BIKE CREDIT: 2330
FRIDAY COUNT: 2210

SLEPT: 9:30pm-1:30am, 4 hours

AM SNACK: 1:1:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 2:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 150mg caffeine, 160 cal

BIKE SNACK 1: 4:45am, homemade granola bar, 330 cal

BIKE SNACK 2: 6am, 3 donuts, 150mg caffeine, 890 cal

BIKE SNACK 3: 9am, homemade granola bar, 330 cal

BIKE SNACK 4: 10am,  homemade granola bar, 150mg caffeine, 330 cal

BIKE SNACK 5: 11:15am, digestive biscuits, 520 cal

BIKE SNACK 6: 12:45, chips, Gatorade, 540 cal

BIKE SNACK 7: 2:15pm, burger, onion ring, diet coke, 640cal

DINNER: 5:30pm, hotdog, ice cream. +/- 800 cal

A Tale of Two Sandwich Men

The above video has gone a bit viral, for good reason -- if we truly made our food from scratch, individually, without the help of an industry to do the labor for us or an economic system to share the costs, a damn chicken sandwich would cost $1,500. Let's not even consider the man-hours you'd have  to put in. There has been another sandwich-related story pinging around the media, too...

Basically, a man gets famous for losing a butt-load of weight on a diet consisting of sandwiches, and is elevated to the status of folk hero by...the manufacturer of said sandwiches. Beyond the "Sammiches. Amirite?!" ironic detachment that has so gripped the kids of today, when you step back, these two stories are more connected than it initially appears.

Subway's once-spokesperson, Jared Fogel, is an admitted pedophile. His good luck at achieving fame and wealth with a seemingly simple and universal skill set allowed his sexual predilection to metastasize in the shadows. There is no clear reason given why Jared got so fat to begin with, but it's implied that it was his diet, and by changing to what can only seriously be considered disordered eating,  he did lose weight. Seriously, if you eat mostly Subway sandwiches to lose weight, that's not really any one's idea of a balanced life, even if in effect your consuming fewer calories and eating more vegetables.

Undoubtedly, what lead Jared to his weight problems, then his disordered eating, was the same things that lead most people to gain weight -- a food supply designed to reap maximum profit from the public regardless of the health consequences, and/or an individual's internal lives. Self-loathing and emotional damage can lead a person to punishing themselves with food or trying to numb themselves out by escaping into food designed to trip as many pleasure centers in the brain as possible.

Fogel fronted a huge fast food corporation whose sole purpose is to make money by getting sandwiches in your face as fast as possible. So to have an entertainment program flip this on it's head and make the most expensive sandwich as slowly as possible is startling in it's simplicity. When I taught culinary to high school students, we made everything "from scratch."  When it came to make a cake, the kids assumed we'd be using a Betty Crocker mix. We used flour, sugar, eggs, milk, baking powder, etc, and in truth the cake did not take much longer to make than from a mix. But even if it had a few extra steps that we potentially could have done, say grind wheat berries into flour and cocoa nibs into cocoa powder, keep chicken or cows for access to dairy, etc, the act of making this cake would have been overwhelming for the scope of a 3 hour class.

Subway is fast food, it offers convenience. Like air, medical care and human contact, food is necessary for human life. Convenience is not. When convenience is celebrated above all else, elevated as a simple solution to quite complex intractable problems like obesity, people like Jared Fogel who have not earned their celebrity and fortune rise in our society. Supposedly, we live in a meritocracy where people become rich and famous because of their merit, and it so titilates when seemingly merit-free people like X Kardashian achieve notoriety because it makes the stupider among us believe they can become famous, too. I guess Jared was a Kardashian for the fat crowd. We deserve better.

Will this fat Kardashian take the Subway Challenge? 

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2512

Another good week, professionally and personally speaking. Those two forces make it easier to clamp down on the calories a little. Still, I don't like that the average is low because of the bike riding, I need it to be low on non-ride days, too.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2650

SLEPT: 8pm-5am, 9 hrs

AM SNACK: 5:15 am, iced green tea

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

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, Fage with almonds, honey, vanilla +/- 450 cal

LUNCH: 1:30pm, almond butter and grape jelly on whole wheat, momma salad, 590 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 4pm, spag & meatball leftovers, apple pie, +/- 400 cal

DINNER: 6pm, mahi mahi, roasted asparagus, poppa salad, 650 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 7pm, popcorn, +/- 400 cal, hunger 8/10
-----

BIKE CREDIT: 550 cal
TUESDAY COUNT: 2795

SLEPT: 8pm-5am, 9hrs

AM SNACK: 5:15 am, iced green tea

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

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, Steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

BIKE SNACK: noon, homemade granola bar, 445 cal

LUNCH: 2:30pm, chicken meatballs, steamed string beans, lentil curry, pickles, 700 cal

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

DINNER: 7pm, French Bread Pizzas,  poppa salad with dressing, 1080 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 8pm, kind bar, 200 cal, 8/10
-----

WEDNESDAY COUNT:2500

SLEPT: 8pm-11pm, 11:30pm-2am, 2:30am - 4am, 7 hrs

AM SNACK: 4:15am, iced green tea

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

BREAKFAST 2: 9am, Fage yogurt with honey, vanilla, almonds, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1:45pm, grilled chicken breast, mushrooms, poppa salad, 865cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad, 100 cal

DINNER: 8pm, burrito, diet coke, +/- 925 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT: 2870

SLEPT: 11pm-3:30am, 10:30am-11:30am, 5.5 hours

AM SNACK: 3:45am, iced green tea

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

BREAKFAST 2: 9:30am, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, falafel, chicken soup, momma salad, pickles, 650 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, poppa salad cheezits, 410 cal

DINNER: 7pm, lamb chops, broccoli rabe, string beans, glass of wine, +/- 600 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 9pm, ice cream, +/- 600 cal
-----

BIKE CREDIT: 2415
FRIDAY COUNT: 1746

SLEPT: 11pm-5:30am, 6.5 hours

AM SNACK: 5:45am, iced green tea

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

BREAKFAST 2: 7:30am, Fage yogurt with almonds, honey, vanilla 450 cal

BIKE SNACK 1: 9:30am, brownie, 150mg caffeine, +/- 200 cal

BIKE SNACK 2: 11:30am, homemade granola bar, 450 cal

BIKE SNACK 3: 1:30pm,  almond butter sandwich,diet coke, 150 mg caffiene, 480cal

BIKE SNACK 3: 3:30pm, homemade granola bar, 450 cal

BIKE SNACK 4: 4:45, gatorade, 130 cal

BIKE SNACK 5: 5pm, pizza, +/- 300 cal

BIKE SNACK 6: 5:30pm, gatorade, 130 cal

DINNER: 7:30pm, Chinese brick,  +/- 1000 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 8:30pm, beef patty, 400 cal, 9/10

The War on (Food) Science is Real

When conservative forces look to reduce funding in university-level education, research and "regulation", the ideology suggests that "the market" will pick up the pieces and escape the inefficient bloated hand of the government. The difference between "the market" and government is that one acts in self-interest, the other in the interest of the people it governs.

If the "market" starts funding education and research, it will not want results that are for the benefit of the people, unless those results align with their own interests.

Corporations have poured money into universities to fund research for decades, but now, the debate over bioengineered foods has escalated into a billion-dollar food industry war. Companies like Monsanto are squaring off against major organic firms like Stonyfield Farm, the yogurt company, and both sides have aggressively recruited academic researchers, emails obtained through open records laws show.

Just as we've seen Coke invest & publicize research that only produces results that align with their bottom line, this aspect of "the market" is just as true for any and all aspects of the industry that delivers our food for profit. While science and research in the public sphere is for the betterment of society, science and research in the private sphere is for the betterment of private interests. The ideology of an unfettered free market is just plain bad for you, our children and the future.

I could go on, but just read the article. Up until this point, I've taken my father's POV on GMOs. He was a chemist, first a research lab rat, then a college professor for most of his career. From what he knew, GMOs were probably just fine, but as with any science, you never know with 100% certainty. However, in his day, most science was produced by public-funded institutions, for the benefit of the public, not corporations. If the science of GMOs is being funded by corporate interests, I'm afraid the conservatives have won -- they have eroded my trust in science.

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2661

Thrown a little by the holiday, but despite that, a relatively good eating week. Happy to see my average is in the ball park of my new maximum calorie budget.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2960 cal

SLEPT: 8pm-6am, 10 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9am, kind bar, 210 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, homemade blueberry muffin, +/- 150 cal

LUNCH: 1:30pm, good pizza, spinach salad, ice cream, +/- 1000 cal

DINNER: 5:30pm, nuggets, fries, diet coke, ice cream, +- 1000 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 7pm, 4 homemade blueberry muffins, +/- 600 cal, 8/10
-----

BIKE CREDIT: 270 cal
TUESDAY COUNT: 2410

SLEPT: 8pm-6am, 10hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15 am, iced green tea

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

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

LUNCH: 12:45pm, falafel, chicken soup, poppa salad, pickles, 650 cal

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, cashews, 340 cal

DINNER: 7pm, French Bread Pizzas,  poppa salad with dressing, 1080 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2515

SLEPT: 8pm - 4:45am, 8.75 hrs

AM SNACK: 5am, iced green tea

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

BREAKFAST 2: 9am, Fage yogurt with honey, vanilla, almonds, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, mahi mahi, roasted asparagus, poppa salad, pickles, 670 cal

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, momma salad, 100 cal

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, cashews, 210 cal

DINNER: 8pm, burrito, diet coke, +/- 925 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT: 2990

SLEPT: 11:30pm-5:30am, 6 hours

AM SNACK: 5:45am, iced green tea

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

BREAKFAST 2: 11:30am, fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, grilled pork loin, poppa salad, pickles, 470 cal

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 4:30pm, kind bar, 200 cal, 9/10

DINNER: 6pm, fresh pasta with mussels in wine & oil, small salad, cheesecake, glass of wine, +/-600 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 9pm, cheesecake, +/-800 cal, 8/10
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BIKE CREDIT: 1740
FRIDAY COUNT: 2430

SLEPT: 11pm-5am, 6 hours

AM SNACK: 5:15am, iced green tea

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

BREAKFAST 2: 8:45am, steel cut oatmeal, 150mg caffeine, 450 cal

BIKE SNACK 1: 11:30am, homemade granola bar, 400 cal

BIKE SNACK 2: 12:30pm, homemade granola bar, 400 cal

BIKE SNACK 3: 1:45pm, chips, gatorade, 560 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad, 100 cal

DINNER: 5pm, hot dog, fries, ice cream, +/- 1000 cal

DINNER 2: 6:30pm, 2 slices streets, +/- 900 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 7:30pm, watermelon, +/- 200 cal, 8/10

Getting reacquainted: Hunger

Last week, it dawned on me on my monthly weigh in that I have regained half the weight that I lost over the past 3 years. On the other hand, I have maintained half my weight loss, but the trend is moving in one direction - up - and it is a call to action.

There is an opinion piece in last Sunday's NY Times that felt more less like opinion and more like someone who is also struggling with the same issues, and is also disappointed that the culture and the science still hasn't quite caught up with whats making us and keeping us fat.

In a nutshell, the human body's hunger-drive has shown it's ability to override even the strongest-willed, rationality-lovingest person's desire to eat what they believe to be a moderate, weight-controlling, healthy diet...over time, on the day-to-day, boots-on-the-ground level. When the human body is called upon to lose weight and spend more calories it takes in to access fat storage,  the body kicks over into a mode that ha been developed over millions of years to guarantee the survival of the human race: "starvation mode". The science has been done, and it looks grim.

When the period of imposed starvation ended, the subjects were allowed to “refeed.” At first they were allowed to eat more calories, but restricted as to how much. A subset under continued observation was then allowed to eat to satiety, which was surprisingly hard to achieve. The men consumed prodigious amounts of food, up to 10,000 calories a day. They regained weight and fat with remarkable rapidity. After 20 weeks of recovery, they averaged 50 percent more body fat than they had when it began — “post-starvation obesity,” the researchers called it.

"Post-starvation obesity" is a concept that gives me chills. Is this where my monthly-weigh-in trend line is heading? For all this thought and effort, I'm going to end up fatter than I started, despite radically altering the quality of what I eat and how much of it?

I know what happened when the trend line evened out then started going up. I started getting hungrier. I took that as a signal that my body was ready for more food...but really it was a signal that it was worried that it was losing too much weight and wanted me to spend more time on the plains hunting for meat or baking bread or something. Hunger is literally like the addiction a junkie or cigarette smoker feels -- when you don't have it, all you can think about is getting it, and you don't feel right until you do.

That advice implies that the ensuing hunger will be an easily bearable burden (no depression, lethargy, irritability — no tantrums, please!). And bearable not just for 24 weeks, but a lifetime. The Minnesota experiment tells us that when semi-starvation ends, the refeeding period will not end well.

"Starvation", i.e. making yourself lose weight, increases hunger until a tipping point is crossed where the hunger will cause a person to eat enough to get them heavier than where the started...(bolding mine)

That humans or any other organism will lose weight if starved sufficiently has never been news. The trick, if such a thing exists, is finding a way to do it without hunger so weight loss can be sustained indefinitely. A selling point for carbohydrate-restricted diets has always been that you can eat to satiety; counting calories is unnecessary, so long as carbohydrates are mostly avoided.
But this advice raises a pair of obvious questions, or at least it should: If people on low-carb diets eat less (the conventional explanation for any loss of fat that ensues), why aren’t they hungry? Where’s the semi-starvation neurosis? And if they don’t eat less, why do they lose weight? It implies a mechanism of weight loss other than caloric deprivation and suggests that the carbohydrates and fats consumed make a difference.

It's easy to lose weight when you're not hungry all the time. It interferes with the basics of life and relationships when you are.

Questions like these about the relationship between calories, macronutrients and hunger have haunted nutrition and obesity research since the late 1940s. But rarely are they asked. We believe so implicitly in the rationale of eat less, move more, that we (at least those of us who are lean) will implicitly fault the obese for their failures to sustain a calorie-restricted regimen, without ever apparently asking ourselves whether we could sustain it either. I have a colleague who spent his research career studying hunger. Asking people to eat less, he says, is like asking them to breathe less. It sounds reasonable, so long as you don’t expect them to keep it up for long. 

Fighting hunger and the urge to eat is an innate drive like breathing, sex (hello, Josh Duggar!) and the need to be social. It's easy to be puritanical and dismiss all fatties as people of fallen morals who chose to be fat, but despite that being the American Way for many, it's just plain wrong and harmful. "No pain, no gain"? Fuck you. The system is rigged. You must understand the system then change it or work around it, not just grit your teeth and endure endless pain/hunger. The nonsense being spewed by corporations like Coke to protect their profits by encouraging us to exercise more and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain is essentially the definition of evil.

Perhaps all calories aren't equal, but the science isn't in yet, though anecdotal evidence suggests it's so. A person will feel radically different at the end of the day if they are 2500 calories of fresh fruit, vegetables and fatty protein as opposed to if they eat 2500 calories of just coca cola and hershey bars.

I crossed the tipping point about a year and a half ago when my starvation-mode kicked in and my hunger caused me to eat more despite my better judgement. I need to find a middle ground where I'm eating less but not getting too hungry. So here is some late summer resolutions:

• Sugar. We've been here before. No more sweets during the week except socially.
• New category in the food journal below: all evening snacks after dinner is now a "hunger snack", and needs to be rated on a scale of 1-10. One, being nauseous and the last thing I want is food, 10 being blinded by food lust.
• Count calories during the week a little more precisely.
• Limit weekday calories to 2,600, assuming it does not wake the hunger beast.

The Army of Overconsumption has a big weapon (our own instincts) and tremendous allies (capitalism that feeds on our instincts). The only real weapon I have in fighting my physiological imperative to get fat and a culture driven by profit  is mindfulness. This blog and journal is a mindfulness-bomb that makes me stay awake, despite the numbing effect of hunger and the desire just to lie down and eat a big bag of cheesy poofs.

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2488

With my injury further receding and my work flow allowing me time, I took two big bike rides during the week, and tracked my calorie consumption/expenditure closely those days. The fact that the budget came in so low those days gives me pause, but my hunger was revved up the next mornings, giving credence to the numbers.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2700

SLEPT: 9:30am-6am, 8.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 9am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11:30am, Fage yogurt with honey, vanilla, almonds, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, falafel, chicken soup, pickles, momma salad, 620 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, cheezits, 210 cal

DINNER: 6:45pm, mahi mahi,  asparagus, poppa salad with dressing, 650 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7:15pm, popcorn, +/- 400 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 8pm, kind bar, 210 cal, 8/10
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BIKE CREDIT: 1550 cal
TUESDAY COUNT: 2285

SLEPT: 9pm-6am, 9hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:45am, beef patty, 400 cal

BIKE SNACK 1: 11:30am, homemade granola bar, 425 cal

BIKE SNACK 2: 1:15am, homemade granola bar, 425 cal

BIKE SNACK 3: 2:45, cheese doodles, 525 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm watermelon, 310 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 7pm, French Bread pizzas, poppa salad with dressing, 1080 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 7:30pm, Kind bar, 200 cal, 7/10
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2895

SLEPT: 10pm - 5:30am, 7.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 5:45am, iced green tea

 BREAKFAST: 8:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: noon, fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1:45pm, chicken & mushrooms, poppa salad with dressing, 830 cal

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 8pm, burrito, diet coke, +/- 925 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 9:15pm, peanut butter crackers, 220 cal, 9/10
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BIKE CREDIT: 2900 
THURSDAY COUNT: 1640

SLEPT: 11pm-4am, 5 hours

AM SNACK: 4:15am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 4:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BIKE FOOD: 6:30am-3pm, 3 homemade granola bars, 1 bag of Fritos, 3 bottles of gatorade, 1 packet of cupcakes, burger with onion rings & diet coke, 3180 cal

DINNER: 6pm, vegetarian Ethiopian food, 1 beer, +/-1000 cal

EVENING SNORT: 9pm, pint of cider, +/-200 cal
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FRIDAY COUNT: 2920

SLEPT: 11pm-7:30am, 8.5 hours

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 9:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

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

LUNCH: 12:45pm, chicken meatballs, mushroom curry, steamed string beans, 600

PM SNACK: 2:45pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

PM SNACK: 4:15pm, poppa salad with dressing, 200 cal

DINNER: 5pm, hot dog, fries, cake, +/- 1000 cal

HUNGER SNACK: 7pm, watermelon, 8/10, +/- 200 cal