A.L.O.E. 07.08.12

This is the last night of my staycation.  It was a very nice week at home with my family.  I got to cook for my mother and aunt, as well as the whole July 4th shabang.  Tomorrow it is back to work.  Not huge deal really.  I like my job and the people I work with.  It will actually be easier getting back into a rhythm food-wise.  Here are a few things for your consideration on this Sunday evening, where we cover A Little Of Everything.


Up Up and Away
I don't often travel for business these days.  Yes, I am in outside sales, but car travel doesn't count.  This week I am off to far-away Boise, Idaho.  The main source of my income comes from a company based there and I am heading out to give a client the nickle tour of a semiconductor manufacturer's HQ.  Boise is one of those places that you can't get to from here without crisscrossing the country.  It's going to be a nine-hour flight out and ten hours back, barring any unforeseen delays.  I'll be touching down in Minneapolis, San Francisco and, of course, Boise, all for a six-hour meeting, plus dinner.  This will certainly be a challenge for my eating regimen.  Lunch will be brought in for our meeting on Thursday, then dinner out with the client.  Eating at airports and on planes should be fun.  I am pretty sure I have equipped myself with the proper tools to get through it all.  I'll keep you posted on how it is going from my hotel on Thursday.  


Dreadmill
I am not a big fan of treadmills.  I find it all boring, yet convenient since I own one.  Until Friday it was downstairs and not operational.  Thanks to the muscle and goodwill of my brother and nephew, it now resides on our main floor.  It sits in my living room (soon to relocate out of sight in the guest room) taunting me.  Jeering at me to hop on board and move my fat ass.  I'll give in to its bullying, for I know it is the right thing to do.  That doesn't mean I have to like it.  Sigh...


He Looks Good
A few times over the last month a phenomena that I find amusing has occurred.  Since I wrote of my uneasiness with compliments, several people have gotten my wife on the side and told her they think I look great, but were afraid to say anything.  I am here to officially declare that I am okay with it, people!  Compliment away!  I am actually digging the encouragement.  No worries anymore.  It's all good.


What I ate today and how I exercised:
Breakfast ~ Amy's Burrito Especiale
Lunch ~ Some rotisserie chicken breast and yet more leftover four bean mac salad
Snack ~ 2 chicken wings from the above mentioned chicken
Dinner ~ Tab and I ate at Panera and I had a 1/2 smoked turkey sandwich and Chicken soup combo
Exercise ~ at least 20 minutes on the dreadmill when I return home later.  Meeting a friend for a beverage. 


* Full disclosure moment.  I may have a wine or beer tonight.  We'll see.


   

Five Month Anniversary

It's been five whole months, as of July 6, since I started this whole thing.  It hardly seems that long.  Pick any of the old adages about time passing quickly and they all apply.  Hmmm... I guess there is no such a thing as an adage that isn't old.  When exactly do they get their official 'adage' status?   Anyway, it's been a fun and educational process thus far.  I've certainly learned a lot and from the feedback I get, much of it is also new to you.  That's a really nice feeling, knowing that my readers are getting something out of this as well.  I thought that this anniversary would be a good time to remind myself and everyone who is along for the journey with me what this blog is all about.


I often have to do a reality check and tell myself why it is that I do this.  Too many times in recent months I have seen story lines on television that show a main character getting self-absorbed over the success of their blog.  It is very easy to get caught up in the number of hits, followers, etc.  While I do find it all interesting and it is an ego stroke, I keep myself in check as a reminder that I don't want to become that cliché sitcom guy.  I'm here to get my life on track.  I really do need to eliminate the alternate title on this blog.  "The Getting My Life Back Project" isn't very accurate.  I had a life even at my fattest of 483.5 lbs.  This is about getting a better life for me and my wife.  (I'm sure she is reading this saying "And don't forget the puppies!")


Let me re-cover previously covered ground to clue in folks that haven't been with us the whole time.  Who I am and why we are here?  First off, who am I?  Mike Accardi, is a 48 year old electronics component salesman from Parsippany, NJ (In my head I hear Alex Trebek saying "Now let's play Jeopardy!").  I have struggled with weight issues all my life.  In 2001, after the death of my father the previous year, I found myself at the previously stated 483.5 lbs. and in somewhat of an emotional abyss.  I opted for gastric bypass surgery which got me as far down as 285 lbs. or so.  Then my weight started to creep back up and to the best of my knowledge (when you don't care to know you avoid the scale) I ballooned to as high as 380 lbs. in 2009.  I wanted more for myself and my wife, but until early 2012, I didn't know what to do that would be any different than all of my previously failed efforts.


Why are we here?  It had been suggested that I try Overeaters Anonymous, but I didn't think that was for me.  If I wanted to go off the wagon, I could simply stop attending meetings.  Yes, I am aware that it has worked for a great many people.  I know some of them.  I wanted something that was totally unique to my situation.  Something I could make my own.  It occurred to me that all this time I knew what to do.  I do believe that we all inherently know what is good to eat and what is garbage for our systems.  I just chose not to listen to my inner nutritionist.  Heck, I was already an expert at weight loss.  I have probably lost over six or seven hundred pounds in my lifetime.  What I wasn't an expert at was suppressing weight gain.  I needed to establish a new lifestyle, rather than going on yet another diet.  I required a way to maintain the good habits and make the right choices for the rest of my days.  How could I come up with a means of accountability that would be long lasting?  AHA!  Take the 'anonymous' out the equation.  Go public.  Come out of the closet (or is it the pantry?).  The idea for this blog was born.  Mike, publicly declare your intentions and your food addiction, so that accountability will be achieved on a grand scale.  Quitting won't be an option.  The world will be watching.


These pages aren't everything I originally saw in my mind's eye.  They have actually morphed into something more in many aspects.  The initial premise was a virtual diary combined with a sense of community.  I saw a collective of like minded people sharing their own food issues and responding to mine.  What we have now is more like one-third biography, one-third diary and one-third nutritional info and recipes.  The interaction I had envisioned hasn't gelled yet, but overall, this all has come together rather nicely, I think.  My goal here is to enlighten, inform and entertain, while getting leaner and healthier.  My target is 195 lbs. by the time I reach 50 years old on January 12, 2014.  To date, I am down almost 60 lbs. in the five months we have traveled along the TDT195 road.  I will soon be under 300 lbs. for the first time in many years and I will NEVER go back. 


Thanks for helping with my successes of the first five months.  You have been essential to it all.  I hope you continue on with me to the many victories yet to come and that we will pick up more travelers in need of support along the way.  Even those offering support, but secure in their own lifestyle are welcome companions.  I am happy to have each of you in my life.  It's a life that gets better, and potentially longer, every day.


Be well,
M


What I ate Friday and how I exercised:
Breakfast ~ A toasted whole grain bagel with one thin slice of cheddar
Lunch ~ 1.5 chicken burger patties w/o bun and some four bean whole grain pasta salad
Snack ~ A handful of Food Should Taste Good chips
Dinner ~ A perfect dinner.  Exactly what I wanted.  Some crab soup and a nicely portioned piece of grilled salmon with veggies and some lemon squeezed over it all.  Simple and delicious.
Exercise ~ None

Food Thursday 07.05.12

I'm getting old, I know, but this will be an ongoing problem.  For one thing, I don't have the recall abilities that I used to have.  The second thing is that after five months of writing, there is too much of a volume of work to make remembering a realistic expectation.  I preface this entry in such a way to preemptively apologize.  If you have seen this recipe in my blog before, so sorry.  I could swear I put it up in some previous post, but an exhaustive search turned up nothing for me.  If I missed it, Poupon happens.


Dijon Rosemary Chicken Thighs
This is an über flavorful alternative to traditional barbecued chicken.  It is easy to make and extremely economical. Twice now, of all the things I have put out at a backyard party, this has been the most complimented dish.


Ingredients
1/3 cup Grey's Poupon Dijon mustard
2 Tbs reduced sodium soy sauce
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
2 cloves finely diced garlic
2 Tbs chopped fresh rosemary
1 lb. boneless chicken thighs

Method

~ In a 1 gallon plastic zipper bag, combine the first 5 ingredients, using the sealed bag to thoroughly mix while coating the inside of the bag.

~ Add chicken thighs and coat well with the Dijon mixture.

~ Refrigerate from 1 hour to overnight.

~ Grill your chicken on a hot, clean, well oiled grill grate or under a broiler (3-5 minutes per side, depending on the size). You should hopefully get a nice char on the edges. These salty, mustardy bits are the best part and have a nice rosemary kick.

~ Serve and enjoy!

This healthy dish is great anytime of year.  It delivers the maximum flavor per calorie, or as food writer Peter Kaminski says, MFC.


Cya later for our 5 month recap,
M


What I ate Thursday and how I exercised:
Breakfast ~ 1 egg and 1/2 slice of provolone (45 calories) on 1/2 of a hamburger roll
Lunch ~ 3oz burger w/o bun and some four bean whole grain pasta salad
Dinner ~ I grabbed a quick snack of my Asian slaw and 3 multi-grain chips prior to our gig
Exercise ~ Great gig last night with the entire family there.  Much fun and exercise enough.

W.I.M.H.W. 07.04.12

What is in my head this Independence Day? Mostly things revolving around the 4th, my preparation for our little soiree and food related items.  I have a house full of family, so I will bust this out in an abbreviated post. That is if I am capable of brevity.  Most would likely say that I take after my Mom in that department. There is no such thing as making a long story short.  Let's try.


Preparation
I was surprised this morning two and a half hours into my marathon prep session to find that I was standing at the counter doing all the cooking.  I started at the kitchen table for all of thirty seconds until I needed something and got up.  I never sat back down again and didn't give it any thought for the next 150 minutes.  I always, always, always sit down when cooking.  My back could never take standing for too long and I would get sore and tired. Today I was the legendary Energizer Bunny, on my feet for hours and hours (about  four and half actually), before sitting down to enjoy the fruits of my labor with family and friends.


Menu
This was another attempt at keeping things healthier when having guests.  There are dishes that I prepared that I wouldn't put in my regular rotation, but when you compare them to the traditional or original versions of what we'd normally eat, we did very well by ourselves. We had veggies and hummus, hamburgers, chicken thighs with rosemary mustard glaze, wings two ways (both grilled), whole grain pasta and 4 bean salad, Asian style slaw, and tomato avocado salad w/chipotle lime dressing.  There were outside influences brought in by family, like chips, dips and sodas and I would be a liar if I didn't admit to having about three Frito's lightly dipped in sour cream and chives.  I actually ate very light today.  I had a taste of everything, but that encompassed two meals and I skipped breakfast due to running around shopping and cooking.  What I found amazing was that I looked around at most of what was there looking to habitually eat and found myself saying I just wasn't hungry.  Reprogramming at work!  New habits are being formed.  How cool is that?


I am thrilled to declare my independence from old bad habits.  In the aforementioned goal of brevity, I'll stop for now.  Everyone will be rejoining us from the lake down the street once the fireworks are over.  I will likely post a recipe or two tomorrow from today's menu.  It may come Friday morning due to our gig on Thursday evening.


Cya then,
M


What I ate today and how I exercised:


To make thing easier, I'll just make a list of all I ate today.  It was more than usual if you throw in two beers, but MUCH less than I would normally eat on a July 4th.


One 4oz. hamburger of lean beef w/sauteed onions and ketchup on a regular roll, approximately 3 chicken wing segments w/a new recipe of peanut sate glaze (recipe soon), about a 1/2 cup of Asian slaw (recipe soon), about a quarter cup of the four bean macaroni salad (recipe here), the three offending corn chips w/dip, 2 beers (I sooooo enjoyed them) and a piece of the rosemary mustard chicken (recipe to come.  I could have sworn I posted it before, but can't find it in my past posts).

Home Shopping

There is nothing better than needing new stuff and finding out you already have it.  The other day I went down to my old room in our basement and took a peak to see what clothes I might have squirreled away down there.  For those of you that don't know, when I bought this house back in 2002, it was with my mother.  We each own half and it worked well until I met Tabitha.  I chose to reside in the basement to give us both our own space.  When Tab and I moved upstairs upon Mom's exit, I left a fair amount of old clothes in my closet.  Gladly, the sizes I was back from 2002-2006 are roughly the same as where I am now.  Yes, I've blown past some of them, but there is plenty left for me to use.


So far I grabbed a few items from this cache of garments for immediate use.  There's a couple of shirts and two suits which I will have to bring to the cleaners.  I came across some pants that were never worn and soon found out why.  They were mis-sized.  I'll get into them in another 30 to 40 lbs. I guess.  You have to understand something about the psyche of a fat man.  It is a very common occurrence for us to buy clothes, then get them home only to find they don't fit.  For the normally-sized folks it's no big deal.  You just return the offending clothing.  But we look at these poorly selected purchases as a badge of embarrassment.  I say poorly selected because even if they are mis-labeled, it was my stupidity that prevented me from trying them on at the store.  Once you are in that boat, it's a touch humiliating to go back and tell them that your fat ass doesn't fit into these pants marked size 54.  So you keep them knowing you will surely fit into them in the near future, because weight-loss is always just over the horizon.  It seldom if ever happens.  Until now of course!  Those two pairs of slacks I found will be part of my ensembles very soon.  Count on it.  There are some things that I looked at and thought "What the hell was I thinking, wearing that?", but for the most part, my style choices haven't changed much over the years.  With maturity comes consistency, I reckon.


It was now time to make room for the new old things in my upstairs closet.  I went through my wardrobe and filled up two Hefty kitchen bags with clothes for donation and today dropped them in a big metal box outside of Costco.  I probably have a few more bags to fill, but letting go is sometimes hard.  Besides, my theory has always been that if someone could afford to eat themselves up to my size, then they probably shouldn't be wearing donated clothing.  Who am I to judge?  I won't need those size 62s and 5Xs any more.  If some other food addict wants my hand-me-downs then more power to him.  Poor, guy.


Cya tomorrow for my WIMHD July 4th edition,
M


What I ate today and how I exercised:
Breakfast ~ Egg Mikemuffin with one egg, one chicken sausage, tomato and onion on a whole grain sandwich round
Lunch ~ Salmon cake sandwich w/avocado, tomato and some lite mayo on a whole grain sandwich round
Snack ~ A raw food snack bar of which the brand I forget.  Was tasty though.
Dinner ~ Dined out with family.  I had Tom Yum soup w/chicken and 2 sushi rolls, one vegetarian with brown rice and one yellow tail and scallion roll w/white rice.
Exercise ~ One hour of pushing a cart around Costco was all I got in today

Weigh-in: Week 21

My staycation has begun.  I started the day just like any other Monday, with a weigh-in.  The only difference was that I got to sleep a wee bit later than most other working Mondays.  So I am not going to waste any time, because I gots staycationin' to do.




This morning I tipped the scale at 304.2 lbs.  That means by this time next week I should hopefully be over the minus 60 mark.  I had wanted to be under 300 by July 4th, but this isn't a race.  It's all good.  Total loss so far is 59.2 lbs.  Today's body fat percentage is now down to 57.2% and water is up to 28.5%


Cya Tuesday,
M


What I ate today and how I exercised:
Breakfast ~ Kashi Organic Oat and Honey Granola w/banana, fresh blueberries and strawberries and almond milk
Lunch ~ Tuna salad w/pickle, apple and celery on a multi-grain sandwich round
Dinner ~ Salmon cake w/steamed cauliflower, carrots and asparagus, coated with olive oil spray and garlic salt. See the blog post from 3/15/12 for my recipe.
Exercise ~ I woke up limping, with an issue in the right arch of my foot.  I did manage to mow the lawn today.

A.L.O.E. 07.01.12

WOW!  July 1st already.  How time does fly.  It's the first Sunday of a VERY long weekend for me.  I am on a staycation!  I don't have to work again until 7/9.  Plenty of time for me, me, me.  And tonight that includes telling you about a few things.  It's A Little Of Everything Sunday.  A.L.O.E., for short.  Let's see what is on tap tonight...


Home Run Lasagna

I had a great weekend up in New York State.  My aunt and uncle live just north of Woodstock and we spent the weekend with them and their girls.  No TV, no cell signal, no air conditioning.  It's a very nice house, mind you, but the point of the place is to unplug and unwind.  VERY relaxing.  Since I never go anywhere empty-handed, I offered to bring a vegetable lasagna.  I saw the recipe a few days back on a show called The Jazzy Vegetarian.  This women isn't the most polished of TV personalities, but what she made looked so good I wanted to try it.  This weekend was a perfect opportunity since I am trying to eat better, the wife is a vegan and I wanted to be as little a pain in the ass as possible in terms of being a house-guest.  Tab was hesitant to not only try out a new recipe on someone else before testing it, but also because it included ingredients like tofu and vegan sausage (the wife and I call it fauxsage).  I wasn't as apprehensive about the situation.  I have a good feel for when flavors should work and making esoteric ingredients as palatable as possible for the average joe.  Also, I did make minor modifications to suit things to my own personal taste.  I have to tell you that this freaking meal was a HUGE success.  My uncle had three helpings!  I don't have the numbers on it, but the it was made with all healthy stuff.  It included cremini mushrooms, zucchini, spinach, whole grain lasagna noodles, semi-homemade sauce and even vegan soy-based mozzarella.  I would definitely put this in front of the most ardent carnivore.  It rocked.  Here is a link to The Jazzy Vegetarian's site for the recipe. Please try it as a very viable alternative to the much-more-fattening traditional lasagna.  My Mom's lasagna is my favorite meal on the planet and I loved this one as a healthy stand-in.


The Wonderful Ms. H.
I have always been a huge fan of my Aunt H.  Not only is she one of the smartest people I know, but she is a true renaissance woman.  She is good at so many things it is scary.  She can cook up a storm, speak on just about any topic with insight and wit, create stained glass and photographs of a total professional grade and is considerate to the nth degree.  Heck, she even performed our nuptuals and wrote part of the ceremony!  The considerate side of her was once again exemplified this weekend when she turned out such a healthy spread of fine cuisine it blew my mind.  All of the dishes included vegan options for Tab and the attention to detail with regard to our differing lifestyles was touching.  Most folks would throw together a plate of steamed veggies and call it a day.  Not H.  Friday we had homemade gazpacho and a salad of asparagus and snow peas over Boston lettuce.  I never thought it would be substantial enough, but I was very satisfied.  Today we dined on a fabulous salad of whole wheat pasta and veggies and a chilled melon soup.  Any four-star joint could easily charge $12 a bowl for this soup dish.  The skill with which these meals were prepared was matched only by her compassion for her loved one's life choices.  She has always been someone I have looked up to and learned a great deal from.  Look for a guest blog post from H about cooking for Mike and Tabitha on July 11th.


Big Week Ahead
Not only am I off this week, but I will have full house for most of it.  Right now, my mother and Aunt K are in the other room with Tab.  Wednesday my brother and his three boys come for three days.  I am hosting July 4th this year.  My first inclination was to have various options for everyone, some healthy and some traditional all-American grub.  Then I thought, if I am trying to do better for myself, why not do the same for my loved ones since I am perfectly capable of turning out nutritious, healthy fare for all?  So we are nixing the goopy potato salad we all love so much, plus the sugar-coma-inducing baked beans.  These are both dishes my mother is renowned for, but she is getting time off for good behavior this year.  We will not be having hot dogs or sausage.  I did buy top-of-the-line, grass-fed, free range beef for burgers and boneless chicken thighs for grilling.  I hope the rest of my fourteen or so guests enjoy it.  I'm certainly looking forward to the spread.


Cya tomorrow for the weigh-in,
M


What I ate today and how I exercised:
Breakfast ~ Kashi Go Lean cereal w/banana and soy milk
Lunch ~ Chilled melon soup, whole grain pasta and veggie salad and a few crackers
Snack ~ A Lara Bar 
Dinner ~ I wanted to cook for Mom and Aunt K, so I turned out some tilapia, braised baby kale with cannelini beans and some baby carrots.  The carrots were awesome.
Exercise ~ Too much going on and too damn hot