This Is Halloween, Everybody Make A Scene

This is an incomplete food diary, as I am about to go to a Halloween party that is bound to be full of treats (and tricks). I will try not to overindulge, but parties are trickkkkky!

BREAKFAST

Scrambled egg & mushrooms
Sauteed cauliflower


LUNCH

Panera Chicken Caesar Salad (dressing on the side)
French baguette

DINNER
Vegetable Soup
2 baked chicken legs

My All-Hallows-Eve costume:



HALLOWEEN PARTY CONSUMPTION:

- 2 beers
- 1 glass of wine
- 2 doughunts
- 3 pretzels
- 2 cookies
- 1 Hershey's mini-chocolate


BLAGHHHHH I JUST CAN'T CONTROL MYSELF AT PARTIES! ANY TIPS?

Trick or Treat

Oof Hallowen will not be good for my "diet." My boss brought candy in today. Everyone passing by said, "Ooh, candy! Can I have some? I mean, I really shouldn't, but..." and then of course we all ate a ton.

BREAKFAST:

Chicken noodle soup

SNACK

4 Hershey's mini-chocolates (like 300 calories, I think)

LUNCH:

Panera salad with chicken (no dressing)
Whole grain baguette


DINNER

Salad
String beans
Cauliflower

1 glass of wine

SNACK

2 hard-boiled egg whites & hummus

EXERCISE

Walked to work (1) mile, walked in the city (probably another mile) = 2 miles

And in celebration of the upcoming holidays, Ms. McCurdy's favorite film:

Blarghhhhhhhhh

Got my period today blarghhhhhhhhhhhhh I got really sick. Yesterday I was at my parents'. I ate a ton, but it was all pretty healthy.

BREAKFAST

2 bowls of Shredded Wheat + 1% milk
Apple


LUNCH:

Turkey
Salad
String beans

DINNER

Mo' turkey

DESSERT

Chocolate bar!

SNACK

Beer

Shake It

Today I went with AJ shooting around New York. We stopped in Madison Square Park, where she treated me to a burger from Shake Shack. I had always wanted to go and the burgers are yummy, but kind of small. I had a cheeseburger. This made me ask myself a simple question:

WHY HAVE I SPENT SO MUCH OF MY LIFE NOT EATING CHEESEBURGERS??

Is it because I was faux-kosher growing up? Because I hated mixing ingredients? Perhaps because I did not like pleasure/happiness/love? Cheeseburgers are SO good.

Whew. Got that out of my system.

BREAKFAST:
Orange Juice
Luna Bar

LUNCH
Cheeseburger
French Fries

DINNER
Sushi
Salad

Now I am drinking tea! For real!

EXERCISE:
Walking around Manhattan...probably a mile or two.

Nibble nibble nibble

I had a nice cozy morning, which resulted in some nice cozy snacking. Then I went to my friend Melanie's going away party, which was a soup party = amazzzzzing!

BREAKFAST
2 hard boiled egg whites + hummus
Apple

SNACK
100 calorie pack of popcorn

LUNCH
Chicken and broccoli (Alice's leftovers)

----> It doesn't seem like that much, but I ate all of that between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.

DINNER
Curry soup & pea soup
2 pieces of bread
3 glasses of wine

DESSERT
Vanilla ice cream

Saturday

I didn't write yesterday, but I ate pretty well, except I didn't eat breakfast. And then I ate a lot of other stuff - okay, it's 3:00 am and I can't really remember at this point.

Tonight I ate a TON with my parents and it was delicious: fettucini with meatballs at this Italian restaurant, and then a small Tasti-D-Lite. Then I went out dancing and drinking (just one Gin-and-Tonic).

In celebration of Saturdays, here are my favorite men (David Wain, Michael Ian Black, and Michael Showalter) in all of their glory:

Popcorn

Since I spend a good part of my day talking about how much I love popcorn and how much I miss my Whirl-A-Pop, Alice recommended those 100-calorie packs of popcorn. They really do the trick - there's quite a bit of popcorn in there and I'm surprised it's only 100 calories.

Today was a weird eating day. For lunch I had a portabella burger, which was DELICIOUS! It was this brand:



Then due to a change in plans, I didn't walk to the movie, but I did walk to the M60 bus after, up the Upper West Side - from 49th and 7th to 106th and Broadway. So it was 3 miles instead of 4, but still a nice walk.

BREAKFAST
Egg white omelette

LUNCH
Portabella burger (no bun)
Spinach

SNACK
Carrots and Hummus

DINNER
Chicken soup
Veggie stir-fry thing

SNACK/DESSERT
Popcorn
Mini chocolate cupcake

EXERCISE
1 mile walk home + 3 mile walk in NYC = 4 miles walked

Lesbos

Yassou, friends! A website just told me that is how to say "hello" in Greek. My lovely sister just came back from the land of hot sun, Mediterranean waters, wine, and olive oil. Yum. I'm so happy she's back.

I ate better (much better) today than yesterday. But I still ate a lot.

I've been walking to work and back every day, which has got to count for something. It is a mile each way, which Google maps tells me should take me 23 minutes, but I usually leave forty because I'm such a dawdler.

Tomorrow I'm going to see/write a review of The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, which looks like your average charming Holocaust movie. The screening room is in Times Square, so I think I'll just walk there from work. It will be a four mile walk, which is great. I'm making this commitment online, so it's got to mean something!

BREAKFAST:
2 hard-boiled egg whites with hummus inside (a Zone diet recommendation, very yummy)

LUNCH:
Whole wheat pasta/veggies/chicken mix

DINNER:
Salmon
Whole wheat cous-cous
Spinach

DESSERT:
Mini-Milky-Way (note to self: buy Alice some chocolate)

LATE NIGHT SNACK:
Green apple

Burritos, Margaritas, Oh My

Oh man, I really stretched my stomach to the limits tonight! To be honest, I think my stomach HAS shrunk a little bit since I started watching what I'm eating. I do eat less because I have to write it down. But I gave myself license to just go nuts tonight and I feel like I'm going to barf.

I ate lightly today in preparation for the great Burrito/Margarita Outing to celebrate Helen's temporary return to the city.

BREAKFAST:
Spinach-and-onion mostly egg white omelette

LUNCH:
Spinach
1 cup of Chicken veggie soup

DINNER
1 chicken burrito (without cheese)
2 frozen margaritas (yum)
Endless tortilla chips?

Bah, I'm not even going to weigh myself tonight because I'll be depressed about it - but if I pay attention to what I eat for the rest of the week, I know I'll see at least a maintenance, if not a loss. I've already ensured that by cooking some stuff tonight for the week, including salmon (which should be fairly edible, thanks to Alice), hard-boiled eggs, soup, etc.

Despite eating a busload of food, it was a lovely night to reunite and get drunk and talk about Haiti and politics and children of celebrities.

The Perils of Obesity!

Sigh! So recently I've been noticing an increase in skin tags on my otherwise adorable face. I thought maybe it was genetic (my father has a ton of them, whereas my mother has none), but I was doing a little online research and found an uncomfortable explanation for them.

While nobody really knows where these little non-cancerous lesions come from, there have been links to age (not applicable) and obesity (blahhhh!). I know I'm not morbidly obese, but I do weigh an inappropriate amount for my height and I'd be really sad if that is where these came from.

I won't post any Google images of skin tags, because they're pretty gross.

BREAKFAST
Egg white onion omelette

SNACK
Chocolate blahhh

DINNER
Popcorn
Salad

I know, I know, that dinner is PATHETIC, but I ran out of time for dinner and I was going to a movie and I love popcorn. A medium popcorn at this particular movie theater was 420 calories...not a trifling amount, but not as much as I thought.

I'm sure I'll see it reflected on the scale tomorrow, but as for now, I lost .5 lb. So that's good. I always weigh myself at the same time every day (before I go to sleep) and I know my scale is fairly wonky, but it usually reflects how much I've been working (or how little).

And lastly, the movie I watched tonight was "Changeling" which starred Angelina Jolie. You can check out my review for it on Critic's Notebook, where I like to hear myself talk. The one thing I can say is that she is one actress who does NOT look good skinny! She is a gorgeous woman, but she looked like freaking skin-and-bones in this movie and it made me sad.

THEN:


NOW:

Wild Weekend

Man, it was a wild-ish weekend. I won't write about Saturday, except to say that veggie pizza is DEFINITELY the way to go. Usually, I can't stop at just one slice of pizza, but we had veggie pizza and it was so loaded down with vegetables that I was stuffed after one slice. Which is good (I think).

I did eat a bunch of bite-sized candy bars, but I stopped myself after 1 oreo, which was truly difficult for me. Then I walked 4.5 miles to the Whitney Museum. And walked around the city aimlessly, waiting for midnight to see The Shining, downing caffeinated beverages. I also had a burrito.

Today, I ate really well, except for some chocolate chips that I decided would make a great snack. I also did yoga at Yoga To the People, which was really good and I think I'll continue.

LUNCH (I slept through anything that would remotely resemble "breakfast")
Egg white spinach omelette

SNACK
Chocolate chips

DINNER
Spinach
Chicken Soup
Quinoa

TGIFZ!

Thanks for the encouragement, Rischa! I lost a pound, so I think I'm back on track...?

I stopped by Lucille Roberts on the way back from work, because they were having a sale. It's $10/month for two years, but I know I'm only going to be here for another year (if I go to China next year), so that didn't sound ideal. For one year, it was $20/month plus a registration fee, which is still a great deal, but I wasn't sure if I could make the commitment. I can't afford it right now, so I'd have to ask for it for my birthday present from my parents. And what if I didn't use it?

Who here goes to a gym? Worth it? How much do you pay and how often do you go? This gym was kinda run-down, but had all the equipment I would need, plus classes. And it's a ladies gym, which is pretty nice. The sale is over tomorrow, but I think even a non-sale price there is fairly reasonable.

BREAKFAST:
1 omelette

LUNCH:
Lasagna
Cookies (They didn't turn out quite right, but my co-workers seemed to enjoy them)

SNACK:
Diet Coke
Cookies... :(

DINNER:
Chicken
Brussels Sprouts
Quinoa

EXERCISE:
Walked to work and back, took half hour walk while laundry was going: 2.5 miles

PMS Blues

I think I'm getting my period soon. I am SO extremely tired. I've also gained back a lot of weight, so that makes me sad. Today was carb-y, but I bought some brussels sprouts & spinach, and made some chicken - so the next few days should be healthier.

BREAKFAST:
Egg (1 yolk/1 white)

LUNCH:
Lasagna

SNACK:
1 challah roll.

DINNER:
1 piece of chicken
Lasagna

"DESSERT":
4 cookies
(I was making cookies for my co-worker...I had to try them, right?)

EXERCISE:

Walk to work and back, took a walk around Ditmars: 2.5 miles

Yawn

Tired. I hope I'm not getting sick.


BREAKFAST:
Omelette (1 yolk, 1 white)

LUNCH:
Tuna sandwich on whole wheat bread

SNACK:
Veggies
Sweet potato

DINNER:
Spinach
Lasagna

EXERCISE:

Walked to work and back (2 miles)

Time for...debate 08!

Wild Day

So today I had to be at work early, deal with Long Island high schoolers (who were actually pretty lovely), and then come home, eat some celery & peanut butter, and dash off to Pennsylvania to try to get Barack Obama elected! I also met my future mother-in-law, possibly! Good story for a later time.

BREAKFAST:
Eggs (1 yolk, 1 white)
Toast

LUNCH:
Apple
Celery & peanut butter (I forgot my lunch)

SNACK:
Pink taffy candies (prob 4+ but they were small)

DINNER:
Burger King hamburger
Medium fries
Celerrrrry & peanut butter (at home)

Monday, Monday

Today was a fairly okay day, a little heavy on bread and treats.

After work, I walked from Whitehall Street up to West 4th to meet Hannah at Dojo's. I ate a delicious turkey burger and salad. Hannah ordered a big pasta dish with chicken and broccoli. The thing I've always noticed about Hannah is that she stops eating when she's full. She'll often leave quite a bit on her plate. Something I've also noticed about Hannah is that she has a pretty great figure. I wonder if the two are related! Could it be!?

I need to start practicing leaving food on my plate. This will be very difficult for me, as I hate wasting food, and I also tend to eat every meal like it's the last one I'll ever have. When I was a kid, I had to remind myself, "Maggie, you WILL have cinnamon toast again in your life, I promise." If I have to blame this on someone, I'll blame my mom, as she tended to pack emergency food for any car trip that was going to last more than 45 minutes.



BREAKFAST

1 pc of chicken
1 pc of whole-grain bread


LUNCH

2 pcs of chicken
Tortilla chips


DINNER

Turkey burger


DESSERT/SNACK

2 (!) pieces of whole grain bread
1 package of Twizzlers


On my (weak) defense, I did have a terrible chocolate craving, which I tried to take down a notch by buying Twizzlers.

EXERCISE:

4 mile walk

Post-Festivities

So, for my party I was just going to write "TONS OF STUFF" or "EW" or "A MILLION COOKIES" but I actually decided to think about how much I ate and write it down, approximately.

BRUNCH:

1 piece of pita bread
1 apple + peanut butter


DINNER:

Sweet potatoes
Piece of chicken


EVENING:

2+ glasses of wine
2+ glasses of cider + rum
1 glass of Jerry's wintry creation drink
1 soy-chocolate-oatmeal cookie
8 (?) chocolate chip cookies
1 piece of No Pudge Brownie
Baby carrots & hummus


I have not a hint of a hangover, but I do feel a little gross that I ate so much.
A little photo of the festivities last night:





TODAY'S UPDATE:

BRUNCH:

1 small piece of chicken
1 piece of pita bread
1 cookie



DINNER:

Sweet Potatoes
Salad
Small piece of chicken


Exercise:

Walked to Union Square & back = approx 5 Miles!

Fridayz

So yesterday was Yom Kippur and my break-fast included a major amount of food that I won't list here, and some wine, and some other stuff. Blech. It was delicious but I did eat a lot.

While I was home, I re-read some journals, including one from sophomore year of college, in which I said something along the lines of, "I need to lose weight so badly! I'm 135 pounds. That's SO MUCH! Oh my gosh!" It's funny to look at that now that I'm 147 pounds. I'd just love to be 135 pounds! It's also a good wake-up call for me. For some reason, I decided that I was unbelievably, deliriously happy the first two years of college. It's good to remind myself that I had some low points (my journal makes it seem pretty dire!) and that I tend to romanticize my past.


BREAKFAST

1 bowl of Shredded Wheat cereal & 1% milk
1 piece of low-fat cheese


LUNCH

"Protein power" thing at Starbucks, which was awesome (Grapes, cheese, peanut butter, apple slices, mini-whole-wheat bagel)
Diet Coke


DINNER

2.5 pieces of pita bread
Grapes



Ughhhhh carby day! Tomorrow I shall eat healthfully & LIGHTLY since I am planning on drinking all night long and spending loads of calories on that.

Tomorrow, my goal is less along the lines of college frat party and more along the lines of Charles Bukowski.



Get excited!

Pre-Fast

I started the day out strong, but lack of control over my afternoon/evening options left me weak of willpower. In the morning, I had my usual healthy breakfast (which DOES need some fruit/egg/yogurt added in the future) which strangely held me until about one o'clock. I wasn't hungry. It was weird.

Around 2 pm, my mom picked me up from work to come home for the High Holidays. At this point, I was hungry. She had brought me lunch, which came from a place in New Rochelle called "Poultry Time." When I was a kid, we ate Poultry Time a LOT. If you had asked me if I ate fried chicken, I would have said, "No way! Gross!" But one day it dawned on me that the chicken we got there was as fried as fried can be, even if it didn't come from Popeye's or something.

The point is that it's fucking amazing chicken.

Then I came home and took a nap and later my mom made a delicious dinner that was very carb-y. Challah, pasta (delicious) and chicken and brussels sprouts. Even though I ate a lot (but slowly), my rationalization for it is that I'm not eating for most of tomorrow.



BREAKFAST

1 cup oatmeal


LUNCH

2 (fried) chicken legs
1 apple


DINNER:

Challah
Soup
Chicken/Pasta
Brussels Sprouts


EXERCISE:

Zip, zero, nada

Oy vey

What a strange day of eating. Last night I cooked up some yummy veggies, but then made the mistake of adding in this fake meat that Talia left in our freezer. I don't think it's actually gone bad, I just think it's gross-tasting. But I realized that too late...I brought it for lunch and ate most of it, but was still noshy, so I snacked on Amy Jo's tortilla chips. It's strange, it's like, I binge-ate Cinnamon Toast Crunch for a couple years to the point that I now don't really think about it or want it. Then again, people don't put out Cinnamon Toast Crunch at parties the way they do with chips. (Maybe I should start a trend...)

Anyway, I hopefully burned off a couple chips when I walked from 57th Street/7th Ave to Queensboro Plaza. Then I came home and made a totally bizarre dinner. And now it's time for the debates! I've been reading "Dreams From My Father" and my crush on Obama has intensified to an almost creepy degree.



BREAKFAST:

1 cup Oatmeal

LUNCH:

Veggie/fake meat stir fry
Tortilla chips :(


SNACK:

Some baby carrots
2.5 rice cakes


DINNER:

1 egg
TONS of Spinach

EXERCISE:

2.5 mile walk

p.s. I lost another pound! If I trust my funky scale (which might not be the best idea). I shall weigh myself at my parent's for Yom Kippur and see what's what.

Carbfest 08

I still feel terribly confused about what to eat. Alice gave me the rundown on how carb-y some of my food choices are. Not that carbs are bad, ("Carbs are your friend!" says Alice, who is sitting next to me as I type this). But carrots having carbohydates? What? So confusing!

These are the only type of things I used to think had carbs:



But now I find out that apples, for example, are fairly high in carbs. If you have known me at all, you know that I adore green Granny Smith apples. Woe is me.


BREAKFAST:

1 cup oatmeal


LUNCH:

Chicken/veggie stir fry


DINNER:

Rice cakes
Carrots
Sweet Potatoes**

EXERCISE

2 mile walk in Astoria

** Katie, you got me hooked on sweet potatoes. I love them!

Sunday

I ate "meh" today and did a lil bit of exercise. Man, I really lost vigor on this - I gotta step it up!

I went to a lovely street fair in Brooklyn today along Atlantic Avenue, where I ate some yummy snacks. The street fair was a mile long, and then I walked from 36th Ave in Astoria to my apartment, which is also a mile.



BRUNCH

1 Cup Oatmeal

Chicken/veggie stir fry


SNACKS

1/4 of a giant cupcake
2 cookies from Trader Joe's
1 small Spinach Pie


DINNER

1/2 cup beans
Chicken/veggie stir fry



Exercise: Walked 2 miles

Off The Rails

I did pretty badly today, but the difference between Old Maggie and New Maggie is that I used to binge eat and then just feel guilty or decide that the next day I wouldn't eat anything (which obviously never worked). But now I just realize that I need to offset it by actually exercising and moving my body.

So I binge-ate today but I also made myself walk from Union Square to 59th Street, which is a little more than two miles. So...there's that.

BREAKFAST:

1 cup oatmeal
1 Apple

SNACK:

A million slices of bread!! Help! (Realistically, probably 6-7 slices)


DINNER:

1/2 cup beans + sauteed mushrooms


DESSERT:

A million oreos!!! (Realistically, about 7-8)


EXERCISE:

Walked 2+ miles



Tina Fey = every girl's super-hero. I adore her.

TGIF

I really haven't been getting a lot of exercise lately, but I plan on doing some serious walking tomorrow to make up for it. I also am planning on going to yoga, and I have one more dance class at Alvin Ailey.

Today I did okay, except for snacking on some french fries that were offered to me by my co-worker. To quote "Oklahoma!", I'm just a girl who can't say no.

I ate lunch early, around 11:45 or noon, so by the time 4:30 rolled around I was pretty hungry. I stopped in at this Venezuelan place that I always pass, Arepas Cafe. It always looks so enticing, but nobody is ever in there. I keep telling myself I'll go in there to both try an arepa and also to give them some business, so today was that fated day.

Arepas are cornmeal patties filled with meat/cheese/veggies, a Venezuelan specialty. I picked a chicken one. It was definitely yummy, but also really greasy, which I didn't care for.



BREAKFAST:

1 cup of oatmeal

LUNCH:

Turkey-and-horseradish sandwich on whole wheat bread
Apple
10-15 french fries

DINNER:

Chicken arepa
Brussels Sprouts
Update: & Two pieces of bread (SO DANGEROUS TO HAVE THIS LOAF IN THE HOUSE!)
Diet Coke

Lastly, I saw "Volver" tonight and I find some sort of weird, twisted solace in the fact that no matter how thin I could get or how much Spanish I could learn, I could never, ever be Penelope Cruz.



Wow.

Cheap Eats

BREAKFAST:

1 cup of oatmeal


LUNCH:

1 Apple
Brussels Sprouts


DINNER:

Turkey burger (yum!) @ Dojo


SNACK:

Apple


Exercise:

Some walking around the Lower East Side. I stopped in at Babeland to check out their awesome supply of vibrators. I think when I lose a certain amount of weight, like ten pounds, I shall reward myself with a new one. Since I don't have a man in my life to provide the lovin, I am not afraid to do it myself!



So pretty, but so expensive! ($185!)



More along my budget ($48)

Apples (sans honey)

And we're back on track! (Sort of). Thanks for commenting, Katie, and for the good tips.


BREAKFAST:

Orange Juice


LUNCH:

Turkey and horseradish sandwich on whole-grain bread
Apple
Diet Coke


DINNER:

Turkey sandwich (my grandma gave me a lot of leftovers)
Orange juice

SNACK:

Two (!) pieces of bread. Oy.
Apple


EXERCISE:

Barely anything. I was supposed to take a long walk in the city, but it was raining and gross out.



Above is a photo of Lindsay Lohan at what I consider to be her most beautiful. Red hair, full figure, excellent movies (Freaky Friday, Mean Girls, Prairie Home Companion...), a little before her dramatic weight loss, drug use, bad movies, and general dumbassness. I'm glad she's gay now because it makes her more interesting, but she's not really any smarter or classier.



Get it together, girl! Let your hair be red, let your skin be pale, and even put on a few more pounds!