More tasty food. And healthy.

(More about it here.)
I keep wanting to do the food run down, but the picture makes it look much better than "cereal, cereal, milk, orange, carrots, snow peas, sandwich, pasta with roasted veg." sounds.

(More about it here.)
I keep wanting to do the food run down, but the picture makes it look much better than "cereal, cereal, milk, orange, carrots, snow peas, sandwich, pasta with roasted veg." sounds.
Today's dinner:

More about it here.
I'm feeling less blah today. We put up and decorated the Christmas tree today - my roommates bought a reusuable one and wanted to be sure all the peices where there, so even though it's rather early, we decided we might as well just get it all done. It was hard to be mopey while picking on each other (as we invariably do) and acting like kids experiencing a first Christmas.

More about it here.
I'm feeling less blah today. We put up and decorated the Christmas tree today - my roommates bought a reusuable one and wanted to be sure all the peices where there, so even though it's rather early, we decided we might as well just get it all done. It was hard to be mopey while picking on each other (as we invariably do) and acting like kids experiencing a first Christmas.
So, I'm trying to get myself back into updating what I've eaten for the day because accountability is never a bad thing. It just seems boring. (And I know it won't happen on the days that I work till 11:30PM.)
Anyway.
Breakfast, the usual
- Fibre one
- Multigrain Cheerios
- 3/4 cup 1%milk
Lunch/Snacks at Work
- ham and cheddar cheese sandwich with mustard
- haricot verts, carrots
- 2 small kiwi
Snacks after Work
- Chocolate
Dinner
- Pasta Stirfry --> whole wheat tortelloni with stir-fried celery, green onion, carrots, sugar snap peas, mushrooms, broccoli, and... pesto (Blame Olivieri. It wasn't bad, but it was too weird to be good.)
For the day:
1,355 Calories|184g Carbs|48g Fat|57g Protein|37g Fibre
Dinner - Kind of ugly, that. No wonder they didn't have a picture on the website:

Anyway.
Breakfast, the usual
- Fibre one
- Multigrain Cheerios
- 3/4 cup 1%milk
Lunch/Snacks at Work
- ham and cheddar cheese sandwich with mustard
- haricot verts, carrots
- 2 small kiwi
Snacks after Work
- Chocolate
Dinner
- Pasta Stirfry --> whole wheat tortelloni with stir-fried celery, green onion, carrots, sugar snap peas, mushrooms, broccoli, and... pesto (Blame Olivieri. It wasn't bad, but it was too weird to be good.)
For the day:
1,355 Calories|184g Carbs|48g Fat|57g Protein|37g Fibre
Dinner - Kind of ugly, that. No wonder they didn't have a picture on the website:

Nothing new to report today, really. I had all the same things I had yesterday, except today I remembered to put cashews on my dinner, which you can see below (minus the cashews, since it's yesterday's picture):

I also, today, had a scallop for the first time. I can't say I was overly impressed, but I didn't hate it either. I may be willing to try one again, sometime, but I'm still afraid to cook them - what if I hate the outcome? I don't want to throw good food away just because I'm a wimp when it comes to seafood.
Anyway, if you're interested, you can see a picture of that dish here. (My sister made it, I didn't eat anything but one single scallop, not a bit of gluten-filled pasta passed my lips.)
I had a diet coke, today, though. Which tells me that I'm not quite ready to give this detox thing a go, just yet, which is unfortunate. But I've been adjusting my planned eating schedule (so as not to waste food, since cans of beans don't come in convenient half-cup sizes just because I want to make only 1/4 of certain recipes) so I think I'll probably extend the first week out a bit, and will hopefully get an entire week out of it where I do stick to the detox as it's intended to be done.

I also, today, had a scallop for the first time. I can't say I was overly impressed, but I didn't hate it either. I may be willing to try one again, sometime, but I'm still afraid to cook them - what if I hate the outcome? I don't want to throw good food away just because I'm a wimp when it comes to seafood.
Anyway, if you're interested, you can see a picture of that dish here. (My sister made it, I didn't eat anything but one single scallop, not a bit of gluten-filled pasta passed my lips.)
I had a diet coke, today, though. Which tells me that I'm not quite ready to give this detox thing a go, just yet, which is unfortunate. But I've been adjusting my planned eating schedule (so as not to waste food, since cans of beans don't come in convenient half-cup sizes just because I want to make only 1/4 of certain recipes) so I think I'll probably extend the first week out a bit, and will hopefully get an entire week out of it where I do stick to the detox as it's intended to be done.
Well, I started the detox thing today. And then sort of broke it - I couldn't find pomegranate molasses for my dinner, so I used honey mixed with lemon juice instead. But anyway :D
Today's breakfast was not attractive, but here it is:

That's amaranth with cinnamon, apples, and chopped walnuts. It cooked up more or less like rice, though it didn't absorb as much liquid as I somehow imagined that it would. I also singed the milk right off the bat, go me! but it didn't taste burned. It was pretty tasty, but much too filling. (So I didn't finish it.)
Next up, for lunch, was a white bean salad:

Quite tasty, though I've had better. This one, I think, just needed some more herbs added to the dressing. (Of which there was too much, but I'm not big on dressings.) Another meal that turned out too big, so I didn't finish it.
I'm not going to post a picture of tonight's dinner because tomorrow I'm just having leftovers, and I feel like I need to keep something in reserve to show :D
Today's breakfast was not attractive, but here it is:

That's amaranth with cinnamon, apples, and chopped walnuts. It cooked up more or less like rice, though it didn't absorb as much liquid as I somehow imagined that it would. I also singed the milk right off the bat, go me! but it didn't taste burned. It was pretty tasty, but much too filling. (So I didn't finish it.)
Next up, for lunch, was a white bean salad:

Quite tasty, though I've had better. This one, I think, just needed some more herbs added to the dressing. (Of which there was too much, but I'm not big on dressings.) Another meal that turned out too big, so I didn't finish it.
I'm not going to post a picture of tonight's dinner because tomorrow I'm just having leftovers, and I feel like I need to keep something in reserve to show :D
Well, I've been very non-updatey, again. Or maybe just still.
Anyway, tomorrow I'm starting a week-long detox diet from a book called Ultrametabolism. It essentially cuts out a lot of foods that people tend to have allergies and sensitivities toward for a week, and then over the following couple weeks slowly reintroduces them. It's also about getting your metabolism in proper working order, which is more what I'm hoping for. I don't actually think I have any food sensitivities, except milk products, of which I eat so little that they never come into play any more. Mostly it's about the metabolism thing, for me. And hopefully stopping the constant lack of energy that plagues me.
I really think that I can do anything for a week, so I'm trying not to be scared by some of the new things this'll have me eating, or worried about how I'll fit it into my weird work schedule. (Which has always been one of my problems - figuring out how to eat, and eat well, when my days are so random.) I've picked a pretty good time to start, I think, since I have tomorrow off, and the last couple days of the week are early days for me, which means I'll be able to cook after work. And then next week, I have only day shifts (early enough that I can cook/prepare lunch once I'm home) and the week following I should also have only day shifts. (My boss for one part of my job is going on holidays, which means I'll be covering his usual work days, which all begin quite early in the morning.)
So tomorrow there should be some new pictures again. I'm making Apple-Cinnamon Amaranth with Walnuts for breakfast. (I'm going to miss my Fibre One/Cheerios breakfast, but... no gluten for me next week, and thus no cereal. Or dairy. I'm trying out soy, again, which has never been something I've been able to accustom myself to, but... anything for a week.)
Anyway, tomorrow I'm starting a week-long detox diet from a book called Ultrametabolism. It essentially cuts out a lot of foods that people tend to have allergies and sensitivities toward for a week, and then over the following couple weeks slowly reintroduces them. It's also about getting your metabolism in proper working order, which is more what I'm hoping for. I don't actually think I have any food sensitivities, except milk products, of which I eat so little that they never come into play any more. Mostly it's about the metabolism thing, for me. And hopefully stopping the constant lack of energy that plagues me.
I really think that I can do anything for a week, so I'm trying not to be scared by some of the new things this'll have me eating, or worried about how I'll fit it into my weird work schedule. (Which has always been one of my problems - figuring out how to eat, and eat well, when my days are so random.) I've picked a pretty good time to start, I think, since I have tomorrow off, and the last couple days of the week are early days for me, which means I'll be able to cook after work. And then next week, I have only day shifts (early enough that I can cook/prepare lunch once I'm home) and the week following I should also have only day shifts. (My boss for one part of my job is going on holidays, which means I'll be covering his usual work days, which all begin quite early in the morning.)
So tomorrow there should be some new pictures again. I'm making Apple-Cinnamon Amaranth with Walnuts for breakfast. (I'm going to miss my Fibre One/Cheerios breakfast, but... no gluten for me next week, and thus no cereal. Or dairy. I'm trying out soy, again, which has never been something I've been able to accustom myself to, but... anything for a week.)
Today, I did my usual cereal breakfast, a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch with tomato-basil pasta soup. And for dinner I just had the tastiest thing ever, a reworked version of Rachael Ray's Florentine Meatballs. (Reworked to be something I can fit into my day, caloriewise.)

My version of her recipe, as follows:
Florentine Meatballs, serves 4.
1-lb/454-g ground turkey
10-oz/280-g frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
4 tbsp onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 egg white
1/4 cup milk, or less - use your judgement about how much is needed
2-oz/60g parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 cup oatmeal, chopped up a bit
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups marinara sauce
cooked pasta for four
2-oz/60g reduced fat Mozzarella cheese, grated
Preheat oven to 400F.
Place ground turkey in a large bowl. Put everything (up to and including the salt and pepper) on top, mix together thoroughly with your hands. Seperate into 16 meatballs. Place on foiled-lined baking sheet, and bake for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through. (Doing half the recipe in a toaster oven at 350F takes 20 minutes.)
Heat the marinara in the microwave, if like me you don't want to wash a dirty pot but are willing to throw a glass measuring cup in the dishwasher. Place the pasta on individual plates, top with about a quarter cup marinara, then four meatballs, and then another 1/4 cup sauce. Sprinkle 15-g/0.5-oz mozzarella cheese over top.
Serve with a salad, if you like, and enjoy.
Made my way exactly (30g white pasta/serving, a 60 calorie/half cup tomato sauce, and 15g onion/serving): 512 Calories|17g Fat|50g Carbs|44g Protein|8g Fibre. Cutting out the pasta, it would be 406 Calories|17g Fat|27g Carbs|40g Protein|7g Fibre. (Though in that case, you could probably use less sauce as well.)
I only ever make half this recipe at a time because I just don't know what I'd do with 16 turkey meatballs, although if I made them smaller, I bet they'd be very tasty in Italian Wedding soup or something along those lines. And I guess I could just freeze the extras. ANYWAY, if you don't want to make the whole 4 servings, but don't want to figure out how much fresh (wilted in the microwave) spinach to use... may I advise buying your frozen spinach in a bag, rather than that horrible block they usually come in? You can weigh out exactly how much you need, twist tie the bag and toss the leftovers in the freezer for next time. I have to buy organic spinach to get it in the bag, but I get 10% off organic stuff at my grocery store (because I work there) and it's possibly maybe better for you anyway.
(PS: this is reworked from Rachael Ray's version mainly by virtue of being a significantly smaller serving. She gives twice as much meat for four servings, though all the rest of the ingredient amounts - save the milk and oatmeal (also, she uses bread crumbs, I like using oatmeal) - are the same as in her version. Also, she has a recipe for a white sauce with a lot of cheese in it. I use the tomato sauce instead, and much less cheese just as a topper. She also serves hers without pasta, and you could too, but I like a little bit of pasta here and there.)

My version of her recipe, as follows:
Florentine Meatballs, serves 4.
1-lb/454-g ground turkey
10-oz/280-g frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
4 tbsp onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 egg white
1/4 cup milk, or less - use your judgement about how much is needed
2-oz/60g parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 cup oatmeal, chopped up a bit
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups marinara sauce
cooked pasta for four
2-oz/60g reduced fat Mozzarella cheese, grated
Preheat oven to 400F.
Place ground turkey in a large bowl. Put everything (up to and including the salt and pepper) on top, mix together thoroughly with your hands. Seperate into 16 meatballs. Place on foiled-lined baking sheet, and bake for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through. (Doing half the recipe in a toaster oven at 350F takes 20 minutes.)
Heat the marinara in the microwave, if like me you don't want to wash a dirty pot but are willing to throw a glass measuring cup in the dishwasher. Place the pasta on individual plates, top with about a quarter cup marinara, then four meatballs, and then another 1/4 cup sauce. Sprinkle 15-g/0.5-oz mozzarella cheese over top.
Serve with a salad, if you like, and enjoy.
Made my way exactly (30g white pasta/serving, a 60 calorie/half cup tomato sauce, and 15g onion/serving): 512 Calories|17g Fat|50g Carbs|44g Protein|8g Fibre. Cutting out the pasta, it would be 406 Calories|17g Fat|27g Carbs|40g Protein|7g Fibre. (Though in that case, you could probably use less sauce as well.)
I only ever make half this recipe at a time because I just don't know what I'd do with 16 turkey meatballs, although if I made them smaller, I bet they'd be very tasty in Italian Wedding soup or something along those lines. And I guess I could just freeze the extras. ANYWAY, if you don't want to make the whole 4 servings, but don't want to figure out how much fresh (wilted in the microwave) spinach to use... may I advise buying your frozen spinach in a bag, rather than that horrible block they usually come in? You can weigh out exactly how much you need, twist tie the bag and toss the leftovers in the freezer for next time. I have to buy organic spinach to get it in the bag, but I get 10% off organic stuff at my grocery store (because I work there) and it's possibly maybe better for you anyway.
(PS: this is reworked from Rachael Ray's version mainly by virtue of being a significantly smaller serving. She gives twice as much meat for four servings, though all the rest of the ingredient amounts - save the milk and oatmeal (also, she uses bread crumbs, I like using oatmeal) - are the same as in her version. Also, she has a recipe for a white sauce with a lot of cheese in it. I use the tomato sauce instead, and much less cheese just as a topper. She also serves hers without pasta, and you could too, but I like a little bit of pasta here and there.)
Today was a Fried Eggs with the Blood of the Innocent sort of day, so that's what I had for lunch. I haven't had just plain old fried eggs with ketchup in a while. Yum. (I added some ham, and had it on a whole wheat English muffin instead of toast, though.)

For dinner (at work), I had another Maple Leaf Simply Fresh meal (I'd got two of them on sale with bonus airmiles...), but no photo since I ate it at work. Also, I took carrots and sugar snap peas and bought a Cadbury Thins 100 calorie dark chocolate bar. And after work, I've just eaten a hundred calorie pack of popcorn.
The annoying thing? I'm still under the lowest range for my calories today. I'm full, so I'm not going to go eat something else just for the sake of it, but I don't like to be under.

For dinner (at work), I had another Maple Leaf Simply Fresh meal (I'd got two of them on sale with bonus airmiles...), but no photo since I ate it at work. Also, I took carrots and sugar snap peas and bought a Cadbury Thins 100 calorie dark chocolate bar. And after work, I've just eaten a hundred calorie pack of popcorn.
The annoying thing? I'm still under the lowest range for my calories today. I'm full, so I'm not going to go eat something else just for the sake of it, but I don't like to be under.
So tonight's dinner attempt was a failure. It was meant to be Curried Root Vegetables, and in theory it sounded pretty tasty, if a very (very) lazy way to make a curry. I was a bit put off by the "cooks fast in the microwave!" claims, but decided to try it anyway.
So not worth it. The carrots and parnips were undercooked (except where they were severely overcooked), the turnips were almost but not quite cooked and the sweet potatoes were for the most part overcooked to the point of being limp. The flavour was boring - pineapple + curry powder does not a curry make.
I should have trusted my instincts about the microwave part of things, and at least just done it on the stove. It wouldn't have been fantastic that way, but at least I could have adjusted the cooking time better and wound up with something edible (if uninspiring).

Tonight's dinner instead? My sister's slow-cooker stew. Certainly tasty, if a little heavy on the carbohydrates for my tastes. (My sister and her husband are a lot more meat and potatoes than I am. She bought French bread go to with the stew, which has potatoes in it, and he is making mashed potatoes to go with the stew. Which still has potatoes in it.)
Anyway, I've got lunch/snacks put together for work tomorrow, which is good. I'm so tired from my over-night shift but always have a hard time falling asleep the day after, and I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning, so it needed to be done now.
So not worth it. The carrots and parnips were undercooked (except where they were severely overcooked), the turnips were almost but not quite cooked and the sweet potatoes were for the most part overcooked to the point of being limp. The flavour was boring - pineapple + curry powder does not a curry make.
I should have trusted my instincts about the microwave part of things, and at least just done it on the stove. It wouldn't have been fantastic that way, but at least I could have adjusted the cooking time better and wound up with something edible (if uninspiring).

Tonight's dinner instead? My sister's slow-cooker stew. Certainly tasty, if a little heavy on the carbohydrates for my tastes. (My sister and her husband are a lot more meat and potatoes than I am. She bought French bread go to with the stew, which has potatoes in it, and he is making mashed potatoes to go with the stew. Which still has potatoes in it.)
Anyway, I've got lunch/snacks put together for work tomorrow, which is good. I'm so tired from my over-night shift but always have a hard time falling asleep the day after, and I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning, so it needed to be done now.
I've been frustrated lately because I just can't seem to shake off any more pounds. And being frustrated makes me petulant and get all "if eating right isn't going to do anything for me, then fuck eating right." (Except that I still pretty instinctively eat *mostly* good things that aren't throwing me off the rails. Which probably means that my plateau has more recently become maintenance instead of a plateau.) It's bad for me to let my stalemate make me want to just say fuck it, though.
I know this is a place my body feels comfortable because the low to mid 180s was a weight range I maintained for about 5-7 years through high school and the time after. And that was while eating a lot of garbage and not caring enough to try to lose weight. This is a natural setting point for my body. But I firmly believe that there will be another natural setting point that will be lower, and healthier still.
So I've got to start making time to keep track of what I'm doing. There are a ton of people online who have so much practical advice and knowledge about what has worked and hasn't worked for them, and I know that everything that's good for person A won't necessarily work for person B, but maybe someone will be able to see things that I'm doing wrong. (Besides not *adding* exercise, which I know I should. I need to write out a budget so that I can figure out a way to fit in some sort of gym membership or a Curves membership, but it's tough with student loans and a low paying job in a costly city like this one.) And maybe I can try out things that have worked for other people and see if they'll work for me. (And then scrap them if they don't.)
In a week's time, I'm going to start a detox plan that basically cuts out most of the food that people are sometimes sensitive to, and then slowly reintroduces them. It's kind of meant also to kickstart a sluggish metabolism. I don't know if I have a sluggish metabolism, but I do know that lately I've been back on the "need a sugar hit" for energy thing, which I hadn't had a problem with in quite a long while.
So I don't know. I don't know if that'll help me - and I might not lose any weight while I'm doing it, since it is a somewhat higher calorie plan than I've been following - but I do want to try it. And it's something I wanted to try even before I started losing weight. One of those "eat whole foods" type things, which I mostly do, but want to do more of, I suppose. Eat nothing with a label, and all that.
Anyway, just as a vague attempt to keep myself accountable this week... I'm going to post a list of what I intend to cook for dinner this week.
Breakfasts: Fibre One, Multigrain Cheerios
Lunchs/Snacks (for work, generally): Sandwiches, Tomato/Cucumber Salads, Fruit, fresh Vegetables
Dinners:
Sunday - Curried Root Vegetables with a Spring Mix Salad
Monday - Florentine Meatballs with Pasta and a Salad
Tuesday - leftover Florentine Meatballs, etc.
Wednesday - Chicken Chili with Rice
Thursday - Herbed Pork with Roasted Potatoes and Sauteed Broccoli
Friday - Garlic Chicken with Romanesco Concerto a Limone vegetables and Rice
I'm also going to try to keep updating this everyday with my food photos and a list of everything I ate. So feel free to poke me if anyone is watching this and notices that I've not updated. (Except on Tuesday - I won't be home from work until after midnight, so I probably won't update until Wednesday morning.)
I keep wanting to go back home - I moved away from my hometown eight months ago, and have lost 15-20lbs since anyone there saw me last - but I don't think I'm going to manage it until next year sometime, and I have this really horrible superficial desire to show up thinner than I was in high school (which is my current weight, I haven't been this size since the late 90s) and surprise my friends back home. If things go as they are, I have until February to manage it... should be able to break the 180 barrier by then :D
On something of a sidenote, I've been getting dizzy a lot lately when I stand up from crouching (which I do a lot for my job) or if I look up too quickly or turn my head. It's starting to freak me out, and mostly the feeling passes very quickly, but the other day I stood up and it took me at least a half minute before my head cleared enough that I could move. I know a half minute doesn't sound like very long but compared to the 4-5 seconds it normally takes to pass, it felt like a lifetime. There wasn't/isn't a feeling of vertigo, but it's like I get an all-over brain tingle and the slightest feeling that I could faint (except that I know I'm not going to) and I have a feeling that it's probably to do with my eyes. Which is very bad because I don't have very good health coverage for my eyes. Anyway, I don't know if I should just try an eye place first, or if I should go to a clinic instead.
I know this is a place my body feels comfortable because the low to mid 180s was a weight range I maintained for about 5-7 years through high school and the time after. And that was while eating a lot of garbage and not caring enough to try to lose weight. This is a natural setting point for my body. But I firmly believe that there will be another natural setting point that will be lower, and healthier still.
So I've got to start making time to keep track of what I'm doing. There are a ton of people online who have so much practical advice and knowledge about what has worked and hasn't worked for them, and I know that everything that's good for person A won't necessarily work for person B, but maybe someone will be able to see things that I'm doing wrong. (Besides not *adding* exercise, which I know I should. I need to write out a budget so that I can figure out a way to fit in some sort of gym membership or a Curves membership, but it's tough with student loans and a low paying job in a costly city like this one.) And maybe I can try out things that have worked for other people and see if they'll work for me. (And then scrap them if they don't.)
In a week's time, I'm going to start a detox plan that basically cuts out most of the food that people are sometimes sensitive to, and then slowly reintroduces them. It's kind of meant also to kickstart a sluggish metabolism. I don't know if I have a sluggish metabolism, but I do know that lately I've been back on the "need a sugar hit" for energy thing, which I hadn't had a problem with in quite a long while.
So I don't know. I don't know if that'll help me - and I might not lose any weight while I'm doing it, since it is a somewhat higher calorie plan than I've been following - but I do want to try it. And it's something I wanted to try even before I started losing weight. One of those "eat whole foods" type things, which I mostly do, but want to do more of, I suppose. Eat nothing with a label, and all that.
Anyway, just as a vague attempt to keep myself accountable this week... I'm going to post a list of what I intend to cook for dinner this week.
Breakfasts: Fibre One, Multigrain Cheerios
Lunchs/Snacks (for work, generally): Sandwiches, Tomato/Cucumber Salads, Fruit, fresh Vegetables
Dinners:
Sunday - Curried Root Vegetables with a Spring Mix Salad
Monday - Florentine Meatballs with Pasta and a Salad
Tuesday - leftover Florentine Meatballs, etc.
Wednesday - Chicken Chili with Rice
Thursday - Herbed Pork with Roasted Potatoes and Sauteed Broccoli
Friday - Garlic Chicken with Romanesco Concerto a Limone vegetables and Rice
I'm also going to try to keep updating this everyday with my food photos and a list of everything I ate. So feel free to poke me if anyone is watching this and notices that I've not updated. (Except on Tuesday - I won't be home from work until after midnight, so I probably won't update until Wednesday morning.)
I keep wanting to go back home - I moved away from my hometown eight months ago, and have lost 15-20lbs since anyone there saw me last - but I don't think I'm going to manage it until next year sometime, and I have this really horrible superficial desire to show up thinner than I was in high school (which is my current weight, I haven't been this size since the late 90s) and surprise my friends back home. If things go as they are, I have until February to manage it... should be able to break the 180 barrier by then :D
On something of a sidenote, I've been getting dizzy a lot lately when I stand up from crouching (which I do a lot for my job) or if I look up too quickly or turn my head. It's starting to freak me out, and mostly the feeling passes very quickly, but the other day I stood up and it took me at least a half minute before my head cleared enough that I could move. I know a half minute doesn't sound like very long but compared to the 4-5 seconds it normally takes to pass, it felt like a lifetime. There wasn't/isn't a feeling of vertigo, but it's like I get an all-over brain tingle and the slightest feeling that I could faint (except that I know I'm not going to) and I have a feeling that it's probably to do with my eyes. Which is very bad because I don't have very good health coverage for my eyes. Anyway, I don't know if I should just try an eye place first, or if I should go to a clinic instead.
I am grumpy and cold and tired and sick and damn it just don't feel like updating. At all.
But this is what I made for lunch today:

It sort of looked messy and nasty, but tasted pretty delicious.
I've been craving junk lately. I know this is because while my parents were up here, I ate my body weight in cookies (Seriously, must they bring up DOZENS of chocolate mint chip and ginger snap and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies EVERY single time they come? When they know I'm trying to lose weight? Even if they didn't know I'm trying to lose weight?) and now my body is all YUM YUM GIVE ME MORE PLEASE even though I don't HAVE any sugary/snacky things in the house.
Anyway, that lunch came from this book I just finished reading a little while ago, YOU on a diet, which was a little bit annoying, but a very lot informative.
I've had this thing, lately, about reading diet books but not really taking their advice. I'm not sure exactly why that is, but I suppose I'm wary of diets because everybody's got an opinion and how am I supposed to separate the good opinions from the shoddy ones? Anyway, it seemed - to me - to be fairly sensible, but I also had another diet book to read, Ultrametabolism, so my thoughts about that book didn't go terribly far because my thoughts got distracted.
I've come to the conclusion that if you find diets boring, you should just buy (or borrow) every diet book ever and then randomly choose a book and follow its (usually, two weeks long) phase one. Once you're done phase one, move on to phase one from the next randomly chosen book. You could do a dozen different diets and get the full first two weeks benefits from each one without ever getting tired of no-carb, low carb, smart carb, low fat, healthy fat, calorie counting, no counting diets.
Also, I took some new pictures of myself, but then kind of felt like there wasn't enough difference between my pictures three months ago and my pictures now. Which was disappointing because apparently I can't see what other people have been seeing (lots of people at work have been commenting) and what my clothing sizes have been telling me. I think I'm feeling sort of shitty about myself though because I hate my body shape. I'm not feeling that bad about the SIZE I am, but I just want to have a damned waist. I don't want to look like Scarlett Johansen, I just want a waist. I want to look okay in clothes instead of having to get bigger shirts to fit my stomach but having them drape around my small shoulders/chest and buy bigger pants to fit my stomach but have them drape around/off my apparently non-existant bum/hips.
The thing about the YOU On a Diet book is that it's supposed to help lose belly fat, so maybe I should try following it. Or maybe I should go back to a more low-carb life because I know that I lose more from my tummy when I do low-carb, but I can't go back to the whole constipation thing that comes along with low-carb (I already have a shoddy digestive system without gumming up the works by not eating enough fibre because it doesn't fit into whatever arbitrary number the low-carb books are aiming for).
Blah. For someone who didn't want to update today, I apparently have a lot to say. (I need to sleep. I think it's the Nyquil mixed with caffiene talking.)
But this is what I made for lunch today:

It sort of looked messy and nasty, but tasted pretty delicious.
I've been craving junk lately. I know this is because while my parents were up here, I ate my body weight in cookies (Seriously, must they bring up DOZENS of chocolate mint chip and ginger snap and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies EVERY single time they come? When they know I'm trying to lose weight? Even if they didn't know I'm trying to lose weight?) and now my body is all YUM YUM GIVE ME MORE PLEASE even though I don't HAVE any sugary/snacky things in the house.
Anyway, that lunch came from this book I just finished reading a little while ago, YOU on a diet, which was a little bit annoying, but a very lot informative.
I've had this thing, lately, about reading diet books but not really taking their advice. I'm not sure exactly why that is, but I suppose I'm wary of diets because everybody's got an opinion and how am I supposed to separate the good opinions from the shoddy ones? Anyway, it seemed - to me - to be fairly sensible, but I also had another diet book to read, Ultrametabolism, so my thoughts about that book didn't go terribly far because my thoughts got distracted.
I've come to the conclusion that if you find diets boring, you should just buy (or borrow) every diet book ever and then randomly choose a book and follow its (usually, two weeks long) phase one. Once you're done phase one, move on to phase one from the next randomly chosen book. You could do a dozen different diets and get the full first two weeks benefits from each one without ever getting tired of no-carb, low carb, smart carb, low fat, healthy fat, calorie counting, no counting diets.
Also, I took some new pictures of myself, but then kind of felt like there wasn't enough difference between my pictures three months ago and my pictures now. Which was disappointing because apparently I can't see what other people have been seeing (lots of people at work have been commenting) and what my clothing sizes have been telling me. I think I'm feeling sort of shitty about myself though because I hate my body shape. I'm not feeling that bad about the SIZE I am, but I just want to have a damned waist. I don't want to look like Scarlett Johansen, I just want a waist. I want to look okay in clothes instead of having to get bigger shirts to fit my stomach but having them drape around my small shoulders/chest and buy bigger pants to fit my stomach but have them drape around/off my apparently non-existant bum/hips.
The thing about the YOU On a Diet book is that it's supposed to help lose belly fat, so maybe I should try following it. Or maybe I should go back to a more low-carb life because I know that I lose more from my tummy when I do low-carb, but I can't go back to the whole constipation thing that comes along with low-carb (I already have a shoddy digestive system without gumming up the works by not eating enough fibre because it doesn't fit into whatever arbitrary number the low-carb books are aiming for).
Blah. For someone who didn't want to update today, I apparently have a lot to say. (I need to sleep. I think it's the Nyquil mixed with caffiene talking.)
Breakfast
- 3/4 cup 1% milk
- 1/2 cup Fibre One cereal
- 1 cup Multigrain Cheerios
297 Calories|3g Fat|58g Carbs|11g Protein|17g Fibre
Lunch
- sandwich with turkey, mustard, cheese, tomato and lettuce
- carrots, sugar snap peas
- grapes
418 Calories|7g Fat|64g Carbs|29g Protein|12g Fibre
Dinner
- Vietnamese(ish) Chicken Noodle soup
305 Calories|3g Fat|35g Carbs|34g Protein|1g Fibre
Snacks
- sugar free chocolate pudding (wrong info, just using the closest thing in Spark's database)
- string cheese
162 Calories|3g Fat|26g Carbs|8g Protein|3g Fibre
Daily Totals:
1,181 Calories|16g Fat|182g Carbs|82g Protein|33g Fibre
I really wish my sickness would go away. I feel like garbage. And I want to be able to breath again.
- 3/4 cup 1% milk
- 1/2 cup Fibre One cereal
- 1 cup Multigrain Cheerios
297 Calories|3g Fat|58g Carbs|11g Protein|17g Fibre
Lunch
- sandwich with turkey, mustard, cheese, tomato and lettuce
- carrots, sugar snap peas
- grapes
418 Calories|7g Fat|64g Carbs|29g Protein|12g Fibre
Dinner
- Vietnamese(ish) Chicken Noodle soup
305 Calories|3g Fat|35g Carbs|34g Protein|1g Fibre
Snacks
- sugar free chocolate pudding (wrong info, just using the closest thing in Spark's database)
- string cheese
162 Calories|3g Fat|26g Carbs|8g Protein|3g Fibre
Daily Totals:
1,181 Calories|16g Fat|182g Carbs|82g Protein|33g Fibre
I really wish my sickness would go away. I feel like garbage. And I want to be able to breath again.
I was going to make (vegan) savoury vegetable pancakes for supper tonight. However, the "dough" portion of the equation reminded me too much of paper mâché paste and I couldn't bring myself to eat it. (Probably I tried to cook it at too high a temperature, thus singing parts of the outside whilst leaving other parts not fully cooked. But never mind that. Mind the holy-hannah it's translucent-white paper mâché paste pancakes!

So yeah. Needless to say, I dug something out of the freezer for dinner tonight. I'm going to have to look up a different vegetable pancake recipe because I still like the idea, but obviously the execution didn't really go over.
Also, I hope to get back to regularly updating tomorrow. I've been working 6am-2:30 shifts this week and I've been too tired, but I need to figure out a way to deal with my schedule and letting everything but work fall by the wayside can't be the best I can do.

So yeah. Needless to say, I dug something out of the freezer for dinner tonight. I'm going to have to look up a different vegetable pancake recipe because I still like the idea, but obviously the execution didn't really go over.
Also, I hope to get back to regularly updating tomorrow. I've been working 6am-2:30 shifts this week and I've been too tired, but I need to figure out a way to deal with my schedule and letting everything but work fall by the wayside can't be the best I can do.
I haven't the time or inclination to properly update tonight, but this is what I had for dinner:

Very tasty. Though awkward to eat without molars. I'm going to have to start eating pudding and applesauce for every meal :D
Off to work...

Very tasty. Though awkward to eat without molars. I'm going to have to start eating pudding and applesauce for every meal :D
Off to work...
I'm feeling really sick tonight. I broke another tooth while at dinner (I broke one a couple weeks ago - I have very weirdly bad teeth, despite my daily flossing/brushing regime, and they have a tendency to shatter when doing things like chewing gum or biting into apples) but didn't realize it until the piece of tooth had been swallowed and I think I made myself sick worrying about it. Dizziness, an almost overwhelming urge to vomit, stomach pains...
I think most of it has passed now, but I feel completely exhausted (in a different way from my usual exhaustion - I seriously need to do something about my sleeping problems) and drained.
Now to find a dentist. And hopefully one who'll be able to get me in quickly -- I can't chew on either side of my mouth, since they're both molars on opposite sides -- and won't be too expensive. (But this is Calgary, so who am I kidding with that hope?)
I think most of it has passed now, but I feel completely exhausted (in a different way from my usual exhaustion - I seriously need to do something about my sleeping problems) and drained.
Now to find a dentist. And hopefully one who'll be able to get me in quickly -- I can't chew on either side of my mouth, since they're both molars on opposite sides -- and won't be too expensive. (But this is Calgary, so who am I kidding with that hope?)
Another shit show at work today. I have a feeling that's what it's going to be every day until enough customers complain that head office decides to stop cutting hours. So tired. (And I have to be up at the crack of dawn, again.) (All next week too. I'm covering holiday hours.)
Breakfast
- 1/2 cup Fibre 1 cereal
- 1 cup Multigrain Cheerios
- 3/4 cup 1% milk
- yogurt cup
357 Calories|4g Fat|68g Carbs|15g Protein|17g Fibre
Lunch
- Gardennay Broccoli with Parmesan Cheese soup
- Mott's Fruitsations apple sauce
- an apple
- yogurt
331 Calories|4g Fat|70g Carbs|10g Protein|13g Fibre
Dinner
- Achard de Legumes (Spicy Cut-up Vegetables, that is) -- cabbage, green beans, wax beans, carrots, cauliflower, onion and a spicy dressing
- Brown Rice
- Extra lean beef burger with 10g reduced fat mozza cheese
480 Calories|19g Fat|52g Carbs|29g Protein|8g Fibre
Snacks
- cherries
- cauliflower
44 Calories|0g Fat|11g Carbs|1g Protein|2g Fibre
Daily Totals:
1,212 Calories|27g Fat|201g Carbs|56g Protein|40g Fibre

This, incidentally, is only worth about 200 of the calories I ate for dinner. (Not including the rice, the rice made up a fair chunk of it.) A ridiculously tasty meal for not a lot of calories/fat. Yay!
Breakfast
- 1/2 cup Fibre 1 cereal
- 1 cup Multigrain Cheerios
- 3/4 cup 1% milk
- yogurt cup
357 Calories|4g Fat|68g Carbs|15g Protein|17g Fibre
Lunch
- Gardennay Broccoli with Parmesan Cheese soup
- Mott's Fruitsations apple sauce
- an apple
- yogurt
331 Calories|4g Fat|70g Carbs|10g Protein|13g Fibre
Dinner
- Achard de Legumes (Spicy Cut-up Vegetables, that is) -- cabbage, green beans, wax beans, carrots, cauliflower, onion and a spicy dressing
- Brown Rice
- Extra lean beef burger with 10g reduced fat mozza cheese
480 Calories|19g Fat|52g Carbs|29g Protein|8g Fibre
Snacks
- cherries
- cauliflower
44 Calories|0g Fat|11g Carbs|1g Protein|2g Fibre
Daily Totals:
1,212 Calories|27g Fat|201g Carbs|56g Protein|40g Fibre

This, incidentally, is only worth about 200 of the calories I ate for dinner. (Not including the rice, the rice made up a fair chunk of it.) A ridiculously tasty meal for not a lot of calories/fat. Yay!
So tired. Work sucked. Wah. And also, nothing I wanted to eat worked out today. My sister took me out to the optometrists with her to help her choose glasses (which I didn't end up doing since it took too long and I had to go to work) and so we ate lunch out instead of making my vegetable pancakes (Saturday, I guess), and my dinner (something like a frozen dinner, except not frozen, and an eggplant curry) was horribly greasy and so I didn't eat it (I SO don't believe their nutritional info - no way it was what they said) but had to buy an actual frozen dinner instead. I didn't get home from work until midnight tonight, and I should be in bed now because I have to leave at 9am tomorrow morning (for work), so I don't know what I'm going to take for lunch, and blah. (I need to get out of this mood.)
Breakfast
- 1/2 cup Fibre 1 cereal
- 1 cup Multigrain Cheerios
- 3/4 cup 1% milk
297 Calories|3g Fat|58g Carbs|11g Protein|17g Fibre
Lunch
- McDonald's Oriental Salad with a McGrill Chicken, no dressing
- Homestyle 2 bite trail mix cookies
427 Calories|14g Fat|48g Carbs|27g Protein|5g Fibre
Dinner
- Michelina's Advantage... something manicotti
- Mann's vegetable snack pack
- Cadbury Thins chocolate bar
470 Calories|19g Fat|62g Carbs|15g Protein|9g Fibre
Snacks
- 100 cal popcorn pack
100 Calories|2g Fat|21g Carbs|3g Protein|3g Fibre
Daily Totals:
1,294 Calories|37g Fat|189g Carbs|57g Protein|34g Fibre
Breakfast
- 1/2 cup Fibre 1 cereal
- 1 cup Multigrain Cheerios
- 3/4 cup 1% milk
297 Calories|3g Fat|58g Carbs|11g Protein|17g Fibre
Lunch
- McDonald's Oriental Salad with a McGrill Chicken, no dressing
- Homestyle 2 bite trail mix cookies
427 Calories|14g Fat|48g Carbs|27g Protein|5g Fibre
Dinner
- Michelina's Advantage... something manicotti
- Mann's vegetable snack pack
- Cadbury Thins chocolate bar
470 Calories|19g Fat|62g Carbs|15g Protein|9g Fibre
Snacks
- 100 cal popcorn pack
100 Calories|2g Fat|21g Carbs|3g Protein|3g Fibre
Daily Totals:
1,294 Calories|37g Fat|189g Carbs|57g Protein|34g Fibre
Blah, blah, blah. I feel like going on an all soup diet for a couple days to see if I can shock my body into action. However. (I suspect my shitty attitude lately is resulting in shitty everything, including weigh ins. I need to suck it up and go to Curves. I need to suck it up and just keep on getting by. I don't know why I'm letting my daily numbers get to me so so so much right now. Normally I can ignore them each day and just get on with things.)
Breakfast
- 1/2 cup Fibre 1 cereal
- 1 cup Multigrain Cheerios
- 3/4 cup 1% milk
297 Calories|3g Fat|58g Carbs|11g Protein|17g Fibre
Lunch
- organic flax bread (One of the worst breads, incidentally, that I've ever had -- SO dry, so dry that I packed it with the juicy tomato I could find up against one side of the bread and the other against the sweating cold pack in my lunch container and it was STILL dry tasting bread)
- mustard, tomato, ham, 10g low-fat mozza
- carrots and sugar snap peas
- yogurt cup
- Cadbury thins dark chocolate bar
484 Calories|11g Fat|75g Carbs|23g Protein|10g Fibre
Dinner
- yesterday's leftovers (half cup brown rice, cauli/carrot mixture, yellow chicken, with a dash of soy sauce to moisten it before microwaving)
300 Calories|5g Fat|34g Carbs|31g Protein|5g Fibre
Snacks
- 100 cal pack popcorn
- 2 potato skins (not included in my total, probably adding 200-300 calories, and plenty o'fat)
100 Calories|2g Fat|21g Carbs|3g Protein|3g Fibre
Daily Totals (again, not including the potato skins):
1,181 Calories|21g Fat|188g Carbs|67g Protein|35g Fibre
Tomorrow I should have a new picture - yay! I'm trying something very interesting for lunch: savoury vegetable pancakes. Should be interesting.
Breakfast
- 1/2 cup Fibre 1 cereal
- 1 cup Multigrain Cheerios
- 3/4 cup 1% milk
297 Calories|3g Fat|58g Carbs|11g Protein|17g Fibre
Lunch
- organic flax bread (One of the worst breads, incidentally, that I've ever had -- SO dry, so dry that I packed it with the juicy tomato I could find up against one side of the bread and the other against the sweating cold pack in my lunch container and it was STILL dry tasting bread)
- mustard, tomato, ham, 10g low-fat mozza
- carrots and sugar snap peas
- yogurt cup
- Cadbury thins dark chocolate bar
484 Calories|11g Fat|75g Carbs|23g Protein|10g Fibre
Dinner
- yesterday's leftovers (half cup brown rice, cauli/carrot mixture, yellow chicken, with a dash of soy sauce to moisten it before microwaving)
300 Calories|5g Fat|34g Carbs|31g Protein|5g Fibre
Snacks
- 100 cal pack popcorn
- 2 potato skins (not included in my total, probably adding 200-300 calories, and plenty o'fat)
100 Calories|2g Fat|21g Carbs|3g Protein|3g Fibre
Daily Totals (again, not including the potato skins):
1,181 Calories|21g Fat|188g Carbs|67g Protein|35g Fibre
Tomorrow I should have a new picture - yay! I'm trying something very interesting for lunch: savoury vegetable pancakes. Should be interesting.
Gah. I knew I was behind in updating, but I didn't think I was this far behind. I've been too tired the last couple days though and haven't been spending much time online. My eating has been fine though, so I'm not going to bother updating the last couple days - I'll just do today.
Breakfast
- 1/2 cup Fibre 1 cereal
- 1 cup Multigrain Cheerios
- 3/4 cup 1% milk
297 Calories|3g Fat|58g Carbs|11g Protein|17g Fibre
Lunch
- Mann's vegetable snack packs (I can't remember what they're really called)
- Lean Cuisine Wild Salmon with Basil
- Danone Cardivia yogurt cup (I haven't eaten this yet, but... tonight, I guess. I forgot to take it to work with me, I was in too much of a rush this morning. Hence the bought lunch, as well.)
420 Calories|14g Fat|55g Carbs|23g Protein|7g Fibre
Dinner
- Money's Gardenburger on a whole wheat english muffin
- steamed green beans with lemon juice
- tomato/cucumber/feta salad
356 Calories|8g Fat|56g Carbs|17g Protein|14g Fibre
Daily Totals:
1,072 Calories|25g Fat|169g Carbs|52g Protein|38g Fibre
My totals for the day are kind of low, but if I get hungry again, I'll eat something to bump them up a bit. Peanutbutter on toast, maybe. Mmmm peanutbutter.

This was so ridiculously tasty. (Even though I singed the burger a little...)
Breakfast
- 1/2 cup Fibre 1 cereal
- 1 cup Multigrain Cheerios
- 3/4 cup 1% milk
297 Calories|3g Fat|58g Carbs|11g Protein|17g Fibre
Lunch
- Mann's vegetable snack packs (I can't remember what they're really called)
- Lean Cuisine Wild Salmon with Basil
- Danone Cardivia yogurt cup (I haven't eaten this yet, but... tonight, I guess. I forgot to take it to work with me, I was in too much of a rush this morning. Hence the bought lunch, as well.)
420 Calories|14g Fat|55g Carbs|23g Protein|7g Fibre
Dinner
- Money's Gardenburger on a whole wheat english muffin
- steamed green beans with lemon juice
- tomato/cucumber/feta salad
356 Calories|8g Fat|56g Carbs|17g Protein|14g Fibre
Daily Totals:
1,072 Calories|25g Fat|169g Carbs|52g Protein|38g Fibre
My totals for the day are kind of low, but if I get hungry again, I'll eat something to bump them up a bit. Peanutbutter on toast, maybe. Mmmm peanutbutter.

This was so ridiculously tasty. (Even though I singed the burger a little...)
So tired.
Breakfast
- 1/2 cup Fibre 1 cereal
- 1 cup Multigrain Cheerios
- 3/4 cup 1% milk
297 Calories|3g Fat|58g Carbs|11g Protein|17g Fibre
Lunch
- ham sandwich with mustard
- carrots, tomato, sugar snap peas
- Danone Cardivia yogurt cup
347 Calories|3g Fat|61g Carbs|19g Protein|9g Fibre
Dinner
- chicken stroganoff on fibre enriched rotini
- half a cob of corn
- fancy shmancy vegetables (I'll take a picture next time I make them, and I will make them again - SO GOOD)
483 Calories|22g Fat|36 Carbs|36g Protein|6g Fibre
Snacks
- popcorn
100 Calories|2g Fat|21g Carbs|3g Protein|3g Fibre
Daily Totals:
1,227 Calories|30g Fat|176g Carbs|69g Protein|35g Fibre
Breakfast
- 1/2 cup Fibre 1 cereal
- 1 cup Multigrain Cheerios
- 3/4 cup 1% milk
297 Calories|3g Fat|58g Carbs|11g Protein|17g Fibre
Lunch
- ham sandwich with mustard
- carrots, tomato, sugar snap peas
- Danone Cardivia yogurt cup
347 Calories|3g Fat|61g Carbs|19g Protein|9g Fibre
Dinner
- chicken stroganoff on fibre enriched rotini
- half a cob of corn
- fancy shmancy vegetables (I'll take a picture next time I make them, and I will make them again - SO GOOD)
483 Calories|22g Fat|36 Carbs|36g Protein|6g Fibre
Snacks
- popcorn
100 Calories|2g Fat|21g Carbs|3g Protein|3g Fibre
Daily Totals:
1,227 Calories|30g Fat|176g Carbs|69g Protein|35g Fibre
