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 4, Day 81: Walks Don't Entitle You

To eat chocolate during the afternoon, yet I was gobbling it up in an effort to quell my crippling work-related anxiety.  This was proceeded by popcorn and followed by almonds.  I could feel the rip-cord dangling in my hand as I parachuted out of the South Beach diet for the day, uncontrollably.  Certainly it was good to have walked to Russo's and back, but it was a struggle.  When I came home I made an onion cheeseburger and a salad, and Emily finished both of them, which was just as well.  Towards the end of the night,  I fed Magnolia a creamsicle, which I literally HAD to eat the last bite of as it threatened to drip all over me, her, and her bed.   It really was the only way.

Breakfast

Kashi Go Lean

Heritage Flakes

Banana

Strawberries

Blueberries

Soy Milk 

Coffee

Snack

1 oz Boston Lite Popcorn

2 Squares Hershey Dark Chocolate

About 15-20 Unsalted Almonds

Lunch: Russo's $5.98

Romaine, Peppers, Hot Peppers, Mushrooms, Broccoli, Assorted Cheeses, Tofu, and Chicken, Balsamic Vinegar

Dinner

Onion cheeseburger

Romaine, Cabbage, Feta, Balsamic

Dessert

1/17th of a Creamsicle (Edy's)

Year 4, Day 80: Fordee's

This morning Ruby and Magnolia were both crying before 7:30AM. That makes it really hard to create a good breakfast for myself. Therefore, I resorted to the peanut butter and bread, and try to make the best of it. No walk today, and it remained cold.  It's a truly bad sign that at 7:48 I am praying to make it to the American Idol finale.

Breakfast

1 Slice of my Rye-Wheat Bread

Super Chunky Peanut Butter

2 oz 50% Jalapeno Cheddar

Snack

4 Sticks Beef Jerky

1.5 oz Boston Lite Popcorn

Lunch: Fordee's

Chicken Schwarma Platter

Lettuce, Hummus, Chicken

Dinner: Cabot's

Spinach Salad

Grilled Chicken

Dessert

Sugar Free Chocolate yogurt

Year 4, Day 79: Crying on the Treadmill

You know you're in trouble when a TV commercial with the sound down can make you cry.  Nothing makes you feel stupider, smaller, and like a shriveled-up, running-too slow loser.   

Look for yourself.  

Breakfast

Kashi Go Lean

Heritage Flakes

Banana

Strawberries

Blueberries

Soy Milk 

Coffee

Snack

1 oz Boston Lite Popcorn

Lunch: Russo's $5.98

Romaine, Peppers, Hot Peppers, Mushrooms, Broccoli, Assorted Cheeses, Tofu, and Chicken, Balsamic Vinegar

Dinner

More Salad, Romaine, Cabbage, Tuna, Cheese

Dessert

1 Healthy Choice Pop

1/4 bite of a Peppermint Brownie

1 Slice of My Whole Wheat Bread with Butter

Year 4, Day 78: Sunday

First night of good sleep in quite a while, determined to make the most of Sunday.  Made three loaves of bread (two white, one wheat), four quarts of chicken soup and Katherine Hepburn's brownies.   Also, found time to work out for 35 minute (400 calories burned) and a few squats, ab crunches and a spin on the gravitron.   Got to to barbecue and still played with the kids.   However, still needed help going to sleep.

Breakfast

Two eggs and a rasher of bacon at Whole Foods (they have a breakfast bar)

Lunch:

Scrambled Eggs

and My Bread with Butter

Postworkout Snack

6 oz. Stonyfield Plain Yogurt

Super Chunky Peanut Butter

Dinner:

Steak Tips, Broccoli

Barbecue Bok Choy

Year 4, Day 77

Sure, there's a lot to discuss about the reunion, but I can't write my manifesto here, because it's public and it because there's too much to write. I'd fall behind and it's my motto not to fall behind too much anymore.   This morning, we were all feeling the sting of having a little too much and staying up a little too late.  I had a few moments of waking up in the night but mostly they passed. However, Ruby called me at 7:50Am that was not a very happy moment, either for me or her, I'm afraid.  After not being able to go back to sleep, I mummied-up and got the room in order, and met Joe for breakfast at the stage door. It was serviceable, and the coffee was good.  For some reason, I thought breakfast at 10 would be good enough for me to skip lunch on the train back to Boston.  Just goes to show how alcohol can affect your thinking!   I bought a bag of almonds and some chocolate but did not get a salad or a sandwich.  What was I thinking?  By the time I got on the train I was starving and had only a 6 oz bag of nuts and a bar of chocolate.  I proceeded to eat too much of both and then I sought out the bar car.  My dream of a $6.50 tuna sandwich was destroyed when they were sold out, so I took a yogurt and the cheese plate.

Breakfast: Stage Door

Tomato, Feta and Spinach omelet

side of bacon

Wheat toast (really white toast with wheat flavor)

coffee

Train ride to South Beach Hell

nearly 4 0z of Almonds

2 squares of chocolate

1 Dannon Yogurt

Cheese & Cracker Platters

Upon Arrival Home

1 Pink Lady Apple

2 oz Boston Lite Popcorn

Dinner

Steak Tips, Hamburger Bits

Rober'ts BBQ Bok Choy

Emily's Cauliflower

Year 4, Day 76: Reunion

Or "Please God I'm Sorry I ate the Almond Pudding."  Prior to me going to New York, both Emily and I had a premonition that I would have some kind of gastric distress while there, perhaps at the reunion.  As I take those things very seriously, I tried to be careful about where we had dinner.   Unfortunately, two things-- the liver (my colleague ordered it) and the almond pudding (really just milk pudding with almond slices) did me in.  I tossed and turned most of the night, and, concerned about today's slate of meetings and reunion, I got myself into a terrible middle-of-the-night tizzy.  It didn't help that the Affinia hotel, and especially my room, featured an assortment of nerve-jangling old-style elevator noises that were really unidentifiable, but especially jarring at night.

Breakfast (Guy & Galliard)

Bacon & Cheese Omelet

2 Slices Multi grain Bread

Fruit Cup

Lunch: La Luncheonette

Salad Nicoise

Coffee

IAC

Grabbed two Dannon probiotic lite yogurts.

They were good.

Reunion (Non-Dinner)

A few pieces of pita in hummus

felafel balls

some other fried things

salmon tartar

Dinner (PJ Clarkes)

Cheeseburger & Bacon

Side of Greens

French Fries & Onion Rings

Lots and Lots of Beer

Year 4, Day 75: Trip to NY (Tired of that headline, yet?)

Today I worked from home in advance of going to NY.  I got to the gym, and I did 3.5 miles in 33 minutes, probably 500 calories.   Ate the usual breakfast and got by on the train with only a few snacks, but then I blew it at dinner. Sigh.

Breakfast

Kashi Go Lean 

Heritage Flakes

Banana

Strawberries

Blueberries

Soy Milk

Coffee

Lunch: 

Tuna Salad

Lettuce & Cabbage

Balsamic Vinegar

After workout snack

1 Slice Multi-grain brad

super chunky peanut butter

50% Jalapeno Cheddar cheese

Dinner: Turkish Kitchen

Artichoke

Liver

Eggplant

Mediterannean Sole with Romaine Salad

Almond Pudding

Year 4, Day 74: Running Out of Time

Today we had an unexpected conference call at 12pm (very hostile) that lasted till 1pm.  I'm sorry to say I was nearly laying my head on the desk from low blood sugar.  I walked into the square and ordered a salad from the Upper Crust Pizzeria, whose claim to fame is that salads take 20 minutes, which is not great when you are hypo-glycemic.   The only other alternative was Crown Cafe, but they also take a long time but use only old iceberg lettuce.  UC sold me their $9 Greek salad that has no feta, and one pepperocini.  Are there standards anywhere?

Breakfast

Kashi Go Lean

Heritage Flakes

Banana

Strawberries

Blueberries

Soy Milk 

Coffee

Snack

4 sticks Beef Jerky

100 Almonds

2 Cheese Sticks

Lunch: The Upper Crust

Greek Salad with Chicken

Dinner:

Cold Catfish, some chicken

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Dessert

About 32 Chocolate chips

Year 4, Day 73: Another Walk

Amazingly, went for a walk today, which is good because on Tuesdays I go out with Ruby for a little Daddy & Me date.  I pick her up at clay class (where she 1) covered with clay and 2) eager to hug me so I am then covered with clay).  Then I ask her where she wants to go to dinner. Tonight's answer was "Cabots," which is the Hamburger and ice cream shoppe in Newton. It's not FANTASTIC, but it's so rare to find an above-average, family friendly place with good food and good ice cream that you really can't complain. Plus on Tuesdays it's not busy.  I asked if they had any "low calorie" yogurt. Their answer: "We have sugar free, lactose free, wheat free and dairy free" desserts.   I asked which one was the lowest in calories.  She didn't know, she was stumped. I guess no one ever came to Cabots looking for low-calorie desserts.

Breakfast

Kashi Go Lean

Heritage Flakes

Banana

Strawberries

Blueberries

Soy Milk 

Coffee

Lunch: Russo's ($5.35)

Romaine, Peppers, Hot Peppers, Mushrooms, Chicken, Tofu, Broccoli, Balsamic Vinegar

Dinner: Cabots

Baby Spinach Salad

with Hard Boiled Egg, Cheese, Bacon and Grilled Chicken

Newman's Balsamic Vinaigrette (lots of calories, I only used half)

One french fry

Dessert

1/2 sugar free Chocolate yogurt.  A few Reese's cup pieces that fell off Ruby's dessert.

Year 4, Day 72

Five days til the reunion. Okay, I'm not even the most obsessed with it.  There are a few people on the boards flying in from far away.  Some are planning a pre-reunion party.  Some have invited people to come to their house after the party.  Me, I'm just trying to get through the week. There are deadlines, big meetings, and naturally, the reunion.  I'm a tad worried about all the eating.   Hopefully, I'll get to the gym Friday morning.

Breakfast

2 Hard Boiled Eggs

3 Slices of Microwave Bacon

Coffee

Lunch: Russo's ($5.98)

Green leaf

peppers, hot peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, mushrooms

Dinner

Psuedo Chinese Ribs

Bok Choy

Year 4, Day 71: Gym and Chocolate

Went to the gym this morning, and did a 40 minute workout in the fear that I would once again, be kicked off the elliptical by a posse of low-endorphin-possessing folk who need a fix.   After 40 minutes was up, I was still feeling like I could do more and there was no one waiting.  So I set up another 25 minute workout and finished it out.  Around 7 miles, all on fat-burning.  I calculated I lost about 700 calories, not including time downstairs (in the weight room) doing some various other workouts.   Then I went home and proceeded to eat at least 700 calories, thereby eliminating nearly any advantage of the workout.  

I mostly spent the day with Magnolia and Ruby and tried to give Emily some much needed free time, though it probably only amounted to a few hours in the end.   Perhaps not the classic hoped-for Mother's Day, but at least it was something.  

Breakfast

Kashi Go Lean

Heritage Flakes

Bananas

Strawberries

Blueberries

Soy Milk

Coffee

Various Things Eaten Without Paying Much Attention To

Nuts

Cheese from last night

Some chocolate chips

Lunch

1 Slice of Whole Wheat Bread with Super Chunky Peanut Butter

Small Salad with Canadian Cheddar and little bit of Chicken

Dinner

Steak Tips 

Broccoli

Dessert

1 Healthy Choice Pop

Year 4, Day 70: Dinner at Jillz's

The usual up and out with Magnolia and I trying fruitlessly to get a new mailbox for our house (went to three hardware stores and nothing).  I had a thought that kept me company all day, giving me no end of chuckles.  I thought, "I need a mailbox." Wouldn't it be funny if I went to Mailboxes, Etc. and insisted they sell me one? And the confused clerk there would be trying to tell me that they don't sell Mailboxes.  And I would insist they must, because otherwise, why is the store called "Mailboxes Etc.?"  Maybe you don't think it's funny, but I sure do.  Especially because I just can't think how in the world I am going to get myself a mailbox.

Breakfast

2 Slices Flax & Fiber bread

2 Hard Boiled Eggs

Assorted Almonds

Coffee

Lunch: Sweet Basil

Greek Salad 

A few spoonfuls of pesto

Dinner at Jillz

Flank Steak

Chicken

Asparagus

Grilled Scallions

Flourless Fudge Chocolate Cake

Chocolate with Bacon

Year 4, Day 69: Walking Again

Though rain was threatening, I convinced two others two risk wetness, coldness and general other unfortunate results of being caught in a rainstorm and walk to Russo's with me.  We took the chance, and except for a few drizzle-drops at the end, we got lucky and had a successful trip.  I must say that I can't remember the last time I walked out of Russo's with ONLY a salad.  For that, it was remarkable.  It was a poker night, so I tried to withstand the siren call of nuts and all things carbie, though I did indulge in the semi-usual breakfast.

Breakfast

Heritage Flakes

Kashi Go Lean

Strawberries

Bananas

Soy Milk

Coffee

Lunch: Russo's ($5.48)

Romaine, broccoli, chicken, peppers, hot peppers, mushrooms, parmesan.

Snack

4 Beef Jerky Sticks

2 Cheese Sticks

Dinner/Poker:

Cashews & Almonds

19th Whole Mix (which is basically that kind of spicy cajun mix with rice crackers)

Popcorn

Blue Ribbon BBQ: One Rib, Some Chicken, Sausage

Cole Slaw

Baked Beans

Collard Greens

Year 4, Day 68: I heart Shangri-La

A great moment for me during the very early stages of my diet was eating a dish called pork with celery from Chan Shin Yuan in Watertown, MA.  I had been on phase one for maybe three, four weeks and hadn't had anything with any flavor in it for a while.   Everything tasted like cardboard and felt like rubber in my mouth.   That day was an incredible day because the spice and the flavors made fireworks in my mouth and I ate the whole thing in three minutes, like a depression-era hobo given some soup after a long day canvassing the rail road tracks.   The cousin of the owner of Chan owns Shangri-La, which is amazingly, much better than Chan and fortunately, close enough to my office to go every once in a while.  We try to eat our way through the menu and today was no exception.

Breakfast

Kashi

Heritage Flakes

Banana

Blueberries

Strawberries

Soy Milk

Coffee

Lunch: Shangri-La

Sauteed Cabbage

Pork, Bean Curd and Scallions

Pork Meatball and Bok Choy

Snack

Four Sticks of Beef Jerky

2 Cheese Sticks

Dinner:

Tuna Salad

Bok Choy

Year 4, Day 67: Stay Hungry

Another key element in a life of weight management is being hungry.  Going through a stressful period, I can tell that part of the problem is pressure that leads to need for stress relief which can be found, usually, by eating nearly 100 nuts. Fortunately, I was out of nuts today, which left me eating everything in my office, including lint and paper clips (not listed).

Breakfast

2 small slices of Balthazar Bread

2 nearly too hard boiled eggs

coffee

Snack

5 pieces of beef jerky

2 cheese sticks

.5 oz Boston Lite popcorn

Lunch: Russo's ($4.98)

Romaine, red peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, feta, chicken, balsamic vinegar, pepperocini

Dinner

Breast of chicken plus more salad

Year 4, Day 66: Sugar Free is not Calorie Free

One of the most difficult things to remember is that things that don't contain sugar are not only not reliably GOOD for you, but that often they are WORSE for you than the things they are replacing.  What all the sugar-free stuff really is for is not for dieters who actually will torpedo their diets by ingesting lots of calories and bad stuff like corn syrup but for diabetics and those that actually can eat anything but not SUGAR.  Anyway, tonight I took Ruby to Cabot's after her clay lesson and for some reason I talked myself into ordering a sugar free chocolate soft-serve yogurt.  To my own dismay, I completed the transition to old Jewish man when I could hear to repeatedly say outloud, to no one but my uninterested, underpaid wait staff 'this can't be sugar free.'  Ruby, meanwhile, was buried, nose to eyebrow in coffee oreo sundae, minus the cherry, whipped cream, or really anything that would qualify it as a sundae.  Again, there were a lot of nuts. It was not a great day.

Breakfast

2 Eggs

3 slices of Canadian Bacon

Coffee

Snack

4 sticks beef jerky

2 cheese sticks

lots of almonds (probably in the 70s)

Lunch: Demo's

Chicken kebab with Greek Salad

Dinner: Cabot's

Side Caesar Salad (made from the dark green gritty tops of romaine hearts, a sad tale but I ate all of it)

Dinner Salad (Spinach, bacon, olives, mushrooms, cheese, grilled chicken). I eschewed the eggs.

Dessert

1 cup of sugar-free (!) chocolate soft-serve yogurt

Ruby said her hamburger was 'perfect' and even better than the 'burger bar'.  She poured ketchup on half of the bun, then dipped seven french fries in it.  Then she lost all interest in her french fries and ate the entire hamburger and left both halves of the bun over.  That's my girl, I thought.  Save the calories for the ice cream.

Year 4, Day 65: Nutsed Out

Well, somedays start out good and turn into 100 nut days, and then there are days when you're reaching for the nuts early. I always laugh now when I read diet advice that says "instead of chips or something unhealthy, reach for vegetables or nuts."  WHAT ABOUT WHEN YOU GET ADDICTED TO NUTS?   They don't talk about that, it's all about swapping out methodone for heroin, but what then?   Mainline nuts, that's what.

Breakfast

Kashi Go Lean

Heritage Flakes

Banana

Strawberries

Blueberries

Soy Milk

Coffee

Lunch: Russo's ($5.49)

Chicken, Romaine-Stamos, Peppers (red and hot), mushrooms, broccoli, feta, balsamic vinegar.

Snack (out of control)

3 sticks beef jerky

1 oz Boston lite popcorn

2 cheese sticks

somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 almonds

dinner

salad with tuna, feta, cabbage

dessert (if you can believe it)

some of the last squares of chocolate espresso bean bar (sure is yummy)

Year 4, Day 64: Kicked Off the Elliptical

Well, it's been three years and it finally happened. A posse of folks gathered behind me and observed that I was on minute 57:00 of my workout and wanted me to observe the sign that says "30 minutes if people are waiting."   I finished my minute and deplaned, when the guy on a nearby elliptical said "I wouldn't have handled that as well you did."  To which I responded, "well, I had the runner's high."  But what I should have said to the gang is-- the 30 minutes begins when people are waiting or not?  Maybe next time.  Anyway, I did about 6.5 miles and was surely to hit seven if not interrupted.   I did lots of weight stuff at the gym, and I'm looking to do more core-strengthening.   Two weeks till the reunion.  Jeez.

Breakfast

Kashi Go lean

Heritage Flakes

Banana

Strawberries

Blueberries

Soy Milk

Coffee

Postworkout Snack

6 oz Stonyfield Yogurt

Superchunky Peanut Butter

Lunch: The Met Bar @ Natick with Ruby

Greek Salad with chicken

a bite of Ruby's burger

a sip of her chocolate milkshake (delish)

a few fries with ketchup.

Dinner

Flank Steak on the grill a la Robert

Cauliflower

Big Green Salad

Extraneously eaten while preparing dinner or cleaning up

sponge cake slices

some 50% reduced cheddar jalapeno (yep, that again)

some tomato sauce with sausages

Sometimes I fear I'm eating more on gym days than I'm even working off.  Eating at the burger bar with Ruby was a great, great time. She loved her milkshake. When I asked her if it was good, she answered 'it's better than good, it's perfect!'  One of the few shiny parenting moments.  Listen, you've got to take them where you get them.

Year 4, Day 63: Day Goes Awry

Right from the start I knew this day would be trouble, and surely it showed itself to be troublesome indeed.  Computer problems, scheduling problems, and miscommunications abounded.  I missed going to the gym, and ergo my eating plan was wrong for the day.  If you're like me, you'll need to have a good idea of what you're going to eat in the way of breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner.  Today I had my cereal and yogurt with peanut butter but without the gym those are generally a bad combination.  And right before i wrote this I had a few break-off square of chocolate espresso bar.  Yeeeks.

Breakfast

Kashi Go Lean

Heritage Flakes

Banana

Strawberries

Blueberries

Soy Milk

Coffee

Lunch

Hastily combined sandwich of

2 Hard Boiled Eggs, 4 Slices of Microwave Bacon,

Salsa and 1 oz of Cracker Barrel Cheese wrapped in a Joseph's Net Carb wrap with Salsa.

Snack

A few goldfish

6 oz Stonyfield Fat Free Yogurt

2 Tablespoons Peanut Butter

Some Popcorn (Boston Lite)

Dinner

Hamburger

Pickles, Olives and Broccoli

A few bites of Ruby's Pizza (Freschetta, which is not very good).