Soy causing thyroid problems?

Hi. I don’t really go on here a lot anymore, as you may have noticed. Mostly because I have changed my lifestyle to the point where I don’t need to count calories. I was vegetarian and not eating anything with saturated fat, which pretty much took care of the whole weight loss thing.

But I started having all these health problems and I didn’t know why. I’m still not positive, but I think I put two and two together. My palpitations and chest pain started happening once I began dieting. As part of my diet, I was eating soy. It took me months of eating soy to do some research and learn that soy can cause hypothyroidism in women with thyroid problems. I have Grave’s disease, so that’s me. I guess soy apparently inhibits the release of TSH or whatever the hell the thyroid releases. Well, that could explains my weird palpitations, chest pain and weird neck sensations. I’m not positive, but I’ve cut out the soy now. Unfortunately, that made being a vegetarian tough. I still go most days without meat, but I have allowed myself chicken in certain situations when I’m dining out or with company. I’ve been off soy for about two weeks and my appetite is growing, another sure sign I’m going from hypothyroid to normal. I’m still losing weight, but I need to come up with some alternatives to soy so I can stay vegetarian. I actually like being a vegetarian. I haven’t had red meat in months.

Any ideas for soyless vegetarianism?

Changing course — losing weight + healthiness

No, I am not dead. I have changed my plan. Now, instead of just aiming to lose weight, I am also trying to avoid having a heart attack by age 30. There’s a novel thought.

I still have the heart palpitations and chest pain once in a while. I’m anxious to see a doctor — my cardiologist appointment still isn’t for another two weeks. But in the meantime, I am just assuming I have some sort of advanced coronary artery disease (probably not — hopefully) and I am doing everything I can to prevent a heart attack.

I am eating a diet based on what is known as the McDougall diet. Basically, I’ve turned into a vegetarian. Pretty much. I eat a whole lot of legumes (beans) and fruit. I cut out any and all forms of oil, butter, cream, cheese, etc. Anything with saturated, trans fat or cholesterol is out. All breads and pasta must be whole grain or whole wheat. Fresh produce is the main theme.

Here’s a rundown of my food staples over this past week:

• Oatmeal
• Bean salad (five kinds of beans mixed up with diced pepper and zucchini)
• Barley soup with lots of different types of beans and veggies
• Chili made with beans, tomatoes, onion, chili seasoning and Boca soy protein ground beef substitute
• Vegetarian baked beans with ketchup and barbecue
• Fat-free egg substitute on whole wheat bread with ketchup
• Whole wheat pasta tossed with diced tomatoes, garlic and onion
• Whole wheat pasta with homemade spaghetti sauce (tomato paste, puree tomatoes, onion, Italian herbs, Boca ground beef substitute)
• Apples, oranges, grapefruit, mango, kiwi, etc.
• Whole wheat pita stuffed with lots of different veggies
• Pomegranate/blueberry juice, orange juice, tomato juice

I have stopped using FitDay to track what I eat. It’s true that probably the main reason is all of the foods I am eating now are foods I never used to eat and I am making a lot of foods from scratch so it would require me to enter a lot of custom foods. But the other reason is: Why do I need to?

I know I’m losing weight. I know my caloric intake is low. None of the foods I am eating are high calorie. The simple fact alone that one gram of fat has more than double the calories as one gram of carbohydrate or protein alone should point that out since I am cutting my fat intake way, way back. The only fat I get, quite frankly, comes from my oatmeal and bread.

I may be getting trace amounts of saturated fat — it bothers me that amounts below half a gram can be left off food labels. But I am aiming for foods that say zero fat and I am reading the ingredients and checking for things that would cause saturated fat.

I feel good. Everything I am eating is fresh and real. No processed crap. I’m making recipes for myself. I hope that, if anything, these palpitations are just from stress and my body isn’t damaged. I am kind of sick of my job — let’s hope that’s all this is. I don’t plan on staying for long anyway.

I also started myself on a low dose aspirin routine. Maybe I shouldn’t have just done that on my own, but it makes me feel better. I’m also having a glass of red wine every night — a change I’m rather enjoying. I know doctors don’t recommend drinking just for your heart, but it makes me feel better. Until I can see the doctor, I’m doing this stuff. My palpitations could also be from changes in my thyroid levels with my same medication — I have Grave’s disease and take medicine for it.

Either way, I think I’ve been scared straight. Our bodies weren’t meant to eat so much saturated fat and chemicals all the time. And they certainly weren’t meant to eat man-made trans fat. I don’t know if I’ll give up meat for good, but I’m not so sure it needs to be the staple it’s always been for me.

A minor setback…

Lately I have been having heart palpitations and I had a little freak out the other day.

I am hyperthyroid so I got my levels checked. Although it does appear my hyperthyroidism dropped down closer to the opposite end, which is hypothyroidism, my endocrinologist said my symptoms wouldn’t be from my thyroid.

So my primary care doctor set me up with a cardiologist and I’m wearing a holter monitor — it’s this little heart monitor suctioned onto my chest that I wear for 24 hours. Hopefully the cardiologist can figure out why I’ve been having chest pains when I run. Maybe I have angina or high cholesterol — although I think my cholesterol levels are good. Whatever it is, I hope he can fix it.

I joined the gym last week. Only $9 a month — I say it’s well worth it. But I’m not comfortable with working out until I figure out what’s going on with my heart.

I did have heart palpitations once before a few years ago, and that was when my doctor discovered I am hyperthyroid. I got a cardioechogram and everything was fine. The symptoms went away after my thyroid was dealt with. I’m not really obese either and I’ve been eating good… but there were many years where I ate very horribly. I wonder if that’s what it is, like a plaque build up? I hope not. But I’d rather try to figure this out and work with a doctor than ignore it and hope it goes away, like most people do. These palpitations aren’t severe, but they are worth looking into.

Wow, I don’t even feel like I’m on a diet.

I discovered something that made me feel naughty. Behold:

What is it? It’s a breaded chicken patty without any chicken in it. And it was so good it felt bad. For less calories than a crappy Lean Pocket or a frozen Smart Ones/Lean Cusine/Whatever, I was eating something that tasted like it was from a fast food place. Mmm.

The patty has 140 calories. I toast a light hamburger roll, which has 90 calories, and throw some hot sauce on it. The whole thing was 230 calories. A Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwich (without the mayo) is 405 calories. A plain McDonald’s crispy chicken (without mayo) is 480 calories. (According to their websites.) For half of that, I was essentially getting something that tasted very similar. The light roll took a bite to get used to, but it was good toasted with the hot sauce. I’ve had some light rolls like cardboard. These are a new kind for me, Wegman’s, and I liked ‘em.

I know the idea of being on a diet is to not be eating fast food or even consider eating it. It’s to learn to want other stuff as part of a healthy lifestyle — and I do. I don’t want fast food at all anymore. I like my bran flakes and veggie-stacked sandwiches. I’ve kind of trained myself. But that doesn’t mean I still don’t like the taste of bad stuff if I can get away with it!

It felt like I was going off my diet, to be honest. I almost felt like I was eating something fatty and gaining weight, even though I knew I wasn’t. It was so good that I had one for two different meals. I shouldn’t make a habit of them. I think I’m going to save it for days when I wanna be bad so I can be “bad” without being bad.

Instead of getting that chicken wing salad as I mentioned in my previous, maybe I’ll just make my own with these.

On another note, I ran today and I did it a little longer and a little farther than last time. My progress continues. I feel more conditioned. I remember getting out of breath going up these long stairs at my job. No more!

Aug. 25, 2008 Food Name Amount Unit Cals Carb Fat Prot Total 1,262 222.7 26.8 60.4 Tops Bran Flakes – whole wheat & bran 1 cup 120 30.7 0.7 4.0 Tops Fat-Free Milk, vitamin A & D 0.5 cup 45 6.5 0.0 4.0 Wegman’s sushi – California (1 roll) 5 serving 200 35.0 5.0 5.0 Progresso Lentil (vegetable classics) 2 cup 300 56.0 4.0 18.0 MorningStar chik patty original 2 serving 280 32.0 10.0 16.0 Tops Hot cayenne pepper sauce 4 teaspoon 2 0.3 0.1 0.1 Wegman’s Lite hamburger roll 2 serving 180 42.0 2.0 8.0 Tops original Oatmeal, instant – 1 pouch 1 serving 100 19.0 2.0 4.0 Almonds, unroasted 5 almond 35 1.2 3.0 1.3 Total 1,262 222.7 26.8 60.4 Calories Eaten Grams Calories %-Cals Calories 1,262 Fat 26.8 239 19 % Saturated 2.2 20 2 % Polyunsaturated 8.3 74 6 % Monounsaturated 4.4 39 3 % Carbohydrate 222.7 809 63 % Dietary Fiber 33.1 Protein 60.4 241 19 % Alcohol 0.0 0 0 %

I should have more protein and less fat, I suppose. But I kept my calories under 1,300 and I felt very satisfied all day. So today was a good day.

Woohoo! Some random tidbits…

• I’ve lost a few pounds since my last post. And I can run longer periods of time without having to stop. I feel more fit. Holla! Next up, hopefully, is loose-fitting clothes! I think when I embarked on this journey many weeks ago, I started around 178. I didn’t get real serious for the last month, I’d say. But I’m down to around 168.

• I hope to join a gym in the next few weeks too. I know it’s a little ridiculous, but I’d rather be more fit before joining the gym. Seems backwards — getting fit in preparation to join the gym so I can get fit. But I don’t want to be struggling there. I’m getting more conditioned. Just a little more and I’ll be fit to workout in public. (I’m also gonna have to find some way to change my daily routine to fit the gym in, but that’s a whole ‘nother issue.)

• I’m getting used to the new FitDay, although I’m really pissed off at the way the reports are given. You can’t see everyday if you want to check your progress over a week. It’s just hard to compare calories burned vs. eaten. I’m still pissed off about it, but I’m dealing with it. The most important thing is that I can track my calories everyday.

• Boca burgers are great. The bruschetta one is tasty and only 70 calories. I tried a new flavor too, savory mushroom and mozzarella. Only 100 calories per patty and I find them enjoyable. To be honest, they taste a bit like mushroom gravy burgers, but they are good. Sometimes I add hot sauce.

• I’ve also managed to successfully cut out the Lean Pockets. Once in a while I’ll have one, but for less calories I can have a Boca burger on a wheat bun. Not only are the Boca burgers less calories, but they have less sugar, more fiber, more protein, less fat, less cholesterol and probably less preservatives too. I do not recommend Morning Star — my personal experiences have not been good.

• Hot sauce, by the way if I haven’t mentioned it already, is my secret weapon. Virtually no calories and it adds flavor to pretty much anything. Some hot sauces do have calories and fat so check the bottles. Mine is just normal off-brand cayenne hot sauce. (From Tops Markets.) If you’re getting chicken wings at a good place, they mix that stuff with butter and coat your wings in it. Mmm. But it’s good without butter too. Trust me. I throw it on burgers and sandwiches.

• I find a package of plain instant oatmeal to be my best pre-workout routine. It offers a nice slow burn of energy.

• I’m drinking more water these days. Now I bring two 16.9 FL bottles to work everyday and drink them both. When I get home, I drink more. And before work, more. I love water. And I’m getting back into drinking it constantly, which I love. That alone makes me feel better.

• I know they say not to reward yourself with food, but I think next weekend, if I keep up my diet all week, I will let myself go off the diet for ONE meal: I want a buffalo chicken salad from Chili’s — or something similar. Just something with lettuce, tomato, chicken fingers, hot sauce and ranch or bleu cheese.

I say, it’s better to plan these splurges so they don’t get out of hand. And it’s best to see it as an allowable bonus within your continued dieting efforts, not an excuse to trash the whole notion of healthy eating. I figure if I be careful all day, the salad won’t even do much damage. The truth is, I have been doing my diet for weeks and there have been days where I got Wendy’s or ate Chinese food. I just fit it into my daily budget of never exceeding 1700 salories. I aim for more like 1200 – 1300. But 1700 is the absolute maximum to prevent myself from gaining weight.

Two week average: Calories Eaten = 1,383 / Calories Burned = 2,101

My average daily deficit is around 700 calories! 700 x 7 = 4,900. I lost more than a pound a week for the last two! (Remember, one pound = 3,500 calories.) Hopefully I can keep it up! No — not hopefully. I WILL keep this up!!

The new FitDay layout sucks and I’m mad

I’m annoyed.

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I use FitDay.com to track my calories. I have used that website for 8 years on and off. Over 8 years, it has literally never changed, to the point where I even wondered if the people who made the site even followed it anymore. It just sat there idly in cyberspace, unchanged, unpromoted.

You can imagine my shock when I logged in today to find the site design was completely different. Sure, it looked more modern and sleeker, but as I clicked around doing my usual routine, I found it was actually more cumbersome than the old site. I thought the idea of an makeover was to make it less cumbersome and more efficient?

My custom foods list, for example. If I want to see them, I have to click through page after page to get to what I want. On the old site, they were all displayed as a long list. Sure, people still using dial-up might be glad, but I have cable internet and all the extra clicking is a waste of time when I could’ve gotten my whole list in a fifth of the time on the old site.

Creating custom foods is harder now, too. You are only allowed to set a new custom food as “1 serving.” Well what if one serving on the package for my custom food is 3/4 of a cup but my own serving on it will be 1 cup or some amount other than 3/4 of a cup. Do they expect me to use 3/4 of a cup as the “1 serving” they force upon me? And then when I have one and a half cups, have to figure out how that translates into servings of 3/4 cups so I can figure out the decimal of “servings” I had. That is ludicrous.

In the old FitDay, I could input nutrition information for any amount of any measurement I chose. Whether it was .5 cups, 2 tablespoons, 4 ounces, 1 serving, and so on, I could put the information in and then if I ate a different amount, FitDay would calculate the difference for me. i.e. If I created a custom food listed as “10 tablespoons” for 100 calories, it would automatically know 1 tablespoon and is 10 calories and list it as such. Under this limiting “1 serving” selection, I’d have to grab my calculator and divide everything by 10 in order to make 1 serving = one tablespoon. It’s bullshit.

Another obnoxious feature is that when I had a recent food, it adds the same amount of servings I had the day before. Maybe I had cereal twice yesterday. So what? I’m only having it once today.

Sure, they’ve added stuff — bells and whistles that aren’t needed. Like a mood tracker. Give me a break.

If they wanted to add something actually useful, they could’ve added a time feature so we can see what time we ate what and keep track of our eating patterns. Or maybe they could add sugar to their nutrition info, which conspicuously isn’t there, given how essential watching sugar is to losing weight.

They have a lot of gall to completely change their website over night after at least 8 years of it being exactly the same — all without the courtesy of releasing a beta version or offering an old version portal while they collected feedback and implemented appropriate changes.

Maybe I might have to head over to sparkpeople.com…

Sometimes you have to eat for reasons other than enjoyment (gasp)

I’m on this thing. It’s called a diet.

Today, I had a instant pouch of plain oatmeal. It had no flavor, the consistency of paste… and was only 100 calories! Sometimes, you’ve just got to do it. I didn’t mind, to be honest. I didn’t enjoy it by any means, but it didn’t gross me out.

See, I was eating for nutrition, not pleasure. That’s the kind of concept that escapes us fatties. Have you ever had a house full of food and felt hungry but didn’t eat anything because there was nothing delicious and pleasurable to eat — there was only food that would, you know, alleviate your hunger? So you waited and ate when you could get something fatty and delicious?

Look, today I was kinda hungry and didn’t have much food. I was running out of options — I had already eaten two Boca burgers that day. I was heading to the grocery store but didn’t want to go shopping hungry, so I had some oatmeal beforehand. It’s got fiber, protein and it cleans out the bad gunk (cholesterol) out of your blood. Not everything can be a chicken finger sub… mmm.

By the way, I’ve noticed some (okay, most) parts of the country do not sell chicken finger subs. You people are crazy. Imagine some crispy golden chicken tenders covered in Buffalo wing sauce stacked on a sub roll with lettuce, tomato, onion and bleu cheese. I dip mine in ketchup; most people don’t. Either way, it’s an orgasm in your mouth, to put it as grossly but accurately as possible. I tried to do a search for a good picture of a chicken finger sub to show you, but that’s how rare they are. The rest of this country sucks.

And speaking of Boca burgers, I bought I new flavor today. I still bought my 100-calorie All-American Grill ones, which almost taste like actual beef (thumbs up!), but I also got these bruschetta tomato basil parmesan things. They are called “veggie patties” and not “burgers,” which is a slight cause for concern, I suppose. But they are only 70 calories and I’m sure I can throw them on a bun and eat them. If I’m repulsed, whatever, they were on sale. You know I’ll report back to you on my thoughts.

I will also be trying a new Lean Pocket – chicken, spinach and mushroom or something. It’s from their “chef inspired” line. I’m sure I won’t like it since my favorites include such healthy and gourmet varieties as cheeseburger and meatballs with mozzarella. But I figure variety is the spice of life, so I’ll try it. I’ll report back.

I know I talk about Lean Pockets frequently. I’ve found them convenient and not a total splurge on my daily calorie total. But find what works for you. I tend to eat the same few things over and over again. Find your own staples, but feel free to explore.

Today I got some barbecue marinated pork tenderloin on sale. I’ll throw it in my slow cooker without any oil, butter or fat and it will be nice and tender and ready to eat when I get home. I can’t wait to try it. I got a peppercorn one and did a similar thing — no oil or butter, I just added a bunch of celery and onion — but I just didn’t like the flavor of the marinade. I love barbecue so hopefully this will be good. For 4 ounces, 130 calories. I figure 4 ounces is a reasonable serving size.

Today’s calorie total. I did good today. It was a day of repeats and old staples. I had two bowls of cereal. Two Boca burgers. A bowl of oatmeal. A Lean Pocket. And some almonds. Not very diverse, but it got me through just fine.

I also ran today, so yay me! Although, I got some weird chest pain on the right side of my chest after I ran for a few minutes so I got stuck doing a lot of intervals instead of one long chunk of running like I aim for. I think overall I still did as much running as always, it just annoyed me because I think I had enough energy to really run a long way. I think I might’ve pulled something doing some heavy lifting a couple days ago or something.

	Cals	Fat	Carb	Prot
Lean Pockets mozzarella/meatball whole grain 1 ( 1 serving )	220	7	30	11
Tops Fat-Free Milk, vitamin A & D ( 1.3 cup )	117	0	17	10
Tops Bran Flakes – whole wheat & bran ( 2 cup )	240	1	61	8
Pepperidge Farm whole wheat hamburger bun ( 2 serving )	240	4	36	12
Boca All-American flamed grilled (1 patty) ( 2 serving )	200	9	9	28
Almonds, unroasted ( 10 almond )	69	6	2	3
Tops original Oatmeal, instant – 1 pouch ( 1 serving )	100	2	19	4
Kashi Oat flakes & wild blueberry cluster ( 0.5 cup )	100	1	21	3
Tops Ketchup ( 1.5 tablespoon )	30	0	7	0
Total	1316	31	203	79

Learning how to want healthy foods. Plus, “negative calorie” foods

You are what you eat. And I’m changing both!

Today, my boss brought in pizza and antipasto salad. It looked good. But you know what? I said no. I said I have a “delicious” chicken sandwich on low-calorie bread with hot sauce sitting in the fridge like I do every single day and, damnit, I’m eating that. Surprisingly, the salad looked more enticing to me than the pizza, which is certainly a change.

FACT: Food preferences can be changed. Like acquiring a taste for beer or coffee, you can acquire a taste for vegetables…

I read somewhere I while back it can take up to like 15 exposures to acquire a taste for food. I don’t know if there’s a magic number. Research does suggest repeated exposures can decrease your dislike and increase your liking of it. I tried to acquire a taste for celery, since it is a purported negative calorie food, but I just hate the flavor — it wasn’t a matter of getting used to it.

FACT: Celery is a negative calorie food. Because of its cellulose structure, it does take your body more energy to digest it than there are calories in the celery. But, it’s negligible. We’re talking a few calories. It’s probably better to think of celery as a no-calorie food since you’re not going to create a calorie deficit just by eating it.

At one time, when I was a bigger fat-ass than I am now, I went on the Atkin’s diet. I was very strict. Probably dangerously so. I ate maybe 5 carbs a day, maximum. It was nuts. Hamburgers with no buns and just mustard, no ketchup. Slices of salami. Sticks of cheese. My heart wants to burst just thinking about it. When I wanted to be “bad,” I ate a tablespoon of peanut butter. My ketosis sticks were dark maroon. (Beige means you’re still eating carbs. Pink means you’ve cut your carbs. The color I had meant I was damaging my body, probably.) Anyway, sometimes cravings for some sort of snack or binge would set in. And what would I binge on? Peanut butter and salami. I was going over my carbs anyway, but I just had a taste for it.

Another time, I had been on a very strict diet for months. Definitely no takeout, even when I was bad. When I finally tried McDonald’s french fries months later, I didn’t really enjoy them. They were greasy and strange and unsatisfying. Normally, it would’ve been a guilty orgasmic heaven. But my palate had changed.

Now, I suspect it may be changing again. I hope so. It hasn’t been long. But man, I would love to dive into some crunchy, crisp iceburg lettuce with a light dressing now.

Change your life, don’t live in phases!

Writing that last paragraph, I realized it sounds like I’ve gone through major strict diets and then got fat and then did it again. I really only had one big weight loss. It started as Atkin’s and I decided that wasn’t a long-term change so I went low-calorie. Over the course of that period on both diets, I lost, hmm, I want to say, 60 pounds in a year. With Atkins, the weight came off fast and furious. I was really overweight and I was eating barely any carbs. I moved to low-calorie and I ate exactly 1,205 calories everyday and I worked out twice a day, hard. I think I was burning at least 800 calories a day on exercise. That’s a net of like 400 calories in a day. Think about that deficit. If my basal metabolic rate is 1,800, that meant my deficit was like 1,200 a day. Multiply that by 7, and that’s 8,400. A pound is 3,500 calories. That’s 2.4 calories a week I was losing. Doesn’t sound like a lot? You try to burn 2.4 calories a week without making it a full-time job. And that’s exactly what it was, a full-time job. I did it when I was in college over the summer. Not the first phase, but the big push of working out and eating like a superstar. It was all I did all day. Obsess.

Now, I’m taking a more realistic approach. I have a job. I do that. That’s my main focus in life these days. But I just plan ahead and do some grocery shopping and make sure I eat right. It’s not as hard as I thought it would be. You’ve just got to plan a little and compromise a bit. It’s true, I am covering less school board meetings with school out for summer, so I have more nights I can come home and run, but the point is I’m doing it. I don’t want to run for an hour and then shower again and go through all that. When I don’t work out, I will go as many as three days without showering. (Yes, I’m gross and lazy.) But it’s not an option if I work out. But I make myself. I’m also trying to get into work earlier so I can get home at a reasonable time and running. It’s just planning ahead. And it’s something I can do with a job and a life. It’s a new lifestyle.

Today’s total:

I would’ve been almost perfect but those chocolate covered peanuts looked so good. And they were. Maybe the best I’ve ever had. Better than M&Ms.

Also, re: Lean Pockets. I’m getting sick of the chicken fajita Lean Pocket. It was OK for a while, but today I was grossed out. The chicken in Lean Pockets is a little weird. I’m going to try to phase them out of my diet anyway because of all the preservatives, low-quality meat, bleached white carbs and saturated fat. But I think I prefer the ones with beef and I’ll be getting those from now on. I’d love a vegetarian Lean Pocket other than that cheddar/broccoli one.

Foods

	Cals	Fat	Carb	Prot
Tops Bran Flakes – whole wheat & bran ( 1 cup )	120	1	31	4
Tops Fat-Free Milk, vitamin A & D ( 0.55 cup )	50	0	7	4
Schwebel’s American Rye seedless (1 slice) ( 4 serving )	280	2	48	8
Margherita hard salami (1 slice) ( 1 serving )	20	2	0	1
Sargento reduced-fat swiss (1 slice) ( 1 serving )	60	4	1	7
Sargento reduced-fat provolone (1 slice) ( 1 serving )	50	4	0	5
Hillshire Farm rotisserie chicken Deli Select ( 2 oz )	50	1	4	10
Lean Pocket Chicken Fajita (Mex Style) ( 0.88 serving )	211	6	31	9
Almonds, unroasted ( 10 almond )	69	6	2	3
Peanuts, chocolate covered ( 5 piece )	104	7	10	3
Progresso hearty black bean (w/ bacon) ( 2 cup )	320	2	58	16
Total	1334	33	192	69

Calories Eaten Today Total: 1334 Fat: 299 Saturated: 105 Polyunsat: 30 Monounsat: 58 Carbohydrates: 641 Protein: 277 Alcohol: 0

Turkey burgers aren’t like hamburgers… but are still good! Plus, too much Hot Pockets?

I haven’t blogged in a bit and I need to catch up. This’ll be a long one. I’ll use sub-heads.

Turkey burger party!

I made some turkey burgers tonight. Each patty is about 155 calories. Not bad, I say. When you add in a bun (I bought the lowest calorie ones I could find), I get a real, mostly homemade meal that has about as much calories as that coveted cheeseburger Lean Pocket I mention in a previous post.

The key, I think, is that you need something that will keep it all together. I did previously make one recipe that called for a half a cup of swiss cheese. Those were relatively low-calorie, too, and tasty. This time, however, I opted to put one egg in the mix instead of the cheese. So, it was pretty simple:

• 1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs (lowest calorie I could find)
• 1 lb. package of Honeysuckle, white, lean, ground turkey breast
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons dry onion flakes
• Some random seasonings, like basil and grill seasoning

I could’ve made only 4 burgers, but I made 5, and they were still plenty big. I wanted to weigh the patties to ensure they were the same size, but my scale that I bought when I used to smoke pot many year’s ago can’t handle more than 4 ounces at a time.

The taste was good. I once tried turkey burgers with nothing. That was, uh, kinda gross. These had just the right hint of flavor. I was worried it was be really dry and tough, but it was actually moist and adequately tender. I used only a teaspoon of ketchup, (add 10 calories) and some hot sauce (add 0 calories).

A new Lean Pocket… but too much sugar?

I found a new Lean Pocket I like that is even less calories than the chicken fajita one (which I mention in a previous post). It’s the meatball/mozzarella whole grain one. The meatballs aren’t as disgusting as the chunks of sausage in the supreme pizza ones and they’re only 220 each. I noticed they do weigh less than the chicken fajita ones, but I don’t know the difference — maybe my stomach does, who knows. It also has a little more sugar than I’d like.

FACT: Simple sugars cause your body to experience a spike of its insulin level, a chemical that takes glucose, or sugar, out of the bloodstream to store it as glycogen and stop use of fat as an energy source. When insulin is absent, glucose is not taken up by most body cells and the body begins to use fat as an energy source. Insulin also affects the way we experience hunger. Simple sugars, like the kind found in junk food, cause insulin levels to spike and then rapidly drop, which means you quickly become hungry again after eating. Instead, you should eat foods that allow a stable, more slowly burned insulin level, where you can stay satisfied for longer.

I went and checked all the Lean Pockets in my freezer and the ones I’ve been eating actually have more sugar. I’m gonna have to cut back on those, along with those Kashi TLC chewy bars. Simple sugars = bad. At least fructose is accompanied by the fiber and vitamins of fruit. Simple sugars are just bad, bad, bad!

I know I’m on a diet but… I’ve never been to the Cheesecake Factory before!

I went to Cheesecake Factory for the first time the other day. I ordered the Navajo. It was fucking delicious. I love fresh, thick slices of avocado. The navajo “fry bread,” which I thought looked remarkably similar to a Taco Bell chalupa crust, really propelled the whole sandwich. Obviously, it was a bad day, but, I I ate bran in the morning and split the navajo into two separate meals. I’d say my Cheesecake Factory order was at least 800 calories, if not more like 1,200, but at least I didn’t eat it all at once. Believe me, I could’ve. I know that was bad of me, but my sister was in town.

By the way, could their menu be any bigger? It was so huge, it had ads. Yes, advertisements. It was like a fucking magazine. Yet, with their huge menu, no chicken wing/finger salad. Disappointing.

Today’s total:

Foods

	Cals	Fat	Carb	Prot
Tops Fat-Free Milk, vitamin A & D ( 0.5 cup )	45	0	7	4
Tops Bran Flakes – whole wheat & bran ( 1.67 cup )	200	1	51	7
Schwebel’s American Rye seedless (1 slice) ( 4 serving )	280	2	48	8
Margherita hard salami (1 slice) ( 6 serving )	120	10	1	6
Sargento reduced-fat provolone (1 slice) ( 1 serving )	50	4	0	5
Hillshire Farm rotisserie chicken Deli Select ( 2 oz )	50	1	4	10
Sargento reduced-fat swiss (1 slice) ( 1 serving )	60	4	1	7
Lean Pockets mozzarella/meatball whole grain 1 ( 1 serving )	220	7	30	11
Kashi TLC peanut butter chewy bar ( 1 serving )	140	5	19	7
My turkey burgers (1) 7/30/2008 ( 1 serving )	155	3	8	25
Pepperidge Farm whole wheat hamburger bun ( 1 serving )	120	2	18	6
Tops Ketchup ( 0.5 tablespoon )	10	0	3	0
Total	1450	38	189	96

Activities

	Time Spent	Cals Burned
Running, 5.2 mph (11.5 min per mile)	0:17	152
Total Calories Burned		152

Please note: I was on the treadmill 50 minutes, but I don’t include walked portions. I’m slowly trying to get up there so I can run a full 40 minutes. For now, I do chunks of running with brisk walking inbetween.

My weight-loss diet: Processed crap

I haven’t posted in a little while. I went on a trip… which not only took me away from my computer, but threw me off my strict regime and I gained back what I lost in the weeks prior. Ooops.

I think the hardest part of eating so many times a day (between 6 and 8 meals/snacks — “mini-meals”) is time. I don’t really feel like I have time to prepare full-on meals. Maybe it’s laziness and a lack of time, either way, I’d rather microwave something than start pulling out pots and pans.

I generally wake up, eat some cereal (bran flakes and skim milk!), make myself two sandwiches for work, get ready for work (and check my e-mail and stuff), eat a Lean Pocket before heading out the door, and then have some microwavable soup (along with my 2 sandwiches) during my work day and probably a Kashi chewy honey almond flax bar or a handful of almonds. Then when I get home from work between 9 or 11 p.m., I want something quick and easy so I can finally just relax… so I have another Lean Pocket.

Let counts how much processed crap I am eating. The Lean Pockets, clearly. The microwavable Campbell’s Select soup and Healthy Choice soups, yep. Even the chicken I use on my sandwiches is not deli chicken but Hillshire Farms in a little vacuum-sealed package. (The free Gladware containers you get from those are useful though.)

This is my favorite kind of lean pocket: cheeseburger. Doesn’t it just sound healthy? (Sarcasm.) It’s about 280 calories, an extremely quick and somewhat tasty 280 calories. I’ve started, however, buying the chicken fajita ones because they are the lowest ones they sell at 240. (Well, the lowest I’ll eat. Maybe turkey, cheddar and broccoli is lower… but that sounds like a repugnant combination.)

It’s just easiest to count the calories on packaged foods. And they are so quick and easy. But I know they are probably filled with salt, nitrates, preservatives and crap. It’s a dilemma.

A great work-around I have found is using a slow cooker. You can throw a pork tenderloin, for example, in there without any butter or oil and when I get from work, it will be tender and falling apart. It makes great microwavable leftovers I can bring to work too. But it requires some planning and you have to measure what you put in there so you can make an educated guess to the calorie content.

Mental note: I have a slow cooker… use it.

For the hell of it. Today’s total:

Foods

	Cals	Fat	Carb	Prot
Wegman’s sushi – California (1 roll) ( 8 serving )	320	8	56	8
Tops Fat-Free Milk, vitamin A & D ( 0.55 cup )	50	0	7	4
Tops Bran Flakes – whole wheat & bran ( 1 cup )	120	1	31	4
Campbell’s select Italian Wedding (healthy request) ( 1.33 cup )	160	3	20	9
Tops original Oatmeal, instant – 1 pouch ( 1 serving )	100	2	19	4
Lean Pocket Chicken Fajita (Mex Style) ( 1 serving )	240	7	35	10
Sensible Portions multi-grain mini crisps ( 1 serving )	100	3	17	2
Lean Pockets three cheese/chicken quesadilla 1 ( 1 serving )	260	7	34	13
Almonds, unroasted ( 6 almond )	42	4	1	2
Total	1391	35	220	56

Calories Eaten Today

Total:	1391
Fat:	312
Saturated:	79
Polyunsat:	12
Monounsat:	31
Carbohydrates:	784
Protein:	223

I had more fat than protein. That’s really not ideal. I had almost 9 grams of saturated fat. That’s bad. I also had about 2800 mg of sodium, which I think is too high. I didn’t even eat 25 grams of fiber. Too low. I need more raw foods, whole grains, and less processed crap! Can I do it?!