1200 calories

4 apples = 372
1/2 cup guacamole = 182
15 tortilla chips = 105
2 rice cakes = 100
40 saltine crackers = 440
Total = 1199

Nutritarian

I am writing this post from a phone. I've never done that before. I'm not even sure if this is actually the correct text field.

I mostly just wanted to record a slaw recipe I just made, but I realized I'd like to compile all the improvised recipes I've been making lately. My diet has become very particular as of late, and I can't really find recipes that meet my needs without heavy modifications.

When I weighed myself for the first time in quite a while on New Year's Eve I was at 190 pounds. That's the heaviest I've been since Sam was born. So, I decided to make a resolution to get down to 140 pounds by the end of the year (a number slightly below my lightest weight as an adult). During the month of January I lost about 10 pounds, doing a combination of loosely following Fuhrman's "Eat to Live" with some inspiration from Timothy Ferriss' "Slow Carb Diet" and Sears' "Zone" for good measure. I lost my steam after that month, and gained all the weight back by the end of February.

Then something happened. I stayed home from work while my son Sam was sick last Friday and it gave me some time to reflect. I realized that my stress from work, my infant daughter, and all the other noise of daily life was the biggest reason I couldn't lose weight. Even though I had been making good-faith efforts to improve my health, they were disorganized and piecemeal. Instead of worrying about eating better along with everything else, I decided to invest the time and energy to make food my priority.

Following a variety of diets on a conceptual level hadn't worked, so I went with a clearly defined, more radical version of the "Eat to Live" diet (a food plan already deemed very strict by most standards).

In addition to eating only whole foods, I wanted to eliminate all those foods that contain relatively high calories. Any foods Fuhrman recommends eating in moderation (grains, nuts, seeds, starchy vegetables) I have eliminated completely, as well as eating no refined products (aside from calorie-free vinegar, herbs, spices, and salt-free broth).

I've already lost the 10 pounds again in about a week and I don't intend on letting up for a while. For the most part I'm not a very disciplined person, so having a set of rules that (if followed) will lead to guaranteed weight-loss success, I feel exceedingly more confident about the future. Moderation has never been and probably never will be a strong suit of mine.

This might be the strictest I've ever been, but I've been similarly strict with my diet in various ways over the years (see most of my previous entries on this blog). One big problem I have is getting bored with the food. That's why I'm making the enjoyment of food more of a priority, while still following my rules.

Which brings me to this: slaw recipe!

This Asian slaw doesn't offer the same satisfaction one could expect from the typically high-fat, high-salt, carb-infused varieties, but after a week of mostly fresh fruit and bland bean soups, it's not that bad!

Speaking of, I wonder how many people don't do well on fad diets because they believe the claims of gurus that they can make only slight modifications to their food choices and achieve delicious success. I know eating healthier, lower calorie options is not going to give me the same kind of food-high I crave, but at least creating foods with superficially similar flavor profiles helps me make it through the day.

Can't Run Good (CRG) Asian Slaw

1 bag shredded cabbage (about 14 ounces)
1/2 cup rice vinegar
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Black pepper
Ground ginger

*OR*

If you aren't as lazy as me, this would be a lot better with freshly minced onions, garlic, and ginger root. And freshly ground pepper, which I actually have, but I'm trying to use up the shitty pre-powdered stuff I have first.

Preparation:
Mix the vinegar in with the dry spices (or minced goodness) in a medium bowl. Put the cabbage in a large plastic or glass storage container that has a lid. Pour the liquid over the cabbage. Mix it up. Taste it and adjust flavor ratios as needed. Put the top on and stick it in the fridge for at least an hour, maybe longer.

For full disclosure, I haven't actually tried this yet. Mine's marinating in the fridge. It would probably be better with more ingredients, but I haven't figured out what those are yet.

Good luck!

Put Michael Sam on the Rams' Roster!

This blog has 1,570 page views, so I decided this is the one I should write something on. I just read an article about Michael Sam's performance in the preseason on bleacherreport.com, and I saw on the bottom of the page a link to information about their "Writer Program." They suggested that if I don't have publishing credits, I should start with a blog for practice. I guess I have technically been published: a few columns for my college newspaper and a few columns and interviews for Vegan Mainstream. I've written blogs off and on. In fact, I just realized I have five blogs on Blogger alone. I imagine I have a few on Wordpress too. Is Tumblr a blog site? I have one of those too.

Also, I've been watching Bored to Death and it's making me wish more than usual that I was a novelist. This same thing happened when I started watching Californication a year or two ago. I ended up writing a few dozen poems. I don't think it inspired any novel or story attempts. It probably did though. I just don't remember.

I've been dreaming more lately. That's good for inspiration. I'll try to turn my recorded dreams into something.

Wine and Cheese

Apparently people don't like the title of my other blog, so I'm going to switch to this one, at least for now. I am almost finished with Joel Fuhrman's Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right, which will put me at two books for the year. I intend on finishing two more Fuhrman books in the next week or so: Fasting and Eating for Health and Super Immunity. If I can avoid watching television my reading goals should be easy, but I need to start reading two books a week for a bit to catch up.

My diet has been healthy of late for the most part, but I've done things like drinking too much wine the past week and I also gorged myself on Daiya cheese and tortillas last night. Even with such indulgences, I've been eating at least a pound of non-starchy vegetables a day, and at least two pounds most days. I'm eating at least a cup of beans, an ounce of nuts and/or seeds, and four servings of fruit daily, so my appetite is still allowing me to ingest immunity-boosting levels of nutrients, even given my occasional missteps.

I find myself very tired lately, and I think the biggest factor is my lack of vigorous exercise and inconsistent sleep schedule. I hope that if I start working out I'll be tired enough to get to sleep earlier each night.

This post is a follow-up to my earlier writings about my new year's resolutions I posted on Stephen Hates America.

I am erratic.

I still haven't posted my food diary, in part because I am embarrassed. I made reasonable choices until Thursday night, but that's when it started to go downhill. After donating plasma, I went over to a friend's apartment and proceeded to eat a bag of tortilla chips with pizza sauce, and drink two Lone Stars. That was my dinner. The following morning I ate three plums and three breakfast tacos. The director at my school was nice enough to bring in some vegan ones: black bean and potato.

The tacos tasted so good I started craving more. So, I went to Taco Bell and had two bean and potato burritos. Oh, and I forgot about this part until just now... I was already dehydrated before eating the burritos, so in a state of total irrationality I drank one liter of 7-Up. I rarely drink soda, and if I do, well... No, I just hardly ever do it. I can't remember the last time I had soda.

I haven't been sleeping enough so maybe that's part of the problem. I've been a little stressed by my new job. Oh, but I haven't even gotten to the terrible, depressing climax yet.

After spending more money on food yesterday than I intended, I decided to stop by Supermercado El Rancho on my way home for enough cheap produce to last me through the weekend. I didn't make it past the fifteen feet of pastries (pan dulces) that greet you as you walk in the store.

I though, "Hmm." I've feeling tired and stressed out. I want to relax tonight. I'll buy a couple of pastries. I won't give you all the details of my brain's machinations, because it's too depressing to go into, but I ended up purchasing nine pastries, eating four of them on the ten-minute car ride home, and proceeding to eat the other five before bed while watching three hours of YouTube videos.

I need a vacation.

A Budget

I made a budget: two-week periods, detailing how to spend my paycheck. I won't post that budget now because it would take too long. I will only post post my food and gas expenditures (my only necessary costs that are also variable).

August 15
-$20 on gas
-$4.97 on food

August 16
-$3.72 on food

August 17
-$5.14 on food


My goal is to limit food costs to under $5 a day, and I'm finding it really easy so far. By insuring I spend under $5 each time at the grocery store, I have to choose foods I can eat throughout the day. Because I probably won't end up buying food every day, I may be able to bring that number down even more. Ideally, I want to keep the combined food/gas total below $100 per pay period, and then I would be able to cover the cost completely through plasma donations.

I have a plan to eliminate all non-student loan debt by the end of the year and pay to finish my teacher certification. From there, I want to develop and implement a one-year program to meet a lot of goals I've been wanting to achieve the past few years that I've never had the discipline to accomplish.

I will also be keeping a food diary again. I've been tracking since Wednesday, but I don't have time to post it this morning.

Cheers,
Stephen

I might

This blog never became what I wanted it to be, because I never made a good-faith effort to be the reluctant athlete that I had some intentions of becoming. The pessimistic name I gave it, "Stephen Can't Run Good," acknowledges my doubts about my abilities, and may have been part of the self-fulfilling prophecy I laid out for myself.

I might do a couples "tri sprint" next month. I might go on the "80/10/10" diet for the next 4 weeks. I might train regularly. I probably won't do any of these things, but I wanted to let you know just in case.