Pushing Back

After the flight attendants settled a seat jockeying dispute and made sure everyone was buckled in, one of them came on the intercom to say that the cabin was ready and that we were about to push back.

My aunt Alice once told me that all I need to do to lose weight is to pull away from the table.

I tend to let my guard down a bit when it comes to food while I'm on vacation. We had a kitchenette so I could have certainly cooked but I haven't been cooking at home much either.

Now, it's time to push back from the overindulgence including putting half and half in my coffee simply because it was put before me when I ordered coffee. I must say that no real damage has registered on the scale; I'm one pound up and I'm hoping that my body appreciated the change in food -- like a one week absence of noshing on almond butter.

Here's a food log of sorts from Florida where I sometimes felt like I ate like a queen and pushed my intake limits.

Instant Oatmeal with Mango, Soy Milk & A Lil Water)

Evos -- home of air-baked fries and flavored ketchup

Subway English Muffin Melt w/ Egg Whites + Bell Pepper + Tomato + Red Onion

Chipotle

All Natural Yogurt

Hazira had gelato...



Panera Bread Sesame Asian Chicken Salad -- pretty sure dressing had HFCS

Veggie Burger with Butter on Bun at Marguerite's -- had ketchup; pretty sure ketchup had HFCS

Ikea Before -- Wanted roasted potatoes but the Potato Nazi wouldn't let me substitute

Ikea After

Atlanta Bread Company

Break pizza kibosh -- organic pizza with veggies makes me swallow pizza much easier -- at Pan y Vino

I continue decadence by going to Sweet Art when I return home but I'm gonna have to say that I did not regret one bite of this Magnolia sandwich with avocado, sprouts, white cheddar, tomatoes, cucumbers, caramelized onion jam on toasted Companion bread. Amazing...




Do you take a vacation from your regimen while on vacation or have a regular "cheat" day?

New Jones

I was strolling down the organic aisle at Dierbergs when I spotted these nacho cheese puffs on sale and I thought I would give them a try. I liked them enough to buy three additional bags. Snikiddy claims the following about these baked corn puffs:

no corn syrup

gluten & wheat free

no hydrogenated oils

no trans fat

no preservatives

low in saturated fat

If I could kick the processed food habit, I would do better with the weight loss but life would also be dull and unsatisfying.

When You Are The Motor

You need something with a motor a man commented as I loaded my bike. I told him that my legs are the motor and when you are the motor, you certainly think about mileage differently. I bicycled for about 16.5 miles. I wanted to go for longer but the to-do list awaits.

I had more stamina than last week. Brandi, a former trainer at the YMCA, said as much one day when the weights that I was trying to lift seemed so much heavier than the last time I was in class. She said that your body is capable of different things on different days. Of course, that makes perfect sense but...

I maintained a steady pace although I got passed up by the serious bikers with their padded biking shorts and jerseys but slow and steady works for me.

It does irk me when I have to get off the bike to walk up hills or if I lose my grip when I rock climb or come up short while doing the front crawl. In due time... I was actually able to make it up one hill that I had to walk the bike up before.

Here are a few of my favorite things from today's stint on the STL Riverfront Trail.



On a side note, I took some Propel in addition to water. Propel is made by Gatorade and doesn't have high fructose corn syrup. What it does have is sucrose syrup and sucralose which made for a super sweet drink. I only drank about a fourth of it and couldn't stomach the rest.

Dilemma Indeed

I had prepared to be repulsed while reading Mark Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and my preparation was warranted. Pollan's book, logging in at 450 pages, was quite the undertaking seeing that I have not read a book in a long time.

Corn, corn, corn; it seems that we have quite the surplus in the US. Still, I had to do a double-take when I read that Bt corn is genetically engineered to produce its own pesticide.

I think Pollan is correct when he writes that yet since the human desire for sweetness surpasses even our desire for intoxication, the cleverest thing to do with a bushel of corn is to refine it into thirty-three pounds of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

Pollan goes on to say that, annually, about 17.5 billion pounds of high-fructose corn syrup are produced and that, essentially, the government will subsidize HFCS but not carrots.

Other topics that caught my attention included:

400 Cattle An Hour

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO)

Earthbound Farm's Story

Environmental Costs of Cheap Food

Grading System That Favors Corn-Fed Over Grass-Fed Beef

Growth Hormones

Manure Lagoon

Nature's Logic -- No Match For Logic of Capitalism

The French Paradox

I liked how Pollan went and worked on the Polyface farm and highlighted grass farming but, best of all, I like the final chapter, The Perfect Meal. Pollan, for the most part, makes a meal out of food that he foraged or hunted (wild pig). In Pollan's words:

Scarcely an ingredient in it had ever worn a label or bar code or price tag, and yet I knew almost everything there was to know about its provenance and its price.

I'm strongly thinking about upping the amount of organic items that I purchase. Of course, even HFCS can be certified organic.

Graham Cracker Technical Knockout (TKO)

I am notorious for going to the grocery store for one item. I try to be environmentally responsible and, most of the time, when I make the rounds, I really make the rounds while my engine is all warm and efficient.

Well, I was jonesing for graham crackers and peanut butter which I have not had in awhile. I usually have a small apple and a tablespoon of peanut butter for a snack but I exhausted my supply of Gala apples, Aldi's was closed and I refused to pay the other stores' prices for apples.

I headed to Schnucks to get the graham crackers. At first, it took me awhile to find the Schnucks' brand. Then, not only did I find the Schnucks brand, I also found low fat written across one box. I've gotten in the habit of reading the nutrition facts and was deeply annoyed when I came across high fructose corn syrup. This stuff is so pervasive; it's like a weed or mint when it's not contained.

I decided to pony up more money and go with a name brand. Well, Nabisco and Keebler also have high fructose corn syrup in their graham crackers. For a while, I kept going back and forth down the cracker and cookie aisle like a pummeled boxer who is clearly out-matched and keeps getting knocked down to the mat but refuses to stay horizontal. I just kept going back and forth hoping that I had overlooked a brand. I wanted the cookie à la Hammy in "Over the Hedge" and, surely, because I wanted the cookie, there had to be a brand somewhere on the shelf for me.

Schnucks has an organic line called Full Circle but I didn't see any FC graham crackers. In the end, it was a TKO and my trip to the store for one item was all for naught. When you go to find an item, have your taste buds set for that unique treat and have to walk away empty-handed, well, that is the ultimate disappointment. No, that's not completely true. The quickness with which Monday morning arrives is the ultimate disappointment. But then again, I had a teacher who said Americans put too much stock in Friday. I have a feeling, though, that that teacher had not been in America long and, if he is still here, probably puts a lot a stock in Friday now.

After seeing the way high fructose corn syrup was made in the documentary "King Corn," I try to avoid the stuff. Here's a trailer from "King Corn" and a very brief scene from "Over the Hedge."