1 Week Down....3 To Go

So, I survived my first "week" of boot camp. It wasn't that bad (even the getting up at 4:45 am part). I am a little sore, but nothing too painful, and I think I held my own with even the experienced people. Basically each day, just at the point that I was thinking "I don't know how much more of this I can do," there would only be about 15 minutes left.

Each day there was one thing that I considered cruel and unusual treatment. The first day, as I mentioned in my previous post, was the plank. The second day it was the double crunches and today it was the mile run. With the running again it was mainly that my shins were killing me ( I think I need to get new running shoes).

I had her take my measurements today so I could do a before and after comparison. My body fat percentage was not as bad as I thought it was going to be though it was far from what I was at 22 (ah well).

All in all, so far, I am really glad I decided to do this. A big thank you to Freakgirl for being the first to take the plunge and then encouraging me to tag along.

Boot Camp

This is not a food related post, but it is diet related, so I figure it is worth talking about here.

Today was my first day of boot camp. No, I have not joined the army. Rather, from 6-7 am, 3 days a week, a very energetic woman puts me and about 15 other women through an exercise program. It was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. The worst part was when the alarm went off at about 4:45 am. My first thought was "What the *&%^*^ did I get myself into." But, once I was there and moving, it wasn't so bad....except for the plank.....excuse the language, but the plank sucked.

While I am no where near in as good shape as I used to be, I am also far from the most out of shape person there (which makes me feel a little better). I did quickly realize where my real weak spots are (outside of my quads I am looking at you), and I think if I have to run on concrete everyday I am going to have a serious problem with my shins, but all in all I think did pretty well for my first day. :)

Falling Off The Wagon

I have fallen so far off the diet that it is not even funny.

Let us begin with Tuesday night when I had dinner at Restaurant David Drake with the boy and a friend of his. Dinner was fabulous, of course. I had English pea soup to start and then duck, which came with an amazing apricot puree. I rounded that night off with the cheese plate.

Wednesday was Restaurant David Drake's garden opening party which I attended with a friend. There were lots of assorted little yummies though nothing that topped the foi gras mousse that they served at the lost garden event I was at. My friend and I then decided to sit down for dinner (decadence - twice in one week). That night I had the duck confit salad with beets, the short ribs (which I actually had only a couple of bites of) and the berry trifle. All delish!

Thursday I behaved myself for dinner, but lunch was at my parents where I had a lamb burger, pig potatoes and peach blueberry pie (swoon).

This will all be followed by Sunday (Dad Day) which will include BBQ, pasta salad and cupcakes with mocha frosting.

Sigh......I suppose my penance will come in July with boot camp and a strict diet regiment.

Thanks for the Support

I actually had a friend say to me this weekend - "Yeah, you have lost some weight, but don't you still have a ways to go?" Thanks, thanks a lot buddy.

Yes, It Has Been Awhile

Sorry for the long absence, but there wasn't much to say. I am increasingly bored with this diet and also seemed to have reached a plateau when it comes to losing weight so I have just been frustrated, frustrated, frustrated. That has led to cheating more often, which certainly doesn't help the whole process. My main problem is still the late night snacking. It just seems that, without fail, come 9:00/10:00 at night I want food. I have tried eating later, but I still get that snack craving. I am thinking I may just have to give in and have an actual snack each night. It seems like it would be better for me to actually eat a snack and make it as healthy as possible then end up eating all the little bits of junk I end up eating to avoid actually eating (if that made any sense).

I am also thinking about doing a boot camp with a couple of friends in July. I am hoping that that will get me motivated to be doing everything I can to lose weight (aka - no more cheating) and also boost the metabolism a little in order to shed some poundage. We shall see.

Meanwhile I also will try and be more diligent about updating this blog. Promise.

I Have A New Love....

and its name is Greek yogurt.

Back a few weeks ago I posted about my love of Yoplait and one of my readers mentioned that I should try Greek yogurt. I did and yummy! Creamy with a nice little tang to it. Plus, you get a lot for only 100 calories. It is the perfect afternoon snack with fresh berries. For those who are on the go and don't want to cart around fresh berries (there is a high smush factor) it is also sold with fruit (though with substantially more calories). I have tried a few different brands and they are all good - I can't really recommend one over another. Buy some today and give it a try!

Falling Off The Wagon

I went on a major food bender this past week - kugel, pizza, Thai, chocolate torte, pear tart strawberry pie, lasagna, Doritos, lots of alcohol, the list goes on. I am trying to chalk it up to a mini vacation from the diet, but the guilt is gnawing at me. I can't even say that I wasted the calories on anything all that great (with the exception of the kugel and desserts). Most of it was junk that actually had me feeling kind of yucky afterwards.

I weighed myself, and at least I didn't gain any poundage, but then again I am still doubtful on the whole weight/scale thing really meaning anything.

At least I avoided jelly beans and chocolate rabbits.

Recipe: Chocolate Tart

So I of course went off the diet (way off the diet) for our Seder. This year, all us "kids" contributed to the meal to try and make things a little bit easier on my mom. My contribution was a chocolate tart, which, if I do say so myself, was scrumptious. It was also incredibly easy to make. Here is the recipe......

Chocolate Tart with Nut Crust (from John Johnson, chef and owner of Rancho de San Juan in New Mexico)

1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup pine nuts
½ cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
½ cup butter
9 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
6 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon cognac or brandy
½ teaspoon almond extract
Unsweetened cocoa powder


In a food processor, whirl walnuts, pine nuts and ½ cup sugar until nuts are coarsely ground. Pour into a 9-inch tart pan with removable rim. In a 2-cup glass measure, melt ¼ cup butter in a microwave oven. Add melted butter to nut mixture and rub in with your fingers to blend. Press mixture evenly over bottom and up sides of pan. Set pan on a foil-lined baking sheet.

Bake in a 325 degree regular or convection oven until crust begins to brown around edges – 20 to 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop half the chocolate into ½ inch chunks and set aside. Finely chop remaining chocolate.

In the glass measure, combine remaining ¼ cup butter, cut into small pieces, with finely chopped chocolate. Heat in a microwave oven at half power until chocolate is soft, 30 to 45 seconds. Stir until mixture is smooth.

In a bowl with a mixer on high speed, beat egg yolks, remaining 3 tablespoons sugar, cognac and almond extract until mixture turns pale yellow, about 3 minutes. Add chocolate-butter mixture and beat to blend. Stir in coarsely chopped chocolate. Scrape into warm nut crust.

Bake in a 325 degree oven until filling barely jiggles when pan is gently shaken, about 15 minutes. Set on a rack until warm or cool.

To serve, remove rim and dust tart lightly with cocoa and cut into wedges. Can be served with softly whipped cream.

Some Like It Hot

I have always enjoyed spicy foods - the hotter the better. I love that sweat you get when you eat really spicy Mexican or Chinese food.

One of my favorite spicy food stories is when I was eating at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant in Texas about five miles from the Mexican border. The waiter put down complimentary chips and three salsas - medium (no mild salsa of course), hot and really, really hot. The waiter warned us that most people couldn't handle the really hot stuff. I, of course, immediately dug into the really, really hot stuff. I made my way through one bowl and asked for seconds. The waiter looked a little stunned, but didn't say anything and brought me a second bowl. After awhile my dinner companions and I noticed that there seemed to be a parade of staff (including kitchen staff) trooping past our table. Our waiter delivered our entrees and asked (with a smirk) if we had noticed all the staff trooping past. We commented that it was hard to miss and he told us that everyone who worked there wanted to see the little white girl who could handle eating all that hot salsa! I think I was as red as the salsa for the rest of the night.

I bring this up because I have been relying on hot sauce (lots of it) to make a lot of the food on this diet more palatable, from the egg whites in the morning to many of the provided entrees. Tabasco is of course a standby, and I have also been using Scotch Bonnet Caribbean Pepper Sauce by Tropical Pepper Co and Dave's Gourmet Ultimate Insanity Hot Sauce. The Scotch Bonnet is very flavorful and adds a nice degree of heat. The Ultimate Insanity Hot Sauce lives up to its name - lots and lots of heat, though not a ton of flavor.

So, my question - do you have a favorite hot sauce and if so what is it and where can you get it?

Recipe: Back to Loving Cucumbers

I know I just wrote how I would be happy to never see a cucumber again, but then the boy reminded me of my spicy cucumbers - my absolute favorite cucumber recipe. So, I whipped up a batch and now can't stop eating them. Here is the incredibly easy recipe:

3-4 medium sized cucumbers
2-3 hot peppers diced (I usually use jalapenos)
1/3 cup shallots diced
1/3 cup green onions thinly sliced
1/4 cilantro chopped
1/2 rice wine vinegar
2 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Mix the cucumbers, hot peppers, shallots, green onions and cilantro together. Then, mix the rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt and pour over the cucumbers.

It could not be easier and they are absolutely delicious (and, by the way, a perfect side salad for BBQ chicken)

Sorry For The Lack of Posting

My apologies dear readers for my lack of posting this past week or so. It was due to a combination of lots of work (which involves writing), the end of winter blahs and hitting a bit of a wall with this diet.

The wall that I have hit is namely salad. I am sick to death of salad, especially what, on this diet, is considered salad. Anything really interesting that you might put into a salad (peppers, broccoli, asparagus, even tomatoes) is considered a vegetable serving, and you are limited to two one cup vegetable servings at dinner only. The unlimited salad vegetables are essentially lettuce (including spinach and cabbage), cucumbers, parsley (which I don't even consider a vegetable so they are cheating there), celery, radishes, sprouts, mushrooms and zucchini. After a month and a half on this program I would be happy to never see a cucumber again, and I have decided that I really don't like radishes. I have tried to change things up with the dressing, but even that has gotten old - there only so many good low fat or no fat dressings out there.

So, I found myself less than inspired to write. Hopefully though I will be a little less depressed in the weeks ahead as the days get longer and the air warmer and the thought of baring skin in summer clothing will get me inspired again and make cucumber seem not so bad.

How Strict Is Too Strict

Right now dieting is a mother-daughter endeavor. My mother is trying to lose some weight so that she can have knee surgery. She is, at least for now, doing it through a doctor's program. I have taken to calling him the Diet Nazi because he is so extreme in his "rules." According to him, my mother should NEVER EVER have any sort of red meat, any fat of any kind (including olive oil), and absolutely no carbs of any kind...EVER. I can't stress the ever factor more.

I feel he takes it too far. To say never, ever is setting up anyone who remotely loves food for failure. Plus, I don't understand why never is necessary. As I said in one of my first posts, the program I am on lets you eat most foods, including red meat, carbs and dessert (hell, I had chocolate chip pudding last night), just in extreme moderation. Plus, the program even advertises that "you can take the weekends off" (now everyone who watches TV should know what program I am on). As far as I understand it, Weight Watchers works on the premise that you can also eat almost whatever you want, including eating out, so long as you keep within your points. So why this mandate of never?

Maybe this never philosophy works for some patients, but my mother, like me, is a real foodie. Telling her never on almost everything but fish, chicken and steamed or raw vegetables is dooming her to be miserable and either giving up, or at some point binging and doing more damage than if she was allowed once a week to have a very small piece of lean beef.

I also know that for some people completely cutting out carbs (or white foods) can make a real difference, but that is usually when there actually is something wrong with ones endocrine system or digestive system and they can't metabolize or digest certain foods. According to this doctor though, my mother does not have that problem. This guy just seems to have one set of rules which he lays down with an iron fist.

So, what do you all think - should diet rules be extreme and iron clad law, or does moderation with room for cheating now and then work better?

Some Restaurant News

For those of you in the New Jersey area, the following are some restaurant updates.

Restaurant David Drake in Rahway, NJ is now offering a $29.00 3-course menu, Monday through Thursday all night, as well as Fridays from 5:30 - 6:30. This is a great opportunity to enjoy some of the best food in the area at an extremely reasonable price.

Daryl Wine Bar in New Brunswick, NJ has changed its menu to all tapas (before it was half tapas, half large plates). Another opportunity to sample David Drake's amazing food without breaking the bank.

Soho on George in New Brunswick, NJ has significantly cut prices. The majority of entrees are now under $20.00. In my view, Soho is an average restaurant and was not worth the prices they were charging before, but at these new prices it is definitely back on the places to dine list.

The Dreaded Scale

So, I know I promised to weigh myself on a regular basis and update you on how many pounds I am actually losing, as opposed to more subjective findings such as how my clothes fit or I how look. I have been unable though to bring myself to step on the damn thing. It has become one of my biggest stressors. Every morning I wake up determined to weigh myself, and then conveniently forget or come up with increasingly lame excuses as to why I shouldn't that day.

Well, I finally did it this afternoon to discover that, according to the scale, in the last 2 weeks, I have lost 9 lbs!! Very exciting!!

A Word About Yogurt

As part of this diet I now eat a lot of yogurt - at least one a day and usually two. At first I was dreading this, but I have discovered that there are some amazing flavors of yogurt out there for under a 120 calories.

As annoying as their commercials are, I personally think Yoplait is the best. From their regular fruit flavors, to their more interesting flavors like White Chocolate Strawberry, their yogurts seem to be the most flavorful and have the most bits of fresh fruit.

Of course, I haven't tried all the yogurts out there, so does anyone else have a yogurt recommendation?

I Was A Bad, Bad Girl

I completely went off the diet this weekend....completely.

It started Friday when a friend that I have not seen in ages asked me to meet her out for a drink. The timing was a bit awkward on whether I would eat before I went or eat at the restaurant. When I wasn't hungry before leaving, I decided to eat there - big mistake because I met up with french fries. A big pile of salty, crispy wonderful french fries. I basically had two bites of my bunless, cheeseless burger, but somehow made my way through the whole damn pile of french fries!

Saturday I was good all day, but had plans to meet another friend out at a local Greek restaurant . The restaurant was so crazy though we ditched that idea and went out for Chinese - never a healthy choice. But the worst part was when I got home at around midnight. Between having Chinese food (which always leaves you hungry an hour or so later) and it being my usual hungry time - I was starved. The result - I ate about a 1/4 of a bag of Spicy Nacho Doritos. Definitely not my finest hour. The guilt was enormous most of Sunday, but I think I am over it now and have chalked it up to a slip (albeit a major one) and am now back on the program. We all have slips right?

In The Heat of The Night

One of the most interesting things about this diet is all the things I am learning about myself and the rhythms of my body. For example, I have absolutely no appetite in the morning. I can go to bed starving (as I usually do as I will explain shortly), but come morning, I could care less about food. This program requires that you eat a fairly large breakfast and sometimes it is actually difficult for me to eat it.

There has been an improvement on "being hungry" in general. For most of the day I am now no longer obsessing about food (yeah!) and, even at dinner time, I eat when I am hungry, but I am no longer counting down the minutes until I can eat. So why is it that at about 10:30 pm all I want to do is eat? Even if I have put off dinner until 8:30 or so, and then had my dessert at around 9:30/10:00, I am starving by about 10:30/11:00. The dessert ends up acting as an amuse bouche. I am sure some of it is that during the week the boy gets home around that time and is eating his dinner, but even nights when he has eaten earlier or he isn't home, I am starving at that time. Why?

Does anyone else have times of the day when they are just always hungry?

Interesting Article In the NYT

The following was an article in today's New York Times.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/no-winner-in-major-diet-study/

To Weigh or Not To Weigh

I have always been anti-scale. I believe weight to be a somewhat irrelevant number. For instance, when I was in my teens and early twenties and was a size two, I weighed 120-125 pounds - pretty heavy for a size 2. I've always gone more by how I feel, how clothes fit me, etc.

But, many people have made the suggestion over the past few weeks that if I am taking this diet thing seriously (and blogging about it), I should be weighing myself so I can give a more accurate account of my weight loss. Thus, I went out over the weekend and bought one of those fancy scales that not only does weight, but body fat percentage and body mass index. I gingerly stepped on it Sunday morning......and was immediately demoralized.

I knew I had put some weight on, but I didn't know I had become a frigging hippo! I was even thinking I had already lost some weight because my jeans were not quite so snug. I can't bring myself to post the actual number, but let's just say I am almost 40 pounds heavier than Jeremy (and I mean the boyfriend, not the cat!). I stood there and cried for about half an hour and was in a deep funk all day Monday. I am feeling a bit better today, but am still just appalled at the number that I saw.

I will continue to weigh myself in order to give a more accurate account of my results, but I am going back to my belief that weight is a somewhat irrelevant number.

I Miss Bacon

As I said in my post yesterday, you can actually eat quite a lot of food on this plan albeit in teeny tiny quantities. Some foods are, of course, taboo no matter what. I knew I would miss some of them - bagels, pasta, ice cream, real cheese (oh Epoisse how I long for your rich creaminess...I even miss you, simple chedder), but some foods have rather surprised me such as bacon, cashews and peanut butter.

I did tend to eat a lot of cashews, so maybe that really should not be a surprise, but bacon and peanut butter (mm mm - bacon and peanut butter sandwiches - a childhood favorite) were a once in a blue moon kind of thing. So why the odd cravings for them?

I usually associate odd cravings with my body needing something. Not if it is chocolate cake of course, but, for example, I am not a big beef eater but there are those times when I desperately want a burger. I usually indulge such cravings because I figure my body needs the iron or something else that is in the beef. But peanut butter and bacon? I can't for the life of me think what they could contain that my body would need except salt.

Very curious.

Size Really Does Matter

The main thing I have learned on this diet program is that size really does matter. In this case, smaller is better.

As far as I can tell, the underlying tenet of the program is portion control. You actually get to eat quite often during the day (breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and dessert) and get to eat most foods (e.g., lasagna, pizza, pot roast, meatloaf, brownies), but it is all teeny tiny portions. The entrees are about the size of the meals you get on an airplane, maybe even smaller. The beef stew is about a cup. They also, in my opinion, cheat a little. One meal that was billed as home style noodles with chicken and gravy, was mostly gravy and had maybe a dozen little thin noodles (and, of course, I can't honor my Italian roots and use a nice piece of crusty bread to sop up all that remaining sauce). Another meal that was supposed to be green pepper steak with rice had - without exaggeration - a tablespoon of rice.


So far, I have found this a little frustrating. Yes, you do get to eat as much salad - including what I refer to as the water vegetables - as you want, but there is only so much lettuce, cucumbers and celery a girl can eat. Add in that I have stepped up my workouts, and I am always just a little hungry. Not starving mind you, just hungry enough that it is bothersome. I am sure it is at least 50% psychological. The program has supposedly figured out how much food your body needs, not how much you might want, but I feel like I am not eating enough. Especially the carbs. I love carbs and have come to learn that I don't feel full unless I have eaten carbs. As exemplified by my description of the two aforementioned meals, the program is very low on carbs. Again, I know in my head that that is largely psychological, but that doesn't help the tummy from feeling empty.

Another factor is boredom. Since I am trying to stick to the plan 6 days a week (allowing one cheat day) and cut out a lot of the alcohol I used to drink, I am trying to go out only once a week. That means spending a lot more nights sitting around at home watching TV. Plus, I am not spending the time that I used to spend cooking meals or cleaning up after which means, yup, you guessed it, more time sitting around reading or watching TV. I suppose, to some, that would sound heavenly, but what it really means, for me, is more time to think about all the food that I am not eating. Even being busy with work doesn't help. I have never been one who "forgets" to eat. Quite frankly I always wanted to slap people who said that. I mean, come on, who the hell "forgets" to eat.

I am hoping that eventually I will get used to it and not feel, or I guess more accurately, think I feel hungry. And it is definetly a food lesson that can be used beyond the length of the program and hopefully help keep the pounds off when I start eating "real" food again. For now though, I guess I will just continue to be a little hungry.

And so it begins

Welcome! It has taken me a bit of time, but after much hemming and hawing I have finally decided to start blogging. Yes, a little late to the game, but then I usually am slow to pick up on this techie stuff.

Initally, I will mainly be posting about my experiences as a foodie on a diet. After watching my ass grow ever larger over the last few years, I decided it was time to do something, anything to lose some weight. While I realize I will never be a size 2 or even a size 4 again, revisiting a size 6 would be nice. So, with consent from the boy (because he would no longer be getting home cooked meals every night) I signed up for one of those programs which sends you all your food.

I am now two weeks in and have to admit, the food is not so bad. With the exception of one thing (which could have been the most disgusting thing I have ever put in my mouth - no jokes from the peanut gallery please) most of the food has been pretty good. Granted, it is nothing I would eat were I not dieting, but it is nothing that makes you wonder "how are people are supposed to eat this crap."

So, I ask you to join me on this little adventure of mine. I hope you enjoy reading about it!