Another Lilting Aria from Your Canary

February 4, 2004

    Well, here it is February, and your canary is, by now, on a full complement of pills and potions. So are things different? Not really. I certainly feel good. I get tired if I don't get enough sleep, just like always. I'm still losing weight, so it's hard to draw conclusions about how many calories I'll need for a steady state. My weight loss diet is listed below:

Breakfast:
Cup of hot chocolate: 
    1 heaping teaspoon of unsweetened baking cocoa. ½ level teaspoon of coffee. Two packages of Splenda natural sweetener. Lemon juice to taste (not many calories).
2 days out of 3:
    Eggbeaters, with chopped onion, 3 chopped black olives, and 20 calories worth of chopped soy sausage, with rosemary sprinkled over it (<100 calories).. Half a piece of thin-sliced, five-grain toast, with "Promise" fat-free "margarine".(25 calories?)
1 day out of three:
    Small or medium egg fired in olive oil. 20 calories worth of soy sausage. Half piece of thin-sliced, five-grain toast with "Promise" fat-free "margarine".
   
Morning Snacks:
    I gnaw on almonds one at a time (12 to 15 a day).. I also gnaw on 1 piece of low-fat turkey bacon (35 calories).
    1 cup of green tea, sweetened with 1 packet of Splenda, and flavored with lemon juice (not many calories).

Lunch:
    Thin slice of Monterey Jack soy cheese. Frozen-fruit bar (30 calories).

Afternoon snack:
    1 cup of green tea, sweetened with 1 packet of Splenda, and flavored with lemon juice (not many calories).

8 - 9 p. m. supper
Cup of hot chocolate: 
    1 heaping teaspoon of unsweetened baking cocoa. ½ level teaspoon of coffee. Two packages of Splenda natural sweetener. Lemon juice to taste (not many calories),
and:
    Small bowl of slow-cooked oatmeal, with 1 packet of Splenda, 2-to-3 frozen strawberries, and 12-to-20 frozen blueberries, irrigated with soy milk,
   or:
    Modest serving of microwaved spinach or microwaved broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots, covered with pizza sauce*, and sprinkled with rosemary** and turmeric***.
    and
    Half-sandwich of salmon salad (using one slice of thin-sliced bread)
    or:
    Hamburger made with 96% fat-free ground beef, and onion, tomato, and fat-free mayonnaise.

Cheats:
    Several Orville Redenbacher sour-cream-and-onion popcorn disks.
    1 Brown Cow Junior sugar-free ice cream bar (70 calories)
    Several green-wrapped chocolate mints that are found at restaurant checkout counters.
    1/16th apple
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*     - for lycopene
**   - as a COX-2 inhibitor
*** - for curcumin

    I should reach the maintenance weight I'm seeking by the end of the month. After that, I'll have done as much as I know how to do for now. But for better or for worse, there's nothing dramatically different about how I feel than I did six months ago (except that I can now climb Suicide Hill with ease). My blood pressure has dropped, but that may simply be a consequence of my weight loss.
    But the bottom line is that I don't feel any different, or more or less energetic than I did with unlimited calories.