7 posts tagged “diet”
I'm swapping out the Big Mac for the burger pictured below. This is a Wimpy's Jr. ( 6 oz.) burger, w/onion rings. And all the fixin's, as they say.
Something is going awry. The first few bites were heavenly, then I was pretty much done. I coulda, shoulda, stopped there but I didn't. I ate half the onion rings. That is a diet coke in the background which I left most of behind.
At one time, I would have jumped in and downed this whole plate in less than 10 minutes.
I think the trick, in the future, to "indulge", is to order the burger, skip the onion rings, and just eat half the burger. I'm not "trained" to throw food out - it feels wasteful. But maybe, once in a while, I need to learn.
As for the onion rings, they were "ok", but not worth the caloric investment. I did get a big hit of "whoa - CNE midway!" when they set the plate down in front of me, and that was fun. The best onion rings I ever had were in a restaurant that no longer exists in St. Catharines and featured a crispy corn meal coating, and almost no grease. Those, I would not be able to leave behind.
Haven't posted much about food lately. I'm such a foodie. This diet is killing me. Sigh. So I've been both bad and good this weekend.
Bad: Pizza from Magic Oven. OK so not "bad", actually so very very good. This one is the Gourmet Meaty Pizza (proscuitto and some other stuff, artichoke hearts, garlic spinach, two kind of cheese) and I had them add roasted red peppers. Mmmm ...
Between the beer, pizza and GlenLivet ... I was up three pounds the next day. Damn. :-)
Good: Sunday a.m. Breakfast.
Two eggs scrambled with cottage and mozzarella cheese, spinach, red peppers, mushrooms and onions. Sliced fresh tomato with fresh basil, kosher salt and drizzled with aged Italian balsamic. Guatamalan fair trade organic coffee with stevia (the other white powder from Columbia) and hazelnut "real" cream.
If this diet adventure has taught me anything, it is that I sure do like my carbs. As I review my food diary over the months, it is clear that I have the hardest time sticking to the extremely low carb amounts that are recommended.
I should be more specific as "carbs" are found, of course, in fruits and vegetables too - but that isn't what I'm talking about. If I were as addicted to fruits and veggies as I am to Ace Bakery Baguettes, then I wouldn't be so overweight, now, would I? No - what I'm talking about is the fabulous four of bread, rice, pasta and potatoes. BRPP for those of us who are fond of acronyms. Turns straight into sugar and gets applied directly to the thighs.
Carbs also mean alcohol and sugary baked goods, but I don't have so much of an issue avoiding these, except for the carrot cake at the downtown Y. I indulge here about once every two weeks. It calls to me after my workout, as it sits there in its little hand-wrapped portions with the yummy cream cheese icing. I picture that it is made by some little old lady who uses only organic ingredients and donates her baked goods to the Y. It is probably made by some multi-national conglomerate and I'm just trying to rationalize my diet deviance.
The occasional glass of wine hasn't been an issue. Neither, surprisingly, was the over-consumption of rum and tequila a few weeks ago. I have studiously avoided beer, much to the amusement of my hockey buds, since June 2007. Again, not so much of an issue as I've found beer to be an acquired taste anyway. Popcorn, which forms an entire food group for me, also hasn't held me back and I still make popcorn, with oil, and butter, two or three times a week. Admittedly, I'm making half as much as I used to, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Nope - for me, it is BRPP. Potatoes have been the easiest to take off this list. I don't make them much at home, and the double issue of fats + carbs presented by french fries really does take them right off the list of possibilities when I'm eating out. Although, when a basket of fries presents itself after hockey, I have been known to indulge.
Rice is a mystery to me. How is it that a staple eaten by so many cultures in such quantities can give a white chick like me such trouble? I'm told it has something to do with genetics and metabolism. I do believe this, but I wonder why it doesn't work out that, given my British/German DNA, I can't drink all the beer I can handle without packing on the poundage. In any case, I love rice. The thing is, I love rice because it does such a good job at soaking up things like, oh, butter chicken sauce. Fried rice cake is the foundation of sushi pizza and soaks up gallons of soya sauce, which is SO good and SO out of bounds for me. Bad rice. The rice of temptation. Wicked.
Pasta is something I would eat daily if I could get away with it. I make the BEST meat sauce and there is nothing like pasta (usually spaghettini or linguine) and my sauce with a dollop of cottage cheese and a sprinkle of romano. Oh, and a drizzle of olive oil. I have managed to work this in occasionally, through the magic of portion control, and I'm not doing too badly here. I go through phases with pasta. We are arm's length friends at the moment.
Bread is the biggie. Where I'd eat pasta daily and happily, I'd have bread every meal if I could. WITH pasta. Some people do this ... cereal or english muffin or toast for breakfast ... sandwich for lunch ... bread at dinner. Assorted muffins and croissants for snacks. I simply can't eat like that anymore, ever again. The treat I miss the most, and I whine about this to my friends so regularly, is the Ace Bakery Baguette and crumbly old cheese. A few (high fat) olives perhaps. And, of course, a glass of wine. Civilized, yes. Supportive of weight loss, no.
Bread sneaks in where it shouldn't. An English muffin here, an 10" wrap there ... and suddenly I look at my food diary and I've tripled my daily bread allotment without even thinking.
So here is my experiment for the day. I'm going to try "No Carb Tuesday". I had my breakfast without bread or cereal of any kind and I survived, and I've now managed lunch without carbs of any description. I can't do this every day, but I wonder if I could do it, say, twice a week?
Could you?
Addendum: According to my weigh-in last week, and again Monday, I maintained the 52 lbs lost (yay)! Not only that, I'm the first client of the location that I go to who has lost 50+ lbs. They want to put my picture on the wall. I've said I'll think about it. I'd refer that my picture go on the wall when I hit my target loss of 90 lbs. So ... we'll see. :-)
for me to eat at my all-time favourite Indian restaurant, Trimurti, and not veer terribly radically off my diet. Which, for me, means entering the restaurant and not ordering anything deep-fried or resembling butter chicken in any way. My friend Angela is visiting from Ottawa for a few days and we ventured out late-ish. We had Tandoori Cauliflower which was dramatic, a whole head of cauliflower done in the tandoor, then served sizzling on a platter. Note to Self: ALWAYS take camera to restaurant. Also had Murgh Saag (Chicken / Spinach) and Lamb Dansak, rice, naan, riata. Awesome. First time I've been back since I started my new food plan. Basically, the carbs and sauces were no-nos for me, but I indulged. After all, I had just done my second circuit training workout.
I love the Gravitron machine. Very cool. I like how the fly machine makes my muscles feel, and the squats/lunges are vigorously challenging at the moment. The back extension is the thing I felt least able to do, but apparently am much more able to do than I thought. The worst for me, at the moment, are the leg raises. I can do 15 reps of everything but that. My abs are killing me. I play hockey this afternoon while Angela has lunch with her brother. That sound you hear on the ice will be my abs screaming.
Got an e-mail from M in Chicago that she is coming to stay on my couch in early May. Yay! My couch is getting quite booked this spring.
Work possibilities picking up ... I'm in hurry up and wait mode on several things, which gives me time to work through more stuff on the BSP (Big Secret Project). Stay tuned ...
There is a certain discipline to blogging, once one has committed to it. If one waivers, or appears to, one is "poked", to coin another Internet-inspired phrase. I direct my loyal readers to the land of wizzy, where great things are due to happen. Any minute now.
Speaking of discipline, as I take these herbal supplements and continue on this new eating regime, I am noticing some things. Of course, everyone wants to know the magic number. It is 15 lbs since June 29. I'm good with that. Not too slow, not too fast ... but the big initial weight drop has happened and now it is hard slogging the rest of the way, I think. I have 25 years of sedentary, eat-all-I-want life to shed. It won't come easy, methinks.
Besides the magic number, there are other things I'm noticing:
More energy. I can't say whether this is something to do with the herbs, or with carrying around less weight. I don't get tired like I used to and I feel ready to go most of the time. T has noticed my energy levels WAY up, which I think she finds a bit daunting! :-) Part of the "more energy" thing is that I now seem to desire increased activity ... I definitely think this is a good thing. I also feel more consistently focused and on-task.
Cravings, lite. It would be wrong to say that I'm just tripping along this diet without a care, tra-la. Not so. I'm missing pizza, in particular, as it contains much of what is restricted for me at the moment - crust and cheese. I miss cheese - this is probably the hardest. I'm allowed one ounce of cheese a day as my "dairy" portion - but that means no yogurt or other dairy. So, day-by-day, I have to choose how I "spend" my dairy allotment. I'm missing bread and pasta. But, I'm not missing these things nearly as much as I thought I would. I don't obsess about them as I thought I would. I can still eat really satisfying foods like burgers (wrapped in lettuce rather than a bun) and eggs.
And, yes, I miss sushi pizza. I will need to break down and cheat on this part soon. What is sushi pizza, you ask? Here is a photo someone else has taken of the delicacy. Just for the record, I've checked and I don't think this is available on the Wet Coast as it is a true bastardization of traditional sushi. But it sure is yummy.
Coffee. I used to drink one cup of coffee a day, first thing in the morning, but now I notice that I want more than that. Not sure this is such a great trade-off. Coffee hits that same bittersweet place on my taste buds as dark chocolate, and it is sweet and rich, even with Splenda. So it feels like an allowable treat.
OK - time to finish writing a marketing plan, shower, cycle / errands, pack for a quick cottage trip and then head to the Hot and Spicy Food Fest!
I'm interested in bodies these days. Not exactly in the way that sentence implies, though. Although ... (pause) ... never mind ... moving on ...
So, as I drop a few pounds, slowly, my body is changing. People are noticing, which is nice. Other people look at me more than I look at myself given that I rarely look in the mirror other than to check to see if my hair is standing up on end.
I caught a glimpse of myself putting the ironing board away tonight, as it is stored in a cupboard in my downstairs bathroom and one must stand in front of a mirror to access the cupboard. It was a mirror action shot, I suppose. There are parts of
Today, I wore a shirt that I haven't worn much since I bought it ... this one, in fact ... I really like this shirt but it has never fit quite properly, until today. So the wardrobe re-claiming begins, which is a lovely side benefit of all this.
It needs to be noted that the fact I was putting the ironing board away indicates change also, since one of the things I do both poorly and rarely is iron. I have, however, run out of summer-weight work pants and this situation needed to be addressed pronto.
On my drive home today, I thought about change and how people respond to it differently. I've left the most stable job I've ever had, albeit temporarily and with a wide and welcoming safety net, to pursue a more entrepreneurial life. The change feels refreshing and invigorating. After several years of work stability, I chose change. Similarly, I've been the "leaver" in all but one of my relationships, long or short - choosing change repeatedly there. Some time ago, I was having lunch with my sister and my niece (sister's daughter) and we were listing out the significant relationships we'd had and how they ended. We then went back in the family tree and concluded that the women in our family don't put up with much crap, as we all seem able to pull the plug on relationships that aren't working and just walk away. The pattern is that we do the ending, rather than have endings forced upon us.
In my own history, this has caused me to attract no shortage of criticism from folks who have claimed that I haven't done enough to resolve differences in relationships, to "make it work". I consider these opinions ill-informed and offered from the cheap seats. It is easy to look in from the outside and render such a verdict. In particular, I remember leaving my partner of nine years and hearing no end of criticism for this. No one but the two of us knew how much pain had been caused in the last two of those nine years, and few people know how hard we had both worked to figure things out for the last eight months. One does not discuss such things as a matter of course over coffee. The leaver often gets tagged as being cowardly and emotionally lazy, at least I certainly felt that at the time. In truth, I felt like I'd achieved something brave and gargantuan - I made a strong choice to support my own mental and emotional health. It was absolutely the right one, I can say with clarity six years later. This situation taught me never, ever, to judge someone else's relationship choices and to offer input on such things only when asked directly for advice or guidance.
Did this relationship ending work out entirely as I expected? No. In some ways, it worked out better as I retained the friendship of my ex with the added bonus of not having to negotiate nearly impossible relationship issues with her. Other than the actual decision to leave, did I feel "in control" of this process? Absolutely not - it remains one of the most chaotic and frightening periods of time in my life.
Do I know how this entrepreneurial gig is going to work out? No idea ... I feel very excited and optimistic. Each day, I see progress and new horizons, new possibilities. Will we be fast enough and smart enough to capture enough of what we need, quickly, to survive and thrive? I have absolutely no idea. All I can do is my best, and support others as they do their best.
Do I feel "in control" of this diet shift? To some degree, yes ... but bodies are what they are. The end results are, frankly, unpredictable. All I can do is give it my best shot.
The only things one can be sure about are death and taxes, or so it is said. And change as a feature of life. No matter how hard one struggles to control the nature and direction of change, I think it is seldom that we are ever fully in control of how things unfold. The opposite of change is stagnation which, to me, would be like death if one succumbed to it. The silver lining of change is possibility and growth. I must remember this the next time that life proves to me that I'm not entirely in charge.
It has been a while. Life over takes the contemplation of life sometimes. I think that is a good thing.
Here are a few updates since I was last active here ...
a) New job: I'm taking a leave of absence from my teaching gig to help out one of my clients with bringing their company more fully to market. Lots to do ... very interesting work ... nice people with integrity, spirit, drive and smarts. A good move for me. In a few weeks, I'll be full-time there and I couldn't be more pleased.
b) New diet: I started a commercial diet plan that I don't want to plug here, but herbs are involved and the initials of the plan are HM, and it is pricey! I have to keep a food diary and watch portions. I'm allowed three protein portions a day, three fruits, four veggies, two starches (!), one dairy (!), two fats and a "freebie". I started on June 29, unofficially, and have dropped just under 14 lbs to date. It is easy to follow and I can even cheat a bit. Popcorn is allowed - thank GOODNESS. :-) The starches are the toughest problem so far, but I'm managing ok. I've stopped eating toast in the a.m. since that uses up almost all my starch allotment for the day. They want me to go big on proteins, fruits and veggies first thing in the a.m. This works out really well, actually, as I love eggs anyway. I'm developing a taste for turkey bacon and a tolerance for Splenda. I was concerned about the Splenda chlorine problem but was assured that if I'm only using a couple of packets a day, it won't hurt me.
I really want to do this and I've been thinking about it seriously for about six months. I love playing hockey but I hate feeling winded after each shift. I don't like feeling like I can't do stairs. So my immediate concern is fitness and general energy levels. However, to be honest, I haven't like how I've looked in photographs over the past, oh, 10 years as the weight has slowly crept up. Those photos just don't look like me - at all. Finally, my brother being diagnosed as diabetic was a real motivator. He is 12 years older than me and, if I'm honest, there is not much standing between me and diabetes if I'm carrying 90 lbs that I shouldn't be (well ... 76 now ...). If it is going to happen, it needs to be now.
I bought two of the available cookbooks from HM and have made several recipes in them, esp. the soups and stews. It helps that I can either eat at home regularly, or pack a lunch for the office. Eating out - which I still do too much of - is a challenge. I feel surrounded by starches (breads, rices, potatos) everywhere!
In a few weeks, once I've got this diet routine down more firmly, I'll add a couple of trips to the gym per week to see if I can keep things moving in the right direction. Although 3.5 lbs per week is exactly the right pace for me, I expect I'll plateau at some point.
Reporting about all this is a motivator for me ... so stay tuned!
c) New toy: Yes, yes - I've joined the Blackberry revolution and am a total convert. Everyone said that I'd become even more tied to e-mail than I already was but I find the opposite is true. It is liberating to not feel like I have to hit a computer at regular intervals and see what is going on in the world. It just arrives, presto, to my cute little machine. It has a trackball, a full keyboard and Texas Hold'em poker. I'm a happy gal!
d) Congrats to B & A on the safe, if lengthy, arrival of Arden Michael - may he bring you much joy!
e) Guitar: I took my guitar up to a cottage a few weeks ago - not an unusual thing. Also not unusual is that I broke out the classical guitar pieces from 18 years ago, as I do once or twice a year, and gave them a go. I remembered how much I enjoy playing in a classical style. I may consider keeping this up beyond an occasional "go" at it.
OK - I hope I can get back into a contemplative navel-gazing style shortly ... i.e. regular programming ... and my apologies for not keeping up with everyone.
