another birthday (cake) down the drain

yep. i'm 29. the birthday i've been dreading for the past 365 days has come and gone. surprisingly, i'm not really depressed like i thought i might be. although now i'm gearing up for the really big birthday that comes after 29. ugh.

i did a bit of birthday celebrating...but mostly kept things in control. i use the word "mostly" very liberally.

i was given a carrot cake (w/ cream cheese frosting), which is like meg-kryptonite. luckily, in a moment of clarity and willpower, i threw about 3/4 of the cake down the disposal. (see above pic for evidence)

i was contemplating announcing that i will attempt to lose 30 lbs. by the time i turn 30. that gives me about 362 days. doable? probably. i'm just having trouble mustering up any sort of zeal in the weight-loss department. hmm. maybe i'll just settle for 3.0 lbs by the time i turn 30. ok ok, i'm kidding.

i should probably weigh myself, but i really don't want to. i can't decide whether i should join weight watchers again. mostly, pants and shirts that were feeling tight a few weeks/months ago feel a little looser. (emphasis on little) i know i really need to step things up if i really want to lose. the question is...how? motivation, where art thou?

top of the muffin to you! (part 1)

so...as anyone who has read this blog knows, i have a constant stream of baked goods paraded in front of me by my brother, which i really think is the single biggest factor contributing to me not being able to get and/or stay skinny. (more hard evidence on that later)..anyway, i've decided to fight back. kind of.

i am a bakedgoodsaholic. but i am discovering that to a certain extent, it doesn't really make a difference what kind of baked goods. for now anyway, i seem to feel ok about eating a muffin while watching my brother eat his weight in chocolate chip cookies.

so, last weekend, i made 3 batches of healthy, high fiber, low point muffins. i individually wrapped each muffin and put them all in the freezer.

so far, it has worked brilliantly. a) because the muffins are in the freezer, they are out of sight/out of mind. b) i have baked good available when faced with cookie envy...baked goods that only take 35 seconds to heat up in the microwave. c) each muffin is all wrapped up so it's "special"---but it also installs a trip switch--i.e., do you really want to unwrap and heat up another muffin?

anyway, they have been in the freezer for a week and i'm happy to say that they're not even a 1/3 of the way gone. not even close. i think i've eaten about 10 small ones over the last week. most of the time if i bake something it's gone in about 3 days.

plus, i got my baking fix. i love baking. too bad i'm not one of those naturally skinny people, otherwise i'd open a pastry shop tomorrow.


RECIPE #1: Apple Cinnamon Muffins (1 pt)
via Hungry Girl

Take the Fiber One Muffin mix (IGNORE box directions), add 1 cup canned pumpkin, 1 cup water, and 1/2 cup Egg Beaters (or egg whites). Mix until just blended. Pour the mixture into 18 of the muffin cups, and bake as directed (refer to the box). The recipe makes 18 muffins instead of 12, and each one has just 95 calories & 2g fat and still has close to 4g fiber. (1 point!) (and they're YUMMY!)

more recipes to follow...

Grocery bills

I swear, I really do things other than read the New York Times (I read blogs and shop too!)...but I have another article to pass along. This one summarizes a recent study about how much a 2000 calorie diet costs in terms of junk food or presumably "healthy" calorie-sparse foods. The cost difference is about 10 times per calorie! They also report that the average American spends ~$7 per day on food while low-income Americans spend ~$4. Reading the article reminded me of the discussion over at Sister Skinny a while back about grocery bills. As I commented, I spend a lot of food, $400-500 per month for two, which is right in the range for average Americans! That makes me feel a bit better since I always have wallet guilt as I leave the grocery store...

I also wonder what would happen is we got rid of the farm subsidies - would we see a change in people's diets and health if highly-processed, calorie-dense foods became more expensive? (I'll plug the Omnivore's Dilemma again - read it!!!) I could go on and on about this issue, but I'll spare you.

On my diet front - eating has been good, exercising has been lacking, to put it nicely. Speaking of, I'd better head to the treadmill...

I thought I was a morning person...

I always thought I was a morning exerciser - get on the treadmill first thing and forget about it for the rest of the day. But I was a bit slow to get out of bed this morning and skipped my 30 min session. Tonight, I was on for an easy 60 min while I happily watched TV (prime time is way better than the Today show - who knew?) - it makes me wonder if I should change up my routine. I think if I switch to evenings I'll be a little unreliable but will have a better workout when I get around to it. Hrmm...decisions, decisions...

On the other front, I've been losing a bit of motivation lately (thanks Mr. Scale - I hate you too) but luckily my produce delivery is keeping me on track and I've been hitting the winter veggies pretty hard. I love cauliflower as "mashed potatoes" - the boy once claimed that he didn't like it, but last night polished off the pot...liar.

Things I ate...and the one thing I didn't but should have

I just ate my way through Central Europe (well, just parts of the Czech Republic and Austria). I am baffled about how the people there are so skinny - all this stuff we hear over in America about how in other countries people eat healthier and restaurants serve smaller portions is a huge lie*. Veggies in the Czech Rep. looked terrible, so I don't blame them for just eating meat, gravy, and bread dumplings. And in Austria, it is all pastries all the time, with a side of very large wiener schnitzels and sausages. (I suppose people must eat like birds when they eat at home to compensate.) And I don't think the locals can walk all of these extra calories off - their public transportation is so good there (and stops seemingly every 10 feet). Like I said this morning, I was eating about 40 points per day, and said yes to just about everything I came across that looked tasty. Luckily, I hate beer and wine, so that gave me a few extra calories (and cash) to spend on coffee and pastries. On days that I didn't walk all day long (conference days) - I usually made up for the pastries by having just soup for dinner.

*may not be statistically significant

Things I didn't eat but should have (Meg, you'll kill me, but I didn't get back to the store):

(that's right, this list is very short.)

Things I ate and maybe shouldn't have (obviously, some of the plates are for the boy - you think I'm a pig or something? ahaha):

Um, this was really tasty - included gingerbread dumplings.

This was also tasty, though not worth the calories - thei big offender here was the ginormous fried potato pancakes that is wrapped around the meat. I didn't eat much of it. I kept thinking of that Simpsons episode when Dr. Nick tells Homer how to rub food in paper to see if its transparent...

Vienna was crazy delicious and chocolatey. I didn't the whole case, but I did get one of the chestnut chocolate confections, which were the in-season thing while I was there.

This sausage was the first of many. It would have been impossible, in term of time and money, to eat healthy while on the road like this. At least the sausage is tasty.

The famous Sacher torte with the Vienese "melange" coffee.

Hot chestnuts - sooo good.

I only ordered Wiener Schnitzel once...and they gave me two ENORMOUS pieces. I ate about 1/2 of one piece.

The Linzer torte.

That's right ladies - that whole pastry is covered in chocolate. Hello. The other has a poppyseed filling.

Our last desserts before coming home. The pic is not good, but the desserts were :)

Today: Ate 19 so far, exercised 2, flex left 10. I may use a few of the extra points for a hot chocolate. These pictures make me crave sweets. Whoops.

Damage control

I missed the blog world while I was away! I have a lot of catch up to do reading all of your blogs. I got back last night and am now in full force damage control. I estimate that I was eating about 40 points per day while I was away, which was fine most of the time when I was walking all day long, but during the conference, it was not so fine. Water consumption was a problem (bathrooms are hard to find, and cost money). So this week, I'll be back on the treadmil and the pilates mat, drinking a ton of water, and will limit my flex points to 10 for the next 4 days until I start as normal again on Friday. I took a ton of food pictures, so I'll be posting again tonight. But the quick summary is that I left like Homer in chocolate land. It was wonderful and horrible, all at the same time :) Oh, and the scale last night and this morning is telling me I weigh 141, so that's a .5 lb gain from when I left. I'm not really sure how to judge that (you know: long flight, salty foods, is my huge gain going to come next week) but for now, I'll gladly take it.

Save the fishies!

A post by HotThickChick today reminded me that I keep forgetting to post about the seafood watch list. If you eat seafood, you should take a look - the list helps you see what foods are best for the environment and sustainability, and which are the best for you. They have regional guides that print out to fit in your wallet. Ever since seeing the list two years ago, I've been trying to behave myself...I find it easy to follow except for the shrimp - domestic only? That's rough. Even Whole Foods only sells two kinds of U.S. shrimp and I don't like either. Boo. (I got blinky here)

strawberry fields forever...

the more stuff i eat from kashi, the more stuff from kashi i get addicted to... and here's the latest yummy discovery: strawberry fields cereal.

i used to be a pretty big fan of the special k red berries cereal, however, i could eat like 3 "servings" and still be starving...no, make that ravenous. so, that is why i'm a huge fan of this kashi stuff. it really does fill you up. how do they do it? it's 120 cal, 0 fat and 1 fiber (2 pts) for 1 cup. in general, i'm trying to get off of the cereal wagon, but this does the trick when i get a craving...

oh, and if you shop at target and they sell food at your target, a ton of kashi stuff is on sale for half price this week! i got some funny looks when i bought..umm..about 8 boxes of the kashi tlc trail mix granola bars...which, by the way have helped me kick those stupid 90 cal quaker granola bars that don't fill you up at all...

food journal: hmm...i'm at 20 points today, out of flex points and no exercise today :( i'm going to try and walk for 30 min...and i think it's 0 point vegetable soup for dinner...

Soup of the Week

Mmmm...the house smells good. I've just made a huge pot of Red Bean and Bacon Soup. As you know, I love soups. But I especailly love soups that are low fat (I used turkey bacon) and high in protein and fiber...on a cold day while I'm recovering from a cough, its the perfect thing. Now, if I can just get of my big butt and exercise, I should have enough points left over to enjoy the soup with a thick slab of hearth bread with some double-cream Brie (insert jokes here).

I've actually been having a lot of trouble exercising this week because of my cold-triggered asthma, Any irregular breathing makes me wheeze and cough. I can walk and that's about it (but, walking slow takes a lot of time). So my plan for the rest of the week is to walk to the subway instead of taking the bus - if I do it each way, it'll give me 3 activity points (about 300 calories).

FJ: ate 21, exercised 0, flex left 12

i couldn't help it either!

yea...it has been one of those weekends!

i decided to reset my flex on fridays instead of mondays...so we'll see how it goes. so, far so good, i think.

yesterday...i was better than a lot of saturdays, but i still need to make some huge changes in my weekends. honestly, what is the deal?! why does the "shovel food in mouth button" get pushed every saturday morning? well, anyway, i ended up with 36 points eaten, no exercise.

sunday...well, today i had dinner at my grandparents. enough said, right? yes, it was a full-tilt all-out food fest: homemade rolls, roast beef, potatoes, homemade poppy seed dressing, real ice cream and the bowl of dove chocolates that kept getting pushed at me by my chocoholic grandpa. did i mention the rolls? well, i really was trying to be good---my gma even said, "meg, you aren't eating very much!"...but i still ended up with 38 points today. (yikes!!!) so, i've got 7 points left for the rest of the week--which i'm totally ok with. for some reason week days are sooo much easier.

this is the first weekend ive actually kept track of everything i've eaten though--which is a major victory. even though i am absolutely horrified by the numbers..it does really explain why i've been gaining and not losing though. hello! i felt like i was being good and still ended up with 36 and 38!?

goals for tomorrow:
60 min walking
best behavior! count everything.

I couldn't help it

Really, I couldn't. This weekend was a constant stream of food. Delicious, rich evil foods. It went something like this:

1. high tea at the Boston Park Plaza

2. cheese platters. mmm.

3. Korean bbq

4. "clubbing" - um, yeah, I'm just not that type of girl. I felt very lucky that clubs in Boston are only open for 3 hours. (No cals consumed here though, in fact, that was apparently 6 APs)

5. Return on the cheese platters. Add in chips and other evils.

Total: 45 points consumed (Wowzers!), 7 points burned, 13 flex left. (Sunday was better: 20 points consumed, 2 points burned, 13 flex left) The scary thing is that I really was being good. I promise!

But really, I couldn't help it. Look! (I forgot to get a pic of the Korean bbq. also beautiful.) Don't be fooled by the tea goodies platter - there was more - that pic doesn't show the scones and the tea-infused creme brulee.

Jook

My cold has gone evil on me - a running nose has been added to sore throat and I'm quite miserable. I know I shouldn't complain a cold, but this one is not nice. Anyway, when I got home tonight, threw some rice in a pot to start making jook (congee), a Chinese-style rice porridge that I am nuts for, especially when I'm sick. It is basically really mushy over cooked rice in lots of water or broth with a dab of meat. It is topped with cilantro and green onions and sometimes other treats. I guess it is the Chinese version of chicken noodle soup. Asians I know either love it or hate it - the ones who hate it associate it with being sick.

What do you eat when you are sick?

FJ: ate 20, exercised 0, flex left 20

(Image credit: worldsoups.com)

huh, not as bad as i thought...

(actually, these things are pretty good if you heat them on the griddle w/ a little pam.)

i'm sure most of you probably already know about such things as "low fat/low carb whole wheat tortillas"...but i just discovered them last night. i'm originally from the southwest, so i'm a little bit of a tortilla snob in the first place...i have a really really hard time choking down the widely available packaged brands, so i was a little hesitant to try these. but, they were good! and with 50 cal, 3g fat and 8g fiber, well, i have no complaints. as much as i miss the *real* tortillas we had at home, these are probably better for me...ok, not probably, i'm sure they're better than the ones made with lard.

goal/FJ updates: yesterday was only able to get in 30 min of walking...exercised 2 and ate 24. goal for today was 20 min walking after pilates, but i have a giant headache, so i think i'm gonna skip it or try later. goal for tomorrow: 60 min walking.

oh, and yet another cookie-free day! magic yellow cloth=best idea ever.

my pack a day habit

i'm starting to worry because blueberry season is going to be closing down soon, and I am totally addicted! i eat them with yogurt, cereal, on top of toaster waffles, by themselves...yum yum yum

what will i do when they are out of season and are either a) gross or b) like $6.99 a carton during the winter?

i'm not so crazy about frozen. any ideas? or is there a secret source for good blueberries during the winter that i don't know about? (um, yea, pardon my produce-section naievete...this is the first time in awhile that i've actually routinely grocery shopped for things besides diet coke and microwave popcorn.)

cookie update: none today! hurrah! the magic yellow cloth worked!

FJ: Exercised 4, ate 24
Wednesday Goal: Walking for 60 min.

Mae-Ploy to the rescue

Hear hear for Mae-Ploy, which saved me from a forage fest with the almighty peanut butter tonight. I came home later than normal, hungry, and supremely grumpy (you know, one of those days, the days where you want to find a cave and watch Bridget Jones' Diary 20 thousand times and eat tubs of Godiva raspberry truffle ice cream). But I was saved my tub of Mae-Ploy, the best curry paste evah.

Mixed with some TJ's lowfat coconut milk, tofu, eggplant, cauliflower, baby corn, mushrooms, and green onions, and I had dinner in 23 min. It was sooo tasty - the tofu all soft and yummy. Writing about it makes me want another bowl. Though that ice cream sounds good too - good thing we don't have it in the house :)

I was in a need-chocolate-now state today, which is a reminder that I am a stress eater. I should work on that. Good thing for that Mae-Ploy.

Also, I need to rant that I have HUGE pimple on the forehead. It's hideous. People look at it when they talk to me. I can't even try to conceal it - it would look worse. Sigh. Need cave. need chocolate. need BJ's Diary. (I ate 23, exercised 0, and have 11 flex for tomorrow.)

Another purple box

Due to the wealth of Annie's blogging lately, I had a HUGE craving for mac and cheese tonight. But, alas, there was no box of that stuff in my house - I have a serious weakness for it. I "think" a box has 3.5 servings. But I can eat one whole box by myself. in one sitting. I know. I'm terrible. So, I don't keep it (or spicy seafood or kimchi flavored Korean ramen noodles for that matter) in the house.



Instead, I had a nice bunch of cilantro come in my box so I made "quesadillas" with leftover grilled chicken, cheddar, red pepper, and cilantro on whole wheat TJ's tortillas. It was tasty, and surprisingly, ended my temporary "I NEED THE MAC N CHEESE" feeling:



Today was another fake exercise today - 5 points for tiling after eating 23 leaving 12 flex for tomorrow. It worked my legs pretty well, but I wondered: if I were wearing moon boots (see Meg's shocking post below), would I have gotten a better work out?

Holy Pepper!

Holy Pepper people! I had a looooong day at work today (so long, I'd only eateb 15 points with 5 APs by the time I got home at 9:30 - that is just crazy). But, it is Wednesday, the best day of the week to come home because my Boston Organics box was there, waiting for me. I know I've blogged about it before, but I had to write again because I got the biggest, most baddiest looking pepper I have ever seen. and its organic, grown locally here in Massachusetts.

Look at that thing! The pear next to it is normally sized. (Aren't those yellow and green squashes so cute?)

Anyways. WW-wise, I had good day. It would be an SVD, except I feel guilty for using up the rest of my AP's on hot chocolate (did I mention that I had a long day?) I ate 25, exercised 5, leaving 9 flex left tomorrow.

eat your vegetables

so. one of my goals along with the losing weight and becoming skinny thing is to also stop eating so so so many things that come out of packages...and eat more things that require peeling, chopping, dicing and julienning.

here's the puzzling thing though: i genuinely like vegetables--i would even say i love vegetables. when i was a kid, i always took seconds of whatever vegetable my mom made. if placed in front of a vegetable tray, i will choose that over crackers or chips. i always order salad in restaurants and ask for vegetables instead of mashed potatoes. however, nowadays, i seem to buy copious amounts of vegetables that never actually get eaten. (insert bri's horrified gasp here) i don't get it. i like them. why don't i eat them?

so, i ask you, what do you do to make sure you eat your vegetables? do you have any strategies? or am i just a weirdo who buys vegetables and then doesn't eat them? (wait, don't answer that)


oh, and before i forget: today was ok...i had 3 activity points, ate 26, 35 flex left.

S-M-R-T

Did you hear the news? Cardio makes you SMARTER. I could really go for some of that. Maybe my lack of exercise is a contributing factor to my new 6th-year graduate student status. (Don't ask me when I'm going to graduate, ok? I'll get ugly. fast)

So, if I can manage to get up on time tomorrow, I can pull a Homer on the treadmill ("I am so smart! S-M-R-T! I am so smart! S-M-R-T"). And, when I finally graduate, I should screen myself a shirt that says that too. Hrmmmm... Ah, never mind. Someone else already makes them.

I've been so tired today. I couldn't get up this morning. and on my bike ride home, my muscles kept screaming "STOP!!!". I almost walked my bike I was so tired. I have no idea why this is, but I took it as a sign that I should spend my last three points of the day on hot chocolate. Not just any hot chocolate. Lake Champlain Aztec hot chocolate. mmmm....

Ate 22, exercised 2, flex left 10

nada, zero, zip, null

As you can probably guess from the title, I've lost nothing this week. Its a bit depressing, because at this rate, it's gonna take me a really looooooooong time to find out if skinny girls really do have more fun. This must be my punishment for gaining weight back. boo. hiss.

In other, tastier news, I'm enjoying my first-ever homemade Greek-style yogurt. The coffee filter straining system thingy worked really well. Too well, actually, I had to add some of the whey back. But really, it tasted very close to the real thing!