Apres Midi

Several people have posted about the settings in CoM recently, and the tweaking thereof. Is there an online user guide about anywhere? I haven't tweaked it at all from when I first set it up, apart from lowering the calories to 1200 and upping the protein to 70g. I'd like to know I was actually getting the right reporting out of it so I knew my nutrition was fine even if my calories are lower than they might be.

Miss M has a point in that I've probably been more hungry than usual over the last 2 days because it's been COLD. And suddenly cold as well; proper February weather. No snow where I am yet, but lots of thick frost to scrape off the car in the mornings, and frozen fingers in the gym.

I will try to find a way to add an extra 100 nutritious cals to my daily food where I can and get nearer to 1200 than 1100 on a more regular daily basis, and then work up (or not) from there. I still think my days in London bump my average though. And I really am not dropping weight fast, not like any kind of potato at any kind of temperature. :-)

I'm heading off to London this afternoon with almost 700 calories of breakfast, eggwhites and the most enormous mixed vegetable salad in the world inside me. Another wine tasting this evening - and this time I will post what we taste! And severe snow forecast for late tonight and tomorrow... For severe, read possibly an inch in Central London. I've lived in Colorado; I find it difficult to share in the hysteria generated annually in this country by a few meagre flakes of the white stuff.

CRUNCH AFTER LUNCH

===========================================
Nutrition Summary for 07 February 2007
===========================================

General (56%)
===========================================
Energy | 673.3 kcal 56%
Protein | 46.0 g 66%
Fat | 23.0 g 35%
Carbs | 89.3 g 37%
Fiber | 24.3 g 97%
Water | 1193.6 g 44%

Vitamins (88%)
===========================================
Vitamin A | 14428.0 IU 618%
Folate | 462.4 mcg 116%
B1 (Thiamine) | 0.9 mg 80%
B2 (Riboflavin) | 2.4 mg 218%
B3 (Niacin) | 15.0 mg 107%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid)| 6.5 mg 130%
B6 (Pyridoxine) | 1.2 mg 95%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) | 0.4 mcg 19%
Vitamin C | 285.3 mg 380%
Vitamin D | 196.9 IU 98%
Vitamin E | 10.4 mg 70%
Vitamin K | 610.2 mcg 678%

Minerals (77%)
===========================================
Calcium | 635.0 mg 64%
Copper | 1.7 mg 189%
Iron | 10.6 mg 59%
Magnesium | 272.6 mg 85%
Manganese | 2.7 mg 151%
Phosphorus | 768.4 mg 110%
Potassium | 3248.1 mg 69%
Selenium | 108.8 mcg 198%
Sodium | 469.4 mg 31%
Zinc | 4.8 mg 61%

Amino Acids
===========================================

Lipids (40%)
===========================================
Saturated | 2.7 g 13%
Omega-3 | 3.1 g 278%
Omega-6 | 5.6 g 47%
Cholesterol | 0.0 g 0%

Distractions!

For April - my 26 year old calico girl, taken almost a year ago on a cold day. She's as mad for prawns as your Keiffer.

For Miss M - enough pumpkin for you? This was last year's squash harvest.

Media Grrrr.

Reading this article today made me FURIOUS. And then it made me very upset, and scared. And then I ate some more blueberries and yoghurt to remind myself that I DO NOT HAVE AN EATING DISORDER, I DO NOT WANT TO BE A SIZE 0 and I am NOT KILLING MYSELF by practising CRON.

Just the food and the crunch. I'm still a bit upset. I've also had a "hungry" day, and reading that article set me up even more for the comfort munchies. I've probably been hungry for another reason. I keep wanting the final calorie total in CoM to be (just) less than 1000 - in case, what? In case I suddenly desire to dive head-first into a tub of Ben and Jerry's? (which would have to magically appear in the house anyway!) In case I want 2 glasses of wine rather than 1? More likely... Because I want to be hard-core perfect at this? Hmm, warmer! Because I don't want those 4lbs back that have been bugging me since 2004? Um, ding-dong! I can be a right stubborn (and stupid, and contradictory) cow when I put my mind to it.

The Food

Breakfast - 100g blueberries (not 8, sweet Jesus!!), 100g yoghurt, pumpkin seeds, almonds, grapenuts
Snack - 100g sweet mama squash, almonds. I still don't believe the squash was 33 calories.
Lunch - soup made from 260g leeks, 100g broccoli, 15g brewer's yeast, almonds (that 20g went a long way today!). Spinach salad with avocado, raw red pepper, cherry tomatoes, flax and lemon.
Snack - 50g blueberries, 50g yoghurt, 16g (unsulphured) dried apricots - ie, 2.
Dinner - casserole of mushrooms, onion and quorn, topped with mashed celeriac, steamed kale and green beans on the side. Glass wine, I think.

The Crunch (sans wine)

===========================================
Nutrition Summary for 06 February 2007
===========================================

General (74%)
===========================================
Energy | 1073.6 kcal 89%
Protein | 54.5 g 78%
Fat | 33.5 g 52%
Carbs | 166.3 g 69%
Fiber | 44.8 g 179%
Water | 1510.1 g 56%

Vitamins (91%)
===========================================
Vitamin A | 39319.4 IU 1685%
Folate | 710.3 mcg 178%
B1 (Thiamine) | 1.0 mg 93%
B2 (Riboflavin) | 2.7 mg 246%
B3 (Niacin) | 23.2 mg 166%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid)| 7.8 mg 156%
B6 (Pyridoxine) | 2.8 mg 218%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) | 0.3 mcg 15%
Vitamin C | 474.8 mg 633%
Vitamin D | 157.2 IU 79%
Vitamin E | 16.4 mg 110%
Vitamin K | 1633.8 mcg 1815%

Minerals (93%)
===========================================
Calcium | 869.8 mg 87%
Copper | 2.9 mg 322%
Iron | 20.9 mg 116%
Magnesium | 446.4 mg 140%
Manganese | 6.1 mg 337%
Phosphorus | 966.2 mg 138%
Potassium | 4862.7 mg 103%
Selenium | 61.0 mcg 111%
Sodium | 573.4 mg 38%
Zinc | 10.3 mg 129%

Amino Acids
===========================================

Lipids (43%)
===========================================
Saturated | 3.9 g 19%
Omega-3 | 3.8 g 343%
Omega-6 | 6.4 g 53%
Cholesterol | 0.0 g 0%

Nothing to see here...

Today I am incredibly lethargic, and I seem to be wanting to eat everything in sight. It's got cold outside all of a sudden. Perhaps I am heading for late hibernation.

I grabbed a copy of The Longevity Diet from Amazon; I thought I should probably read it. This will be the last time I buy a "diet book" - I have so many, and it's so stupid that I do! What instantly struck me from a quick flick through is that I really *have* been eating according to the recommendations in The Longevity Diet for a good fifteen or more years now, at least as far as choice of food is concerned. I suppose the wine I drink could be said to cancel out the benefits, though; the calories in that would have been pushing me out of restriction.

I was starting to think that I was being a bit of a CR fraud - especially in the light of last week's blogging around degrees of restriction and severity. I'm never going to be an April - although I wouldn't eat the cheese either (but then nor would I eat the processed eggwhite patty!) - but I think I'm reasonably up there with what I eat, and getting there with cutting down on the wine. I dunno, maybe I still am just kidding myself that I am doing anything other than eating, or practising CS - common sense.

P this weekend, of course, said that what I eat is mad, and I am the worst person in the world to cook for. *sigh* On one of those, though, he probably has a point; he can't put a plate of pasta in front of me and expect me to eat it. A plate of broccoli, on the other hand... But I really do not see the point of eating junk. Admittedly my definitions of junk are fairly wide-ranging. I'm trying to decide if Quorn sausages, yummy though they are, actually come under "junk". Quorn is certainly as processed as I am willing to go. The jury is out on the occassional glass of fortified lite soya milk I might drink.

Today's Food

Breakfast - the usual blueberries and yoghurt, grapenuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds

Snack - the 3 hardboiled eggwhites I was prepping for one of my salads. The shells were being such a pain in the ass to peel off that I ended up just eating the whites there and then as I got to them.

Lunch - Quorn sausages with steamed kale and broccoli, cherry tomatoes with chilli and garlic and a huge amount of baked sweet mama squash (300g!!). CoM says 111 cals for the squash. I say, I wish! Nothing could taste that good and sweet and be 33 cals per 100g. I ate the 3rd 100g portion as a desert.

Dinner - 100g raw spinach leaves with avocado, roasted yellow pepper, mushrooms, and sunflower seeds; flax and lemon dressing.

Today's Crunch (to be taken with a pinch of salt)

===========================================
Nutrition Summary for 05 February 2007
===========================================

General (70%)
===========================================
Energy | 933.8 kcal 78%
Protein | 61.3 g 88%
Fat | 35.6 g 55%
Carbs | 117.1 g 49%
Fiber | 36.8 g 147%
Water | 1378.2 g 51%

Vitamins (96%)
===========================================
Vitamin A | 44070.0 IU 1889%
Folate | 710.8 mcg 178%
B1 (Thiamine) | 1.1 mg 103%
B2 (Riboflavin) | 3.1 mg 281%
B3 (Niacin) | 18.9 mg 135%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid)| 8.8 mg 177%
B6 (Pyridoxine) | 2.3 mg 175%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) | 1.2 mcg 52%
Vitamin C | 529.5 mg 706%
Vitamin D | 196.9 IU 98%
Vitamin E | 15.6 mg 104%
Vitamin K | 1624.1 mcg 1805%

Minerals (90%)
===========================================
Calcium | 640.6 mg 64%
Copper | 2.4 mg 264%
Iron | 14.4 mg 80%
Magnesium | 421.2 mg 132%
Manganese | 6.3 mg 348%
Phosphorus | 1175.0 mg 168%
Potassium | 5148.8 mg 110%
Selenium | 58.0 mcg 105%
Sodium | 829.6 mg 55%
Zinc | 13.3 mg 167%

Amino Acids
===========================================

Lipids (47%)
===========================================
Saturated | 4.3 g 21%
Omega-3 | 3.8 g 349%
Omega-6 | 7.8 g 65%
Cholesterol | 2.0 g 1%

Plays and Plans

The weekend's plays were fabulous. The Henry V turned out to be a more than slightly pretentious riff on the text by an Italian company - written, produced, directed and led by the same actor - a monumental ego trip really, which I thought I hated until we came out and were discussing it and I realised that there actually were some good ideas in there. The most striking tableau of the evening was the company forming a pile of partially naked bodies, as the battles wore on. Of course, after Iraq and the prisons and all the photo taking, that image has contemporary resonance... as does the whole horror and futility and sheer bloody waste of war, and that came across powerfully. Saturday's Merry Wives, The Musical, was just delightful and left me in tears with hysterical joy; Richard III was a perfect end to the Wars of the Roses grouping.

Didn't do so well with my food though, or rather with balancing food intake and hunger and the inevitable booze.

I'd *planned* well - I'd packed a salad (spinach and mushrooms and seeds and egg whites and tomato and zucchini and flax and lemon) to eat in my car while I waited for P in Stratford. I'd also packed blueberries, measured amounts of almonds and pumpkin seeds, and some cherries which practically bankrupted me (I misread the price when I picked them up; they might as well have been pitted with platinum for the price). But all good plans... P arrived early in Stratford, and I never got the chance to eat much of my salad; he had already eaten, but by the time we established this it was time for the show and no time for me to find something for me, or to shovel down the rest of my leaves and 'shrooms. After the show, I was starving an meant to finish what I'd started then, but as it turned out I ended up eating goat's cheese on toast instead, back at the hotel. With some wine. (At least I didn't partake of P's bowl of chips, with fried onions, all covered in melted cheese - nor, of course, was I tempted to).

So Saturday morning saw me locked in the bathroom after my bath shovelling down leftover spinach and mushrooms while P slept in. I do at least realise that this was totally mad. But get those nutrients in where you can, right?! :-) And I was kind of hungry. After that, and a couple of pieces of toast at breakfast proper, I wasn't hungry at lunchtime - ate some almonds and pumpkin seeds and a few cherrries and headed into The Merry Wives. Big mistake. Major hunger by the interval which could only be assuaged by a swift glass of red wine. We headed off to find food immediately after the show, but everyone was descending on the town and the choices were limited. In the end I managed to get another spinach and mushroom salad with some buffalo mozzarella... but failed to avoid the breadsticks that came with it (and also P threatened to beat me senseless if I didn't eat at least 2 of them). More red wine. Nothing then until midnight, which saw me in the hotel room guzzling the rest of the cherries I'd brought along, downing peppermint tea, and then more or less passing out with exhaustion.

Today has been a picky day - blueberries, almonds, pumpkin seeds, cherries, toast. Lunch was in a pub on the way home - goat's cheese, one green fig, salad leaves, and a vegetable selection which seemed to be pureed carrot, green beans, and zucchini with tomatoes. I've just finished off a plate of broccoli and spinach and mushrooms for dinner, with yoghurt and sunflower seeds for dessert and CoM doesn't look too bad, but I haven't entered the bread. There has been wine again, of course, and I haven't entered that either...

Oh the bread. I *know* there's no reason to eat it, but it's there, and it's crunchy-chewy-good... But it does me no good, I know that. It seems to make me emptier. I'm pretty sure the bread at breakfast on Saturday was to blame for the afternoon hunger, which never seemed to be appeased for more than an hour or so. for the rest of the day. I just wish I didn't get so *hungry*, because my temper becomes almost impossible for me to manage; I just want to lie on the floor and howl and kick and scream like a spoilt five year old in the throes of the worst tantrum in the world. It's so tiresome. This is nothing new though. I got like this before eating CRON. I just need to learn how to work it out.

Never mind. Monday tomorrow, and a few proper days of more balanced eating. And back on the wagon.

Shrink To Fit

Just a quick post in response to yesterday's comments - thank you for those, by the way. It's almost like a mini-Christmas, finding comments on my blog in the morning. I am easily pleased. :-)

Anyway, Emily - don't worry, I won't be using your spinach-and-mushroom-and-seeds nutritional tip to cut my calories as far as I can! I was just so amazed that it was so easy, after a couple of weeks of entering various tiny quantities of foods into CoM to get me where I needed to be. It's a real relief to know those quantities don't have to be so tiny or diverse at all! And I love nuts and seeds; it's good for me to work out how those can fit into my day and not be afraid of the fat-and-calories that I have mostly avoided them for. I'm up to 25g of almonds a day, and I would NEVER have even thought of doing that in December, because almonds were of The Forbidden Food. Yay for breaking down the barriers. :-) Also, I'm not entering my glass of wine in CoM, so I am probably hitting 1200 cals a day on the days that I eat by myself, and more than that when I am with friends or with Phil. I think it averages out to a lot more than it looks.

Hazel - I checked back to see if I was losing weight fast, and I'm not really - 4lbs in a month, 1lb a week - and I may have been having a "light day" yesterday. I had just been to the gym. :-)

And the mushroom thing - you're right, Hilary, in that generic mushrooms DO seem to have D according to CoM. I've just been entering mine as "brown, crimini, Italian, raw" - because mine are, er, brown and I usually eat them raw - and those don't have any D associated in CoM at all. But I am still confused because my little leaflet about Vits that I picked up from Boots here doesn't mention them as a source of D in any respect...

And finally, Robin - would it make you even more jealous to say I've also seen Patrick Stewart (as Antony in Antony and Cleo and Prospero in The Tempest), and will be seeing Ian McKellan doing Lear at the end of March? :-) There have been other famous names as well; it's been such a marvellous and theatrically diverse experience!

Not so quick after all! I also have today's report to post when I can get to it. I'm quite pleased that I've managed to hit almost all the bases with lovely food (albeit a lot of leftovers) AND will have some spare calories to have a light supper with P after the theatre tonight.

It's the End of the Week as I know it (and I feel fine)

Tomorrow P and I are going to Stratford on Avon for the weekend to see a few more Shakespeare plays. It is coming to the end of the Complete Works Festival, and we have 9 more to go: Henry V in Italian tomorrow, and then The Merry Wives of Windsor (The Musical) with Judy Dench Saturday afternoon and Richard III in the evening. By the end of the festival we will have seen all 37. It's been a really fascinating thing to do, and has made me realise how much I miss being involved in the theatre and in art and literature and generally being creative... I really do need to get myself out of the job I do and back
into something a little less soul-destroying.

This job does, however, let me work at home and this has proven to be a bonus for attempting CRON this month; on the downside it does mean I can spend far too much time planning and measuring and preparing the next meal. I just had to stop myself from playing around with my zucchini slices on my digital scale to get them to 100g exactly. (It's a zucchini, Sara: it has no calories!) But I am such a perfectionist for round numbers. :-)

The nice round number on the scales this morning was 118lbs, incidentally. Which was nice.

Inspired by Miss M, I made a variation on Nicoise salad for lunch: cherry tomatoes, green beans, cannellini beans (craving them), egg whites, and black olives on spinach leaves dressed with lemon and flax oil.

Dinner tonight, which was so good(!), was mushrooms and leeks cooked in red wine with garlic and thyme and pieces of quorn sausage (they really do smell just like real sausages cooking, I had forgotten!), topped with celeriac mash with 1 tsp mustard. Steamed broccoli and the aforementioned zucchini on the side, and a glass of Rioja for dessert.

In fact, it was so good, I might put the recipe into CoM and see if nutrionally it's worth sharing. For taste alone it was heaven. And I still have my rioja and a good book and maybe a DVD to go! *happy Sara*

Cooked mushrooms appear to have lots of Vitamin D. How strange! Cos they sure don't when they are raw. Is CoM being weird to me again, or some strange natural alchemy?

Without the Rioja, today's report from CoM...

===========================================
Nutrition Summary for 01 February 2007
===========================================

General (73%)
===========================================
Energy | 1048.6 kcal 87%
Protein | 58.1 g 83%
Fat | 25.3 g 39%
Carbs | 168.6 g 70%
Fiber | 47.1 g 188%
Water | 1574.5 g 58%

Vitamins (93%)
===========================================
Vitamin A | 59663.6 IU 2557%
Folate | 667.2 mcg 167%
B1 (Thiamine) | 1.2 mg 109%
B2 (Riboflavin) | 2.6 mg 234%
B3 (Niacin) | 18.8 mg 134%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid)| 9.1 mg 183%
B6 (Pyridoxine) | 2.3 mg 174%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) | 1.0 mcg 44%
Vitamin C | 306.2 mg 408%
Vitamin D | 141.9 IU 71%
Vitamin E | 15.1 mg 100%
Vitamin K | 818.3 mcg 909%

Minerals (96%)
===========================================
Calcium | 715.3 mg 72%
Copper | 2.4 mg 272%
Iron | 18.1 mg 101%
Magnesium | 487.1 mg 152%
Manganese | 6.5 mg 359%
Phosphorus | 1252.2 mg 179%
Potassium | 5193.9 mg 111%
Selenium | 107.5 mcg 195%
Sodium | 1323.6 mg 88%
Zinc | 10.8 mg 135%

Amino Acids
===========================================

Lipids (41%)
===========================================
Saturated | 2.9 g 14%
Omega-3 | 3.3 g 303%
Omega-6 | 5.8 g 48%
Cholesterol | 2.0 g 1%