July 23: Best Meatless Monday Yet

Meatless Mondays have been something of a struggle over the last few weeks, but yesterday might have been my best one.

For lunch I made stuffed shells. Here's the basic recipe (apologies for vague measurements, I eyeballed it):

• 12-16 large pasta shells, cooked to al dente and rinsed with cold water.
• Half of a medium zucchini, diced.
• Half of a red bell pepper, seeded and diced
• Salt and pepper
• Roughly 3/4 cup ricotta cheese
• Roughly 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• 1 tbsp Tuscan Sunset (Italian seasoning)
• 1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce

Saute the zucchini and bell pepper with salt and pepper in a little olive oil until tender, then set aside on a plate to cool for a moment. Combine the ricotta, half the mozzarella cheese and seasoning in a medium bowl.

To stuff the shells, put a large spoonful of the diced vegetables inside a shell. Then cover that with a spoonful of the cheese mixture and place stuffing-side up in a 9x9 baking dish. Spoon the pasta sauce over the shells, spread it out as evenly as you can, then cover that with the rest of the mozzarella. 

Either cover this with nonstick foil or foil you've sprayed with cooking spray, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. After that remove the foil and broil until the cheese has browned.

That was pretty good, but I'm even prouder of dinner: Nine vegetable crock pot tacos. The recipe is pretty simple:

• 2 cans of black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 uncooked ears of corn, with the kernels cut off the cob
• Half of a red bell pepper, seeded and diced.
• Half of a medium zucchini, shredded
• One jar of your favorite salsa
• One packet of taco seasoning
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• One red onion, diced
• Roma tomatoes, diced
• Radishes, sliced thinly
• Lettuce, shredded
• Avocado, sliced or diced
• Sour cream
• Shredded light Mexican cheese
• Flour tortillas

Combine the beans, corn, pepper, zucchini, salsa, taco seasoning and cornstarch in a slow cooker and cook on low for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally. Serve on the tortillas with the remaining ingredients.

We liked this enough that we're eating leftovers of it again tonight, which is a Meatless Monday first.

Exercise log: DDR, although I lost track of my calorie count.

Another sign that my plan is working: Today I'm using the second hole on my belt. I haven't used that in years.

July 20: Sneaking In Some Vegetables (And A Weigh In)

The Brewers are in Cincinnati and Philadelphia for the next six days, which creates some awkward schedule issues. They play at 6 pm tonight, tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday and at 11 am Sunday and Wednesday.

Brewer games that encroach on meal times make it a challenge to eat healthy: All of a sudden I'm losing an hour or two I could have spent making sure I'm eating better.

I didn't get a chance to make dinner until 5:30 tonight, so my time was somewhat limited. I gave in and tossed in a frozen pizza, but while I was waiting for the oven to preheat I shredded and sauteed a zucchini with salt, pepper, garlic powder and Tuscan Sunset. I spread that on top of the pizza before it went in the oven and instantly had an extra vegetable to go with what could have been a massive fail of a meal.

Exercise log: I've fallen behind writing here over the last few days, but I have gotten workouts in.

• Wednesday - I had to wait until almost 11 pm to do it (morning work, afternoon Brewer game, night Timber Rattlers game which went to extra innings), but I ran 2.8 miles.
• Thursday - In between my morning work and a 2 pm radio booking I hit the gym and swam for 35 minutes.
• Friday - 350 calories worth of DDR this afternoon followed by a half hour dog walk.

Finally, Thursday's trip to the gym meant another opportunity to check my weight. I had last checked on July 6, when I weighed exactly 260 lbs. My plan must be working, because on Thursday after getting out of the pool I weighed exactly 255. That means I've lost roughly 12-14 lbs in the last month, which is both incredibly encouraging and probably not sustainable. Nonetheless, I'm feeling really good about my progress.

July 13-16: Recapping A Weekend Away And Falling Back Into The Fire

I'm several days behind here, so let's do the quick version"

Friday was a fail. I had to rush through my morning stuff to make it to Milwaukee in time for an afternoon meeting and a Brewer game, didn't find time for exercise and didn't really improve much in terms of food.

Saturday we went to the Wauwatosa Farmers Market (forgot to take a picture of our purchases, sorry), a sporting goods store, lunch, the beach, dinner and Bastille Days in Milwaukee. I didn't eat spectacularly well on this day, but I covered for it a little bit by passing up on several opportunities to drink and having nothing but water all day.

Sunday we went to another Brewer site's tailgate party and I made an interesting discovery: I brought two kinds of hard cider along: A Michelob Ultra Cider that was supposed to be a little lighter and a Magner's Pear cider that wasn't as light. It turns out the difference between the two is only five calories per bottle. So I might be drinking more pear cider going forward.

I also ran 3.48 miles when I got home Sunday night, which has to be the most I've ever run on the same day where I've attended a Brewer game.

Today has been a rough day. I was anticipating taking a break to exercise and maybe do something fun this afternoon, but immediately after I finished writing this morning I was presented with breaking (and then slow developing) news regarding Zack Greinke and as a result I've been at my desk all day. I managed to sneak in about 300 calories worth of DDR (with a long break in the middle to come check for news).

In more positive news, though, today's Meatless Monday is going as planned. I had roasted vegetable soup and a grilled cheese for lunch, and I'm having sun dried tomato and spinach pizza for dinner.

So, to sum up, here are my single things for the last four days:

Friday: FAIL
Saturday: Drink nothing but water
Sunday: Go a little lighter at the tailgate, sneak a run into a day where I normally wouldn't.
Monday: Meatless Monday

July 9: A Meatless Setback

I had a challenging day today. It was Meatless Monday, as it's been for three weeks now. I worked pretty hard to make it work despite a challenging schedule, but the meals I made were somewhat underwhelming and were not well received.

Not everything goes like you think it should. I guess. I'm going to go for a run now.

July 8: Make It A Little Healthier

Mac and cheese is one of my biggest weaknesses. I run a site full of recipes for it. I buy boxes of it from Amazon by the case. If I could just give up mac and cheese it'd probably knock pounds off my waistline and add years to my life. But that would be a drastic change and, as we've discussed before, I'm not convinced of my ability to maintain drastic change over the long haul.

What I can do, however, is make it a little healthier.

Everyone once in a while Laura gets a phone call as she's getting ready for work to let her know she can come in late if she wants. That happened today, meaning she was unexpectedly home for lunch. I dug into the pantry and pulled out a box of the mac and cheese above. I supplemented it, though, with all of the following:

• 1/4 cup milk, 2 tbsp butter, a handful of shredded cheese and black and red pepper (as usual)
• A leftover venison hamburger, crumbled.
• One zucchini, sliced, basted with olive oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper, grilled and chopped
• A good-sized fistful of snow pea pods, steamed and cut into bite-sized pieces.

I served this with half a peach so the meal was a serving of fruit, a serving or two of vegetables and a serving of lean meat in addition to the usual carbs and dairy. It wasn't my most visually appealing meal ever, but I thought it tasted pretty good. And adding everything above stretched the meal into two large servings, an added bonus.

Did I exercise today? Yes, I ran 1.4 miles. First run outside in over a week.

July 7: Behave Yourself

After five straight days of temperatures in the mid 90's or above, yesterday was beautiful. Temperatures dropped back into the mid 70's in the morning with a nice breeze and finally, I could go outside again.

As usual I spent yesterday morning at the farmers market, then came home and tried to take the dog for a long walk. Gorman, however, wanted none of it. After about half a mile he laid down in the grass and wouldn't go any further. He's never done that to me before, but later inspection showed he's got some sore spots on the bottoms of his little feet. I think he might have burned them on the pavement in the heat this week.

At any rate, after my abbreviated walk (I managed to get G to come home slowly) I took a shower, did some reading outside, watched the first inning of the Brewer game, went grocery shopping, made dinner, went to a Timber Rattlers game and stopped by a neighbor's campfire. Unfortunately, I didn't find time for any more exercise.

At the game I saw someone carrying a bowl of ice cream and it looked incredible. I mentioned it to the friend who came to the game with me (who's also trying to do a little better) and she noticed it, but followed it by saying "I'm trying to behave."

That was all the reminder I needed that I'm supposed to be behaving too. I passed on the ice cream (and later s'mores) until a day where I'd done more to balance it out.

Did I exercise today? Not really, see above.

Finally, for those of you who care, here's a picture of yesterday's farmers market haul:

From (roughly) left to right that's red potatoes, blueberries, granola, snow peas, zucchini, cheese (a 2 yr cheddar), turnips, nine grain sourdough bread, beets and carrots.

July 4: Staying Hydrated

As I've mentioned a couple of other times, it's really hot in Wisconsin this week. I just burned my feet walking out to get the mail. So I've been maximizing my time inside.

With that said, I couldn't stay inside all week. Yesterday we had tickets to the Brewer game and stayed through ten innings and 3:33 (plus time walking in and out and some time inside before the game) despite the fact that it was over 100 degrees at game time.

Our seats were in the shade, thankfully, but it was still hot and the only breeze was coming from people around us fanning themselves with anything that wasn't nailed down. It would've been an easy day to allow the heat to become an issue and get dehydrated. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, it would've been easy  to drink lots of unhealthy things in the interest of staying hydrated.

Fortunately Miller Park allows fans to carry in liquids in factory-sealed containers, so we were able to bring in a small cooler and drink lots of water during the game. Thinking back, I'm pretty sure I went through 72 ounces of water, a 12 ounce diet soda, a 32 ounce Powerade Zero and eight ounces of chocolate milk over the course of the day.

Because I made sure to stay ahead of dehydration yesterday I woke up this morning feeling better than I expected. So that's something, I guess.

Did I exercise today? No, between spending four hours in the sun, not getting home until after 9 (and still needing dinner at that point) and my soreness from raspberry picking on Tuesday, I skipped a day yesterday. I'm not proud of that, but I can live with the decision.

July 3: Not All Exercise Is Fruitless

The title of this post is a terrible play on words, and for that I refuse to apologize.

Last week I mentioned that Laura and I tried unsuccessfully to go raspberry picking. Today, however, a rainy morning and 90+ degree temps during the day meant the farm didn't get picked out so early and I was able to go by myself.

I headed out around 11 this morning thinking I'd pick for an hour or so. 2 1/2 hours later I was loading my car after picking ~8 pounds of berries in the hot sun. It's not my typical exercise, but multiple hours stooping over to pick berries was easily the most grueling workout I've had in several weeks. I'm going to be ridiculously sore tomorrow.

With that said, I have five cookie sheets worth of berries in the freezer and I got my workout for today. It's a good day.

July 2: A Little Moderation

Exercise is going to be a little bit difficult this week. My knee is feeling better but as of 4 pm today we're under a heat advisory that literally extends through five days. So daylight hour running is more or less out, and last week I learned that late-night running makes a mess of my sleep cycle. I'm probably going to have to get to the gym this week and run inside, as much as I dislike doing that.

At any rate, with exercise opportunities limited today I tried to practice a little self-restraint regarding food. One of our local meat markets makes a great take-and-bake lasagna, and it's a major point of weakness for me. It's sized to be a two-serving meal, but it's delicious and easy to turn into one enormous serving. Add on some garlic bread and it's a meal that could have been featured on the old Thisiswhyyourefat.com site.

So I still made the lasagna tonight even though I was by myself, but I managed to hold myself to half of it. And instead of pairing it with garlic bread or another carb, I filled up on a grilled zucchini.

Did I exercise today? 350 calories worth of DDR. With as hot as it's been outside, DDR has been a fantastic cardio option.

July 1: Do What You Can

I woke up this morning to an unpleasant but not unexpected discovery: The knee I twisted yesterday felt even worse after stiffening up overnight. I was able to walk on it without too much difficulty, but really struggled to go up and down stairs or do any other bending. I'd like this knee to get better, so I decided not to pound on it by running.

Knowing that my workout level would be down a bit today, I tried to knock down the unhealthiness of my food a little bit. I had a salad for lunch and made a trifle for dessert tonight with leftover angel food cake, sugar-free pudding and fresh fruit. I probably negated all of these gains by having french fries with dinner, but every little step taken is better than no step at all.

For exercise today, I tried to limit the impact on my sore knee by going swimming. The combination of the crowds, the areas open for swimming and my personal fear of deep water meant I didn't do much swimming, though. I did a lot more standing around in water. That was fun and refreshing, but didn't really count as a workout.

Fortunately, by 10 tonight my knee was starting to loosen up a bit and I was able to play some DDR. 306 calories tonight, and I didn't really start to get sore until near the end. I'll call that progress.

I'm also heading into my week on a better rest level because I've slept in each of the last two mornings. I slept 9 1/2 hours last night, which has to be the most I've logged at once in months or years.

Did I exercise today? Covered above.

June 25: A Meatless Game Day

The Timber Rattlers are on a homestand this week and the Brewers come home for the weekend, so Laura and I are spending much of the week at the ballpark. Monday night I covered a T-Rats game as media, we're going to T-Rats games Wednesday and Thursday nights and heading down to Milwaukee on Friday.

Spending that much time at the ballpark is going to make eating reasonably this week an interesting challenge. The food at Fox Cities Stadium is good, but my usual top choice (a bacon cheeseburger with fries) is exactly the kind of thing I'm trying to avoid lately.

Adding another wrinkle to the plan is the fact that yesterday was Meatless Monday.

As I mentioned on Saturday, though, I went to the farmers market this weekend and picked up a pretty good assortment of healthy produce. So, instead of eating at the ballpark last night I made a very vegetable-heavy soup out of the following:

• An onion
• Two carrots
• Two celery stalks
• Some garlic scapes
• A zucchini
• Spinach
• Tomatoes
• Garlic
• Roasted Peppers
• Blue cheese
• Basil
• Chicken stock (a slight Meatless Monday cheat. I could've used vegetable stock but didn't have any on hand)
• Gnocchi

We had to eat dinner pretty early (around 4) to make the plan work, but it turned out reasonably well. The soup (pureed) was kind of an awful color but tasted good and was certainly healthier than what I would have eaten otherwise.

Did I exercise today? Yes and no. I didn't run. Running every day just seems to pound on my legs and make me dread going out. So I've decided to try a new running routine: Seven days on, one day off. Tuesday will be the first day back on.

I did, however, play eighteen holes of disc golf (before 7 am, thanks insomnia!) and go on a 1.9 mile dog walk.

June 24: Eating Out A Little Better

Every other Sunday is the last day of Laura's week of work, and we have a routine where I deliver dinner for Laura and her co-workers that night. We almost always do takeout (it makes it easier to get something everyone will like), but our options are somewhat limited. We seem to rotate pretty steadily between pizza, Chinese and subs. As you might imagine, I don't typically pursue the healthy options.

So tonight, instead of grabbing something nutritionally disastrous, I grabbed dinner for Laura's office at Panera and had a salad. It wasn't the healthiest salad ever (it had steak and blue cheese on it), but it's better than I usually do.

Did I exercise today? Yes, I ran 1.5 miles around noon today. We also walked the dog 1.6 miles this morning.

June 23: Eating Fresh

Today, as I do every summer Saturday, I woke up and my first stop was the farmers' market. Here's what I brought home this week:

From left to right that's asparagus, blueberries, zucchini, goat cheese, sourdough bread, red potatoes, tomatoes, salad greens and peaches. 

By itself this haul is not a monumental accomplishment. Having these things in the house, though, will hopefully help me cook homemade healthy meals over the next few days. Meatless Monday is only a couple of days away.

I'm having a real issue today with exercise. I've loaded up on excuses: First I didn't get up early enough to go before the farmers' market, then I was too full, then it was time for lunch, then it was raining, then I had a party to go to and now the Brewer game is on. I've had a bunch of sugar today and the most strenuous things I've done were picking strawberries and playing an hour of Root Beer Tapper. I'm hoping I'll feel like going for a run after the Brewer game.

Did I exercise today? Not yet. Yes, I waited until after 10 pm but did get a 1.1 mile run in.

June 19: Doing Better At The Ballpark

As a pretty dedicated baseball fan who happens to be paid to write about it, I spend a fair portion (probably an average of two days a week) at the ballpark. Before this season I bought a scorebook with room for 26 games in it. I've already filled that scorebook, used the spare pages from an old one, bought a scorecard and gone a couple of games without keeping score. That's 31 days at various ballparks since March.

Unfortunately, eating well at the ballpark is a real challenge. Most of the foods you think about when you go to the ballpark are things that would kill you if you ate them every day (and you'd die ridiculously in debt from paying for them, too).

So my task for yesterday, as I headed down to Milwaukee to watch the Brewers and Blue Jays, was to find a way to eat a little better on a game day. Sadly, it didn't go very well.

The Brewers do have a pretty nice stadium map showing where you can find various food throughout the ballpark. What they don't have is many stands serving interesting healthy food. You can grab a premade wrap or sandwich or a Caesar salad at the "Grab and Go" stand or...you can wander around the ballpark for a long time lamenting the lack of healthy options, I guess.

After pursuing the latter option for a while, I finally settled for the most uninteresting grilled chicken sandwich I've ever had in my life. It consisted of:

• A white hamburger bun.
• A piece of chicken.

That's it. Now, you're probably not thinking "Yeah, I'd pay $6.75 for that." I did, but I won't again. And you may not be surprised to note that after eating a piece of chicken on processed white bread, I was still hungry. So I wandered for a while again, got disappointed by the options again, grabbed a bag of peanuts and went to my seat.

As I was opening the bag of peanuts, I noticed something that surprised me. The 8 oz bag of peanuts contains six "servings," and each one contains 14 grams of fat. That single bag of peanuts, by itself, contains over 130% of your recommended daily allowance of fat. I ate about a third of the bag at the park last night and this morning I'm throwing the rest out.

It's worth noting that Miller Park has a pretty lenient carry-in policy. The people around me during the game last night certainly took advantage of the ability to bring in Subway, bags of chips, bottles of water and whatnot. It looks like that's more or less the facility's only viable healthy option.

Did I exercise today? Yes, I ran 1.6 miles. Running outside in June is proving to be a real issue. I'm working on finding ways to adjust my schedule to run at better times.

June 18, 2012: Meatless Monday

Today's single goal is more or less covered in the title: I meant to go through the whole day today without eating meat. I had a little with breakfast (leftover quiche derailed my plans), but that's all.
  
Going meatless for a day by itself isn't really a healthy change. I could have, for example, gotten by with three servings of mac and cheese today (I know a thing or two about mac and cheese) and technically met this goal. That's not the point, though. The point was to replace a couple of servings of meat with something healthier, like some fruits or vegetables. Here's what I ate today:


Lunch:

• A panini with nine grain bread, homemade pesto with asparagus, spring garlic, basil, greens and nuts and a slice of Muenster cheese.
• A salad with greens, a few crumbles of blue cheese and half a peach.
• The other half of the peach
• A piece of low-sugar homemade strawberry rhubarb crisp.

Dinner

• Pasta with more of the pesto mentioned above
• Broiled sesame garlic snow peas.

Add in breakfast (half a peach with yogurt and granola, a slice of quiche and a single piece of cinnamon cobblestone) and I got something like five servings of vegetables today, plus 3-4 of fruit depending on how you count the peaches.

This wasn't my healthiest day ever (especially since I blew my goal with breakfast) by any means, but it's a start.

Did I exercise today? Yes, I ran 1.5 miles. Going to try to run every day for a while again.