Showing posts with label eating out. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eating out. Show all posts
Hanging in there. Had a few dinners out with hubby which presented temptations and challenges, but I've gotten better at doing that balancing act: if one meal is higher in calories, compensate with the other meals that day.
So, when I had the big Italian dinner out (very sumptuous wild mushroom and truffle oil fettucine with parmesan, bruschetta with tomatoes/olive tapenade/sauteed mushrooms, a meatball sample, wine, and hubby and split a gelato with chocolate sauce), I simply had two high-protein, low cal meals for the rest of that day (one protein hot chocolate, one protein oatmeal and egg), and registered no gain. Another dinner out, same thing....just was very cautious the rest of the day. No gain.
I haven't been eating low enough since Friday to really make for significant loss, but I did make it to 258.0 today, so it's 41 pounds gone.
I'll take it.
I haven't gone shopping, so I have NO fruit and NO salad fixings in the house (though I do have leftover salad from yesterday's Middle Eastern supper we had--for me, Chicken Shawarma with basmati and fatoush without the pita as per my request, carrot soup). So, I'm hoping it won't be a big rainy day so I can get some healthful produce.
I do find that the WonderSlim Hot Cakes and Hot Chocolate (especially the raspberry one) have been great hunger stopgappers for me. They give me a sense of luxurythat has been satisfying and useful. The hotcakes with sugar free syrup or some frozen strawberry heated and dumped on top accompanied by scrambled eggs has been my fave breakfast for the last two weeks. Easy, fast and lots of protein. I just need to get the spinach, mushroom, zucchini, etc that I like to add to my eggs. The hot chocolate with some low-carb biscotti just feels like a nice dessert or late night snack to curtail binge inclinations. It can satisfy the raging of a sweet tooth.
Anyway, as long as the direction is downward, even if snail-slow, I'm happy. :)
So, here's to another week of fatfighting...
So, when I had the big Italian dinner out (very sumptuous wild mushroom and truffle oil fettucine with parmesan, bruschetta with tomatoes/olive tapenade/sauteed mushrooms, a meatball sample, wine, and hubby and split a gelato with chocolate sauce), I simply had two high-protein, low cal meals for the rest of that day (one protein hot chocolate, one protein oatmeal and egg), and registered no gain. Another dinner out, same thing....just was very cautious the rest of the day. No gain.
I haven't been eating low enough since Friday to really make for significant loss, but I did make it to 258.0 today, so it's 41 pounds gone.
I'll take it.
I haven't gone shopping, so I have NO fruit and NO salad fixings in the house (though I do have leftover salad from yesterday's Middle Eastern supper we had--for me, Chicken Shawarma with basmati and fatoush without the pita as per my request, carrot soup). So, I'm hoping it won't be a big rainy day so I can get some healthful produce.
I do find that the WonderSlim Hot Cakes and Hot Chocolate (especially the raspberry one) have been great hunger stopgappers for me. They give me a sense of luxurythat has been satisfying and useful. The hotcakes with sugar free syrup or some frozen strawberry heated and dumped on top accompanied by scrambled eggs has been my fave breakfast for the last two weeks. Easy, fast and lots of protein. I just need to get the spinach, mushroom, zucchini, etc that I like to add to my eggs. The hot chocolate with some low-carb biscotti just feels like a nice dessert or late night snack to curtail binge inclinations. It can satisfy the raging of a sweet tooth.
Anyway, as long as the direction is downward, even if snail-slow, I'm happy. :)
So, here's to another week of fatfighting...
Labels:
eating out,
low-carb,
meal planning,
protein-rich,
take-out/dining out,
weigh-in,
WonderSlim
While I've not done anywhere near what I would have hoped, I've made some progress. Yes, I had some setbacks--and week 3 seemed to have jammed up a few of us in this cahllenge--but I'm am partway back on the horse. So, really, not bad, given I've been sick, had major birthday celebrating. On the horse is always better than in the gutter, any day.
Starting weight for challenge: 267.6
(End of week 1= 265.6, end of 2= 263.2, end of 3=264.8)
Today's weigh-in: 262.6
Total loss in four weeks: 5 pounds.
You can see I did NOT give it my all, or I'd be at least 10 pounds down. So, I guess I have it HALF my all. :) In any case, it's lower than I've been in quite a while, certainly since I began this blog, so I'm really pleased, if not ecstatic. heh.
I only exercised twice, but I did make a conscious effort to do more outside the house just to get my body MOVING, rather than couch-sitting. In fact, part of what this challenge has done for me is force me to think about overall activity. I've done more, tried new things (bumper boat rides, go karts, dance dance revolution) and just tried to focus on more activity. The illness set me back and I had to avoid the insane heat/pollens for several days when I had swimming planned (and I haven't been in a pool in more then two decades), but the mindset is here. GO AND DO STUFF, MOVE, BURN CALORIES, USE MUSCLE. :)
Today's weigh-in is higher than I was Friday, which was 261.4. And sure it was my own fault. I had maybe 3 cups of water yesterday, instead of the recommended 8. We took our nephew out and had his fave, Chinese, and the beef with bean sprouts, won ton soup, and steamed pork dumplings dipped in that ginger soy sauce, well, there was bound to be a sodium uptick.Fair enough. And my snack for supper included cheddar cheese and FiberGourmet cheese crackers. I really am reckless with salt ingestion. Ah, well.
My goal is to be in the 250's--at last--by next weigh-in. Oh, man, that will mean a lot to me. Hitting 259 will mean I've lost 40 pounds total, and I never, ever, ever in my whole life lost more than 30 pounds, and I certainly never kept that off for even a year. I've done very well keeping off 20, and had a bumpy road keeping more than 25 off, so being close to a milestone loss and a new decade should be decent motivation for this coming week.
I really need to push on three fronts: adequate water and varied and more exercise and on keeping my protein intake adequate. I've started to gaze longingly again at starches and I've had many strictly vegetarian meals where it's harder to get in the protein. Even if I have to succumb to my stock of protein powders, I'll just do that to make sure I don't risk my expensive and hard-won muscle mass.
To all my fellow Summer Slimmin' challengers, I wish you all well for this coming week.
As we remember the courage it took for our nation's founders and early citizens and residents to gain a new and freer government, let's be courageous in freeing ourselves from the tyranny of fat, the shame of gluttony and sloth, and just plain old bad habits. I'm thinking of the many ways I need to gain freedom, the different sorts of shackles other than fat. I need to be my life's own George Washington!
HAPPY and HOPEFUL INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last Sunday: 265.2
Today: 263.2
Loss this week: 2 lbs
I like the downward trajectory. And I know it's a solid loss, cause I ate semi-poorly yesterday and gave in to salt again in the form of way too much parmesan cheese. I mean, I think I had like a cup of the stuff, shredded. I'm serious. Explanation to follow:
It's been busy. So much so, I didn't log my food yesterday, cause I wasn't HOME yesterday. Gone all day to an anime convention. I consider the hours of walking around as exercise. Hah!
Food choices there were iffy, and I did not behave saintly. But I didn't act the way I would have were I NOT at least trying not to go hog wild. Seriously.
I ended up having half a burger (hubby got other half) and had salad TWICE, with super salty dressing and cheese. A lot of cheese. At least a cup of shredded parmesan. And yes, I caved to croutons. For dessert, I had a melon cup (it was the only fresh fruit available.) But I no danishes, muffins, cakes, chocolate, or the cheesy nachos that were ubiquitous as the Japanese packaged snacks. The only junk food item I had was 3 1/2 sticks of strawberry Pocky (Z and Midori know what that is, right?), while my hubby polished off the rest of the box.
On the drive home around 11:30pm, I had a raging pizza craving, and hubby and I almost went to a local joint that stays open late and has really popular NY style. But then I said, "No, let's go home," and I assuaged my remaining hunger with a a saute of four veggies and 4 oz of ground beef. And sugar-free jello.
The lowest I'd gotten to this week was 262.4, which had made me squeal like a schoolgirl. I intend to see that number again this week, and wave goodbye to it.
Water, except for yesterday, was good. Exercised 3 days (last week 2 days). Logged faithfully EVERY BITE, except yesterday. Was okay with encouraging.
So, that's the SS update.
I hope my challenge momentum isn't affected by a medication switch-up.
The doctor is altering my thyroid regimen at my request--I want to add in Cytomel, so she'll be reducing the dosage of Levoyxl--which means I may have some thyroid level wackiness while we get to the best dosage for me. I hope I don't fall out of range (my optimum range is very narrow and I can start feeling crappy and gaining weight pretty easily). I just want to try this and see if it improves my mood issues and memory issues.
Okay, so a pretty decent week, if not perfect.
Today: 263.2
Loss this week: 2 lbs
I like the downward trajectory. And I know it's a solid loss, cause I ate semi-poorly yesterday and gave in to salt again in the form of way too much parmesan cheese. I mean, I think I had like a cup of the stuff, shredded. I'm serious. Explanation to follow:
It's been busy. So much so, I didn't log my food yesterday, cause I wasn't HOME yesterday. Gone all day to an anime convention. I consider the hours of walking around as exercise. Hah!
Food choices there were iffy, and I did not behave saintly. But I didn't act the way I would have were I NOT at least trying not to go hog wild. Seriously.
I ended up having half a burger (hubby got other half) and had salad TWICE, with super salty dressing and cheese. A lot of cheese. At least a cup of shredded parmesan. And yes, I caved to croutons. For dessert, I had a melon cup (it was the only fresh fruit available.) But I no danishes, muffins, cakes, chocolate, or the cheesy nachos that were ubiquitous as the Japanese packaged snacks. The only junk food item I had was 3 1/2 sticks of strawberry Pocky (Z and Midori know what that is, right?), while my hubby polished off the rest of the box.
On the drive home around 11:30pm, I had a raging pizza craving, and hubby and I almost went to a local joint that stays open late and has really popular NY style. But then I said, "No, let's go home," and I assuaged my remaining hunger with a a saute of four veggies and 4 oz of ground beef. And sugar-free jello.
The lowest I'd gotten to this week was 262.4, which had made me squeal like a schoolgirl. I intend to see that number again this week, and wave goodbye to it.
Water, except for yesterday, was good. Exercised 3 days (last week 2 days). Logged faithfully EVERY BITE, except yesterday. Was okay with encouraging.
So, that's the SS update.
I hope my challenge momentum isn't affected by a medication switch-up.
The doctor is altering my thyroid regimen at my request--I want to add in Cytomel, so she'll be reducing the dosage of Levoyxl--which means I may have some thyroid level wackiness while we get to the best dosage for me. I hope I don't fall out of range (my optimum range is very narrow and I can start feeling crappy and gaining weight pretty easily). I just want to try this and see if it improves my mood issues and memory issues.
Okay, so a pretty decent week, if not perfect.
I had to get a thyroid ultrasound today, so I didn't have breakfast (appt was 11:30am, got done 12:30pm, humph) in order to not risk some reflux. Was mighty peckish when I got out, so I headed to a local bagel place.
There, I ordered an all-the-veggies-you-got scramble with ham and cheese. (veggies = mushrooms, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, spinach, and broccoli.) I had 2/3 of that. Had tomato slices instead of potatoes/grits/oatmeal as a side. Had coffee and water. Totally did not touch the lovely Everything bagel that kept winking seductively at me. Brought it home for hubby and me to share tomorrow AM--or just for him. Haven't decided. Will see what I want after I get up.
Breakfast today racked up 652 calories, says my nutrition tracker. Good thing I didn't eat it all!
There, I ordered an all-the-veggies-you-got scramble with ham and cheese. (veggies = mushrooms, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, spinach, and broccoli.) I had 2/3 of that. Had tomato slices instead of potatoes/grits/oatmeal as a side. Had coffee and water. Totally did not touch the lovely Everything bagel that kept winking seductively at me. Brought it home for hubby and me to share tomorrow AM--or just for him. Haven't decided. Will see what I want after I get up.
Breakfast today racked up 652 calories, says my nutrition tracker. Good thing I didn't eat it all!
Will admit hat the cheese and ham made me thirsty and, being someone who really hates to drink plain water unless I've sweated up a storm and am dying for it, I was glad to have my package of TRUE Lemon products delivered (the lemon, lime, and orange kit). I'm sipping a tall and cool one with the lemon as I type.
Have any of you tried the fruit trick with water? You know, adding whatever fruit(s) you have handy--berries, tropical, kiwi, crushed apple, whatever--in order to make water more interesting? I'm gonna macerate some pear and try that next time I get some pears.
What have you tried?
What have you tried?
My first challenge weigh-in: 265.2
Loss= 2.4 lbs
It should have been more. I knew the damage that would occur eating at a Chinese place for supper yesterday. I didn't overdo. I even measured everything out and asked for the rest for take-out. I had no ice cream at my brother's house, even though we'd taken cones for the kids and my brother made one of my faves summer treats: homemade coconut ice cream. I did have one palmful of popcorn and, later, a salad with some shredded cheese and a fat-free salad dressing that, I suspect, had more salt than I needed. Again.
I'm guessing the weigh-in, sans the sodium, would have been a pound less. Normally, Chinese food makes me bloat 3 lbs, minimum. But I had loads of tea. Then, I did drink some extra water. That helped lots. But I was 264.4 and 264.2 on other previous days, so I had hoped for a 3 lb loss.
I hadn't hoped for a big, big water loss first week scale loss cause I had been eating semi-okay (if maintenance caloric level of roughly 2300) and I had been drinking coconut water and eating lots of fruit (ie Potassium, Sodium's antithesis). If I had eaten junk food or not been eating tons of fruit, then I could have shown a bigger first week water loss on the scale. But I slipped down from a pretty decent eating place, not a "eating like crap" place.
Ya know, though, we do obsess over the number itself, too much, rather than what it means. Water bloat is water. It's JUST water. It's not fat. What I need to lose is fat, and that will show up as a loss as I am consistent and strict with my intake of calories and consistent with my exercise and consistent with my water. It will balance out in the end. I will always have salty days. Always. I love salty foods too much to avoid them all the time. I just need to realize that a big water loss is meaningless. A small fat loss is meaningful.
We dieters tend to get so exhilarated over that first week's big loss of water. It's kinda silly when we do that, really. I get into that mindset, too, and even as I do, I realize how dumb I'm being. hahaha. I guess cause you know you were self-disciplined about eating and what proof in the feedback from Mr. Scale.
I know I did fine. I see the loss. I know I lost fat. Period. And I probably built muscle, given the soreness post exercise. Period.
Water is water. I really need to chill out about that. :)
I'm guessing the weigh-in, sans the sodium, would have been a pound less. Normally, Chinese food makes me bloat 3 lbs, minimum. But I had loads of tea. Then, I did drink some extra water. That helped lots. But I was 264.4 and 264.2 on other previous days, so I had hoped for a 3 lb loss.
I hadn't hoped for a big, big water loss first week scale loss cause I had been eating semi-okay (if maintenance caloric level of roughly 2300) and I had been drinking coconut water and eating lots of fruit (ie Potassium, Sodium's antithesis). If I had eaten junk food or not been eating tons of fruit, then I could have shown a bigger first week water loss on the scale. But I slipped down from a pretty decent eating place, not a "eating like crap" place.
Ya know, though, we do obsess over the number itself, too much, rather than what it means. Water bloat is water. It's JUST water. It's not fat. What I need to lose is fat, and that will show up as a loss as I am consistent and strict with my intake of calories and consistent with my exercise and consistent with my water. It will balance out in the end. I will always have salty days. Always. I love salty foods too much to avoid them all the time. I just need to realize that a big water loss is meaningless. A small fat loss is meaningful.
We dieters tend to get so exhilarated over that first week's big loss of water. It's kinda silly when we do that, really. I get into that mindset, too, and even as I do, I realize how dumb I'm being. hahaha. I guess cause you know you were self-disciplined about eating and what proof in the feedback from Mr. Scale.
I know I did fine. I see the loss. I know I lost fat. Period. And I probably built muscle, given the soreness post exercise. Period.
Water is water. I really need to chill out about that. :)
Also on the plus side: I'm happy with my eating. I ate under 1900 calories EVERY DAY this week. It's been so long that I did that, well, I can't even remember. Probably before I started this blog on one of my Weight Watchers phases. I stayed at my goal of 1800 (give or take 50 or so calories), even with eating out, even with the temptations of pizza commercials. This pleased me a lot.
I also met my journaling and (on 6 days) my water goals. I did pretty good with support posting. I did fine with blogging on the challenge and my meals, etc.
I did not cook much (which I hadn't planned to do the first 3 weeks, so no biggie, as I have most of my meals delivery or eat-out). I did not meet my exercise goals. I only exercised 2 out of the 7 days.
So, this week, my focus will be on making every day a perfect water day and getting exercise in 5 days of the 7. I plan to continue on 1800 calories, as I didn't feel unduly hungry. I want to see what another weigh-in at that level will be like. If I feel good about it, I might inch down to 1700 the week after.
I'm taking it week by week here. :D
My trainer sent me the pics of me doing Pilates. I need to upload and reduce them so I can post. Maybe later today or tomorrow. Stay tuned. hah.
Happy and health-filled Sunday to all you fatfighters!
Five days of in-range calorie eating, five days of nearly perfect nutrition, and I got a mad craving to go out for steak. So...we did.
I sat and made concessions. None of the usual sides with steak, ie. mashed or fried potatoes or baked loaded, plus veggie souffle. Or that dreaded blue cheese and creamy dressing salad that steakhouses lure me with. :)
I started with their simplest salad and a vinaigrette (sorry, blue cheese). I had these sides: a baked sweet potato, plain, and sprinkled diet-friendly cinnamon on it ( not sugar). I had broccoli steamed, plain, no salt. I I had a couple ounces of merlot to balance its heart-healthiness against the saturated fat/cholesterol in red meat. I had unsweetened iced tea. I skipped the usual fruit tart or chocolate mousse (that I'd usually give in to at this particular eatery) and made do with a double espresso with Splenda.
That's what I did right. What I did wrong, besides eating too many ounces of NY Strip: I had not one, but two slices of French bread (it is a French restaurant, so the bread is really enticing). I used EVOO, not the butter they served with it.
What else I did right, knowing we'd be having dinner out: I had a moderate braekfast and a very light lunch that, together, totalled 650 calories. Enough to keep me from being utterly famished, but not so much that I didn't have some leeway at supper.
At the end of the day, after, yes, five days of great caloric containment, I went 500 calories over the maximum SparkPeople nutrition tracker allows me. I would have only gone 400 over, but I decided to have a coconut water to get in some potassium, and I had a fiber mix to push the meat through my system a bit faster. :)
I drank my water, good. I didn't make time to exercise, bad.
A day of good and bad choices.
After the restaurant, I asked hubby to drive to Barnes & Noble. I wanted to load up on health/fitness magazines, low-cal holilday cooking ones, too, in order to get myself motivated for the coming weeks of temptations.
It starts this week. Holiday eating. Lord, help us plan and help us make the better choices!
Tomorrow, a family birthday party will likely set all sorts of minefields. But I have set aside healthy snacks and beverages to take to minimize temptations/damages. Will I be perfect? Doubt it. But I will be...better.
Happy Weekend to all Fatfighters!
I sat and made concessions. None of the usual sides with steak, ie. mashed or fried potatoes or baked loaded, plus veggie souffle. Or that dreaded blue cheese and creamy dressing salad that steakhouses lure me with. :)
I started with their simplest salad and a vinaigrette (sorry, blue cheese). I had these sides: a baked sweet potato, plain, and sprinkled diet-friendly cinnamon on it ( not sugar). I had broccoli steamed, plain, no salt. I I had a couple ounces of merlot to balance its heart-healthiness against the saturated fat/cholesterol in red meat. I had unsweetened iced tea. I skipped the usual fruit tart or chocolate mousse (that I'd usually give in to at this particular eatery) and made do with a double espresso with Splenda.
That's what I did right. What I did wrong, besides eating too many ounces of NY Strip: I had not one, but two slices of French bread (it is a French restaurant, so the bread is really enticing). I used EVOO, not the butter they served with it.
What else I did right, knowing we'd be having dinner out: I had a moderate braekfast and a very light lunch that, together, totalled 650 calories. Enough to keep me from being utterly famished, but not so much that I didn't have some leeway at supper.
At the end of the day, after, yes, five days of great caloric containment, I went 500 calories over the maximum SparkPeople nutrition tracker allows me. I would have only gone 400 over, but I decided to have a coconut water to get in some potassium, and I had a fiber mix to push the meat through my system a bit faster. :)
I drank my water, good. I didn't make time to exercise, bad.
A day of good and bad choices.
After the restaurant, I asked hubby to drive to Barnes & Noble. I wanted to load up on health/fitness magazines, low-cal holilday cooking ones, too, in order to get myself motivated for the coming weeks of temptations.
It starts this week. Holiday eating. Lord, help us plan and help us make the better choices!
Tomorrow, a family birthday party will likely set all sorts of minefields. But I have set aside healthy snacks and beverages to take to minimize temptations/damages. Will I be perfect? Doubt it. But I will be...better.
Happy Weekend to all Fatfighters!
It really annoys the princess poop outta me when large food franchises bother to put up their snazzy lil websites and leave out nutritional facts.
We had Chicken Kitchen chop-chops for lunch (I left our 1/3 of the yellow rice on mine), but I could not find nutritional info on this online, except for an incomplete one on a calorie site.
Hey, Chicken Kitchen, get on the fricken ball. Give us the nutritional label type of breakdowns for your menu items. If you really want to be helpful, put WW points on 'em, too. How about it?
The Princess commands...
(Now, on the off chance that I'm a total doof and missed it on their site, do check it out and tell me if I missed it. Heh.)
We had Chicken Kitchen chop-chops for lunch (I left our 1/3 of the yellow rice on mine), but I could not find nutritional info on this online, except for an incomplete one on a calorie site.
Hey, Chicken Kitchen, get on the fricken ball. Give us the nutritional label type of breakdowns for your menu items. If you really want to be helpful, put WW points on 'em, too. How about it?
The Princess commands...
(Now, on the off chance that I'm a total doof and missed it on their site, do check it out and tell me if I missed it. Heh.)
I am totally NOT giving it 100%. I'm not even giving it 80%. Shoot, I'm barely hitting 55%.
And my biggest step backwards, my hugest slack-off, from when I was losing--and even maintaining--is...not doing grocery shopping, meal planning, and home cooking.
Without question, this is my big hurdle to tackle this week. Without this, I might as well admit I'm gonna fail.
I've been back into getting take-out, eating out. This spells disaster. It has. I'm stuck at just nearly 8 pounds from my best during this blog's existence. And it's not budging. I thought I could do it with judicious eating out. I can't.
It got especially bad when I was sick (hey, now there's an excuse to order pizza or have hubb go to the local Mexican restaurant or Kabob place). And as I was coming back home after driving through Taco Bell post Pilates (talk about ruining a good deed with a bad one), I told myself this had to stop. I had to get my cooking mojo back on.
So, I committed to myself to go get groceries either later today (if I can get my second wind, as I feel mighty pooped) or after my ultrasound appointment tomorrow. But no later.
I have to admit. I have NO excuse not to grocery shop and plan and cook meals. It's just plain laziness. It's just bad old habits taking over again.
No. Gotta kick the take-out habit. Trying to regulate it (ie, promising to choose only healthful options) isn't working. I gotta just make my food. I have to control what goes into my meals. I have to turn that stove and oven back on. I have to stock that freezer and fridge and the fruit bowls. Period.
And you know, I'm not the only one who needs to do this. Read this a few minutes ago at Diets in Review:
Since 1965, women have gone from spending 13 hours per week cooking meals to the meager 30 minutes per day now, and in that time the number of overweight women has more than doubled, to 65 percent. Biggest Loser cookbooks author Devin Alexander pointed out that “Twenty minutes in the kitchen will save you three hours on the StairMaster.”
Yes. We've become a nation of eater-outers, not home-cookers. Let's be real. At home, you have to measure out the oil and butter and dressing and cheese and portion the meat and chicken and tofu or whatever. You just don't get this plate, like magic, from the Kitchen Fairy. You can't say, "Well, maybe this mashed potato isn't so bad, or these veggies weren't doused in too much butter." At home, you can't fool yourself. You know exactly what's in there, cause YOU put it in there.
I love to eat out. As I told hubby yesterday, after we left the gynecologist (where he held my hand during the painful exam), when he commented how he likes buffets cause he serves himself (and he has VERY little food at buffets, cause his appetitie is pretty small for a tall feller, and they definitely MAKE money off him, cause he never eats 10 bucks worth!), I like being served. I LOVE having someone bring me yummies and take away dirty plates and ask me if I want coffee and dessert.
It makes me feel like an Empress. Or, okay, a Princess. :)
I think a small part of it's 'cause my parents were not eater-outers. Eating out was this amazing thing to me. I'd see sidewalk cafes in NYC when we visited Manhattan and it was so alien. A thing only special people did. Not poor people like us.
I never sat down in my first Chinese restaurant until I was 16, and that because a friend's dad invited me out to eat with his family. I found it astonishing. And it's the same today. I get this wild thrill at heading to a sit-down restaurant and having whatever my heart desires.
Sit-down restaurants are like small vacations. Drive-throughs are me just not wanting to do any work. Either way, they both are about self-spoiling. For me, anyway. Luxury. Not wisdom or self-control. Indulgence.
My parents never modeled this. This is just ME. Spoiling myself. Acting all rich, right? No...They were homey types, simple folks who worked very hard at low-paying work and who watched pennies like hawks watching field mice. Cooking at home was economical. No takeout, except for a walk to the bakery to get bread. That's what poor folks did and do, especially poor immigrant folks who have a hankering for their ethnic flavors, do. Eat at home.
For me, eating out is a huge luxury. It's what rich people do. What my parents could not do.
It's crazy how much money we waste eating out. Really shameful. We could be putting that towards retirement or paying off our car note. Seriously.
It's a bad economy--a perfect time to figure out how to eat well without spending a fortune. It's a challenge, but not insurmountable. For the $5 or $6 bucks that cafeteria or eat-out turkey sandwich costs plus whatever beverage you get and maybe that bag o' chips, you can make two to four lunches at home (depending on what you eat).
So, the Princess needs to haul her fat butt to Whole Foods and get what she needs for a week of meals. I love eating out too much to nix it altogether. But man, even if I reduce it to once or twice a week, that's better than what I've been doing. Every single dinner and most lunches out. Crazy. Foolish.
Oh, man. Back to the basics.
~
I only slept about 4 hours total last night--broken into 2 hours and 1.75 hours, with a restless break in-between when I read and stretched.
And I had to go to the doc. I am waiting for EIGHT prescriptions to be filled--and that's not all the prescriptions she gave me, just the ones I need now. One of my meds got switched for another.
I don't even know if I'm making sense. Heh.
:::slaps face to wake up:::
The cold front moved in (rain yesterday, glorious day today), so driving was nice in the lovely sunshine and cool air. My hair looks great with the low humidity--shiny and no frizz. Better yet, the change eased my breathing a bit. I'll take it. I did have to wear a mask from the house to the car, as The Door Guy is here fixing our broken front door. The paint smell, I don't need. I'm staying away from the yard and front areas.
My Pilates instructor has been so encouraging, despite me missing 3 weeks already. She said once I'm breathing okay and back at it, I'll regain strength fast. I choose to believe this. :) It keeps me hopeful.
Oh, and I ate too much Chinese at lunch. This is what comes of eating a too tiny breakfast (200 cals/4 points) out of fear of busting the scale at the doc's office. (I knew I'd weigh in heavier due to not sleeping enough--always happens.) I usually don't eat before I go to see my doc, but I was hungry. That'll teach me to go too long on too little fuel. Temptation is harder to fight.
But I'm gonna have my protein shake and fruit for a light supper and go to BED!!!!!!!!!! SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!! SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!
Sleep is such a gorgeous, gorgeous thing.
So, until tomorrow, I wish you all a lovely "what's left of Thursday"... :)
~~~
PS: I keep getting this box asking for user and password as requested by Twitter.com. Anyone else getting that on Blogger. It's annoying. I removed my twitter widget.
And I had to go to the doc. I am waiting for EIGHT prescriptions to be filled--and that's not all the prescriptions she gave me, just the ones I need now. One of my meds got switched for another.
I don't even know if I'm making sense. Heh.
:::slaps face to wake up:::
The cold front moved in (rain yesterday, glorious day today), so driving was nice in the lovely sunshine and cool air. My hair looks great with the low humidity--shiny and no frizz. Better yet, the change eased my breathing a bit. I'll take it. I did have to wear a mask from the house to the car, as The Door Guy is here fixing our broken front door. The paint smell, I don't need. I'm staying away from the yard and front areas.
My Pilates instructor has been so encouraging, despite me missing 3 weeks already. She said once I'm breathing okay and back at it, I'll regain strength fast. I choose to believe this. :) It keeps me hopeful.
Oh, and I ate too much Chinese at lunch. This is what comes of eating a too tiny breakfast (200 cals/4 points) out of fear of busting the scale at the doc's office. (I knew I'd weigh in heavier due to not sleeping enough--always happens.) I usually don't eat before I go to see my doc, but I was hungry. That'll teach me to go too long on too little fuel. Temptation is harder to fight.
But I'm gonna have my protein shake and fruit for a light supper and go to BED!!!!!!!!!! SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!! SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!
Sleep is such a gorgeous, gorgeous thing.
So, until tomorrow, I wish you all a lovely "what's left of Thursday"... :)
~~~
PS: I keep getting this box asking for user and password as requested by Twitter.com. Anyone else getting that on Blogger. It's annoying. I removed my twitter widget.
A blogger named Atara--who has a lovely new baby, too, and a blog I've enjoyed perusing this AM--asked the following in a previous post of mine about junk food and kids:
Lyn made a great point in the comments section of that post: Kids, when they are older and are mobile and have friends who share, will get junk. Unavoidable. Kids like sweet. Kids like fast food. Humans like salty, sweet, fatty. We just do.
The thing is that just like parents try to instill all sorts of "against natural desires" behaviors in kids (ie, don't just jump in and have sex when you get those first stirrings, don't cheat on a test just cause you can and everyone else does, don't be a bully just cause you're bigger and stronger and faster and power is fun, don't blow off school when you're bored, don't shoplift if you can't afford that pretty necklace cause stealing is wrong, etc), what cuisine/foods/tastes a kid has is partially (if not fundamentally) set in the home. I love bean soup, avocado, olive oil on bread, and fresh fruit cause we ate those a lot (almost daily, except for avocados, those in season) as a kid. We ate beans about every day, and I can still eat beans about every day now, cause my taste buds adapted. But I also had candy and pizza and potato chips and Cheetos a lot, and that was NOT a good thing for my teeth or my weight. Daily crap is not good for anyone.
But especially not kids who are learning how to eat for life. What should be "sparingly" eaten is now routinely eaten. A factotum from Junk Food Wars:
I simply think that parents who don't want kids burdened with junk food habits and weight woes need to do what they can at home to develop from the earliest age a taste for fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other "clean" and nutritious fare and show kids what normal portions are like. Two cups of rice is not a normal portion. A big fat heaping bowl of spaghetti is not a normal portion, and neither is 20 ounces of fruit juice (much less fruit drinks that are full of sugar and very little fruit).
Keeping the junk mostly out of the home and putting the emphasis on treating a sweet tooth with natural sweets created by God in their perfect form--an apple, grapes, an orange, strawberries, pineapple, lychees, plums, peaches, pears, kiwi, blueberries, etc. And to make sure they start eating a wide variety of veggies as soon as possible, so they can develop a taste for produce and not just go yuck at greens (or any other color veggie). It's simply part of teaching good habits, along with brushing and flossing and getting exercise in play (cause video games all afternoon long is hardly healthful, either).
What they do with what they learn at home when they're older and have access to Burger King and the Kwik Mart, what they do as adults out of your home...you cannot control. No parent can. (Though Madonna sure is giving it the best and most obssessive shot she can!)
Parents can control IN the home (except for creative sneaking of candy). What's in the fridge, in the pantry, on the table, and in the lunchbox. That is controllable. Mom or dad buy it and store it and cook it. They can control it.
Our society is too riddled with junk to have utter faith that kids won't sneak it, buy it with an allowance, get it from friends, have it at school. But if the foundation is laid not to indulge in it freely at home and to think of cookies and candies and cakes and sugary drinks as special-occasion treats that are NOT good for us, but that we can use for a limited purpose, that's a step in the right direction. Of course, if a kid develops a taste at home for healthier versions of junk, "redeemed" junk, as it were, cause mom and dad are willing to find alternatives to the high-fat, sugary crap, that's also good. Oatmeal cookies made less sweet and with whole grains, nuts with dark chocolate in modest portions, etc.
I was one of those kids whose eating was not at all monitored,except by the limitation of "this is what's there". Once the platters of food ran out on the table, well, that was the limitation. Or if the box of cookies finished. Or the bag of bread lay empty. But... if I wanted to fill a bowl with five cups of sugar-rich, artificially colored cereal (which I did) and dump in 3 cups of full fat milk (which I did), as a between meal snack, I did. If I wanted to dump 5 tablespoons of sugar in my oatmeal, I could. If I wanted to drink the whole jug of orange juice, I could. And nobody said anything to indicate that I was out of control or doing something that was unhealthful. Not till I got older and did get fat. But it takes all those steps to get there. It's not overnight.
I could eat whatever, whenever. And this is not a good system. For anyone at any time. I learned that I could eat until stuffed and I could eat sugar at will. How nuts is that? And especially not kids in the formative and "training" stages of life--from pureed foods to table manners training to first grade. And no kid should have total access to a pantry or fridge full of crap. How is that good nutritional sense?
To quote Obama's former pastor: The chickens have come home to roost...and they are breaded, fried, salted like the Dead Sea, and (until recently) utterly riddled with trans fats and come with an fatty, white-flour, salty biscuit on the side.
Fast food, easy "convenience foods", processed foods, junk foods, oversized portions, sugary supersized drinks, big candy bars....they have resulted in many kids considering the fattiest items at McDonalds and KFC and Pizza Hut what lunch and dinner are supposed to be. That a 32 ounce soda is a serving. That a giant muffin or humongo cookie is for one person at one sitting. That Doritos is a normal after school snack. Something's wrong with that.
I mean, come on--watermelon, fresh and chilled, really is so much better than cupcakes as a treat. Just not cheaper or easier to have on hand. A ripe mango has it all over artificially flavored jelly beans, even mango-flavored ones. The thing is that real food will cost more than processed crap, oftentimes. And fruit goes bad quickly, while convenience foods are...convenient, with long shelf lives. It's easy to eat bad. It takes a bit more effort--and maybe cash--to eat cleanly.
So, that rant--and this one--is out of my fear of the next generation being even fatter and and more riddled with diabetes and cursed with shorter life expectancies than today's because WE ALLOW and WE OFFER them junk instead of real, honest, fresh, wholesome food that they can develop a taste for. And they CAN develop a taste for all sorts. Just look at kids in cultures without fast food or candy shops. They eat what the parents eat--be it nuts, seeds, fruits, veggies, meats, etc.
Oh, and this study goes counter to idea that kids hate fruits and veggies. That article says this, emphasis mine:
Will they want junk anyway? Probably. But they can be trained to love good, healthful food, too, and that means they will crave that as well.
Sorry. It's a sore subject, I guess.
Y'all should just go look at Atara's cute baby, now. :)
~
OK, I'm just curious because I have a 3 month old. If I never bring the junk in the house, will he still want it? In other words, do they just get used to eating it? Is that it?Well, I'm not a mom and never have been. I posted--er, vented may be a better word--because I keep reading about the obesity increase in kids, the increase in diabetes, earlier-in-life atherosclerosis, etc, and I've observed how very many kids are allowed to just snack and feast on all sorts of crap from morning till night--sugary sodas with meals, candy between meals, allowed to skip veggies but have white bread, etc.
Lyn made a great point in the comments section of that post: Kids, when they are older and are mobile and have friends who share, will get junk. Unavoidable. Kids like sweet. Kids like fast food. Humans like salty, sweet, fatty. We just do.
The thing is that just like parents try to instill all sorts of "against natural desires" behaviors in kids (ie, don't just jump in and have sex when you get those first stirrings, don't cheat on a test just cause you can and everyone else does, don't be a bully just cause you're bigger and stronger and faster and power is fun, don't blow off school when you're bored, don't shoplift if you can't afford that pretty necklace cause stealing is wrong, etc), what cuisine/foods/tastes a kid has is partially (if not fundamentally) set in the home. I love bean soup, avocado, olive oil on bread, and fresh fruit cause we ate those a lot (almost daily, except for avocados, those in season) as a kid. We ate beans about every day, and I can still eat beans about every day now, cause my taste buds adapted. But I also had candy and pizza and potato chips and Cheetos a lot, and that was NOT a good thing for my teeth or my weight. Daily crap is not good for anyone.
But especially not kids who are learning how to eat for life. What should be "sparingly" eaten is now routinely eaten. A factotum from Junk Food Wars:
Even though the Food Guide Pyramid suggests eating fats and sweets sparingly, the survey found that children consume more than three servings of these foods daily. Fatty goods such as French fries, desserts, potato chips and soft drinks have become staples rather than occasional treats.And kids don't have to eat tons to gain weight, says the article. Two hundred extra daily calories than what is needed by a child's bodymeans a half-pound gain a week. 26 a year. That kid can be 100 pounds overweight in 4 years. Scary, huh? And how easy is it to eat 200 calories? A small pack of 4 Oreos will do it. A bag of chips goes over that (unless it's a very small bag). Half a slice extra of a meaty pizza. A candy bar will do that and more. An extra cup of sugary cereal. Eight Hershey's kisses. A 16 ounce glass of Coke (non-diet). Easy peasy to eat 200 calories too many.
I simply think that parents who don't want kids burdened with junk food habits and weight woes need to do what they can at home to develop from the earliest age a taste for fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other "clean" and nutritious fare and show kids what normal portions are like. Two cups of rice is not a normal portion. A big fat heaping bowl of spaghetti is not a normal portion, and neither is 20 ounces of fruit juice (much less fruit drinks that are full of sugar and very little fruit).
Keeping the junk mostly out of the home and putting the emphasis on treating a sweet tooth with natural sweets created by God in their perfect form--an apple, grapes, an orange, strawberries, pineapple, lychees, plums, peaches, pears, kiwi, blueberries, etc. And to make sure they start eating a wide variety of veggies as soon as possible, so they can develop a taste for produce and not just go yuck at greens (or any other color veggie). It's simply part of teaching good habits, along with brushing and flossing and getting exercise in play (cause video games all afternoon long is hardly healthful, either).
What they do with what they learn at home when they're older and have access to Burger King and the Kwik Mart, what they do as adults out of your home...you cannot control. No parent can. (Though Madonna sure is giving it the best and most obssessive shot she can!)
Parents can control IN the home (except for creative sneaking of candy). What's in the fridge, in the pantry, on the table, and in the lunchbox. That is controllable. Mom or dad buy it and store it and cook it. They can control it.
Our society is too riddled with junk to have utter faith that kids won't sneak it, buy it with an allowance, get it from friends, have it at school. But if the foundation is laid not to indulge in it freely at home and to think of cookies and candies and cakes and sugary drinks as special-occasion treats that are NOT good for us, but that we can use for a limited purpose, that's a step in the right direction. Of course, if a kid develops a taste at home for healthier versions of junk, "redeemed" junk, as it were, cause mom and dad are willing to find alternatives to the high-fat, sugary crap, that's also good. Oatmeal cookies made less sweet and with whole grains, nuts with dark chocolate in modest portions, etc.
I was one of those kids whose eating was not at all monitored,except by the limitation of "this is what's there". Once the platters of food ran out on the table, well, that was the limitation. Or if the box of cookies finished. Or the bag of bread lay empty. But... if I wanted to fill a bowl with five cups of sugar-rich, artificially colored cereal (which I did) and dump in 3 cups of full fat milk (which I did), as a between meal snack, I did. If I wanted to dump 5 tablespoons of sugar in my oatmeal, I could. If I wanted to drink the whole jug of orange juice, I could. And nobody said anything to indicate that I was out of control or doing something that was unhealthful. Not till I got older and did get fat. But it takes all those steps to get there. It's not overnight.
I could eat whatever, whenever. And this is not a good system. For anyone at any time. I learned that I could eat until stuffed and I could eat sugar at will. How nuts is that? And especially not kids in the formative and "training" stages of life--from pureed foods to table manners training to first grade. And no kid should have total access to a pantry or fridge full of crap. How is that good nutritional sense?
To quote Obama's former pastor: The chickens have come home to roost...and they are breaded, fried, salted like the Dead Sea, and (until recently) utterly riddled with trans fats and come with an fatty, white-flour, salty biscuit on the side.
Fast food, easy "convenience foods", processed foods, junk foods, oversized portions, sugary supersized drinks, big candy bars....they have resulted in many kids considering the fattiest items at McDonalds and KFC and Pizza Hut what lunch and dinner are supposed to be. That a 32 ounce soda is a serving. That a giant muffin or humongo cookie is for one person at one sitting. That Doritos is a normal after school snack. Something's wrong with that.
I mean, come on--watermelon, fresh and chilled, really is so much better than cupcakes as a treat. Just not cheaper or easier to have on hand. A ripe mango has it all over artificially flavored jelly beans, even mango-flavored ones. The thing is that real food will cost more than processed crap, oftentimes. And fruit goes bad quickly, while convenience foods are...convenient, with long shelf lives. It's easy to eat bad. It takes a bit more effort--and maybe cash--to eat cleanly.
So, that rant--and this one--is out of my fear of the next generation being even fatter and and more riddled with diabetes and cursed with shorter life expectancies than today's because WE ALLOW and WE OFFER them junk instead of real, honest, fresh, wholesome food that they can develop a taste for. And they CAN develop a taste for all sorts. Just look at kids in cultures without fast food or candy shops. They eat what the parents eat--be it nuts, seeds, fruits, veggies, meats, etc.
Oh, and this study goes counter to idea that kids hate fruits and veggies. That article says this, emphasis mine:
Fewer than half of California’s children ages 2 to 11 eat the recommended amount of fruit and vegetable servings daily (5 or more servings), according to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Further, almost 25 percent of them eat two or more servings of cookies, candy, donuts or popsicles every day.
Lack of proper nutrition contributes to certain health problems, such as the rising trend in childhood obesity. In California, one in three children is overweight or at risk of becoming overweight – far worse than the national average.
“While there has been a lot of research on barriers to childhood nutrition, this study dispels the myth that kids are predisposed to dislike healthy foods,” Perry said. “Now our challenge is to help parents find simple, affordable ways to prepare nutritious meals and snacks for their kids.”
Will they want junk anyway? Probably. But they can be trained to love good, healthful food, too, and that means they will crave that as well.
Sorry. It's a sore subject, I guess.
Y'all should just go look at Atara's cute baby, now. :)
~
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