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January 27, 2008
More Stuffed Mushrooms!
Dinner tonight: large mushrooms, white, stuffed with Quorn grounds, nonfat ricotta, basil, garlic, oregano, topped with capers, stewed tomatoes (no salt added) and fat free mozzarella, melted in the microwave and topped with flax and olive oil. Sides of broccoli with lemon juice and garlic, hazelnuts, a bit of eggwhites to bump up the protein
YUM!!!
Posted by april at 7:52 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
January 26, 2008
Gingered Mango Cauliflower With Soy and Asparagus
I bought fresh ginger today. You would have thought I would have had it all along, but I didn't, so fine, look down at me if you want to for using ginger powder, but now I have fresh ginger. I'm sure that can't redeem me from all the years when I didn't. But I'm 33 now and it's time to buy fresh ginger. And cook with it. Without asking for help, even though I was tempted to ask, I still did it all by myself and MR will eat it cause he likes my food and he's quite hungry by dinner time.
Cauliflower
About a third as much asparagus as cauliflower
Half a cup of frozen mango chunks
1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
10 g ginger, finely diced
eggwhites for as much protein as you want (cooked and crumbled)
garlic powder or garlic to taste
Boil the diced ginger and soy sauce in hot water for about five mins. Add chopped veggies and eggwhites. Cook only until light and crunchy (the veggies, not you.)
Serve hot, but just after removing from stove add hazelnuts and a teaspoon flax, teaspoon olive oil.
You could also put scallions in this I guess. But I won't. Not out of some objection to scallions, moral or otherwise (the objection, not the scallions) but because I'm out of calories in this meal.
I'll probably just eat a salad, or some mushrooms in brewers yeast soup. I love to cook creatively for MR but my own food preferences are boring. And I'm content with that. I may be a drama queen, but I am a boring one. These days I am so predictable that I bore myself. At least I am cooking with fresh ginger. I'm sure it's a step in the right direction.
Posted by april at 12:32 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
January 21, 2008
Pennsylvania Association of Parsnips
For some reason I got it into my head that it would be fun to cook a parsnip. I'd never had one before, at least not alone (as opposed to buried in a dish, not as opposed to social parsnip-eating vs. eating parsnips alone) and it's a running joke that the name of my union, which sounds a lot like parsnip, should actually be changed to parsnip.
So... I bought one and took it home. Tried a bite, and was surprised by how much it tastes like a gingery carrot. Now be honest: how many of you have cooked a parsnip? In the last year? Ever? It's a funny looking vegetable, not a carrot, not a turnip, definitely not cute. Carrots are cute. Squash are cute. Parsnips are not cute. But they are yummy. Sooooo...
I created a dish for my parsnip:
200 grams parsnip, chopped
200 grams Quorn tenders
veggie broth
ginger, garlic
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
a tiny little squeeze of juice of fresh orange
a really small dash of cinnamon
Boil but do not overcook. Parsnips should still be crunchy.
While I was in the process of losing my parsnip virginity, I had a truly wretched fight with an old friend over email. Really, really bad. But I was still on track for getting lunch on the table on time (for those of you who are new here, MR has very specific feeding times, and while he does not howl like my giant tabby cat if he's not fed on time, it throws off his schedule and he gets pretty hungry. Consistency is one of the things that make it possible for him to be as CR'd as he is.) Until MR came down the stairs and we both noticed how very low volume that parsnip dish was.
Usually MR eats extremely high volume meals. The journalists who come over to interview us usually can't finish and MR meal. He doesn't always have to eat that much, but if a meal is very low volume he'll leave the table not feeling quite fed. As it turns out, parsnips are very calorie dense. Like 150 calories in 200 grams. Wow. Doesn't mean you can't eat them (there are no forbidden foods!) but that does mean that you're not going to have much volume if you do.
As it turns out, MR doesn't like parsnips anyway.
I volunteered to throw together another lunch quick, and with help from MR I made a HUGE dish with squash, broccoli, asparagus, Quorn, eggwhites, nuts, basically an attempt to drown him in veggies. He was happy.
But what shall we do about the parsnip?
We had the same idea at about the same time.
"We'll feed it to Danny."
I wonder if it is offensive to assume that he'll eat anything. I mean, he's no longer a starving anarchist. But he is trying to eat healthier, and he's not addicted to high volume food the way MR is. On Saturday night when he came over I fed him some of those mushroom things I made up and he ate them raw, in spite of my repeated attempts to take them away and put them in the microwave. He was really hungry, I guess, and he said he liked them.
Of course the parsnip dish has no mushrooms. Maybe I'll throw some in, just to be on the safe side.
Today is technically a day off, so I'm finishing the house work and Susie and I are going to the gym together. I was feeling a bit sick at my stomach this morning when I woke up (no I am not pregnant) so I didn't go to Pilates class, but I'm going to do my Pilates video that MR got me for Christmas later on today. I did something weird to my ankle at the gym on Saturday while making an attempt to run, I think on too high an incline. So MR iced my foot for me last night and as long as I don't go too crazy on the treadmill I trust it will be okay.
Edward is on his way up to Scranton for negotiations, and I'll be heading up there tomorrow. Going to be in Scranton a lot soon. The Pennsylvania Association of Parsnips: We do it the old fashioned way. We fight the boss. And win.
Posted by april at 5:46 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
January 19, 2008
Foods That I Am Thinking About
I got my nails done today... I am an ideological nail-doer. I believe in long, pretty nails. I am an unreformable nail-biter, so unless I have acrylics, I bite them to bits and the nurses look at my nails and shake their heads and decide not to organize the union. So I have acrylics. But work is only an excuse: I love the idea that at one minute you can be a pathetic nail biter and an hour later you are a woman with long, beautiful, perfectly polished nails. The instantness of the change. Perfection found quickly and cheaply, with minimal effort. My nails are clear, natural, but my toes are painted in a bright red/pink called "An Affair in Red Square." Marx is not amused -- having the money to get your nails done is so counter-revolutionary. Luckily, he is dead, and my nails are pretty.
I was at the salon when they had cooking shows playing on the TV. I hate TVs in salons but they all seem to have them. I'd like plain old smooth jazz or new agey music with no lyrics or silence. But if they're going to play the TV I have to deal with it if I want pretty nails. So... I watched a few cooking shows.
One of them showed the making of garlic bread. Do people really need a cooking show to teach them how to make garlic bread? I know how to make garlic bread. My step-mother made the world's best. I used to make it in college when I'd have boys (over) for dinner.
I mentally CR'd the recipe. It's something I've done for years: I read or hear about or eat a dish, I immediately pull calories out of it and figure out how to make it healthy. This one would be much better than the original.
Take mushrooms, portabello or even fairly large white ones. Remove the stems, reserve. Wash really well. Into each mushroom stuff a combination of 1/4 cup of nonfat ricotta, 14 grams of fat free mozzarella, a bit of fresh chopped basil, garlic powder, a dash of half salt. Top with pepper and another 14 g of fat free mozzarella. Microwave or toast until the cheese melts. Top with a teaspoon of oil. Mushroom Garlic "Bread." Who needs bread when you have mushrooms?
Other foods on which I think these days... it's tilapia night chez April CR and MR, and while I usually do our tilapia in white wine, lemon juice and garlic, tonight I'm adding fresh basil. I'm contemplating side dishes and thinking that some kind of basil infused something or other would be good. Broccoli with garlic and basil, a few shiitakes, cooked and really hot in just a dash of white wine so that the side dish echoes the wine and garlic basil in the main dish, and then a tiny tart fruit dessert, some of the kiwi I have perhaps with a drop of calorie-free chocolate sauce. MR says I am a genius of a cook but I think he is just very hungry. I am fast, I can cook healthy, I can take your favorites and turn them into things that will make you skinny, but I do not think of myself as a good cook.
But no one else is coming, so I will have to do.
On to make the tilapia...
Posted by april at 4:32 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 16, 2008
Emi?
Emi's blog page is gone. I hope she's okay. Emi, if you're out there, let us know how you are. We miss you!
Posted by april at 10:10 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
January 15, 2008
They Liked It...
No need to hop a train to Boston (though I'd love to see Robin!) ... Danny, Susie and Lisa liked my mushroom dish!
I mean, how can you not like a dish that is just three kinds of mushrooms and some protein? Oh, and a bit of celery?
Danny ate a big bowl of it. I was happy. He's not the kind of person who would pretend to like something he didn't really like. He opened the container and pointed at various ingredients asking what they were. Danny California, meet Quorn Tenders. And eggwhites. He had lots of questions about how you make eggwhites. I may need to take him shopping for a glass pan to microwave them in. First he said, "So you just take eggs and separate them?" Oh heavens no, said the girls, nearly in chorus. The miracle of the Eggwhite Carton was disclosed to the anarchist. I even have some coupons that I picked up at the gym for All Whites. "Sounds racist," I said, "But it's just eggwhites."
The girls also loved the mushrooms. I've now decided to fix them all dinner on Wednesday: portabella pumpkin pizzas! I love having new people to cook for. Not that I'll neglect MR of course.
580 calories between three people. I told Danny that I didn't believe he could consume the volume of an MR meal. "You've never seen me at the Indian buffet," he said. He's willing to take on the challenge, so I may at some point make him a genuine low calorie, high volume, stuff you full of veggies MR meal. And see if he survives.
Posted by april at 3:07 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 14, 2008
Diet Soda
Ooooooh, I love this!
Posted by april at 9:48 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Portabello Pumpkin Pizzas
Now this is a recipe I've been kicking around in my head for awhile. I made it for MR's lunch on Sunday. Basically, it's the old trick of using portabellos as pizza crusts, then it gets weird.
Clean the portabello mushroom caps, then lie them on their backs. Top with chopped raw asparagus. Then make the sauce: dissolve 1/2 cup unsalted canned pumpkin in just under a cup of veggie or chicken broth (or the chickenless vegan "chicken" broth I used) and pour the sauce over the asparagus topped mushroom caps. Top with fat free mozzarella, then microwave for 2.5 minutes. Serve hot, top with flax or olive oil (1 teaspoon) after removing from microwave.
On the side I served cauliflower steamed with a little bit of stewed tomatoes (no salt version) and capers and black olives, another teaspoon of olive oil, and 50 go avocado.
It was nice to do some weekend cooking, at last. Nice to have two nights home with my angel. Now back to work... and I'm working late every night this week. So MR will have to make his own dinner, unless I get myself together to make him something in advance. And I'll be eating at the office or on the road.
Posted by april at 9:48 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 13, 2008
Mushrooms
I happen to like those cheap plain white mushrooms a lot. I've been eating them in brewers yeast soups to up my B vitamins. I'm very glad to hear that the vegetarian Danny California would eat mushrooms all the time if he could because at least I can stop worrying about his B vitamin intake. Some B vitamins anyhow.
Anyhow, here's a first shot at a simple, easy mushroom soup that has 56 grams of protein!
100 grams each: portabella, white and shiitake mushrooms
10 calories worth of veggie broth
200 grams eggwhites (cooked, broken down so he won't really notice them in the soup)
185 g Quorn tenders. He's never had Quorn, and is about to fall in love with it.
After heating, add 1/2 cup of Butterworks Farms organic nonfat plain yogurt, to make it slightly creamy and add a bit of a bite. I can do this in the office, we have a fridge and microwave.
That's just 400 calories. Plenty of room leftover for more veggies, some more fat, etc. My strategy is to stuff him with as much protein as I can get into him at one meal, hoping it will make up for the lack of protein in the rest of his diet. If only we could give him IV eggwhites. He has plenty of fat in his diet, unfortunately much of it from frying things, but he's definitely not an Ornish refugee like I was. I may do something with brussels sprouts for a side dish, just simple, maybe a bit of fresh lemon and a dash of cider vinegar and dried chipoltle peppers. I could marinate the sprouts all day before cooking them, and then just throw them in the microwave to lightly steam right before eating them. Wow, I may even feed myself this stuff, it sounds good! And I will definitely make enough for the rest of the stafff. The organizing staff, that is. I can't afford mushrooms for the entire organization. Do the girls like brussels sprouts?
I'm going to test this out today on both MR and myself to decide how to spice it. I find that mushrooms, when cooked in a bit of unsalted broth, are so powerful that they don't really need a lot of flavoring, so I may just leave them to speak for themselves. Or perhaps a tiny dash of vegetarian Worschtershire (we have it from Whole Foods) or just a tiny dash of garlic Tabasco. Something so small that it's indetectable but it kicks up the recipe just a bit.
I've never been a complicated cook... I don't have the patience, and I mostly believe that you should buy good veggies and then just let them be. Mushrooms are the kind of things that can easily overpower other ingredients, but I find it's also possible to drown them out with too many spices. So a balance is necessary.
After we went out to Horizons, a really fancy vegan restaurant in Center City, DC brought home a mushroom dish to one of his housemates. Apparently the housemate identified every mushroom before eating it. These are serious mushroom people. I wish I had access to some fancier mushrooms for this project. We are right near the mushroom capitol of the world, but DC says that the mushroom festival was rather disappointing.
Anyway, I'll do the best I can. If it doesn't work out, I'll hop a train to Boston (which is what I always do when things don't work out) and Robin will feed me kale until I recover my self-esteem.
Posted by april at 2:20 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 12, 2008
Not A Ball and Chain
"So come Monday, you guys are going to have to teach me how to count calories."
Susie and I nearly fell off our chairs.
Chain smoking, whiskey drinking anarchist who manages to eat some form of fried potato with every meal is quitting smoking this weekend. He does it by fasting for two days, quitting cold turkey (I never got that term... cold turkey is rather delicious with spicy mustard and hotdog relish) and drinking lots of detox tea. While staring and the walls and doing nothing. Sounds like fun, but he says it keeps him from having cigarette cravings afterwards. Short term intense pain instead of long term low-grade agony. I respect that.
But he doesn't want to gain weight. And he says that he's gained weight in the past when he's quit smoking. So he started quizzing me and Susie on calorie counting.
Susie pounced. Susie is one of my success stores: she's lost 15 pounds, looks like a super-model, monitors her calories and nutrition most days but also eats out with her husband or her bad kid friends and has a great time without guilt of any sort. She absolutely glows with health these days.
She immediately started talking about how easy it is to make changes, how even seemingly small changes can make a huge difference, how April can teach you how to do it, she's taught a lot of people and it works, how much fun it is to play the nutrition game with the computer and the software and it's all free and the high you get when you're losing weight is amazing and...
I was somewhat more hesitant. After all, I am very sensitive to the idea of making anyone feel like they *have to* lose weight, or that they're anything other than fine the way they are. That being said, I don't blame anyone for not wanting to gain weight upon quitting smoking, and while I fear that DC will become even more of a menace to society than he already is if he were to have more energy post quitting smoking and eating healthier, I'm excited to help. I wonder how he would feel if I said I wanted to learn how to play the guitar... after he stopped laughing.
So I started with the simple stuff that he should minimize if not cut out all together:
1. Bread.
2. Fries.
That was easy.
The fact is, when your diet is really high in calories and low in nutrition, some really simple changes can lead not just to not gaining weight, but to losing some and dramatically improving how you feel. As all are aware, my easy first changes upon beginning CR (Calorie Restriction, that is) were:
1. No alcoholic beverages other than red wine (bu-bye margaritas!)
2. No bread at all (Dunkin Donuts bagels with cream cheese every morning)
3. No sugar -- no more six sugar packets in my coffee.
It wasn't long before Susie and I were waxing eloquent about the joys of lower calories, better nutrition, and the euphoria that follows getting all that toxic crap out of your body. No doubt we sounded like drug addicts discussing our latest hit. It feels good because it is good: we've changed our lives for the better, forever. We feel great. We have no doubt that we will never gain back the weight we lost, or return to our old habits. And if someone we like a lot wants a little puff of what we're smoking, we're happy to give it to him.
"So how many calories do you think I should be eating?" he asked me.
Well y'all know how difficult a question I think that is.
"At least 2700 to start," said I. I've occasionally kept a little mental tally of how much he's probably eating, and it's closer to 3500. I won't let him pull a Julian Dibbell and go so low on calories that he goes crazy and loses weight too fast.
But I emphasize that if he's not going to weigh and measure everything, it's probably better to just start with small, easy changes, like getting rid of fries and eating more veggies, and MORE PROTEIN, and not worry about calories.
More protein. He's a vegetarian, and no fish. How are we going to get more protein into him?
"100 grams a day for you, littlest one," I say. It is a bit of a running joke on our staff that I call him "Littlest One," as Lisa, our formerly newest organizer, is still called "Little One" even though she's taller than the rest of the girls on staff. Danny is the tallest of all, but he is now the newest so he becomes "Littlest."
I think I've convinced him to let me make him dinner on Monday. We're all working late and packing our dinners, and if I make him something and he eats it, we'll at least be at a starting point.
So now I'm nervous: before he got the job with us, Danny was actually working in food service, doing some waiting tables and some cooking. He'd been offered a job cooking in a really amazing restaurant downtown... he occasionally regrets that he never got to work there, or more to the point, eat there for free every night. And he's a great at-home cook. Basically, he's a lot better than I am. So now I'm going to attempt to make something he'll like, low calorie, high volume, high nutrition, so he gets sold on this concept that great food can be healthy and low cal?
At least he likes vegetables. "If I could, I'd eat nothing but mushrooms," he says. Okay, can do. Also loves brussels sprouts. This is a starting point.
Mushrooms. Eggwhites. Vegetables. He has good taste in food. I have to get over my fear of cooking for somemone who really knows more than I do.
I've become quite dedicated to *not* evangelizing about CR. And I'd never try to convince my friends to go hardcore cause it just doesn't fit with their priorities in life. But Susie points out, I have the keys that have gotten a lot of people who've wanted to lose weight for a long time out of the prison of yo-yo dieting, restricting and malnourishing, etc. We went to get coffee after lunch (at which Danny and Susie split a salad and a personal pizza, and Danny said, 'I can't believe I'm eating a salad the day before my detox!') and Susie went through a short list of my success stories.
"When you can help someone who's been overweight her entire adult life get control over her weight and health, you've made a huge difference in that person's life."
I felt a little better. As you know, I've been a bit despondent for awhile, sick of all the media and blog attacks, sick of being a punching bag for people who have nothing better to do than pick on other people's eating habits. Meanwhile, my own CR has suffered as I've had trouble prioritizing the many things I do in life while maintaining strict CR. But I'm doing well now, losing weight (again) and doing it the super-right way, with exercise and great nutrition.
"At least you know that your co-workers will be supportive," I said to Danny. The thought of him being on board with the project, as opposed to the man who tempts me with fries, is almost more ecstasy than I can handle. And I can handle a lot.
I went to the art museum with my mom last night, and while I was wandering around visiting my favorite works and waiting for her to come in, I was listening to Paula Abdul on my Ipod. Bizarre that I would have an ephipany while listening to Paula Abdul's "Will You Marry Me?" because
a) I don't believe in marriage. I mean, I believe it exists, but I'm not sure it's a good thing, and I'm certain it's not a good thing for me.
b) I'm agnostic on the question of Paula Abdul. Does she exist? Your guess is as good as mine.
Think of love as wings
Not a ball and chain
So says Paula as I'm looking out of the art museum window over Center City's skyline as the sun's setting on a gorgeous January night. Philly has been called "the city that loves you back," but I like to think of it as "the city that won't let you leave anyway, so quit wasting our time by trying."
Two months ago I was at the CR Conference consulting my old friend the Divine Robert K on my ongoing struggle to go hardcore in my CR, the pressure I felt from MR to do so, the conflicts in my social life, etc. CR was feeling a little bit more like a ball and chain than like wings. Of course, as soon as I felt the benefits, a few days back into being strict, the wings came back. But when I was out at a smokey bar really wanting to eat fries... well, it was hard to remember the wings part. And try as he did not to nag, MR couldn't help but observe that I felt a lot better when I was actually doing CR. How irksome of him.
"Think of him as trying to help you," said the Divine RK.
Sure, take his side, thought I. But he had a point.
Susie and I weren't freaking out over the benefits of low calorie, high nutrition living because we think there's anything wrong with DC right now... we just know what kind of happiness we've gotten from improving our health, and we are crazy about him and want to give him something we love, something we value, something that's hard to describe unless you've been there but that is not entirely unlike presenting an athiest with incontrovertiable proof of the existence of God.
"You used to get so excited about CR," said Susie to me a few months ago when I was striving for more hardcoreness but falling short over and over again. She remembered how much I loved working with her on her diet, how much I enjoyed playing with the software and feeling great in my body and laughing in the face of whatever little bug was going around the office.
"You've been sick for two weeks now, dude, and that's not cool," said Susie to Danny, who is still feeling crappy from that cold we all had.
Susie is like me: she'll never give up the fancy meal out in Center City, but she's willing to do the work to keep her calories low and nutrition high to balance it off. She's street smart, gorgeous, clever, a goddess of an organizer... she's one of the most amazing girlfriends I've ever had, but when I start to think about girlfriends, I think about all the outstanding girls I've met through the blog and I'm overwhelmed... I could tour from New Mexico to the UK to Istanbul to Virginia and still not be done. I've got somewhere to crash in Boston next time I go nuts and hop a train to that city that houses MIT and Harvard all in one. After all, I did name my Ipod Robin.
CR for me is a funny compilation of contradictions: I am a hedonist who hates getting sick; I am a feminist who loves looking like a supermodel; I know there is no more powerful drug or more addictive substance than health itself, than the way we're supposed to feel, than feeding the body what it needs but nothing else.
Feeling better really does feel better. Fancy that.
Now back to playing with mushrooms.
Posted by april at 2:38 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
"Skinny" Is Now A Bad Word?
What do y'all think?
Posted by april at 9:27 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
January 10, 2008
Guess Who I Saw Today?
Okay, stop guessing. Michael Pollan. And I have his new book.
I'll write more as soon as I can.
Posted by april at 11:22 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
January 8, 2008
No Wonder I'm So Messed Up When I Don't Sleep
Read this.
Posted by april at 7:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Best Re-Construction of Today Possible
Today isn't perfectly weighed and measured*, as I went out for lunch with co-workers, but I ate a salad I am very familliar with, and I know it comes with four onces of grilled chicken (I'm mostly vegetarian, not entirely, as noted frequently) and I can guess on the romaine and tomato and avocado medium well, though one can never be sure. I don't use any dressing. I did have a few of the mussels in red sauce that everyone shared, which I tried to account for, but I could be way off, not so much on the mussels themselves but on the sauce. I counted it as though it was mostly oil, so I'm probably not too far off, and I didn't eat much of it. Dinner was my regular lunch salad with yogurt and a slice of non-fat cheese, plus nuts (which were also snacks) breakfast was eggwhites, brewers' yeast, flax oil, nonfat cheese. Before bed snack after returning home from work at nineish was cottage cheese and spiced nuts and red wine. A wine and cheese party of sorts. I also ate five of Danny California's French fries at the meeting, which I counted, believe it or not. I am an eater of other people's fries: if I can just keep it to three to five, I think I'll be fine. We actually left fries on the table today. And I was very proud of myself that I ate none of Edward's fries at lunch, even though he wagged them at me in an attempt to tempt me. "It's a test," he said. "What the f*&K is your problem, dude?" I asked. So what could have been a finishing of other people's fries at two meals day turned into a five small fries day. Let's shoot for no small fries, but still, it's progress. The return to the not one bite rule has a few fries in the path. Maybe I should take the fries thing one week at a time. Starting tomorrow, it's a not one bite of fries week. Not one bite. If I go one calendar week with not one bite of anyone's fries, I will reward myself with... with... with... what do I want? I will reward myself with a trip to Longwood Gardens with my mom.
You know, Lisa brought back all this fancy chocolate from England, and it wouldn't even occur to me to touch it. Not tempted. But fries are another story. I guess we all have our things. At least I never eat a whole lot of them anymore. But those little bites (I count today's at 63 calories) add up. Keeping them logged into my software reminds me of how much they add up, and how little nutrition they offer. That's the good thing about keeping records: it not only keeps us honest with ourselves, it reminds us of important information that we can actually use. If I want fries, truly want them, I can always eat them as part of a balanced day (like I did today.) There are no forbidden foods on CR.
I also noted that today I had a very high protein lunch, and I felt quite satisfied throughout the afternoon. I may add eggwhites to my lunch again. I did that for a few months and it worked well... I can't remember why I stopped. A little extra protein seems to make a tremendous difference in my hunger levels.
Total nutrition for today:
General (76%)
Energy 1456.0 kcal 81%
Protein 125.1 g 272%
Carbs 84.3 g 65%
Fiber 17.8 g 71%
Fat 39.5 g 61%
Vitamins (88%)
Vitamin A 8937.7 IU 383%
Folate 270.0 µg 68%
B1 (Thiamine) 1.2 mg 110%
B2 (Riboflavin) 3.3 mg 302%
B3 (Niacin) 24.8 mg 177%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid) 4.5 mg 89%
B6 (Pyridoxine) 1.9 mg 150%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) 8.5 µg 355%
Vitamin C 179.1 mg 239%
Vitamin D 0.0 IU 0%
Vitamin E 18.1 mg 121%
Vitamin K 363.7 µg 404%
Minerals (92%)
Calcium 1660.8 mg 166%
Copper 1.8 mg 197%
Iron 9.3 mg 52%
Magnesium 336.8 mg 105%
Manganese 3.4 mg 190%
Phosphorus 1480.5 mg 212%
Potassium 3332.3 mg 71%
Selenium 138.0 µg 251%
Sodium 1568.1 mg 105%
Zinc 10.3 mg 129%
Lipids (84%)
Saturated 4.7 g
Omega-3 2.8 g 141%
Omega-6 8.2 g 68%
Trans-Fats 0.8 g
Cholesterol 103.7 mg
The calcium is a little high cause I still haven't corrected the entry for that to reflect the Nancy's organic, but it's still over 100% between the yogurt, the cottage, and the two slices of cheese.
Okay, it's 3 am, I'm going to crawl into bed, hoping to wake neither man nor cat, and attempt two hours of sleep before I have to get up again.
* And this post illustrates the difficulty of guestimating!
Posted by april at 2:48 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
And I Still Can't Sleep
In spite of taking melatonin, exercising, etc. I can still not sleep. This is annoying.
My father is a world-class insomniac. I am getting worried that I am turning into him. It doesn't bother me so much when I know I did things to cause the insomnia, but when I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, it's concerning. I wish I could get up and go to bed at the same time every night, but with my job it's very hard to do that and consistently get enough sleep. I really like to get up early and go to bed early, but when I have these early morning meetings and night meetings on the same days, I get all messed up.
Suggestions?
Posted by april at 12:00 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
January 7, 2008
Ethical
Helen writes:
I would guess that "ethical" eating here refers to cruelty-free and environmentally-friendly eating, as opposed to body-conscious eating. I don't think NPR has got healthy eating confused with good ethics.
I know you've always said that you don't like to attach a moral judgement to eating habits, but I guess I always assumed you were talking about healthy vs. non-healthy eating. Do you think that vegetarianism, for instance, should be regarded as an amoral practice?
Quite so. I completely agree. And I say, "Whatever," because I sincerely doubt that anyone much will take up more ethical eating, be it vegetarianism or locally grown or just being nicer to the waitstaff and tipping properly.
I am actually quite pro cruelty-free eating, and was a vegan for five years, hardcore, no honey, no leather, etc. For years I've had a long post about why I'm not anymore riding around in my head, and I haven't gotten myself in gear to write it. As it is, I eat mostly free-range organic dairy, and MR and I are mostly vegetarian, for a combination of health, environmental, and ethical reasons.
I have a very big issue with "lifestyle" anything. The basic idea being, a lot of folks get quite obsessed with being pure in their lifestyle, but they don't do anything productive to actually change the situation. It's all well and good to sit on the sidelines being pure and criticizing others, but actually taking effective action is quite another matter. Now if one can do both, one should win an award, or at least occasionally have a cute boy cook one a decent meal. But... most people don't. To me, it's the difference between refusing to buy anything that isn't union made and being a union organizer. It's lovely to buy a union made car. It does a lot more for the world to help workers organize. I happen to drive a union made car, but I wouldn't use that as an excuse for not organizing.
I am very much a do-er. Pragmatic to a fault, and it is a fault at times. I am not much of an idealist. I gave up being vegan because it was just too hard to do CR and be vegan while being as small as I am, hence needing very few calories to do true CR. Also, I seem to need high protein levels to do good CR without becoming insane with hunger. Erin can attest to the fact that frequently write him emails full of remorse and vegan nostalgia, and I have transitioned to organic, cruelty free eggs and dairy for the most part, but vegan I am not.
Now I suppose I could raise my own chickens on a farm, milk my own happy cows, hunt my own deer, etc. That would be quite consistent with my ethics, as I am not opposed to using animals but opposed to the concentration camp like conditions in which factory farming takes place. But I've made the calculation that I'm actually more useful to the world, and the causes I care about, by living on the grid, organizing workers, and eating eggwhites. If I were a better person, perhaps I would give up wine and eat more beans and rice protein powder. I despise rice protein powder, however, and I'm not willing to give up wine. My doing so won't end factory farming: it will just make me less happy. If I thought it would be effective, as opposed to a gesture purely aimed at easing my conscience, I might do it.
The thing about lifestyle activism is that it accomplishes little, compared to the effort it requires. It's all about making you feel better, vs. doing something about the problem.
So I'm not a vegan anymore. I wish I were. The price is too high. I can't end factory farming by going vegan... if I could I would. I'd be more effective if I went to work for PETA as an organizer, but the movement for animal rights just isn't at a point where my skills are useful right now. That's a long way off. Interestingly enough, I think the same is true of the movement to find a cure for aging. Visionaries, writers, PR people, and fundraisers who like talking to rich people all day are necessary. Populist organizers are cute, pleasant, good at cooking dinner and doing the cleaning so the boy can finish the book on time (or thereabouts) but not so much useful. It's not the right time. I'm doing what I'm best at, in the arena in which I calculate that I can make the most positive change. And CR helps me to do that, and hopefully will help me to do that for longer than I would otherwise. I know that CR has already saved me from many a burnout, from many a giving up, from the exhaustion that threatens to consume me at the end of twelve years of hardcore organizing. The irony never ceases to amaze me, but CR seems to give me the energy I need to keep showing up, day after day, eggwhite omlette after eggwhite omlette, coffee on the table and flax oil in a little vial, looking distictly illegal, yet unlikely to resist arrest.
More someday on the topic. It's a compromise. Negotiations and lovesongs, as Paul Simon once said, are often mistaken for one and the same thing.
And in the meantime, if you're out, tip well. At least 25%. I tend to tip 30% or more. It's a small way in which you can actually do something good for the world, namely another person who actually needs the money, and it improves your karma something fabulous. I attribute most of my good luck in life to the fact that I've always tipped well. And if you tip badly, you get hit by a bus. Then you have to decide: was it worth it to do CR?
Posted by april at 10:20 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
So Many Comments
Thanks to all so much for your comments... thank you Lucy! Glad you enjoyed the blog!
I feel terrible when I don't answer you all right away, but I'm just too busy to take every comment as it comes. I try to get to them as fast as possible. Trust that I'm doing the best I can.
I just got home from a night meeting and have another meeting at 7:30 tomorrow morning, so I may or may not be able to write more tonight.
Nighty night!
Posted by april at 8:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 6, 2008
2008 Will Be The Year of Ethical Eating
That's what I just heard on NPR.
Whatever.
Posted by april at 9:57 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
The Rest of the Day Off
I did the 7:30 meeting this morning (eggwhite vegetable omlette) and then I came home. I was out super late last night at the party (which was unbelievably fun... saw people I hadn't seen in years) and now I'm home and confused because I have the evening off. Rest of the day, and the evening. I'm planning to have some fun cooking. Tonight is going to be our tofu night, so what to make for lunch is an open question.
I'll let you know what I decide.
A great deal of today is also being used to pet cats such that they purr. Right now, an extremely large gray tabby is purring on my lap. Just a little while ago, a very old demented but sweet and snuggly calico was lying on my chest purring while I read in bed.
There. That's what I'm up to today. Already did the laundry, and may eventually work up the energy and enthusiasm to do some housework. Or not.
Posted by april at 9:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 5, 2008
Double Salad Day
Ate two of my salads today. Lunch, for lunch and dinner. Lunch with yogurt, dinner with cottage cheese. Both with generic salsa verde. Lunch with spiced nuts (thank you MOMR!) and olives, dinner with flax oil.
Now I'm getting ready for a) a meeting with RNs b) a party! Yes, I am going to a party! Yes I am! I just found out that there's a reunion of some of my old friends from, well, back in the day. Back when I first met Danny California. They will be *freaked out* that he's gone all boring and now works for me. He's not coming, but he's giving me a ride... which he doesn't know yet... but I'll bribe him with whiskey and it's only 13 blocks.
Off I go!
Posted by april at 5:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The New Basics
Excellent cookbook that my father got me for my 21st birthday, along with a mini food processor.
And... my new quotidian diet, with 200 calories left over for fruit or whatever.
General (65%)
Energy 1289.2 kcal 53%
Protein 95.7 g 171%
Carbs 85.9 g 66%
Fiber 16.4 g 43%
Fat 40.4 g 62%
Vitamins (92%)
Vitamin A 15344.7 IU 511%
Folate 407.9 µg 102%
B1 (Thiamine) 1.9 mg 161%
B2 (Riboflavin) 4.6 mg 356%
B3 (Niacin) 20.2 mg 126%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid) 5.6 mg 113%
B6 (Pyridoxine) 2.2 mg 168%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) 2.7 µg 112%
Vitamin C 335.0 mg 372%
Vitamin D 0.0 IU 0%
Vitamin E 16.9 mg 113%
Vitamin K 321.6 µg 268%
Minerals (99%)
Calcium 1487.3 mg 149%
Copper 2.4 mg 266%
Iron 10.9 mg 137%
Magnesium 411.7 mg 98%
Manganese 3.2 mg 140%
Phosphorus 1440.5 mg 206%
Potassium 4259.0 mg 91%
Selenium 145.0 µg 264%
Sodium 4378.6 mg 292%
Zinc 11.4 mg 104%
Lipids (92%)
Saturated 3.9 g
Omega-3 5.8 g 288%
Omega-6 8.4 g 84%
Trans-Fats 0.0 g
Cholesterol 18.9 mg
And that would be:
Breakfast:
150 g eggwhites
1 slice nonfat cheese
1 teaspoon flax oil
Lunch:
April's lunch salad
1 cup Butterworks Farms nonfat organic plain yogurt
2 tablespoons salsa
almonds (must get 50 g per day)
Dinner:
Brewers yeast soup with 70 cals of cruciferous veggies (broccoli, cauli, brussels)
1/2 cup Nancy's organic lowfat cottage cheese
1 teaspoon flax oil
2 glasses wine (no chocolate for me... wine is my indulgence)
almonds as needed
Snacks:
extra fruit (blueberries, kiwi, grapefruit, etc.), almonds, yogurt
Calorie Goal: 1500
Exercise goal: 30 mins treadmill 5 days per week
3 Pilates classes a week or video
some sort of arm weight lifting to be determined
So far so good...
Posted by april at 11:25 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
And Who Would Have Thought That Leonard Cohen Could Be So Very Dance-able?
I must be cheering right up because I just caught myself dancing to Leonard Cohen's "Lover Lover Lover" in my kitchen while making lunch. If any of you know the song, it's not really disco. It's about the ongoing disaster in the Middle East. It's an absolutely beautiful song. The first, say, ten times I heard it, I felt like my heart rate sped up and my breathing got shallow. That's a good song.
April's Most Influential Songs of 2007, at least the later half of it:
"Lover Lover Lover" by Leonard Cohen
"Do It" by Nelly Furtado
"Whole New You" by Shawn Colvin
"First Time" by Lifehouse
"Rockstar" by Nickelback
"Feels So Good" by Van Halen
Eclectic? Perhaps. You hate my music? Too bad. You don't get a vote.
I'm listening to the CD I made for one of my favorite reader-friends. I need to burn myself a copy and mail hers to her. I put Anjani's "No One After You" right after Cohen's "Lover..." isn't that sweet??? They are too cute for words. I wish they'd come over for dinner. I wonder if they like cats.
I am ever so happy to report that http://cronology.blogspot.com/ This time I hope he never leaves us. Remember, Chris, we love you and your blog no matter how well you're doing on CR. It's about *you*, not what you eat. What you eat is just a way to be you longer, healthier, happier.
And how is my year going?
Pretty well, thanks. The campaign (new baby!) is getting off the ground. I've been doing meetings most every day at 7:30 am and 7:30 pm, eggwhite omlette, dry, veggies not grilled just raw thank you flax oil and nonfat cheese lovingly packed by MR on top, wheat bran (also lovingly packed) on side. Been lonely cause Danny's been out sick so I've been doing meetings alone. He resurfaced for the first time in 2008 last night, and he was so drugged out and sick that I felt guilty for having him there at the meeting. He looked fine and functioned fine though. I'm letting him skip the morning meetings and only come to the evening ones, when we're more likely to have a bigger turnout.
I overdid it a bit on Wednesday with exercise: got to the gym just before 6 am and worked out before my morning meeting, then went again with Susie at lunch and worked out. Then did the night meeting, then woke up sick again in the middle of the night... ooops. Easy to get overenthusiastic. Didn't work out Thurs or Fri, but worked out this morning after my meeting.
Was having a sushi craving on Thursday, so decided to look up six different sources for calorie info on California rolls, my sushi of choice. I can't seem to copy paste from the source email, so you'll have to look it up for yourself. Went out with Susie at lunch for sushi.
I am seriously considering becoming one of those "eat the same thing every day" people because it's just so much easier than thinking things through on a day to day basis. I basically eat the same thing every day anyhow, except when I go out, which I am trying to minimize at this point. Going out on Thursday with the guy who re-connected me with Danny California, so that's an off-the-path day, but I won't go crazy, and I'm going low in preparation. I've been keeping just under 1500, and my weight is dropping slowly but steadily.
I'll try to make some interesting food tomorrow and post a recipe. Today I am making a stew for MR for lunch: swiss chard stems, white onion, Quorn tenders, mushroom broth, asparagus, and a few eggwhites. He's got a megamuffin chunk and a piece of leftover pumpkin flan from Christmas on the side, plus oil and hazelnuts. Most normal people can not consume the volume of food he can pack away. It's quite astonishing really.
Off to do something useful before I have to go back to work...
Posted by april at 11:10 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
January 2, 2008
She's Wilder Than You'll Ever Be
That's a line from Anjani's Blue Alert, an album which I hereby command you all to run out and buy, or stay home and download from iTunes.
You don't come here for musical advice, I know. You come here for diet advice, or something or other. But take my word for it. I rather feel like I hadn't been alive until the minute I listened to this woman.
Try it and you may I say.
Posted by april at 2:07 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Fun With Software While Can Not Sleep
Woke up at 2. Cuddled cat in bed until 3:22. Still coughing and couldn't sleep so finally decided to get up and play with nutritional software.
Here is the plan for today:
Massive eggwhite omlette at the meeting with nurses this morning, including mushrooms, tomatoes, and onions. MR will pack flax oil and wheat bran for me to take along. I may even be a total freak and pack my own slice of nonfat cheese.
Lunch: the traditional April salad (kale, napa, tomato, green pepper) with Butterworks Farms nonfat plain organic yogurt, plus a little bit of vinegar or Walden Farms dressing. Almonds.
Snacks: 100 g blueberries, and more of the 50 g of almonds that I try to eat per day to get my Vitamin E and good fats.
Dinner: Brewers Yeast soup: no salt veggie broth + broccoli + cauliflower + 2 tbsps Lewis Labs Brewers Yeast. Nancy's organic cottage cheese, lowfat, with 1 tsp flax oil. Leftover almonds, no doubt. Wine.
I'm really, really hoping that at some point in my day that begins with leaving for work at 6:30 am and will end with getting home from my last meeting likely between 9 and 10 pm that I will somehow manage to get home and take a nap. Often I can swing home after lunch while things are quiet and lie down with the cat for a little while on very long days. That's why we bought a house six blocks from my office.
Since I'm up anyway, I'm just going to go to the gym as soon as it opens at 5:30 a to at least get a half hour on the treadmill before I have to head to my meeting. That way if I can get away from work I can go straight to nap.
Ooops. I forgot to add in my wheat bran. Add about 10 calories and a whole lot of fiber.
Report generated by CRON-o-Meter v0.9.3
Nutrition Summary for January 2, 2008
General (71%)
Energy 1432.0 kcal 59%
Protein 126.5 g 226%
Carbs 97.8 g 75%
Fiber 24.3 g 64%
Fat 35.6 g 55%
Vitamins (92%)
Vitamin A 8111.3 IU 270%
Folate 411.1 µg 103%
B1 (Thiamine) 1.8 mg 151%
B2 (Riboflavin) 5.2 mg 397%
B3 (Niacin) 16.7 mg 104%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid) 5.4 mg 107%
B6 (Pyridoxine) 2.0 mg 155%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) 3.5 µg 146%
Vitamin C 246.3 mg 274%
Vitamin D 3.6 IU 2%
Vitamin E 16.8 mg 112%
Vitamin K 464.1 µg 387%
Minerals (95%)
Calcium 1111.5 mg 111%
Copper 2.1 mg 233%
Iron 7.9 mg 99%
Magnesium 339.7 mg 81%
Manganese 2.7 mg 120%
Phosphorus 1453.3 mg 208%
Potassium 3596.9 mg 77%
Selenium 180.2 µg 328%
Sodium 5223.5 mg 348%
Zinc 10.1 mg 92%
Lipids (86%)
Saturated 4.7 g
Omega-3 3.0 g 150%
Omega-6 7.2 g 72%
Trans-Fats 0.0 g
Cholesterol 21.1 mg
Posted by april at 3:40 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
January 1, 2008
New Year's CR Fun with Collard Greens and Black-Eyed Peas
It is a tradition in the South that you must eat collard greens and black-eyed peas on New Year's for good luck. It would be most traditional to eat hoppin' john, but that has rice and fat back, so we weren't exactly going to eat that. Add to that that MR doesn't like any greens cooked, and I decided to make a New Year's salad with raw collards, chopped, as the green base and a black eyed-pea topping.
First, I marinated a half cup of black-eyed peas in a sauce of cider vinegar, Texas Pete (made in Winston-Salem, NC!) and lemon juice. Then I covered a plate in 100 g chopped collard greens, raw, and put down a layer of Quorn tenders and grounds, plus a few eggwhites to bump up the protein. Next, for MR, came a layer of lightly steamed diced yellow squash. Topping: the black beans in the marinade, plus a teaspoon of olive oil. He had a brownie sundae on the side with his MegaBrownie cut into chunks over non-fat ricotta and hazelnut oil with hazelnuts. I modified my dish to get some more calcium in there by using black-eyed peas on top of cottage cheese instead of Quorn, and no squash for me because I can barely handle the volume of my salad as it is. I had blueberries and almonds for dessert.
Here is my ostensible crunch for today, assuming that I manage to eat a small cup of brewers yeast soup with mushrooms tonight in addition to my salad with yogurt. I am feeling less than hungry, no doubt responding the the unusual level of inactivity I've had since I've been sick, and a few days of heavy holiday eating. I finally made it back to the gym today and did thirty minutes worth of treadmill, though none too fast as I don't want to shock my body with a return to sudden exercise. The calories are a bit lower than average due to the aforementioned lower level of activity than usual and recent holiday eating out festivities. My weight is up so I feel fairly safe going a bit low for awhile. I monitor my weight every day, so if I start to lose too fast I'll know it and eat more. Very important!
Report generated by CRON-o-Meter v0.9.3
Nutrition Summary for January 1, 2008
General (69%)
Energy 1282.9 kcal 53%
Protein 90.3 g 161%
Carbs 88.5 g 68%
Fiber 24.6 g 65%
Fat 37.4 g 58%
Vitamins (90%)
Vitamin A 13066.1 IU 436%
Folate 431.5 µg 108%
B1 (Thiamine) 1.8 mg 151%
B2 (Riboflavin) 3.9 mg 300%
B3 (Niacin) 17.0 mg 106%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid) 4.0 mg 80%
B6 (Pyridoxine) 1.6 mg 121%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) 2.5 µg 102%
Vitamin C 111.5 mg 124%
Vitamin D 0.0 IU 0%
Vitamin E 17.4 mg 116%
Vitamin K 805.6 µg 671%
Minerals (91%)
Calcium 1346.1 mg 135%
Copper 2.1 mg 228%
Iron 7.5 mg 94%
Magnesium 318.0 mg 76%
Manganese 3.6 mg 155%
Phosphorus 1204.7 mg 172%
Potassium 2845.6 mg 61%
Selenium 119.6 µg 218%
Sodium 1228.1 mg 82%
Zinc 12.5 mg 114%
Lipids (88%)
Saturated 3.5 g
Omega-3 5.1 g 256%
Omega-6 7.6 g 76%
Trans-Fats 0.0 g
Cholesterol 15.6 mg
In other news, I vacuumed the floors, took down the Christmas decorations, changed the sheets, cleaned the bathroom, and scrubbed the kitchen floor. I'm still planning to put in a load of laundry before dinner. Was hoping to try my new Pilates video for the first time but may run out of energy.
Tomorrow is back to work, promptly leaving the house at 6:30 am. I am actually entertaining the thought of hitting the treadmill at 5:30 am when the gym opens and then showering there and heading straight out to work. That way I'll make sure I get a workout in. It's a long day, with my last meeting beginning at 7:30 pm. Danny called this afternoon to say that he's sick so I told him to take the day off. So I'll be alone in my meetings: whine. Sad. Oh well. At least Susie and Edward will be at work, as far as I know. Funny to say back to work, as I was at the hospital at 6:30 am on New Year's Day, doing literature drops and meetings, and I spent most of this morning working on an editorial for the Scranton paper. Do I ever stop working? Nope, not for long.
We had a very nice Christmas with my mom and the parents of MR. They also gave us truly amazing presents, my favorite of which is a really pretty dress that I've already worn twice! They also gave me an orange scarf and matching gloves, so that I may match my boyfriend when I am bundled up against the cold. I was very happy that they liked the Christmas cooking, especially the shrimp and artichoke dish.
Okay, off to finish the cleaning before time to cook dinner. This is the most industrious I've been in a week, so cheer me on please... the temptation to crawl back into bed might overwhelm me!
Posted by april at 4:23 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
First Lines of Mix Tapes (Except Now They Are CDs -- Yes, April, it is not 1990)
I am making mix CDs for all my good friends for Christmas. Yes, their presents are late. Yes, Dad, I am making one for you. Let's just call it a birthday present at this point.
First lines of various ones I've made so far, in no particular order:
"All the late night bargains have been struck."
"We walk the lonliest mile."
"The real me is a Southern girl."
"I don't want another pretty face."
"I'm just a simple girl in a high tech digital world."
"Mama where's your pretty little girl tonight? She's trying to run before she can walk, that's right."
If any of my dear reader friends will promise that you will listen to them, I'll make you a CD, but it may take me awhile as I get super obsessed with perfection on this kind of thing. Blog soundtracks, as it were.
Posted by april at 3:15 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Blogger Consumed By Making CDs for Friends
Will surface when possible.
Happy New Year.
Posted by april at 7:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Today Is The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life
That's one of those annoying statements that are always true. Even if it's the last day of your life, it's still the first day of the rest of it. It's like another favorite of my co-workers, "It is what it is." True, that.
Now that I've outed myself as a big believer in New Year's Resolutions, I may as well start the year by following my own advice and posting my nutrition info for the day. Check in later for the update.
I'm going to do the January experiment again... perhaps not as perfectly as I did last time, but the basic idea is that for a month I don't eat anything that isn't weighed, measured and calorie figured out. It's a great way to get back focus and take stock of my CR practice and see for sure where I'm screwing up. It's also the only way to get any valid data on how many calories I'm really consuming. I think I'm going to shoot for 1500 a day to start and see what that does to my weight. If I lose too fast, I'll eat more. I already have one dinner out event planned for Jan. 12 when the fellow who re-introduced me to Danny California is in town for a day, but other than that I have no big dinners planned. Now there will be restaurant eating due to meetings with nurses, but at the one place where we meet nurses for breakfast, they make me a 1.5 cup eggwhite omlette, totally dry in a non-stick pan, with raw veggies instead of cooking the veggies, and MR packs my flax oil to put on it. That's close enough to measured for the purpose of this exercise. I've also gotten alarmingly good at estimating wine pours, mostly because I measured so many restaurant wine glasses in my little measuring cup two Januaries ago, so I'm not going to humiliate my friends by measuring every wine glass this time. But other than that, all weighed and measured. Should be a good experiment.
The only caveat that I feel I must add is that if Jim takes us out to lunch, I'm eating. That doesn't happen more than once every month or two though.
And it helps that everyone in the office is planning to exercise and get healthier in the New Year. We all went somewhat nuts with our eating out at the holiday. Susie joined my gym and we're all thinking of working out at lunch on days when we're in the office, as the gym is less than five minutes away. Danny is also looking at joining the gym so we can all go together, which would be really fun. Pre-CR, I would have been way too self-conscious about how I look in gym clothes to go to the gym with co-workers, but these days I can recognize that even though I don't feel optimal at 113, I still look pretty damn okay. Susie is a skinny supermodel goddess these days: she's lost 15 pounds following my diet advice, and turned herself into yet another of my success stories. She was amazed at how much just knowing what's in your food makes a difference in your choices.
I feel like I've been a total CR loser for the last few months, with a few shining weeks of perfection, but I'm back now and functioning. I'm a big believer in the New Year, and I'm deterined that 2008 is going to be my best year to date, not just in terms of CR but all around.
Cheers!
Posted by april at 4:14 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack