Last of the Summer Corn

Summer is gone.  Autumn is here.  It's a good time to start all over again, in a sort of back to school sort of way.  

The UNFATTENING fell by the wayside this summer.  There were trips and fun food and festivals.  Then came the stress and crazy days at work.  Time flew by without weigh-ins, let alone keeping track of what I ate each day.  

But we must keep going.  Mustn't mull over the past.  Learn from it and move on. 

However, the one thing that I will miss from this summer was the ridiculously fresh corn I'd get from Kerry's farm.  Kerry and family would get up at 5am to pick corn and sell it that day.  Some days they'd have so much, I'd end up buying dozens.  That evening I'd boil and shuck and freeze for later use.

The muffins were good, but my absolute favorite preparation was what Ottolenghi calls fresh corn polenta, otherwise known to the less sophisticated as creamed corn.  And if you really want to get right to it, it's a way to shovel as much of those sweet kernels into your face hole as efficiently as possible. 

Fresh corn polenta with king oyster mushrooms

Extreme closeup of utter deliciousness

You really do have to use fresh corn off the cob for this, because you really need every drop of that milky corn goodness you get when you run the back of the knife against the cob after cutting the kernels off.  I'd also prepare this with regular dried polenta and enjoy it a great deal, especially since wild mushrooms are great in the fall, but it's a completely different animal.  

I'm actually really sad that I won't have this again until next summer.  If I hadn't used up all my frozen corn already, I would have been able to enjoy the taste of a summer memory in the crisp autumn air.  I'll have to plan better next year.   You live, you learn.

Fresh corn polenta with king oyster mushrooms

6 cups freshly shucked corn (or some that you've boiled, shucked, and frozen)

4 oz cream cheese

salt 

pepper

1tsp freshly ground nutmeg

1 tsp fresh thyme (optional)

1/2 Tbs sugar (optional)

1 package of king oyster mushrooms

salt

pepper

sherry or stock

For the corn:

1) Place the corn in a large pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil and cook for about ten minutes.  If using already cooked, frozen corn, just heat the corn in the pot with a little liquid so the bottom doesn't burn. 

2) Take the pot off the heat.  With a stick blender, process until most of the kernels have turned to mush, but not all because texture is nice.  

3) Add the cream cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.   Mix well.  If the mixture is too thick, add a little water or stock. Stir in the thyme.  If the corn is kind of bland (perhaps it was sitting on your counter for a while before you cooked it), add the sugar.

For the mushrooms:

1) Wash the mushrooms well just before use.

2) Slice the mushrooms into 1/8 inch rounds.  

3) Place slices into a pan of 1Tbs of olive oil on medium high heat.  Toss the slices in the olive oil , salt and pepper, then arrange into a single layer.  

4) Sear the mushrooms until golden brown.  Flip each mushroom over and sear the other side.  Yes, it's fiddly and yes you need tongs, but it's worth it to do it right.  Nobody likes slimy mushrooms.  You may have to do this in batches if you don't have the biggest pan in the world.   Just set the cooked ones on a plate while you finish the rest.

5) Place all of your mushrooms back in the pan.  Deglaze the pan with sherry or stock.  Let the liquid reduce to about half and coat the mushrooms with the glaze.  

Serve the corn in a bowl and top with the mushrooms.  Try not to inhale it through your nose while you gobble it down. 

Hawt Dawgs at GAHD

Deep in an industrial office park in Gaithersburg, there sits a tiny little store with a vinyl banner sign hanging over the door. That banner reads "Greatest American Hot Dogs".  

This is their menu.  

The hot dogs are the good quality kind that snap when you bite into them, so already they are something to go out of your way for. Lucky for me, perhaps unlucky for THE UNFATTENING, it's really close to my house.  

These are the hot dogs and half smokes and sausages I have met and/or consumed.

DC half smoke and West Virginia.  Being raised in the DC area, of course I had to try the half smoke with chili.  I was not disappointed in the least.  The WVa is apparently particularly popular.  (Though Laura says pretty much everything on the menu gets ordered evenly.  And yes, I know the proprietor's name.  And she knows mine. Shut up.)  I love slaw on a hot dog.

Boston and Florida and onion rings.

Boston has baked beans, naturally. Hot dogs and beans are good friends. Florida is bacon wrapped and topped with a fried egg and cheese. No idea if this is popular in Florida.  Makes a damn fine heart attack for a breakfast, though.

Ballston and Idaho.  The Ballston is just a Boston with a half smoke instead of a hot dog.  Idaho is topped with potato salad.  I figured if I like slaw on a hot dog, potato salad must be pretty good too. It is.

Maui has thin slices of fried Spam and a delicious sweet and spicy pineapple habanero salsa.

Seattle Grunge is sriracha spicy but balanced with cooling slices of cream cheese.  Apparently they love cream cheese on their dogs out there.  This was definitely a flavor explosion.  And it's so pretty! Like it's topped with confetti.  

Dupont slaw half smoke.  Had to have their half smoke again, it's so good.  Tasty made tastier with a side of tater tots.

495 beltway is wrapped in bacon and dressed like a sandwich.  No idea why it's called a 495 but I won't say 'no' to a bacon wrapped dog.  It's a good choice if you want to be able to really taste how great a bacon wrapped hot dog is.

Miami choripan is a spicy chorizo topped with super garlicky chimichurri nestled in a buttered and grilled roll.  Bring mints. Or just don't make out immediately after consuming this.  You've had enough oral stimulation anyway.

You can also get sides that you'd usually get at a fair.  In addition to tater tots and onion rings, I've tried these:

Fried pickle spears with angel sauce (like thousand island).  Good if you like your fried pickles this way.  I actually prefer chips to spears but I had to try these.

Whirly fry is crispy like potato chips...

But you can soften it up a bit when you cover it in chili and cheese.  Then you can die happy.  

Everything I've had at GAHD has been totally worth every bite.  Expect an update because my friends and I will get through the whole menu, even if it kills us.  Which wouldn't be too surprising.  But it'll be fun on a bun!

I wish I had a corn muffin

 Good morning.  It's been awhile, I know.  Have a corn muffin. 

Made from fresh corn grown by a friend.  Made sure to scrape off all the corny goodness.  And make sure to process your corn the same day you get it (which happens to be the same day it was picked) for maximum sweetness retention.  You can freeze the extras for later.  

Served with homemade butter. Not my home, but the same home that grew the corn.  Crazy delicious.

I actually made these a couple weeks ago.  They were fantastic. The recipe is Dory Greenspan's. My only change was that instead of using corn oil, I used bacon grease.  It gave the muffins a nice smoky bacony flavor without detracting from the sweet, wonderful corn.

That is all for now.

I am a food nerd

I'm giddy like a school girl over finding and purchasing this new book, A History of Food in 100 Recipes by William Sitwell.  It's part cookbook and part history book- two things I nerdily love but don't know nearly enough about.  Many of you know I have volunteered as a historical reenactor at a Federalist era mansion as part of the kitchen guild.  I would dress up like it was 1832 and cook seasonally over an open hearth.  All recipes (or receipts, as they were called way back when) were from American sources from 1845 and earlier, which meant a lot of Eliza Leslie and Mary Randolph. I haven't volunteered in a while for various reasons - busy schedule, laziness, for a while with my knee injury I didn't feel safe near an raging fire wearing a long skirts, AND I no longer fit in the dress my grandmother made for me (it's too big now!). But I loooove culinary history.  I love knowing why we eat the things we do and how they came about.  If anyone is interested in going to talks by the Culinary Historians of Washington a.k.a CHOW (how clever!), let me know.  I've yet to go to one.  See the above reasons.

I also hope this will get me back in the kitchen with recipes to try.  I know cooking at home is cheaper and healthier for THE UNFATTENING, but it's hard to keep the number of servings I eat under control when I cook enough for a family of 6.

Anyways, I'm excited about my newest addition to my beloved food book collection (I possess few pieces of literature or novels, but I do have an excellent array of food books.  They are my weakness.)  The first recipe is Ancient Egyptian bread from 1958 BC. Squee!

Weigh-In Wednesday: Week 12

The split second before the battery in my scale died this morning I saw that I had lost 0.6lbs this week.  I'm still 0.2 lbs heavier than I was a few weeks ago before the big binge, but it's still a downward trend, and I'll take it!

I do feel like I haven't lost a good amount of weight in a while, just sort of lingering around -15lbs.  But to that I say,"Shut up! This is hard".

I need to work on eating out less.  It's making THE UNFATTENING!!!!!! harder than it really needs to be.  And I'll save money!

Which is good, because last week I purchased my UNFATTENING!!!! charm bracelet. I finally found one that was long enough for my enormous tree trunk of a wrist.  It's a gold chain with a lobster claw clasp so it will always fit.

If you recall, I wanted a tangible, long lasting reminder of this journey.  For every 10lb loss, I'll be getting a new charm.  The pretty little heart and key is for my first 10lbs.  I'm currently at -15.6lbs, so (hopefully) not too long until I get another. I don't want to say how many charms I plan to get, but when I do finish THE UNFATTENING!!! and move on to THE MAINTENANCE!!!!!!!, I'll be damn proud to have each and every one of them.

Saving money on dining out will also allow me to have more massages.  On Saturday, I got one from one of those Magic Health places in the mall.  You know, the ones where you keep all your clothes on and some Chinese person uses their elbows to dig into your bones.  Amaaaazing pain, in a good way :)   

Jewelry, massages...oh non-food indulgences, I love you, too!

Food Porn

There isn't really any content in this post, just food porn. Enjoy!

Food pics from Bernaise courtesy of Sireen.  My phone camera was not doing well in the low light.

 Start the meal with bread with soft butter and whole grain mustard.  

A little pot of foie (FWAH! like a kung fu master) gras with toast and cherries.  Not enough toast, good thing we still had bread (see above).

Flat iron steak and frites (FRYTES!) with bernaise sauce.  This was Sireen's dinner. Blurry, but delicious!  All three of us at dinner (a Muslim, a Jew, and a Catholic walk into a steakhouse at 8pm during Ramadan is the beginning of a joke I need to figure out one day) had the flat iron but got different sauces. Sireen got the bernaise, Nikki got the bordelaise, and I got the au poivre.  I think next time I'd get the bordelaise.  Bordelaise is a red wine reduction and I think the sweetness and acidity go very well with the savory hunk of beef and fries.  The fries were fluffy and crisp and very tasty and unlimited!    Bernaise also does poutine and fries with duck confit that I'd like to try next time.

Dessert of ice cream profiteroles and dark chocolate sauce and by then the lights had really dimmed.  The ice cream was sooo smooth and creamy, fitting for a guy who makes awesome milkshakes two doors down. If we weren't so full we would have licked the the chocolate out of the boat.  And the choux was the crispiest I've ever had.  So good.  

On Friday I had dinner with Federica.  We went to Not Your Average Joe's.  I've now switched to a different camera app that does better in low light.  It also records sound for still photos. Weird.

Dangerous watermelon sangria.  I could drink about a million and a half of these.

Founder's Flounder - pan fried flounder on spinach and shaved fennel tossed in a lemon vinaigrette and topped with a tomato, feta, and olive relish.  SO. GOOD.  Definitely not something you usually see on a casual American restaurant menu, but it was so good I would try to make this at home. I don't often eat fennel, but I think this dish has made me a convert.

I apologize if I've made you hungry.


You're right. I'm not sorry.

Weigh-in Wednesday: Week 11

Let's get the stats out of the way.  This week I lost 3.4lbs.  Not all of the weight I gained last week, but I also felt super bloated this morning.  Note  to self: do not eat pizza and skip working out on Tuesday nights unless you want to bum yourself out on Weigh-in Wednesday. I think I'll have a more accurate number next week, as long as I stay on track.

So right now, the total loss is 15lbs. 

I need some motivation.  This month has been pretty slow. Work and life have been pretty stressful so focusing on being healthy is quite a challenge.  I felt pretty good about THE UNFATTTENING this week, but I could have done better. I've mentioned before that blogging is great motivation, but I'm not even sure sometimes if people are reading. So if you all have any motivation tips, leave a comment! Or just talk to me, whatevs. 

I hope this isn't true here at Worthy Mouthful.  If it is, why are you here?? I don't eat sad food anyway.  And this is not a diet, remember? It's THE UNFATTENING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I tend to have one big pig out meal a week.  Definitely not sad.  Unfortunately things add up quick. So, I have to be careful for the rest of the week. Alternatively, I could spread out my gluttony a little each day, but that only seems to work out when I don't have dinner dates to fabulous food places.

Last week it was a trip to Eden, a.k.a. land of all the delicious Vietnamese food in Falls Church, Va.  I don't know what most of the things are, so I have to try them.  The other half are fried or covered in rice and ridiculously delicious, haha.

Tonight I went to the new Spike Mendelsohn steakhouse, Bernaise.  I had a French 75 cocktail, bread and butter and mustard  (is that a French thing?), vichyssoise, foie gras pate with cherries on toast, an 8 oz flat iron steak au poivre, fries, and an ice cream profiterole.  It was decadent and delicious and worth every Calorie, especially since I spent it with good company. Sorry, no pics right now.  Restaurant lighting is terrible for food pics.  Ironic, I guess.  Or just a bummer.  Dammit, Alanis, I don't even know anymore.  Either way, I'm going to have to watch myself carefully the rest of the week.  

Eating out doesn't have to be a total Calorie bomb though.  Especially if I order the fish.  With all the sweltering heat we've been having, I've been in the mood for seafood. Here are a couple good ones:

Perfectly medium rare grilled salmon "salade nicoise" from Cafe Deluxe. 

Yeah, it's a salad.  But the salmon was goooood.  And this salad has olives, eggs, and potatoes.  You can possibly win a friend with this salad. 

Mahi mahi tacos from Dogfish Head Ale House.  

I'd prefer corn tortillas and that's way more sour cream than I needed. But there actually wasn't toooooo much rice on this plate, so it was nice not to have enough food to feed a family of four to take home.

However, the best way to stay on track is to cook at home.  The one thing of note I made last week (other than the french toast) was this:

Yogurt and cilantro grilled chicken, saffron onion rice, and an herb yogurt sauce

Here's the sort of recipe.  I say sort of because I was totally just winging this.  It was pretty tasty.

Yogurt and cilantro grilled chicken

2 chicken breasts, 1 inch cubes

small handful of cilantro, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbs garam masala

salt

pepper

Mix all this stuff together.  Marinate overnight.  Don't do it longer because it'll have a really weird texture. Trust me. I think the acid in the yogurt will start to 'cook' the chicken and strange things happen.

Skewer onto bamboo skewers and scrape off excess marinade. Grill them on each side until the internal temp is 175degF.  If it keeps raining every evening, then just broil them.  Sad, but it will suffice.

Saffron rice

half of an onion, diced

a pinch of saffron

1/2 cup basmati rice

salt

Sweat the onion in about half a Tbs of olive oil and a little salt.  When translucent, add the rice.  Toast the rice until opaque and a little bit golden.  To a cup of warm water, add the saffron and mix well.  Add the saffron water to the rice. Add another cup of warm water or stock. Add a fat pinch of salt. Bring to a boil then lower the heat to simmering. Stir the rice once then cover and let cook for 15-20 minutes or until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender.  

Herb Yogurt sauce

small handful of parsley, minced

small handful of cilantro, minced

(a little mint would be nice too but I didn't have any)

2 green onions, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

juice from half a lime

1 cup yogurt

salt

pepper

Mix it all together. Add water to thin it out to your desired consistency.

Plate all of these things onto a plate in a very photogenic way.  Then when you're done taking pics, mix the rice, chicken, and yogurt all together and shovel it into your face.  Enjoy!

I made this!: French toast

Good morning!  It's been a while since I've posted about actual food.  So I decided to share my breakfast with you.  Well, not really, because I only made one serving.  But, I'll share a recipe.  Or a process, because, as you'll see, it's not really a recipe.

I kind of wanted pancakes or waffles, but I didn't want to make too many and end up eating them all.  So, I made French toast.  There is no recipe for French toast. You just dip bread in a milk and egg wash and cook it. Ta-Da! Everything else is winging it.

Put an egg yolk and some milk in a pie plate. I highly recommend to only use the egg yolk, not the egg white.  Egg whites will make your French toast sulfurously stinky. 

After whisking the egg and milk together, add some stuff.  I added a pinch of damn good cinnamon, a dash of vanilla, a pinch of salt, and some sweetener.  You know...some.  A tablespoon maybe?  Don't worry how much because you'll probably douse the toast in syrup later anyway.  Whisk up all that stuff.

Dip yo' bread in it.  Don't let it sit there.  Just dip and flip.

Non-stickify your non-stick pan with some butter, oil, or cooking spray and cook the toast over medium-ish high heat until splotchy brown on both sides.

I don't have any plated pics because French toast gets all floppy and sad looking on a plate.  Plus all this fussing with the photos was kind of annoying and the toast was getting cold.  (I don't foresee too many of these play-by-play posts.  They kind of take the fun out of cooking.)  But I ate these with home made black raspberry jam/sauce and they were tasty!

So...yeah, that was breakfast.  Not life changing, but I figured you might like to know what sort of breakfast I like to eat on a weekend of the UNFATTENING.  Have a happy weekend!

Weigh-In Wednesday: Week 10

It's Weigh-In Wednesday Week 10!!!  And I did it by taking a break.  I ate in excess. I ate lots of restaurant food with all the hidden Calories. I did not track every bite.  In fact, one day, I didn't track at all.  And what did I get?  A 4.2lb GAIN.

I mean, that's like, impressive. Like I tried hard to gain that much weight.  Obviously not all of it is fat, but still, WOW.

Full disclosure: it is also PMSing time.

But let me tell you, the gain has motivated me to try hard to get back on track.  

So has deciding to be totally honest here on this blog about it.  I felt ashamed and wanted to skip this week's Weigh-In Wednesday post.  But that's contrary to the whole idea of this blog.  Going public, good or bad, is what will keep me going. 

In addition, I don't really have any cravings left.  My cravings now are actually vegetables and salmon, so I'm ready to eat more healthily.

There is some actual support for taking a diet break.  There are so many, I trust you can google them yourself.  But my favorite bit of reasoning (rationalizing?) is psychological.  When you intentionally go on a break, your diet is better off in the long run.  If you're in control, you acknowledge you are not going to 'diet' or UNFATTEN for a period, and it's not too hard to refocus and continue on with the long term goal.  This is different from falling of the bandwagon and feeling out of control and defeated.  Then it's pretty much impossible to get back on. 

With the amount of weight I'd like to lose, I'm looking at an active UNFATTENING for the next 1 to 2 years.  SEVEN HUNDRED DAYS of UNFATTENING.  That's a lot of days!  Even though I've chosen a method of UNFATTENING that isn't very restrictive, it takes up a lot of time.  I track everything.  I fuss over how much each meal costs in terms of WW points and weigh the pros and cons of eating this over that. Can you imagine thinking about some other hobby 3-6 times a days?  I am kind of sad that this break is adding time to the 1-2 years, but if it keeps me from totally giving up, I'm allowed a break, I think.

I am not defeated.

Eat all the things!

I'm in the middle of the 10th week of THE UNFATTENING and I am not even trying. 

Blame the stress.  Blame the hormones.  It's part emotional eating.  It's part "there is delicious food surrounding me".  I feel like I need to get this binge out of my system and then I'll get back to 'normal'.

I've had fast food tacos, incredible donuts, pastries, butter laden cobbler, fried chicken, cheeseburger, pizza, etc.  Not that any of those things are inherently bad, but I didn't eat any of that because I was hungry. And none of it was in moderation.  Purely hedonistic.  OM NOM NOM ALL THE THINGS JUST BECAUSE.

Anybody got tips on how to deal with emotional eating?

Sigh.

Not sure what the damage will be, but I can get back on track in the morning. All that stuff is in the past.  Let's move on. Tomorrow is a new day.

Weigh-In Wednesday: Week 9

We may be back on track, ladies and gents.  In the 9th week of THE UNFATTENING!!! DUN!!! DUN!!! DUUUHHHNNNN!!!!!! I lost 1.4lbs.  I'm now at a total of 15.8lbs lost.  

Pretty good :)

Not eating all the food in the world makes a difference!  Eating more meals at home makes a huge difference.  And sometimes you gotta eat crap and too much of it.  Because you'll learn from it and your other good habits will make it okay in the long run.

I'm starting to actually notice some differences even if I can't really see them when I look in the mirror.  Of course, I noticed my clothes fit looser.  But I can actually tell there is a little less belly between me and the steering wheel when driving to work.  The best compliment I've gotten so far has been, "I can tell you're losing weight. But not so much in your boobs." Haha, let's hope it stays that way.   

I went shopping this weekend to find the "charm bracelet of weight loss landmarks" that I've mentioned before.  Despite my losses, I still have mythical beast sized wrists and honestly I couldn't find a bracelet that would fit properly.    Also, it needs to be made of a precious metal and not have plating because I want it to last a long time.  On top of that, the charms available in all the jewelry stores weren't particularly inspiring.  And as for all those Pandora bead style bracelets?  BLECH.  I could make my own bracelet, but isn't working on THE UNFATTENING enough work?  And I'm wondering about the longevity of a bracelet with little dangly parts anyway.  So maybe, a charm bracelet isn't really what I want.  But I think it would be nice to have some sort of small, tangible reminder of this journey, just not a charm bracelet.  I have a few more pounds until I hit -20lbs and should commit to something.  

I am very happy with how the blog is motivation to stay with THE UNFATTENING.  So thanks for reading, even if you're just lurking.  

Naps > Exercise

This week I slept. On the July 4th holiday I stayed home and pretty much did nothing.  The weekend was the same.  

I have no regrets.

Ok, the hedonistic chip eating was regretful. 

But the sleep was glorious.

It's hard to get back in to the groove though.  Lethargy is powerful stuff.  

Luckily, ennui is very closely related and I can't stay bored too long.  Bed sores, ya know.

Haha, if it weren't for bed sores, I'd be okay with being bored all day. I'm disgusting.

Yesterday I put my gym clothes on and went to the gym, couldn't find good parking and LEFT without even attempting to find a space and go inside.  So, then I thought, "Hey, me, it's a nice day. Let's go to a park and walk or ride the bike!"  Then I realized how horribly hot it was and how I didn't really know what park to go to without being abducted, as I am a single lady and that's what happens.  So, instead of becoming some sort of Chandra Levy, I took a nap.  See? Naps save lives.

Today however, out of guilt and perhaps a last ditch effort to get some exercise in before Weigh-in Wednesday, I went to the zumba class I've been wanting to go to for a few weeks (this particular instructor has been on vacation).  And ohh, it was hard. Sure, since I've been going again fairly regularly, it wasn't DEAR LORD KILL ME NOW hard.  But it was hard.  It was mostly hard because I really didn't want to be there.  Naps are just so much better than exercising.  And while I was zumbaing I kept catching my reflection in the mirror of the studio and thought, man, I look dumpy and slow.  Still, I kept at it and did what I could as high energy as I could muster and not drop dead.  So at least there was that.

Tomorrow I've got an appointment with my old personal trainer.  I've told him about my UNFATTENING and he suggested we touch base to see what I could do to add to my routine. Perhaps, I'll find another motivating activity.

Clothes

I haven't lost enough weight yet to warrant buying a bunch of new clothes.  However, I do fit in even my "skinny" jeans.  Well, more like "fit".  But I can wear all my jeans and not feel gross.  And I have a LOT of jeans.  Therefore, I haven't done laundry in aaaaaages.

This post was all about how to avoid doing laundry.  Be lazy.  Lose some weight. Easy!

Or you could just get off your butt and do your laundry.

Whatever with you and your neat and organized life.

But I am looking forward to looking absolutely fabulous in cute little clothes.

Not even remotely worth eating

When you spend the past two months eating fairly healthily, or at least practicing good portion control, the moment you decide to eat for eating's sake, your body will violently respond in a way to remember. 

Ok, not exactly that moment.  More like a couple hours later when it reaches your lower intestines.

UGH, do not eat half a bag of chips for dinner. Especially when you've already had dinner.  And that dinner was McDonald's that you immediately regretted buying.

I don't know what is wrong with me today, but I've learned my lesson.

Weigh-In Wednesday: Week 8

Week eight of THE UNFATTENING.  Otherwise known as the week that I ATE (get it?!!??!) EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are some of the highlights.  Or just the stuff I remembered to take photos of.

My little brother's birthday cakeS for his 28th birthday.  Two birthday cakes for one guy. TWO.  One was a Cake Boss chocolate and caramel cake and the other was a walnut brownie covered in white chocolate.

We celebrated his birthday at Kings Dominion.  And for lunch, I actually opted for GRILLED chicken at Kings Dominion instead of fried.  GRILLED? What am I? Some sort of girly dieter weirdo?  NO, I just really wanted the biscuit and macaroni.  Sacrifices!!!  Truthfully the grilled chicken is actually pretty good there, not at all sad and dry like what I imagine a mummy would taste like (ahem, KFC grilled chicken, blech).

A friend at work also turned 28 and we celebrated at a brew pub.  Another coworker was kind enough to make cupcakes.  From scratch.  Vanilla cake with chocolate frosting and tiny little sprinkles.  OF COURSE it was worth the Calories!  Kill me if I ever say 'no' to that combination.  Because you will be in the presence of my alien doppelganger.  

A b.l.t. at the birthday dinner.  Not a bad choice actually, especially if you skip the mayo (which I didn't).

And I ordered that because I had no room left after the fried calamari appetizer.  And they were out of the avocado salad I wanted.  Yes, I know.  You don't win friends with salad. But I did honestly want a salad with salmon and avocaaahhhhdo.  See? Doesn't that sound good? YES.

After all that eating this weekend and the last 3 weekends, really, my pancreas is TIRED.    Like post- Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years TIRED. Tomorrow is Independence Day and people all over the country will be noshing on hamburgers, hot dogs, pie, ice cream, watermelon, etc. on their decks and picnic blankets.  I will be staying home alone and not eating more than my daily points.  My family isn't even getting together.  We're tired, haha. Tired of indulgence.  Insane, right?  But it will be so nice to go back to 'normal'.  

In fact today, I haven't eaten all the WW points I am allocated for a day.  It's 9:30pm and I have to think of something to eat before the day is out.  Points don't carry over and if I don't eat up today I know I will be ravenous tomorrow and end up overeating. I don't even know what I want!

I started the day with a egg white omelet with tons of bell pepper and an English muffin.  Then I had sushi for lunch. 

Mmmm, a study in pink.

Then I had a killer bacon, tomato, and hummus sandwich on rosemary bread for dinner.  The tomato was so juicy it was running down my arm after I took a bite. In the summer, you should use the entire tomato for one sandwich.  In the winter, don't bother with the tomato.  But it was definitely food worthy of a pic, but the lighting was bad and I was hungry.  

So I've had some good stuff, but apparently not quite enough, according to my UNFATTENING plan.  Perhaps I'm just THAT full from the previous week.  But I'm sticking to the plan, either way.  Don't worry...I'll think of something to snack on ;)

OH, duh, almost forgot.  With all that eating all the foods in the whole world, I was still able to lose 0.2lbs, for a total of 14.4lbs.  Not much, maybe not even a real loss, but it isn't a gain and it's in the downward direction.  Yay! and Whew! What a relief!

Alternatives that are worth eating

And on the fourth week, zumba is no longer killing me outright.  It's still a challenge, and you can make it as hard as you want it to be, but I'm no longer praying for the hour to pass quicker.  I have been going mostly to a lower intensity class, but definitely gets me sweating.  This week my preferred instructor will be back from vacation, so I'm sure it's going to be hard.  But at least now, I won't hyperventilate and look longingly at the door trying to plan a stealthy escape.

I'm afraid this week will be a total wash in terms of weight loss.  Just so much eating and celebrating.  June has just been filled with social events - Fathers day and several birthdays are tough to deal with when trying to actively UNFATTEN!!!!!!!! 

Was it worth it? Yes.  It was delicious and fun.  I guess I do regret eating so much I felt nauseous.  But it was a good lesson on how much is too much.   I am proud of myself because I didn't just let it all go and eat with abandon.  Yeah I ate a lot, but I tracked it and cringed at my depleting WW points.  But I didn't just give up. If the scale goes up or doesn't budge this week, at least I know why.

Summer is full of fun food and you don't have to spend them all at the fair or amusement park.  I have a couple favorites that I can enjoy at home and don't feel too guilty about.

I love corn dogs.  The corn dogs at Kings Dominion are a foot long. Really, they're two hot dogs on a skewer and the whole thing is dipped and fried.  That is too much at 12 WW pts. A good alternative:

Mmm, corn dog with spicy mustard :)  I usually heat them up by microwaving them half way then finishing them in the toaster oven to crisp.  Best tip from an entire childhood of eating microwaved food after school, right there.

Veggie corn dogs!  Each is only 4 WW pts.  And the veggie dog doesn't taste any weirder than a regular dog you find in most corn dogs :)  Granted, a regular corn dog is only 2 more WW pts, but points add up quickly.  And if you're just trying to watch your fat intake, a veggie dog is definitely a better choice.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!  Especially candy bar-esque ice cream.  One of the best ice cream novelties you can find in the grocery store is a Snickers ice cream bar. Amaaaazing.  What's not to like about a salty sweet chocolaty caramely Snickers in ice cream form?    It's a dessert appropriate 7 WW pts.  But, I found something really, really good and happens to have a smaller impact on your rotundness.

The bar just happened to be perfectly broken in half so I could blog about it.

SkinnyCow Salted Caramel Pretzel ice cream candy bar is sooo delicious.  Salty and sweet and instead of peanuts, pretzel.  Really yummy and only 4 WW points.  

So what's the lesson here?  Don't do drugs and stay in school. 

Also, eat what you want, but if you find that its not really worth it, there are slightly healthier alternatives to keep you on track and still satisfy you.  

Until Wednesday, keep on keeping on...

A musing on amusement parks

I wish I knew how many WW activity points one earns meandering around an amusement park for 6 hours in 90°F heat. I wonder if it offsets a corn dog or french fries.

Oh well, I'm not going to try to figure it out.  I'll just have to be careful the rest if the week and make sure to get in a few good work outs.

It was all fun and worth it to celebrate my little brother's 28th birthday at Kings Dominion!

Weigh-In Wednesday Week 7

Waddup wonderful weaders, it's Weigh-In Wednesday, week seven!

I'm still on the downward slope, but it was just a 0.4lb loss this week.  No gain so, no worries.  Total loss is 14.2lbs.  Woot.

Looking over the past week, I was mostly on track except for one day when we had the company picnic.  A few beers and boxed wine (ooh la la!) added to a mango water ice added up quick, but was totally fun.  I think I ended up using the great majority of my extra weekly WW points that day.  Unfortunately, it made the end of my UNFATTENING week kinda rough.   I had to keep a very close eye on my intake lest I go into the red.  However, it motivated me to get back to exercising and I did a good amount to try to offset indulgences. Best part is that now I'm on track to making exercise a regular occurrence.  There's a silver lining to EVERYTHING.  I'm like freakin' Pollyanna.  I was even kinda sort of unable to use my leg for a while! OMG I AM Pollyanna.  Or Forest Gump.

Sorry, I think the exercise is doing weird hyperactive things to my brain.  Oxygenating it, or something...

Anyway! this week, my goal will be to try harder to reign it in with the overeating.   It will be a challenge with a birthday dinner to go to on Friday and Kings Dominion on Saturday.  But I'd really like to lose more than half a pound next week.

While I love blogging about THE UNFATTENING along with my other random food experiences,  I am finding that it's making what I find to be meager amounts of weight loss into events larger than they really are.  I know 14lbs is a good amount of weight.  That's 14 boxes of butter.  Fifty-six sticks of butter.  (Hilarious at how I'm using butter as a unit of measurement.)

No, not Butters.  Though this is 12lbs of Butters on green beans.

This is a 1lb box of butter.  Look, it's cultured.  You can only use it on fancy things.  Like haricot vert.  Which is French for green beans. Ooh la la.

This is 14lbs of butter.  Enough for 32 batches of Cook's Illustrated's perfect chocolate chip cookies. Cookies are also a valid unit of measurement.

I know my clothes fit looser. I know I can do a few yoga twists a little easier because there's a little less belly to get around.  My rational brain knows it's a good thing.  But I look in the mirror and I look the same.  And I have sooooooooooooooooo far to go.

But sharing THE UNFATTENING!!!! with you all has also been really neat because I've apparently inspired some of you to embark on your own journeys toward unfattening and more healthy lifestyles.  I'll try my best not to judge how you go about your journey (unless you're starving yourself), but I'll be here if you need support/advice/someone to smack that second Twinkie out ya face.  Of course, I'm no expert on anything.  The only diet I believe in is one where eating fewer Calories than burned will result in weight loss.  When that stops working, then I'll gladly take your advice on how not eating a particular thing and eating a lot of another will be the miracle I've always been looking for.  But until then, everything else out there is a waste of my time.

So, dear friends, good luck and happy eating (in moderation)!