day 2

I had more response from day one than I thought I would.  Thanks!

OK, so PMS is the thwarter of all good diets.  I just told my husband that I feel like I got hit with a "be mean and sleep" stick.  Always, the day before the big day, I get so agitated and angry that I have a glass, well, bottle, of wine.  The next day, I'm already agitated because of hormones, and then I feel like crap because I screwed up my diet and I'm all bloaty.  I guess the good news is that I got right back on that wagon.  In the past, I probably would have used the hangover to justify the drive through at McDonald's for breakfast - and likely for lunch.  This time I just sucked it up and went back to my meager calories.  That'll learn me...hangovers are a lot worse when you can't douse them with high carb, high fat food. 

Wine....my big downfall.  I said I'd be honest, and I will be.  The number ONE thing I tell my patients when I am discussing weight is "Do NOT drink your calories".  Of course, I'm referring to soda and sweet tea - NOT wine!  :-)  How funny is it that I will drink nothing but diet drinks then go home and have 2-3 glasses of wine?   Physician, treat thine self.... Since I've started medifast, I've significantly cut back on my wine consumption - down to two days a week or so.  I'm not supposed to do it at all, but, man, it's hard to give up food AND wine.  I love the taste, smell, texture, and warmth in a glass of wine.  I totally associate it with relaxation - not because of feeling buzzed, but because it's what I do when I am relaxing.   So, back to my original point - we need to start finding other things to do to have fun and relax.  This blog is part of that for me.   Maybe my relaxation will be writing, not drinking, for a while. 

Drinking calories is such a huge issue.  I get so frustrated when I go to my kid's parties, scouts, gatherings, etc, and I see kids drinking glass after glass of mountain dew, Pepsi, orange crush, and juice.  We have a huge obesity problem in kids right now.  I've diagnosed more kids with high cholesterol and type two diabetes than I care to think about.  There is also evidence that the phosphorous in pop may be leading to the relative increase in fractures in children that we've seen.  This coupled with poor calcium intake.  When asked to bring things to parties, I am always the "uncool" parent who brings the veggie tray, crystal light, and diet drinks.  Granted, I have a daughter who is a type one diabetic and has been since 18 mos old.  I got into the habit of bringing things that she could have without concern, but I've continued that habit because I swear I'm the only parent who will.  I don't think that we should be training our kids to focus on high carb, high fat foods as the focus of their get togethers - they're going to end up in the same boat that we are all in.  I can't get over being in a room of daisies and brownies and seeing the amount of regular pop that is demolished. 

Our school district passed an ordinance that limited what we could bring to parties.  We are asked to stay within certain nutritional requirements at parties.  The outcry was immense.  "How could they?"  "What are we going to do at parties now?"  It was so heated that people were even calling for the firing of the person who proposed it.  REALLY?  How about this - lets focus on games and crafts at parties.  Don't worry about the food.  Someone figured out that golden oreos fit the requirements per cookie, so now everyone is trying to bring these to the school.  This totally defeats the purpose - just leave it at home.  If the kids have to have munchies, is it SO bad to let them have a fruit tray or some frozen yogurt??  It's lazy and sad and contributing to the obesity of our kids.  OK- I'm going to leave that for tonight because I have so much more to say on that topic.  Maybe that will be tomorrow.  Suffice to say, I'll remain the uncool parent bringing veggies and crystal light so that at least I know my kids will have some good sustenance at their get togethers. 

My dishwasher broke yesterday, so we ate out tonight.  I was pretty proud of myself that I tried to stick with the program.  I ordered fajitas from a local restaurant.  I told them to hold everything except for the meat and veggies.  I ended up with a plate of onions with a few shrimp and green peppers soaked in some sort of sweet and sour sauce.  It was very strange and not fajita-y at all.  I think we just need to go back to some of our own creations and just suck it up and do the dishes.   We made a goat tagine this weekend.  It was fabulous.  I had a goat leg that I put in a tagine with cauliflower, spinach, preserved lemon and Mediterranean spices.  ( We buy them online from Zamouri spices).  Baked it on 250 for about 6 hours.  It was awesome.  For Bridget, I bet that you could do something similar by just adding kohlrabi peeled and chunked instead of the goat.  A variation of that is to do the same veggies and meat, but leave out the preserved lemon and add tomatoes and garlic, then make a biriyani or balti paste (we get these from penzy's). 

I think tomorrow we'll do deconstructed turkey burgers.  I actually love these - just get frozen turkey patties and dress them like you would a hamburger, then knife and fork it.  Yum.  BTW, the roasted kohlrabi from yesterday will make a great french fry type side dish. 

We do have a cheat night built in this week for Valentine's day and our anniversary of our engagement (18 years).  We are going to Provence cafe in Bridgeport for dinner - we have a gift certificate.  I plan to NOT drink wine (gasp) and instead splurge on the blue cheese soup if they have it.  My stomach's really shrunk, so I don't know how much we'll be able to splurge, but I'm looking forward to it.    This will be our first official cheat of the diet.  I'm trying to tell people that a cheat should be thought of as "I think I'm going to have a piece of pizza today" NOT "I think I'm going to go to the all you can eat buffet at Pizza Hut and eat until I'm sick."  If we give ourselves a little guilty pleasure infreqeuntly, we'll do well.  If we go balls out, we're going to fail.  I want us to get to the point that we're not looking forward to food orgies, but rather looking forward to a little badness now and then.  That's a lot to ask for us and our friends, but I hope to get there someday.

Until tomorrow....
Dr. Mindy