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Archive for April, 2011
Still going on about food . . . .
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011Is anyone else tired of hearing me talk about food yet?
So I went home last night and had a broccoli stir fry mix from a bag mixed up in my wok (Pam-ed instead of oiled) and with some of the left over spaghetti squash thrown in. And it was really yummy. And then I stood there and figured out how to peal a grapefruit like Erica taught me and boiled up half a dozen eggs so I could have one for breakfast and Justin could use the others for egg salad (I’m only supposed to have 2 per week) and chatted with Justin’s grandma while she got herself sorted out in the living room.
I’ve realized that now that I’m not supposed to eat carbs, I have no idea how to cook. Can’t make up a pot of pasta or rice. Can’t make a grilled cheese sandwich. Can’t have pizza. Can’t have corn dogs. Can’t have pancakes. Can’t have baked potatoes. No oatmeal or cereal. I’ve just described most of the contents of our pantry and freezer.
Do you know how hard it is to find recipes that are carb, sugar, soy, and dairy free? Ridiculously hard.
But really, this is about complaining. It’s a cry for help. 
Please! Send me food ideas! I need breakfast ideas that are prepare-ahead or fast or make-at-workable. I need meal ideas! I’m building a new repertoire here and I’m looking for ideas.
I spent time over my lunch hour digging through AllRecipes.com looking for ideas. When I get home, I’m climbing up on the counter in our kitchen and pulling down the cookbooks to look up there for ideas. Because I’m really starting from scratch and I’ve got a lot of learning to do.
Other news!
I tried making a loaf of bread last night using a new all wheat recipe and it didn’t work at all. It didn’t cook all the way and ended up falling in on itself. Just a little more mass and we could have had a black hole in our kitchen. Unfortunate, but I still ate a little bit of it anyway. And that, my friends, is the depth of my addiction. *Sigh* Also, I have been drinking so much water today to make up for that.
Justin went with his grandma to pick up his mom from the airport this morning. As far as we know, she’s still not planning to stay at our house. In fact, our impression, given her farewell as she and his grandma set out for Charleston for the afternoon, was that she doesn’t intend to see him the rest of the time she’s in town. We’re just rolling with it. Whatever happens, happens.
We bought me a nice new pair of headphones for me to use at work since I work in a noisy environment and it’s hard to concentrate on my work with all the noise. They arrived yesterday and I’ve been wearing them all morning. I’m not sure I’ve ever really listened to recorded music before! These things sound amazing! I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to regular little headphones ever again.
I brushed and flossed my teeth after lunch today and now I’m afraid to eat the grapefruit I brought for snack. My gums are sore and bleeding. That’s not a good combination with citrus. But it’s definitely helping me avoid the mindless snacking. I figured when my mouth feels clean, and doesn’t taste like food, then I don’t think about food so much. That’s the theory, anyway. I’m working on proving it.
And that’s enough of all that! Please, send me food ideas! I’m looking for fast, easy, delicious, soy-, dairy-, carb-, and sugar-free. Can’t be that hard, right?!
Tags: cooking and baking, having to do with work, i love my husband, mentioning my family
Posted in Living! |
Posted in Living! |
The exciting conclusion of my Cabbage Soup Diet adventure!
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011So I’m pretty sure some of you are at least a little curious to know how this whole diet thing turned out for me. I had my meeting with Carol the Nutritionist this afternoon and at my weigh-in I had lost . . . 7 pounds! And that was without any exercising because I just couldn’t muster up the energy to do any of that this last week. Carol’s words at that were: “Think of how much more you would have lost if you had exercised!” And yet, I have no regrets about taking it easy because I genuinely didn’t have it in me.
For the record, if anyone cares to know how much trouble I’m in with the weight issue, that puts me at 225 pounds. But it’s a start and that’s what I was really looking for, more than a massive weight loss. It would have been super cool to lose a lot of weight, and I’m tickled by a >5 pound loss in a week, but I still have a long way to go. My goal healthy weight is around 140 pounds.
To that end, Carol and I talked about what my diet goals need to be. And, in short, it’s restrictive. The foods I can eat are fruits, non-starchy vegetables, and lean protein. No dairy. No carbs. No sugar. No bread. No rice. No potatoes. No cheese. Until I can get my weight down where it needs to be, I need to stay clear away from those things. Once I’m down where I need to be and have learned how to eat healthy foods and in correct portions, then I can look at adding carbs back into my diet, but until then . . . nada.
It’s going to be really, really hard. And I know I’m going to have cheat days, but they have to be few and far between. Of course, I’m starting out with a cheat day tomorrow—I’m going to have bread because I just can’t stop dreaming about it. But I have to learn how to get appropriate carbs from fruits and veggies, instead of flour.
And that, honestly, is frustrating. I don’t especially want to do it. But nothing else I’ve done has worked. And I’m really sick and tired of weighing so much more than my husband. And my clothes not fitting right. And being embarrassed to wear a swim suit. And wondering if I’m the fattest girl in the room. And not being able to run. And hating photographs taken of me.
And that . . . is all I have to say about that.
Last day!!
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011So it turns out that I didn’t even touch my computer at all last night. After getting off work, I went next door to the airport to pick up Justin’s grandma. Then we drove to Savannah to visit with Justin’s sister for a little bit and pick up her car. And then we drove to Bluffton to get Justin and go out to dinner. We went to Jim ‘n’ Nicks, one of our favorite restaurants, an excellent barbeque place, so I could get a steak and a house salad and watch them eat mac and cheese and cheese biscuits that are *so* yummy. My steak was excellent, though, so I didn’t mind terribly much. I don’t eat steak very often, but I do really enjoy it when I do. Anyway, after dinner, we went back home and sat on the couch chatting until around 11:30, when they both realized I was falling asleep and sent me off to bed.
Today makes it the last day of my week on the Cabbage Soup-less Diet. I’m back to fruits and veggies today, no bananas, no starchies, and no tomatoes. I’m happy to have fruit today. I’ve got a bowl of grapefruit here that I’m eating for breakfast and I’m struggling because it’s just SO tart! For lunch, I have a spinach salad with a homemade raspberry dressing that Justin made a couple days ago and I’m really excited to give it a try.
This whole diet thing has been an interesting experience, but I’ll be honest: I’m not enthusiastic about doing it for a second week, no matter how encouraging Carol-the-nutritionist is on that plan. She called yesterday morning to check on me and reminded me that if I was interested, I could do this a second week, with even more results. And it’s possible that I’ve dropped several pounds doing this. And it’s definitely sure that I’ve been able to rethink the foods I’ve been eating and the foods that I haven’t been eating and I’m ready to start on a new food plan for a healthier and skinnier me.
But let me tell you, I am ready for some starch. I thought I’d crave the sugar more than anything, but when I think about eating some of the things I haven’t been eating, I can imagine eating just a serving of ice cream, or just a couple M&Ms. I am able to imagine that I can stick to a serving size of a sugar-heavy item and keep my servings per day and per week to a reasonable amount. I can manage without the caffeine. I didn’t really drink it much anyway, and the longer I’m without it, the easier it is to get up in the morning.
But I’ve been dreaming about eating bread. I’ve honestly been waking up in the morning having dreamed of going to a sandwich shop. And when I imagine eating bread, I don’t imagine reasonable serving sizes. I imagine thick slices of fresh, warm bread, and more than just one slice. I am seriously jonesing for some bread.
I am perfectly willing to start eating low sugar content and giving up the caffeine, but I cannot give up the bread yet. Heck, if I had to go completely sugar free, I’d probably be willing to do that, if I can only eat some bread! And I will avoid white flour and go all whole grains and everything, just let me eat a slice of warm, fresh bread.
So I’ll be talking with the nutritionist about that this afternoon. And hopefully on a great new plan starting tomorrow. But for the rest of today, I’m eating fruits and veggies.
Adventures in Baking!
Monday, April 25th, 2011I made spaghetti squash for the first time last night. It was not at all like I expected, but just exactly as described.
For the sake of anyone who hasn’t tried this yet and might want to in the future, here’s what I did:
- I got a spaghetti squash from the grocery store. They’re yellow and oval and about 12 inches long.
- I took it home, washed the outside of it, and then stick it with a skewer every couple of inches to, apparently, “stop it from bursting” (according to the online directions I found).
- I stuck it in the oven at 375* for an hour. (This is the step that I might change next time – I think I should have cooked it for longer.)
- After that hour was up, I took it out and let it sit on the counter for 30 minutes to cool. (Trust me, this wasn’t quite long enough.)
- After 30 minutes, I cut it in half lengthwise with a serrated knife. I took a spoon and scooped out the seeds.
- And here’s the spot that always got me in the instructions: I took a fork and gently loosened the fibers.
I didn’t understand how this squash had “fibers” when all the other squash I’ve eaten was more of a pulp. But nope! As soon as you cut this thing open, you’ll see that it’ll separate into thick fibers that do look extraordinarily like spaghetti. You just scrape it away from the skin of the squash.
We ate half the squash last night. Justin ate some, and he doesn’t eat squash, so that’s saying something right there. And I went back for a big bowl of seconds because I was really hungry. And we still have half a squash left. You get a lot of spaghetti from one squash.
Now, it didn’t really turn out exactly like spaghetti because it was crunchy. It’s hard to pretend you’re eating spaghetti when it’s crunchy. But I think I probably should have left it in the oven for longer than an hour. It’ll be interesting to see if the leftovers soften up when I reheat them.
But I can’t eat them tonight because the other half of the meal was meat and tomatoes and I can’t have tomatoes today. So we’re going out and buying me a steak tonight. I’m really looking forward to that steak.
I’ll have more to say about my day and my diet later, but this is long enough for right now.
And, Erica, the thicker the slices on the zucchini, the better. I’d aim for about a quarter-inch thick. Enjoy!