Day 10 & 11: What A Crock

I went to a callback this morning after a fitful sleep and for some inexplicable reason I didn’t feel like riding my bike downtown, so I took the bus. I think it was because subconsciously I knew it would give me the opportunity to pick up a $30 slow cooker at London Drugs, which I did.

Day 10: orange 100 candy 200 cookie 70 orange 100 turkey 200 can of green beans 50 vegetable chili 180 = 900 calories

Day 11: apple 100 granola bar 110 ice cream 100 ukulelology pie 200 more ukelelology pie (not looking good here) 200 Breyers fudgy bar 70 carrots 120 = 900 calories

Day 8: I Eat When I'm Bored, But I Never Get Bored of Eating

I covered some of this stuff in this post from April, but let’s review some more Fat Facts. This is important setup for some of my points later on, so slog through it. This I ordain.

90% VEGETARIAN

I don’t eat fish or really any seafood. I rarely eat pork (I’ll have ham on a sandwich or pizza occasionally) and beef even less. I do eat turkey and chicken. They’re the healthiest meat (minus fish which I can gloat about not eating for environmental reasons but really I despise the taste) and poultry is delicious. However, I only eat the white meat, and avoid the skin.

POINTLESS FOODS

There are certain foods I call pointless foods. Rice, pasta/noodles (of the Orient or otherwise) and bread are pointless foods. They’re pointless because they’re starchy carbs, so they’re off diet, and I don’t find them satisfying. When I order Indian or Thai I skip the rice, but will take naan instead (I know I just said I don’t enjoy bread but naan’s an exception). At Thanksgiving dinner there may be rolls right next to the stuffing, I’ll skip the roll but take extra stuffing. The problem with pointless foods is that if they’re still around after I’ve eaten everything else, oh, I’ll eat them, just like anything else that’s put in front of me. So I make a point not to get them in front of me. Simply put, these foods are not worth it to eat, as far as I’m concerned.

THE CUPBOARD IS BARE, THANK YOG

Another aspect of what I’d like to call my eating disorder is that I eat when I’m not hungry. This happens for two reasons: a) I’m really craving a specific food, usually instant-gratification junk foods such as cheddar beer chips, taro bubble tea or a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Vermonty Python ice cream (which I can’t find anywhere anymore – was it a limited edition or something? Not that I should have access to this anyway); 2) I’m bored or procrastinating, like for azzample when I draw, I’ll make some weak passes at a difficult bit (and starting a drawing is always a difficult bit) and then take a break which may involve a video game or eating or both. As a result of the Cravy Craverson Effect and the Bore Me To Munchies Effect (especially the latter) I’ve learned that a successful strategy is not to keep any food in the house. This has the extra bonus insofar as when I really do have to eat something, I have to get on my bike and exercise in order to fetch it. That’s one of the boons of having been evicted actually – I am no longer two short blocks from butter tarts and eccles cakes at 11:45pm.

zdepth says:

Get a crockpot. You can usually find them at thrift stores. Here’s what you do: [explains how to cook a chicken & vegetables with ease] When its done cooking eat it. Or some of it anyway. The rest put in a container for later. Except, leave the fluid in the crockpot. You should remove the meat from the bones. Put the bones back in the crockpot. Cook it for another hour or two. Strain all the non-fluid stuff and as much of the chicken fat as you can get. You now have chicken broth. You can make soup or you could use it to cook rice (and you can use the crockpot for that) and have yummy rice. In total, this should take maybe twenty minutes of your time (prep, finish, etc). It’s healthy and yummy and easy.

Okay, I’m listening to what you’re saying. This is intriguing. Permit me to respond, and don’t take this as naysaying or dismissal, because I am actually considering the benefits of this and trying to fairly weigh the idea vs reality. Additionally, I don’t want to pooh-pooh feedback because I do like the ideas and suggestions all y’all are providing in the comments.

Alpha Phase: Get a crockpot. This is probably something to put on my Christmas wish list because I don’t envision this as something I can ride home with in my backpack. I guess I could take the bus. I’ll contemplate this on the Tree of Woe.

Beta Phase: Buy a whole chicken. This is an intriguing notion. I never buy raw meat so going into this area of the supermarket will be a new adventure! Normally when I want poultry I do one of three things:

1) Buy one of the roasted whole chickens from Safeway or Max’s Deli. It’s been a while since I did the Safeway thing but the chickens at Max’s are stuffed with oranges and onions and seasoned with rosemary. Good stuff.
2) Buy a package of precooked grilled turkey strips and crack a bottle of Grey Poupon.
3) Buy peppercorn or sundried tomato or flavour de jour sliced turkey in the deli section of Safeway and do as 2 or occasionally make a sandwich with it.

Gamma Phase (optional): Storing the chicken. I’d pretty much have to get the chicken on the same day that I’d cook it. There is no room in the 2 fridges here. No problem if I plan properly.

Delta Phase: Eat the chicken. Yum.

Epsilon Phase: Leftovers. See CUPBOARD IS BARE DILEMMA listed above. This is probably the biggest drawback to the idea.

Zeta Phase: Broth benefit. I of course would have nothing to do with broth because I don’t make soup or rice (again, having no pots or pans or a strainer for that matter, and generally not being a fan of soup or rice!). I guess Kodos would be a fan of this phase though.

Eta Phase: Washing the dishes. I think we all know my feelings on this matter. If I had to choose only one reason not to cook, this would be it.

All of that said, this sounds like an interesting project and I’d like to do it just to see how it turns out. A fun and delicious experiment! Would I do it on a regular basis? Depends on initial success. Certainly not as convenient as just buying cooked chicken. Is there any difference in how healthy a roasted chicken is vs a slow-cooked one? Or in taste?

Next exciting issue: Pizza Party

Day 8: granola bar 130 + apple 100 + granola bar 110 + orange 100 + ice cream 100 + granola bar 110 + turkey in a can! 200 + misc party snacks (about a 6-10 chips some with bean dip, a chocolate covered espresso bean, 3 grape tomatoes and a couple carrot sticks) 100 = 940 calories.

Did anyone notice that I used a) and 2)? If you did, you win. Maybe there’s a puzzle in every blog entry here on thickets.net/toren – think about it!

D-Day 4: 36 Days to Go

Well, good news. Joyce’s scale says I’m at 192, which means I only have 13 lbs to lose.

Mike says:

There is the problem. You are not changing your life style to one of living and eating in a manner conducive to long, healthy life. Before the ’60’s diet meant whole life style, not some obsessive corporately created weight loss madness. Eat wholesome foods in moderate amounts, have the occasional treats like a slice of pizza, a little ice cream, maybe a small piece of cake at a party. These are ok, if you are living a rounded, healthy life style where you eat from around the outside of the supermarket, keep physical activity part of your daily routine, maintain a regular sleep schedule and you’ll be great. Lose the “I must be skinny by” idea and say, “I want to be happy with good food, good activities and good friends.” But remember, have fun or you’ll never, ever succeed.

Any advice on how to eat wholesome foods in moderate amounts? Keeping physical activity a part of my daily routine and maintaining a regular sleep schedule are not problems. Stopping myself from eating (for example) a chocolate cookie for breakfast, a shawarma for lunch and two small pizzas for dinner is a very real problem, and one that I’ve struggled with all my life. I don’t want to be skinny, I want to be average. The human senses have been designed over millions of years to crave and enjoy sugar and fat. How do you make denying yourself those pleasures fun? I hate the fact that if pizza or pastries or chips or ice cream is put in front of me in a social situation, all I can think about is how I can eat as much as possible without drawing attention to it, and that if it’s in front of me when no one else is around, I will eat until I feel sick. And then as soon as I don’t feel sick anymore, I will eat some more. This is why I don’t buy groceries – why I don’t store food for the long term. Food in my cupboard and fridge doesn’t make it to the long term, unless it’s something I don’t care for – something healthy I’ve strategically bought with the best of intentions. Then it’s 3 in the morning, it’s the only thing to eat, and I’m forced to eat canned corn or fresh celery. Unless of course I’m willing to get dressed, get on my bike, and ride to 7-11 or Max’s for some Miss Vickies and a butter tart, which also happens.

Day four: On the menu today: Thinsations (100) + banana (200) + orange (100) + low fat cream of chicken soup (200) + Cadbury Thins (orange & chocolate) (100) + misc (say 100 at most) + sugar-free milkshake (100) + Thinsations! (100) = 1000

D-Day 1 & 2 (The D is for Diet)

Being on a diet is like being vegetarian – everyone does it until they’re not.

Who says you can’t be a vegetarian for a day?

My diet ends on the 20th of December (or until I get to my target weight). You may notice that coincides with Christmas. And yes, I plan on enjoying whatever sugary, fattening items present themselves at that time.

So what is the wisdom of being on a diet, just so you can counter the effect once you’ve reached your goal?

Well my thinking is that even people who are staunch health nuts splurge from time to time. Am I wrong, Dude? I think of a person who generally eats quite well but if they’re offered some tasty desert item or whathaveyou they will have “just a small piece.” Well, that’s my regime too, but in much broader strokes. Instead of eating restrictively for a couple days and having a piece of pie as a treat, I’m going to eat restrictively for several weeks and then have more than a piece of pie. I figure it all works out in the end, right? Everything in moderation, including moderation.

After all, after I lost 40 lbs it did take a decent amount of time for me to gain fat ground back up 20. So I figure if I spend the rest of my life enjoying ten months out of the year and suffering for two, it’s equivalent to eating “reasonably” – i.e. abstinently – consistently for 12 months of the year which, I’m confident in saying, is 100% unrealistic (for me). I think it’s a lot easier to exercise 100% willpower for 12% of the year than try to exercise say 80-90% willpower for 100% of the year.

That’s the theory, which I’m putting to the test.

Day One: mandarin orange (100 calories); apple (100c); can of corn (165c); pickles (like, 10c?); sugar free candy (???); low fat cream of broccoli soup (205c); another can of corn (165c) = about 800 calories.

Day Two: “Thinsations” cinnamon graham cookie-thins (100) + sugar-free pudding (200) + Thinsations again (100) + banana (200) + carrots & celery (100) + chicken (180) + Thinsations!!! (100) = 980 calories.

40 Days to Lose 20 Pounds

Everyone knows about the boring old Medifast diet I went on 2 summers ago where I lost 40 pounds in a few months. Started at 220, went down to 179, slowly back up to between 190-200, where I’ve been sitting at for months. I’ve been trying to get back down to somewhere in the 80’s for what seems forever. I can get through big chunks of the day eating more or less healthily and in moderation, but almost every day there is one time when my cravings get the best of me and I gorge myself. I’ve tried lots of different things but nothing seems to overcome that “well one little gorge won’t hurt and this will be the last one – tomorrow will be different” recurring delusional failing.

For example: the night before last I ate two small pizzas for “dinner.” Not two pieces of pizza – TWO SMALL PIZZAS. I was doing alright until I got home from work and after a half hour of deliberating and telling myself not to give in, I just said “fuck it” and picked up the phone to call Panago.

So my new strategy is blogging about my resolve, weaknesses and ultimate objective (okay maybe not ultimate but nigh-ultimate):

By December 20 I want to get back down to 179 lbs.

I don’t actually know what my current weight is. Since I don’t have a scale I can only check when I’m in my friends’ respective bathrooms. But last time I checked I was in between 196-199. So I think at the most that’s 20 lbs.

So that means goodbye pizza, sandwiches, cookies, butter chicken, shawarmas, bubble tea, candy, and chocolate (this is going to be hard since I’m working for Kelly “Bad Girl Chocolates” to help her prepare for the Hexmas season).

Hello broccoli, celery, pickles, Coke Zero and soup.

Stay tuned for exhilarating progress reports!

Coffee's for Closers

Not long ago I was “addicted” to Ben & Jerry’s Vermonty Python ice cream – I was eating it several times a week. If you don’t know, it’s coffee ice cream with fine cookie crumble swirls and fudge cow-shapes. Now, traditionally, I am not a coffee fan, but I do enjoy coffee ice cream and coffee chocolate mixes and whatnot. So being that I had been consuming so much coffee-flavoured sweetness, I thought perhaps it might be time to reintroduce myself to the beverage. After all, it’s an appetite suppressant, right? Everybody’s doing it, right? And maybe when someone says “let’s go for coffee” I could actually go for coffee – what a world! I was mailing away some CDs at 7-11 so I decided to try a cup. Well, despite the heinous amounts of sugar-free sweetener I put into my coffee, it was pretty disagreeable. I guess it’s not just the same without all that ice cream around it. And anyway, caffeine is the ingredient that supposedly suppresses appetite and there’s plenty of that in Coke Zero anyway.

Return of the Migraine

I don’t remember the last time I had one, but it had been a while (2-4 months?). I was doing a very unscientific experiment to see if there was any link between my migraines and the intake of aspartame. I was completely off of the “NutraSweet” for some time. The only diet drinks I could have were Nestea Zero, and Diet Crush grape, orange and cream soda (my fave). But I finally had another migraine this month, so apparently denying myself aspartame is not the solution. Welcome back to my belly, Coke Zero and diet root beer!

Food Tastes Good In My Mouth

FATTY FATTY TWO-BY-FOUR

I’ve had problems with my weight my entire life. Who knows why. My mom says I was raised on evaporated milk or some such, but that’s hardly science. The problem I have is probably the same problem you have – I love food! Food tastes good. I was watching a special on TV the other night called “FAT: What No One Is Telling You” and it was about how the human species evolved in a world where food was scarce. Our bodies are designed to store fat for when we can’t get food, and our brains are constantly telling us to stock up. The problem is, the world we evolved in is gone (for North America, anyway). These days there really isn’t a time that we can’t get food. It also touched on the difficulty that many have when they pit their conscious mind – the one that wants to be thin and to not eat – with the subconscious mind that throbs with millions of years of instinct. It is a battle that can’t be won. Your will can make you hold your breath for only so long before the rest of your mind forces you to gasp. We all have different metabolisms, we all have different tastes, we all have different parasites! And those things control what we eat, how much we eat, and how our eating habits affect our bodies.

I USED TO SNEAK INTO THE KITCHEN AT NIGHT WHEN MY PARENTS WERE SLEEPING AND EAT SPOONFULS OF DRY HOT CHOCOLATE MIX. SERIOUSLY.

Check out me (far right) with my brother (far left). I got the artist genes, he got the skinny genes.
Not Hereditary

The most I ever weighed (that I know of) was 220 lbs, and that was about a year ago. Since then I’ve lost 40 pounds through 3-4 months of a very strict and difficult diet. Since I stopped being on that diet I gained back 10 pounds (I’m surprised that’s all considering it’s been well over half a year) and after the Saturday Morning Cartoon Party I once again restricted my intake in order to get back down to 180, more or less (which took about a month). I still am not “thin,” but I don’t care about that. My goal was to have an average weight, not borderline obesity, and I think I met that goal. Maybe I’m a little extra-average, but that’s something I can live with.

EVERYTHING IN MODERATION – INCLUDING MODERATION

And in the harsh light of day I realize that I will probably be doing this sort of on again/off again diet thing for the rest of my life. I can go a month denying myself certain delicious pleasures. I cannot go through my entire life that way. I will overeat from time to time. Everybody does it. In me it’s a particularly strong weakness (yeah I know that’s an oxymoron). Is it wrong to treat myself to a binge now and again? The alternative is to deny myself 24/7. If I promised to never gorge myself on butter chicken or junk food, I would simply end up breaking that promise. So why make the promise? I have urges and cravings that I am simply not strong-willed enough to deny. I have learned that after 30+ years of trying to deny them. I can’t fool myself; it’s something I’m going to have to accept, and so is everyone around me! I am going to eat things that taste good.

A BIG FAT DESTINY

I am slowly learning tricks to manage these urges (eat slower, eat small things more often, ignore that ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day’ bullshit, and above all don’t keep any food in the house) And thank baby Jesus for medical science! Thank Hough & Phadnis for sucralose! Now I can have a bowl of ice cream that has less calories than a banana or two pieces of bread. I can get candies at the Candy Aisle on 4th Ave that are neglible. I can drink cream soda whenever I can track it down.

Here’s me at 13
13 and Chubby

MY FAVOURITE FOODS ARE BAD FOR ME

Our taste buds were designed over millions of years evolution to most enjoy the kind of foods that give us the greatest amount of energy. Energy = calories, by the way. So that’s why we like sugar and fat the most. If I lived in Africa or Labrador many years ago the only way I could stay alive would be to go out and risk my life trying to stab a yak in the neck. And then I would fuckin’ eat the yak, and the yak would sustain me for a good long time. Now the yaks are prepackaged and on every corner and I don’t have to risk anything to get one. And they’re smothered in butter and sugar. So once again technology has become a double edged hammer.

Here are the most tasty things in Toren’s world that are available every day within walking distance:

Butter chicken
Pizza (Mediterranean or Uncle Fatih’s ham & pineapple)
Scottish eccles cake from Max’s Deli
Chocolate everything
Cheddar beer chips (among many other kinds)
Butter or Pecan tarts
Pies of all varieties
Delicious nachos with guacamole
Sour cream donut from Tim Horton’s
Licorice
Ice cream
Licorice ice cream
Taro bubble tea
Pineapple
Broccoli

All but the last conspire to make me morbidly obese.

There are certain things I don’t have trouble cutting out of my diet. Bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, and, surprisingly, cheese, are all things that I don’t crave. They’re nice, but if I’m going to go for something bad for me, there are other options. So I opt to avoid those things 99% of the time. Occasionally I will have have a bready sandwich instead of a breadless salad. For me, every food item has a certain ranking of TASTE vs CONVENIENCE vs HEALTH. I consult the somewhat nebulous chart in my mind when I’m hungry. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s realistic. And I try not to have any delusions about what I can and cannot pull off when it comes to one of my favourite pastimes: eating.

There is very little chance of me becoming ‘thin.’ And as I get older, that chance shrinks. But here’s the thing: I don’t care to be thin. I exercise on my little bike for a minimum of 20 minutes almost every day. I am not in danger of having a heart attack, stroke, diabetes, or any other problem associated with obesity. I am not entirely out of shape. I’m going to enjoy my life, and if and when I find my body is outside the boundaries of good health, I will set goals and take steps to meet those goals, and then when those goals are met I will resume life enjoyment.

toastmuscles.jpg

How ya like me now?

Post-sugary cereal diet

Today I begin another cycle of better eating, after the orgy of sugar that was the Saturday Morning Cartoon Party. During my MediFast diet I lost about 40 lbs in 3 months. This time, according to Joyce’s scale, I only need to lose 10 lbs so that should be a month or less I hope. That’s if I stick to the regimen which so far so good.

PS – I got 19/20 on my first 2 pages of comic book art! Wooo! And I have some interesting secrets about the World Wildlife Federation of Justice that will have to stay secret for now.