I'm cross with myself. Today should have been a really good day, starting with the gym and back to my usual food - and both of those have happened. But I picked up Tigsy's ashes from the vets, and was very uspet... Being upset I have had some cider and a couple of glasses of Pims (with full-fat tonic) at a neighbours. I am so annoyed that I can't seem to manage one day alcohol free at the moment.
I am going to be boring and post what-I-ate and confess to my boozy sins. Maybe that will get me back on track sooner. Tomorrow is yet another day.
Breakfast:
Total 0% with pumpkin seeds, goji berries, almonds, a brazil nut, ground flax and brewer's yeast; kiwi fruit
Snack: raw broccoli with 1 tsp apple and chilli jelly.
Lunch:
Spinach with mushrooms, brewer's yeast, eggwhites
Snack (1):
Cantaloupe, Grapenuts, Gojis
Snack (2):
Steamed asparagus, raw cauliflower with 1 tsp apple and chilli jelly.
Dinner
Steamed purple sprouting broccoli, quorn cooked with leeks, tomato and rosemary
===========================================
Nutrition Summary for 10 April 2007
===========================================
General (79%)
===========================================
Energy | 927.5 kcal 77%
Protein | 81.4 g 90%
Carbs | 117.8 g 98%
Fiber | 37.6 g 125%
Fat | 23.1 g 58%
Water | 1397.5 g 52%
Vitamins (98%)
===========================================
Vitamin A | 34653.7 IU 1485%
Folate | 1137.8 µg 284%
B1 (Thiamine) | 1.7 mg 155%
B2 (Riboflavin) | 4.2 mg 385%
B3 (Niacin) | 20.9 mg 149%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid)| 6.8 mg 136%
B6 (Pyridoxine) | 3.2 mg 244%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) | 1.8 µg 73%
Vitamin C | 454.2 mg 606%
Vitamin D | 442.9 IU 221%
Vitamin E | 19.0 mg 127%
Vitamin K | 1499.2 µg 1666%
Minerals (97%)
===========================================
Calcium | 1080.9 mg 108%
Copper | 2.5 mg 275%
Iron | 19.8 mg 110%
Magnesium | 505.1 mg 158%
Manganese | 6.6 mg 365%
Phosphorus | 1218.5 mg 174%
Potassium | 5227.4 mg 111%
Selenium | 152.2 µg 277%
Sodium | 998.0 mg 67%
Zinc | 13.9 mg 174%
Lipids (56%)
===========================================
Saturated | 2.5 g 25%
Omega-3 | 2.0 g 186%
Omega-6 | 4.6 g 105%
Cholesterol | 3.0 mg 1%
Tuesday, 10 April 2007
Saturday, 7 April 2007
Off Piste
I have company so much this weekend that my CRON practice has become, by necessity, a bit ad hoc. Breakfast is the only meal that I get to eat alone, and I should be loading up on the vitamins and minerals far more than I am, but somehow cold spinach does not appeal at barely eight in the morning.
I no longer take supplements except for my D, but at times like this I really do wish there was a magic pill to pop to make sure I get all my RDAs that is CRON-peer approved. Or rather, since I know what I end the typical ad hoc eating day low on - iron, zinc, B5, B12 - that I knew which individual supplements came from reputable sources. How do others know and manage? Or is this yet another thing I am putting too much unnecessary thought into?
Speaking of unnecessary thoughts, mine have been tending towards the morbid recently - because of Tigsy, because of the situation with my grandmother, which is not good, and yet more family members are facing health difficulties. My mother keeps saying, what if something happens to you, what would I do?, and I just don't know what to say. Obviously I am doing my best to stop anything happening to me yet by practicing CRON and taking exercise (not as much as I should!), but still I drink, and drink too much (this weekend has already been heavy on the intake and it's only Sunday) - so my best is not yet good enough. How on earth would I face her if something happened to me because I had one glass of wine too many over the years? Or if anything happened at all?
But today of all days, Easter Sunday, I need to banish these morbid thoughts and focus on new starts - new starts for me (every day is a new start, right?), and new starts for those around me whom I love. And new lives - another dear friend of mine has just had her first baby, and that is very exciting. I can't wait to play Bad Auntie Sara.
Looks like it is going to be another stunning day for weather as well. I am loving this sun, just loving it. P, my neighbours and I are off to visit my mother for the day, which I am looking forward to. She lives in a very picturesque town on a river estuary, and there will be some lovely walking to be done, lots of sea air, and a pub lunch (at which I shall not be drinking because I am driving, yay!).
Oh, yes. In a moment of madness in the farm shop yesterday I purchased Hot Cross Buns to share with P and said neighbours on the trip. (If this is just a UK thing, I can imagine hoards of US readers sniggering at the back...) Why I thought this was a good idea, I don't know, because now I need to avoid eating one myself. But they did look very, very good indeed. Oh, the slippery slope!
I no longer take supplements except for my D, but at times like this I really do wish there was a magic pill to pop to make sure I get all my RDAs that is CRON-peer approved. Or rather, since I know what I end the typical ad hoc eating day low on - iron, zinc, B5, B12 - that I knew which individual supplements came from reputable sources. How do others know and manage? Or is this yet another thing I am putting too much unnecessary thought into?
Speaking of unnecessary thoughts, mine have been tending towards the morbid recently - because of Tigsy, because of the situation with my grandmother, which is not good, and yet more family members are facing health difficulties. My mother keeps saying, what if something happens to you, what would I do?, and I just don't know what to say. Obviously I am doing my best to stop anything happening to me yet by practicing CRON and taking exercise (not as much as I should!), but still I drink, and drink too much (this weekend has already been heavy on the intake and it's only Sunday) - so my best is not yet good enough. How on earth would I face her if something happened to me because I had one glass of wine too many over the years? Or if anything happened at all?
But today of all days, Easter Sunday, I need to banish these morbid thoughts and focus on new starts - new starts for me (every day is a new start, right?), and new starts for those around me whom I love. And new lives - another dear friend of mine has just had her first baby, and that is very exciting. I can't wait to play Bad Auntie Sara.
Looks like it is going to be another stunning day for weather as well. I am loving this sun, just loving it. P, my neighbours and I are off to visit my mother for the day, which I am looking forward to. She lives in a very picturesque town on a river estuary, and there will be some lovely walking to be done, lots of sea air, and a pub lunch (at which I shall not be drinking because I am driving, yay!).
Oh, yes. In a moment of madness in the farm shop yesterday I purchased Hot Cross Buns to share with P and said neighbours on the trip. (If this is just a UK thing, I can imagine hoards of US readers sniggering at the back...) Why I thought this was a good idea, I don't know, because now I need to avoid eating one myself. But they did look very, very good indeed. Oh, the slippery slope!
Friday, 6 April 2007
Gardening and Easter in Summer
Wow. It is such gorgeous weather for England at this time of year. I just got sunburnt sitting with friends in their garden... and then with my neighbours in my garden. wine might have been involved.
It's been great today to be off work and get some planting done and some tidying up in my courtyard. I just love bedding plants; it is so satisfying to make a small area look one thousand plus one times better in just one hour, just by filling some pots up with compost and annuals.
After all that, a girl needs a CR snack.
This evening will involve more wine and less CR friendly food, unfortunately. But it will involve more friends and good company and I can live with that.
Hope everyone has a happy long weekend.
It's been great today to be off work and get some planting done and some tidying up in my courtyard. I just love bedding plants; it is so satisfying to make a small area look one thousand plus one times better in just one hour, just by filling some pots up with compost and annuals.
After all that, a girl needs a CR snack.
This evening will involve more wine and less CR friendly food, unfortunately. But it will involve more friends and good company and I can live with that.
Hope everyone has a happy long weekend.
Tuesday, 3 April 2007
The CR Social
So last night I met my first real life CRONie. I picked Hilary up from her aunt's house about fifteen miles away from where I live (narrowly escaping the very generous offer of tea from said aunt - which Hilary later informed me would have come with blueberry muffins!) and we drove back to my house on a rather circuitous route because we were talking so much that I missed the road I should have taken. No matter! We got back here and opened the bottle of wine she had brought with her, and sat on the sofa and just talked and talked as though we had known each other for years; I can honestly say I felt no awkwardness around her once I had met her although I was nervous as all hell at the prospect - would she think I was totally mad? would I think she was totally mad?. It was so funny - we had a lot to say to each other, obviously most of it around CRON but not all of the time.
I had already mostly prepared what was going to go into our dinner.
I'd measured everything into portions and entered them into CoM and crunched it. I was worrying that she would think this totally extreme but no - just normal. Cool! It was just such a relief, we both agreed, to be able to have CoM up in the kitchen and the scales and subtract and add as we prepared our food and not worry (that much!) about judgement. As it turned out, we were adjusting the meal right up to and after we ate it - which amused me.
The menu. Green veggies - asparagus, sugar snaps, green beans, spinach, rocket and edamame. The protein was in a mixture of Total 0%, low-fat cottage cheese and a small amount of low-fat feta, with fresh herbs (mint, basil, coriander) stirred in. And then of course there was the chocolate tofu pudding, topped with blueberries.
Here is Hilary with her resveratrol supplement....
... and me, having forgotten to do something with my hair. In my defence, and indeed Hilary's (although less so!), my camera takes the most appallingly unflattering pictures.
We did try to take a picture of the computer with CoM up, just to prove our CRON geekiness, but the flash wasn't playing ball with the screen.
Shortly after we had eaten everything, it was time for me to take Hilary back towards Wells. I hadn't realised how tired I was getting but it hit me just as I waved her off, and I drove back here with windows open and music blaring. At dinner we'd been discussing how healthy we were in general and how we rarely got colds; when I got home my throat was aching a little and I was feeling sort of buzzy and chilled - oh no. Hubris! But after some sleep, even though it is incredibly early in the morning (and, in fact, still yesterday in Canada according to the posting time of the comment I just left on Hazel's blog!) I feel much better now, which is a relief.
In short, great evening. I really hope that one day more of our paths cross in the real world.
I had already mostly prepared what was going to go into our dinner.
I'd measured everything into portions and entered them into CoM and crunched it. I was worrying that she would think this totally extreme but no - just normal. Cool! It was just such a relief, we both agreed, to be able to have CoM up in the kitchen and the scales and subtract and add as we prepared our food and not worry (that much!) about judgement. As it turned out, we were adjusting the meal right up to and after we ate it - which amused me.
The menu. Green veggies - asparagus, sugar snaps, green beans, spinach, rocket and edamame. The protein was in a mixture of Total 0%, low-fat cottage cheese and a small amount of low-fat feta, with fresh herbs (mint, basil, coriander) stirred in. And then of course there was the chocolate tofu pudding, topped with blueberries.
Here is Hilary with her resveratrol supplement....
... and me, having forgotten to do something with my hair. In my defence, and indeed Hilary's (although less so!), my camera takes the most appallingly unflattering pictures.
We did try to take a picture of the computer with CoM up, just to prove our CRON geekiness, but the flash wasn't playing ball with the screen.
Shortly after we had eaten everything, it was time for me to take Hilary back towards Wells. I hadn't realised how tired I was getting but it hit me just as I waved her off, and I drove back here with windows open and music blaring. At dinner we'd been discussing how healthy we were in general and how we rarely got colds; when I got home my throat was aching a little and I was feeling sort of buzzy and chilled - oh no. Hubris! But after some sleep, even though it is incredibly early in the morning (and, in fact, still yesterday in Canada according to the posting time of the comment I just left on Hazel's blog!) I feel much better now, which is a relief.
In short, great evening. I really hope that one day more of our paths cross in the real world.
Bring the Sun Back!
Yesterday's brilliant warm sunshine inspired me to come over all summery when thinking about tonight's CRON meal. Lots of steamed green veggies with a herby creamy sauce and maybe some toasted almonds, and tofu chocolate pudding in my dinky espresso cups topped with blueberries and possibly hazelnuts. It's even all entered into CoM.
Of course, today is more of a hot soup, baked butternut squash and quorn sausage sort of day. That could be done. I shall see how things feel later. It's got so chill, I want to hibernate again, and I am craving wintry carbs. Specifically, I am craving the heavy, dense pumpernickel bread with raisins and seeds that I picked up at the weekend and sliced up and put in the freezer to stop me doing precisely what I have been doing all day and toasting it in 30g chunks. It is oh so delicious but the carb line in CoM is pushing at the edges of the screen and making a break for freedom.
However, I still do think I need to raise my calories a little more - I've not been close to 1100 a day for the last week or so, and I was floppier in the gym this morning than I should have been. If I keep them as low as I have been, I'm not sure the weight loss will actually stop where I expect it to (around 110-112lbs, based on previous experience) and that might not actually be a good look in July, still three months away. So eating the pumpernickel is not a sin.
Might post photos of the CRON-a-deux later on.
Later. Et voila.
Of course, today is more of a hot soup, baked butternut squash and quorn sausage sort of day. That could be done. I shall see how things feel later. It's got so chill, I want to hibernate again, and I am craving wintry carbs. Specifically, I am craving the heavy, dense pumpernickel bread with raisins and seeds that I picked up at the weekend and sliced up and put in the freezer to stop me doing precisely what I have been doing all day and toasting it in 30g chunks. It is oh so delicious but the carb line in CoM is pushing at the edges of the screen and making a break for freedom.
However, I still do think I need to raise my calories a little more - I've not been close to 1100 a day for the last week or so, and I was floppier in the gym this morning than I should have been. If I keep them as low as I have been, I'm not sure the weight loss will actually stop where I expect it to (around 110-112lbs, based on previous experience) and that might not actually be a good look in July, still three months away. So eating the pumpernickel is not a sin.
Might post photos of the CRON-a-deux later on.
Later. Et voila.
Sunday, 1 April 2007
New Day
Yes, well. I was very tired yesterday, and when I am tired, I whine. And yesterday's post was a whiny post again. Today I shall make a concerted effort not to mope.
I do find CRON on the road hard to do, and I take what I perceive as my failure to do so too personally. In retrospect, the weekend's food wasn't bad at all. Yes, on Saturday, I ate toast and cereal to the tune of approximately 300 cals, but at least the cereal had B vitamins. After that, the lunch that was not spinach-and-mushrooms (and I was slightly taking the piss out of myself in yesterday's post when I wrote that that was what I needed) was rather delicious homemade falafel with tiny amount of hummus and tzatziki, and lots of green salad, and all I ate after that was some more rocket and an M&S edamame and green bean combo which I have already estimated in CoM to be less than 100 calories. Sunday may have had toast, but nothing else truly disasterous. I just get too frustrated by my own hunger at times, and more so when P and I get out of eating sync, because then I feel like a pig for feeling hungry when he doesn't, and I end up social-eating trying to forestall hunger but doing exactly the reverse (toast, cereal). It really is a fine line to tread but it wouldn't be so fine if I just cut myself some slack. The hand of the CR Almighty is not going to reach down and slap me silly because I eat some empty carbs, and there's little point in reaching my tenth decade if all I've done with the preceding six is fret and stress and whine and present myself to the world as totally insane.
Anyway, today is a new day and it's already started well with my new favourite breakfast of Total 0%, LLBY (can't get enough of the stuff now, I don't know what's changed!), ground flax, gojis, pumpkin seeds, almonds, a chopped brazil nut - all mixed up together in the pot - with whatever fresh fruit I have available on the side (today it was kiwi) and a glass of my soya milk, and a couple of cups of cocoa and water. Yum. And now I am going to take all that lot to the gym, via the grocery store where I need to shop for stuff to cook a CR meal for Hilary Grace when she visits tomorrow evening.
I do find CRON on the road hard to do, and I take what I perceive as my failure to do so too personally. In retrospect, the weekend's food wasn't bad at all. Yes, on Saturday, I ate toast and cereal to the tune of approximately 300 cals, but at least the cereal had B vitamins. After that, the lunch that was not spinach-and-mushrooms (and I was slightly taking the piss out of myself in yesterday's post when I wrote that that was what I needed) was rather delicious homemade falafel with tiny amount of hummus and tzatziki, and lots of green salad, and all I ate after that was some more rocket and an M&S edamame and green bean combo which I have already estimated in CoM to be less than 100 calories. Sunday may have had toast, but nothing else truly disasterous. I just get too frustrated by my own hunger at times, and more so when P and I get out of eating sync, because then I feel like a pig for feeling hungry when he doesn't, and I end up social-eating trying to forestall hunger but doing exactly the reverse (toast, cereal). It really is a fine line to tread but it wouldn't be so fine if I just cut myself some slack. The hand of the CR Almighty is not going to reach down and slap me silly because I eat some empty carbs, and there's little point in reaching my tenth decade if all I've done with the preceding six is fret and stress and whine and present myself to the world as totally insane.
Anyway, today is a new day and it's already started well with my new favourite breakfast of Total 0%, LLBY (can't get enough of the stuff now, I don't know what's changed!), ground flax, gojis, pumpkin seeds, almonds, a chopped brazil nut - all mixed up together in the pot - with whatever fresh fruit I have available on the side (today it was kiwi) and a glass of my soya milk, and a couple of cups of cocoa and water. Yum. And now I am going to take all that lot to the gym, via the grocery store where I need to shop for stuff to cook a CR meal for Hilary Grace when she visits tomorrow evening.
Enough Already
Thank you for the messages of sympathy left on the last couple of blog entries. I would say that surely not much else can go wrong - but considering my grandmother has now fallen over and broken her shoulder in the hospital bathroom, I'm not hopeful that this dark cloud is moving off just yet. I just feel so helpless.
Even so, life goes on. I kept CRONing all last week, with calories a bit lower than usual, so I now know that my weight drops like a hot potato when I go under a 1000 cals a day. At one point the scales were on 112lbs, but not for long - and this weekend gone was a Stratford one, so my eating has not been as great as it could be and I imagine that will show... but do I care? Yes/No/Yes/No... *sigh* I really don't know. Yes and no.
P has been making comments about me eating the bare minimum I need to get along, and how I am looking at food just for the "drugs that are in it" and not enjoying the pleasure of eating for eating's sake. True enough, I guess. I'm feeling low enough right now to wonder if CRON is another box I have locked myself into to validate my issues around food... I just don't know.
Poor P. I was totally out of whack yesterday because I ate cereal and toast at breakfast (second breakfast, actually, I'd had my yoghurt and LLBY and gojis and nuts and seeds when I woke up, hours before he did), and I was just shaky and horrible on empty carb overload, and I needed to eat again when he didn't... He puts up with so much, but I think even his tolerance would reach its limits if I had responded to his question "What do you need?" with "Well, actually darling, I need 250g spinach, 200g mushrooms, 7g LLBY and a teaspoon of flax oil with 15g almonds and 6g walnuts to balance my Omegas; oh, and some hard-boiled eggwhites would be nice too..." - and who can blame him?!
I just really do hope that I am not doing damage to myself in attempting to do exactly the reverse.
Even so, life goes on. I kept CRONing all last week, with calories a bit lower than usual, so I now know that my weight drops like a hot potato when I go under a 1000 cals a day. At one point the scales were on 112lbs, but not for long - and this weekend gone was a Stratford one, so my eating has not been as great as it could be and I imagine that will show... but do I care? Yes/No/Yes/No... *sigh* I really don't know. Yes and no.
P has been making comments about me eating the bare minimum I need to get along, and how I am looking at food just for the "drugs that are in it" and not enjoying the pleasure of eating for eating's sake. True enough, I guess. I'm feeling low enough right now to wonder if CRON is another box I have locked myself into to validate my issues around food... I just don't know.
Poor P. I was totally out of whack yesterday because I ate cereal and toast at breakfast (second breakfast, actually, I'd had my yoghurt and LLBY and gojis and nuts and seeds when I woke up, hours before he did), and I was just shaky and horrible on empty carb overload, and I needed to eat again when he didn't... He puts up with so much, but I think even his tolerance would reach its limits if I had responded to his question "What do you need?" with "Well, actually darling, I need 250g spinach, 200g mushrooms, 7g LLBY and a teaspoon of flax oil with 15g almonds and 6g walnuts to balance my Omegas; oh, and some hard-boiled eggwhites would be nice too..." - and who can blame him?!
I just really do hope that I am not doing damage to myself in attempting to do exactly the reverse.
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