Everything Eaten Yesterday

I need help.
Maybe this is a good idea.

Thanksgiving Day:
Bowl of multigrain cherios w/2% milk

about 9 hot wings with a humonguous salad of romaine, tomatos, dill relish, crumbles of cheese and Paul Newman's tuscan Italian

Thanksgiving dinner was turkey breast, mashed potatos w/turkey gravy, stuffing, greenbean salad and jellied cranberry sauce (no seconds). Dessert was two 'haystack' cookies (a wonderful concoction of my wife's with butterscotch, crunchy asian noodles and peanuts)

So far today:
container of lowfat yogurt (40z, I think) and two kashi fruit bars w/2 cups coffee/splenda & creamer

handful of salted cashews and a banana

Way to go, Joe. Hope this works for me. I need something.

We are here for you, snood.

Joe(watching your every munch )Nation

two turkey sandwiches on whole wheat bread w/lettuce, tomato, a dab of miracle whip and brown mustard.
a crangrape juice box
(and, sorry to say) a bag of cheetos fantastix (1 oz vending machine bag
I wuz doin pretty good up until the cheetos...

I'm gonna confess, I'm waiting until Sunday or Monday to start recording again. Not because I've eaten anything awful, I just really want to enjoy the holiday weekend.

snood, this has really helped me.

Snood-y, glad to see you here.

We're here for different reasons, mostly people wanting to lose weight smartly, and at least one, me, not actually dieting but quite interested in not gaining, and also wanting to keep an eye on nutrition, not every day perfection.

Deal is, you say your beginning weight on day 1 and record pluses and minuses whenever you weigh. If you wish. My biggest problem is figuring out what day it is from when I started recording here, a few days or weeks after Joe Nation. Prior to that I'd lost a batch of weight just before, during, and after my move to New Mexico, and have stayed about the same since I first posted. (Up 2 or 3 these last few weeks - the cookies.)

Also, once we get going, we tend to post a whole day at a time, or sometimes two days at a time. I suppose we're note scribblers, or are fixated on yesterday's lunch. We vary in view points on what is good, bad, or indifferent, but don't tend to argue about it. More of a booster thing.

So, as a boost I'll say I notice your good choices.

Welcome, snood.

I think my last post was about Tuesday.

Wednesday:
Breakfast: 2 instant oatmeal packets
Fish Oil Capsule

Lunch: sensible foods apple harvest, 1 serving
Bread, whole wheat, 2 slices
Jams, preserves, jelly, 1 tbsp
Jif Creamy Peanut Butter, reduced fat, 1 tbsp

Dinner: Chicken Breast, no skin, 4 ounces
Brown Rice, medium grain, 1 cup
Skim Milk, 1 cup
Olive Oil, 1 1tsp
Broccoli, fresh, 2 cup

Snack: Apples, fresh, 1 medium

CALORIES 1428 CARBS 239 g FAT 26 g PROTEIN 64 g Sodium 1320 mg

Thursday:
Breakfast: 2 instant oatmeal packets
Fish Oil Capsule

Lunch: Chicken Breast, no skin, 4 ounces
Brown Rice, medium grain, 1 cup
Olive Oil, 1 1tsp
Broccoli, fresh, 2 cup

Dinner: Baked Potato, 1 medium
Turkey breast meat, 4 ounce(s)
Yams, 0.5 cup
Mixed Vegetables, 1 c
Skim Milk, 1 cup
14 oz salad

Snack: 1 c mixed fruit

CALORIES 1802 CARBS 293 g FAT 32 g PROTEIN 97 g Sodium 2305 mg

I think I did pretty well. Thanksgiving is hard to keep within calorie, fat, salt and carb ranges. I suspect my turkey intake was actually a little higher than 4 oz, and my salad intake less than 14 oz. yesterday.

Oh, yesterday, thanksgiving. (August 2 - Nov. 27) Started at 154 in August, bet I'm at 158. (Down from approaching 190)


Coffee x 2 with total 1 tsp sugar

two fruit nut oatmeal cookies

1/2 thin ham, mayo, lettuce, dill pickle, artichoke heart sections (from can of artichokes in water in my own oil/vinegar mix), multigrain toast sandwich. (Where's the other half - I don't make it, do only one piece of toast)

two tall glasses limeade diluted with water

1 sm glass cabernet

dinner of mashed potatoes, that's 2 helpings but they weren't as, ah, fulsomely baaaad as my own mashed potatoes; two small helpings of mystery dressing; some slices of turkey and ham, bunch of gravy.

Second small glass red wine. Started on a third, but gave it up while sneezing from darling Dante Aligheiri the cat.

Sliver, I mean a s l i v e r, of a nice pumpkin pie.

couple of glasses of ice water


I really should post my friend Richard's mashed potato recipe. It'll mean more if I can do pics with it. We'll see, but that'd be another thread.
Remember, potatoes have potassium...

Urrr, that wasn't virtue re the sliver of pie. I don't get asthma often, but it is sort of an experiential, um, experience. Ordinarily I would have eaten a whole slice and not felt guilty - that tasted really good, and I would mind knowing the ingredients.

To balance the weirdness re asthma, there is the healing power of pie, the psychological component to asthma, which Diane and I agreed about. Asthma doesn't start from the psyche, but can be affected by it. The rare times I get it, I try to distract myself, and, guess what - pie can distract! (Well, at a certain level of asthma - people with the real serious thing, probably not).

Dinner today was a sirloin steak (about 10 ounces) fried and garnished with green and white onion and portabellas, and a big salad with romaine, lettuce, cukes, tomato and ranch dressing.

later I snacked on red grapes and some pork cracklins.

Soon as I can get an accurate weight, I'll post it - prolly tomorrow when I go to the gym - they have good scales. The bathroom one we have is way flaky.
I weigh about 255, I think.

One thing I've noticed already is that having to write all the stuff down that I eat makes it hard to deny the quantity of stuff I eat - something I think I sort of do to myself...

You're tall to start with, aren't you, snood? 10 ounces seems a lot to me, but I'm not you...

You got it.

I don't often comment on what anybody else eats, unless it's to compliment someone on what looks to be a tasty recipe, when I read some items, I gasp, but I figure the person already knows they've screwed up.
Sort of like me this week. I was going to be so tough too. sigh.

The number thing at the bottom of mine is the number of days I've been posting (I've set a goal of 365), my present weight, and the plus or minus since I started posting.

i.e. 121/185.5/-14.6 .

Yesterday
Breakfast
Fruit
Coffee

Lunch
Cheese and salad (too much cheese)

Went for a run 4.6 miles, beautiful day

Dinner
Boiled Shrimp
Cocktail Sauce
Slices of turkey (too much turkey, now it's gone)
Salad with no oil

still gained some. On the brakes today.

121/185.5/-14.6

That's the name of the game. I think in the US we're conditioned to what portion sizes are and we are all WAY out of whack on that.

For intelligent people who are as educated as they can be in the ways of nutrition, and who follow through and eat what they're supposed to, the issue is inevitably portion control. Sometimes I weigh and measure, sometimes I do things like divide up a package into halves or thirds, knowing the size of the package, or I do it by eye (I've been doing this for quite a while; 4 oz is about the size of a deck of cards, 1 c is close to the size of a baseball, etc.). For fish, I just buy it by the pound, so I buy a half a pound and divide it in half -- instant 4 ounce portion.

It gets to be second nature after a while.

Yesterday:
Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats, dry, 1/2 c
Banana, fresh, 1 medium
1 oz raisins

Lunch: sensible foods apple harvest, 1 serving
Bread, whole wheat, 2 slices
Jams, preserves, jelly, 1 tbsp
Jif Creamy Peanut Butter, reduced fat, 1 tbsp

Dinner: Pizzeria Uno Roast Veg Quesadillas (1 quesadilla)
Pizzeria Uno Brown Rice w/Craisins (1/2 portion)
Pizzeria Uno ff vinaigrette dressing (2 T)
Pizzeria Uno Roasted Vegs (1/2 portion)
Pizzeria Uno House Side Salad (full portion)
Pizzeria Uno Mahi-mahi w/Mango (1/2 portion)

Snack: Skim Milk, 1 cup
1 c mixed fruit

CALORIES 1703 CARBS 297 g FAT 32 g PROTEIN 69 g Sodium 1758 mg

Welcome, Snood. This really helps me. I was already tracking, but putting it out there for others to read is even better.

Wednesday

B: shredded wheat, ff milk, banana, hb egg
L: savory bulgur & veggies, carrots & celery sticks
S: grapes, dates
D: ff cheese 3-egg omelet, ff plain yogurt w/mango
S: ff cottage cheese
E: 30 min elliptical, weight circuit

Thursday

B: shredded wheat, ff yogurt, banana
S: grapes
L: green salad w/ a little lf italian dressing, one slice of turkey, turnip greens, zucchini, green beans, 3 bites of excellent sf bread pudding
S: raw turnip, 1/2 a cookie
D: Tuscan chicken soup, savory bulgur wheat & veggies
S: mini bag of 94% ff microwave popcorn, grapes
E: no time, unfortunately

Friday

B: banana, hb egg, small ff strawberry yogurt
L: beef & veggie soup, savory bulgur wheat & veggies
S: carrots, celery
D: green salad w/a little blue cheese dressing, grilled salmon, green beans
S: mini bag of 94% ff microwave popcorn, grapes
E: 15 min treadmill, 15 min bike

Saturday

B: hb egg, small ff blueberry yogurt, skim milk
L: veggie soup, green salad w/oil & vinegar, grilled salmon, carrots
S: celery, carrots, grapes
D: rotisserie chicken, broccoli, ff jalepeno jack
S: air popped popcorn w/a little evoo
E: 15 min treadmill, 15 min bike

112-115/174/+1.4

Yesterday:
Breakfast: Cheerios Cereal, 1 cup
Blueberries, fresh, 0.5 cup
Bread, whole wheat, 2 slices
Jam, 1 tbsp
Jif Creamy Peanut Butter, reduced fat, 1 tbsp

Lunch: Pizzeria Uno Brown Rice w/Craisins (1/2 portion)
Pizzeria Uno Mahi-mahi w/Mango (1/2 portion)
Pizzeria Uno Roasted Vegs (1/2 portion)
Pizzeria Uno Roast Veg Quesadillas (1 quesadilla)

Dinner: Couscous, 1 cup
Skim Milk, 1 cup
14 oz mixed greens salad
Swordfish, 4 oz

Snack: 1 cup mixed fruit

CALORIES 1668 CARBS 240 g FAT 37 g PROTEIN 97 g Sodium 1880 mg

Oops I forgot to eat yogurt.

you know - I think I should start doing this working at this restaurant- because I keep tasting and tasting and not eating meals and at first I lost like ten pounds, but I can FEEL that I'm gaining it back so:

I made a carrot cake and tasted the icing - I'd say I ate about 2 tbsps. of cream cheese icing - (it was awesome!)

Then I drank a cup of tea

then I drank a diet coke at about 9:00 am

then I tasted a pancake with syrup - I'd say it was about one tbsp. of pancake

Then I tasted some beef gravy with about three roast potatoes.

Then I cut off a sliver of roast beef and ate it

Then I ate a yorkshire pudding dipped in gravy (AWESOME - it was all I could do to not eat another one).

Then I had a sliver of carrot cake I was serving to make sure it tasted right.

Then I had a sliver of pecan pie to make sure it tasted right - I added a little custard to this... it was GREAT! Custard and cream are my two new favorite British dessert habits.

Then I ate a bunch of uncooked carrots and left over cucumber slices.

Now I've had three glasses of wine

How many calories would you reckon that all is?

That's about typical of my daily consumption - except sometimes I might go out for a curry or chinese at the end of the day

when I said three roast potatoes - I meant three quarters of a small roast potato - not three whole roast potatoes ( a small roast potato I cut in quarters to roast - a large I cut in eighths).

Saturday

coffee, 1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 roast chicken/mayo/potato bread sandwich

glass lf choc milk

orange

1 raw carrot

burrito - black beans, beef adobo, small amount mozzarella, brown rice, chopped raw onion

glass white wine

limeade diluted w/extra water

Welllll, how big is a sliver, etc.?

Serving sizes are, like I said, totally out of whack for so many Americans. We are conditioned to feel we need to get our money's worth, so we supersize everything. Or it's supersized for us.

RP and I eat at a diner on occasion. The food is decent and there are things I can have. BUT, the food comes out not on plates but on platters. This is your individual meal. ON A PLATTER.

It's crazy. I take half home with me.

Being a cook/chef is very difficult for folks trying to lose weight or manage diabetes, because of the tasting you describe. It's a little of this and a little of that. But you do it fifty times in a day sometimes. And yeah, that adds up.

One hint: a gram of fat is 9 calories. Always. This is pure fat I'm talking about, as in butter, margarine, lard, avocado, bacon, most nuts, whatever. A gram of carbs (pure), is 4 calories. As in, rice, potatoes, peas, pasta, chestnuts. A gram of sugar is the same 4 calories (as in, sugar, honey, jelly, syrup). Those are the building blocks of food. So if you get an idea of the serving size you've eaten, and how much is fat, how much is carb and how much is simple sugar, you can figure out an approximation of the calories. But keep in mind that fiber is indigestible and water is a large component of all foods.

If you ate, let's say, 100 grams (close to 3/4 cup) of potatoes, it should be, yes, 300 calories. But it's not. It's actually closer to 100 calories. Why? Because there's water and fiber in there. 100 grams of potatoes is really more like 22 grams of carbs (you'd think potatoes would be 100% carbs, yet they're not). 22 * 4 = 88. According to www.sparkpeople.com, 100 grams of baked potato (so this is plain, but no skin) is 93 calories. The extra five calories in there is probably a gram or so of sugar.

1 gram = 0.0353 ounces (this is not a perfect measurement as grams are supposed to be solid and ounces are liquid but it's close, and in food those terms are interchanged all the time -- incorrectly in my opinion).
1 tablespoon = 1/2 ounce (a tablespoon = 3 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon = 0.1667 ounces

So a gram is about a 1/2 a teaspoon. It is a very, very small measurement and may very well be the size of your little nibbles and tastes. If you're tasting a teaspoon consisting of half pancake and half syrup, it's probably about 15 calories, and about 10 are from fat, 5 are from sugar and 3 from carbs. Spark puts it at 15 calories and they are more accurate than I am.

Wow, interesting info there, jes. Food for thought. (All puns intended.)

Sunday

B: oatmeal custard, banana
L: leftover bulgur wheat & veggies
D: brown rice sushi (krab), edamame
S: ff cottage cheese
E: walked 75 minutes

116/174/+1.4

I don't want to argue with you, Jes. I think, well, assume, since you are doing this with a physician's purview, that you are tuned in well.

I have had several friends who lost a lot, more than a hundred pounds, and gained it back. So, I'm wary of fast loss and life long maintenance of that, the effort for maintenance. A hundred pounds in a year seems fast to me. I understand it isn't to you or your doctor.

Almonds are good, for example, but you have to watch out for them?
I don't want to watch you with a circumscribed life. Nut fats are now declared good for you, but you monitor them..

What, I think we all need control. You and mac seem to be living on packets of gruel. What, in twenty years?

I think, myself, that you will have to equilibrate to normal eating, but not overboard eating.