Year 3, Day 61: Thinking about Phase One?

Sometimes I can't help but think it might be time to return to Phase One. I can't help the feeling. It's not that I'm slipping into old patterns, but worse: I feel like I have set a new standard for being thin and hungry and now I am failing to achieve that. So it's not that I'm failing to stay on the diet; I'm just failing to be hungry. Am I a man-o-rexic? I try to have eggs to break my breakfast rut. It's appeal is...limited. Having three instead of two helps somewhat.

Breakfast
3 Eggs
3 strips turkey bacon
coffee

snack
2 oz 50% jalapeno cheddar
4 sticks beef jerky
1 cameo apple

lunch russo's $5.37
Romaine, red pepper, red onion, feta
chicken, broccoli, mushrooms
balsamic vinegar, pepperocini

dinner
hamburger
pickle
cauliflower

Sometimes it feels like the bowls of cereal and trays of salad are getting bigger and bigger. It's not true, but you can probably guess that when the salad bowl got close to six dollars, the cereal bowl was probably overflowing too. That's really why you must find things that have no calories and eat them and eat them some more. Of course, that's really just celery and radishes and that gets so so tiresome.

Year 3, Day 60: Crying on the Elliptical

Magnolia had a birthday party at the JCC where parents are invited to drop off your kids and go workout. This is of course provided your kid isn't clutchy and can do without you. It was my only opportunity all weekend to workout, so I took it, even though I could tell the parents weren't so sure what they were signing up for. I got in half a workout- 4 miles in 32.50 minutes and 80 ab crunches. I didn't want to push it; I got back in time for the cake, which to my dismay, was served with both juice AND ice cream. Just 10 minutes before wiping Magnolia's butter cream frosting-covered face, I was having an emotional breakdown on the elliptical. I can't explain these things, they just happen.

Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson

Grew up in a small town
And when the rain would fall down
I'd just stare out my window
Dreaming of what could be
And if I'd end up happy
I would pray (I would pray)

Trying hard to reach out
But when I tried to speak out
Felt like no one could hear me
Wanted to belong here
But something felt so wrong here
So I prayed I could break away

[Chorus:]
I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly
I'll do what it takes til' I touch the sky
And I'll make a wish
Take a chance
Make a change
And breakaway
Out of the darkness and into the sun
But I won't forget all the ones that I love
I'll take a risk
Take a chance
Make a change
And breakaway

Wanna feel the warm breeze
Sleep under a palm tree
Feel the rush of the ocean
Get onboard a fast train
Travel on a jet plane, far away (I will)
And breakaway

[Chorus]

Buildings with a hundred floors
Swinging around revolving doors
Maybe I don't know where they'll take me but
Gotta keep moving on, moving on
Fly away, breakaway

I'll spread my wings
And I'll learn how to fly
Though it's not easy to tell you goodbye
I gotta take a risk
Take a chance
Make a change
And breakaway
Out of the darkness and into the sun
But I won't forget the place I come from
I gotta take a risk
Take a chance
Make a change
And breakaway, breakaway, breakaway

Breakfast
3 Eggs
3 strips Turkey Bacon
Coffee

Lunch
Big Salad
Roast Turkey

Snack
1 Apple
1/2 cup Kashi

Dinner: Paparazzi
Mixed Greens with Goat Cheese and Balsamic Vinegar
Chicken with Lemon
Spinach & Broccoli
2 Shrimp
1 Meatball

We picked up Ruby from a play date, and on the way home she asked "Why don't we ever go out to dinner?" The truth is that Magnolia finds it hard to sit still and it's not that much fun to chase her around the restaurant. At least it's not as much fun for US as it is for her. Nevertheless, in a fit of parental generosity, we decided to drive straight to the restaurant and go out to eat. Emily marveled that Ruby could suggest something and we could follow through on it. I was glad we did it because we didn't go shopping and had no dinner groceries or plan whatsoever. Paparazzi, unlike so many other restaurants of its ilk, is a family-friendly restaurant (read: they provide crayons and dessert) but that serve excellent food with healthy options. Of all the places we've been to it's my favorite, and so naturally, I get the same exact thing every time. Though today I ate the meatball Ruby ordered with her pasta and didn't eat.

Year 3, Day 59: Diversity Day

Showtime: The big day. Last year I was asked by my neighbor if I would host a celebration of acts from around the world at Ruby's school. Knowing that there was no one else to do it, and that I was a natural ham, I agreed. Naturally, I was asked again to do it, and I agreed. Sadly, the event was not advertised properly and there was a poor turnout. It reminded me of my days at the Coolidge where my coworkers, Erica and Andrea would realize in horror that a particular movie where the director or star was coming would not be well attended. Then, we'd have to slink out of the theatre lest we have to experience the shame that comes from producing a failing event. One man, the executive director, David Kleiler, stood out, because he never failed out to walk out, even to a crowd of one, and give a performance equal to what he would have given if there was a full house (only with less breaks for laugh lines). With him in mind, I took to the stage and gave it my all, but I cut down some of the jokes, since my audience was about 20 2nd graders.

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

Lunch: Chan Shin Yuan Leftovers
Chicken with Spinach
Boneless Spareribs

Snack @ Event
Almonds
Broccoli
1 Dark Chocolate Raisin
1.5 oz Boston Lite Popcorn

Dinner
Big Salad
Hamburger

Dessert
Some Spoonfuls of Super Chunky Peanut Butter
Chocolate Chips

There are two parts to the event; the performance and the food. I tried my best to avoid all the excitingly diverse, ethnic, deep fried, fatty foods and stick to what I could eat, which was basically uncooked broccoli and almonds. It was a hard day all around, but everyone who came took home a lot of leftovers. If I'm not being too cynical, I think I spied at least one person I knew who showed up to the event SOLEY for the purpose of collecting leftovers. We may never have proof, but you read it here first.

Year 3, Day 58: Eggs for Snacks

While I continue to try and break the breakfast rut, I am experimenting with a slightly larger portion of bread for breakfast. It looks like two slices (3 oz) are about 150 calories, so even with 4 tablespoons of super chunky peanut butter, I would still be at about 550 calories, probably less than the Kashi-Berries-Soy Milk breakfast at 600. Since I make all the eggs for Magnolia in the morning (and she doesn't necessarily want to eat them all) I am experimenting with having them for snack. At 70 calories each, they're not bad and they're filling, but since 40 of those calories are from fat you have to lump them in with peanut butter—they're diet busters if you don't watch it.

Breakfast
2 Slices (3 oz.) Iggy's 7-Grain Bread
Super Chunky Peanut Butter
2 oz 50% Jalapeno Cheddar
Coffee

Snack
2 Hard Boiled Eggs
4 Sticks Beef Jerky
1 Cameo Apple

Lunch: Chan Shin Yuan
Chicken with Spinach
Scallops with Asparagus
Chun King Pork
Beef with Cabbage

Dinner:
Turkey Crumble with lettuce & Cabbage
Boneless Spare Ribs

16 Chocolate Chips
2 Squares Dark Chocolate with Almonds
Handfuls of Nuts

Look, I can't explain it, just sometimes we have chocolate in the house. That leads to the examination of chocolate, sometimes the smelling of chocolate, followed by the eating of chocolate, followed by the eating of more chocolate, and then, who knows, a handful of nuts. I'm not proud, but I'm honest. So I'm telling you. This is just what happens sometimes. Then we move on.

Year 3, Day 57: Jill's Birthday- "Detetcto Says 176"

I always get excited in April because of Jill's Birthday, the Spring and the close arrival of Strawberry season. Though I resolved not to eat them post season last year, I have for the past month broken with that pact and continued to buy all kinds of white, crunchy, tasteless strawberries that I will continue to insist I am enjoying until the real four weeks of heaven (June) arrives and every day is like a strawberry holiday.

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

Snack
5 Sticks Beef Jerky
1 oz Boston Lite Popcorn

Lunch: russo's ($5.87)
Romaine, red pepper, red onion, feta
chicken, broccoli, mushrooms
balsamic vinegar, pepperocini

Dinner: Ginza
Beef Yakatori
Edamame
Eggplant
Salad
Soup
Sashimi
Fried Green Tea Ice Cream
Red Bean Ice Cream
Sake

Despite my continuing identity crisis about doctors, I manage to get into the usual doctor's office and get weighed. Though I am now being shuttled from scale to scale, I realize deep down that what's important is that I changed my life and that I can fit into the new, smaller clothes I purchased. Once those things are gone the numbers are going to start to matter a lot more. Detecto says 176, and that's disappointing because I honestly thought I could get below 174 but that has just not been a reality. I'm not sure it should be a reality, but it's disappointing nonetheless. To both celebrate being in the 70s and Jill's birthday, we ate a ton of stuff that we weren't sure what it was. The general assumption is that if it's Japanese it will taste good (unless it's mackerel-based) and most likely to be good for you (unless it's deep-fried). Throwing caution to the wind I had some sake and red bean ice cream, and then vowed to run the triathlon one day.

Year 3, Day 56: Again No Walk & Chocolate Followup

It was really bone-chillingly cold today; an effect that can only be had when Monday is 80 degrees followed by Tuesday at 70 degrees. Normally, a 60 degree day in April is a delight, but the rain came and to top it off our property manager goosed the A/C yesterday and so it was FREEZING inside.

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

Lunch: Russo's ($5.17)
Romaine, red pepper, red onion, feta
chicken, broccoli, mushrooms
balsamic vinegar, pepperocini

Snack
4 Pieces Beef Jerky
1 Cameo Apple

Dinner
Fish
Cauliflower

FOLLOW UP FROM GUITTARD:

Fourth generation chocolatier challenges proposed FDA downgrades to
what makes chocolate what it is;
“Citizen’s Petition” proposal shortchanges consumers,
threatens taste, ingredients of America’s favorite food

(Burlingame, CA, April 11, 2007) – Forget the cola wars. The next struggle for American consumers’ hearts and minds is over a proposal to alter the “Gold Standard” for chocolate – the critical ingredients of what makes chocolate a food to die for.

A fourth generation maker of chocolate -- Gary Guittard, President of Guittard Chocolate Company of Burlingame, California -- is available for comment to discuss a grass roots fight against a proposal before the FDA to allow manufacturers of chocolate to replace cocoa butter – chocolate’s key ingredient – with chemically modified vegetable fats and still call it chocolate. The controversial proposal would allow
negative changes in the manner chocolate is made and the way it tastes, subverting a “Gold Standard” of manufacturing that has been in place for over sixty years.

Guittard is enlisting the public in a grass roots campaign -- “I want my chocolate to stay real chocolate” -- as the deadline for public comment to the Food & Drug Administration looms (April 25th), as he and his industry colleagues challenge a proposed number of content standards changes being considered by the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These changes that would negatively alter the composition and
thereby the taste of America’s chocolate.

Gary Guittard is joining with other chocolate manufacturers in asking the FDA to reject the proposed food standard changes that will affect chocolate products and to have regulators enter into a broader public dialogue with the chocolate industry, consumers, consumer advocates, retailers, nutritionists, health experts, and others with an interest in preserving the quality, taste and content of traditional American “chocolate.”

Says fourth generation chocolatier Gary Guittard: “The chocolate industry prides itself on delivering to the consumer high quality products. The industry adheres to strict Federal Standards of Identity that were first established in the 1940’s and have only been changed since to reflect new manufacturing techniques in 1993 and again in 2002 to establish a Standard of Identity for white chocolate.”.

“The proposed FDA changes as they apply to chocolate [and] if adopted would allow the current “Gold Standard” for chocolate to be changed in a way that will ultimately result in short-changing the consumer and changing what we know and love as traditional chocolate,” Guittard says. “There are no clear consumer benefits associated with the proposed changes.”

“My family has been involved in the manufacturing of chocolate for 139 years,” notes Gary Guittard. “Chocolate is not just my business – it is my passion and these changes would lead the way to the manufacturing of something entirely different...that would not be the traditional chocolate that most of us know and love.”

“Beyond positive health benefits, chocolate has long been a food Americans have said ‘they would die for’ -- now this great food is being threatened by some in the industry who would favor replacing cocoa butter with far cheaper ingredients, which would in reality cheapen chocolate’s great taste, all in pursuit of shortchanging the consumer and putting that change in their own pockets.”

“We’re enlisting the public to step forward and demand that the proposed changes to the “Gold Standard” of Chocolate be stopped immediately,” notes Gary Guittard. “No one can afford to sit back and eat bon-bons while America’s great passion for chocolate is threatened. “We’re asking the public to sign /send an email petition or to phone or email the Food & Drug Administration.”


To contact Gary Guittard directly:

Gary Guittard
10 Guittard Road, Burlingame, CA 94010
Telephone: 1-800-468-2462

E-mail: Gary@Guittard.com
Web Site: www.guittard.com information also at:
http://dontmesswithourchocolate.guittard.com/whatsthisabout.asp

Note: The deadline for submitting public comment to the US Food & Drug
Administration on the Citizens Petition of the Grocery Manufacturers Association is
April 25, 2007. Consumers can learn more at the Web site:
http://dontmesswithourchocolate.guittard.com/

Year 3, Day 55: No Walk

Trying to break out of the breakfast rut. Today I had bread but I am trying to get back to eggs. All things being equal, they are quite complicated to add into the morning ritual. I have tried hard-boiling them on Monday and then eating them later but it's not very good. I mean I don't mind egg salad but trying to pass off cold hard boiled eggs as an appealing breakfast really takes some work. It's a lot easier to use the toaster for bread or skip all electronic devices completely (for the cereal option).

Breakfast
2 slices of Iggy's 7-Grain Bread (3 oz.)
Super Chunky Peanut Butter
2 oz 50% Jalapeno Cheddar

Lunch: Russo's ($5.67)
Romaine, red pepper, red onion, feta
chicken, broccoli, mushrooms
balsamic vinegar, pepperocini

Snack
4 Beef Jerky Sticks
1 Cameo Apple

Dinner
Olives
Turkey Crumble in Cabbage Leaves
A few Broccoli Stems

Perfect weather today, but no walk happened, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes work just gets in the way. I will try again tomorrow.

Year 3, Day 54 "head-hurtingly complicated "

Really making that Blue Ribbon last. I am really surprised at how often, and how much we eat from there. But it is really good.

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

Snack
5 pieces of jerky
1 oz Boston Lite Popcorn
8 Tamari Almonds (all that were left)

Lunch: Russo's ($5.37)
Romaine, red pepper, red onion, feta
chicken, broccoli, mushrooms
balsamic vinegar, pepperocini

Dinner
Blue Ribbon Burnt Ends
Emily's Stir Fried Cauliflower
2 Bubbie's Pickles

April 22, 2007
The Way We Live Now
You Are What You Grow

By MICHAEL POLLAN
A few years ago, an obesity researcher at the University of Washington named Adam Drewnowski ventured into the supermarket to solve a mystery. He wanted to figure out why it is that the most reliable predictor of obesity in America today is a person’s wealth. For most of history, after all, the poor have typically suffered from a shortage of calories, not a surfeit. So how is it that today the people with the least amount of money to spend on food are the ones most likely to be overweight?

Drewnowski gave himself a hypothetical dollar to spend, using it to purchase as many calories as he possibly could. He discovered that he could buy the most calories per dollar in the middle aisles of the supermarket, among the towering canyons of processed food and soft drink. (In the typical American supermarket, the fresh foods — dairy, meat, fish and produce — line the perimeter walls, while the imperishable packaged goods dominate the center.) Drewnowski found that a dollar could buy 1,200 calories of cookies or potato chips but only 250 calories of carrots. Looking for something to wash down those chips, he discovered that his dollar bought 875 calories of soda but only 170 calories of orange juice.

As a rule, processed foods are more “energy dense” than fresh foods: they contain less water and fiber but more added fat and sugar, which makes them both less filling and more fattening. These particular calories also happen to be the least healthful ones in the marketplace, which is why we call the foods that contain them “junk.” Drewnowski concluded that the rules of the food game in America are organized in such a way that if you are eating on a budget, the most rational economic strategy is to eat badly — and get fat.

This perverse state of affairs is not, as you might think, the inevitable result of the free market. Compared with a bunch of carrots, a package of Twinkies, to take one iconic processed foodlike substance as an example, is a highly complicated, high-tech piece of manufacture, involving no fewer than 39 ingredients, many themselves elaborately manufactured, as well as the packaging and a hefty marketing budget. So how can the supermarket possibly sell a pair of these synthetic cream-filled pseudocakes for less than a bunch of roots?

For the answer, you need look no farther than the farm bill. This resolutely unglamorous and head-hurtingly complicated piece of legislation, which comes around roughly every five years and is about to do so again, sets the rules for the American food system — indeed, to a considerable extent, for the world’s food system. Among other things, it determines which crops will be subsidized and which will not, and in the case of the carrot and the Twinkie, the farm bill as currently written offers a lot more support to the cake than to the root. Like most processed foods, the Twinkie is basically a clever arrangement of carbohydrates and fats teased out of corn, soybeans and wheat — three of the five commodity crops that the farm bill supports, to the tune of some $25 billion a year. (Rice and cotton are the others.) For the last several decades — indeed, for about as long as the American waistline has been ballooning — U.S. agricultural policy has been designed in such a way as to promote the overproduction of these five commodities, especially corn and soy.

That’s because the current farm bill helps commodity farmers by cutting them a check based on how many bushels they can grow, rather than, say, by supporting prices and limiting production, as farm bills once did. The result? A food system awash in added sugars (derived from corn) and added fats (derived mainly from soy), as well as dirt-cheap meat and milk (derived from both). By comparison, the farm bill does almost nothing to support farmers growing fresh produce. A result of these policy choices is on stark display in your supermarket, where the real price of fruits and vegetables between 1985 and 2000 increased by nearly 40 percent while the real price of soft drinks (a k a liquid corn) declined by 23 percent. The reason the least healthful calories in the supermarket are the cheapest is that those are the ones the farm bill encourages farmers to grow.

A public-health researcher from Mars might legitimately wonder why a nation faced with what its surgeon general has called “an epidemic” of obesity would at the same time be in the business of subsidizing the production of high-fructose corn syrup. But such is the perversity of the farm bill: the nation’s agricultural policies operate at cross-purposes with its public-health objectives. And the subsidies are only part of the problem. The farm bill helps determine what sort of food your children will have for lunch in school tomorrow. The school-lunch program began at a time when the public-health problem of America’s children was undernourishment, so feeding surplus agricultural commodities to kids seemed like a win-win strategy. Today the problem is overnutrition, but a school lunch lady trying to prepare healthful fresh food is apt to get dinged by U.S.D.A. inspectors for failing to serve enough calories; if she dishes up a lunch that includes chicken nuggets and Tater Tots, however, the inspector smiles and the reimbursements flow. The farm bill essentially treats our children as a human Disposall for all the unhealthful calories that the farm bill has encouraged American farmers to overproduce.

To speak of the farm bill’s influence on the American food system does not begin to describe its full impact — on the environment, on global poverty, even on immigration. By making it possible for American farmers to sell their crops abroad for considerably less than it costs to grow them, the farm bill helps determine the price of corn in Mexico and the price of cotton in Nigeria and therefore whether farmers in those places will survive or be forced off the land, to migrate to the cities — or to the United States. The flow of immigrants north from Mexico since Nafta is inextricably linked to the flow of American corn in the opposite direction, a flood of subsidized grain that the Mexican government estimates has thrown two million Mexican farmers and other agricultural workers off the land since the mid-90s. (More recently, the ethanol boom has led to a spike in corn prices that has left that country reeling from soaring tortilla prices; linking its corn economy to ours has been an unalloyed disaster for Mexico’s eaters as well as its farmers.) You can’t fully comprehend the pressures driving immigration without comprehending what U.S. agricultural policy is doing to rural agriculture in Mexico.

And though we don’t ordinarily think of the farm bill in these terms, few pieces of legislation have as profound an impact on the American landscape and environment. Americans may tell themselves they don’t have a national land-use policy, that the market by and large decides what happens on private property in America, but that’s not exactly true. The smorgasbord of incentives and disincentives built into the farm bill helps decide what happens on nearly half of the private land in America: whether it will be farmed or left wild, whether it will be managed to maximize productivity (and therefore doused with chemicals) or to promote environmental stewardship. The health of the American soil, the purity of its water, the biodiversity and the very look of its landscape owe in no small part to impenetrable titles, programs and formulae buried deep in the farm bill.

Given all this, you would think the farm-bill debate would engage the nation’s political passions every five years, but that hasn’t been the case. If the quintennial antidrama of the “farm bill debate” holds true to form this year, a handful of farm-state legislators will thrash out the mind-numbing details behind closed doors, with virtually nobody else, either in Congress or in the media, paying much attention. Why? Because most of us assume that, true to its name, the farm bill is about “farming,” an increasingly quaint activity that involves no one we know and in which few of us think we have a stake. This leaves our own representatives free to ignore the farm bill, to treat it as a parochial piece of legislation affecting a handful of their Midwestern colleagues. Since we aren’t paying attention, they pay no political price for trading, or even selling, their farm-bill votes. The fact that the bill is deeply encrusted with incomprehensible jargon and prehensile programs dating back to the 1930s makes it almost impossible for the average legislator to understand the bill should he or she try to, much less the average citizen. It’s doubtful this is an accident.

But there are signs this year will be different. The public-health community has come to recognize it can’t hope to address obesity and diabetes without addressing the farm bill. The environmental community recognizes that as long as we have a farm bill that promotes chemical and feedlot agriculture, clean water will remain a pipe dream. The development community has woken up to the fact that global poverty can’t be fought without confronting the ways the farm bill depresses world crop prices. They got a boost from a 2004 ruling by the World Trade Organization that U.S. cotton subsidies are illegal; most observers think that challenges to similar subsidies for corn, soy, wheat or rice would also prevail.

And then there are the eaters, people like you and me, increasingly concerned, if not restive, about the quality of the food on offer in America. A grass-roots social movement is gathering around food issues today, and while it is still somewhat inchoate, the manifestations are everywhere: in local efforts to get vending machines out of the schools and to improve school lunch; in local campaigns to fight feedlots and to force food companies to better the lives of animals in agriculture; in the spectacular growth of the market for organic food and the revival of local food systems. In great and growing numbers, people are voting with their forks for a different sort of food system. But as powerful as the food consumer is — it was that consumer, after all, who built a $15 billion organic-food industry and more than doubled the number of farmer’s markets in the last few years — voting with our forks can advance reform only so far. It can’t, for example, change the fact that the system is rigged to make the most unhealthful calories in the marketplace the only ones the poor can afford. To change that, people will have to vote with their votes as well — which is to say, they will have to wade into the muddy political waters of agricultural policy.

Doing so starts with the recognition that the “farm bill” is a misnomer; in truth, it is a food bill and so needs to be rewritten with the interests of eaters placed first. Yes, there are eaters who think it in their interest that food just be as cheap as possible, no matter how poor the quality. But there are many more who recognize the real cost of artificially cheap food — to their health, to the land, to the animals, to the public purse. At a minimum, these eaters want a bill that aligns agricultural policy with our public-health and environmental values, one with incentives to produce food cleanly, sustainably and humanely. Eaters want a bill that makes the most healthful calories in the supermarket competitive with the least healthful ones. Eaters want a bill that feeds schoolchildren fresh food from local farms rather than processed surplus commodities from far away. Enlightened eaters also recognize their dependence on farmers, which is why they would support a bill that guarantees the people who raise our food not subsidies but fair prices. Why? Because they prefer to live in a country that can still produce its own food and doesn’t hurt the world’s farmers by dumping its surplus crops on their markets.

The devil is in the details, no doubt. Simply eliminating support for farmers won’t solve these problems; overproduction has afflicted agriculture since long before modern subsidies. It will take some imaginative policy making to figure out how to encourage farmers to focus on taking care of the land rather than all-out production, on growing real food for eaters rather than industrial raw materials for food processors and on rebuilding local food economies, which the current farm bill hobbles. But the guiding principle behind an eater’s farm bill could not be more straightforward: it’s one that changes the rules of the game so as to promote the quality of our food (and farming) over and above its quantity.

Such changes are radical only by the standards of past farm bills, which have faithfully reflected the priorities of the agribusiness interests that wrote them. One of these years, the eaters of America are going to demand a place at the table, and we will have the political debate over food policy we need and deserve. This could prove to be that year: the year when the farm bill became a food bill, and the eaters at last had their say.

Michael Pollan, a contributing writer, is the Knight professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. His most recent book is “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.”

Year 3, Day 53: Well, That Only Took Two Years

Amazingly, today a guy from the JCC approached me and gave me the full shpiel about their fitness program. He told me they offer complementatary services that include instruction in cardio, weights, and 'one body part.' I apparently caught his attention because I had become interested in the squat-thrust machine, which I did few reps on today. I really didn't know how to use it, and he instructed me. Even with his instruction, I released the break and made a loud crashing noise. He kept calling me 'sir' even though I told him my name. It was a bit unnerving. It's one thing when a kid calls you sir, but when a 30 year old does it, you know you are O-L-D. I did my usual 65 minutes and seven miles on the elliptical and 75 ab crunches too.

Breakfast
Kashi Go Lean!
Heritage Flakes
Strawberries
Blueberries
Banana
Unsweetened Soy Milk
Coffee
plus two bites of emily's toast & peanut butter

lunch
8 oz. blue ribbon brisket
salad

other
6 oz stonyfield yogurt
super chunky peanut butter
handful of cashews & almonds

dinner
breast of chicken
more salad

dessert
20 pistachios
20 chocolate chips

Sometimes working out makes you feel like you can eat anything you want. It does feel that way, but it's not true.

Year 3, Day 52: HANDS OFF MY CHOCOLATE!!!

Day after a late night is always a hard one, but this being only the second real day of spring, there was a lot of park in the day; both outside, and a trip to Elliot School Playground for an impromptu picnic and finally, an end-of-day jaunt to the famously adorned park in Wellesley.

Breakfast
2.5 oz Balthazar bread
Peanut Buutter
2 oz 50% Jalapeno Cheddar
Coffee

Snack
50 Tamari Almonds
1 oz Boston Lite Popcorn

Lunch:
Salad from Bread & Circus (Caesary)
1 Hard boiled egg

Dinner
1 Blue Ribbon BBQ Rib
Some Hamburger
Emily's Cauliflower

Dessert
3 Chocolate Chips

From the LA Times / Candyblog.net

Hands off my chocolate, FDA!
The FDA may allow Big Chocolate to pass off a waxy substitute as the real thing.
By Cybele May, CYBELE MAY is a writer who reviews candy on her blog, candyblog.net.
April 19, 2007

THE AVERAGE American eats 12 pounds of chocolate a year. That's about a chocolate bar every other day. (I am above average, judging by the fact that I eat enough chocolate to deduct it as a line item on my tax return.)

To sum up so far: Americans eat a lot of chocolate.

That's cool, because we also make a lot of it. We make everything from the inexpensive milk chocolate bars that you buy at the supermarket checkout counter to the decadent, limited-edition chocolate bars made from "handpicked beans from a single hillside in Venezuela," for which there's a waiting list.

It's all basically made the same way: cacao pods are fermented and then roasted and ground into a fine paste that can be separated into two components: cacao solids (commonly called cocoa powder) and cocoa butter. Each chocolatier uses different proportions but generally blends sugar, cocoa solids and cocoa butter plus the optional ingredients — emulsifiers, flavors (typically vanilla) and milk solids (to make milk chocolate) — and molds that into a chocolate bar.

A little over 100 years ago, Milton Hershey created the nickel bar, the first American chocolate bar for the masses. Today, these small purchases of chocolate products add up to an $18-billion business. Like all foods in the United States, chocolate is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration to ensure that consumers get a safe and consistent product.

But perhaps no longer. The FDA is entertaining a "citizen's petition" to allow manufacturers to substitute vegetable fats and oils for cocoa butter.

The "citizens" who created this petition represent groups that would benefit most from this degradation of the current standards. They are the Chocolate Manufacturers Assn., the Grocery Manufacturers Assn., the Snack Food Assn. and the National Cattlemen's Beef Assn. (OK, I'm not sure what's in it for them), along with seven other food producing associations.

This is what they think of us chocolate eaters, according to their petition on file at the FDA:

"Consumer expectations still define the basic nature of a food. There are, however, no generally held consumer expectations today concerning the precise technical elements by which commonly recognized, standardized foods are produced. Consumers, therefore, are not likely to have formed expectations as to production methods, aging time or specific ingredients used for technical improvements, including manufacturing efficiencies."

Let me translate: "Consumers won't know the difference."

I can tell you right now — we will notice the difference. How do I know? Because the product they're trying to rename "chocolate" already exists. It's called "chocolate flavored" or "chocolaty" or "cocoalicious." You can find it on the shelves right now at your local stores in the 75% Easter sale bin, those waxy/greasy mock-chocolate bunnies and foil-wrapped eggs that sit even in the most sugar-obsessed child's Easter basket well into July.

It may be cocoa powder that gives chocolate its taste, but it is the cocoa butter that gives it that inimitable texture. It is one of the rare, naturally occurring vegetable fats that is solid at room temperature and melts as it hits body temperature — that is to say, it melts in your mouth. Cocoa butter also protects the antioxidant properties of the cocoa solids and gives well-made chocolate its excellent shelf life.

Because it's already perfectly legal to sell choco-products made with cheaper oils and fats, what the groups are asking the FDA for is permission to call these waxy impostors "chocolate." Because we "haven't formed any expectations."

I'd say we've already demonstrated our preference for true chocolate. That's why real chocolate outsells fake chocolate. Nine of the 10 bestselling U.S. chocolate candies are made with the real stuff. M&Ms, Hershey Bars, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups — all real chocolate. Butterfinger is the outlier.

Granted, a change to the "food standards of identity" won't require makers to remove some or all of the cocoa butter, it would just allow them to. But really, why else would they ask?

But as long as they're asking, the FDA does have a way for other citizens to voice their expectations. It's buried deep in its website. Until April 25, the agency is accepting comments — by fax, mail or online — on a docket with the benign-sounding name of "2007P-0085: Adopt Regulations of General Applicability to All Food Standards that Would Permit, Within Stated Boundaries, Deviations from the Requirements of the Individual Food Standards of Identity."

I'm telling them to keep it real.

Go here for more

Year 3, Day 51: Trip To the Big Indian

This week Ruby was on vacation and so every day (Tues-Friday) I drover her to art school. On our way, I toasted her a Whole Foods chocolate pop-tart and we listened to her favorite CD Steve Songs with "On a Flying Guitar." It really was a great time. I managed to keep a stack of brownies for her snack every day (she was there until 3pm every day) which I thought was a swell treat because we made them together. On Thursday night, to my horror, I realized that Emily had given the brownies away to Maria, our babysitter. Then I remembered that Ruby and I had made chocolate chip cookie dough from scratch and made so much of it that I rolled it in saran wrap, double-bagged it and put it in individual sleeves in the chest freezer. I picked one out and baked them this morning for her snack; they were just cool enough to go in a baggy by the time we left.

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

Lunch: New Ginza
Sashimi Plate
Salad
Soup

Snackz
3 Pieces of Beef Jerky
1 Cameo Apple
1/4 lb of Almonds

Dinner
Bok Choy with Pork
Chinese Ribs
Shrimp, Scallops & Peppers
1 Shumai
1 Yakitori (Fried)

Tonight was supposed to be a poker game, but our host got sick and so we decided to just drive on down to Foxwoods. Unlike the other Connecticut casino, the Mohegan Sun, Foxwood's food offerings are not that great. They have a good upscale steak house and lots of fast-type food (including a Carnegie Deli kiosk) but not too much in between. They do have a nice Chinese Restaurant in their new casino, and they just added a Hard Rock restaurant inside. We chose the Chinese and I due to the fact that I was getting my Wampum card (the card where you are offered points for gambling that you can use later to pay for food, etc.) I didn't order. The food was all too-sweet, which I found very disappointing. On the way down, we ate a lot of Almonds. On the way home I was hungry and bought a bag of smartfood, but I was strong and didn't open it.

Year 3, Day 50: Date Night at Jimmy's

Another Chowhound-fueled date to Jimmy's. Turns out to be an incredible place in nearby Wellesley. Never would have found it on my own, as it is hidden behind a supermarket on a road that is 'off the beaten path.' Earlier in the day, Magnolia's visit to the office inexplicably unleashes a nut frenzy.

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

Lunch: Russo's ($4.65)
Romaine, red pepper, red onion, feta
chicken, broccoli, mushrooms
balsamic vinegar, pepperocini

Snack
2 oz 50% Jalapeno Cheddar
4 Sticks Beef jErky
1 Cameo Apple
60 Tamari Almonds

Dinner: Jimmy's
A tiny bit of bread
Caesar Salad
Steak

Dessert
30 Chocolate Chip Cookies

From the South Beach Newsletter: Enjoying Olives
If you love olives, you'll be happy to know that they're approved for all Phases of the South Beach Diet®! Olives are rich in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, making them a good choice when you're looking to add flavor to salads and whole-wheat pasta dishes or seeking a salty snack.

Olives come in many varieties from numerous regions of the world. The color spectrum of olives varies depending on how long they are left on the tree to mature, or ripen, as well as the curing method used. Green olives are picked early in the season, whereas black olives are fully ripe. All olives, no matter the color, contain the same good fats.

As with other snacks, it's easy to overindulge on olives if you're not paying attention. Though the South Beach Diet® does not require you to count calories, even healthy foods can impact weight loss if you mindlessly overeat them. Therefore, it may be helpful to count out one serving of olives — generally 10 to 15 depending on their size — before snacking.

Year 3, Day 49: "You've Lost Six Sizes"

Today with school vacation on and no help, I stayed home from work and Emily, Magnolia and I had a day together. We went to Kohl's. It might surprise some to know that I had never ever set foot in any Kohl's store, anywhere in the world before today. I didn't even know what they sold. I thought was just like women's shoes and plumbing supplies. They were having an enormous one-day sale so I had to take advantage of it. I really don't have any shorts, so I tried on some Dockers. Size 34. Emily only recently threw out the only pair of jean-shorts I owned which were GAP size 40. Neither of us could believe it, and so naturally I celebrated by having about 30 chocolate chips.

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

Postworkout Snack
6 oz Stonyfield Plain Yogurt
3-4 Tablespoons Super Chunky Peanut Butter

Lunch: Maugus
Greek Salad
Chicken Shish-Ka-bob

Dinner:
Blue Ribbon BBQ Brisket
(plus a bite of burnt ends and a bite of a rib)
Salad (Romaine, Cabbage, Feta, Balsamic)

Dessert
33 Chocolate Chips
A bite of yellow mango

Maugus was terrible. Today I had gone to the gym in the AM and did 7 miles in 61 minutes at level six- got my heart rate up into the 140s. Then I did 80 ab crunches and I did 10 arm-lifts. Woooh that was a workout.

Year 3, Day 48: I just go crazy

From the South Beach Diet Newsletter: The Word on Water

Contrary to popular belief, it's not necessary to keep track of how much water you drink each day. Instead of following the frequently recommended guideline (eight cups daily, which turns out to be an arbitrary amount), the Institute of Medicine (IOM) suggests drinking when you're thirsty. By using this gauge, studies show that most Americans do a good job of keeping themselves hydrated throughout the day — without keeping track of water consumption.

Even better news: Other beverages — including caffeinated ones, like coffee and diet soda — can help you meet your fluid needs, according to the IOM. Low-fat and fat-free milk are other South Beach Diet®-friendly beverages that can help you meet your fluid requirements. Foods that contain a lot of water, such as vegetables and fruits (Phase 2), also count.

On average, women require 91 ounces of water each day and men require 125 ounces, though athletes and people who live in warmer climates may need more. It's worth repeating, however, that you don't need to keep track of your fluid consumption. You can tell you're not getting enough water if you develop increased thirst, dry lips and mouth, headache, fatigue, and darker urine. Consult with your physician if you notice any of these symptoms.

Breakfast
2 Slices of Balthazar Bread (3 oz.)
Super Chunky Peanut Butter
2.5 oz 50% Jalapeno Cheddar
Coffee

Snack
5 Sticks Beef Jerky
1 Cameo Apple
Green Tea

Lunch: Russo's ($5.75)
Romaine, red pepper, red onion, feta
chicken, broccoli, mushrooms
balsamic vinegar, pepperocini

Dinner
Brisket
Broccoli

Dessert
2 oz. Brownie
2 Handfuls of Almonds & Cashews
about 8 chocolate chips

About 10 years ago I was with my friend Wick at a party. He had slimmed down considerably and we were talking about it. He told me that he had made a bet with a work-friend of his. They bet each other $50 that they couldn't lose 25 pounds in about three months (I think it was January to March, but I forget). He won the bet, but they both lost a lot of weight. He came away with an important rule to live by: If it's not in your house, you probably won't eat it. By that rule, my eating of the brownie should come as no surprise to anyone; when they are just sitting around the house, staring at you, and you have to resist, resist, resist, after a while you can't do it. You just give in. Even those who consider themselves in control find themselves groveling at the feet of the amazing chocolate dessert every now and again. Gone crazy? Absolutely.

Year 3, Day 47: The Honda Dealership

Unbelievable first day of school vacation—literally pouring rain. I decide to get our key situation fixed up. Due to the misplacement of several sets of keys in the new world—where keys aren't made at the locksmith they are 'coded,' none of our keys works to open the door and all the remote starters are messed up. Sitting at the Honda Dealership. Wi-Fi has made this a great deal easier than the old days. I remember a lot of VERY boring evenings with my father at the Oldsmobile Dealership. It was SO BORING. OMG I am freaking out just thinking about it now.

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

Snack
1 Joy Stick
60 Tamari Almonds

Lunch: Fuji Steakhouse
Three Salads,
Sashimi Plate (Tuna, Crab, Salmon, Whitefish)
Soup
a few bites of zuchini, onion & sprouts

Dinner
1 chicken breast
salad (romaine, cabbage, slaw, feta)

Dessert
Popcorn

Made brownies with Ruby. Yummy. It was a perfect activity. Rainy day, and Ruby's friend had gone home. I just had gotten back from a chore and we had all the ingredients and a recipie from the New York Times. (Below)

SUPERNATURAL BROWNIES
Adapted from ''Chocolate: From Simple Cookies to Extravagant Showstoppers,'' by Nick Malgieri (Morrow Cookbooks, 1998)
Time: About 1 hour

2 sticks (16 tablespoons) butter, more for pan and parchment paper
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dark brown sugar, such as muscovado
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or 3/4 cup whole walnuts, optional.

1. Butter a 13-by-9-inch baking pan and line with buttered parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In top of a double boiler set over barely simmering water, or on low power in a microwave, melt butter and chocolate together. Cool slightly. In a large bowl or mixer, whisk eggs. Whisk in salt, sugars and vanilla.
2. Whisk in chocolate mixture. Fold in flour just until combined. If using chopped walnuts, stir them in. Pour batter into prepared pan. If using whole walnuts, arrange on top of batter. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until shiny and beginning to crack on top. Cool in pan on rack.
Yield: 15 large or 24 small brownies.
Note: For best flavor, bake 1 day before serving, let cool and store, tightly wrapped.

Year 3, Day 46: It's Raining Again

On this first day of Ruby's soccer practice we all watched the skies as they rained down on us, ruining the field and forcing the cancellation of the game. No matter, she came down wearing her cleats and soccer shorts anyway. We will have to defer that dream until next week. For now, it was simply the typical 6.5 year old weekend—birthday party, play date, play date with the neighbor's kids.

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

Snack
1 Cameo Apple
Peanut Butter

Lunch:
Blue Ribbon BBQ Burnt Ends
Salad

Dinner
Blue Ribbon Brisket
Salad

Having recently gone nuts with my dinner purchase at Blue Ribbon, I consign myself to eating it for every meal for the entire weekend, and simultaneously proving that my friend Jill is right when she says I eat there a lot. I had previously insisted that wasn't true, but the blog doesn't lie, even if I get it wrong some time.

Year 3, Day 45: First Workout in Two Weeks

I was so glad to get to the gym today, and to see my old friend the elliptical. I realized how much I hate going to the gym, but I'm so glad I did it every time. If you can really just get past the part where you hate it, the rest (actually being there) is a breeze. I did my usual 7 miles in 65 minutes and then 60 ab crunches. I am getting ready to do more weight training, but as longtime readers know, I am very slow. Since I am astrologically a Cancer, it is said that I move sideways, and sometimes that has felt very true. What I know about myself is that I do not want to rush into anything that I cannot sustain. It has basically taken me three years where I can run seven miles consistently; it will probably take me the same until I get to the equivalent point at weight training.

Breakfast
Kashi Go Lean!
plus balthazar granola ('not a low calorie food')
Heritage Flakes
Strawberries
Blueberries
Banana
Unsweetened Soy Milk
Coffee

Lunch
Chicken Breast
Cauliflower

Postworkout Snack
6 oz Stonyfield Yogurt
Peanut Butter

Dinner
Blue Ribbon BBQ Burnt Ends
Salad

The last time I was at Balthazar I bought practically one of everything, in addition to the multitudes of loaves of multi-grain pan shaped, pre-sliced loaves of bread. One thing I had to try was their granola. Though 'not a low calorie food' it is something I enjoy in my cereal, and sometimes, yogurt. As I was waiting on line I was asking myself, "why would a bakery make granola better than anyone else?" I could not come up with the answer, but I figured since everything else they do is pretty phenomenal, I might as well take a chance on the granola. It is good, but it's not as good as the Ikea granola. Can you believe that? I can't believe I even wrote that.

Year 3, Day 44: What's in A Chicken Nugget?

Trying to stay strong. After last night's chocolate debacle I once again try to steer myself out of a diet-fishtail. It's not easy and and the weather of all things is not helping my mood. We expect that in April there are more warm moments than cold ones. It's OK if all the cold ones don't go away, but the cold, gray, rainy days can be downright depressing. It's easier to have seasonal affective disorder when it's 34 degrees AFTER opening day than during the winter. Well, that's what I think.

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

Snack
2 oz 50% Jalapeno Cheddar
Five STicks Beef Jerky
1 Cameo Apple

Lunch: Russo's ($5.45)
Romaine, red pepper, red onion, feta
chicken, broccoli, mushrooms
balsamic vinegar, pepperocini

Dinner:
Trout a la Emily
Salad

What's Really in a Chicken Nugget?

The following two paragraphs lifted from another Web site's description of The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan:

“The ingredients listed in the flyer suggest a lot of thought goes into a nugget, that and a lot of corn. Of the thirty-eight ingredients it takes to make a McNugget, I counted thirteen that can be derived from corn: the corn-fed chicken itself; modified cornstarch (to bind the pulverized chicken meat); mono-, tri-, and diglycerides (emulsifiers, which keep the fats and water from separating); dextrose; lecithin (another emulsifier); chicken broth (to restore some of the flavor that processing leeches out); yellow corn flour and more modified cornstarch (for the batter); cornstarch (a filler); vegetable shortening; partially hydrogenated corn oil; and citric acid as a preservative. A couple of other plants take part in the nugget: There's some wheat in the batter, and on any given day the hydrogenated oil could come from soybeans, canola, or cotton rather than corn, depending on the market price and availability.

According to the handout, McNuggets also contain several completely synthetic ingredients, quasi-edible substances that ultimately come not from a corn or soybean field but form a petroleum refinery or chemical plant. These chemicals are what make modern processed food possible, by keeping the organic materials in them from going bad or looking strange after months in the freezer or on the road. Listed first are the "leavening agents": sodium aluminum phosphate, mono-calcium phosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and calcium lactate. These are antioxidants added to keep the various animal and vegetable fats involved in a nugget from turning rancid. Then there are "anti-foaming agents" like dimethylpolysiloxene, added to the cooking oil to keep the starches from binding to air molecules, so as to produce foam during the fry. The problem is evidently grave enough to warrant adding a toxic chemical to the food: According to the Handbook of Food Additives, dimethylpolysiloxene is a suspected carcinogen and an established mutagen, tumorigen, and reproductive effector; it's also flammable. But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to "help preserve freshness." According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse." Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.”

Year 3, Day 43: Date Night

Trying my hardest to move beyond political failure, I keep things in perspective by noting that Imus has been kicked to the curb by CBS. It's hard to understand if this is the right thing to be done. It doesn't necessarily feel like the punishment fits the crime, but in America there are second third and fourth acts, especially for those in the public eye. I thought a lot about Bill Maher, whose show Politically Incorrect, was ironically cancelled after remarks he made about the 911 Hijackers. He remarked that they were "stupid, but not cowardly" for staying in the planes as they hit the building. For my part, I ate nearly 500 calories of chocolate and a glass of wine and hope that tomorrow is a better day.

Breakfast
2 Slices of Jane's Whole Grain Bread (3 oz.)
Super Chunky Peanut Butter
3 oz 50% Jalapeno Cheddar

Lunch: Won Ton Kitchen
House Special Egg Drop Soup
Chicken & String Beans

Snack
4 sticks Beef Jerky
1.5 oz Boston Lite Popcorn

Dinner: Vela (Wesley)
Beef Short RIbs
Bib Salad with Pistachios and Raisins
Tuna with Whipped Cauliflower
Broccoli Rabe

Dessert
15 Squares of Milk Chocolate with Almonds
About 20 Chocolate Chips

Vela was an excellent restaurant. Emily and I split a few appetizers and then I ordered the broccoli after the entree had hit the table. Since we generally go out at around 6pm on a Thursday we are often the first, only or one of just a few people in the restaurant. So far this is really good in terms of staff attention (except for Sabra, where they didn't seem to care that any customers had shown up) but it makes for really quick dinners—when you're younger and go out on dates on the weekend you have no idea how much time is wasted just waiting for things to happen, like waiting for the salad course, or the sorbet course. Upon my return home, I broke open a chocolate bar I had foolishly purchased at whole foods. When I found the strength to put that away, I took out the chocolate chips. Really the sign of a desperate man.

Year 3, Day 42: So Disappointed

Well, for the second time in my life I failed to win elected office. Oddly enough, it was the same office in two different towns—Town Meeting. This was enough ordinarily to drive me to the chocolate chips, but I held off, coasting off the glow of my previously displayed strength. Though I had 30 pistachios today, we also went for a brisk walk TO Russo's, which is the new thing for Domania walking gang. It was the full complement today of employees as we took advantage of the last nice day of the week—tomorrow it is supposed to snow with up to an inch on the ground hanging around till Friday.

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

Snack
4 sticks beef jerky
1 Fuji Apple
30 Pistachios
Green Tea

Lunch: Russo's ($5.45)
Romaine, Broccoli, Chicken, Feta
Mushrooms, Red Onion, Red Pepper, Celery, Feta
Balsamic Vinegar, Pepperocini

Dinner:
Chinese Pork
Stir-Fry Cauliflower
Red Leaf Salad

Even one day with out my beloved Kashi cereal breakfast and I was so happy to have it again for breakfast. I am going to continue to try an mix it up for both my health and my sanity. And tomorrow I will begin planning my next run for office. I think I'll need some signs...

Year 3, Day 41: Election Day

Today was election day, and I am up for office. By some weird coincidence, Magnolia didn't have school so Emily took her to her school, and I drove Ruby to school, stopping at my polling place to vote en route. I have been taking Ruby to vote since the year 2000, when wrapped in a blanket, we took her into the Washington Street polling place. I hope that one day she is excited to participate in the democratic experiment (if there is a United States democracy left by that time). I probably won't find out the election results (whether I won or not) until tomorrow. Ordinarily, this would drive me to the chocolate chips again, but I feel strangely calm.

Breakfast
1 Joseph's Wrap
2 Hard Boiled Eggs
3 Strips Turkey Bacon
smattering of cheese
salsa
Coffee

Snack
4 Sticks beef jerky
1 fuji apple

Lunch: Russo's ($5.05)
Romaine, red pepper, red onion, feta
chicken, broccoli, mushrooms
balsamic vinegar, pepperocini

Dinner
Hamburger
String Beans
Broccoli
Whole Foods Hot & Sour Soup

I'm not sure where I found the strength today to avoid extra snacks, but I did. It was a combination of zen-like focus ('you can only lose weight when you're hungry'); discipline, and possibly the results of having eggs. From Men's Health: " According to a recent study, Louisiana State University researchers found that when people had eggs for breakfast, they ate 250 fewer calories during the rest of the day than when they had a bagel instead." So maybe there's something to that?

Year 3, Day 40: Taxes and Chocolate Chips

We went for a fast walk today. The gang wanted to try a new place so at the half way mark we split up and I walked the rest of the way by myself. While I don't love walking by myself, I do love having walked. It's definitely something I'd like to keep up for as long as I can.

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

Lunch: Crown Kitchen
The final disappointment. No feta on the chicken & feta salad.
Harumph.

Snack
2 oz 50% Jalapeno Cheddar
4 Sticks Beef Jerky
1.5 oz Boston Lite Popcorn

Dinner
Turkey Crumble in Lettuce Leaves
Bok Choy a la Em

Dessert
33 Chocolate Chips

Today I got my package from the accountant. It, plus a little bit of chocolate bunny ear from the kids, drove me into a chocolate chip frenzy. They taste so good, until you drink a lot of cold water. Then for some unknown reason, they taste like wax. Not sure why that is but I'm glad because it kept me from over-overdoing it.

Year 3, Day 39: The Waste of Crazy Packaging-Amen

For the first time since I've been going to the gym, I missed two successive Sundays, and believe me it doesn't feel that good. I know it's OK and in the words of Jim Carey imitating Andy Kaufman, "I will surveev" but like most Americans hooked on some kind of exercise, you just feel so bad when you miss it.

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

Lunch
1 Joseph's Wrap, 2 Eggs, 2 oz 50% Jalapeno Cheddar, Salsa
Romaine, Red Cabbage Salad with Oil & Vinegar

Snack
2 Sticks Beef Jerky
50 Tamari Almonds
A few bags of Newman's Microwave Popcorn (more or less split with RUby)

Dinner
Turkey Crumble in Romaine Lettuce Leaves
Cauliflower

Revealed: the waste of crazy packaging
by HILARY FREEMAN - More by this author »Last updated at 08:04am on 26th April 2007
This article is best seen at its home

The Mail's campaign for weekly bin collections has highlighted the sheer amount of waste generated in modern Britain. One of the greatest contributors to this is the crazy amount of unnecessary packaging used by supermarkets and manufacturers. Here, we highlight ten of the worst offenders. And in the coming days we'll be urging readers to join the war on waste by revealing other examples of pointless packaging. HILARY FREEMAN reports.

SAINSBURY'S STRAWBERRIES, 400g
Cost: £1.99
Packaging offence: Just ten large Egyptian strawberries lie on a plastic tray, with a separate plastic lid. The strawberries sit on a bed of plastic bubble wrap.

Environmental impact: The bubble wrap cannot be recycled. Soft plastics, such as bubble wrap or clingfilm, are usually made from PVC, which is particularly damaging to the environment. Both during its production and use, dioxins - cancer-causing toxins - are released into the environment.

Other crimes: Egypt is more than 2,000 miles away, so flying the strawberries to Britain has used up fuel and polluted the environment. It's probably several weeks since they've been picked and refrigerated, so they're unlikely to taste of much or to have a great deal of nutritional content. It's better for the environment - not to mention your palate - to eat strawberries in season. We produce fantastic British strawberries in June. Eat local fruit, such as apples and pears, which are freshly picked.

FOUR-PACK OF SAINSBURY'S 'EAT AND KEEP' PEAR SELECTION
Cost: £1.89
Packaging offences: Each pear sits in its own compartment on a polystyrene tray, which is then covered by a moulded plastic lid. The whole ensemble is wrapped in clingfilm, with a label pasted over the top. In addition, two of the pears have metallic printed 'Ripen Me In The Fruit Bowl' stickers on them, just in case you aren't able to use your hands to tell which ones are ripe.

Environmental impact: According to environmental expert Joanna Yarrow - author of 1,001 Ways You Can Save The Planet (Duncan Baird, £7.99) - there are three types of plastic here, all of them unnecessary. 'We're in the middle of a fuel crisis, and yet 8 per cent of the oil we extract goes into the manufacture of plastic,' she says. 'Polystyrene is plastic with air blown into it. It's too brittle to be reused and can't be recycled, so it ends up in landfill sites, where it takes up to 500 years to break down. Plastic molecules have been found in almost every ecosystem in the world, even in the North and South Poles. They're virtually indestructible. 'The tray could instead be made from recycled cardboard, like an egg box, which can then be recycled or composted. As for the clingfilm covering and hard plastic lid, they can't be recycled together and will also probably end up in landfill. They're also pointless. Why can't the pears be sold loose and placed in a paper bag?'

Other crimes: These pears are imported from Holland. Transporting them to our supermarket uses up fuel and pollutes the environment. British pears are available.

GILLETTE MACH 3 POWER BATTERY OPERATED RAZOR
Cost: £8.99 (Boots)
Packaging offence: It is displayed on a moulded plastic tray which slots on to a piece of laminated cardboard. Around this is another piece of plastic. The whole thing is sealed within another plastic case.

Environmental impact: The only reason for using this much unrecyclable plastic is to make the razor look more substantial and attractive, and to drive up the price. You're paying about £2 for the plastic, which will be thrown away as soon as you've removed the razor. It will end up in landfill, where it will take hundreds of years to break down. Laminating or coating cardboard with foil makes it more difficult to recycle. If it can be recycled, it produces only the lowest-grade pulp.

Other crimes: This razor is battery-powered, which seems unnecessary - why can't you just use your hand to move the razor? Batteries contain heavy metals, such as cadmium, which leak out and can contaminate ground water and, consequently, drinking water. It also takes a lot of materials and energy to produce batteries. If you're going to use batteries, you should buy rechargeable ones.

FERRERO ROCHER BOX OF 24 CHOCOLATES, 300g
Cost: £4.99 ( Woolworth's)
Packaging offence: Each chocolate is individually wrapped in foil, with a Ferrero Rocher label on top. The chocolates are presented in individual compartments within a plastic tray. This tray is encased in a hard plastic box with removable plastic lid. There's also a separate piece of cardboard displaying the product information.

Environmental impact: Ambassador, with these chocolates you are spoiling the environment. There's no need for layer upon layer of unrecyclable plastic. Yes, the foil wrappers can be recycled, but only if you have the patience to remove each label first.

Year 3, Day 38: Saturday at the Movies

Or I can't believe I ate the whole thing. I took Ruby to see "Meet the Robinsons." As has been our M.O. I bring in a bag of Boston Lite popcorn (and water) in her knapsack and we both eat it. If I'm feeling generous, I buy her some chocolate. The problem is, if you're not sharing, the containers of chocolate at the movie theaters are so enormous that it's really irresponsible for a single grown person to eat, let alone a six year old. Instead, I brought a little bag of kissables (halloween-treat size) and I gave that to her. Though she ate some of the popcorn, I really ate nearly all of it, which arose both from my love of popcorn and from the fact that the movie was just not that interesting. Also, I hadn't eaten much lunch, and what I ate was not very satisfying.

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

Snack
50 Tamari Almonds
6 oz (the whole bag) of Boston Lite Popcorn

Lunch
Some left over Pho Pasteur

Dinner
Cabbage/Romaine/Feta/Tuna/Balsamic Vinegar Salad

Not feeling very good at lunch. Felt good enough at movies to eat whole bag of popcorn. Then, not surprisingly, not so good again. Tried to end the day on a high note with a salad.

Year 3, Day 37: Date Night on Friday

Went for a fast walk today; it was so cold that we thought we weren't going to make it, but we shined it on for the first dark half of the walk which was bone-chilling. By the second half we were sweating and ready to take off layers. We thought about lunch all throughout the walk but ended it up at the diner because it was the best, nearest, and most efficient alternative.

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

Lunch: Talk of the Town Diner
Bacon, Feta, Tomato and Spinach Omelet
8 cut pieces of lettuce and two tomatoes

Snack
4 pieces beef jerky
1 Fuji Apple

Dinner: Isabella's
2.5 Slices of Whole Wheat/Raisin/Walnut Bread & Hummus
"Red and White" Caesar Salad
Mussels
Swordfish with Pesto-Polenta

For so many reasons, we could not have our regular date night on Thursday, so we opted to go out tonight (Friday). The contrast between Thursday night folk and Friday night folk was sharp, and obvious. We went to Isabella's in Dedham, which was surprisingly good for being in Dedham, though Emily deemed that the water was undrinkable due to its high chlorine amount. When asked the waitress said it was same 'anywhere in Boston' which was a flabbergasting statement based on its high untruthiness factor. While our eyebrows were raised, she concluded "if you go to the four seasons, it's the same thing." She was lucky that the meal was so good, or this whole post would have been about that preposterous statement.

Year 3, Day 36: The Greatest Editorial Ever Written

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL
BY RUTH REICHL, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GOURMET MAGAZINE

BE WARNED: THIS IS A RANT. If you don't want to listen, turn the page. But I recently read a laudatory article about the opening of a new shop in New York City dedicated to children's food, and the very notion drives me so crazy that I simply can't keep quiet. .

On the surface it seemed a rather charming idea: a shop dedicated to food that children will eat. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to feel that this epitomizes everything that's wrong with the way we eat today.

For starters, the notion that children are a separate species who require a different diet from the rest of us pretty much does away with the concept of the family meal. The point of eating together, it seems to me, is not just that we all sit down around the same table but also that we share the food. The same food.

Children study their parents-that is their primary job in life-and one of the things they absorb is the way the grownups eat. "Oh look, Mommy loves salad and Daddy thinks spaghetti aIla bolognese is swell" is one lesson learned at the family table. The message is that these are delicious and desirable foods, and the obvious conclusion is "I'll probably like them, too." But if little Suzy and Sam get applesauce instead of salad and naked pasta in place of meat sauce, the lesson is quite different. What we are really telling our children is "You won't like what we are eating." And yet we know that what children like is mostly learned.

Japanese children are not born thinking that rice, fish, and seaweed are breakfast foods any more than American children are born with an innate preference for cereal. We tell them what they like, even if we don't say it in words.

No thinking person would force a child to eat food he didn't want. That turns the dinner table into a battleground and ultimately makes everyone miserable. It's just plain stupid. But by the same token no conscious parent would really want to tell his children, night after night, that they are going to dislike the food that the grown-ups are eating.

The great anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss did groundbreaking work when he observed that in turning the raw into the cooked we transform nature into culture; in other words, cooking is one of the ways in which we define ourselves as civilized creatures. Through our cooking, and our eating habits, we tell ourselves who we are. When we offer our children a different menu, we are telling them that they are different from us. And being different, that we also have different expectations of them. Why, then, should we be surprised that many modem children have such poor table manners? In giving them children's food, we are essentially telling them that they are not expected to behave like adults when they are at the table.

We're supposed to be the grown-ups, and when we ask children to choose their own food, we're offering them choices they would probably rather not make. And if we are incapable of making the easy decisions about what's for dinner, why should they trust us to make the harder ones? Offering children a special menu may make life momentarily more comfortable, but in the long run it's a cop-out, a way of walking away from one of the responsibilities of being a parent.

But there's an even more important reason for us to be dismayed by special menus aimed at pleasing young palates. When we feed children the old familiar grilled cheese sandwiches and vanilla ice cream, we are teaching them to stick with the tried-and-true instead of encouraging them to dare to taste the new.

Sitting down to dinner, at any age, should be an invitation to the fabulous banquet that is life. The most important lesson we learn at the table is that great rewards await those who take chances. Do we really want to be telling our children, "Just eat your nice chicken nuggets"? It would make so much more sense to say, "Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious."

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

Lunch:
Russo's ($6.01)
Romaine, red pepper, red onion, feta
chicken, broccoli, mushrooms
balsamic vinegar, pepperocini

Snack
4 beef jerky sticks
80 Tamari Almonds

Dinner
Fish
Broccoli
1 strawberry

I don't want to disturb the perfection of that piece. In three years I could not have said it better than she wrote it.

Year 3, Day 35: Home Sick

I knew I could not go to work today, but I had to get up with Ruby anyway. I had my regular breakfast, but then I spent all day eating Matzoh & Cream Cheese and Popcorn (not very Passovery). It's very hard to make the decision to call in sick, but Magnolia was not well and I just felt so so bad. So home I stayed.

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

Snack
Whole Wheat Matzoh Boards
Cream Cheese
Popcorn
Diet Coke

Lunch
Romaine/Cabbage/Tuna/Feta
Balsamic & Oil

Dinner
Brisket
Peppadews
Cauliflower

10 Foods Tough to Digest
Fried chicken nuggets


10 Foods Tough to Digest (See the whole list here )
Anytime you take a food, dip it in batter and then deep fry it, you turn it into something that can be a bit hard on the gut. Fried foods inevitably are greasy and high in fat, both of which spell trouble for the stomach. If you already suffer from inflammatory bowel disease, greasy foods are especially problematic and can cause symptoms like nausea and diarrhea, says Tara Gidus, a dietitian in Orlando, Fla. To make a healthier version, take frozen chicken nuggets (or use your own breadcrumb batter on chicken breasts) and bake them rather than frying.

The advice to forgo fried for flavorful alternatives is also helpful for other traditionally greasy snacks, like potato chips. To get the crunchy, salty sensation of chips without the unfortunate side effects, look for baked versions of potato chips or switch to low- or no-fat snacks like pretzels, air-popped popcorn or soy crisps.

By Sally Wadyka for MSN Health & Fitness

Year 3, Day 34: Return Home

Wisely, I skipped the typical drink a lot of wine and eat a lot of sugar-coated nuts at the bar and tried to go to sleep early. For some reason, I got up at 6:30AM. Sadly for me, I thought it was 7:30 because the staff of the IBM Palisades had not set the clocks in the rooms back to the right time. Now if you're someone reading this who automatically checks the clocks in the hotel to see if they right time, then my hat is off to you, but I don't do that and I don't stay at a hotel often enough to know to do that. I only realized what time it was after I was fully dressed and picked up my phone. By that time it was too late to go back to sleep but I didn't want to wake up Ruby. I figured I should just go and have breakfast and I would bring back as much as I possibly could from the "All you could eat" breakfast bar. Usually, I need Ruby with me for her extra pair of hands, and for a distraction so the staff doesn't see me carrying all the morning's profits out the door.

Breakfast
Omelet with ham, mushroom, red pepper, onion
bacon
coffee

On the road
Mcdonald's Bacon Ranch Salad with Chicken (no dressing)
Strawberries
Grapes
Cashews

On Return
A pieces of whole wheat matzoh
chopped chicken liver
2 oz 50% Jalapeno Cheddar

Dinner
Romaine Salad
Cabbage
Feta
Balsamic Vinegar

Again we are so eager to get on the road that we neglect to have any lunch plan. We stop for gas on the road and I when I get back from the bathroom Ruby says she's hungry. I noticed that MacDonald's-on-the-road kiosks are now featuring pizza and pasta using an amazing espresso-like method that instantly boils the noodles without taking a long time. I get a cut up slice, an order or noodles and two salads from McDonald's. When we get back home, Emily and Magnolia take a nap. I ate a lot of chopped chicken liver. Ruby and I light out for the market, where I buy salad fixings, hoping to reverse the last four days in one lonely meal.

Year 3, Day 33: Across the George Washington Bridge

As the journey continues, we have to pack up from my Mom's and head West and North to Emily's sister's house, where Passover is going to be. We're staying at the IBM hotel which has a gym. When I drop the family and get to the hotel I thought I was going to work out but instead I took a nap in the broad daylight with my clothes on. Now how tired do you have to be to do that? Running on fumes at this points, and Magnolia has a cold. Even though we are 39 miles from New York City, where you can get literally anything the world has to offer, there isn't a CVS within 20 minutes of the hotel. We hope for the best.

Breakfast
Total Whole Grain
Kashi Go Lean@
Banana
Strawberries
Unsweetened Soy Milk
Coffee

Lunch
a few bites of chicken
brisket
leeks
cole slaw

snack
1 dragon stick
1 red delicious apple
cashews & almonds

dinner
2 pcs gefilte fish
turkey
celery/carrot
leeks
asparagus

dessert
2 almond cookies
1 brownie

For the fourth night in a row, I am taken in by a little sweetness at the end of the night, and the more you give in, the more you give in. Tonight I eat more dessert on top of a big day of eating. No exercise. Although things have gone about as smoothly as they could possibly have gone, Emily and I have lost our joie de vivre and our sense of humor. Amazingly, Emily and I have seen every single living member of our immediate family over these four days. As usual, and for a multitude of reasons, we do not look forward to the drive home.

Year 3, Day 32: Day after Party First Night of Pre-Passover

Awash in sugar, carbs and simple volume, I am literally swimming against the tide. I have no exercise plan. My mother has a treadmill, but we're kind of tired. I start to think maybe I'll work out at the hotel tomorrow. That thought gives me peace as I embark on another big day of non-stop eating.

Breakfast
Total Whole Grain
Go Lean
Banana
Strawberries
Whole Foods Unsweetened Soy Milk

etc. snacks
boston lite popcorn
almonds & cashews

Lunch:
1 tri-color chicken salad wrap
cole slaw
pickles
chicken breast

Passover Dinner:
Whole Wheat Matzoh (1 Board)
Assorted Cheeses
Chopped Chicken Liver
Chicken Soup
Gefilte Fish
Three bits of Entrees:
Chicken Breast
Brisket
Swedish Meatballs
Salad
Broccoli

Dessert
1 Coconut Bruce's Macaroon
1 Slice Aunt Doreen's Sponge Cake
1 Slice Bruce's Marble Sponge Cake

Of course, the family holiday supper is not very much different in practical reality from the 'all you can eat buffet' but in many ways it's worse because in some cases, as tonight, you are literally sitting at the table looking at the food. So unlike the buffet where you can win the skirmish by just not going up again to the buffet (even though your wallet cries out for you to do so) it's nearly impossible to sit at the table when you have to pass this or that thing to this or that other person. Then on Passover, you HAVE to eat matzoh sandwiches. It's in the Haggadah. No fooling around, you have to. Of course the Jews of ancient Egypt didn't need South Beach because they were walking all the time.