Day 10

I'm happy to report that I made it through another day having had all homemade meals. I did however have three 100 calorie mini Clif bars and two Healthy Choice fudge bars as well. I mention that because one of the reasons I started this blog was to keep track of what I eat in the interest of weight loss, but since I decided to shoot only meals instead of every chip or piece of candy I eat, a fair amount of calories are getting lost in translation. So... I think I'll start taking snaps of snacks too.

My schedule today went something like:

Eggwich at 9:00 (picture re-used)

Clif bar at 11:30
Tuna w/Lime & Horseradish on best bread in the Universe at 12:00.

My favorite bread is Alvarado St. Sprouted Multigrain but it creates something of an ethical dilemma for me. On the one hand it's all-natural, healthy and delicious, but on the other hand it has to travel all the way from San Francisco (frozen in transit and at the store) so the energy cost is high.

The tuna was a mix: one can Chicken of the Sea, the other can Central Market brand. Both Albacore packed in water. According to Seafood Watch if the tuna was caught in the US or Canadian Pacific by troll or pole and line then it's sustainable. How I'm supposed to know where and how canned tuna was caught is a mystery to me. (If you squint you can read the recipe for the tuna on that little piece of paper next to it. Add mayo too, I forgot to write that on my cheat sheet.)

Clif bar at 1:30
Clif bar at 3:30
Chili (usual recipe, beef from Niman farms) w/ brown rice at 7:00

Fudge bar at 7:30
Handful of raw almonds at 8:00
Fudge bar at 9:00

I think by most counts that was a reasonable menu - but I would rather strive for something like six small, balanced meals a day (as prescribed by Body for Life and other programs). Unfortunately I have a hard enough time deciding on what to eat for three meals a day and I prefer to limit meat intake, so coming up with six small, balanced meals is a bit of a daunting prospect.

Day 9

I did my first big grocery shopping of the new year today. I bought some stuff at H.E.B. last week, but today I went to the co-op and dumped a pile of money on them. It ain't cheap to eat well, but I believe healthy, sustainable food is a worthwhile investment. I actually like that natural, humanely raised meat is so expensive because it forces me to limit my meat intake and to be conscious of the life that was taken for my meal.

For breakfast I had a bowl of Kashi GoLean Crunch cereal with organic skim milk.

For lunch a PB&J sammich, some Kettle Fully Loaded Baked Potato chips and my roommate's homemade lentil soup again. The roomie's stepmom made the raspberry preserves used on my sammich from her garden - it's an annual gift he gets.

This time I asked the roomie what's in the soup and he said it has carrots, onion, celery, red lentils, garbanzo beans and cannellini beans. Like I said before it's a bit weird tasting but good. I'm re-using the picture because I didn't see any point in taking another one.

I bought a new wok today so I made Chinese beef and broccoli for dinner. Unfortunately the wok broke while I was cleaning it (don't ask, it was cheap) so I used my flat-bottom, non-stick poseur wok by Joyce Chen. The beef was from Niman Ranch and pre-sliced for stir fry, but I would've sliced it thinner. I marinated it for 30 minutes using the first recipe I found in an online search basically soy sauce, water, sugar, rice vinegar, corn starch, and for the seasoning sauce I used a recipe from a YouTube video. Basically oyster sauce, sherry, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, pepper, corn starch. I served it on brown rice.

I came up with a dinner menu for the week:

Monday: Chili w/ Rice, salad
Tuesday: Salmon w/ Pilaf, spinach
Wednesday: Chicken Cutlets w/ Mashed potatoes, green beans
Thursday: Mac & Cheese w/ Ham & Peas
Friday: Stir-fried Veggies w/ Soba noodles

Day 3

The second leg of the Chicago > Austin train ride.

For breakfast an omelette with potatoes and vegetables.

Lunch was an "Angus burger" with cheese. As explained on that Wiki page, a successful PR campaign in the US has convinced many people that Angus beef is superior in taste and quality. Some even believe that the Angus label is akin to organic or all-natural. However I probably wouldn't be able to pick it out in a blind taste test and I'm not aware of any evidence that Angus beef is more or less likely to come from factory farmed cattle than any other burger.

For dinner I had the salmon again. (I also had Reese's Peanut Butter Pie for dessert after lunch and dinner on both days of the trip, both ways. It's no wonder the scale says I put on 10 lbs. over the holidays!)