A Foodies Life

New Jersey running!!!!

In the past three days I've run 11 miles! Friday was a rough day, only able to go 2.6 miles and walked most of the time. Yesterday I went on a run at a lake house I was staying at in New Jersey. It was the perfect weather and I used a method I heard about from friends called the 'galloway method'. You run for a little bit and then walk, continually rotating that way. Moat people say to run 5 or 7 minutes and walk a minute. I ran ten minutes and walked one. I ended up doing a little over 4 miles and it was fine. I think I will use that method from now on.

I'm now in the car on the way back to Boston. I'll be seeing friends from high school tonight and then flying home early tomorrow morning. Hope you all are having a great weekend. It's cold but beautiful in the northeast. I'm attaching a picture from the run yesterday.

30 lbs. In 4 months- the plan

Ok I've been procrastinating all day long with this post. Now I'm in my bed, one advil pm away from a great sleep.

So simply put starting tomorrow I'm doing a self imposed weight loss program. My goal is to lose 30 lbs by December 23rd. That would put me down to 180 lbs.

I'll be posting daily with my progress. I also think some great things will be happening this fall but I'll get to that some other time.

Have a great night and get ready for day 1!

Eating on the road

Were getting down to the wire here with my weight loss competition at work, I've failed miserably.  This past weekend I was in Nashville at a celebrity golf tournament, if your a longtime blog reader than you've heard me mention it in the past.  At said golf tournament I work the food tent and I'm surrounded by it all day long.  For some reason it's different than when I'm at work.  I've gotten relatively good at choosing the right thing at work.  I guess it's because I can always go to my office and ignore the food.  So this past weekend I felt like I was eating everything in site.  Granted I burnt a lot of calories because of the time I was on my feet but I felt like I over did it.  

Tuesday was my travel day home.  In the morning I spent the day with a cousin whom I haven't seen in 12 years.  We drove around and then decided to talk over some Sushi, maybe not the most obvious choice in Nashville but I was in the mood for it.  About one o'clock full on Sushi I got in the road and started on my 8 hour journey home.  A trip up and down highway 65 should always include a trip to Durbin Farms.  It's right off the highway in Clanton, Alabama.  It was about 5:30 when I pulled into town so I decided it would be a good place to stop for the night.  My ulterior motive was that it was the first night of the American Idol finale and I didn't want to miss it.  So I got a honey mustard roast beef sandwich on wheat and got a hotel room.  All I had eaten that day was the Sushi so I was still hungry.    With an hour to kill before American Idol I decided to venture out, tried a few other fruit stands but I was really hunkering for a snack bag of Kettle Corn popcorn.  I found myself in Walmart with an epic struggle.  The Doritos's looked good, I could get them baked right?  Why not just get some pringles?  I could get a whole box of pringles and it would be less calories as eating a bad of Doritos.  

Take a look above and you'll see what I decided on! 

Bodybugg

 

Ok so really there is so much exciting stuff to report about.  I've just not had a lot of time.  Above you see a horrible picture of the display for a bodybugg.  Have you heard about the bodybugg?  It's this incredible little device that you put on your arm and it counts all the calories you burn each day.  Then you go on their website and put your food into a journal so it creates a calorie deficit for you.  You've probably seen it on The Biggest Loser before, that's where I heard about it.  My goal is to lose 35 lbs before I go on vacation in May.  I'm all ready down about 5 and it's only been a week and a half! 

Also, have you noticed the Twitter feed?  Even if you don't get a post like this you will get a feed from me on Twitter....I've heard people talking about it but now that I know you can use it on the website I've added it.  It's kinda of goofy but hopefully it will keep me in touch with you all more often.  So come back and take a look throughout the day!  I hopefully will have even more news for you all later, it will make Susan very happy. 

I gotta run, chat later!

Throwing Away the Fat Clothes

A long time ago I spoke with a gentleman named Juan Carlos Cruz from the Food Network.  He was the host of a show called Calorie Commando.  Most of the advice that he gave me has stayed with me, and this time trying to lose weight I am doing my best to follow it.  One thing he told me to do was to throw away my fat clothes.  Refuse to go back to it.  Your clothes can be a good judge of how you are doing in losing and keeping weight off.  So that's what I'm staying to do, kind of, let me explain.

I don't like shopping for clothes at all.  I usually try to go in the store, pick the size that I need and go home.  That's exactly what I did last week.  I went to Hagger, because they make the best clothes from a short stout man I've found.  I picked out two pairs of pants that had a 42 inch expandable waist.  I came home to try them on and they didn't fit!  They were way too big!  I was so excited but horrified at the option of having to take them back and get them exchanged.  Many times I've bought things and been horrified by bringing things back that I didn't do it.  This time I needed new pants and didn't have the money to buy a new pair so I had to do it.  So I got the courage, after leaving the pants in the bag sitting in my car for a few days, to go exchange them on Friday morning.   Not only was I able to exchange them but they had been put on sale so I got $4 back!  I will now exchange pants more often! 

Anyway the point is that I'm throwing away my fat clothes everyone!  Granted I'm losing the weight very slowly this time but that's the goal!  I think my issue last time was that I started something I couldn't keep doing realistically.  I worked out every single day for three months, I watched every single thing I put in my mouth.  That's a great way to lose weight but for me not a realistic way to lose weight.  OK I'm off to work.  There might be a dinner with L & C tonight so stay tuned!  Hope everyone is having a great holiday season.

 

 

Bamboo Steamer

OK so I have something to confess.  Last year I bought my dad a bamboo steamer for Christmas, it's been sitting in the cabinet since Christmas of last year.  I've never cooked with one, for some reason haven't gotten around to using this one.  Something else I should confess when I bought the steamer it was mainly for me.  Now that I'm on the health kick again I couldn't imagine a better time to bring it out.  Steaming offers a different way to cook many items without using fat, something that I'm trying to avoid.  Now I'd heard about bamboo steamers a long time ago, think it might have been from Juan Carlos Cruz of the Food Network.  In a conversation I had with him he spoke of a recipe for tea smoked salmon.  I wasn't daring enough to do tea smoked salmon.

So this is what I did.  I put a pot of water on the stove with some honey and lemon tea bags.  Brought it up to a boil.  The bamboo steamer I have has two layers.  On the first layer I put some lettuce down, then the salmon that I cut up, some salt and pepper and slices of limes. 

Then on the top layer I put some broccoli and baby carrots.  Then I put it all on the pot that had a rolling boil. 

It took about fifteen minutes.  I have to say that I was nervous about it being done, so after about fifteen minutes I checked it.  I kinda felt like it needed more time so I put it on for five more minutes. 

 

 

 

Here is the final product.  I have to say it came out really good.  Probably some of the best salmon that I've had in a long time.  I would recommend using tea.  It's a great way to infuse flavor without adding calories.  The taste is hard to describe but it was a very subtle taste.  It's something that I'm definitely going to do again.  I don't know if you are like we are but we often by tea bags and they never go to use.  So this is a good way to do it.   I think the next thing I want to try is a pork chop with some apple cinnamon herbal tea. 

The Biggest Loser

OK so The Biggest Loser is a little off topic here but not really cause I'm trying to be the biggest loser myself.  Those of you that know me know that I've been a faithful watcher of The Biggest Loser since almost the beginning.  I love the show, love what it stands for, love the results.  I've even been known to do interviews past contestants on the show. 

On last night's show which I watched this morning, I felt conflicted.  They had a contest where the winner would win $5,000.  That part I think is great.  What I'm having a problem with is that the contest was eating and searching through mounds and pounds of dough-nuts!  I don't know why that contest affected me more than any of the other contests but it felt repulsive to me. 

I know why I was conflicted because yesterday I had a rough day myself with my weight loss journey (sounds better than diet).  And I realize that just that one moment decision to do something or not do something is the difference between hundreds of calories, fat etc.  Now it is my job to taste everything that comes out of my kitchen while I am there.  There is no way around that.  Except all I need to do is taste, one spoon at a time.  But yesterday I walked in the morning and found myself starving.  The choices we had for lunch weren't very good, at least not to me.  They were fried fish or Italian sausage and peppers.  I should of tried the sausage and instead I ate two crab cakes with tarter sauce.  Then we had a meeting that I needed cookies for, so I made macadamia nut cookies, had to try one.  So basically yesterday I ate everything fried, or sugary, or fatty except for an orange.  I got on the scale this morning and I luckily didn't gain any weight.  So basically my problem is that I make bad choices.  Now I can understand the days that I go out to eat, I'm just not going to stop that completely.  But all the other days I have to get better. 

So that's why I was conflicted last night because I know what it is like to make the split second decision.  I was, and continue to be impressed with Kae.  She is just a powerhouse and won't make bad decisions.  While I'm talking about this, I have to say that I'm glad that Amy is gone.  I felt like she deserved it for turning her back on Kim.  She seemed to not be honest and faithful. 

All right I'm off to exercise and go to work!  It's a new day!  Bye for now.

Oven Fried Chicken

When it comes to losing weight what you have to do is try to eat the things that you like.  The way you do that is to come up with ways to get rid of some of the calories.  One of the most popular recipes or versions of this is oven fried chicken.  I first heard about oven frying chicken from a food network star Juan Carlos Cruz.  He did a show called Calories Commando where he would do exactly what I just discussed, take calories away from popular dishes but keep them just as good.  I did a podcast and had a website called A Dieter's Life and Chef Cruz came on and spoke to me a couple of times.    He's a great guy.

Anyway, tonight my father asked me to cook oven fried chicken.  So I went to the store this afternoon and purchased chicken breasts with the bone on, and boneless skinless chicken thighs.  I came home and took the skin off the breasts.  Then I marinated all the chicken in buttermilk, mustard, garlic salt, fresh rosemary and a pinch of cayenne pepper. 

After marinating it for about two hours I then dipped it in a mixture of corn flakes, breadcrumbs, lemon pepper and more garlic salt. 

I put them on a wire rack and then I sprayed them with 'I can't believe it's not butter' spray.  I think you can use any sort of oil spray that you can find that is just what we had in the house. 

Then I put it in the oven at 400 degrees for about forty minutes.  It came out nice the crispy with almost half the calories of regular fried chicken. 

 

It was a pretty easy recipe and it came out tasting really pretty good.  The only thing I was wondering was if you could save more calories if you pulsed the corn flakes in the food processor as opposed to using bread crumbs.  I looked at the back of the packaging and the corn flakes had 100 calories per cup while the bread crumbs had 100 calories per 1/4 cup.  But if you grind the corn flakes down I wonder if they will be condensed enough so that it would be able the same.  Something to ponder for the evening! 

Dieting and a Food Blog?

Happy Sunday everyone!  So at 7:30 this morning I decided that I would go to the grocery store.  What I wanted to accomplish was to buy stuff that I could eat throughout the day and not be tempted at work.  Let's do the math here.  I am a chef, I write a food blog and I want to lose weight.  I'm beginning to learn that it can happen in moderation.   Temptation is my biggest problem so if I take the temptation away I think I'll be able to survive.  How do I do that?  Well, by making sure that I have plenty of the right kinds of food available to me!  That means mainly fruits and vegetables, chicken, low fat dressings etc. 

I learned a valuable lesson this past weekend at a Celebrity Golf Tournament I worked at in Nashville.  I was working the food tent that had just about everything you could think of available, burgers, hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, Oreo cookies, krispy kreme donuts, ice cream bars, beer, water, poweraide etc.  I, of course, cause I was bored would just grab whatever I wanted, mainly donuts.  But when the celebrities and professional athletes would come up they would eat wisely.  Most of them got chicken (no bread), tomatoes, a fruit cup and some water.  So I am going to learn a lesson from them and start eating more wisely. 

Will I still be able to do a food blog?  Sure I will.  First, there is tons of healthy food products to write about.  Second, I will continue my dinners with L every Monday night.  Third, I will always be a foodie at heart!  Bye for now!

Things to come

 Hey Everyone,

Sorry it's taken me a few days to write.  I'm trying to get back into my normal way of life here in Florida.  I'm gonna talk a little tonight about a few things that are to come in the next week or so.  I just have so much to write about!

I'm going to talk about my trip, of course.  Get caught up on my Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen watching and I have an exciting announcement to make.  I'm going to get to that now though.

While I was away I came to a few interesting realizations.  The biggest one is that I do not like the way that I look.  I am very overweight!  I came to this for many reasons but mainly because I've seen myself in a few pictures that I took while on vacation.  So I am working out the details but my twin brother and I have entered into a competition about who can lose the most weight and keep it off for the longest amount of time.  This past weekend I was in Nashville working on a celebrity golf tournament that is hosted by Vince Gill and Amy Grant, two people that I admire a great deal.  Amy and I took a picture together and I couldn't believe how I look.  So my personal goal for myself is to take the same picture next year when I see her and be much thinner. 

So for all those people that just thought this website was going to be just about food it's also going to be about my weight loss.  It should be interesting for you all to see me chronicle this while also talking about food.  So get ready cause it's gonna happen!  I started today by coming home and exercising during the middle of the day and trying to eat well.   

Wanted to give you all that update and tell you all to get ready for pictures and stories!  I'm gonna do my best to start writing tomorrow!  Hope you all have had a great couple of weeks!

Bye for now!