I have no recollection. Must get back on track with recording meals.
August 9
I don’t remember what I ate, but I did go to the gym for some cardio and weight training. Yay cardio and weight training!
August 10
Breakfast: frosted flakes, the kind from Whole Foods – unfortunately these flakes are not frosted enough. Plus they do this weird texture thing where they stick to my teeth.
Lunch: homemade pad thai, plus an orange
Snack: cinnamon sugar pretzel and vanilla rooibos tea
Dinner: salad with avocado, crab, grapefruit and cheese. Plus ice cream!
August 11
Breakfast WF frosted flakes again. I might start adding sugar.
Lunch: last of the homemade pad thai, then bbq chicken and beef stew from Au Bon Pain – very spicy, cleared my sinuses temporarily. Also got a vanilla frappuccino with toffee nut syrup shot – actually too sweet, I think.
Snack: cheese, rice pudding. Not together.
Dinner: homemade drunken noodles! I used namya sauce that I got from the Asian market. I made it with chicken, shallots, tomatoes, Thai basil – pretty similar to pad thai except for the sauce.
August 12
Breakfast: raisin bran and frosted flakes.
Lunch: my drunken noodles.
Dinner: a burger and some chips. Probably ice cream.
August 13
Breakfast: raisin bran and frosted flakes.
Lunch: drunken noodles. I don’t tire of Thai food easily.
Dinner: roast. Ice cream for dessert.
Exercise: 30 mins on the elliptical. I got lazy after that.
August 14
Breakfast: sausage
Lunch: spinach salad with tomato and roast beef, plus some bread and butter
Dinner: burger. Ice cream for dessert.
Mental health: I finished Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo while getting some sun on the beach =) Unfortunately, I don’t always get enough sunscreen along the lines of my swim suit and sometimes get burns there. So I kinda look like neapolitan ice cream in some places.
August 15
Breakfast: pancake with maple syrup
Lunch: spinach salad with tomato and roast beef, plus some bread and butter, plus some cantaloupe
Snack: ring bologna
Dinner: drunken noodle
August 16
Breakfast: raisin bran and frosted flakes
Lunch: crab cake melt at Cosi with Darryl. Funny, they pack a snack bag of carrots instead of chips now if you ask.
Dinner: last of the drunken noodle, ice cream
August 17
Breakfast: grapefruit and avocado
Lunch: experimental pad thai made with silver noodles. I’ve concluded that even though pad thai is great, making it with these noodles is even better. Note to self: even though the silver noodles (thick, round tapioca noodles in the refridgerated section) are somewhat moist, they still do better with a soaking in hot water before stir-frying.
Snack: okay I went a little crazy. Two bowls of frosted flakes, some ice cream, and some rice pudding with whipped cream. That whipped cream did me in, way too much sugar.
Second snack: apple and cheese. The apple is usually an excuse to eat the cheese.
August 18-24
Vacay with Mom and bro in South Carolina = no tracking of meals. Let’s just say Southern food is not friendly to the anh health plan. Mmmmmm biscuits and gravy!
August 25
Breakfast: two sunny side-ups
Lunch: sweet potato burrito at the food cart. I forgot how good food carts can be!
Snack: large chai tea latte
Dinner: a grapefruit tossed w/ 1/2 an avocado and cheese, plus 1/2 a slice of roast
Exercise: 2-mile run. Slowly working back into routine. Ohh, biscuits and gravy.
August 26
Breakfast: iced decaf caramel macchiato
Lunch: salmon sushi roll and tea
Dinner: cereal and a piece of roast, maybe?
August 27
Dinner: I hadn’t seen Mital since she started med school! She was curious about Vietnamese food, so we checked out Vietnam Cafe in West Philly. I tried the banh cuon, which they have dubbed “Vietnamese ravioli.” I guess if it’s a wrapper of savory meat filling, it’s a variant of ravioli? The ca kho to (anything “kho to” refers to clay pot; ca = fish) was also good.
August 28
Breakfast: cereal
Lunch: grapefruit avocado salad
Dinner: at Jenn’s! chicken in salsa marinade, brown rice and green beans. Butterscotch chocolate chip cookies, which I baked – we would have had twice as much, except that I knocked over one pan and burned myself upon reflexively grabbing it. Alas, the spinal circuit kicked in and I dropped the pan, spilling all the cookies. Well,if I was going to lose the cookies anyway, I kinda wish the circuit had kicked in sooner so that I wouldn’t have burned myself as badly.
August 29
Breakfast: cereal
Lunch: sea salt brownies from Trader Joe’s, baked salmon, and grapefruit avocado salad
Dinner: udon noodles with an egg dropped in.
August 30
Breakfast: pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and apple jelly
Lunch: grapefruit avocado salad, baked salmon
August 31
Breakfast: large chai tea latte and ham and egg wrap at Cosi
Lunch: turkey cheese avocado sandwich
Dinner: KFC. It was a splurge. So, so good. Do the specifics of what I ate really matter? I know it wasn’t good for me. Plus ice cream.
I’m blogging this to remind myself to finish reading the multi-part series. I should also probably find some literature on how to stop diagnosing myself as well.
For whatever reason, this article has a quotation that really struck me, more so than anything else in a long time:
We Americans, whether Muslim or Christian, whether Jew or Hindu, whether of faith or no faith, were all attacked on 9/11 by terrorists who can only be described as criminals. We oppose the exploitation of the pain and suffering of 9/11 by political opportunists. They only divide our country and undermine the principles of pluralism, religious freedom, and security by fostering hate based on fear.
Perhaps one reason this statement resonates for me is because I never realized that tapping into people’s pain and fear could be the outright goal of a political strategy, or rather the strategy itself. I know that’s naive of me, but somehow I’m still startled by the thought that the public, including me, can be manipulated so insidiously.
I don’t know if this guy was intentionally stealing (he has a record of previous arrests), but the last line in the article is the best part. I am definitely guilty of being uber-vigilante sometimes. Sometimes well-intentioned people make mistakes that can have grave consequences they never anticipated.
Lunch: crab cake sandwich on the boardwalk in Ocean City!
Dinner: roast, salad with avocado, smoked salmon and cheese. Ice cream for dessert!
August 2
Breakfast: honey bunches of oats
Lunch: cherries, omelet with sauteed tomato/arugula, smoked salmon and cheese
Dinner: roast, ice cream =)
Exercise: 2.5-mile run w/ a break half-way, outside in the nice weather! =D
Weight: 118 lbs? Maybe my scale is broken, I’ve been eating way too much crap lately
August 3
Breakfast: honey bunches of oats, tea + milk + sugar
Lunch: salad with smoked salmon, apple and cheese
Dinner: falafel sandwich at Local 44 – pretty good =) I think I prefer Maoz, though, particularly since I can get the falafel without the huge side of fries, which I also finished. Ugh. No more empty starches!
August 4
Breakfast: honey bunches of oats
Lunch: omelet with sauteed tomato/arugula, crab and cheese
Snack: large iced chai
Second snack: small vanilla frappuccino
Dinner: fancy pizza at Mama Palma – pesto melanzane and santa fe!
Exercise: weights – 10 pull-ups w/ 20 lbs assist, 36 rows, 20 triceps dips, 20 triceps extensions, 20 back extensions, 25/25 r/l crunches. This took about half an hour. I guess I’m not as motivated to lift if I’m not already sweating from some sort of cardio.
August 5 – Combined Retreat Day
Breakfast: pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, coffee, orange juice
Lunch: hello college dining hall. Tomato soup, cheeseburger, lo mein, plain yogurt with raspberry topping, vanilla-chocolate twist soft-serve ice cream on a cone! and 2 sugar cookies.
Dinner: spring mix salad with crab, apple, cheese, and pecan-cranberry mix. I think I had a bowl of honey bunches of oats, too.
August 6
Breakfast: honey bunches of oats
Lunch: roast, spring mix salad, ice cream
Dinner: the calamari appetizer at Mixto for Philip’s birthday! ‘Twas very filling. Also had the Lulo fruit smoothie – not sure what the fruit is, but the drink was green and tart. Then onto Valanni for drinks and desserts! I had the bread pudding and a little bit of Chris’s mojito. I’ve been to Valanni a few times over the years and the food and drink have always been excellent.
August 7
Breakfast: French toast. It turned out GREAT.
The batter: 3 eggs, 1/3 cup of milk, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/3 tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and a dash of ground clove.
I sliced up three slices of bread into strips (4 strips per slice) and let them soak really well.
Then I fried them in butter over medium-low heat.
Add the maple syrup, and done.
Lunch: roast.
Dinner: pad thai, made by me! I followed the outline of this recipe, modified for my cheat using pre-made pad thai sauce i had bought. It turned out pretty well for a first-timer. I will definitely keep experimenting.
The noodles: these are the toughest part. I used tapioca noodles rather than rice noodles and soaked them in hot tap water for about 30 mins while i prepared the rest.
I sauteed garlic in vegetable oil on medium-high heat, and then drained the noodles and tossed those in. As the recipe says, you have to keep stirring or it all sticks together.
Once the noodles softened, I added the pre-made sauce – I’d say about 1/4 cup, but obviously adding a small amount and taste-testing is the way to decide whether to add more. I didn’t quite like the taste so I stirred in 1 tbsp of sugar and added the juice of one lime. I also added about 3 tbsp pickled cabbage, which is used as a garnish in some Vietnamese dishes and maybe others as well.
Following the guidelines, I pushed the noodles to one side and scrambled in two eggs and then sauteed the shrimp in one side of the pan before stirring them into the noodles as well.
Lastly, I added a plum tomato, sliced into wedges. As they cooked, the inner flesh fell apart so I was left with tomato strips instead of wedges.