Today was a long day, and, unfortunately, I don't have much time to sleep tonight. So I'm making this short.
Today's Meals
Breakfast: one banana, one grapefruit. (7:00 am)
Lunch: appropriate portions of curry-rice, small salad with artichoke hearts, pepperoncini, carrots, radicchio, lettuce, one hard-boiled egg, and homemade red wine vinaigrette. (12:30 pm)
Dinner: 1/2 a sakura roll, eel avocado roll, and edamame at Old Dominion Brew House. (8ish pm)
Today's Exercise
Biked to bus stop: 8 minutes.
Biked UMD-SS: 1 hour (due to wind).
Various walking: maybe 1.5-2 hours.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Proportionate Portions?
I'm noticing a trend: I am packing bigger lunches than I was last week and the week before.
My lunches have been Japanese curry-rice for the past couple of days. Since I made it myself, there were no serving size suggestions for me to follow. Tuesday, I packed maybe 2 cups (maybe more) of the curry, plus a regular helping of rice. Today, I brought less curry but a lot more rice.
Am I overanticipating how hungry I'll be? Or am I merely reacting to my caloric use being upped due to biking every day?
It'd be nice to have a nutritionist around at all times to ask these kinds of questions.
I hope the next iPhone has a built-in scale that integrates with a nutritionist app. It would be nice to know how many calories it thinks 8 ounces of V8 is... oh... you can read that on the label... still, wouldn't it be cool?
Today's Meals
Breakfast: hardboiled egg + some avocado + white rice + menmi + natto, all mixed in a bowl. The egg and the avocado helped with the stickiness, but didn't really add flavor.
Lunch: curry-rice with too much rice (and maybe a little too much curry), salad similar to yesterday's with homemade red wine vinaigrette.
Dinner: a small amount of curry-rice, a small piece of veggie lasagna, and 8oz of V8 (low sodium but with salt and sriracha)
Today's Exercise
Biked SS-UMD via roads (35 min)
Biked UMD-SS via trail (1 hour)
My lunches have been Japanese curry-rice for the past couple of days. Since I made it myself, there were no serving size suggestions for me to follow. Tuesday, I packed maybe 2 cups (maybe more) of the curry, plus a regular helping of rice. Today, I brought less curry but a lot more rice.
Am I overanticipating how hungry I'll be? Or am I merely reacting to my caloric use being upped due to biking every day?
It'd be nice to have a nutritionist around at all times to ask these kinds of questions.
I hope the next iPhone has a built-in scale that integrates with a nutritionist app. It would be nice to know how many calories it thinks 8 ounces of V8 is... oh... you can read that on the label... still, wouldn't it be cool?
Today's Meals
Breakfast: hardboiled egg + some avocado + white rice + menmi + natto, all mixed in a bowl. The egg and the avocado helped with the stickiness, but didn't really add flavor.
Lunch: curry-rice with too much rice (and maybe a little too much curry), salad similar to yesterday's with homemade red wine vinaigrette.
Dinner: a small amount of curry-rice, a small piece of veggie lasagna, and 8oz of V8 (low sodium but with salt and sriracha)
Today's Exercise
Biked SS-UMD via roads (35 min)
Biked UMD-SS via trail (1 hour)
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
80%
No, "80%" does not refer to the percentage of Aak posts... although that might be accurate.*
I've neglected to mention another part of my overall strategy in this program of eating and exercise: the 80% rule.
Somebody told me that it's an old Chinese saying that you should only eat until you're 80% full. I happen to know that the Chinese have gone through some low-rice times in their day, so I take this adage to be the wisdom of the poor. I also thought it made sense because, long ago, someone told me that you don't really feel food in your stomach until 20 minutes after you swallow it.
Now I think there's another reason that the 80% rule works: it prepares you for hunger.
When I gorge myself, I find I get sharp pangs of hunger just a few hours later. This might be psychological. But it might be that my stomach stretched during the meal and then feels really empty afterward. If I stuff myself at dinner, I'm more likely to have a large late-night snack.
Whereas if I only eat to 80% capacity, I still feel a little (20%, for the math-unsavvy) hungry. Since I stay a little hungry afterwards, I can deal with being hungrier later.
Does that make any sense? Is there science behind this idea? I wonder.
Today's Meals
Breakfast: hard-boiled egg with menmi*, bowl of Puffins with skim milk
Lunch: more than I probably needed of Japanese curry (chicken, celery, carrots, potatoes, jalepeno peppers, green pepper, and curry sauce) over white rice
Dinner: big salad w/half an avocado and red wine vinegrette like yesterday, small bowl of white rice with a little plum/sesame flavoring on top.
Today's Exercise
Biked SS-UMD via roads (35min)
Biked on campus to bookstore (10min)
Biked UMD-SS via trail (45min)
*UPDATE: 58% of Hatandcoat posts are by Aak. 87% of Districted posts are by me, too. Hatandcoat has posted 33% of all posts, when you combine the two.
**Menmi is a soy-sauce-derived noodle base. It is more flavorful than soy sauce. It is delicious! I like it on udon, soba, natto, rice, just about anything you'd normally put soy sauce on.
I've neglected to mention another part of my overall strategy in this program of eating and exercise: the 80% rule.
Somebody told me that it's an old Chinese saying that you should only eat until you're 80% full. I happen to know that the Chinese have gone through some low-rice times in their day, so I take this adage to be the wisdom of the poor. I also thought it made sense because, long ago, someone told me that you don't really feel food in your stomach until 20 minutes after you swallow it.
Now I think there's another reason that the 80% rule works: it prepares you for hunger.
When I gorge myself, I find I get sharp pangs of hunger just a few hours later. This might be psychological. But it might be that my stomach stretched during the meal and then feels really empty afterward. If I stuff myself at dinner, I'm more likely to have a large late-night snack.
Whereas if I only eat to 80% capacity, I still feel a little (20%, for the math-unsavvy) hungry. Since I stay a little hungry afterwards, I can deal with being hungrier later.
Does that make any sense? Is there science behind this idea? I wonder.
Today's Meals
Breakfast: hard-boiled egg with menmi*, bowl of Puffins with skim milk
Lunch: more than I probably needed of Japanese curry (chicken, celery, carrots, potatoes, jalepeno peppers, green pepper, and curry sauce) over white rice
Dinner: big salad w/half an avocado and red wine vinegrette like yesterday, small bowl of white rice with a little plum/sesame flavoring on top.
Today's Exercise
Biked SS-UMD via roads (35min)
Biked on campus to bookstore (10min)
Biked UMD-SS via trail (45min)
*UPDATE: 58% of Hatandcoat posts are by Aak. 87% of Districted posts are by me, too. Hatandcoat has posted 33% of all posts, when you combine the two.
**Menmi is a soy-sauce-derived noodle base. It is more flavorful than soy sauce. It is delicious! I like it on udon, soba, natto, rice, just about anything you'd normally put soy sauce on.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Aak the Eater?
I'm glad Hatandcoat saw fit to update us about his whereabouts. More frequent updates would be appreciated, or else the hating will continue.
I don't hate, though. I only seethe.
I ate no meat today, although I'm cooking a Japanese curry meal for tomorrow that has one chicken breast in it.
This was a very productive, good-food day. I woke up early, started making oats, and while I waited for oatmeal I cut up lettuce, radicchio, carrots, sun-dried tomatoes, a couple pepperoncini, and a quarter of a green bell pepper for a salad for lunch. I topped the salad with half an avocado (salted) and a hard-boiled egg (made last night).
I made the dressing next: olive oil, red wine vinegar, Spanish rosemary, a little Spanish thyme, salt, and pepper. Interesting results, but the key was to use not very much on my salad. It ended up going very nicely together. I used the dregs of my dressing to jazz up my morning hard-boiled egg. Interesting results, again.
Today's Meals
Breakfast: steel-cut oats w/milk and honey, and a hard-boiled egg with the above dressing.
Lunch: salad and dressing as described above, white rice and half a Punjab Eggplant curry packet from Trader Joe's.
Dinner: rice and the rest of the Punjab Eggplant, a whole grapefruit, and 4-5 tbs of plain yogurt.
UNNECESSARY SNACK: one piece of black Aussie licorice, offered me by my roommate.
Today's Exercise
Biked both SS-UMD and UMD-SS by way of the roads (a route that is steep and strenuous at some points, moreso than the trail)
I don't hate, though. I only seethe.
I ate no meat today, although I'm cooking a Japanese curry meal for tomorrow that has one chicken breast in it.
This was a very productive, good-food day. I woke up early, started making oats, and while I waited for oatmeal I cut up lettuce, radicchio, carrots, sun-dried tomatoes, a couple pepperoncini, and a quarter of a green bell pepper for a salad for lunch. I topped the salad with half an avocado (salted) and a hard-boiled egg (made last night).
I made the dressing next: olive oil, red wine vinegar, Spanish rosemary, a little Spanish thyme, salt, and pepper. Interesting results, but the key was to use not very much on my salad. It ended up going very nicely together. I used the dregs of my dressing to jazz up my morning hard-boiled egg. Interesting results, again.
Today's Meals
Breakfast: steel-cut oats w/milk and honey, and a hard-boiled egg with the above dressing.
Lunch: salad and dressing as described above, white rice and half a Punjab Eggplant curry packet from Trader Joe's.
Dinner: rice and the rest of the Punjab Eggplant, a whole grapefruit, and 4-5 tbs of plain yogurt.
UNNECESSARY SNACK: one piece of black Aussie licorice, offered me by my roommate.
Today's Exercise
Biked both SS-UMD and UMD-SS by way of the roads (a route that is steep and strenuous at some points, moreso than the trail)
My Coblogger Hates Me
If this blog were my child it would be on drugs and homeless at this point. Yes, I neglect it. I have a problem set to do for tomorrow's class, and the last one took me like 4 hours. My grad class is scaring me because it's so over my head, so I need to study, study, study. I also have tango tonight. Thus, I will have to do entries such as this one if I'm to keep the thread alive. Well, Aak the eater does that. For this I am grateful.
Someday I want to design my own house and include a secret room. At least a secret room.
Someday I want to design my own house and include a secret room. At least a secret room.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
The Program
Success!
From hardly ever biking in November and December, and from overeating on the holidays, I got a bit... chunky. As I don't weigh myself, my best way to express this is in pants sizes. I went from my normal tight-34 waistline to a medium 36. I even had to put on my loose-fit 36 pair for a few weeks to breathe.
I implemented a plan to decrease my waist: no snacking.
For over a year, I'd been snacking between meals pretty frequently. This was okay for me since I was exercising at the gym as well as biking a lot. But the idea of snacking between meals is designed to make your big meals a little smaller. I never did that part of it. Plus, my "snacks" ballooned into little meals, or "prandicles." I never had much impulse control.
So I decided this January to cut out all the snacks. Exceptions only to be made when there would be a stretch of 6 hours or more between meals. My three meals are reasonably-sized; I try to stick to single-servings. I've also been biking at least two days a week for the past three weeks, and, when I am not biking, I'm walking quite a bit of the day (to the shuttle, to classes, and back.
As of this week, I've been able to fit back into the 34-size jeans without problem.
I'm excited about this, but I also realize that it took me over a month to get back down. I'm planning on implementing more exercise every week. And, since this blog seems so vacant these days, I guess I'll document my progress here.
Today's Meals:
Breakfast: a bowl of Puffins with plain yogurt.
Lunch: one slice of french toast, Grapefruit and Avocado Salad
Snack: a cube of parmesan and a handful of raw almonds
Dinner: leftover chicken/spinach/paneer curry w/rice, 8 gyoza (steamed then fried)
Today's Exercise:
Walked for 20 minutes or so down to Sligo Creek and back.
From hardly ever biking in November and December, and from overeating on the holidays, I got a bit... chunky. As I don't weigh myself, my best way to express this is in pants sizes. I went from my normal tight-34 waistline to a medium 36. I even had to put on my loose-fit 36 pair for a few weeks to breathe.
I implemented a plan to decrease my waist: no snacking.
For over a year, I'd been snacking between meals pretty frequently. This was okay for me since I was exercising at the gym as well as biking a lot. But the idea of snacking between meals is designed to make your big meals a little smaller. I never did that part of it. Plus, my "snacks" ballooned into little meals, or "prandicles." I never had much impulse control.
So I decided this January to cut out all the snacks. Exceptions only to be made when there would be a stretch of 6 hours or more between meals. My three meals are reasonably-sized; I try to stick to single-servings. I've also been biking at least two days a week for the past three weeks, and, when I am not biking, I'm walking quite a bit of the day (to the shuttle, to classes, and back.
As of this week, I've been able to fit back into the 34-size jeans without problem.
I'm excited about this, but I also realize that it took me over a month to get back down. I'm planning on implementing more exercise every week. And, since this blog seems so vacant these days, I guess I'll document my progress here.
Today's Meals:
Breakfast: a bowl of Puffins with plain yogurt.
Lunch: one slice of french toast, Grapefruit and Avocado Salad
Snack: a cube of parmesan and a handful of raw almonds
Dinner: leftover chicken/spinach/paneer curry w/rice, 8 gyoza (steamed then fried)
Today's Exercise:
Walked for 20 minutes or so down to Sligo Creek and back.
Grapefruit and Avocado Salad
(Where the F is Mr. Hatandcoat? His last post here was 1/27. That's almost two weeks ago. I'm close to saying this is a defunct blog. I might just take it over as my own food blog.)
I saw a grapefruit and avocado salad recipe somewhere in my million-strong Google Reader feeds. Then I saw grapefruit (really nice-looking and -smelling grapefruit) on sale for 50 cents each at Giant. I decided to give this salad a go.
Grapefruit and Avocado Salad (beta)
The rest of the ingredients were for the dressing. It was about 40% olive oil, 30% honey, 15% lemon juice and 15% red wine vinegar, with a small sprinkling of kosher salt and pepper. When I tasted the mixture, it was like BAM vinegar BOOM honey BAP salt ZING pepper. After a few minutes, the flavors settled into sweet citrus with a tang.
Know Problems and Bugs (with the beta version):
I saw a grapefruit and avocado salad recipe somewhere in my million-strong Google Reader feeds. Then I saw grapefruit (really nice-looking and -smelling grapefruit) on sale for 50 cents each at Giant. I decided to give this salad a go.
Grapefruit and Avocado Salad (beta)
- 1/2 grapefruit, no white bitter stuff
- 1/2 avocado, diced in kinda big chunks
- three leaves of red lettuce
- one knife's shredding of radicchio
- handful of walnuts
- olive oil
- honey
- red wine vinegar
- lemon juice
- kosher salt
- pepper
The rest of the ingredients were for the dressing. It was about 40% olive oil, 30% honey, 15% lemon juice and 15% red wine vinegar, with a small sprinkling of kosher salt and pepper. When I tasted the mixture, it was like BAM vinegar BOOM honey BAP salt ZING pepper. After a few minutes, the flavors settled into sweet citrus with a tang.
Know Problems and Bugs (with the beta version):
- The dressing was not quite what I wanted here. Too sweet.
- The avocado was practically nonexistent. I couldn't taste it at all with all the flavors competing around it.
- Try a saltier dressing to contrast with the grapefruit's juicy citrus and to bring out the avocado. I'm thinking something with a soy sauce base.
- Try putting less of the dressing on it. My leaves were swimming by the end of it.
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