I have a few minutes before my iPod is done syncing and I have to leave for dance so I thought I'd quickly blog on my thoughts of last weeks meal experiment.
Food Prep: Starting to get easier in terms of the amount of time it takes to prepare the food. Partially it's because we're both developing little systems to help us. I think it's also due to the fact that we're starting to plan time into our schedule for food prep...something neither of us did too much of in the past.
Variety: I have to admit that my mind changes depending on the time of day as to whether or not I'm content with the food I'm eating. One moment I'm really excited to be eating the meals I'm eating and the next I'm really grumpy because I would kill for some pastina and spicy tomato sauce. I think that veggies are yummy and I love the variety of the ones we're eating but without something to add to them it sometimes feels like I am eating the same meal over and over again.
Taste: This kinda ties in to the paragraph just above. For the most part I still think the food is yummy...but when I'm going through withdrawal for some of my favorite foods that aren't on the plan I start to think negatively as to the taste of the food. My opinion really does change minute to minute for the same meal.
How do I feel: I still feel great. I still feel full. Chris and I built a "cheat meal" into the plan (one "cheat meal" a week we are allowing ourselves) because I was afraid that we wouldn't be able to go out and eat with friends...or worse that I would have a total breakdown if I reeealy wanted pizza and couldn't have it. Neither of us cheated all weekend even though we knew we were allowed. I guess that's got to say something for how the food is making me feel (even if my mind still wavers in opinion).
Gym: Today is my first day back at dance. I know I'll be too busy to take class but I'll still be exerting a bunch of extra energy this week so we'll see if the meal plan is good for people who exercise. I have a feeling it will be fine but part of me is a little skeptical.
My final thoughts before I run is that I'm so proud of myself for not cheating. By Friday I was really grumpy and thought I might quit by the end of the weekend. We had a good talk about that and from that talk built in the cheat meal. Now that I know I have an out to go eat whatever I want for one meal a week I've felt like I don't need to cheat. I have to trick my mind like this or else I rebel. I am of the mindset that no one should ever have to feel like they can't have something if they want it. Should it be thought out? Yes. Should it be done in moderation? Most definitely. But depriving myself of something I want is not a lifestyle I want to perscribe to.
That being said I think I'm learning a lot from forcing myself to do what may be possibly better for my health. I still don't know if this is going to turn into a way of life for me....I do love my disco fries...but I feel like my focus has shifted a bit. I feel like part of this experiment is still about food but another part of it is an experiment on which part of my brain will win...the indulgent one or the diciplined one.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Monday, September 1, 2008
New Food Experiment
For the month of September, Chris and I are trying a new food-experiment-type-thing. All the meals for the month are all thought out for us, the shopping lists for each week are all pre-planned and all we need to do is make sure we have the food and prepare it correctly. I'll explain it more as the month goes on but that's the short, short version.
My initial impression when reading the meal plan was how easy it seemed. Most of the meals were simple and filled with really diverse healthy foods. There's minimal cooking too which added to my thinking how simple it will be to do this for a month...a month of healthy food and I don't have to cook?? I'm in!
Well, day one was anything but simple. First of all we woke up at noon and still hadn't gone shopping for any of the first week's food. Peapod wasn't delivering the normal/non-produce foods until 3:30 PM. We also had to go to Whole Foods to get the more obscure foods that we knew we wouldn't find anywhere else and then had to go to Stop n Shop afterward for produce (I'd rather pick out my own produce than have Peapod pick it out for me...plus it's cheaper than the produce at Whole Foods). So breakfast was a wash...we just had Corn Flakes instead of the pumpkin oatmeal I was looking forward to.
So besides not having all the food we need to actually prepare the food till 6:00 PM, I also realized not cooking much this month will be replaced with an equal amount of time spent on chopping up fruit and vegetables. By 6:00 PM we were absolutely starving and still didn't even have our lunch let alone snacks or dinner. The kitchen counters were filled with non-refrigerated ingredients and tuperware I've been too lazy to put away in cabinets yet which made finding room for all the chopping and cutting difficult. As you can imagine it wasn't a good day at all as far as eating or crankiness was concerned.
We finally made it through all the preliminary food prep and had lunch. Then I preped a little for the rest of the week and then had dinner and finally finished around 10:00 or 1o:30 PM. 10:00 PM is a time I'm ok with eating dinner but a lot later than Chris likes to eat.
Quick impressions of today...
Food Prep: Took way too long. Not completely the plan's fault...mainly our lack of foresight to blame.
Variety: Good variety today. I'm excited to see what I'm going to be eating next.
Taste: Todays food was really tasty! Walnuts, coconut curry chickpea salad, and veggies and grilled tofu with a spicy apple dressing...yummy! Sorta kinda made the hastle worth it...but not completely.
How do I feel: I feel great. I feel full (I was worried it wouldn't be enough food), I had no urge to snack and my skin feels a little tingly from all the fresh veggies... mainly the onion...that I had for dinner.
Gym: Didn't make it to the gym today so I can't determine whether or not I had enough calories to handle a workout.
My initial impression when reading the meal plan was how easy it seemed. Most of the meals were simple and filled with really diverse healthy foods. There's minimal cooking too which added to my thinking how simple it will be to do this for a month...a month of healthy food and I don't have to cook?? I'm in!
Well, day one was anything but simple. First of all we woke up at noon and still hadn't gone shopping for any of the first week's food. Peapod wasn't delivering the normal/non-produce foods until 3:30 PM. We also had to go to Whole Foods to get the more obscure foods that we knew we wouldn't find anywhere else and then had to go to Stop n Shop afterward for produce (I'd rather pick out my own produce than have Peapod pick it out for me...plus it's cheaper than the produce at Whole Foods). So breakfast was a wash...we just had Corn Flakes instead of the pumpkin oatmeal I was looking forward to.
So besides not having all the food we need to actually prepare the food till 6:00 PM, I also realized not cooking much this month will be replaced with an equal amount of time spent on chopping up fruit and vegetables. By 6:00 PM we were absolutely starving and still didn't even have our lunch let alone snacks or dinner. The kitchen counters were filled with non-refrigerated ingredients and tuperware I've been too lazy to put away in cabinets yet which made finding room for all the chopping and cutting difficult. As you can imagine it wasn't a good day at all as far as eating or crankiness was concerned.
We finally made it through all the preliminary food prep and had lunch. Then I preped a little for the rest of the week and then had dinner and finally finished around 10:00 or 1o:30 PM. 10:00 PM is a time I'm ok with eating dinner but a lot later than Chris likes to eat.
Quick impressions of today...
Food Prep: Took way too long. Not completely the plan's fault...mainly our lack of foresight to blame.
Variety: Good variety today. I'm excited to see what I'm going to be eating next.
Taste: Todays food was really tasty! Walnuts, coconut curry chickpea salad, and veggies and grilled tofu with a spicy apple dressing...yummy! Sorta kinda made the hastle worth it...but not completely.
How do I feel: I feel great. I feel full (I was worried it wouldn't be enough food), I had no urge to snack and my skin feels a little tingly from all the fresh veggies... mainly the onion...that I had for dinner.
Gym: Didn't make it to the gym today so I can't determine whether or not I had enough calories to handle a workout.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Wow
Many reasons to say "wow." First of all, I'm wowing how many times I've posted here today. It's like something freed my brain. That's how I am, though...all or nothing. The reason I'm posting, though, is because two pieces of info that have been in my brain for a very long time literally just connected themselves even though I previously had no idea they had any relation to each other (forgive me if that was grammatically awkward. Words are not my strong point). I will explain.
When I was in high school I was very interested in tattoos and piercings. I waited very patiently till I was 18 to even consider getting anything done because I wanted to go to someone good and my parents sure as hell weren't going to sign for me to get anything. So I spent the years before turning 18 on the computer doing lots of research. Tons of research.
I stumbled upon BME (Body Modification Ezine) and that was a goldmine for me. I spent hours reading about personal experiences and reviews on different studios...looking at pictures and formulating ideas on what I wanted to get done to myself. I decided that I would most likely get any piercings done at Pleasurable Piercings because they were so awesome and so close to where I live.
While doing my research I also came upon the website of a guy whose studio was in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is kinda close so I looked around his site and was immediately interested in visiting his shop. The guys name was Keith Alexander and his site is what really made me interested in the mods a little more extreme than piercing and tattoos. From what I remember he also did branding and scarification as well as play piercing sessions. At the time, I had no idea those were even possible choices. I told myself that if I ever want to do something a little crazier I will definitely go to this guy. What really attracted me to him was how passionate he seemed about body modification. I liked that. Anyone who was that passionate and came across so over a simple website had to be someone to check out.
Every so often I'd check the site out to see if there was anything new. If I had a weird question, I would email him because I knew he could answer it or at least point me in the right direction. Moreso than BME, because of his site I wanted to get a triangle piercing...a piercing I still want more than any other piercing but haven't gotten mainly because I don't think I have the correct anatomy layout for it. ::sigh::
Ok here's where the weird coincidence starts. This part doesn't take as much explaining, fortunately for anyone who's reading this. I don't know if he included this information on his websites bio or not. If he did I must not have read it very well because Keith Alexander was the original guitarist for the band Carnivore, the band Peter Steele was in before Type O Negative was formed.
Now anyone who knows me knows TON is one of my favorite bands ever so this may not be so earthshatteringly crazy news to any of you but to me it's like two parts of my brain...my mod-loving and my music-loving...just formed a bridge connecting each other a little bit. It's a neat feeling that I wanted to share.
Now for the double bad news. In doing all this exploration I just learned that I will never get to visit Keith Alexander's studio in Brooklyn. I haven't checked out his site in quite sometime and I just learned that he died 3 years ago in a bike accident. Also, when I was linking to the Pleasurable Piercings site for this blog post I learned that Bill, the guy who owns Pleasurable Piercings passed away this past Sunday. So there's another wow for me but not a good wow. I made a neat connection and then also had to kinda make two disconnections. Bittersweet indeed.
When I was in high school I was very interested in tattoos and piercings. I waited very patiently till I was 18 to even consider getting anything done because I wanted to go to someone good and my parents sure as hell weren't going to sign for me to get anything. So I spent the years before turning 18 on the computer doing lots of research. Tons of research.
I stumbled upon BME (Body Modification Ezine) and that was a goldmine for me. I spent hours reading about personal experiences and reviews on different studios...looking at pictures and formulating ideas on what I wanted to get done to myself. I decided that I would most likely get any piercings done at Pleasurable Piercings because they were so awesome and so close to where I live.
While doing my research I also came upon the website of a guy whose studio was in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is kinda close so I looked around his site and was immediately interested in visiting his shop. The guys name was Keith Alexander and his site is what really made me interested in the mods a little more extreme than piercing and tattoos. From what I remember he also did branding and scarification as well as play piercing sessions. At the time, I had no idea those were even possible choices. I told myself that if I ever want to do something a little crazier I will definitely go to this guy. What really attracted me to him was how passionate he seemed about body modification. I liked that. Anyone who was that passionate and came across so over a simple website had to be someone to check out.
Every so often I'd check the site out to see if there was anything new. If I had a weird question, I would email him because I knew he could answer it or at least point me in the right direction. Moreso than BME, because of his site I wanted to get a triangle piercing...a piercing I still want more than any other piercing but haven't gotten mainly because I don't think I have the correct anatomy layout for it. ::sigh::
Ok here's where the weird coincidence starts. This part doesn't take as much explaining, fortunately for anyone who's reading this. I don't know if he included this information on his websites bio or not. If he did I must not have read it very well because Keith Alexander was the original guitarist for the band Carnivore, the band Peter Steele was in before Type O Negative was formed.
Now anyone who knows me knows TON is one of my favorite bands ever so this may not be so earthshatteringly crazy news to any of you but to me it's like two parts of my brain...my mod-loving and my music-loving...just formed a bridge connecting each other a little bit. It's a neat feeling that I wanted to share.
Now for the double bad news. In doing all this exploration I just learned that I will never get to visit Keith Alexander's studio in Brooklyn. I haven't checked out his site in quite sometime and I just learned that he died 3 years ago in a bike accident. Also, when I was linking to the Pleasurable Piercings site for this blog post I learned that Bill, the guy who owns Pleasurable Piercings passed away this past Sunday. So there's another wow for me but not a good wow. I made a neat connection and then also had to kinda make two disconnections. Bittersweet indeed.
"Go fast!"..."I'm going fast!"
I won't just be posting links and videos on this blog but I will add one or two if I find it amusing or important. Last night I was watching my favorite Onion News video (again) and decided to share it with anyone who may not keep up with the Onion videos.
I really want to show this to my brother since he is a Nascar fan. Even though it's making fun of the "sport" (my feelings on THAT I will save for another post) I think he would find it funny.
I really want to show this to my brother since he is a Nascar fan. Even though it's making fun of the "sport" (my feelings on THAT I will save for another post) I think he would find it funny.
Attempt 4: Finally a real post! ...well, sort of
Ok, so I found something to post. I was just about to get some sleep when I decided to check my blogs one last time (yes, I even procrastinate with going to sleep...amazing, isn't it?) and saw this quote from Mistress Matisse's blog. Actually, it's a quote from her podcast that she posted to her blog. Not too confusing, right? Anyways, here it is. I found it amusing.
Matisse: Anything a man says to you when he has a hard-on doesn't count.
Monk: That means half of what I've said to you in our relationship doesn't count!
Oh and I just noticed she's got a Twitter account too! yay!
Matisse: Anything a man says to you when he has a hard-on doesn't count.
Monk: That means half of what I've said to you in our relationship doesn't count!
Oh and I just noticed she's got a Twitter account too! yay!
Attempt 3
Working to make the page look nice. Been too busy and scatterbrained to actually write anything worthwhile yet. Check out my Twitters...it's much much easier to micro blog during the day than it is to write a paragraph or more on here. Still gonna give it a good try though.
That's all for now...
That's all for now...
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
1st Attempt
Here's another first attempt at blogging. Blah. Nothing to say.
Oh well, maybe next attempt will be better...
Oh well, maybe next attempt will be better...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
