The streak is alive

I mentioned earlier that I had not been out to eat for almost a week. The streak is still (kind of) alive. It has now officially been more than a week. I bet that it has been probably since I was in college that I have not been out to eat in a week.

I do consider it a minor infraction that I had popcorn at the movie on Sunday. Paying $7 for a soft drink and popcorn is ridiculous so it probably should be considered eating out. I do not consider it though, but perhaps that is just a technicality.

Anyway decided to come home and make shrimp fajitas. Honestly, I think the kind I make are awesome and I hate having to pay at On the Border for every little extra (e.g., want guacamole? SURE! That'll be $0.99. Sour cream? $0.99. They even charge me for cheese with the meal I get! WTF??) so eating at home was the right thing.

About the popcorn at the movie -- it wasn't even that good. I was hungry because I didn't eat lunch so I needed something to eat. However, I should have been wiser and eaten a small lunch and/or brought a healthy snack with me. I know how many calories are in movie theatre popcorn as well as how expensive it is, and it totally is not worth it especially since it tasted nowhere near as good as it was in my mind!

Thanksgiving

I decided to stay in Fayetteville for Thanksgiving. I was really sad about it, but I worked to have a good attitude. I also thought it was the best thing for my back/hip/health, even though I would have loved to see my buddies in Missouri. I hope I get to see them soon.

I also devised a strategy so as not to overdo it on Thanksgiving. I think I was moderately successful. The strategy was basically to really kill it on the veggies and fill up there. I made three kinds of (delicious) veggies: asparagus, corn, and peas. They were good. If you know me, now you know I love love love carbs, especially potatoes. In fact, on Facebook I even asserted my love for stuffing, hashbrown casserole, and mashed potatoes for all to see. In the past, I have made all these side dishes and more (sweet potatoes with brown sugar and pecans on top - YUM!), all full sized dishes of course, and all for n=1=me. Gluttonous. I knew that these could be my undoing, so I made myself pick ONE of these delicious side dishes. At first I selected hashbrown casserole -- you know, the stuff with cheese, sour cream, butter, onions and tons of deliciousness (sometimes even with crumbled chips on top!). That stuff is so good. However, I was honest with myself and knew that I had potatoes already at home, and would probably end up making both the mashed potatoes and h.b. casserole, so I decided it was wisest just to go with the mashed potatoes only. I was really proud of myself.

For meat, I decided to get a hamsteak -- you know, the thick slices of ham that come all by themselves (i.e., you are not having to buy an entire ham). I now think they are big (around 1-1.25 lbs of meat is a lot!) but I used to think they were perfectly sized. Times, they are a-changin'. In case you would like my secret to what I think is a perfectly cooked hamsteak, do the following. In a bowl mix honey and mustard. I used honey I picked up from Pike's Place in Seattle made from bees pollinating raspberries -- delicious-- and a little bit of the mustard with whole seeds and a heapin' helpin of Grey Poupon. Probably 3 parts honey to 2 parts mustard. Mix them up and then brush half the honey-mustard mixture liberally on the side #1 of the hamsteak. Let it cook for a little bit, flip it, and then brush the remaining mixture on the other side. Let it cook, and you will have a delicious hamsteak to eat. Yum. I prefer this ham to almost any other type.

Now, let me be honest and transparent about the mashed potatoes. I used 5 medium sized redskin potatoes, which I know is huge portion. Believe it or not, it is way less than I used to eat though. SERIOUSLY!! I could eat a ton of mashed potatoes and not even be breathing hard. In fact, my family typically had me go last at Thanksgiving when passing around the mashed potatoes because they knew when it came to them, I was all business. In addition to the potatoes, I used REAL butter, and was not stingy about it. I also added fat free sour cream, 2% sharp cheddar cheese, about 2/3 a package of the ranch dressing mix (the powdered stuff), and enough milk to make the texture right. It was great. Seriously.

To prepare the asparagus, I washed it, cut off the ends, brushed it with olive oil, sprinkled it with freshly cracked pepper and sea salt, put in on a foil-covered cookie sheet and baked it at 350F for about 15 minutes. I used a recipe from Eating Well for a delicious sauce -- it has mayo (I used FF), lemon juice, water, and freshly-grated Parmesan cheese. It is so good, seriously. Yum.

The peas and corn were the steam-in-bag variety. Voila.

All of this stuff was super easy to prepare. It seriously took me less than an hour (probably about 45 minutes) to prepare everything, so I ended up eating at 10 AM-ish while watching the Macy's day parade. Totally non-traditional.

For dinner, I made a crustless pumpkin pie. It was really good, and I ate the whole thing in one sitting. I used an entire can of my the delicious FF whipped cream I have raved about before. Afterwards, I thought "Now, seriously -- was that necessary?" It totally was not and I did regret the gluttony. Lesson learned. And, believe it or not, I actually did feel uncomfortably full afterwards. I am glad I am learning to feel that feeling.

While I did not do stellar on portions, I feel good about many of my choices and would give myself a C- for the day. I would have preferred a B (I think earning an A+ when eating on a major holiday like that is unrealistic for me), but I can do it in the future. Huge huge huge progress from the F- days of the past. Still plenty of room for improvement.

On the plus sides, I am glad that Thanksgiving did not send me off on a bender because I felt lonely. I am glad that I was strong enough to allow myself ONE treat sidedish instead of a full-out carbfest, and to make myself one relatively-healthy pie that had no crust, not 5 pies with all the delicious dairy-based enhancements (ice cream, whipped cream, etc.). I am glad I planned it so there were no leftovers (though splitting the pie over a few days would have been better). There were several things I did right, and would like to continue in the future.

Finally I should say I am thankful for my health (I WILL conquer this back/hip issue, and am glad to have my blood pressure regulated, my heart working normally, and all of my faculties with me) and my family and friends who I love dearly and who love me too. And, I am super-grateful for the feeling that I am headed in the right direction and that my life is no longer spiraling out of control. This was not a bad Thanksgiving, even though there were some unexpected bummers and speedbumps. Overall, my life is headed in the right direction.

Food and Exercise report - 11/7/09

I started off the day with homemade pumpkin pancakes. I had tried these before and I liked them, but found them less pumpkin flavored than I would have liked. This time, I used the whole can of pumpkin (~1.75 cups) rather than the recommended 1 cup. Much more pumpkin-y and to my liking. I also made cranberry syrup for the first time. I googled around for recipes and ended up just doing my own thing which was a hybrid of many of them. I used a bottle of maple syrup, about 2/3 bag of fresh cranberry, about half the syrup bottle full of water, a bit of OJ, and some brown sugar. I think something to make the syrup spicier would have been good -- perhaps next time I will add some ground ginger and some crushed cardamom pods. I had some milk too. Nice start to the day. Believe it or not I only ate two pancakes exactly as the picture shows. They were SO GOOD and I could have easily lost it, but I did not. I like this camera accountability idea.

Today I decided to go hiking because the weather was gorgeous -- it was in the seventies and perfect. I got a late start and so I had a snack around 1 PM. A delicious honeycrisp apple. Yum.

For lunch, I had a 6" Subway seafood sensation (my favorite sub), Doritos, and a Diet Coke. I also bought some grapes and the lady at Subway was nice enough to wash them for me. (The nearest Subway to my house is in Walmart). I asked for extra veggies on the sub, for what that's worth.

A bit about the exercise. I went here and it will have its own separate post eventually, but there was a very telling sign at the top of the trail that said "Glory Hole, about 1/2 mi+ hike down" and someone penciled in "about 2 mile hike back". So true. Very steep descent/ascent which was a good workout. Work those glutes! (Note that on days that the Razorbacks play football at home, the gym is close leaving that option out.)

I got back to Fayetteville around 6. I really thought about going to get BBQ but I decided I would cook instead. I was at a loss for inspiration, but eventually decided to whip up some beans and weenies.

There is nothing redeeming nutritionally about beans and weenies and tater tots for dinner. I realize this. However, I did add an onion not only for taste but also for a veggie. Also I used Hebrew National 97% free dogs. They only have 40 calories/dog. Can you believe that?! Not health food by any means, but at least it's better than the standard beans and weenies. Also, I only ate half the stuff I made rather than all of it like I wanted to and like I definitely did in the past. In fact, after eating half and waiting it out 10 minutes I was still hungry and my stomach was growling like whoa. I wanted to eat some carrots but it turned out that I did not have any (sad!). I am annoyed I did not do anything in the veggie department for dinner.

For dinner, I had strawberries and whipped cream. I had about 2/3 a box of the berries and then mixed in the rest of the FF whipped cream I had remaining in the can from yesterday.

All in all, not a bad food day. Way better in the fruits and veggies department than yesterday, though there is still room for improvement for sure. Most notably, I need more veggies. Also, although the cranberries probably count for a little, it's probably best not to get my fruit from syrup in the future :)

Food and Exercise report - 11/6/09

One of my friends told me about something she and her husband do to keep each other accountable about what they're eating. Since one spouse or the other is often traveling and since my friend sometimes skips meals, just grabs crackers (or whatever's convenient) instead of eating something healthy, etc., they started a blog where they post pictures of everything they eat for the day. Now obviously eating too little and skipping meals is not my problem, but still I thought it was an amazing idea. With her permission I am stealing the idea and trying it myself. Day 1 of this experiment I met with modest success and a big challenge as I will explain below.

Yesterday I almost forgot breakfast. This is VERY unlike me, as I usually cannot function without it. Fear not, I decided to raid my go-to stash of Fiber One bars at work (one PB and one strawberry), and had 32 oz. water to wash it down with. Also, I had my pills (will post about them some other time).

For lunch I went to the Pizza Hut buffet (PHB). I was not brave enough to take pictures, and I texted my friend to tell her so. She sent a (loving and polite) text back that said basically "Suck it up and do it anyway!". I honestly did not receive this text in time and was embarrassed to post that stuff up here but I will report to you honestly what I had. I started off with a very large salad that had lettuce, onions, too much cheese (but I do love cheese), onions, croutons, and thousand island dressing. Their tomatoes are disgusting at the PHB so I don't put them on there and they didn't have broccolli which is usually a staple for my salads as well (very high fiber). I had about 6 pieces of pizza and two little breadsticks. If you're a PHB veteran (which for your sake I hope you are not), you know the pieces of pizza are pretty small. However, I would consider 6 pieces of buffet pizza to be equivalent to about 4 pieces of "real" pizza. Too much pizza by any objective standard. But there it is. No secrets. And it wasn't closeted eating either. Lots of fun folks from the office got together and had a nice ladies' lunch so they saw me eat every delicious but unhealthy piece of that pizza.

For dinner I also ate out because I had a concert that night at the Walton Arts Center. I had a #5 (Vito) with no capicola and extra vegetables, and the skinny chips from Jimmy John's with Diet Coke.

After the concert, I went to work out. I really was in the zone!! Unfortunately, it was late so I got kicked out at closing time and only got about 28 minutes in on the elliptical. However, I was at the highest incline and using a LOT of resistance (most of the time level 14 out of a possible 20 levels) so I made my time count. According to the machine, I burned 350 calories. Not bad for a half hour!

I came home (by way of Walmart to get stuff to make for the tailgate, which I am probably going to end up skipping) and picked up some groceries. This included some fat free whipped cream. If you haven't gotten that stuff, it is amazing/delicious. I got an extra can so I could eat it. The whole thing is less than 200 calories, which for a non-fruit dessert is quite a calorie bargain.

As I got ready to do the deed, I thought "Do I really need to take a picture of this? Do snacks count?" What a BS line of thinking! Of course they count! I did take a picture, and because I knew it would be posted for the world to see I only had half a can rather than the whole thing. For me, I consider that a victory!

I can tell that posting pictures is going to be a good strategy for me for awhile. In particular, I am pretty embarrassed there are not more fruits and veggies in my diet. If I have to be accountable for that, it will encourage me to eat more. I am looking forward to documenting my diet for awhile. Stay tuned.