7AM Morning tea w/ soy
9:30 AM Breakfast. Bowl of porridge with brown suger, nuts, dried cranberries and raisins, coffee w/ soy milk
1:30PM Lunch. Sandwich with 1 English muffin, two small slices of ham (plus one extra), may and mustard. One Apple. A square of dark chocolate.
Teatime, 4PM cookie
Snack, 6PM Small handful of nuts; 1/2 doz. chips with white bean dip
Dinner, 8PM, bowl of wonton soup with half garlic nan. Baked pear dessert with soy cream.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Hmmmm...
... I note that my last entry was on February 28 of last year, more than a year ago. I think the main problem was that it was getting repetitive, and I must have been thinking too much about others who might be reading. I started the blog for myself, to help me stay conscious about my food intake, and ended up wanting to be "interesting." I return with the thought that it might be useful to do this simply for myself, to make a record of the intake, and for no other purpose.
I need the help. Last year was not a good one, so far as my weight-consciousness was concerned. I got very involved in the political battle, and resorted to more comfort food than was good for me. By the time the year ended (and when all the food excesses of the holidays were over), I stepped on the scale about six weeks ago and discovered, to my horror, that I had reached my lifetime heaviest ever weight.
Since that day, I have shed some twelve pounds, and am back to just below my previous high. Most of that progress was made in the first couple of weeks of effort. I decided to cut out the milk and milk products (especially cheese, a food I love) along with my evening glass (or two) of wine; and to limit myself to a slice or two of bread per day. I seem now to have stabilized around that weight, and am in need of help to make the further progress that I want toward shedding another five pounds or so before I leave for a European vacation at the end of this month.
To which end, I plan simply to make note in these pages of my daily intake. No fuss, no elaboration. Just the facts... at least insofar as I remember them.
Yesterday, then:
7:00AM cup of tea, with soy milk
8:00AM Breakfast. 1/2 banana, a few grapes, a shake of muesli and another of granola. Soy milk, and a cup of coffee with soy milk.
1:00PM Brunch. Two scrambled eggs, two slices of toast (plus a half of Ellie's) with butter and a teaspoon of honey. Another cup of coffee with soy milk and sweetener
6:30PM Snack. A handful of nuts. 1/2 dozen chips with bean dip.
7:30PM Dinner. Leftover roast chicken with 3 small red-skinned potatoes and greens. For dessert, a square of dark chocolate.
I need the help. Last year was not a good one, so far as my weight-consciousness was concerned. I got very involved in the political battle, and resorted to more comfort food than was good for me. By the time the year ended (and when all the food excesses of the holidays were over), I stepped on the scale about six weeks ago and discovered, to my horror, that I had reached my lifetime heaviest ever weight.
Since that day, I have shed some twelve pounds, and am back to just below my previous high. Most of that progress was made in the first couple of weeks of effort. I decided to cut out the milk and milk products (especially cheese, a food I love) along with my evening glass (or two) of wine; and to limit myself to a slice or two of bread per day. I seem now to have stabilized around that weight, and am in need of help to make the further progress that I want toward shedding another five pounds or so before I leave for a European vacation at the end of this month.
To which end, I plan simply to make note in these pages of my daily intake. No fuss, no elaboration. Just the facts... at least insofar as I remember them.
Yesterday, then:
7:00AM cup of tea, with soy milk
8:00AM Breakfast. 1/2 banana, a few grapes, a shake of muesli and another of granola. Soy milk, and a cup of coffee with soy milk.
1:00PM Brunch. Two scrambled eggs, two slices of toast (plus a half of Ellie's) with butter and a teaspoon of honey. Another cup of coffee with soy milk and sweetener
6:30PM Snack. A handful of nuts. 1/2 dozen chips with bean dip.
7:30PM Dinner. Leftover roast chicken with 3 small red-skinned potatoes and greens. For dessert, a square of dark chocolate.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
A Pause For Reflection
It has been a couple of days since I made an entry here, and I'm thinking that four blogs is perhaps too much to maintain with any regularity. My attention has also been distracted from my purpose here, in the first part of this week, by a deadline for my podcast, "The Art of Outrage" on Artscene Visual Radio. That in itself has taken a good deal of my time.
But, truthfully, there's something else at stake here. Things have not been going as well as I had hoped. Weight-wise, I mean. I last stepped on the scale on Sunday, I think, and there has not been significant change since the first week of this project. And my good intentions for the use of consciousness to keep things in check have been slipping. I'm slowly getting back to the old, comfortable but essentially mindless habits. When pressures mount, clearly, it's easier to resort to old habits than to be constantly mindful. And currently, along with the four blogs and the podcast, I have two full-length books to read and respond to, I have the IRS to satisfy, and a lecture to prepare for. The latter is not until June, but it's already on my mind. All of which sound like excellent excuses. And they are.
There's another factor at play: I'm a creature of habit, and my meals follow much the same pattern day to day, week to week. I get bored with hearing myself repeat that I had a cup of tea with milk and sweetener at seven in the morning and a bowl of porridge with nuts and dried fruit at nine. Still, I need to recognize that boredom is yet another way of burying precisely that awareness I claim to be trying to maintain. It's not exactly exhilarating to return every day to my meditation practice, but I do it anyway. It works.
So anyway, let's consider this a pep talk to self. It's worth the effort to continue. I'm thinking about adding some "new rules" to the game. A few more ways to eat well, practice mindfulness, and shed a little of that excess weight at the same time. Enough for today.
But, truthfully, there's something else at stake here. Things have not been going as well as I had hoped. Weight-wise, I mean. I last stepped on the scale on Sunday, I think, and there has not been significant change since the first week of this project. And my good intentions for the use of consciousness to keep things in check have been slipping. I'm slowly getting back to the old, comfortable but essentially mindless habits. When pressures mount, clearly, it's easier to resort to old habits than to be constantly mindful. And currently, along with the four blogs and the podcast, I have two full-length books to read and respond to, I have the IRS to satisfy, and a lecture to prepare for. The latter is not until June, but it's already on my mind. All of which sound like excellent excuses. And they are.
There's another factor at play: I'm a creature of habit, and my meals follow much the same pattern day to day, week to week. I get bored with hearing myself repeat that I had a cup of tea with milk and sweetener at seven in the morning and a bowl of porridge with nuts and dried fruit at nine. Still, I need to recognize that boredom is yet another way of burying precisely that awareness I claim to be trying to maintain. It's not exactly exhilarating to return every day to my meditation practice, but I do it anyway. It works.
So anyway, let's consider this a pep talk to self. It's worth the effort to continue. I'm thinking about adding some "new rules" to the game. A few more ways to eat well, practice mindfulness, and shed a little of that excess weight at the same time. Enough for today.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Sunday: Oscars Day...
Oscars... and sangha, our meditation group. Started out with a small bowl of fruit and cereal, in preparation for the morning sit. And tea. Then, at noon, a brunch with two poached eggs and a couple of rashers of very disappointing bacon with an onion bagel and coffee. And at seven, over the Oscars telecast, a bowl of newly homemade soup (cauliflower, onion, carrots, kale...) with cheese and crackers. And a glass of wine. (Oh, nearly forgot, in the afternoon, about two thirds of Ellie's leftover can of beer from the night before...)
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Friday
I missed a day yesterday. No coincidence, perhaps, that we had been out carousing the night before. Well, not exactly carousing: we visited friends, had a glass or two of wine before dinner, and went out for dinner at a local restaurant. Ellie and I shared everything--salad, main course, dessert, but I still managed to sneak in another glass of wine. More than sufficient.
Friday was a busy day with telephone interviews in preparation for my next podcast. Tea, then, in the morning, and a quick bowl of porridge before getting down to work. For lunch, with Ellie busy having photographs done for her website, I prepared a picnic table of cold cuts, cheese and bread and crackers for lunch for all of us, and we finished up with a chocolate-dipped dunker for dessert.
Down to Laguna Beach mid-afternoon (the traffic not as bad as it might have been) and a ham hock and bean soup over a Netflix movie and Bill Maher. And a small bowl of soy ice cream. And a half a chocolate... Oh, AND a glass of red wine. Hmmmm.
Friday was a busy day with telephone interviews in preparation for my next podcast. Tea, then, in the morning, and a quick bowl of porridge before getting down to work. For lunch, with Ellie busy having photographs done for her website, I prepared a picnic table of cold cuts, cheese and bread and crackers for lunch for all of us, and we finished up with a chocolate-dipped dunker for dessert.
Down to Laguna Beach mid-afternoon (the traffic not as bad as it might have been) and a ham hock and bean soup over a Netflix movie and Bill Maher. And a small bowl of soy ice cream. And a half a chocolate... Oh, AND a glass of red wine. Hmmmm.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Wednesday
Tea, first thing. No walk, no exercise. To preoccupied with what needed to be done. I would have gone for eggs for breakfast, but Ellie vetoed the idea so I settled for a bowl of fruit with a little cereal (Fru-Grains, again!) topped with milk and a dash of half-and-half, and a (diet, lo-fat, whole wheat, healthy!) English muffin--whose wholesomeness I ruined with butter and marmalade. Ah, well...
Lunch at 1PM. Two slices of bread with cheese and an apple. And a half a chocolate, sneaked in for dessert.
Tea and a dunker at four-ish.
A handful of nuts, then dinner at 6, before the arrival of our artists' support group. Ellie had been laboring all day (with my usual help as sous-chef) on a ham hock-based bean soup, really more like a stew, so hearty. delicious! I enjoyed a bowl and a half, with crackers and one glass of wine.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Tuesday, Again...
... and so soon! The weeks whiz by.
Okay, Tuesday. Tea, if you can believe it, at 7AM. Porridge for breakfast, with the usual additives. No bread, no toast, no butter, no marmalade. A cup of coffee.
For lunch, bread and cheese and an apple.
For dinner, a half a salmon steak, one red-skinned potato, salad. And a glass of wine. Plus, for dessert, a small bowl of soy cream with a chocolate-dipped dunker.
That's it, for Tuesday.
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