Waste Weight

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Yeah, um, well.  Never mind.

Super, super tired this morning.  Was surprised when alarm went off, then still needed more time.  The rare day where I probably could have slept until 10:00 or even 11:00!  I need to get adjusted.

Breakfast:  2 slices sharp cheddar, coffee.  The usual.  Now with 100% more stock photo! (185 calories)

There just isn't any way to make this look impressive...

It does the job.

Lunch:  2 CF eggs fried in a bit of butter, 4 strips CF cajun bacon, 1/2 medium underripe avocado, "2" slices sourdough toast with butter (675 calories)

This is not a repeat of yesterday's photo.  It is a repeat of the meal.

Yum, again.  I carefully measured out 1T of butter and divided it between frying the eggs and the toast.  That wasn't so difficult.  The avocado was quite under ripe, so if I get sick in the next couple hours, that's probably why.  Maybe I should look up if this a bad thing.

Dinner:  Beef soft tacos (800 calories)

That plate didn't stay clean for long let me tell you

All sorts of yum.  I was hungry and knew that I had calories to play with, so I went with a full 1/2 lb (before cooking) ground beef.  Compromised and had 5 tortillas.  Plus iceberg, jalapeno, salsa and hot sauce.  Yeah, it had some heat!  And I have leftovers for tomorrow!  Yay!

That calories count seems kind of low, but it's what I come up with -- 400 for the beef, 250 for the tortillas, 100 for the sour cream and 50 for the veg and sauce (all numbers rounded of course).  Maybe I'll look for additional confirmation on the beef calories -- I'm just using the entry for Whole Foods 90/10 grassfed beef.

Dessert:  2T Meijer crunchy natural peanut butter.  Why not.  (200 calories)

Day Total:  1,860.  Wow.  Now THAT is a number I like.  And I never felt deprived.  Awesome.

Exercise:  Nope.  Need to get on that.

113.6

Minor Aftereffects

Monday, March 10, 2014

Really sluggish this morning.  I don't think it was too much due to overeating last night as much as it was the fact that I had a hard time getting to sleep last night - was up for hours past bedtime - and the time change.  Today is going to be a long day.

Breakfast:  2 slices sharp cheddar, coffee (185 calories).  The usual.  I might need a file photo of this.

Lunch:  2 CF eggs fried over medium in a bit of butter, 4 strips CF cajun bacon,  1 medium avocado, 1 slice sourdough toast with butter (775 calories)

Do these eggs look perfect?

Oh my goodness.  When you do it right, breakfast is so very good.  The eggs were an absolutely perfect over medium.  The bacon was done (in the oven) to perfection.  The avocado was perfectly ripe.  And the toast was perfect too.  Wow.  Calories should be close - I'm not quite sure on the avocado.  Next time I have one I will try to remember to weigh it - I just went with the MFP generic medium, which was just shy of 300 calories.  From brief research this seems pretty reasonable.  Another reminder that I should weigh my food I guess.

Dinner:  Leftover meatloaf, 4 cheese potatoes, 1 C frozen green peas (1,050 calories)

Yeah that's a lot of food

Not pretty, definitely excessive, but quite tasty.  Same issue as yesterday - how do you track calories in stuff you didn't make - but I did the best I could with MFP.  It really seems like this should be more calories than that.  Also of note - it helps to not eat much for breakfast, makes a big dinner like this easier to fit into the calculations.

Day totals:  2,010 calories.  If dinner is accurate, that's right on brother.

Exercise:  Sigh, nope.  But there are signs that early mornings might be possible again soon.

115.6

Spring Forward ... and Faceplant

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Ugh, daylight savings.  Can we just do away with this already?

I got quite a bit of stuff done around the house yesterday, pretty pleased by that.  We'll see if I get more done today.  I would really like Sundays to consistently be a day of rest - meaning that I can play if I want rather than needing to work or clean or do anything specific - but getting there is quite the work in progress.

Anyway, reasonably happy with how things are going.  Still need to cut the starch, which hopefully I can work on this week.  Breakfast is not a problem.  The other two meals can be better.  Oh, and randomly, I did also have 4 sticks of Wrigley's Doublemint last week so that's a few calories I didn't record.

Breakfast:  2 CF eggs fried in ~ 1/4T of butter, 1.5 C Meijer frozen hash browns cooked in 2 T EVOO, "3" strips of Spartan bacon, a bit of hot sauce, coffee (650 calories)

You can safely assume based on appearances that I will
 never be a short-order cook.

Yeah, I really should get another skillet one of these days (and throw out the old nonsticks that I haven't used in 10 years or more).  It is very difficult to control the doneness of eggs when the skillet is super hot like it is after doing the hash browns.  But:  The results were very delicious if visually less than stellar.  Once I mixed up the eggs and potatoes and hot sauce it was a fiesta in my mouth.  Yum.

Lunch:  Lunch sized pizza with pepperoni, salad with homemade ranch dressing (700 calories)

Projects, I got projects.  They come to a halt for lunch though.

A bit lighter on the calories today.  I ran out of cheese so I only used 3/8 of a cup.  Really didn't notice much of a difference, so maybe I'll start being more aware and going lighter on the cheese.  Also went a bit lighter on the dressing.  Salad was extra good.  Just iceberg, roma tomato, claussen pickle and a bit of left over salsa verde plus the homemade 'ranch' dressing.  Yum.  Oh, and no mushrooms on the pizza.

Dinner:  Meatloaf, Betty Crocker 4 cheese potatoes, green beans with cheddar cheese, 2 rolls with butter, 12 oz Miller Lite. (1,600 calories)

No photo.  There's your faceplant.  It's much harder when someone else is cooking.  I ate way, way too much.  Not sure what is so freaking hard about keeping it in check.  The calories are very much an estimate (using myfitnesspal), but whatever it was, it was a lot.  And I have leftovers for tomorrow.

Day Total:  2,950 calories.  It may have been worse.  Actually, I'm a little surprised that it wasn't.  I guess eating relatively reasonable meals earlier in the day helped.  So it's a FAIL, but it's not an epic fail.

Exercise:  Nope.

116.0

A Rarity Indeed

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Interesting 'accomplishment' yesterday - I didn't have any conventional wheat.  Sure, I had bad stuff.  Corn tortillas.  A little mayo.  Even the einkorn probably isn't the best thing for me.  But still, no conventional wheat.  Pretty happy about that.  Now, to start thinking about cutting the carbs.  He says ... while eating hash browns for breakfast.  Alright then.

Breakfast:  2 eggs, fried (no butter), 4 slices oven baked Spartan bacon, 1 C Meijer frozen shredded hash browns cooked in 2 T California Olive Ranch EVOO (650 calories)

Even when the presentation is unimpressive, breakfast still rocks

It's the weekend, so why not experiment?  Two experiments today.  The more obvious one is the hash browns.  I had actually never made hash browns at home before!  I am usually pretty indifferent to them, which is strange since I love potatoes (unfortunately).  I had a bag in the freezer that bought a couple weeks ago to use in a breakfast casserole, but that use only took maybe 1/4 of the bag at most.  I tried to keep the oil under control, using 2T of EVOO, but that's still a lot of calories since the potatoes just soak it right up.  I would say they turned out very good!  Maybe just a hair crispier than I prefer but still very good.  Maybe one of these days I'll clarify some butter and try cooking a batch in that.  The lesser experiment was cooking the eggs without added butter/oil.  I really only have one small skillet, so I tossed them in after I finished the hash browns.  They stuck some and weren't real visually appealing so I probably won't keep that method up.  I might just have to get another good small skillet.

Lunch:  Lunch sized einkorn/parmesan crust pizza with pepperoni & mushrooms, big salad of iceberg, roma tomato, Claussen pickle and homemade ranch dressing (800 calories)

Yeah, I really could live on pizza alone.  I'm not that guy though.

I paid more attention to measurements this time.  Made sure I only used 1/2 C of the mozzarella/provolone blend.  Halved the crust for a smaller pizza.  Even weighed the pepperoni!  Still not close to perfect, I didn't measure anything when I put the salad dressing together, though I'm sure I'm overestimating the calories since I didn't use very much at all.  Note to self:  Try a dressing some time with lemon juice as the acid.

Dinner:  Leftover beef soft tacos (600 calories)

Let's work on those presentation skills, shall we?

Tonight's twists - I used romaine lettuce and cut up a jalapeno.  Yum.  I cut the tortilla count down to 4 and I will probably do that going forward - less tortilla, more meat.  I also measured the sour cream.

Day total:  2,050 calories.  Yup.  Right there.  I think psychologically it would be nicer to be a fraction under 2,000 but the reality is that this is just fine.

Exercise:   Not really.  Did a bunch of shopping, but that really doesn't count.  Come on spring.

114.8

Fun With Variance

Friday, March 7, 2014

Not that it has any special relevance to anything, but it's vaguely amusing to watch the scale bounce around when you're up toward the upper limit of what it will register.  Up!  Down!  Will it settle on a number?  Who knows?  Will that number mean anything?  Probably not!

Breakfast:  2 slices sharp cheddar, coffee (185 calories)

Usual weekday breakfast.  I might have to give some thought as to what else I could eat, just to take my cheese consumption down a notch.  I could eat lunch meats, but meh.  Maybe hard boiled eggs.  I generally don't feel like cooking anything and I am increasingly trying to avoid using the microwave.

Lunch:  Beef soft tacos (625 calories)

The clean plate just seems ... wrong.

Skipped the lettuce and tomato, lazy man's version.  Took it very easy on the sour cream.  Beef was also a bit on the light side, so pretty comfortable with the lower calorie count.  In the future I think I could probably stand to use two fewer tortillas and up the beef.

Dinner:  Homemade einkorn/parmesan crust pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms, romaine salad with homemade "ranch" dressing (1200 calories)

Friday night pizza, one of my very favorite traditions

Pizza was so good.  The mushrooms were an impulse buy - I stopped at the store for buttermilk, ended up buying romaine and mushrooms too.  Salad was romaine, roma tomato and some sliced pepperocinis.

Now for the hard part, calculating the calories!  Okay, done and this was a bit more caloric than I would have thought.  The main culprit was the cheese - I was careless dumping it out so I figure I got 3/4 C instead of the 1/2 C that was my target.  I could also, you know, measure stuff.  Instead I eyeball and round up, which is inaccurate and probably inadequate but it's what lazy me does.

Day total:  2010 calories.  Right on target.

Exercise:  Nope.  It was warmer today though, so there is hope!

114.4

Fail of a Different Sort, Kinda

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Embarrassing admission time.  I came home at lunch, ready to fix bacon and eggs.  Got home and realized that I would either have to park on the street (dangerous) or move my trash cans.  I couldn't make myself do either and went out to lunch.  FML.

Breakfast:  2 slices sharp cheddar, coffee  (185 calories).  Standard.

Lunch:  3 eggs scrambled with bacon, onion, green pepper and jalapeno, salsa, 2 slices sourdough toast with butter (800 calories)

Pretty solid, but won't overtake my favorite lunchfast

Breaklunch, lunchfast, whatever you want to call it.  Breakfast, it's still what's for lunch.

Dinner:  Homemade beef soft corn tacos (750 calories)

I got a little carried away with the lettuce.

Same story, just with beef this time.  1/3 of a pound of CF ground beef made into taco meat with a homemade all-spice blend.  Lettuce, tomato, hot sauce, sour cream and green salsa.  The tomato was tonight's twist.  Honestly, it really wasn't noticeable.  I may well just skip it when I have salsa.

Also:  I used up the last of my white corn tortilas and cracked open the package of yellow corn ones I got yesterday.  I think I like the yellow ones a bit better, they're more corn-y.  Now if I can just find some that are non-GMO (these might be, reports vary and they're not labeled) and preferably preservative-free ... but either one is probably wishful thinking around here.

Snack: 1 slice sourdough toast with ~2T Meijer natural crunchy peanut butter (300 calories)

Daily total:  2035 calories.  That's more like it.  Now, if I just ditch the bread...

Exercise:  Nope.  Winter has to end one of these days, right?

119.4

Yes I Would

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

So it's going a little bit better.  Slowly getting there.  Third day with no sugar and I am noticeably less achy.  I like that and plan to continue accordingly.

Breakfast:  2 slices sharp cheddar, coffee  (185 calories)

Lunch:  3 eggs, scrambled, cooked in butter with ~ 1 oz grated raw milk cheddar.  4 strips bacon.  1 slice sourdough toast with butter (900 calories)

No, not pretty.  Really not pretty.

It was better than it looks.  But definitely not my finest effort in any respect.

Dinner:  Last of the pork tacos.  Lots of lettuce.  A bit less meat than last night, more sour cream. (750 calories)

Tortillas in towel.  Off camera:  Sour cream, salsa and hot sauce

This is really good.  I bought some CF ground beef tonight and plan to do a beef version the next couple of nights.  Who knows, maybe I'll try chicken next!

Snack:  2 slices sourdough toast with Meijer natural crunchy peanut butter (370 calories)

Day total:  2205 calories.  This counts as a win!  Still too starchy, I'll lose faster by cutting that, but still.  Yay.

Exercise:  Not really.  Had designs on at least walking around the grocery store, but was super late getting home which really cuts into the time I have to do stuff in the evening.  9:00 by the time I'm back from the store without spending extra time there walking.  It's way too cold outside btw.

119.4

Mix Bag

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

No pictures today, unfortunately.  Also:  I was hungry.  On the plus side, I felt notably better this morning, fewer aches and pains.  It's just a theory but I do think I physically feel better when I don't eat sugar.  Now if I can get fully in gear and pair that with some weight loss and life will be good.

Breakfast:  2 slices sharp cheddar, coffee (185 calories)

Snack:  Salt bagel with veggie cream cheese, coffee (400 calories)

Lunch:  3 egg omelet with bacon, cream cheese, avocado, onion; sourdough toast with butter, coffee (900 calories)

Dinner:  Pork tacos.  Same as yesterday, except I upped the tortilla count to 6 for an extra 100 calories and added lettuce.  Went a little easier on the sour cream too. (750 calories)

Dessert:  2 slices sourdough toast with Meijer natural peanut butter (370 calories)

Total calories:  2605.  A little high but not too awful.  Way too much starch though!

Exercise:  Shoveled snow for about 40 minutes.  Got the heart rate up, I'm counting it

122.4

OK For Reals Guys

Monday, March 3, 2014

Welp.

I have been taking epic fail to a whole new level.  Eating thousands upon thousands of unnecessary calories.  And it needs to stop.  Been feeling not so good.  Oh, and I've gained a bunch of weight.  So here we go.  Again.  This time, for reals.

I have a long way to go to reach my goal.  And this time I really want to make a lifestyle change.  I simply have to accept that I can't stuff my face.  Can't eat all the crap all the time.  Let's do it.

Breakfast:  2 slices sharp cheddar, coffee  (185 calories)

Lunch:  1/2 or so of a homemade pizza (725 calories - might be a bit conservative)

Snack:  2 Taco Bell shredded chicken burritos (820 calories),  a few chips and some onion dip (400 calories)

Yeah, I didn't eat quite enough at lunch.  I should have grabbed some additional protein.  It was just a little too long until dinner.

Dinner:  4 homemade pork soft tacos (corn tortillas, CF ground pork, homemade taco seasoning, Herdez salsa verde, sour cream, hot sauce)  (650 calories)

Hey, something new!  

This was a pretty random concoction.  I am out of ground beef, so I used the package of ground pork I had on hand.  I had some homemade taco seasoning left.  I had the other stuff.  Tomorrow I might chop up some lettuce and tomato or add cheese.  But any way you slice it this was quite good!

Day total:  2,780 calories.  Grade:  FAIL.

Exercise:  None.  Possibly the coldest morning of the year.  Frigid.  Plus I was tired and wasn't yet committed to doing this.

127.6

Gonna Get A Lecture

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

At my physical which is coming up very soon.  Sigh.

Breakfast:  ~ 5 strips bacon, coffee

Lunch:  Cheeseburgers, fries, a little bit of spicy beans

Dinner:  Stew, chips and onion dip

Exercise:  Nah.

Yerbl

Monday, February 10, 2014

Urgh.  Kinda fail.  Mostly fail.

Breakfast:  2 slices sharp cheddar, coffee

Lunch:  3 egg omelet with bacon, cream cheese, avocado and onion, 2 slices seeded bread of some kind with butter, 1 biscuit with butter, coffee

Snack:  Fritos

Dinner:  Leftover stew, Reeses peanut butter cups

Exercise:  Nope.

Sigh.

Sunday FAILday

Sunday, February 9, 2014

I really have no idea if it will be a FAILday or not, I just like the name.  Okay, it's off to a slow start -- I turned off the alarm and slept in all the way to 8:30.  Ugh.  Usually alcohol has the opposite effect and a couple drinks mean I wake up early!

Lots of things to do today even though I would prefer that it be a day of rest.  Still working on that idea.

Breakfast:  Fave omelet, home version.  2 CF eggs, a bit of butter.  3 strips bacon, an ounce or so of cream cheese and a large avocado.  Coffee.

Let's see what it looks like pre-fold.  Oh.  Like that.

For fun I mashed the avocado.  Also, it occurs to me that I really should use a larger pan for my "omelets" -- the eggs are just too thick in my little pan.

Lunch:  Leftover stew, homemade cheese "crackers"

Why is it that stew is always so much better the second day??

I chickened out on the crackers, they really needed a few more minutes in the oven.  Oh well, still tasty.  The stew was better than yesterday.  Yum.

Dinner:   Little Caesars pepperoni pizza.  Oops.

Exercise:  Nope.  Shoveled, cleaned, etc but nothing identifiable as such.

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Play Time

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Good day so far!  Slept very well, have felt decent all day thus far even though I haven't accomplished a great deal.  Planning on some cleaning, making another stew, and knocking out some extra laundry.  Easy stuff.  Oh, and I am playing in the kitchen.  Fun times!

Breakfast:  Breakfast sandwich -- the end pieces of loaf of white bread, 2 CF eggs fried in a bit of butter, 1.5 strips bacon, 1 slice sharp cheddar.  Coffee

Looks large because of the 2 eggs!

I really don't know what it is about bread that makes this better, but it does.  Oh well.  That was it for bread in the freezer.  When I buy it I buy the expensive super minimalist kind with nothing but flour, water, yeast and maybe honey or something.  It's just not something I eat much of at home and I should eat even less.

Lunch:  Homemade einkorn crust pizza with pepperoni

Hard to go wrong with PIZZA.

Yes!  I made my usual cracker crust recipe and it was even BETTER with einkorn.  Excellent flavor.  According to the packaging the 1/2C of einkorn flour is 200 calories and 36g effective carb, so it's a bit high for weight loss but not awful otherwise.

The basic recipe, in case anyone stumbles across it:

1/2 C einkorn flour (I used Jovial brand), ~ 1 t baking powder (I use aluminum free), ~ 1/2 t salt, 1/2 C parmesan, grated (Kraft in the can for this is fine), ~ 1 t italian seasoning.  Mix well in a large bowl by stirring with a fork.

Add 1 T olive oil (I like California Olive Ranch) and 3+ T of water.  Stir gently with the fork until a dough forms.  With 3T of water it resists grabbing the last bit of the flour/cheese mixture, so I usually add about 1/2T more.  Everything should be incorporated but not super wet.

The one change to my usual practice was this:  Cover bowl with a towel and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.  This makes it less sticky - in my 15 minutes of lifetime research on einkorn I read this somewhere, and it seems to work.

Preheat oven to 450F.  Grease or spray a pizza pan.  Spread dough into a crust -- you can do that with a rolling pin (might want to use a piece of parchment paper between the dough and roller to prevent sticking) or just pat it out with your hands to the desired thickness, which is what I did.  You can go super thin but I seem to like a 9 to 10 inch diameter pie.

Dock (poke holes in with fork) the crust and bake for 5 minutes.  Pull it, top as desired (mine had pizza sauce, pepperoni and mozzarella) and bake another 9 minutes or so.  Let cool 5 minutes before cutting so the cheese sets.

This is NOT your traditional chewy pizza crust.  It's a cracker crust.  The edges are crunchy like a cheez-it, the inside is softer and closer to a biscuit in consistency.   I cut mine into bite size squares.  Yum.

Snack:  A batch of coconut flour kinda peanut butter cookies.  I didn't have much peanut butter so they weren't real peanutty.  Other than that -- holy cow, coconut flour is where moisture goes to die.

Dinner:  Homemade stew, several (lol) glasses of cabernet sauvingon

Now actually featuring red wine for deglazing purposes

This batch wasn't as awesome as the last one, at least not thus far.  I think I added too much liquid.  Maybe I should, you know, measure next time.  Oh, well.  That's what I get for winging it.  Still tasty and will probably improve with a day or two in the fridge.

Exercise:  Sigh.  Nope.

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Honest Ups and Downs

Friday, February 7, 2014

TGIF.  Although it was a pretty decent week, I'm glad it is the weekend.

Kind of excited this evening.  I got a package delivered today - the stuff I ordered at the beginning of the week.  One of the things in my box was some pasta (fusilli) made with einkorn wheat.  I'm thinking dinner!

Also, after hitting up the grocery store I am less than $1 over for the week, and if I don't spend any money this weekend on food I am absolutely booking it as a win, since a couple of bucks were spent on convenience store items and that money came out of the spare change in my car.  I am not a purist!  Also, this week's spending was definitely inflated by the $30 I spent on the package ... almost makes up for skewing the beginning of the week the other way by squeezing a grocery run into January.  I imagine this is kind of how the government works...

On to the eats.

Breakfast:  ~ 4 strips bacon, 2 slices sharp cheddar, coffee

Lunch:  Spicy beans, some colby/jack cheese, 1 large avocado

Snack:  Chips and onion dip.  Ugh.  I spent $3.04 for this?  Why?

Dinner:  ~ 4 oz einkorn fusilli pasta, half a jar of Classico italian sausage spaghetti sauce, a little parmesan.

It looks like whole wheat pasta to me, man

In a word, YUM.  Really nice flavor, no texture surprises.  Just good pasta.  Like any pasta it's highly caloric (4 oz is 400 calories), but the nutrition chart actually shows it has some value.  Assuming that I can tolerate the stuff and ideally assuming that it doesn't bloat me like today's wheat, I'd love to be able to use this occasionally as a side dish -- tonight is likely the only time in the immediate future it'll be used as a main course.  Maybe I'll get some spaghetti to use as a base for other italian dishes.  Lots of possibilities.

And I haven't even played with the plain einkorn flour or the coconut flour yet!

Exercise:  Sigh, no.  Slept in.  Bitterly cold.  Try again.

---

Might Need Slight Adjustment

Thursday, February 6, 2014

An okay day.  Well, it was a very nice day personally but a bit less so dietwise.  I still consume too much starch and haven't been exercising.  But I am making small progress.

Oh, and I could eat less cheese...

Breakfast:  2 slices sharp cheddar, coffee

Lunch:  Frisco burger (1/3 lb burger on sourdough with ham, cheese and onions), chips, coffee

I think I also should stop drinking coffee at lunch.  I generally don't feel great after doing so, probably because I drink too much.

Dinner:  Last of the stew, garlic cheese biscuits

Yup.  This is not a repeat.

I upped the biscuit count to three and it was ... too much?!  Yup.  I'm going to need to make another batch of stew this weekend... hope I have more stew meat or a chuck roast in the freezer!

Also:  12 oz Bell's Two Hearted Ale.  Last one.  I don't think I'll buy more for a bit, don't need the calories and at $9 per six pack with deposit that's a sizable bite in my weekly budget.

Exercise:  Nope, unless you count ... uh, never mind.

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Recalculating

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Today's thinking is that I might be able to eat out a bit more than I previously thought.  Certainly nothing like I have been doing, but more than once a week.  The idea is that I really can keep my other meal expenses in check which would allow me to go out to lunch a couple times a week.  I know I can't kick that habit completely - it's social, not just food.  But there is no reason whatsoever for me to drive through for breakfast or (except on the rarest of occasions) dinner.  If I can keep my grocery bill under $40, that would leave $35 a week for eating out, which would be at least 3 meals, 4 or 5 if I'm super thrifty.  Dunno if it will work - it may be that weeks where I restock meat and eggs that I have to cut back, but it is nice to know that it is a possibility anyway!  On track so far this week.

Breakfast:  2 slices Kraft Big Slice sharp cheddar.  Coffee

Slept a little later this morning after staying up too late again.  It wasn't quite as egregious, but I still figured after how I felt yesterday I should get a bit more.  Didn't cook anything for unrelated personal reasons, just cheese was fine.

Lunch:  3 egg omelet with bacon, cream cheese, avocado, onion;  2 slices sourdough toast, coffee

My favorite omelet.  I really need to ask if they use butter or margarine on the toast, I suspect it is the latter because it seems ... oily.  I wonder if they'd change it for me.

Dinner:  More of the homemade stew, 2 garlic cheese biscuits

I think I like stew even better than soup.  Maybe.

So very tasty and just exactly what I wanted.  If I can do this -- make something that I anticipate even before getting home, that's not too hard, that tastes delicious -- I'll eat at home instead of getting a pizza.

Drop biscuits are just ridiculously easy and these were the best yet.  To make two (2) biscuits, I just stir 1/2 cup self-rising flour (or the equivalent made from flour/baking powder/salt), a pinch sugar, a shake of extra salt, a sprinkle of garlic powder (yeah, real garlic would be good, I'm going for fast) with a fork in a large bowl.  In a microwavable bowl, mostly melt 2 tablespoons butter.  Let it sit for a moment, stir it up with your fork just a bit then add 1/4 C buttermilk and stir it.  The butter will probably clump up some but don't sweat it if not much.  Add the butter mixture to the dry stuff, gently stir it together with a rubber spatula until just combined.  Add some shredded cheese (I used colby jack today because it was what I had, cheddar is great), up to 1/2 C or so.  Gently stir it in.  Spoon (or use spatula/fork) out into two piles on a piece of parchment paper (greasing might work too) on a cookie sheet.  Bake in preheated 450 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Exercise:  Nothing official.  As I mentioned, I slept in.  Then again I had to shovel out the end of the driveway from what the plow left me, and I overdid it.  Felt pretty terrible afterward.  I need to whip myself into better shape, my heart says so.

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Staggering But Upright Mostly

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

It could be better, it could be worse.  The good:  I woke up early.  Bad:  No exercise and precious little sleep.  Good:  Ate all meals at home.  Bad:  Too much starch.  On balance though things are okay.

Breakfast:  Breakfast sandwich -- 1 CF egg fried in butter, 2 strips bacon, 1 slice sharp cheddar, 2 slices of white bread I found in the freezer.  Coffee.

I know it's better with bacon, but better ... with bread?

Yup, found the remnants of another loaf.  I actually found another sourdough, but it was so freezer-burned that I just chucked it.  The trials of not eating all that much bread... at home at least.

Lunch:  Spicy beans, 4 oz (?) CF summer sausage

I did not remember to take a picture, nor did I check to see if the sausage was 2 oz or 4 oz.  I'm going to assume 4.  First time I've had it, it was tasty but expensive for what you get.  I'm better off getting primal cuts and you know, cooking.

Dinner:  Homemade stew, 2 garlic biscuits

Pretty stew, pretty biscuits, pretty yum

I am becoming disturbingly adept at making bread products.  These are not the greatest biscuits in the world, but they were quite good.  And they went well with the stew.  I was initially ambivalent about the stew, but by the time I finished my bowl I decided that it was pretty good.  Hopefully another day in the fridge will improve what's left.

Also:  12 oz Bell's two hearted ale.  A habit I need to not fall into.

Exercise:  Sigh, no.

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Happy Improvisation

Monday, February 3, 2014

Almost a good day.  Almost.  I went back to hard surface sleeping last night and while I didn't sleep great I got up without incident.  I had enough aches and pains to decide not to push it with exercise, but it was a very pleasant morning.  Felt pretty good all day.  Starting to fade a bit, but I should have enough left in the tank to finish tonight's project, which is improvising some beef stew.

Breakfast:  Bacon and sharp cheddar sandwich w/ 3 strips bacon, ~ 2 slices Kraft sharp cheddar, the end pieces of a loaf of sourdough.  Coffee

Stylin' with the paper towel plate, woo

Tasty.  And it held me pretty well.  I'm out of bread.  I think.  Maybe I have other ends n pieces in the freezer, I should look.

Lunch:  2 McDonalds cheeseburgers, 1 medium fries, coffee

Oops.  I didn't have time to eat real food, I had six minutes to get this, which I ate on the road.  It was better than average for McDonalds but still mediocre.

Dinner:  Romaine and tomato salad with improvised "ranch" dressing, homemade pizza with CF sausage

Yum?  Yeah, all sorts of yum.

I used up the last leftover sausage link and the last of my shredded italian cheese.  This is just too easy and too good.  Because I can I ordered some einkorn flour over the weekend and am looking forward to see if I can use that in place of the wheat flour.  Should be a fun experiment.

One random highlight was improvising something approximating ranch dressing, despite not having any mayo or chives or .... I dunno.  Sour cream, buttermilk, dill and other spices made a tasty dressing worlds better than the not-very-good blue cheese that had me questioning the point of eating salad yesterday.  Yay.

Also:  12 oz Bell's Two Hearted Ale.  Yum.

Exercise:  Nope.  If I do some, it will help.

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Yeah Buddy Weekends

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Okay with how yesterday went.  There was temptation.  I considered caving and getting a pizza for dinner instead of making one.  Fortunately I would have had to shovel my way out and I didn't really feel like doing that, so for once laziness worked in my favor.

Super slow start today, slept several hours past usual and at least five hours past when I want to be getting up.  Obviously that means I did not restart morning walks today.  That is going to continue to be a problem, since I have been up well past midnight for at least a week straight.   Shifting schedules is hard.

Last night I watched a YouTubed talk by Dr. Davis, the guy that wrote Wheat Belly.  I thought it was a fairly convincing argument for giving up grains in general and wheat in particular.  I'll have to find his book at the library and read through it.

Breakfast:  2 CF eggs, scrambled, in an omelet with 3 strips bacon, 1/2 large avocado, ~ 1.5 oz cream cheese.  The other half of the avocado.  Coffee

It has bacon, it has to be FULL OF WIN

I recreated my favorite omelet (although I have taken to ordering it with grilled onions), so much yum.  Did the bacon in the oven while I assembled the rest and have five strips left over to tuck into the fridge for snacking or salad use.  Very tasty!  Cream cheese is so underrated in an omelet.

Lunch:  Homemade pizza with sausage

One link was the perfect quantity!

Thank goodness it occurred to me to use up one of the leftover hot italian links, it added a very nice touch to the pizza!  This is sooooo good.  It has 1/2C of wheat flour, if I can replace that I might even be able to keep eating it occasionally.  Going to experiment once some stuff I ordered today gets here.

Dinner:  Super bowl party.  Chili with cheese and ugh light sour cream.  Italian bread.  Salad.  A couple pigs in the blanket.  Chips and salsa.  12 oz Labatt Light.  Lemonade.

Not good.  Ate way too much.

Exercise:  Nope.  Slept in way too late.  Moved around cleaning but that does not count.

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Try Again Try Sixty

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Okay.  I made it through a day of eating at home.  This is rarer than you might think - I only managed to spend no money out of pocket on food five times in January.  Pathetic!  I don't even mind cooking, I am just lazy.  And there are some things that I just don't seem to make well.

Breakfast:  Breakfast sandwich (2 small slices of sourdough toast, 2 eggs fried in a pat of butter, 5 strips bacon), coffee

Doesn't that just look tasty?

This is delicious.  Of course it is.  It would be better with cheese or if I had remembered to butter the toast, but it was still very nice.  I like this breakfast, but I really shouldn't eat the toast.  Oh, well.  I have the heels left and will probably eat them tomorrow, then that loaf will be completely out of my freezer.

Lunch:  2 CF italian hot links with jalapeno mustard, spicy beans

Good job, not such a good effort.

Kind of a let down.  I did not cook the sausages long enough and then I waited a few minutes to eat them.  I should have sliced, moved to another plate and nuked them.  Oh, well.  I didn't quite finish both.  The beans were tasty as always, in this case despite being in the freezer for a while.

Dinner:  Homemade cheese pizza, simple salad (romaine and tomato) with Bolthouse Farms blue cheese yogurt dressing.

Pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza .... and yeah, um, salad.

Love that pizza.  It's a simple cracker crust, a little sauce, italian seasoning and cheese.  I do find myself wishing that I wasn't so carb-intolerant, because I could make that every day.

The salad, however, was meh.  Maybe I don't like romaine that much.  The dressing was sharper than I would like.  Decided to try it since soybean oil was waaay down the list of ingredients.  I should just make my own dressing, of course, since it is IMPOSSIBLE to avoid soybean and canola oil in salad dressing.

Exercise:  Nope.  Maybe tomorrow.

Yeah, Additional Fail

Through January 31, more awful eating.  No exercise.

C'mon son.

Interlude: The Challenge

As part of what I hope to accomplish this year, I really want to change the way that I eat by changing WHERE I eat.

I am addicted to eating out.  I love to go out to breakfast.  To lunch.  To drive through or pick up dinner.  A nice meal out or coffee? Sure!  It is *ridiculous*.  I spend way, way too much money and eat too much.  Granted that eating breakfast meals (no toast) and the taco salad (RIP that restaurant) were great aids to my prior weight loss.  But I really need to tighten the belt in all possible ways.

So my goal for 2014 is to reduce my food budget to $75.00 per week.  For a single person, that should be reasonable.  I know that if I pay attention at all I can usually do decent grocery shopping (which excludes meat) for $30.00 to $40.00 per week.  If I am more careful about what meat I buy from the farm every month I can definitely keep it to $15.00 to $20.00 per week for eggs, bacon, ground beef, etc.  I have a stock of meat in the freezer I can eat down (which would be a good idea anyway).  That should leave enough for one or two meals out every week, which should be plenty.  I don't NEED to eat out, I just do it.  Because I am lazy, fat, tired and other bad things.

January results:

Week 1:  Success!
Week 2:  Mild fail
Week 3:  Extreme FAIL
Week 4:  Extreme FAIL

I'll total it up in a couple days, but January might be closer to $500 than $300.  Yeesh.

All About the Fail

Sunday, January 26, 2014

I keep crashing shortly after takeoff.  Things have gone ... poorly.  I have been eating recklessly and excessively.  No exercise.  Not feeling good at all.  It needs to stop.

So, anyway, I hope to relaunch.  I need to do so.  For a whole lot of reasons.  It would be very nice if I could get in three solid weeks before my next checkup.  I will be way over on calories today, but it will be nice to get into the home cooking routine again.

Breakfast:  2 eggs, fried in butter, 4 strips Meijer bacon, 2 slices sourdough toast w a little butter, coffee

Made this into a breakfast sandwich, delicious.  160+ unnecessary calories and carbs from the bread, but it just felt like the thing to do.  I have a loaf of bread in the freezer for stuff like this, it lasts a long time!

Lunch:  Big bowl of homemade vegetable beef soup, cheese bread (recipe for cracker crust pizza plus olive oil, parmesan cheese, italian cheese blend and italian seasoning)

Dinner:

Exercise:  Just house cleaning, doesn't count.  It has been awful, cold and snowy.  I am going to have to go back out and shovel again, so I guess I will get in my daily dose without too much trouble, looks like several more inches to move.  Boo.

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Catching Up?

January 13 - 25, 2014

I have no hope of recreating these days.  Let's just say that I ate a lot.  Including a couple batches of cookies, lots of pizza and other bad bad bad things.

Ugh.

I Had a Title But I Forgot It

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Up too late but feeling decent this morning.  Sure would be nice if it were not so dangerously icy outside.  Maybe I'll pick up a pair of Yaxtrax and see how they do on ice.

Breakfast:  Oatmeal pancakes, 4 strips CF chipotle bacon, coffee

Yessir, that is indeed a big ol' pile of pancakes.

Note to self:  Let the first batch cook longer so they look like the top pancakes above.  They rise more and develop more flavor compared to pulling them when they are relatively light brown!  Also, try scaling down the batch and making them in the smaller skillet for possibly larger, fluffier cakes.

Snack:  Chips and onion dip

Lunch:  Bowl of homemade vegetable soup

Dinner:  Homemade pizza, salad with italian dressing

Exercise:  Um, yeah, none.  Cleaning doesn't count.

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Okay Then

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Time to do this on a more regular basis.  Trying to remember what you ate for the last week is kind of hit or miss.  I think I got it all but can't be 100% sure.  It does help that I eat a lot of the same stuff and rarely snack.

Now then, it's about time to get serious about the New Year resolutions.  One of them is to eat at home.  I ate out more than I wanted last week, some of that was due to car issues.  I was also invited out to dinner on Friday and had a nice time.  Second part is to follow a budget - I am going to allow myself $75 a week-ish, $300 per month.  That should be ample to feed a single person, particularly since I have all kinds of spices on hand, a bunch of good meat in the freezer and a decent stock of other supplies.  I don't have processed stuff or a huge stock of canned goods, but I don't want to eat too much of that stuff any way.  I spent $23 at the grocery store today.

Breakfast:  Oatmeal pancakes, 4 slices of CF chipotle bacon, coffee

All sorts of YUM

Oh look, it's a picture!  Okay, this was only halfish of the oatcakes (I ate the whole batch, doh).  A nice tasty way to kick off Saturday.

Lunch:  12" Firehouse subs New York Steamer sub, pickle spear

Yup, that is a lot of food.

First time I have eaten there, wasn't sure what size to get so of course I defaulted to the giganto size.  Wow.  This was very good.  I think I'm glad it's not closer.  It was also $8 and change.  1160 calories!

Snack:  Chips and onion dip, 12 oz Bell's Two Hearted Ale

Dinner:  Homemade vegetable beef soup, 2 homemade garlic cheddar biscuits

Bowl of deliciousness.  

Late dinner, but I was pretty full so no big deal.   I actually had the chips earlier in the day, before lunch.  I want to try to calculate the nutritional information for the soup - it shouldn't be hard at all, I don't think - my intuition is that it isn't super caloric.

Exercise:  None.  It was raining hard when I got up.  I did walk around Wal Mart while my prescription was being filled and I went grocery shopping but those don't count.

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Yikes

Yeah, not a good week.

Add a couple of things to last Sunday:  1 Miller Lite and some chips and onion dip.

Okay then.  Into the deep freeze we went.


Monday, January 6, 2014:

Breakfast:  Sharp cheddar and salami sandwich, coffee

Lunch:  Homemade vegetable soup, homemade biscuits

Dinner:  Ground beef patty w/ onion gravy, mashed potatoes, peas


Tuesday, January 7, 2014:

Breakfast:  Sharp cheddar and salami sandwich, coffee

Lunch:  Soup and biscuits

Dinner:  Leftover ground beef patty w/ onion gravy, mashed potatoes, peas


Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Breakfast:  2 slices sharp cheddar, coffee

Lunch:  2 McDonalds McDoubles, fries

Snack:  Bag of Fritos

Dinner:  Not sure I had dinner, maybe it was a sandwich from Subway.


Thursday, January 9, 2014

Breakfast:  2 slices sharp cheddar, coffee

Lunch:  3 egg omelet w/ bacon, onion, cream cheese, avocado, 2 slices sourdough toast w butter, coffee

Dinner:  Little Caesars pepperoni pizza


Friday, January 10, 2014

Breakfast:  2 slices sharp cheddar, coffee

Lunch:  Jimmy Johns turkey and ham sandwich, salt & vinegar chips

Dinner:  Pizza with ham and meatballs, salad with ranch dressing, 12 oz Miller Lite

Bucklin' Up

Sunday, January 5, 2013

Finally feeling a bit of motivation today.  Not a ton, mind you, but some.  So hopefully things will improve.  Already getting better by posting out all of my FAIL so far this year...

Breakfast:  Cornbread scramble, redskin potatoes, pico de gallo, coffee

My favorite weekend breakfast.  Planning on cutting back to every other week though - it's a lot of calories (albeit from mostly good sources) and not cheap.

Lunch:  Homemade soup, 2 slices sourdough toast w/ creamed honey

Dinner:  Spaghetti w/ ground beef, salad, garlic toast

Exercise:  Shoveled the driveway and cleaned the house.  So I got in some movement.  Dunno if it counts - maybe the shoveling will because it took a while and definitely got the heart rate up!

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What Was That About Less Fail?

Saturday, January 4, 2013

Yeah, not doing so well here.

Breakfast:  None.  Slept in super late.

Lunch:  2 double cheese burgers, fries

Snack:  Chips and onion dip, lots.  Lemonade

Dinner:  Sandwich of salami, sharp cheddar on sourdough

Exercise:  None

Friday, January 3, 2013

Breakfast:  Salami, sharp cheddar, coffee

Lunch:  Subway BMT on white, fritos

Snack:  2 chocolate pop tarts

Dinner:  Bell's two hearted ale, Little Caesars pepperoni pizza

Exercise:  None

Thursday, January 2, 2013

Breakfast:  Sharp cheddar, coffee

Lunch:  Jimmy Johns ham/bacon sub, chips

Dinner:  14 oz ribeye, mashed potatoes, firecracker shrimp, salad w/ ranch, 2x pint Bells two hearted ale

Exercise:  None

New Year, Now Less FAIL

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy new year.  2013 kinda ended with a thud as the slide continued.  But I'm feeling optimistic.  Let's get back on track and make some real positive changes.

Here we go.

Breakfast:  2 jumbo CF eggs fried in a bit of butter, 3 strips CF heavy duty bacon, half order of oatcakes, coffee.

Not my best effort ever but still a solid start.

Lunch:  Sandwich - white bread, salami, sharp cheddar, jalapeno mustard

Dinner:  Ham, scalloped potatoes, peas, brown and serve rolls with butter, the last christmas cookie

Oops.  Not unexpected.

Exercise:  A leisurely walk.  Not far, maybe 3/4 of a mile - it's cold out there.  Plus I'm fat and tired.  But it felt pretty good.  Happy.

113.8