Flight home

Having become a vegetarian and not selecting the vegetarian food as a special meal was probably a mistake, but I'll survive. The veg option had rice in it which I don't eat and the veggies were carrots which I also generally avoid ( ate 1/2 of them).

I had some protein bars, brought an apple, some nuts and some dried fruit with me which have been some healthy options.

I believe that there is fruit available for breakfast so let's see what happens. 

Been a while

With two out of three family members here for two weeks followed by Diwali, it's been a tough time on the diet. Virtually all meals were eaten out at a hotel or restaurant and often buffet style. But I was pretty good! 

Since I have up meat (I was formerly s vegetarian for 15 years and seeing the condition that animals live in India....well I won't get preachy) and  alcohol (which itself is a lot of carbs) my choices were somewhat limited.

Lots of chickpeas and paneer. Luckily I seem to be able to tolerate the fresh fruit without getting sick.

And I did eat the occasional dessert but overall I stuck to the diet, recorded everything and maintained portion control as best as I could. Since we had several long drives I brought along plenty of protein bars. Net-net I was up about 1kg after these three weeks, so I was pretty happy with that result. 

I got back into my running routine and I'm preparing for an upcoming 10km run here in Bangalore early Dec. (2 weeks away!).

Back down to 84.5 kg....so right where I am suppose to be! 

We discovered South Indian filter coffee during the holidays and I've become totally addicted. I have 5 filter machines in my luggage for gifts for people back home.

Speaking of home, I'm traveling this evening at 3:45 am and will be back in Ottawa by 3 or 4 pm on Thursday local time.

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

(Barber did such a good job that an orchid sprouted from my head)

Free range eggs

Found them... I'll post where later...

Lunch at Coconut Grove

Wow fantastic and fits in with the diet.   

Rasam, which is a spicy soup, is pretty much free.

Then Iddiyappam and Chana kadalacurry as a main.  Are about a cup of the chickpeas and 1 of the iddiyappam and I was stuffed. This counts as 3 proteins, 1 starch, 2 oil, 

And the place is pretty cool. 

And the coffee was superb! Mixed with ginger it was great for the onset of this stupid cold. 

Breakfast at Koshy's

This is a famous American style breakfast joint here in Bangalore. 

Had a Spanish omelet (which had carrots in it?". For the sake of the diet this was 4 proteins, a fat, and one restricted veg. 

I obviously didn't touch the fries. 

Coffee was pretty darn good too! 

Up a bit

Friday's are the day where I look back over the week and see how is the maintainence program going.

Last week I had a bit of an aberration and was down to 184.5. End of this week (start of the new) I'm back to 188.5.

I cut out all alcoholic drinks a few days ago and added a little bit of carbs (had a parata but more on that later). 

I added the running back this week and had a 8.9 and 6 km run/walk combination. I'm preparing for my first 10km which will be here in Bangaluru the first week of Dec. 

A mid week last week it looked like I was a course to hit 191lbs so I'm glad I made a few corrections. I cut out 1 fat and 1 protein a day. 

I've also been mildly sick with a sore throat (it's going around at work) and feel a little bit like I'm in a fog (also a common description from those at work). Hopefully it ends soon. 

Back pain is pretty much unbearable and constant. It wasn't going away by not running so I might as well run (I feel like shit when I don't exercise) odd how that has changed in the past months! 

Just enjoying a cup of tea on the balcony in the morning sun before heading into the office.

Mushrooms

Fried mushroom are fantastic in the diet. They look huge to start, shrink and absorb some flavours, fry up nicely and are fun to eat! Here I had a 2ounce or 2 servings of some mild Cheddar cheese from England that I got from the international food store (Nature's basket). Terribly over priced but difficult to find elsewhere.

As usual, I have some Indian style pickles which are pretty oily so you have to count those in.

Thanksgiving day dinner

Well I wasn't about to cook a turkey for a couple of reasons:

1. Turkeys are hard to find in Bangalore this time of year. Apparently around xmas they are available.
2. A turkey would be way to big for one person to eat.
3. No oven and turkey tartar is probably a really bad idea.
4. I've been trying to go more towards being a vegetarian  with two of three meals being pure veg these days. 

So....what do I make for dinner. 

It a work day for me here in Bangalore so some thing less elaborate. 

I know! Paneer. Paneer is very much like Haloumi in that it is a firm cheese that can be BBQed or fried and doesn't easily lose it's shape. They are very different cheeses and I like them both. 

In any case, I made a veggie salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, avocado for some fat, and green peppers.

The paneer is sprinkled with a little salt, pepper and masala on one side and then fried in a hot pan with a small amount of olive oil.  In this case, it was rosemary flavoured olive oil from the Unrefined Olive located in Ottawa, Canada. It was really good!

2 ounces of protein for the paneer and 1 fat (for the avocado/oil) and I'm full!

 

I made enough salad for my lunch tomorrow too! Bonus!

Fun slow day

After a pretty busy week of 23+ hours travel, burst water pipe in the kitchen of my apartment, and meeting with a few nedors, I totally had a relaxing saturday.

Got up around 5 and played a new computer game called Heros of Normandie. Its based on a baord game made in France that I really enjoy. Not quite as detailed as the board game, but fun!

I then went to MTR and had breakfast again. Recall that I am on the maintenence program and trying to keep my weight roughly the same with reason. Well I ended the week 4 lbs lighter than when I started and I am now lighter than I was when I got married 26.75 years ago. I decided to add a bit of carbs to the diet and visited MTR again. Honestly it was the best breakfast I've ever had. Fantastic! I had both  a dosa and a dish called Khara bath. THey come in at about 250 calories each, and I need about 500/meal + 500 in snacks a day so this was well within the die budget. Besides lentils there is very little protein in the meal, but lots of carbs, and oil and restricted veg (potatoes). I skipped the coffee here and instead grabbed an americano (grande + an extra shot) at starbucks.

Then bought a few dozen roses (around 60)  for about 3 bucks.

Then checked out an open air granite place. Prices are unbelieveable.

Lunch consisted of some chickpeas that I burned making a gravy (but was still good) and a few protein bars to make up for the lack of protein this morning.

Dinner was scrambled eggs using double yolk eggs, Lovely!

Finished off with a plate of cheese and a glass of wine! This dieting thing is rough!

Figs

Lately I've been in a fig kick. These figs are a small green variety (I assume they are imported). 

They are not as sweet as the bigger black version.  Normally 2 figs count as a single serving of fruit, but given their size I have used 3 as one serving.

Adding a little flavour to your diet.

Flavoured Vinegars and Olive Oils are simply amazing. They are diet friendly and taste great. I bought a few small quantity from the Unrefined Olive in Ottawa, Canada and brought them with me on this trip to India. 

As I use them I'll write up about it here...

So the first one, up is Cranberry-Pear Balasmic Vinegar. This is vinegar has a lovely pine hue and its sweet taste is perfect for adding to yogurt and enhancing the flavour of fruit. Here I've added about a tsp to some 0% fat yogurt and fresh cut pineapple. Fabulous! 

Selfies

Ok maybe just a little vain...

And in FRA

Contemplating my navel.

Returning to Bangalore

Back in the air and I forgot to pack almonds and cashews. Fortunately they have them on board. As I'm actually down a few pounds over the past two days I've added 3 proteins, 2 fats and  fruit during the flight on Sunday and Monday. Tuesday am, I'll flip back to the regular scheduled program and hopefully get a run in before work. 

Flight to FRA was good and I was able to have a few light meals consisting of tuna, salad and then sablefish m. Never had sablefish before but I would describe it as a cross between salmon and trout. This one was marinated in tamari. Quite good. 

Of course I didn't eat the rice. The veg in this case was bok choy, a nice change.

I skipped breakfast on the plane except for some mixed fresh fruit.

At the maple leaf lounge I grabbed a plain omelette, salami and cheese as well as a nectarine. I'll tuck an apple away in my bag and fill up on tomatoes and cucumbers. I'll eat lunch on the plane and likely eat very light at dinner as it comes when we are close to landing. I prefer to try and sleep on the later part of this flight. 

Proof is in the pudding

Despite some cravings issues earlier in the week, I was able to maintain the dieting through the weekend (should it be called WEAKend??) as well as a company offsite. Planning again was the key here. I had fridge installed in the room and was able to bring my own fresh veggies, measures amounts of cheese, yogurt and fruit. Add a few nuts and a diet soda or two and I was good to go! The result was that I am exactly the same weight as measured by the clinic as the last time I was in the clinic. So it works folks!

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.