« Valentine's Dinner | Main | Did I Say Something About Taking Care of Myself? »
February 16, 2006
Hidden Calories
Yesterday was so busy at work that I didn't even have time to wash my lunch dishes. Lucky for me, MR took them off my hands this morning as I drove away just before 6 am to head back to work... meeting a physical therapist to get him flyers on his way into work. MR had already packed me one day ahead of salad, so he put together my lunch bag as he was making his breakfast. I went to bag up some olives for lunch time fat, and MR asked me if they were packed in water or in olive oil.
Hmmm. Puzzling. They come out of the bins at the Whole Foods store. But they do look like they're floating in olive oil.
I began to feel like my world was falling apart. It dawned on me that I had been consuming large numbers of calories in olive oil along with my carefully measured olives. That might explain why I wasn't experience as much weight loss as one would expect from my reduced calorie intake. I decided to go with almonds for fat until I can figure out how to properly measure the olives and account for the calories. I have tons of motivation to figure this out, however, as olives from Zeynep are on their way even as we speak. I will definitely be consuming those as soon as I open the box! I am very much looking forward to real authentic olives... I hope they are enjoying their travels!
Meanwhile, I was in such a hurry to get out the door that I forgot to pack breakfast. I had been planning to eat a megamuffin. Now I don't know what to do. By the time I figure it out, it will probably be lunch time, so it looks like I will accidentally skip breakfast today. Oh dear. At least I have a wonderful MR-packed lunchtime salad with yogurt and salsa, and I should be home tonight to make dinner between working at the office and working at home. I do plan to take a break to enjoy a meal with my Orange One, so I'll blog about that tomorrow. It's so nice to have my regular audience for my cooking back at his place at the table.
It probalbly won't hurt me to skip breakfast, since last night's dinner turned out to be much higher calorie than I had anticipate. I skipped my afternoon yogurt and nuts snack since dinner was at 5:30 (we took our evening forum presenter out to dinner before the event), so I saved a few calories, anticipating a salad fest at the place where I frequently eat the salad bar for lunch.
Crisis: No salad bar at dinner.
I sat staring at the menu. Not many good choices. I hate salmon, I hate lobster, and the thought of a grilled chicken Caesar salad was too dull for words. I saw that they had a shrimp and chicken scampi served over rice, which I thought was a dish in a white wine sauce. Cleverly, I thought, I ordered it without the rice. Chicken and shrimp in white wine -- that should be fine, right?
Wrong. When it came, it was definitely a white wine creamy cheesy sauce. Now, dear readers, is that how scampi is supposed to be? I thought I'd had it before and found it to be quite brothy, not creamy at all. Anyhow, I ate the chickens and shrimpies, and also shared a Middle Eastern dip platter with our two guests: tapenade, hummus, baba ganoush and some kind of sundried tomato puree. All quite delicious but the pita squares weren't cheap calorie-wise.
After January's experiment, I was really longing for the fun and change of scene of going out to eat, but after all the eating out I've done lately, I long for boring quotidian days. Work has required a bunch of eating out lately -- yikes, every day this week! but hopefully that will be done for awhile so that I can get back to CR perfection. I really do feel so much better when I'm eating right, and now that I am used to keeping my calories low and my nutrition high, I really feel it when I eat out and consume something that doesn't quite fit in. High calorie food seems to make me irritable, and too much wine makes me anxious. What a terrible combination. It's enough to drive a girl straight to the organic produce section.
Re: Kale. I've noticed that kale gets more discussion than any other food I mention, with Lewis Labs as a close second. I love kale raw. Love it love it love it. You can also cook it. I seriously doubt that it damages your thyroid, and would like to see some evidence to back up that claim. If it takes a president eating a food publically to make it popular and acceptable, then I think we should launch a campaign to get each of the 2008 presidential candidates to eat kale on national television. Can somebody come up with a slogan? A lot of things rhyme with "kale," but I don't think we want to mention "jail," "bail," "snail," or "whale." Perhaps "hearty and hale?"
Posted by april at February 16, 2006 8:04 AM
Comments
The list of goitrogens is, unfortunately, quite long, including most, if not all, of the cruciferous veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, collards, brussels sprouts, etc.) and soy. I think CRONies eat a lot of these, I know I do on a daily basis. :(
Posted by: Erin at February 16, 2006 7:47 AM
April,
Thanks for the reply about kale. I figured that was probably an old wives tale, but it never hurts to check.
Janna
Posted by: Janna at February 16, 2006 9:31 AM
Don't worry my olives are not packed in olive oil so you can eat tons of them.
How about Kale, dreamy like a fairytale?
Or kale, necessary as a kitty's tail... Or, kale, eat it, then gayly swim and sail. Or kale, best thing next to a giant sale. O.k, I'll stop right there. :=)
Posted by: zeynep at February 16, 2006 1:29 PM
April,
Olives that you buy in a jar are almost always packed in water. If they are packed in oil, it will say so on the jar.
I heard on the Peoples' Pharmacy on NPR today that diets which contain very large amounts of broccoli, kale, etc. can cause thyroid problems, as can the consumption of too much soy, especially large daily consumption of soy milk.
The entire show was on thyroid problems today.
Dad
Posted by: Dad at February 18, 2006 2:29 PM