Starting January 5th I started logging down everything I ate every day. The purpose was twofold. First I wanted to get an idea of what I was putting in my body per day, and second I hoped doing such would begin to help me learn how to eat well.

The plan was to write it down until I put it into an calorie counter online (or just on my computer). However there are quite a few options when it comes to calorie counters so I figured I’d take some time to go through them all and find which I liked best. In the mean time… it would be pen & paper.

After two solid weeks of writing in my extra-small Moleskine Volant notebook I was well on my way. That is until I got home on day 14 to realize that I left it on the table (I’m assuming) after I finished lunch that day. Two weeks gone.

Well, that’s ok because Moleskine sells the extra-small volant in a pack of two. So out came a fresh notebook and the cataloging began anew. Then earlier this week (after 3 weeks since cataloging was “anew”) I found myself looking for said notebook. Unable to find it in it’s usual spots I tried to remember the last time I saw it. I recalled writing in it the day before, but I didn’t recall taking it out of my pants before they were washed. Of course. I checked the back pocket and found a still-damp, barely legible, three week log of everything I’ve shoved in my face.

frustration.

So I’m not cataloging what I’ve been eating this week. Probably won’t be next week either. I feel kinda burnt out on this idea. I know I need to gain an understanding of where I am right now, but I’m just “blah” about the whole thing.

So I think I need to bump up the priority on finding a well made calorie counting site (it’s much harder to put the internet in your washing machine). Then maybe I’ll be ready to try it again.

I’ll keep you posted.

Here’s how my trial week of smoothie-ing has gone down:

The Week

• Monday

  Hit the kitchen and washed & peeled all the vegetables I’d need for the entire week and put them in single portion containers. I then made two smoothies. One went with me to work and the second went into the freezer for the next day.

  After finishing my smoothie shortly after 8:00 I was not full. I wondered if I’d make it until lunch, or even 10:00 (when I usually have a snack if I’m gonna snack in the morning). As 10:00 got closer I decided I would indeed have that pear I brought with me. But then something came up and I got busy. Next thing I know it was lunch time. 1 smoothie, no snacks… survived.

• Tuesday
  • 6:30 Take smoothie out of freezer.
  • 7:30 Leave for work. Smoothie almost fully frozen.
  • 8:00 Arrive at work. Smoothie thawing out a bit more.
  • 9:00 Smoothie thawing very slowly. Kane getting hungry.
  • 9:30 Go complete apeshit on gigantic smoothie iceberg with a metal fork. Shake like crazy. Now I’ve got smaller iceberg in a smoothie slushie. Begin drinking.
  • 10:00 Go to coffee machine in break room and pour in steaming-hot water. Melt iceberg. Shake. Drink. Curse.

  So yeah… freezing your smoothie? Stupid idea.

  Made it to lunch without snacking… but it doesn’t count today for obvious reasons.

• Wednesday

  Back to a freshly made smoothie. I should say that with everything pre-washed and cut and portioned out (except the yogurt) smoothie making is pretty unobtrusive on your morning. From start to finish, including rinsing out the blender was 5 minutes.

  There was birthday cake at 10:00 at work today. Without question I had a piece. Made it to lunch without problems.

• Thursday

  Wednesday, repeated. No cake, no snack, no big deal.

• Friday

  Smoothie with a twist today. I added some hot oil for a little extra kick. Not bad. A banana mid-morning and once again I found that a smoothie has more staying power than I would’ve expected.

The Good

I never drank a smoothie this week and at the end thought to myself, “Gosh I’m so full.” I got hungrier earlier but I was never that hungry. A 24-28oz smoothie was enough to keep me, for the most part, satiated. A fruit mid-way and I was golden.

Additionally I probably had more vegetables this week than I have in the previous three weeks combined.

Lastly, it really tasted pretty good. Never once did I find myself having to force it down. It is thick, but not too thick. I think I lucked out picking this particular recipe as my first.

The Bad

The biggest problem is that I still don’t know what I’m doing. I just decided to try out the smoothie thing to see if I’d like it. But my goal is to make sound, thought out decisions about my food intake. Making willy-nilly decisions about smoothies does not count as sound nor thought out.

I haven’t done the actual math but I think each smoothie approaches the $2 range. My standard breakfast of two hard boiled eggs costs me about $0.20… so a ten-fold increase in price. I know we’re not talking about buy-me-a-new-porsche kind of money, but the increase in cost is a “bad” in all fairness.

The Verdict

This week my first two nutrition books were delivered. As soon as I’m done reading the book that I’m currently reading I’m going to start the first one, American Dietetic Association Complete Food and Nutrition Guide. After that hopefully I’ll have gained at least some understanding as to not just what I should be eating, but why. What sort of metrics I should be interested in.

And in the meantime? Well I think I’m going to keep up the smoothies for the most part. Even if I don’t know why they’re healthy we’ve all been raised to believe that veggies are pretty good for you. I plan on trying other recipes as well, and (at least for now) if I’m in the mood for the occasional breakfast taco I’ll go ahead and get one.

“Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon.”

-Doug Larson

On Friday, with more than a little inspiration from Kris Carr (of Crazy Sexy Cancer fame) I decided to make my first veggie smoothie.

Some quick searching led me to multiple recipes and I finally settled on this recipe. I like all the ingredients separately, so I decided to try them blended all together (though I chose to leave out the onions). A trip to the grocery store Friday night and I was good to go.

Blending it up Saturday morning I prepared myself to hate it. I figured as long as it’s not too bad I’d force it down. A first, kid-sized sip and I was pleasantly surprised. I expected it to be thick and heavy and taste like I was drinking earth. But it was light and tasted pretty good. It wasn’t chocolate cheesecake good, but I wasn’t expecting it to be. For what it was, it was easily drinkable.

The next morning, today, I started the day off with another. The only difference is the addition of a serving of non-flavored, protein powder (which, admittedly, gave it a notably chalkier feel).

I’m not quite ready to claim myself Smoothie Guru or anything. But I have decided to make a smoothie for breakfast every weekday this week. To make things easier I picked up three BPA-free, 32 oz Nalgene water bottles so that I can make three smoothies today and put them in the freezer. Then I’ll make the last two Wednesday evening (or Thursday morning). If it looks like this smoothie thing is gonna stick I’ll buy a couple more to make it a full week.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Don’t dig your grave with your own knife and fork.

-English Proverb

I’ve decided to eat better. The only problem is I don’t know what the means exactly. There are canned diets I could look at: Atkins, South Beach,a mediterranean diet, or any one of a million other diets. But I’m not comfortable with just picking one out of a hat.

I could go to one of the many, many, many, sites which help you compare various diets. But I’m not ready to subscribe to any canned diet just yet, and I possibly never will be.

If canned diets are the recipes to health, then I want to learn about the ingredients. I want to understand my options and make a decision based on that understanding.

I’m really not even sure what I should be focusing on. I’ve just begun learning about this stuff and I’m at that point where I’m merely learning just how much I don’t know. It’s more than a bit frusterating so far. What do I care about? Do I care about low carbs? Glycemic Index? High-fiber? Zero sugar? Whole grains? Should I go all natural? Vegetarian? Vegan? Raw foods only? Steak three meals a day?

To confound things even more, I read something which talked about different studies which showed examples of entire cultures who’s diet was considered “unhealthy” by modern standard, but the people of that culture were super healthy. One example was the Eskimo all-meat diet which was incredibly high in fat, but the Eskimo people were very healthy. The argument was that diet it as much genetic as it is nutrition. Is that fantastic? So not only do I need to learn about nutrition, but I’v egot to take the time to decode my DNA to find the whopper-or-no-whopper gene.

So I decided to start with the basic. Nutrition. I spent about an hour & a half yesterday at Borders figuring out which nutrition book I should read. Shockingly enough that’s just as complicated. I’ve decided that nutrionists are by default an ornery bunch and refuse to agree with each other out of spite. “Experts” have varying opinions which more often than not contradict some other expert. Like so many other time in life, then only real option for a layman such as myself is to read as much as you can stomach (pun!) and then make up your own mind.

So there we are. Nowhere closer and quite a bit more confused. But that’s OK. You gotta start somewhere. Once I figure out if Atkins was a genius or a nut job, I’ll let you know.