Year 4, Day 82: Fun at Chan Shin Yuan

I continue to fall hard.  If it weren't for brushing my teeth, I would have eaten up the closet, the doors, the hinges.  Went to Chan Shin Yuan with my brother and they were fantastic.

Breakfast

Kashi Go Lean

Heritage Flakes

Banana

Strawberries

Blueberries

Soy Milk 

Coffee

Snack

4 Sticks Beef Jerky

2 Cheese STicks

Assorted Almonds

Lunch: Chan Shin Yuan

Boneless Spareribs

Moo Shi Pork (2 pancakes)

Chun King Pork

String Beans & Prawns (Fantastic)

Dinner

Left-over Chop Salad from Skipjacks (Sugary dressing)

1 Tuna Maki piece

the remainder of the Chun King Pork

Dessert

More almonds

healthy choice pop

some peanuts

Year 3, Day 184: Back to Grind

Oh God, please don't make me go back to work. Please. Please. Please. Please. It's so immature to plan ways to go back to Martha's Vineyard in the middle of the night and then make up a lie about it to your boss and staff. But sometimes that's what you have to do when it's 3AM the night before you go back to work after 10 days.

Breakfast
Kashi Go Lean!
Heritage Flakes
Strawberries
Blueberries
Banana
Unsweetened Soy Milk
Coffee

Lunch: Chan Shing Yuan
Moo Shi Pork
Shrimp with Vegetables

Snack
4 oz Dale THomas Popcorn
.5 oz Boston LIte Popcorn
'Beef Jerky

Dinner
Pork
Cauliflower

Blah. Blah. Blah.

Year 3, Day 159: Chung Shin Yuan at Home

From the South Beach Newsletter: Dairy 101

It's easy to shop for dairy on the South Beach Diet® once you know a few basic guidelines. The South Beach Diet® recommends choosing low-fat and fat-free dairy products, which are low in artery-clogging saturated fats. In Phase 1, dairy options include low-fat (1 percent) or fat-free (skim) milk and low-fat or nonfat plain yogurt. (Feel free to flavor your yogurt with a sugar substitute and an extract of your choice, like vanilla extract.)

Beginning in Phase 2, you can also choose an artificially sweetened, no-sugar-added, low-fat or fat-free yogurt. You may also substitute low-fat plain or artificially sweetened soy milk (though unsweetened is better-Ed.) for dairy products in all Phases. Low-fat or fat-free, lactose-free milk is also fine in all Phases.

It's also worth noting that cheese is considered a protein on the South Beach Diet®. (Yay!-Ed.) To control your saturated fat intake, look for cheeses with 6 grams of fat or less per ounce. While there is no serving limitation for cheese, some people report stalled weight loss from eating too much. If you're experiencing this, cut back on your cheese consumption. (Drat.-Ed.)

Breakfast
Kashi Go Lean!
Heritage Flakes
Strawberries
Blueberries
Banana
Unsweetened Soy Milk
Coffee

Lunch: Russo's ($5.25)
Romaine, red pepper, feta
chicken, broccoli, mushrooms
balsamic vinegar, pepperocini

Snack
4 sticks beef jerky
2 oz 50% Jalapeno Cheddar
1 Jazz Apple

Poker/Dinner
Pistachios
Cashew & Almonds
Popcorn
1 Frito Corn Chip

Chinese:
3 Moo Shi Pork
Kung Pao Chicken
Mongolian Shrimp
String Beans with Beef & Garlic
Boneless Spareribs
Beef Teriyaki
Double Cooked Pork

A few bites of pie
1 beer

Went crazy with the Chinese food. As always, I order too much and then try to make up for it by eating too much. And dessert didn't help.

Year 3, Day 135: Driving to Quebec

Frustrated by two successive trips to Russo's without local strawberries, and devastated by the crappy taste, texture, appearance of Driscoll's sub-par product, I leave work early to suss out a local farmer's market where I am disappointed. A few phone calls bring me to Volante Farm, where I land two quarts of Quebec-based strawberries which look like native Massachusetts strawberries and taste fantastic. At $6.99/quart they are truly an indulgence, but I must have them. I pack them carefully in a box, considering whether I should buy a third quart and skulk away, eating them in the car on the way home.

Breakfast
Kashi (last of mass. strawberries)
Heritage Flakes
Strawberries
Blueberries
Banana
Unsweetened Soy Milk
Coffee

Snack
4 slices of turkey
1 beef stick
1.5 oz boston lite popcorn.

Lunch: Chang Shin Yuan
Chun King Pork
Shrimp & Broccoli
Pea Pod Tendrils
Tea

Dinner
Hamburger & Brisket
Salad
Equivalent of two ears of corn, as unfinished by Magnolia

Cahn Shin Yuan closed for two weeks, it was tough. Today was our triumphant return, and it felt so good. Perhaps giving in to a little indulgence, we ordered a third dish between two people, though it was a vegetable, and it Pea Pod Tendrils, and they were so yummy. We finished everything.

Year 3, Day 97: OOps I did it again

Continued anxiety over pending change, both real and imagined sends me to the loose almonds and other snacks. Though it is familiar to most, I can only describe it as a feeling of 'letting go' somewhere deep inside you. Somewhere in you there is a voice that says "I am going to allow you to feed the nut monster." It's sub-transient. For me there is little difference between stepping on the elevator and how far you down you get, floor-wise. Once you get on the nut elevator, it's over. I know for most people it's ice cream, chocolate, liquor, but slowly I've removed a lot of vices in my life, and at this point to paraphrase Bruce Springsteen, "it's just the three of us: you, me and all that stuff we're so scared of." Oh, and of course, the nuts.

Breakfast
Kashi Go Lean!
Heritage Flakes
Strawberries
Blueberries
Banana
Unsweetened Soy Milk
Coffee

Snack
4 sticks beef jerky
1 apple
almonds, to taste
.5 oz Boston Lite popcorn
12 oz decaf coffee

lunch: russo's $5.74
Romaine, red pepper, red onion, feta
chicken, broccoli, mushrooms
balsamic vinegar, pepperocini


dinner: Chun Ying Shun
Shredded Pork with String Beans
Mooshi Pork
Chun King Pork
Boneless Spareribs

It never fails that a day when I've eaten too much (of one thing or another) is the day Emily surprises me by asking for Chinese food for 'special. Of course, you don't have to ask me twice for Chang Shin Yuan. I also have learned not to bring anything home but the big winners, all listed above.

Year 3, Day 27: The Next Deadline

Is a party for my Mom's 70th- can you believe it? There are hundred little details, of which I am forgetting all of from a day-to-day basis. I am making a film, and it requires a lot of time and concentration. I couldn't write about it before, but by the time you read this, the party will be over and it won't be a secret.

Breakfast
Kashi Go Lean!
Heritage Flakes
Strawberries
Blueberries
Banana
Unsweetened Soy Milk
Coffee

Snack
Five Pieces Beef Jerky
1 Fuji Apple
2 oz 50% Jalapeno Cheddar

Lunch: Crown Kitchen
Chicken KeBab Salad (no feta)


Dinner: Chang Shin Yuan
Boneless Spareribs
Chun King Pork
Shredded Pork with STring Beans
Beef with Broccoli
Shrimp with Asparagus

Just two of us today, but a VERY Fast walk. Totally sweat-inducing. Got Crown Kitchen again, but they totally bungled the order- no feta on my Chicken Kebab with Feta. I mean, "what's the point?' I like to support my local shops, but I have to, reluctantly, strike them from the list. In alternative eating news, I pioneered the "Chang Shin Yuan" movement at home. I tried to get things my kids would like (Ruby likes steak & broccoli and magnolia likes shrimp & asparagus) but they were both abject failures and got the thumbs down from Emily, even though she liked the shredded pork with string beans and boneless spareribs. She didn't like the chun king pork because it was too spicy. Lessons learned.

Year 3, Day 8: It's Nut Very Good

Another year on the South Beach Diet and another day of 100 nuts. It is like the feeling of running fast downhill. You hope you don't hit a tree-root and go flying but ooop-- you did and now you're going ass over elbow into the nut-brush. It's really just hopeless some days.

Breakfast
Kashi Go Lean!
Heritage Flakes
Blueberries
Banana
Unsweetened Soy Milk
Coffee

Snack
5 Sticks Beef Jerky
60 Pistachios
40 Almonds

Lunch: Chan Shin Yuan
Chung King Pork
Chicken with Spinach
Pork with String Beans
Beef Teriyaki

Dinner: The Met Bar
Greek Salad with Brick-Pressed Chicken; with Balsamic Vinegar
(a few bites of the bread basket: cran-raisin flatbread; corn bread; popover).

Once again, I can see by the review of my day's consumables that food higher in sugar leads one to eat more. You can argue all you like, but I can always see it in the black and white. It's something about resisting temptation makes it easier to resist temptation, but giving in makes it easier to keep on giving in. Look it up, you'll find it somewhere.