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July 25, 2007
What Do You Eat?
I got a question from one of my favorite commenters and CR soulmates, the great Allswellinhell/Ashley Jedi Warrior Writer Goddess.
She asks: why don't you post what you eat like Robin does?
Well, mostly because I am just not as cool as Robin is.
That's the fact of the matter. Robin is my role model. I want to be Robin. I don't want to eat cereal, but other than that, I want to be Robin.
But I'm not. I'm April, and I am on the road a lot and I love to eat out. And I know enough to know that it's a foolish exercise to attempt to estimate those portions or calories. So I don't.
When I'm home or eating the delicious foods that either I pack for myself or MR packs for me, I could easily report on them. But here's the problem:
I'm afraid you'd get bored.
The fact is, I am much more of a Dean than anything else. I love to eat the same thing every day. I find a quotidian diet that works for me and I stick to it except for meals out or the occasional strange creation that I have to try at home.
I love cooking: it's my hobby, to be sure. I adore creating fabulous dishes for MR or other friends or family from the freshest, prettiest sexiest produce at the market. It's art. But to me, it's totally divorced from eating.
Here is what I like to eat.
KALE.
And MORE KALE.
So much kale you wonder why I'm not orange yet.
Here is my lunch of paradise:
KALE (100 grams)
1 cup fat free cottage cheese
2 tablespoons Trader Joe's salsa verde
avocado or olives, 100 cals worth
Glass of deep earthy Frenchy cab or dry crisp Frenchy rose
I eat that every weekend day, and quite a few weekdays (though minus the wine on weekdays unless it is a special occasion.)
My breakfast: 1 cup cottage cheese with 1 tablespoon Carolina Treet and 1 teaspoon flax oil.
My lunch almost every weekday: salad that MR makes me of napa, kale, green peppers and grape tomatoes, topped with 1 cup nonfat plain organic yogurt, some salsa or hot sauce, some almonds on the side (10 g).
My dinner almost every night when I'm home: a piece of nonfat cheese for an appetizer, or for an after dinner silly goofy cheese course with my wine (I love to say I'm having wine and cheese!), brewers yeast soup with veggies, or some veggies with cheese or yogurt or salsa and flax oil. Or olives or avocado.
Sometimes a frozen dinner, but MR doesn't like me to do that much and I know I shouldn't cause of the sodium and such much.
When I'm on the road I eat:
-- Subway Club salads
-- salads with grilled chicken or shrimp, vinegar on the side
-- too much off of other people's plates, but we're working on that.
I drink:
-- red wine
-- in the summer, occasionally a glass of pinot grigio or chardonnay
-- if the wine is disgusting at the bar, rum and Diet Coke with a lime.
I am not allowed to drink vodka with Diet Coke because vodka makes me mean. I pick fights after I have a vodka drink, then I have to spend the entire next week grovelling and promising not to do it again. All of my friends can attest to this. April + Vodka = scary woman from hell.
I rarely drink hard liquor anymore because a) it is a totally unredeemable source of empty calories b) it seems to give me circles under my eyes.
Today, I am on the road. For breakfast I was at home so I had cottage cheese as usual. For lunch I had... drum roll please...
A salad! With grilled shrimp! And yellow peppers, eggs (I ate the whites not the yolks) romaine, kalamata olives, tomatoes, and vinegar.
For dinner I had:
The exact same thing!!! Yes I did! Only this time I had it with a glass of chardonnay! Look at the variety! What an exciting lifestyle!
You see why I don't bother reporting my daily food intake? It's boring. But not to me. To me, it's the height of deliciousness. I love my real, ordinary foods. My simple to make, cheap, happy, easy to transport foods.
Sure, I love the occasional meal out, and I'm willing to eat simple, well-measured and balanced portions on other days to allow for the calories to eat out. Tomorrow night I'm going out to Blackfish to celebrate the 5 year anniversary of the day I took my current job. I'll have a light breakfast and skip lunch and be very good and hungry for the feast, then I'll settle right back down to 1200 calories a day, which is where I'm hanging out now on non-going out days, since in the post-campaign + birthday + vacation era seem to be once or twice a week.
My average is around 1600. I am doing Pilates and treadmill (though I didn't from Friday - Tuesday... couldn't bring myself to move much in my post-campaign exhaustion... was all I could do to buy the groceries and cook them up in a pan.)
I doubt that I will ever give up the occasional excellent restaurant meal out. And why would I? I don't mind the other days being lower. It's the eating off other folks' plates that gets me, and the allowing stress to be an excuse.
But the campaigns are over, and I've been doing well lately. Feeling quite good. Wonderful to be home and cooking for my angel.
So what if I'd rather just eat kale?
Posted by april at July 25, 2007 5:02 PM
Comments
Dear April,
I swear I saw your phone number on my phone a few days ago, but then I didn't see a message so I thought I imagined it. So I decided to check your blog and see what was up. Is it possible I saw/imagined your number on the day you won that election?
I am confused and very tired right now so not everything makes total sense. But has the long awaited nurses uprising of PENN/NJ arrived?!!! Two elections wins in two months?!!! Where are the barricades and where do I pick up my Molotov syringes? What the hell is happening out there?!!!
I have a lot of stuff to tell you about and I could really use a pep talk from someone who is winning right now. Give me a call if you have time.
Your organizing is inspiring and revolutionary, both with the nurses and with the CR.
Francis
Posted by: Francis at July 26, 2007 1:29 AM
How do you prepare the kale? I have yet to find a way to make it something I can chew well enough that it doesn't pass through largely undigested.
Posted by: Kit at July 26, 2007 4:03 AM
Aw, April, I'm blushing here!
Posted by: Robin at July 26, 2007 4:24 AM
I don't find it boring to read what you are eating, though I understand I would feel the same as you if I were to write down what I am eating every day.
I always thought you were vegetarian. I must have read it on one of your earlier blog posts. I recently started eating more animal proteins too and it seems to me to make CRON much easier, especially the ON part.
Posted by: Mizpah at July 26, 2007 5:36 AM
Kit, I don't really like or enjoy trying to chew through kale when its raw, steaming for a couple minutes or just microwaving 100g for around 30 seconds helps, and it retains the flavor and texture. Personally I love kale, only started eating it a few months back but I have around 200g a day :)
Posted by: Matt at July 26, 2007 6:38 PM
Congratulations on the work well done!
I'm un-lurking to pass this link on, as it made me think of you: http://www.eatmorekale.com/ The URL itself rather screams "APRIL!" doesn't it?
Have a great weekend!
~Janesca
Posted by: Janesca at July 26, 2007 7:52 PM
Your food choices, when you mention them, are always inspiring. I imagine you having a cooking show one day showing all your wonderful recipes as a founding member of the CR on Network TV (CRON TV). Wouldn't that be a kick???
That does it, I'm off to buy Kale!
;-D
Posted by: Deborah at July 27, 2007 6:20 AM
I'm extremly late on commenting on this entry, but just putting your typical daily meal into the cron-o-meter shows you way off on a variety of nutriants. even changing some things up, do you not worry about getting 100% RDA of all your vitamins/minerals?
Posted by: Charles at August 15, 2007 10:58 PM
Charles,
Thank you for your comment, and for your concern!
Did you put an *entire day* into CRON-O-Meter? And in what amounts? I didn't list any amounts, so how would you know what specifically to enter? Because I do, most days, put my food into the software, and while I come out low on D and zinc, which are perfectly fine to get with supplements, I come out well on everything else. I get much of my vitamin E from almonds, my calcium from a serving of yogurt, cottage cheese or nonfat cheese or milk at every meal, and I round out the B's with mushrooms and brewers yeast. A and K are obviously not a problem with the veggies I eat. I tend to be low iron, being mostly vegetarian, but I get my iron tested every year and it consistently shows up low normal, which is exactly where I want it.
Not quite sure how you did your calculations, but mine come out fine. Sometimes a bit low on magnesium and potassium, but usually in the low 90%, so I'm not too worried about that though it could be improved. It would probably be helpful to put an actual entire day, with amounts. I tend to eat at least one more cup of yogurt during the day, with almonds, so a lot of days I'm well over on calcium, but since on days when I eat out I tend to get less calcium I figure that's fine. I also eat fruit for snacks a few days a week.
a
Posted by: april at August 16, 2007 5:31 AM