Saturday in VT

It promises to be quite frigid up north today. I slept in and decided to try the suggestions I got on boiling an egg and this time it worked! I had a lovely egg with one slice buttered toast for dipping and one with peach jam. Plus there was COFFEE! I have a coffee pot, but I drink so little coffee that it's just not worth pulling it out of the cupboard. Tea has been my preferred drink for morning even before Spouse immigrated, but I tend not to drink it at other people's houses because, um, I'm a tea snob. Twinings English Breakfast just doesn't do it for me as much as PG Tips (Bigelow is nice for a regular grocery store tea though). So it was fun to have coffee this morning, and I even got to have it with soy milk as my stepfather buys that for his cereal.

Lunch will be at a sushi place in town where I'm meeting up with some old high school friends. I haven't actually seen either of them in a while, but we've been keeping up through Friendface.

Okay, in linking to Facebook there, I thought maybe it would make more sense to link to something from The IT Crowd since that's what I was referencing. And it actually exitsts

So lunch was kimchee soup with tofu and a side of rice. Very tasty! Dinner was with family and consisted of AMAZING homemade pizza, arugula and tangerine salad, raspberry and chocolate dessert and wine. And Happy Twins!

Trip to Vermont

I got to sleep in this morning, which was really nice. Spouse and I even got to eat breakfast together before hopping on a Greyhound to Vermont. I had only 1/2 a grapefruit and offered it to spouse and had an orange for myself. The rest of breakfast was oatmeal with prunes, pineapple juice and tea.

Lunch was on the go. I got a 6" veggie sub at Subway and also had a couple pieces of broccoli spouse got at the Chinese buffet off the bus station. Plus a bottle of water

Snack: 2 table water crackers, three small pieces of cheese, water

Dinner: Tortellini with pesto, salad with fat-free dressing, garlic bread, water

Egg Failure

Again I managed to not soft-boil an egg. This time I cross-referenced with a late 1960s version of Joy of Cooking and I swear I did everything right, but the yolk was still firm. Maybe I need to skip the step of getting the egg to room temperature first. On source suggested running it under hot water if it came right from the 'fridge and that's what I've been doing, but maybe for too long? Could I be partially cooking it before I even start? I'll try straight from the cold next week and see how it goes.

Apart from my failure to have some good for my toast soldiers to jump in, breakfast was good. Pretty much like Tuesday's meal, but with the addition of a small glass of pineapple juice, and no marachino cherry on the grapefruit (it looks cute, but is really unnecessary.) I'm quite enjoying the feeling of a, if not quite full, but sated belly in the mornings. And it really is helping me get through the day without having to munch on everything in sight.

I made a point of going to the refectory at noon today before the Locusts descended. A very good plan, as it turned out, as I was able to get eggplant parmesan (somewhat breaded eggplant wrapped around ricotta and covered in tomato sauce) which came with a tiny side salad. I hit the salad bar for more salad, but couldn't resist the lure of the tortellini and veg in there. But I still had more veggies than the pasta, so that's a plus. And I managed 1.5 litres of water.

After I left the office, early because of this, I went to a user testing thing where there was pizza and soda. I stopped myself at 1 slice of veggie pizza (the Upper Crust does reeeeealy nice pizza) and a 20oz diet Coke. Then I hit the library as D810.W7 H66 had been found after I put a trace on it, and retired to the brew pub to read. Um, which means I had beer. MMmmmmmm... beeeer....

Dinner for me, since spouse is nowhere to be found, is hotted up "meat" loaf from Monday as a sandwich with vegan mayonnaise on homemade bread.

Look at the Little Hand Too

I hit snooze several times this morning, finally dragging myself out of bed at 6:50. Since I try to leave for work around 7:00, this meant it might have to be a cold cereal day. But then, the voice of Bob Oakes telling me it was 6:01 caused me to whip around toward the kitchen clock. Oh, that's where the small hand is!

It seems that when kitty woke me in the middle of the night by pushing the alarm clock off the bookcase and wedging it between the bookcase and the wall, the time on that clock got a little screwed up. I should have realized something was up by just how dark it was, but I'm in no shape for logic before I've had my tea. Saved from cold cereal, I had oatmeal with prunes, pineapple juice, tea with soy milk and sugar and an orange.

Today was the first day of classes so the students were swarming like locusts. I got to the refectory at 12:30 and saw the last of the "student special" being dished up, plus all the pizza and "Heart of the Plate" (a protein, starch, usually whole grain, and veg sold by weight) were long gone, I settle for a grab-n-go veggie sushi and scraping the bottom of the dish of white bean soup.

Dinner, which will be blogged more about on Urban Earth Mother was last night's beans, apple and sage veggie sausage (one for me, two for spouse) and chips. Oh the chips!

I didn't drink nearly as much water as I should have today. I was often thirsty, but was pressed for time and didn't run to the well to fill the old skin bag. I think I need a larger water container to alleviate this problem. Then when I do go to fill up, I can get enough for most of the day.

Breakfast II: This time, it's Personal

So, check out that breakfast



That's an egg (WAY over cooked! Should have been soft-boiled) toast with butter, designed for dipping, but that was a bust, plus toast with jam, grapefruit, tea and water. I'm hoping all that toast will keep the hunger away longer than yesterday's breakfast.

And lo and behold it worked! Lunch was pasta and broccoli from the hot by-weight food and salady things (um, including tortellini) from the cold salad bar in the refectory. I threw some "lite" Ranch dressing on, but ended up with way too much as it poured out much faster than I was expecting. To get my daily fruit, I also procured a Granny Smith apple and munched that for dessert. Or would have been dessert if there hadn't been two small Dove chocolates on my desk when I got back. So apple and chocolates for dessert.

Dinner was spending three hour making a WWII English recipe for Boston Baked Beans (called Boston Bake). It called for golden syrup, but I used molasses. It didn't turn out like proper Boston (or New England) baked beans except for being close to the colour. Not bad though, so I had a rice bowl full, which followed the remaining bit of vegan chicken salad.

First day of Breakfast Week

In spite of getting nearly no sleep last night, I managed to make not only breakfast this morning, but lunch for both myself and for spouse. I had Cream of Wheat with prunes today and made the serving size for infants and toddlers listed on the side of the package. The regular serving size seems HUGE, but the half cup portion was perfect. I also had half a pink grapefruit (why can I never find white grapefruit anymore?) and tea with soy milk and no sugar.

Lunch, since I've already packed I know what it is, will be vegetable soup, two small vegan chicken salad sandwiches, and a banana.

Nothing was filling today! I started snacking on my lunch at 9:30 and after I finished the huge thermos of soup, remaining tiny sandwich and infant banana, I was still hungry. Starting on a mocha now made with no sugar added Swiss Miss.

Dinner is all about comfort food. I was freezing when I got home and hungry all day. I'm making Gimme Lean "meat" loaf, little stuffing balls (added some bread to the onion, celery and bread crumbs left over from the loaf), sauteed sprouts and broccoli, mashed potato and carrot. Also had a beer and water (and yes, I drank lots of water, about 2 litres, throughout the day at work.)

Weigh-in day

Today was my weigh-in day on the Wii and while I had to run around before I did it to find my sweatpants (I'm weighing myself in the same clothes each time), when I got on I had lost 2 pounds in two weeks. The Wii makes you set a goal at a minimum of two weeks out, so my next goal, like my last, is to lose 1 pound in that time. But hopefully I'll make it two pounds :)

And to celebrate, I'm having lasagna for brunch :)
(big glass of water and much tea consumed as well)

In the evening I had a glass of whine while cooking the meal and a beer with it. The meal itself was a Quorn roast with roasted potatoes and carrot, sauteed sporouts with garlic, steamed broccoli and gravy.

Saturday

Got up around 10:30 today. But given that I turned out the light around 2:00, it's not that surprising. So I had brunch this morning, consisting of leftover curry and rice, with several cups of tea.

Afternoon: pints of cider with the lads down the pub.

Evening: We went over to some friends for a lovely evening of food and conversation. I had a couple of crackers with cheese, 2 small pieces of spinach lasagna (with some to take home!) and bread, a bit of salad without dresing, and chocolate cake with ice cream (for my birthday. They even sang!). Oh, and split a bottle of wine with the hostess as her husband doesn't drink.

The Goal

I've been so inspired by Destination 1940 and her slowly incorporating new tasks in each week. While this doesn't mean I'm suddenly going to turn into a great housekeeper (how can I make the bed in the morning when there's someone still in it?), it does give me hope for incorporating little changes into my life to instill new good habits.

She actually began her new habits with the bedmaking, but since I can't really do that unless spouse gets a job that gets him up and out at the same time as me, I'm going to follow her Week Two Mission to prepare and serve breakfast.

Part of the reason I struggle with weight may be do to sporadic eating patterns (says the woman who had lunch at 2:00 today). They say* that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but I generally am in a rush in the morning and half the time just cannot face solids at that hour. But I've had a few breakfasts at home lately, and it's really helped get me through the morning without reaching for a snack at 10:30. My first week will begin on Monday. Weekends may be modified a bit as that's when I like to catch up on all the sleep I'm not getting during the week (maybe sleep should be a goal?), so it may be modified to brunch.

So this is my new small goal for myself. Others will be added (mainly food and exercise-related, but perhaps the occasional bit of housework as well) as the weeks go on. I have some more things I'd like to do, but am loathe to put them in print right now. I am having a hard time with my Grand Goals, so I'm just going to stick with wee ones for now.


*(don't They always say? Will They ever shut it?)

Vintage Home and Health

In Destination 1940, Jitterbug mentioned going back on the reducing plan from an article in the October 1945 issue of Good Housekeeping. I did a little search and found what looks like nearly all of Good Housekeeping archives up through 1950 has been digitized at Cornell. How cool is that?

So, whilst the BIG library I usually go to can't seem to keep their catalogue up to date with what's actually on the shelves (I've been told that lost books are not updated there), and thus I can't seem to get LOC D810.W7 H66 (hey, look it up for yourself), at least I can go to a similar source (albeit the American version.)

Friday!

Hello, Friday! How's the end of the work week today?

My morning food has been most of a cup of tea with sugar and soy milk and a corn muffin. I was running late this morning so couldn't leisurely drink my tea or go for that preferred second cup.

Lunch was running to the library to find my book still is either missing or invisible (since the catalog has it listed as being on the shelf). Then salad lunch with humus and lentils.

Dinner was me being frustrated at arriving 20 minutes late because EVERYTHING had to happen in the afternoon at work. But the last issue was my own damned fault for answering the phone after I should have been gone. And then I had mutter paneer, rice and a glass of wine. Am about to have a nice cup of tea and finish submitting grades.

Thursday

Morning: tea with sugar and soy milk. I'm running low on sugar cubes but can't buy any more sugar until Sunday at the earliest (rationing) Egg and cheese breakfast sandwich, water.

Lunch: big honkin' deli sandwich, diet Dr Pepper, water

Evening: homemade chili and corn muffins, a beer and a half (maybe. I used a lot of the first beer in the chili and drank about half of the second)

Better late than never

No exercise Wednesday, but I did take a delightful bath and set my hair in pincurls (which took 12 hours to dry!)

Morning:
granola with yogurt, tea with milk and sugar, water

Lunch: veggie sushi, small amount of leftover mack and cheese, water, 1 Dove chocolate

Dinner: Quorn and veg casserole over brown rice, wine with bath and beer with dinner, water with bedtime

SLAAAAAAAAAAAAACKER!

Yeah, I haven't logged. I suck.

Last night I had so much food I thought I'd vomit. Fortunately, hubby packed up leftovers before I could try to shove them down my gob too (will be shoving them down my gob for lunch though.) Today's lunch will also include leftover cakes!

Oh, and it's my birthday. Happy birthday to me.

Lunch:
Proseco while watching the speach; little spanikopita things; leftover "chicken" pot pie; water

My husband lost his job, my stepmother has cancer and you just made my week

These were the exact words I said to the performer on the T tonight. He brought his own sound and danced on the train between station and really did make my week (I gave him a fiver).

On the health side, my stepmother has Stage 1 cancer, so that's actually a big relief since treatment looks good. They can't do surgery on the tumor, but think they can zap it with chemo. And she'll probably be out of the hospital this weekend. Yay!

Morning: 1 cup of tea with sugar and soymilk, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich, water

Lunch: "vegetable stack" (a vegetable Napoleon with a scant amount of mozzarella), roast potatoes, root beer, water

Snack: Smartfood

Work birthday party (not mine, which will be Tuesday): glass of white wine

After work: 2 10oz glasses beer

Dinner: TBA (will be added later)

Took a Sickie

Decided to stay home today. It's a more mental than physical health sick day as I had a few crying jags this morning. I'm feeling a bit better, but it's all still a worry.

Morning:
Fake bacon sandwich, tea with sugar and soymilk. Been drinking lots of tea today.

Lunch: leftover leek, cabbage, carrot cheese thing, with extra cabbage added (but no extra cheese)

Dinner: "beef", carrot and cabbage filo puffs; Brussels' sprouts with garlic; Pugu Club cocktail; random, over-reacting-at-the-tiniest-slight weeping.

Exercise: typing, standing, walking a block, doing my hair, blinking, occasional snog

Can we get a do-over on the new year?

First spouse loses his job, and now my stepmother is in the hospital with an incredibly serious condition (like she's already specified things for the funeral serious). This year is sucking.

Morning: bread and butter, leftover leek dish, tea with sugar and soymilk, possible concussion from the closet door falling on my head

Lunch: salad with a shit-load of blue cheese dressing, leftover potato and seitan mushroom thing, water, cream soda

Snack: three Dove chocolates

Evening: one 10oz beer; one 12oz cider; fake bacon sandwich; leeks, cabbage and carrot in a hooray-for-leftover-cheese sauce

No exercise

Tuesday

Morning: tea with soymilk and sugar, egg and cheese on english muffin (BAD! but I wasn't hungry at all until I got to work), water

Lunch: salad with fatty dressing, corn chowder (that seemed more like onion chowder with random bits of corn), water

Snack: 1 Dove chocolate

Dinner: baked potato with seitan and mushrooms, leeks in goat cheese sauce (hooray for leftover cheese!), cider

Exercise: I tried the Good Housekeeping exercises this morning but could only do one round of them rather than the two the suggest. It was party because they're actually hard, but partly a time issue too since I wanted to do something with my hair before I left for work.

Exercise Amendment: walked 1/2 mile to the grocery store after work, then did 30 minutes of Wii free step wen I got home (I'm a "Calorie Roaster")

Monday, Monday

No exercise today :( But I found a short routine on the Good Housekeeping website that I can do in the morning. I figure if I can manage that, then it won't be so horrible if I miss the evening exercises (which I do still plan to keep up.)

Morning - tea with sugar and soy milk, granola with yogurt, water

Snack - some of my lunch (I was hungry!), water

Lunch - vegetable soup, bread with scant amount of butter ("scrape" as it was called during rationing), water

Evening - vegetable soup with pasta and fake meat balls, tea with sugar and soy milk

Today's bread batch was a loss. It was a combination of having the dough do the last rise in the fridge and then being over baked. I think I'll salvage it by making bread crumbs. Tomorrow I plan to make the sponge for the bread in the morning and then making up the dough and baking after work. I still need to give spouse proper bread baking lessons, but after I do, I may turn baking duties over to him.

Cottage Cheese

Does anyone actually like cottage cheese? It only seems to appear in diet food plans which makes me think it was created to punish people for being fat.

Sunday

I actually managed exercise today! The Wii had some power issue when I got up (like no power), but it got going again after unplugging everything for a couple of minutes. So I did 28 minutes of Wii yoga and the 10 minute advanced rhythm boxing.

Morning - no food, just tea and exercise

Afternoon - granola with yogurt, mimosa, beer

Evening - wine, pita, hummus, carrot, grapes, salad with dressing, whole wheat pastas with tomato sauce and veggie "meat" balls, roll with butter, sorbet, cookies

Oh, and I lost 1.3 pounds since Monday night.

Saturday

Morning:
Tea w/sugar and soy milk
granola with yogurt

Afternoon:
cider down the pub. The gents kindly got me rounds to console me on spouse's job loss

Evening:
homemade bread, vegetable soup

Fuck, fuck, fuckity, fuck

Spouse lost his job today. Much alcohol was had and little exercise. We've decided to use British WWII rationing as our economization guide, and 'll be making us ration books (hey, why not). We're not in dire straits as we've been saving for a mortgage down payment so have a good chunk of change, but it still blows.

I can't really say much more about it now (partly because I'm still in shock, and partly because of the alcohol), but will mention more, I'm sure, in coming days.

Off the wagon

I really, really need to start bringing fruit and/or nuts to work for snacks. I probably would have been okay today if there hadn't already been the bag of M&Ms from the vending machine in my desk. Grr.

Morning:
Granola with yogurt, tea with sugar and soy milk, water

Afternoon:
Veggie lasagna, white wine (we had a small party-type thing in the office), water, fucking peanut M&Ms

Evening:
Salad with orzo and the rare (a is not often, not as in lightly cooked) bit of fish; powdered sugar doughnut in class (treats for the last day), beer, homemade bread.

No exercise as I'm home late due to the class.

The bread came out really nice. Keeping a starter and having a very slow rise (dough was made at 7:00 last night and loaves formed at 7:00 this morning) helped the flavour a lot. Spouse baked them perfectly (although with my hyper-detailed instructions, it would be hard not to), and even saved me some to come home to. A hunk of bread and tankard of ale was just what I wanted! Although the beer tastes a bit funny in the metal tankard.

Log Day 3

I'm still sick, but managed to get to work today. It was freezing rain out most of the day ad jut dreary.

Morning:
Tea with sugar ad soy milk, granola with rice milk, water

Noonish:
Salad with fatty dressing, corn bisque, water, small piece of chocolate chip cookie (I just wanted a taste and gave the rest to someone else)

Evening:
Vegetable soup, bread with butter, 1 bottle hard cider, orange juice

Exercise:
34 minutes Wii Fit, even mix of aerobic and stretching

Still sick

I took a sick day today and slept for about 12 hours. That meant skipping breakfast, so one less meal for the day.

Food:
Noonish - 1/2 granola with vanilla rice milk, tea with sugar and soy milk. Tea throughout the afternoon

Snack - smoked Gouda, probably about 2 oz

Dinner - 1/4 cup leftover gremolata rice, sauteed Seitan with goat cheese on homemade baguette, water

Exercise:
26 minutes Wii yoga, 4 minutes Wii rhythm boxing

New Year, New Resolutions to Break

Well, I'm starting off again. I think I weigh more than I did this time last year, but I really disgusted with it (no, this time I *mean* it!) My mom wants a buddy to help get healthy so we're posting Facebook status updates with our progress, but I thought I would be more verbose here.

Food:
Morning - 1/2 cup homemade fruit granola with 2% fat Greek yogurt, 2 cups tea with 1 small sugar cube and splash of soy milk (per cup), 2 cups orange juice, water

Noonish - Chili with beans and Gimme Lean "beef", water

Snack - Naked Juice pomegranate blueberry

Dinner - Casserole of Quorn naked cutlet with brown rice, onion, green pepper, gremolata; broccoli; beer

Exercise:
31 minutes Wii Fit - all the yoga poses, plus Slalom, Ski Jump and that stupid soccer ball thing I completely FAIL at

The exercise is not much today, but I'm still sick with this nasty cold. Once I'm well, the goal is 1 hour of exercise (probably all Wii), but may be broken up into 30 minute chunks