Day 17

I had a fried egg sammich w/Morningstar patty and no cheese this morning (I'm out of Horizon American slices).

I brought leftover stir-fry for lunch but didn't feel like eating it, so I picked up pizza in the cafeteria. It had spinach and artichoke. Not bad but not good either; certainly not worth the cost or calorie count.

I brought an EAS protein shake for a snack, so that's what I had.

I ate the stir-fry when I came home at 5:00ish, followed by a fudge bar.

...and then a bowl of chili at 8:30.

Day 12

I was all over the map today. I made a standard eggwich for breakfast (opting not to use the egg I dropped on the floor) but I didn't feel like bringing tuna for lunch again and didn't have any better ideas, so I ate in the cafeteria.

They served a type of fish they called "drum", but according to Wikipedia that could be any of a number of different kinds of fish. Whatever it was I thought it was decent at first but by the time I was half way through it I decided I didn't like it at all. The rice was bland too, for that matter.

Fortunately the execs across the hall had lunch catered by Rudys so I had a little turkey, brisket and potato salad instead of the other half of the fish. (I devoured the turkey and half of the brisket before remembering to take a picture, but it was literally only an ounce or two of meat.)

I've been in a training class all week and the instructor brought in Round Rock donuts this morning. I miraculously limited myself to one but had a chocolate chip cookie too (and of course two Healthy Choice fudge bars this evening). I also had a mini Clif bar somewhere along the way.

I made a reasonably healthy and delicious dinner anyway, so that's something. That's a chicken cutlet (chicken from Buddy's), mashed potatoes, and fresh spinach sauteed in evoo and garlic. Yum.

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 7

I didn't realize I was out of eggs until I already had things in motion to make an eggwich, so I went ahead with it. I also forgot to take a picture until I was half done so I had to cut off the bit part for the picture. :D

Lunch was another spectacular fail on all counts except taste. Chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes from the company cafeteria. Not nutritious, ethical or particularly economical but it did taste pretty good.

I had to make the same dinner I had the night before because I forgot to take a picture the first time.

Day 6

I used the last of my farm-fresh eggs for another eggwich this morning.

Since I was working from home I made a salad and had some of my roommate's homemade "Moroccan Red Lentil" soup from the freezer. It has an odd taste but I like it. I'll probably get and post the recipe eventually. The salad is romaine, tomatoes, cucumber, feta and Kalamata olives with "g/s" dressing. g/s stands for garlic/shallot, and consists of a clove of garlic minced with equal part shallot, 1/4 cup evoo, 1 Tb white wine vinegar, 1 tsp balsamic vinegar, s&p. It's a great quick and easy dressing to make.

For dinner I ate hot dogs, rice pilaf and broccoli. The hot dogs are all natural, uncured beef dogs from Applegate Farms. The rice pilaf is a recipe I make fairly often so I'll post it later, and the broccoli was blanched then sauteed in olive oil with a sprinkle of red pepper flakes.

It occurs to me now that Day 6 is the first day of the year when everything I ate came from my kitchen.

Day 5

I started the fifth day of the year with one of my favorite breakfasts: the homemade eggwich. This consists of single fried egg, Morningstar sausage patty, slice of Horizon American cheese in an Orowheat Multigrain muffin. This is a relatively low calorie, filling and delicious breakfast.

Unfortunately one of the books I read last year suggested that Horizon's practices are hardly any better than factory dairy producers, but until I look deeper into that claim I'm going to believe it's at least marginally better. For the last few months I've been getting eggs from one of the managers where I work. She and her husband have taken to raising chickens, so I know they're being fed and treated well. When I can't get eggs from them I get them at the co-op who in turn gets them from a local farm called Vital Farms.    

My new team had their first bi-weekly lunch of the new year today and I went along. I wanted enchiladas but I ordered crispy tacos in an effort to be a little healthier. I ordered beef rather than chicken or pork on the ground that they were probably all factory farmed and beef is generally less inhumanely treated than chicken and pork. This doesn't sound as persuasive as I type it, but that's what went through my head. In any case the tortillas were so soaked in oil I probably could've gone with the enchiladas and had just as healthy of a meal.

I was craving steak for dinner so I gave in. I didn't even bother coming up with a rationalization for it, and I have no reason to believe that the restaurant I went to, Texas Roadhouse, uses local, humanely raised or natural beef. I went with the 6 oz filet cooked medium rare. I skipped dessert so I wouldn't add insult to injury by being grossly unhealthy in addition to ethically insensitive. Granted those buttered rolls (I ate two) are like a dessert in themselves, and the egg crumbled on the salad was a pile of unnecessary fat and calories. I only ate a few of the peanuts, though. I often go through half of that bucket at those places.