Cravings?

Oddly I have been struggling wth cravings for the past two days. I'm pushing through but so far it has been very hard to keep my mind focused (not picking up the food is the first and hardest choice to make. Lucikly i'm in Canada this week so getting exactly what  I want to eat is very helpful.

Heading home again..

Even though I'm back on the more restricted dieting for a few days, I'm trraveling for the next two days so to account for the time warp that I go through, I add a few proteins and fats to the diet. Seems to have worked in the past trips so lets how it works this time. 

The travel agent finally sorted out the low calorie meal option problem that was stuck in my file. This is good news as previosuly it restricted the ability to make healthly choices and left me with a lot of carb based food which I didn't eat. 

The appetizer on Air Canada was right up my alley! Salmon and shrimps. The salad was made from 100% restricted veggies and I so I skipped that bit (dinner had peas which I ate instead). 

The only bad things about this trip was that I forgot to bring my protein bars for the trip. Which reminds me that I will have to bring some food with me to the planned work offsite this week, (A fridge has been rder for my rooom so I can store things). 

Looking foward to it. Folks from all over the company coming together and working on common goals for a few days. If I remember, I'll blog about maintaining the diet while I'm there...

Been on maintenance for a few weeks now

So I've been on maintenance for a few weeks now (I believe 3) and my weight has stayed roughly the same. I dropped a few pounds and added a few proteins and fats, this week I could see my weight increasing daily so I cut back on to the strict for a few days to see it come down and it has. 

Yesterday I managed to get a walk and a very short run (10min) on the treadmill. I'm trying to take it slow as I return to running. Seeing the chiro for my back on Friday. 

I'm guessing that I'm retaining quite a bit of water so I means I need to drink more water. Also, since I kinda extract every nutrient out of the food, my body processes the waste slowly. 

I may have to invest in some medamucil or something high in fibre, but I'm quite reluctant.

Voyage home early tomorrow am (3am) so no sleep this evening. These trips certainly take their toll on my body.

Ah well, the adventure is worth it! 

Dessert

Did I mention fat free yogurt? We'll have a few times. I often eat it for dessert  in the evenings with fruit and some nuts. It's pretty darn good!

Pickles

Did I mention that on the diet, pickles are free. And I have become a pickle fiend. 

 There are four different kinds of pickles in the bowl (garlic, chilli, sweet and actually jalapeños which aren't pickles themselves but are peppers that are themselves pickled. And of course the other free thing on the diet is mustard! Both of these items were picked up from Natures's Basket here in Bangalore. 

Tonights dinner brought to you by the letters M and E.

If you don't get the reference look up Seasame Street and "brought to by the letters..." 

Well what do we have here....

3 oz of chilli chicken, cauliflower masala and cacumber salad made with cucumbers, tomatoes, white radish, and avocados. Normally I would put a little pit of onion in that. All in all this was a very diet conscious meal with only the chicken and avocados counting towards the daily allotment. 

I saved 1/2 of the cauliflower for meals later this week and I couldn't finish the salad (so I just picked out and at the avocado). Now this avocado was a large round green one, which again is different then the ones we get in Canada which tend to be small pear shaped ones.  It was pretty awesome and I only used 1/2 so the other 1/2 will get eaten tomorrow (maybe with more salad cause I gotta eatmore veggies   and use up what I have in the fridge.

In terms of spicing in the salad, I used salt/pepper and fresh coriander. In the cauliflower I used a veggie masala mix, and added garlic, a few cardamon pods (what the heck I thought i would try them) and finally I bought some curry leaves on recommendation of my driver. Good for your health he says. I don't know about health but they sure are tasty. 

DYU Art Cafe

Decided to go out for lunch and DYU Art Cafe was a recommended venue on a expat site. Took over an hour to get here from my apartment as it is in Koramangala which is to the south of where I live and you have to pass through some heavy traffic. 

In any case, Its quite a lovely little place. Tons of outdoor seating and nice atmosphere. Tables could have used a used a wipe though :) 

Ordered a French press which came in an actual Bodum. Also ordered an veggie omlette as it is the only thing on the menu that I can actually eat on this diet (even on maintainence) 

The coffee was quite good, albeit a bit on the strong side. The bodum mesh needs to be replaced as it was now allowing grinds to get through. 

Of course it came with bread which I won't eat. I wish I remembered to tell them (but come to think of it wasn't on the menu either :) 

The veggies inside, peppers, tomoatoes, mushrooms, carrots, onions were crisp and fresh and a heavy use of butter made it pretty tasty. It will take 3 protiens, my restricted veg and 1 fat off the daily allowance. 

I'm glad I didn't order it with cheese as it would have been too much (although it said it was a cheese Omelette, I think I confused them when I asked for "just veg" in it. 

Music was quite modern, alternartive rock (and all English) the 30 minutes that I was there.

A bit unfortanate that they don't have wifi, but then again, I read a few pages from an e-book I'm struggling with (the book is good, I just keep folrgetting I have it! lol.) Its called the Thief Covanent by Ari  Marmell. I've been using it as inspriation for a D&D 5th edition campaign I'm running right now. Using it for settings and such. 

Cozy little corners, but as I mentioned, they could use a more frequent wipe with being outdoors and also due to the lattes and capacinos. 

I liked the use of the sewing table base as a coffee table base. The wheel spins and the pedal can be pumped as they are not fixed in place.