Tuesday 9/13/2011

9/13/2011
Breakfast (8:15 AM)

This is a great looking breakfast!  I tend to prefer blueberries and blackberries to raspberries, but these were on sale and ended up being quite ripe and delicious. This is exactly the type of breakfast I like to eat and makes me feel the best throughout the morning.

• Raspberries and Quaker Oatmeal Squares stirred into Chobani Strawberry 0% Greek Yogurt.

• Black Coffee

• Total Estimated Calories: 300

Lunch (12:15)

Ahhhh, Cafeteria lunch.  Most options today were a bit nausea-inducing.  This is mexican lasagna, a dish that sounds promising (and I've had good versions elsewhere) but ends up tasting like someone just got confused and used salsa instead of tomato sauce...a bit confused, but edible.

• "Mexican" Lasagne

• Salad with honey mustard

• Cookie

• Black Coffee

• Total Estimated Calories: 500

9/12/11

9/12/11

Breakfast (8:15 AM)

• Oatmeal Squares with 90 calorie Silk Pure Coconut Milk 

•  Coffee with light cream.

This is a very average breakfast for me. I love Silk Pure Coconut cause I finally have something to pour on my cereal.  I'm not lactose intolerant, but I have always hated milk.  This provides a nice low-cal substitute that isn't so thick and gross to me. Coffee is a given.  

• Estimated Total Calories: 300 

Snack (11:00 AM)

Couldn't hold out.  Too many good snacks in the office.  I chose carrots and hummus, one of the healthier ones at least.

• Carrots & Roasted Red Pepper Hummus (about 160 calories)

Lunch (12:30 PM)

The negative side of my 11:00 AM snacking is  that I wasn't really hungry come lunchtime and nothing looked appetizing. Didn't finish the salad, but put a decent dent in it.  Probably should have opted for something healthier than honey mustard, but a little can't hurt (right?).  I hope I remedied at least some of those calories with the apple in place of dessert.

• Small salad with Honey Mustard dressing

• English Muffin with butter

• Green Apple

• Total Estimated Calories: 400

Snack (4:00 PM)

Yeah. I ate so many more of these than are pictured.  Work-related busy snacking.  I shouldn't ever keep food of my desk.  I was hungry when I started eating, but not so much so that I should have inhaled so many of these suckas.  What should I say?  They're damn good and can't possibly be that awful.

• Athenos Whole Wheat Pita Chips

• Total Estimated Calories: 250

Dinner (7:45ish)

More soup yum-o! this was totally a two- part dinner.

• 
  
• chicken tortellini soup
• chiobani strawberry 0%
• raspberries
• mini milky-way
• Total Estimated Calories: 450

9/2/11

Breakfast (8:05)

I didn't realize how yellow this breakfast looked until I saw the picture just now.  I think if I would have used one of my cobalt blue fiesta bowls it would have looked a bit better, but still, fruits & grains out the wazoo.  These are Kroger brand blueberry mini-wheats, and they're pretty goddamn delicious.  I don't usually eat cereal "wet", but this coconut milk might become a permanent addition to my breakfast.  Bananas are a fruit that I don't often reach for on their own but high in potassium and what not.  

• Mini-wheats with Coconut "milk"

• Banana

• OJ

Snack (11:00)

Leftover Cookies!  Couldn't resist.  Coffee good since I'm sleepy and  didn't drink any this morning. I'll have to skip a dessert at lunch

• Coffee & Cookie.

Lunch (12:30)

• Salad with chickpeas, tomatoes, carrots, green peppers and olive oil & basalmic

• Chicken Stir-fry

• two plums

9/1/11

9/1/11
Breakfast: (8:25)
Wow, I woke up late.  Still, I try to eat something 'cause I know it's good for me, my metabolism, etc.  Luckily I still had some blueberries left over and soymilk in the fridge.  I slap some peanut butter on a waffle and call it a day.  No coffee until I get to the office (we'll see...maybe no coffee there either.) 

• Silk Chocolate Soy Milk Light

• Multigrain Waffle with Peanut Butter

• 1/2 carton of Blueberries

Lunch (12:15ish)

It's Chili day (holler!)  D&E Chili is notably decent.  You may notice my salad has no lettuce:  I do this on days when the salad mix is predominately iceberg, which is great on sandwiches but completely tasteless in salad form (nothing makes my stomach churn quite like an iceberg salad with ranch dressing...ugh, so white and gross). Black plums are underrated, and I'm always excited to see plums on the line with the apples, oranges, and bananas and other "normal" fruits.  

• Chili with cheddar cheese and corn chips

• green pepper & carrots with honey mustard

• 2 plums

Snack (5:30)

because nothing compliments delicious roasted red pepper hummus like barbecue chips.  Not my best choice (in taste or nutrition.)  I wanted hummus and the Barbecue chips were the only quasi-acceptable vessel for the hummus that I had in the house.  Separated out about a serving so that I didn't end up binging on chips on my way to a BBQ.  At least the hummus has a lot of protein.

• Barbecue chips and hummus

Dinner (6:45)

Theatre Department cookout, and Becky Hackman can do some serious cooking.  This is plate one of two that were pretty similar.  Spinach dip is my kryptonite.  I go back for seconds, and eat some peaches dipped in chocolate fondue.  I give myself a B+ for choices and a C- for portion control.  Oh yeah, and a big 'ol (much needed) Glass of red wine.

8/31/11

 

Wednesday 8/31/11
Breakfast (7:45 AM)

• Black Coffee

• Chobani Strawberry Greek Yogurt

• Blueberries (1/2 container)

Sure, why not. Healthy, tasty, but at 11:00 I'm wishing it was more filling.

"Snack" (11:10 AM)
Yup.  Starving.  The word "snack" is in quotes cause I don't think this should count, but I'm reporting it anyway because it has calories (a whopping 20 of them).  Not filling by any stretch of the imagination, but it takes the edge off a little bit at least.

• Emergen-C Tangerine 

Lunch (12:45)
Another D&E Cafeteria staple.  Some sort of beef cooked down in a sweet/spicy sauce and served over rice.  I grabbed a bowl of fruit salad from the salad bar too. And a coffee. And a plum.

• Beef quasi stir-fry

• honeydew, cantalope & banana 

• plum

• coffee

This was a pretty solid, average cafeteria meal.  I find the "Fiesta" station generally serves food that seems marginally healthy.  The other station was serving alfredo or something that looked creamy/scary.  Salad bar had some unappealing iceburg. 

Snack (5:30)
This photo makes this look very unappatizing.  A few pretzel pieces and granola gems to help power me through my workout (Elliptical and Strength Training). And some delicious, delicious water.  Nice Carb-y goodness.

• pretzels & granola

Dinner (8:15)

This soup is SO awesome, and just screams Fall/Winter in the Young house to me.  Tortelleni and TONS of vegetables in chicken stock and tomato sauce.  So delicious and thick. We make a big pot and it usually lasts a few days.  Sometimes we re-boil it and add in new veggies after we pick the other ones out.  I dig this Coconut Milk Beverage Jillian Michaels always goes on about.  90 calories, vaguely sweet, and not as disgusting/creamy as milk.

• Veggie Soup
• Coconut "milk"

8/30/11

Tuesday, 8/30/2011
Breakfast, 8:15 AM


This is about the time I normally eat breakfast on workdays.  I'm trying to cut back on my caffeine intake (well I'm trying not to drink soda at all and have only a few cups of coffee a day.) So far I've only had one cup of coffee, which is pretty damn good for me. I haven't really missed soda.

• Coffee with cream

• Chobani Strawberry Greek Yogurt (0%)

• Multigrain Waffle with 1 TBSP Peanut Butter (fucking real peanut butter- JIF!)

• Total estimated calories:340

A practical, protein-rich breakfast.  Quick & Easy and not crazy unhealthy.

Snack (11:15ish)

• a slightly bruised but still kickin' nectarine. 
• Estimated calories: 60

Even thought I usually take lunch at around 12:30, I always get so hungry mid-morning.  Sometimes I just suffer through, but I've found if I have a little snack I'm not nearly as ravenous when I finally make it to the cafeteria for lunch, where I tend to make some of my more questionable food choices. 


Lunch (12:20)

This is Tinga de Pollo Tostada,  referred to 'round these parts as simply Tinga, possibly one of the best things to regularly appear in the D&E dining hall.  Definitely not my best choice nutritionally (there is a bonus fried flour tortilla under that heap of meat and sugary red chile sauce!) but it's damn delicious, and if you get only a small portion it can't be that bad (right?)  Anyway, I didn't add any of the shredded cheddar or sour cream, so I have to imagine that it's slightly better than it could be.  I temper the possible damage with some watermelon in place of dessert.

• Tinga de Pollo- chicken with green onion, tomatoes and red chile sauce on a fried tortilla

• Watermelon

• Total Estimated calories:550

Eh, could be worse.  My other choices were Corndog and Mac & Cheese or yet another salad from the usually mediocre salad bar.

Snack (5:30)
This is the result of going to the store absolutely starving.  Both of these snacks are a little "confused" in my opinion.  I buy these little fruit drinks all the time cause they are healthy and don't bruise when I throw them in my purse, but the little bits of fruit are a little cumbersome.  I suppose you are supposed to drink it slowly instead of gulp it down in a few big drinks and get little pieces of blueberry lodged in your esophagus.  Pretty tasty though.  The Granola/nut clusters are a "good in theory" food, but why the hell not just make a salty/sweet crunchy bar or just buy some damn honey-roasted peanuts?  Still, tasty, pretty healthy. I was making a lasagna and wanted some energy before my run.  

• Fruit 2Day Pomegranate Blueberry
• Granola/nut clusters
• Total estimated calories 270.

Dinner (7:30)
This was delicious and I destroyed it. First lasagna I ever made.  I got the Eggplant Lasagna recipe from Prevention, but modified it a bit when I was walking around the produce section.  I am really drawn to the idea of taking traditionally meat-y dishes and making them veggie.  Not that I'm anti-meat, I just don't eat a ton of it.  Chicken or fish a lot more often than a steak.

• Eggplant, spinach & Portabello Lasagna

• Spinach salad with avocado, hot peppers, and basalmic vinegar.

• Estimated total calories: 650.  I ate the shit out of this.

Cocktails (9:00ish-10ish)

This is where the night starts to head a bit south.  Unanticipated double martini night. Vodka with a twist.  I'm usually a gin drinker, but we were fresh out.  This blurry shot represents my mental state.  I ended up doing a bit of snacking too. 

• 2 martinis

• assorted snacking

• total estimated calories: 400

8/29: I Start With Dinner

Dinner 8/29/11
5:45ish

• Romaine Salad topped with a Rotisserie Chicken Breast, 1/2 an avacado, grape tomatoes, croutons, and a bit of honey dijon (the real stuff...not "light" not "low"...real fucking dressing)

• Sweet Potato Spears with butter (real fucking butter), sea salt, and red pepper flakes

• White Nectarine 

• Sparkling Water

This is a pretty average dinner for me.  It's quick and easy to throw together at the end of a long day when I don't want to spend forever cooking. I should admit that I didn't finish the salad and picked a lot of the "good stuff" off the top before disposing of about half of the soggy, dressing-drenched lettuce.  All in all, not bad.  Colorful, at least.

The Birth of a Photo Food Blog

I'm not sure if I had heard of a photo diet before I decided to make one, or if I only discovered that they already existed through multiple failed attempts to claim a blogger URL related to pictures and food and health and diet.  Maybe I somehow absorbed the idea through one of the insipid women's magazines that I love and hate at the same time.  You know, the ones that offer health and fitness advice to people who don't have real lives outside the gym/kitchen/Whole Foods Market/ridiculous hot yoga studio.  Health advice for people with the same depth as a saltine cracker.


How I decided to keep a photo food blog is another story entirely. I am what I refer to as a bi-polar eater; 15 days of any given month, I eat near-perfectly making sure my plate has plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables, and lean proteins.  The other 15 days of that same month, I exhibit some pretty bad habits: you know, skipping breakfast and lunch, downing eight beers and going to freaking town on a bag of whatever snack food comes my way.  I used to be able to feel fine no matter what I ate, but now, as I get older, I don't seem to bounce back as quickly as I used to.  What used to be fixed with a couple of ibuprofen and a few glasses of ice water now takes hours, sometimes days to feel right again.  I used to wake up after wild nights with a headache and sometimes a few embarrassing wrongs to rectify, but never seriously worse for the wear, however now I wake up feeling (and looking) like death.  My skin sucks, I'm bloated, and I feel awful.  I decided that my lifestyle (a touring musician who enjoys beer and partying and late nights and everything that goes along with that) will maybe never really mesh with my health-nut bent, but perhaps I could feel a little better by working on what actually fuels my body: food.


 Being a visual person, I decided I wanted a visual account of what I was putting into my body.  Perhaps having to pull out my phone and photograph every nosh will have me rethinking late night calories, skipping meals, and other bad food habits that are detrimental to my health.  We'll see how it goes...