Ye gods, what with having company for a month (vegetarian high starch diet) and a trip to the Berkshires (pecan pie bars and lots and lots of food), the scale crept up. And up. And up. Now, Grapeshot never met a fat gram she didn't like, and drastic methods were called for, so we went back on a modified South Beach Diet/Dr. Atkins Diet, the only "diets" I've ever lost weight on except for starvation, and I gained that back so fast your head would swim.
The South Beach Diet has some really tasty recipes. We love the lone dessert, the veggie-egg cups for breakfast and some of the main dish salads and entrees. I have some low carb recipes I alternate with these dishes, and we eat a lot of grilled chicken, veggies and fruit. Of course with ripe tomatoes, there's a boundless supply of Insalata Caprese. In 4 days I lost the accumulation of 7 weeks. Not bad. We allow modest treats occasionally, and work out. I intend to keep this up until an October vacation, and I'll be posting occasionally to report progress or a lack thereof.
Next on the menu are roast beef sandwiches on rye crisp, tuna salad and then fajitas (no sour cream) with steak and shrimp. We use corn tortillas instead of flour. Flour tortillas lack fiber and do have fat, whereas corn is a low cal treat with fiber. And it actually tastes like something. Oils from avocado are good. Just don't overdo it. We make one avocado last for 2 meals, which means one is eating 1/4 of an avocado. So delicious. So satisfying. I flunked out of Weight Watchers 4 times because of the stringent lipophobic menus. Weight Watchers is for carb lovers. I can take carbs or leave them. Naturally, fresh fries, garlic mashed, baked potatoes with the works are wonderful lovey foods, but I can say goodbye to them for long periods of time.
Summer makes for easy dieting because of the grill, fresh produce, wonderful main dish shrimp and chicken salads, and hot weather. No need for pot roast or chili con carne or those darned baked potatoes in summer. Actually, I knew someone who could eat a baked potato plain, and another woman who liked it with non-fat yogurt. Ecch! Non-fat anything to me tastes like chalk. Once we bought non-fat cottage cheese by mistake and it was almost inedible.
Years ago, I ate some Weight Watchers macaroni and cheese and it tasted like detergent. This was a while back, and I hope they fixed the recipe in the meantime. But you get the idea. Some people will eat chalk and detergent if they can just get to those carbs underneath, but not me. To each her own diet.
It costs more at the grocery store, because produce and lean meat are expensive, and carbs (pasta, rice and beans) are cheap. Not that you can't add a few black beans to the fajitas. Or to a salad. Moderation in all things.
In the meantime, we discovered grilled fennel, grilled portobellos and other exotic grilled veg. We will also be doing grilled peaches and grilled plums.
Yup! In the good old summertime, dieting isn't such an ordeal.
Grapeshot
Showing posts with label Dr. Atkins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dr. Atkins. Show all posts
Friday, August 13, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Dove Sta Amore
Some observations about doves. Both in our old neighborhood and here, we always had 3 doves hanging out together, a little menage a trois. A week or so ago, when the snow started, they huddled together under the picnic table on the deck, where I have been throwing out bird seed.
A few days ago, there was a thud against the window and some poor sparrow, according to the book a swamp sparrow, who had been hanging out with the chicadees and juncos came to grief. I watched and watched and finally he flew away. Whew! Did not want to bring him in for the night and plop him into the cat carrier.
Driving along I-495, we saw 40 or so doves on a wire, and fifty yards from there a hawk sitting in a tree top. Didn't seem to freak out the doves, although one of them would have made a tasty meal. Twice today I saw them swoop, go into formation and then settle on an electrical wire. There seems to be some method to this, but I don't know what it is. You can watch and observe your entire life and still not know the answers to practically anything, at least in the natural world. I can't even figure out whose footprints are along the edge of the yard. Not deer, bear, coyote, fox, raccoon, rabbit, skunk, squirrel, etc. Who be it? No idea.
There was a disturbing article in the Wall Street Journal (Friday) about the end of the slush pile, just what a scantily published writer doesn't want to see, and another great article today about the popularity of the Scandinavian detective novel. I am reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and after a slow start, it is now so scary that I can't read it before bedtime. I loved the Wallendar series on PBS, too. Good stuff. I don't know who wrote the detective article, but it was thoughtful and well-researched.
I found the link for you, and the author is Laura Miller. A good read!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703657604575004961184066300.html
I found a great (so far) calorie counter on the web, googling free calorie counter. Ye gods, some of them charged. Since we eat a non-standard diet (no fast food, no takeout, no pizza) but a lot of ethnic dishes and retro faves cooked at home--with few prepared foods, I was dubious about finding the right tool, so I Googled "stuffed pork tenderloin" and "breaded pork tenderlion" and "goulash soup." Guess what? They all popped up on the calorie counter I finally picked.
What happened was, after our guests left, I had an unopened jar of peanut butter in the house and while I was debating whether to keep it or send it to the food pantry, I unaccountably found myself removing the lid and taking a knife and digging out a big portion. That was last Sunday. There is one helping left, which means I ate 2280 calories of peanut butter (no crackers, no jelly) this week in addition to my usual food, and the scale heralded the bad news this morning. Hence the calorie counter.
I am not a person who likes any kind of diet, and the more rigid, the more preachy, the more "sincere" the more I want to race out of the house for a double cheeseburger, fries and a half-bottle of wine. There is indeed something contrary about my personality. Just like my dad. Well, we know about the apple and the tree and how far it falls.
I washed out of weight watchers either three or four times, until I lost count. I mean, who had time to count points and you could eat a pile of sh__ but no butter, and I don't do butter substitutes. Never.
South Beach diet was o.k., good recipes, but I didn't really lose much weight, because I don't do weird non-foods like "fat free half and half." Ever read the ingredients on something like that? Cripes, it will kill you.
Dr. Atkins and I saw eye to eye, all that meat, all that fat, yum, and no boring potatoes or bread. Except I spent the winter on the road and gained it all back. Motel breakfast bars are just not calibrated for a high protein low carb breakfast.
So it stood. Lost the weight I gained last Christmas and kept it off thru January 5th, and then this week there was the incident of the peanut butter. It is one of my "no control" foods, so I don't keep it in the house. Fried chicken is another, but of course, you don't run into the kitchen and quick fry up a chicken and we are far enough away fromt the "Colonel" that this isn't a problem. I permit myself 7 Roche Bros. honey stung drummies for lunch ever so often. About half a pound and it's mostly bones. The lovely bones. Everyone is panning the movie.
This post makes up, I hope, and thanks for sticking with me, for all the posts I haven't done lately. Many tasks, with people and aggravations I don't want to discuss on the web. Taking an on-line course on "Revision." Revising Promiscuous Mode.
Finally I have 3 ideas, one for each day between Denver and Reno for "In flight" and also my new Drug Lord scene. So that's coming along if I could just write it. And a terrible, awful idea for the climax. A really good twist. Fortunately, no unfortunately, I'm not writing to deadline. Only self-imposed, and I should get my butt planted on chair. Actually, it has been, but I've been doing other computer stuff.
I'm learning Garage Band, too. Not bad for an old broad. Anyhow, onward to the sorting of the pile of paper on my desk, a few quick tasks, and then dinner. The stuffed pork tenderloin. I just used Pepperidge Farm stuffing, a processed food, but it's a good quality brand. We buy them the tenderloins as BOGOS, buy one, get one, and it's good quality lean protein. I like good quality lean protein, just like the flank steak earlier in the week. The trick is not to eat too much, but enough so that you don't hit the PB at 11:30 p.m. There's a trick to everything isn't there?
Such is life.
Grapeshot
A few days ago, there was a thud against the window and some poor sparrow, according to the book a swamp sparrow, who had been hanging out with the chicadees and juncos came to grief. I watched and watched and finally he flew away. Whew! Did not want to bring him in for the night and plop him into the cat carrier.
Driving along I-495, we saw 40 or so doves on a wire, and fifty yards from there a hawk sitting in a tree top. Didn't seem to freak out the doves, although one of them would have made a tasty meal. Twice today I saw them swoop, go into formation and then settle on an electrical wire. There seems to be some method to this, but I don't know what it is. You can watch and observe your entire life and still not know the answers to practically anything, at least in the natural world. I can't even figure out whose footprints are along the edge of the yard. Not deer, bear, coyote, fox, raccoon, rabbit, skunk, squirrel, etc. Who be it? No idea.
There was a disturbing article in the Wall Street Journal (Friday) about the end of the slush pile, just what a scantily published writer doesn't want to see, and another great article today about the popularity of the Scandinavian detective novel. I am reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and after a slow start, it is now so scary that I can't read it before bedtime. I loved the Wallendar series on PBS, too. Good stuff. I don't know who wrote the detective article, but it was thoughtful and well-researched.
I found the link for you, and the author is Laura Miller. A good read!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703657604575004961184066300.html
I found a great (so far) calorie counter on the web, googling free calorie counter. Ye gods, some of them charged. Since we eat a non-standard diet (no fast food, no takeout, no pizza) but a lot of ethnic dishes and retro faves cooked at home--with few prepared foods, I was dubious about finding the right tool, so I Googled "stuffed pork tenderloin" and "breaded pork tenderlion" and "goulash soup." Guess what? They all popped up on the calorie counter I finally picked.
What happened was, after our guests left, I had an unopened jar of peanut butter in the house and while I was debating whether to keep it or send it to the food pantry, I unaccountably found myself removing the lid and taking a knife and digging out a big portion. That was last Sunday. There is one helping left, which means I ate 2280 calories of peanut butter (no crackers, no jelly) this week in addition to my usual food, and the scale heralded the bad news this morning. Hence the calorie counter.
I am not a person who likes any kind of diet, and the more rigid, the more preachy, the more "sincere" the more I want to race out of the house for a double cheeseburger, fries and a half-bottle of wine. There is indeed something contrary about my personality. Just like my dad. Well, we know about the apple and the tree and how far it falls.
I washed out of weight watchers either three or four times, until I lost count. I mean, who had time to count points and you could eat a pile of sh__ but no butter, and I don't do butter substitutes. Never.
South Beach diet was o.k., good recipes, but I didn't really lose much weight, because I don't do weird non-foods like "fat free half and half." Ever read the ingredients on something like that? Cripes, it will kill you.
Dr. Atkins and I saw eye to eye, all that meat, all that fat, yum, and no boring potatoes or bread. Except I spent the winter on the road and gained it all back. Motel breakfast bars are just not calibrated for a high protein low carb breakfast.
So it stood. Lost the weight I gained last Christmas and kept it off thru January 5th, and then this week there was the incident of the peanut butter. It is one of my "no control" foods, so I don't keep it in the house. Fried chicken is another, but of course, you don't run into the kitchen and quick fry up a chicken and we are far enough away fromt the "Colonel" that this isn't a problem. I permit myself 7 Roche Bros. honey stung drummies for lunch ever so often. About half a pound and it's mostly bones. The lovely bones. Everyone is panning the movie.
This post makes up, I hope, and thanks for sticking with me, for all the posts I haven't done lately. Many tasks, with people and aggravations I don't want to discuss on the web. Taking an on-line course on "Revision." Revising Promiscuous Mode.
Finally I have 3 ideas, one for each day between Denver and Reno for "In flight" and also my new Drug Lord scene. So that's coming along if I could just write it. And a terrible, awful idea for the climax. A really good twist. Fortunately, no unfortunately, I'm not writing to deadline. Only self-imposed, and I should get my butt planted on chair. Actually, it has been, but I've been doing other computer stuff.
I'm learning Garage Band, too. Not bad for an old broad. Anyhow, onward to the sorting of the pile of paper on my desk, a few quick tasks, and then dinner. The stuffed pork tenderloin. I just used Pepperidge Farm stuffing, a processed food, but it's a good quality brand. We buy them the tenderloins as BOGOS, buy one, get one, and it's good quality lean protein. I like good quality lean protein, just like the flank steak earlier in the week. The trick is not to eat too much, but enough so that you don't hit the PB at 11:30 p.m. There's a trick to everything isn't there?
Such is life.
Grapeshot
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