Home Cooking Challenge- Meat Muffins

Monday night I made Janetha's (of Meals and Moves) Turkey and Spinach Meatloaves. I was afraid of flaxseed but gave it a shot anyways. I'm not sure if I should still be afraid of flaxseed, because it smells terrible but the meatloaf tasted delicious. Whether that's because flaxseed is yummy or because you can't taste the flaxseed, I don't know. Anyone have a good recipe that uses flaxseed for me to try to overcome my fear?

Next time I make these muffins I'm going to use kale instead of spinach because I'm also afraid of kale. Its funny, some people are afraid of foods full of fat. Not me though, I'm afraid of healthy food. I always have to trick myself by making my healthy food taste fattening (aka delicious)...

...Like the accompaniment to the meatloaf muffins. Inspired by Janetha, I also wanted green beans. But I hate steamed, boring green beans. As a kid I would only eat those if they were doused in Molly McButter, a powdered butter substance that I have never actually seen in a grocery store (probably passed it a million times and didn't notice) but that my mom always kept in stock. It was delicious, don't get me wrong.

But I don't have any "Molly Mick," as we used to call it, so I needed something different for my veggies.

I started with fresh green beans, and painstakingly snapped the end off every single one. Then I put those in a saucepan with a cup of water for 10 minutes- with a lid, to steam. Some of the water was still left, but I don't like mushy veggies so I drained the remaining water. If you like your beans softer, I would suggest 15-20 mins of steaming. In went 1 Tbsp of olive oil, two garlic cloves, and a liberal sprinkling of ground red pepper. These I sauteed for another 10 minutes or so, until the garlic was browned (be careful it doesn't burn!)  Meanwhile in another little pan, I toasted some almond slivers.

When the beans were done I turned off the heat, dumped in the almonds, and let sit until the muffins were ready. SO Yummy! Highly recommend you check out Janetha's recipe. I don't think it even needs ketchup, as she shows it with. They have enough flavor on their own!  I gave mine a dusting of cumin when I served them.

I fed these to my boyfriend, who gave them two thumbs up... and enjoys saying "meat muffin." Then I was eating leftovers for lunch in a meeting (scheduled over lunch, with the invitation to bring your lunch... which I kinda hate when people do that!) and everyone thought they smelled good. I didn't eat one of the muffins so I gave it to a friend in the meeting (also male) who also gave it 2 thumbs up. Definitely keepers!

Down For The Count

The calorie count, I mean. So I mentioned last week that for a while I was going to keep track of what I ate and the calories in it.  I am about to break down in excruciating mathematical detail (and no pictures) how I plan to lose the weight that's been creeping up recently. So if this is a trigger for you, or if it just bores you a lot, don't read. If you are a numbers or nutrition nerd, read on!  Also, you know, I'm not a doctor or even a dietician. I am just really good at Google-ing. So this is not medical advice. Its just math.

I hate restricting myself by going on diets. Mostly because I like food. No, I love food. My bf's parents joke that me and Dan's entire relationship is based on food. Its not untrue- we cook together, go out to dinner together, I think bringing him lunch is romantic. Since we both come from cultures of food-loving ethnic types (the only people who outshine the Jews on food as love, fun, and guilt, of course, is the Italians), food is a language of love to us. Alas, food is also how you get fat. (So does that mean fat is a language of love for us?)

I have a few motivations to tackle my weight gain: losing weight will make my clothes fit better, will make me healthier, a better runner... also I have a physical every 2 years at work to be medically  cleared to sit console & mine is coming up in August. I'd really like to show up healthier and fitter than in August 2010. The running we are doing is certainly helping, but its not enough by itself.

I have done Weight Watchers before, so I know about (doesn't mean I use) portion control, healthy substitutions, what to order at restaurants etc. I also know how all-consuming the counting becomes after awhile (calories or points, doesn't make a whole lot of difference), and how unsustainable it is for me. I don't really want to go there again.


So first, I thought I should assess my eating habits. My goals were to measure things, make good choices, eat when hungry. I didn't restrict myself, and in most cases did the calorie tally at the end of the day. The results:

Day	Calories	Exercise
Tuesday 1/10	1690	3 mile run after work
Wednesday 1/11	1625	Weight workout
Thursday 1/12	1450	4 mile run after work
Friday 1/13	2000*	None. Dan’s bday celebration
Saturday 1/14	1550	3ish mile walk/run after work
Sunday 1/15	1375	Weights workout
Monday 1/16	1570	5 mile run after work

* For Friday I had to guesstimate the calories using some Google-ing because the restaurant we went to didn't have any nutrition facts available. I did round up from search results because they weren't for the specific restaurant and ingredients; it still wasn't a terrible day, if my calorie count was anywhere close to accurate.

So then the question is, how many calories should I be eating? And this answer is not easy to come up with.  Various websites will take a stab at it though, for you.


Step 1: Calculate Basal Metabolic Rate
That is, calculate how many calories your body burns just to exist. If you lie in bed and do nothing, your body still must burn some amount of calories to keep you alive. Websites that will attempt to calculate that for you can be found here, here, and here. These sites don't take into account different body composition/muscle-mass that can cause a body to burn more or less calories than another, so they are inexact. Gotta use what you've got.

I got 2 different numbers, between those 3 sites, so I will go for the lower one: 1521.25


Step 2: Determine your Activity Level
On top of BMR is how much fuel your body needs to do all the other things you ask it to do during the day. Walking, climbing stairs, exercising... all these take energy, which means your body burns calories to do it.
Estimating activity level is, in my opinion, the hardest part. There is no concrete criteria for which category you fall into. Also it may vary from day to day, week to week. And it makes such a difference in calories allowed. Per the criteria here, the most explanatory I could find, I think I'll call it moderately active because I run (but slowly) 3x a week, with less strenuous exercise on 2-3 other days (yoga or weight training).  You can also use this website, and put in the number of hours per day you spend at each activity level and it'll do steps 1-3 for you.

Step 3: Calculate Caloric expenditure- total calories you burn in a day
Again, tons of websites will be happy to help you, such as: this and this. Since I called myself moderately active, my multiplier is 1.55.

1521.25 x 1.55 = 2358
(Note, if I bump down to light activity, this number goes down to 2091. Huge difference!)
What this number means is, if I stay active and eat this many calories per day, I should not gain or lose any weight.  But what if I want to slim down?


Step 4: Calculating ideal calorie intake
Those same sites linked above have some advice on how to calculate ideal calorie intake. The suggestion given for weight loss is to reduce the number in Step 3 by 20%.
2358 x 0.8 = 1886
(for comparison 2091 x 0.8 = 1672)

Given that it takes approximately a 3500 calorie deficit to lose a pound, eating at the calorie deficits in step 4 should yield a weight loss of ~1 lb/week. Of course, that's with no cheat days or screwing up. Or vacations. Still, reaching my weight goals within 3 months is totally possible, if I be good.


So what's the plan, man?

Sorry, I'm a BSG dork. Source.

Right, so the plan, which I have, which the Cylons really did not (Yes I am still mad, Ron Moore!), is to stop calorie counting but keep measuring. I think I have shown above that when I plan, measure, and make good choices, I can stay within my calorie allowance without a problem and post a weight loss for the week. When I don't plan or measure, well, I give you Friday the 13th. But even that didn't kill me!


I weighed myself last Tuesday morning and again this morning, to give myself a benchmark for how that amount of eating might affect my weight.
1/10 Weight: 158.2         1/17 Weight: 155.4        Difference: 2.8
I don't really expect to hit numbers like that every week because I know this is at least partially related to the holidays and last weekend's heavy drinking, but I think it still proves that these methods will have some affect. 10 pounds to go! They say the last 10 lbs are the hardest, and they are. These are not the last 10 pounds, they are the next 10 pounds. I can weigh 135 lbs, but as soon as I stop dieting, I reach 145 pretty quickly. I'm ok with it, I'm less ok with 155. It's definitely time to do something.

So the rules for my non-diet diet:

1. Measure food. Weigh food. Do not serve dinner family style. Basically, portion control. This works well for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner at home. But at restaurants...
2. Eat when hungry. Stop when full. Sounds easy but this is SO hard. For starters, I will stop halfway through any meal and ask myself whether I'm still hungry, and how much of what is left I really need to eat to be satiated. Leftovers are OK. In fact, they are encouraged!
3. 1 cheat day per week allowed. Cheat days happen, whether you allow them or not, so might as well allow them. Do not go crazy and eat everything in sight because it's cheat day. Do enjoy yourself and your meals on cheat day.
4. Limit alcohol consumption- lately I've been enjoying quite a few adult beverages, between the holidays, the wedding, and because the winter seasonals are my favorite beers. But they're such a waste of calories, so alcohol is to be used sparingly, when the occasion calls for it... not just because there's an open bottle of wine in the fridge.  I'm not going to limit myself to a number or day; I want to have a drink without guilt when the occasion arises.
5. Weigh myself twice a week (and only twice a week). If the trend goes in the wrong direction, its back to calorie counting and the giant time-suck that entails. Yes, self, that is a threat.

 Sorry that was so long. Yikes!

Training Recap (Week 5) & Tummy Troubles

Lets recap week 5 of my training plan:
Monday- No running, just wandering around the airports. We spent 7 hours traveling, and got home just in time for dinner. I threw together a dinner of grocery store rotisserie chicken and salad (ran into the grocery for 2.2 seconds to grab a chicken and a bag of lettuce). Not too shabby.
Tuesday- 3 mile run. We got out of work late (I had a class until 5) so we only had time for a short run before it got dark and cold. Then we snagged dinner at Bullritos. I pretended to be a good girl and ordered a bowl instead of a burrito. Yum! I ate about 2/3 for dinner and had the rest for lunch the next day. Lunches made of leftover dinners are my favorite!

Wednesday- I have decided we need to add weight training (inspired by tons of fit and toned bloggers who talk about its benefits) so we did a T-Rex circuit. And then Maple Glazed Salmon with Roasted Brussels Sprouts.
Thursday- 4 mile tempo run. This went well, so I was happy. Dinner was grocery store sushi with a side of edamame (I bought them frozen and heated in the microwave... super easy!):

Friday- Day off for celebrating Dan's bday!
Saturday- Work at 7am. How lame is that? No amount of space station commanding can make going to work at 7 on a Saturday seem fun, I promise. Afterwards, met with running buddy for 6 mile run. Cut run short due to dreaded tummy troubles! Bummer.
Sunday- T-ReX workout then dinner with bf after work. I wanted to take a picture to show you the T-Rex, but I don't know what to do with my face while I'm being photographed exercising. What do you do with your face?

So let's talk about tummy troubles. Saturday I had high hopes for a 6 mile run. In fact, for the first two miles, we held to a good pace, I was breathing well, and my legs felt like they had another 4 miles in them. Sadly my stomach did not have any more miles in it. If you don't like poop stories, you should probably skip the next paragraph. Its not so graphic, but some people are squeamish....

At 2.1 my stomach was not happy, so I stopped to walk. This helped.... so I started running again, which did not help! We were running on a 2.6 mile trail... it ends and starts at the same parking lot but doesn't really connect, unless you want to run through the parking lot. In the parking lot is a bathroom. So we ran/walked another 0.6 miles or so, to the bathroom. Its a trade-off between running getting you there faster and walking making your stomach feel better. Run/walk/waddle/repeat. After that I decided we should give it another go. We ran maybe 0.2 more miles, back to the start of the running trail, and I knew that was it. I was not going to make it another 2.6 miles around. So we quit after 3 miles of running and I limped back to the bathroom.  Once I stopped running I felt better, but not 100%, still both nauseous and crampy.

I must say I'm pretty bummed about this. This used to happen a lot when I first started, but in recent times has gotten better. I'm able to pretty regularly complete 4 and 5 miles runs without troubles. So what happened on this run that I only made it 2 miles?

• Food the night before? We ate chicken wings, drank alcohol, had a big, not-so-healthy hibachi dinner. 
• Food the day of? I usually run in the afternoon after work, and rarely does my breakfast or lunch bother me. But yesterday I ate lunch a little later than usual and we ran a little earlier than usual. I had egg salad w/ hummus, with sliced veggies and pita chips on the side... usually this is a good lunch, but this time it wasn't sitting right.
• Vitamin Water? Usually I drink water with lunch on run days, but Sunday I had a vitamin water zero instead. It was delicious... but maybe the artificial sweetener affected my run? I should note that I drink Diet Coke all the time (even first thing in the morning, and right before a run) and it doesn't ever bother me; stevia is supposed to be less bad for you than aspartame, but maybe I'm backwards.

I guess I need to keep a food journal and see if I can trace the tummy troubles to a common source.

In the meantime, we have now skipped both of our planned 6 mile runs for the training plan as well as cut down mileage on another run. Dan expressed that his legs felt tired and heavy on the last run. Next week was supposed to up our mileage even more, but I think we need to repeat this week of the plan before moving on. Glad I'm doing this with plenty of time before the actual race!

Friday the 13th!

This Friday the 13th was also my dear bf's birthday!  He's old now, kissing the mid-twenties goodbye.

Sadly I had to be up bright and early this morning for work (had to be at console by 7am, lamest Saturday ever) so we couldn't do alot of partying.  I am trying to keep track of calories but it wasn't so easy without nutrition facts or measuring devices available. I still attempted to make better choices, but didn't want to let that get in the way of the fun!

After work we headed out for drinks. Bf's friends chose Hooters because it is on the proper side of the highway for them to stop at on their way home from work. I am, as you might imagine, not a huge fan of Hooters. Not only for their "delightfully tacky" undergarments that pass for clothing, but also because the food is not exactly healthy.  I got a good laugh from the little "Dr. Hootie" icon in the menu supposed to indicate the healthy menu items.
We were both hungry and our dinner reservation wasn't until 7, so we ordered 10 "naked" wings. These are fried but aren't breaded... I had to bargain him down from french fries as it was, so I did the best I could.  I also had a beer. (Blue Moon, so there's totally fruit on the side, which makes it healthy!)

After some drinks with the boys (I switched to water after 1 beer) we headed over to the Kemah Boardwalk, an outdoor dining/shopping/carnival/rides area that overlooks Galveston Bay. We had dinner reservations at RED Sushi for hibachi. We were told our table wasn't quite ready, so we got drinks at the bar. I ordered the Mango Mojito which was delicious. Boyfriend ordered a Red Dragon, which sounds manly but was actually a fruity pink drink.

At our table we were seated with this family with two cute and well behaved kids. The older one was a 4 year old boy who definitely enjoyed the show. The chef told him the butter was "vanilla ice cream" so every time he added a scoop of butter to something, the kid said "Ice cream!" I like that kid.

Me, I'm just here for the fire!

(And the food, of course...)

Soup:

Salad:

Rice: (I ordered steamed rice to try to be a little healthier, but the fried rice had soybeans in it so I stole a bean or two from Dan. Yum!)

Dinner (clockwise: steamed rice, teriyaki chicken, shrimp, and veggies!) :

Since it was Dan's birthday I told him he should go big. He got a combo with a lobster tail. They popped it out of the shell and cut it up to cook, but then stuck it back in the shell to eat. Yum!

Our leftovers went into one box for Dan, since it was his party after all, but I am a little ashamed to say I ate all my meat and hardly any veggies before packing it up. That's backwards! At least I packed up over half the rice. Still, it was a delicious dinner with a wonderful boy. Happy Birthday Dan! (He doesn't like to be in pictures, and I have to let him this time, since it's his birthday...) Now I'm in Mission Control holding down the fort until 4, then heading off for a 6 (eek!) mile run.

Maple Salmon and Brussels Sprouts

Whew, this week is going by so fast. Tuesday we went for a run after work and then I went to a meeting for an organization I am in. I didn't get home until 10, but on my way there (since it was downtown) I stopped at the fancy Trader Joes-type grocery story Rice Epicurean. I picked up some quinoa and lentils (hard to find out in the suburbs) for future cooking experiments.
Wednesday we did a weights workout on the TRX. My boyfriend's brother is a personal trainer and hooked him up with this contraption, which I call T-Rex. I am still not sure how I feel about the T-Rex. Its obviously convenient and a space saver- a whole gym in a few straps. But for me, with very little upper body strength, I can't do alot of the moves. Also for the ones I can do, I'm not sure I'm doing it right. It doesn't encourage good form the way the real gym machines do. I'm willing to give it a few more tries. Anyone out there have some experience/tips for the TRX?

We also made dinner. Though these recipes were picked out by my boyfriend, I'm counting them in the 2012 Home Cooking Challenge because a) I helped! and b) I'm so short on time this week I kinda have to, or blow it in week 2.

Both recipes were from AllRecipes.com and both were huge keepers!

Maple Salmon and Roasted Brussels Sprouts

The best thing about the recipes is that they were SO easy, but didn't taste like it! The maple sauce on the fish was absolutely amazing. We are out to find out what else we can cook in maple glaze. For the sprouts we added a chopped garlic clove to the recipe, and those also came out excellent. I never thought I would say this, but Brussels sprouts are rapidly replacing broccoli as my favorite vegetable. Also added a toasted roll, because I like carbs.

Another thing I'm doing this week is keeping track of my calories. I am trying to determine if its enough for me to eat mindfully, measure, and keep my inner snack monster under control... or if I need to restrict more in order to reach my weight loss goals. Full report on that in a few days.