Airplane Food Critic

I made up a two week meal plan and from there I plan on using the basic principles to make up my own meals or just mix and match my favorites from the two weeks I already have recipes for. I will paste the rest of the two weeks at the bottom of this blog.

In the last week I have only lost 0.2 pound but that is because I have had a chaotic week. I was surprised in the middle of last week with a lovely kidney stone. I have had so many pain killers and doctor appointments that there is simply no time to worry about eating portioned meals every four hours. Some of my doctor appointments have called for me to fast and I think that is the only reason that I lost the 0.2 pounds at all. In the middle of all that was super bowl and as usual I did not hold back on the eating.

I am writing this blog because on Tuesday I am hopping back on the diet train. Why Tuesday? Well tomorrow begins a weekend of more wine tasting. This time it is the Alsace Festival in the Anderson Valley. I shall post a report upon my return. Then Monday is the almighty Valentine's Day and there is no way anyone is keeping me from my chocolate truffles and cakes.

Flat Belly Diet Meal Plan continued

After the holidays I always am a few pounds overweight and so I always try to eat lighter in January and February and March...but there are so many things happening on weekends in those months, it gets super difficult. This year is no exception. Day 4 was also my mother's birthday. We celebrated by having a dinner party on one day and going out to lunch at my favorite restaurant the next. So when I give you the meal plan for Day 4 it is what I SHOULD have eaten for dinner. Not the mini tostadas, steak tartare, sliders, huge servings of gnocchi and black bottom pie I washed down with several glasses of wine that I had.

Day 4

Breakfast

1 cup kashi 7 grain puffs, 1 cup fat free milk, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds, 1/2 cup of apple sauce

Snack

I had the peach smoothie again

Lunch

Same as day 1

Dinner

Should have been 1 cup squash sauteed with 1 tsp olive oil, 3 oz chicken breast, 1/2 cup steamed brown rice

It is at this point you are to begin the regular Flat Belly Diet plan. It is at this point that I went out to eat at Tra Vigne and had two orders of their house made mozzarella, truffle pizza and a lamb pasta and a rabbit pasta, and wine, of course. I thought I could take weekends off and eat whatever I wanted but that was foolish. The following day was Sunday and we had pizza, and lots of it. Oh mercy me!! My weight went shoooomp right back up but that didn't deter me. I shall begin the regular Flat Belly Diet starting today.

I will new blog it..

My Day Three Menu:

Breakfast

1 cup Kashi 7 Grain Puffs, 1 cup fat free milk, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds and a 1/4 cup applesauce.

Snack

1 cup frozen peaches blended with 1 cup fat free milk with 1 tsp flaxseed oil stirred in

Lunch

4oz turkey meat, 1 string cheese stick, 1 cup tomatoes

Dinner

1 cup fresh green beans, 3 ounces baked chicken breast, 1 cup red potatoes, roasted with 1 tsp olive oil (I was supposed to have 1/2 cup of potatoes but I was super hungry and couldn't stop my hands from chopping up a few more)

My day was a madhouse today so I was totally unable to eat every four hours. I dont know who has a schedule that is so simple that one has free time to cook a meal every four hours. I am already using most of my time when I get home from work to cook the next day's meal! I had a class for 7 hours today and was only able to get out for ten minutes at a time so I slammed the smoothie and pounded the sassy water like beer at a frat party. Lunch felt good though. The class I took offered free lunch but I didn't even look at the buffet that was offered. I went straight to my office and had my measured out lunch that I brought. It was nice that my coworker is on another diet and she did the same thing. Buddy system, right?

After running around all day trying to take the class and still get my regular work done I was mentally and physically exhausted and quite hungry. While cooking I sneaked a half of a cup of the rice and mushrooms that I had leftover from the other night and drizzled a little truffle oil over it. I had crumbled some ground turkey into it the day before for the bf to have as a dinner but turns out he doesn't like mushrooms. The things you learn after three years!

So tomorrow is going to be tricky. I am going to a birthday party and there shall be alcohol and gnocchis served. Those are definitely NOT on the four day jump-start. I have no plan. I hope I keep some degree of self control.

Hooray still losing weight. I am down a total of 4.2 pounds.

There is a lot to the Flat Belly Diet that I do not know but I think I have the important bits. There is a book that they want you to buy that tells you pretty much what you can find on the internet plus exercises and I think a workbook where you write down your feelings and degree of hunger before and after each meal. I am not going to bother spending the $35 to get the book, specially since I spent $60 at Whole Foods last weekend preparing for this four day pre-start thing. Flaxseed Oil is expensive!!

Organic is better

Well, Whole Foods is expensive, for that manner, but I learned a lesson. As you may know I belong to a farm to front door delivery service that brings me fresh, organic fruits and vegetables to my front door every other week. Before this service I did not like fruits at all. I was known around town as a fruit hater, even. But since I began eating organic, farm fresh fruits I love them! I became particularly enamored with the little mini oranges. I would eat like three a day. When I ran out I went to a regular chain grocery store and bought a huge box of the "Cuties". I was so disappointed! They were not sweet, not orange and they were hard. I had to peel each one and stick them in my Vita Mix with some agave syrup just to use them up. Then I fed it to the bf. (heh heh) So, the moral of this story is, organic may cost more, but apparently I end up wasting it otherwise.

Day Two Meal Plan

Breakfast

1 cup Kashi 7 Grain Puffs, 1 cup fat free milk, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds, 1/2 cup applesauce, glass of Sassy Water.

Snack

Smoothie: 1 cup frozen blackberries, 1 cup fat free milk, blended then drizzle 1 tbsp flaxseed oil on top

Lunch

3 oz tuna in the can, 1 string cheese, 1 cup of vegetables (I forgot to bring a veggie), glass of Sassy Water

Dinner

1 cup mushrooms sauteed with 1 tsp olive oil , 3 oz chicken breast, 1/2 cup wild rice.

The breakfasts are getting easier to handle. They seem so boring but I just get up and slurp it down. I put the sunflower seeds in the cereal to add some flavor because I am missing my sugar and salt. Speaking of salt, I think I may be slowly getting used to not having salt. I hope so because I think I have a bad relationship with salt.

Today's lunch was not yummy. Flavorless tuna from a can. Gross. So what I did was put a dash of black pepper and a squeeze of lemon on it then I took the cheese and melted it on top pretending it was a tuna melt. If I had brought veggies I would have loved to have added a little chopped celery or lettuce to it but I was stranded, vegetableless, at work.

For dinner I made a pretty tasty meal with those ingredients. I chopped up the mushrooms really small. I cut the chicken into small pieces as well. I put both in a pan and sauteed them with the 1 tsp of olive oil to really mix the flavors. I added the tiniest pinch of black pepper and some herbs. I added a pinch of Marjoram, Sage and Parsley. I placed the rice on the plate, covered it with the mushroom chicken mixture and topped it all off with a tablespoon of Oregano and Thyme from my garden. I almost cheated and drizzled a little truffle oil over the whole thing. But I was a good girl.

Day two over and I have lost a total of 3.2 pounds.

The reason I have chosen this diet is because it seems pretty healthy. I know how to eat healthy but isn't it so much nicer to have someone tell you exactly what to do and when to do it? That is why I am trying this one out. I looked over the menus and it has really healthy things with the right amount of calories. The gimmick to the Flat Belly Diet is that they claim that if you eat a Mono Unsaturated Fatty Acid (MUFA) with every meal you will magically lose weight from your stomach area. I think that is a bit silly. We all know that MUFAs are good for you but it is not miracle. They should sell this diet as saying that you get to have fat and still lose weight. This is something I have known all along. I always include olive oil or avocado in my diet without fear of gaining weight. That is, unless I overeat that MUFA.

Foods that contain MUFAs are seeds, nuts, avocados, olive oil and flaxseed oil. The beginning of this diet is a four day starter that is intended to get your digestive tract ready for the diet it's self. It is slightly restrictive on calories and is super bland but it is only four days so it is attainable.

There is a drink you make that they call Sassy Water, named after the inventor whose last name is Sass. I greatly dislike the name of the drink but it is actually really neat and I plan on drinking it beyond the initial four days. The drink is just a bunch of herbs and vegetables that you soak overnight in two liters of water, strain and drink throughout the day. The recipe is as follows:

Sassy Water

1 small cucumber, peeled and sliced thin

1 lemon, sliced

1 tsp grated ginger

10 leaves mint

Put all those in two liters of water and soak overnight. After you have strained the veggies out, you can discard the rest.

Sassy water

What is so great about Sassy Water? For one, it has flavor which is less boring than regular water but what it also has are ingredients that are good for you. The lemon helps keep hunger down, the cucumber acts as a diuretic decreasing bloat and the ginger soothes your stomach. Dieting usually results in a bit of an upset stomach so I think this is a great idea.

Soooo I have survived day one and here is what I had:

Breakfast:

1 cup Kashi 7 Grain Puffs

1 cup fat free milk

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce

1 glass of Sassy Water

Snack: Smoothie

1 cup of blueberries (frozen)

1 cup of fat free milk

Blend the two together and then stir in 1 tbsp flax oil.

Lunch:

1 cup cherry tomatoes

4 oz deli turkey

1 light string cheese

1 glass of sassy water

Dinner:

1 cup fresh cooked green beans

4 oz steelhead fish filet

1/2 cup roasted red potatoes with 1 tsp olive oil

1 glass of Sassy Water

Yes, it was boring but I wasnt hungry and the water made me feel pretty energetic. The night before I made the Sassy Water, packed the lunch and made the smoothie in a container to bring to work. I have to admit...that smoothie is nasty. It is just watery, unsweetened blueberries with an oily film on top but it goes down pretty fast.

The other part of this diet is that you are supposed to be eating about 400 calories, four times a day, four hours apart. This part is difficult for me since I have an ever changing work schedule and I never know where I am going to be when but I am trying.

I am down 1.6 pounds but I am sure that is just water...I dont care. I like being down.

When I was cleaning up the house to get ready for the new year and the new healthier me I missed one little detail. I left a MASSIVE bag of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers.

There it was. Sitting in the center console of my car. With all the worrying about the first day back to work on Monday I had completely missed it but on Tuesday...a Tuesday after what was apparently only a 600 calorie intake day....I most definitely saw it...like a tractor beam it sucked me in.

So during my hour and a half commute to work I started nibbling on fish. One handful then another. I have no idea how many I ate. Then I got to work and went about with my day thinking that at least it was in the morning so I could have all day to sort of burn off all those cals and carbs. I had the maple flavored oatmeal for breakfast and Amy's Lentil Soup for lunch. Everything was going ok until I had to drive home again.

I wasn't even hungry but there were those fish calling to me. I ate another several handfuls. Then I got home and I thought that I would just skip dinner since I had eaten so much in the car but then I had my farm fresh veggie box that I get delivered waiting for me. Everything in it looked so tasty I had to eat some of it.

I made a simple salad with a chopped up pear, a little bit of feta cheese and roasted walnuts. For the sauce I drizzled some olive oil and honey over the top and put in just a splash of apple cider vinegar.

You might think that the salad was the lowest calorie thing I ate that day aside from the goldfish but it was the highest calorie meal. I am not terribly concerned with calories though because you need to eat calories to be healthy and olive oil and nuts are part of the high calorie yet good for you category.

So my intake for the day minus the goldfish was 920cals, 44g fat, 1510mg sodium, 137 g carbs, 29g protein, and 21g fiber. BUT when you add on the little crackers, it becomes a different story. I can not calculate exactly how many of the little guys I ate but it was a lot. I figure three fish per bite, one bite for every couple minutes on the road, 80 minutes on the road, comes out to about 88 fish per direction making a total of 176 fish.

This makes me have to tack on 378 calories, 13g fat, 675mg sodium, 54g carbs, 11g protein and maybe one gram of fiber.

This, coupled with eating that salad late at night caused no weight loss. BUT the eating was, for the most part, healthy so I did not gain any weight either so that is a good thing. In addition I have still been eating lots of healthy things. I had a fruit, olive oil, lentils, tons of vegetables and whole grain oats with minimal bad fats and sugars.

Loss: 0