Here's the menu:
- six Kalamata (Greek) olives
- three small slices of brie with fig spread
- one steamed artichoke (in the microwave, in plastic wrap - I know, the chemicals could kill me), leaves dipped in melted butter**
- a glass of red wine (pinot noir)
Have I gone on the Mediterranean diet without realizing it? Apparently. But I loooooove it. I look forward to it every night. And some nights, I can't even finish it.
My restriction is pretty good right now. I find that I have my best eating days when I have a shake in the morning, even though I really don't love them. But it does give me a protein boost to start the day.
Lunch has been a cup of blended black bean soup or chili with a dollop of sour cream. Both are high in fiber and protein.
For a snack I have a Babybel light cheese, a few olives, a teaspoon of hummus or half of an avocado mashed with some kosher salt. (Not all of these in one day, though.)
I try to drink as much water as possible, and usually have two or three glasses of iced tea (black or green) through the day. And I usually have some kind of chocolate - Cadbury Creme Egg or a mini York Peppermint Patty or a handful of M&Ms.
Some nights I have fish. That's it. That pretty much covers what I eat lately.
**I never cooked an artichoke till I moved in with my husband. There are lots of fancy ways to cook them, but we keep it simple.
We rinse the artichoke, cut the stem close to the base, wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap and put in the microwave for eight or nine minutes - more like 12 or 14 minutes if you have more than one.
We pull off the leaves (they should pull off easily; if they don't the artichoke isn't cooked enough), dip them in some melted butter in a teacup, and scrape the "meat" off the base of the leaf with our teeth. Very primitive, like cavemen. Then when we've gotten through most of the leaves we cut off the bottom (avoid any of the hairlike things - they're not good), dice that up and drizzle the leftover melted butter on top. That's the best part of the whole thing. Artichokes are low in calories and high in fiber, and totally delicious!
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On to topic #2: GOALS
I was playing around with a BMI calculator and started figuring out goals. I'm not quite 5'4" but I count myself as 5'4" for these calculations.
1. At 174 pounds, I will no longer be obese, just plain overweight. Crazy to aspire to that, isn't it? Most people would be mortified to be considered overweight.
2. I want to break through 162, which is the lowest number I've seen on the scale in my adult life (and I saw it a week or so after running a marathon).
3. My ultimate goal is 145 pounds, when I will no longer be considered overweight. That seems a really long way away. I haven't been that weight since I was a teenager.
4. Most weight charts show my "ideal" weight between 117-130. I don't expect I will ever get there. But hey, dare to dream.
