Dorothy's Daily Check-in

[Dorothy]

This way of eating makes SO much sense to me. I thought about waiting until after the holidays.... but why wait? Christmas and Christmas Eve will be S days for me... and as for the others, I am a whole lot better off having them as no-S days!

[Dorothy]

plan:
breakfast
two smaller lunches
dinner
kefir at bedtime

cereal and juice
sambar, oysters
small leftover curry, one slice bread
swordfish, brussel sprouts, baked potato, salad
kefir

start 240
today 240
goal 180

[Dorothy]

cereal and juice
large mug sambar, 1/3c rice
dal and 1/3c rice, tangerine
salad - walnuts and gorgonzola; veg soup; 2 onion rings
1/2 kefir

[Dorothy]

Started a HabitCal, and like that feature very much!

Today
B;fast Cereal and juice
Lunch #1 sambar and panir
Lunch #2
Dinner onion soup, bread, salad

If we used numbers rather than R-Y-G for status, today would have been an 8 rather than a 10 -- because I did have another piece of bread, which was seconds. On the other hand, I decided that the day was green because of several successful moments... especially at the grocery store, where I am *frequently* tempted to wolf some sort of food!

[Jammin' Jan]

What are sambar and panir?

[Dorothy]

Sambar is a South Indian soup... a spicy vegetable soup. I had some left over from last week - I made dosas (sort of like crepes), which are stuffed with a dry potato curry and served with coconut chutney and sambar. It's a lovely lovely food.... but making the dosas is hard!

Panir is a fresh indian cheese -- made from milk and lemon juice. Sort of like a farmer's cheese, or picture very very compressed cottage cheese with every bit of liquid squeezed out. THAT was left over from Friday when I cooked an Indian feast for a late celebration of Diwali, the Indian New Year. One of the dishes was Shahi Panir, which is cubes of that cheese in a rich tomato cream sauce with some veggies.

I have one more serving of sambar in my fridge, then I'm clear of Indian leftovers for this round... and ready to fill the fridge with American foods for Christmas week!

(I'm American born, but LOVE to cook Indian -- and this was probably more than you wanted to know about sambar and panir!)

[Dorothy]

Very good day.

B'fast burrito (scrambled eggs, onions, tortilla, hot sauce)
Lunch - at the mall -- saag panir and vindaloo veggies (pureed spinach with cubes of fresh cheese, and a VERY spicy veg curry) and rice
Dinner - salmon, potatoes, asparagus, salad
Bedtime - kefir and some juice

Able to walk by a number of temptations at the mall and two grocery stores -- no snacking at all. Felt good!

[Dorothy]

start 240
today 239
goal 180

Bfast - cereal
Lunch - don't remember
Dinner - Chinese food -- lo mein, rice, crab rangoon

Calling today green, but like yesterday, it was actually *almost* green. I did have some seconds on the chinese food for dinner... because I forgot about the "no seconds" rule, and followed my old rule when a number of choices were available... take a little of each, then more only of the ones you really like. So I was green in spirit, if not in the letter of the law!

[Jammin' Jan]

Panir must be like the goat or sheep cheese I get every once in a while. Not really slice-able, but I like to spread it on crackers. When we lived in Colombia many years ago, we used to get "campesino cheese" which was the same thing. I guess every culture around the world produces this.

[Dorothy]

It's actually firmer than that -- the cheese is pressed so that most of the moisture is out - the texture is almost like cheddar cheese. You slice it into cubes/bars, and then brown it in a frying pan with a little oil, then (usually) mix it with some sort of vegetable curry. I found a brand I like at the Indian grocery store... but until I found one I liked I made my own. You bring milk to a boil, and then mix in lemon juice. It separates into curds and whey. (Just like in Little Miss Muffet.) You then put the curds into cheesecloth, and tie the cheesecloth around the cheese. I used to press it between two cutting boards, with something under one end of the bottom one so that it slanted to the edge of the sink. On top of the top cutting board, I put my cast iron frying pan. Into that, I put the heaviest thing in my kitchen - the base of my food processor. A couple of hours later, it was a nice solid, and ready to cut and cook. But I was *very* happy to find a brand I liked at a store - it was a LOT of work, and I don't miss it a bit!

[Dorothy]

Bfast - the usual cereal
Lunch - manhattan clam chowder

Snack - cookies and milk

Dinner - wonderful dinner at a new restaurant - scallops appetizer, lobster and mussel stew as an entree, and panna cotta with quince and pomegranate for dessert. Overdid it a bit on the bread, but overall a reasonable meal for a special night out.

One cookie at bedtime.

Two hours of *serious* exercise today, as we cleared snow off our porches and our roof. Surely (*surely,* she said... ) I burned off those cookies....

[Dorothy]

Good thing today is an S day, or it would surely be red.

Bfast - omelet with cheese, homefries, rye toast, a few bites of pancake.

Lunch - avocado, cheddar, salsa, tortilla

Afternoon munchies - handful of pistachios; more than one taste of chocolate while I cooked; cookie. (Given the cooking, not too bad!)

Dinner will be pizza - hope to blunt the impact by having salad too.

[Dorothy]

bfast - usual cereal

lunch

appetizer munchies: guacamole, cheese and crackers, nuts

dinner - baked stuffed shrimp; twice baked potato; green beans; salad; chocolate torte

[Dorothy]

Christmas was an S day. Actually did pretty well with food... one slip at 8Pm with a sandwich that I really did not need so close to bedtime. But otherwse--- pretty reasonable day.

Today is NOT an S day, and I'm on track so far.

Bfast -- usual cereal (oat bran, wheat bran, flax seed, quinoa), half an orange
Lunch #1 -- two tangerines, one apple, and edamame (steamed green soybeans, served in the pods)

[Dorothy]

OK, back on the NoS wagon. I thought I did reasonably well last week, but I actually gained four pounds, which is certainly unhappymaking. My heaviest weight *ever* was 247, and I am almost there again.

A year ago, I said that if I could not get this under control, I would contact a physician and go on a supervised medical fast. I'm still strongly tempted to do that, but I'm going to give No S a two week try first. It worked for me in the past, but I've lost my way and fallen from the path.

So here we go. (Again.)

Start: 244
Today: 244
Goal: 180

bfast 1/4c oatmeal, 1/2c bran, 1/2c juice, 1T flaxseed, coffee
9AM tea
10AM tea
11:30 lunch #1 oysters, stewed tomatoes with green beans
2:30 lunch #2 sandwich (tofurky, cheese), orange
6PM dinner tilapia, spinach, mashed potatoes, 2 clementines
9PM half cup kefir

[Dorothy]

Start 244
Today 240
Goal 180