Everything Eaten Yesterday

Happy December, everybody. I hope everyone had that perfect holiday weekend.
Mine was really perfect because, despite the Thanksgiving Brie(s), I hit a new low this morning.
Cheers to Aidan, so glad you are here.
Cheers to Snood, you'll be a lesser man in no time.
=
My two cents: I think portion control is automatic, self-defensive, after awhile. I cooked a chicken last night and immediately stripped off all the meat and split that thing into meal size bags for the freezer. (lunch, sandwich or dinner salad size) AND, because I am inspired by Osso's mixing up of flavors in her cooking, I am presently marinating some lamb stew meat in Chipotle-Abode sauce, some garlic and some chopped onions. (Going to be a great Wednesday night here.)
I don't count calories (because I'm too lazy) but I do watch for extra fat. (I was shocked, shocked I tell you, to find out that a Tablespoon of Olive oil is 14grams of fat. The way I used to pour the oil on a salad, it would have more fat in it than the steak next to it on the plate. Ga-haah!)(So, now I measure the olive oil and I make no-oil salad dressings. Realllllly tangy!)
Anyway, here's to a great new day!
Sunday
Sunday
B: Oatmeal, the Irish kind, mixed in some raisins
L: Hamburger patty (going to go bad) Salad w/no oil dressing
D: 8oz Steak, Salad, Champagne
S: Slurps and bits of roasted chicken
E: trotted 10.0 miles before the rain hit. Yes, I had to run around the final block two and half times to get my watch to read exactly 10.0. Very Blustery

okay. (horns, please)
123 days of this reporting/181.1 today's weight/ -18.0 pounds and a new low for me.

I forgot to add that protein is 4 calories/gram. Another building block of food.

Don't worry about me, osso. I am doing this instead of having surgery. This is infinitely better than surgery (by the way, if I had had the surgery, I'd have to eat like this anyway). For one thing, you can't almost die from it, like I know people have (almost) done.

So I pick this, any and every time.

I take a weight loss drug. Have I not mentioned this? But I want it to work, and work well. It ain't cheap and it's not like I want to be on austerity for the rest of my days. I don't want to be. But I also do not want to be unable to climb stairs without my lungs screaming, either, or be something of a social pariah, or wear clothes that look like crap and cost a good 25% more than other people's. That's a lot of negatives but I take it the meaning is clear. I am 46 years old and do not wish to be this way at age 47. A lot of weight to lose means, by definition, numbers are going to seem nutty to everyone who isn't doing it.

So be it. I can live with you feeling that the numbers are nutty.

And, speaking of nuts. Yes, almonds are lovely. They are also little fat bombs. The serving size is something like 22 of them. Yes, 22. Not a bagful. An ounce is 170 calories and 15 grams of fat, almost as much as I can have in a meal, so I just don't eat them as they are not worth it to me. This is not deprivation, although it may be seen that way. It is control. It is knowing what you are putting in and making sure it's what you need.

I have to be in this mindset.

And anyone else who's had to lose 100 or more pounds really has to, as well.

Sorry to make this just about that. I do not want it to be. Do I live on gruel? Hell yeah, if that's what pizza, chicken, salads, pasta, omelets, soup and bread are. I'll live like Oliver Twist if it helps. I've lived like the exploding guy in the Monty Python movie "The Meaning of Life" for far too long.

Yesterday:
Breakfast: mixed fruit, fresh, 0.5 cup
Bread, whole wheat, 2 slices
Jam, 1 tbsp
Cottage ch and veg omelet, 1 serving

Lunch: Couscous, 1 cup
1 c mixed vegs
Smart Balance Buttery Spread, 1 tbsp
Tuna, Canned in Water, 3 oz

Dinner: Skim Milk, 1 cup
14 oz mixed greens salad
Artichoke and veg pizza (1/4 pie)

Snack: 1 c mixed fruit
Stonyfield Farm Fat Free chocolate, 6 oz

CALORIES 1666 CARBS 275 g FAT 38 g PROTEIN 106 g Sodium 1925 mg

Original Weight: 346
Current Weight: 240
Difference From Last Week: Up 1.8 lbs.
Overall Difference: Down 106 lbs.

Wow, packets of gruel? I feel as though I'm eating better than I ever have. I'm certainly cooking more, and more conscious of what's going into my mouth than ever before.

My doctors are thrilled with my 115 pound loss. As am I. I have another 15 pounds to go to get to goal. But I'm not in a hurry.

I'm sorry to hear about your friends who lost a lot and gained it back, osso. But I think that Jes and I are both trying to lose the weight in a healthy way. And I won't speak for Jes, but there's no way in hell I'm going back to where I was. As she said, if this is what it takes, so be it.

I think for some of us "portion control" is automatic the majority of times, but we also have those days when we can eat like pigs and devour everything on our plate(s) - including dessert. I keep my weight between 150-160, and seem to lose weight more during the spring thru fall months of the year.

Yesterday:
Breakfast: 2 instant oatmeal packets
Fish Oil Capsule

Lunch: Sensible Foods Soy Nuts, 1 serving
Dr. McDougall's Black Bean w/Lime, 1 serving

Dinner: Skim Milk, 1 cup
14 oz mixed greens salad
4 oz skinless fried chicken
Mixed vegs, 1 cup
Baked Potato, with skin, 1 medium

Snack: 1 c mixed fruit
Stonyfield Farm Fat Free Key Lime, 6 oz
Apples, fresh, 1 medium

CALORIES 1788 CARBS 284 g FAT 36 g PROTEIN 69 g Sodium 2269 mg

Monday

B: oatmeal custard, banana

L: leftover quinoa & beans, celery

S: mini bag of 94% ff microwave popcorn, grapes

D: brown rice/chicken/black beans, green beans

S: ff cottage cheese, 2 clementines

E: day of rest

117/174/+1.4

Hey Joe - thanks for the welcome and Jespah thanks for the info-when I say sliver - I really mean a little sliver - like two reasonably-sized bites.

Monday - day off and my eating habits are totally different
*golden delicious apple and small piece of applewood cheese
*scone with butter
*turkey sandwich--two slices turkey with one teaspoon mayo and lettuce on two slices of white bread
*one scrambled egg on buttered wheat bread

Tuesday
*small piece of chocolate
*five good sized chips (french fries) with about a tbsp of ketchup
*3-5 bites of chicken/pepper stir-fry and rice (I'd made it for a customer and made too much for one serving-but not enough for two so I had what was left in the wok)
*two bites of apple crumb pie with about two tbsps. of custard
(this is apple pie with pastry on the bottom topped with a crumbly mixture of butter, sugar, flour and cinnamon)
*(bag of crisps (potato chips)
*chicken korma with rice and cashews (too much- I feel stuffed)

do we put our exercise here too ? If so, I walked my dog at a good pace for about 45 minutes.

I see what I'm doing - I don't eat all day and then I'm starving, but I haven't cooked dinner - so I eat a snack - which for me is ALWAYS potato chips and/or chocolate - and then even if I'm not hungry, I'll feel like I will be hungry if I don't eat before I got to bed - so I eat supper and feel absolutely stuffed. And I'm not eating my vegetables - which I love - but don't have time to fix.

I'm completely pro all the weight loss, and admire you two especially, Jes and Mac. I guess I'm fixated on the speediness of loss because of these other people's experiences. While I fret, I don't really know that much about the process of staying at the goal weight level and the possible change to the slightly less austere while keeping up with exercise.

It's also great to hear both of you say you are getting all this delicious food, and not really thinking of it now as some depriving austerity.

Interesting on the almonds - when I do my toasted almond thing, I do eat them at a rate of about 10 - 20. And interesting by Jes on how to estimate what is in those nibbles..

Monday, 123 days. 155, +1

two coffees, splashes of lf milk

orange

two egg rolls filled with mung bean threads, pickled ginger, slivered parsnip, slivered carrots, slivered bamboo shoots, slivered cabbage, bits of ham, chopped garlic, slivered raw brussel sprout, the kitchen sink.., sauteed in a couple of tbs of canola for 18 egg rolls, then packaged and frozen. I can cut that canola next time, given the teflon pan.. didn't make nuoc cham this time, which tastes good but is too sweet for me, never mind sugar calories.

2 fruit nut oatmeal cookies

last of the limeade/water combo - next plan, to make my own instead of store stuff, which is high on sugar. I really like mineral water with my own addition of lemon or lime or orange, but don't always have it at hand.

big bowl of leek, onion, garlic, potato, chicken broth soup. Consider my breath..

Hmm maybe you can cut up extra vegetables (Sunday may end up being a good day for that, or any day you have off, you have energy and you've got produce), put them in a tupperware or whatever and reach for them as a snack. Kill two birds, as it were.

Osso, I know. And maintenance is the hardest part of weight loss. It's tougher than the losing. One of the things that I have been doing -- and I think mac is doing this as well -- is working on cooking as a skill. Any way you slice it, maintenance is not going to involve a lot of going out or takeout, so we need to be prepared to cook most days of the year. So whatever form that takes, it needs to be mastered, and there needs to be enough energy and enthusiasm to do it. I've been playing with the slow cooker a lot as a way to get cooking done without wiping myself out during the work week.

One thing I'll probably experiment with soon is making what will essentially be a Thanksgiving meal, but done to specifications, or as close to them as possible. E. g. potatoes without salt, sweet potatoes without any fat, turkey (will probably be chicken as it's just the two of us) with aromatics but no added fat or salt, etc. That will be some time during Xmas week. RP and I both have the week off so eating is going to be interesting. Should be more creative, though, as well.

One thing I wish I had, Jes, is a freezer, one of the small ones. My own refrigerator freezer is a complexly stuffed thicket, occasionally a mysterious thicket, but I'm getting better at that part. I do mostly cook all my meals, which, even though I'm so-called retired, is something of a long term set of have-to's, even though I do like cooking. (I'm no fan of clean up, as it happens). And cooking for one gives one two choices, make too much, or cook a zillion little meals - or a third, buy packaged meals, but that's pricey as a route for me to go. The spoiled brat doesn't like to eat the same thing too many times in a row, thus the freezing after making regular recipes.

My next adventure will be fish patties - I always liked my mother's codfish cakes (heh, with cream of mushroom soup, me picking out the mushrooms). I think Cav had a relatively light fish cake recipe; anyway, I'm going to play around on that, as I doubt they have to be lumpen fat laden potato or bread grenades.

I was wrong.. that was a fish tempura batter I was remembering Cav talking about, and that involves more frying in oil. (Off to look up quenelle recipes..)

My regular diet site is down for maintenance so the #s are estimates.

Yesterday:
Breakfast: 2 Cereal: instant oatmeal, pkts,
Fish Oil Capsule

Lunch: sensible foods soy nuts
Dr. McDougall's Vegan Curry

Dinner: 2 Rice cakes
8 oz Milk: skim/no fat
Guacamole (1 T.)
Slow Cooker Penicillen (Chicken Soup)
14 oz mixed greens salad
Low Sodium Matzoh Balls

Snack: Apple
Mixed fruit, 1 dry cup
Stonyfield Farm ff lemon yogurt (1 cup)

Calories 1580 Carbs 240 g Fat 38 g Protein 69 g Sodium 1630 mg

Calories were low.

I did something different with the matzoh balls. I had been making them on Sunday, freezing half and doling them out. And they had tasted rather rubbery. This time I boiled them last night and they turned out better. Today's version remains to be tasted but so far, so good.

Very interesting conversation going on here and I am very much in need of it.

B: Oatmeal- maple syrup Coffee
L: Free meal -Grand Opening of Chipotle Grill (ah.)
Scoop of Chicken (god-knows) Lettuce, tomato chili, some chips(!)
guacamole,
Diet Coke
D: salad no oil dressing w/roast chicken thigh
Wine

recorded a trend reversal this morning. That means, after losing steadily for awhile, this past week of weight-ins shows a tick upwards. (Only .5, but still ... .)

Felt awful at 6pm last night, convinced myself not to run at all, so
E: Nada. Oh wait, 10 push-ups, three sun salutations and 25 crunches in the morning. ya

125/183.5/-16.6

Has anyone here got a good recipe for corned beef hash? Or a link?

(Sorry am too lazy to seek more appropriate thread)

I'm baaaaaack.....

challah roll with eggs

Apple
Turkey sandwich (was at a seminar and this is all they had)
tater chips
peanut butter cookie.


pizza w/ artichoke, mushroom, black olive, red pepper.

cranberry juice

Nope, sorry, McTag, I can't help with a recipe for corned beef hash.

Welcome back, chai.

Tuesday

B: ff plain yogurt, banana, splenda, cinnamon; hb egg

L: turkey, brussels sprouts

S: mini bag of 94% ff microwave popcorn, grapes

D: leftover brown rice/chicken/black beans, ff cottage cheese

S: air-popped popcorn w/evoo, 2 clementines

E: 30 min elliptical

118/173.2/+0.6

I'll look up some corned beef hash recipes, McT..

yesterday -
2 coffees (mine are always small; I like small cups) w/total 1 tsp sugar

two egg rolls

lemon + tap water + ice cubes

piece of roast chicken, sliced small avocado

two multi-fruit nut oatmeal cookies

cup of heated lf milk

2 glasses white wine on ice, slice of cheddar cheese

Here's one corned beef hash recipe -
I'd use low salt broth, and somewhat less oil with a teflon pan - but you may not be watching salt and oil. On the other hand, without full oil, maybe that flipping trick wouldn't work...
http://www.dianaskitchen.com/page/meats/calico.htm

and a different one from epicurious.com -
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/CORNED-BEEF-HASH-102822

I seem to remember corned beef is pretty salty in itself - I wouldn't add any salt.
I'm not sure if the recipe is somehow dependent on the fat in the cream, but I'd consider using half and half, fat free or regular.

There are several more hash recipes on epicurious here -
http://www.epicurious.com/tools/searchresults?search=corned+beef+hash&x=25&y=5

b: coffee, toast, Grapefruit
l: one apple, one banana, one pear, Diet Coke
D: lamb with adobe sauce and Chipotle Peppers
1/2 cup Texmati rice
piece of toast
diet coke
E: ten push-up, 25 crunches, 2.5 miles running (pretty fast)

126/183.3/-16.8

Thanks Osso, brill.

McT xxx