My New Year Diet Resolution Continues

I had to re-read my last post; in fact, shortly thereafter, I took out my 2004 low, only by a couple of pounds, but still... And then I had one of my rare demoralizing super bouncebacks, nearly twice or so the usual 6 pounds or so. And in the middle of all this I went to Texas for a week over the holidays with my Mom and also 3 siblings. I had two family holiday meals and went out to 3 restaurants (although I didn't get my usual BBQ plate, say at Bill Miller's, or fast food breakfast tacos (no, not McDonald's version)).

One of those was an all-you-care-to-eat Chinese restaurant, which is far different than the ones I've been to in the past, which were typically a line of buffet pans with eggrolls and Chinese-American dishes like chow mein and the like. This was analogous to the buffet I experienced at Biola University when I worked for SGHE 12 years back. That was unlike anything I experienced while boarding for my first 2 college degrees, typically single buffet lines where you might choose among 2-3 entrees. Biola had a bread island, a couple of entree lines, including a more natural foods line, a fast food island (where you could order burgers and fries), etc. The variety of offerings dwarfed what I remembered in campus cuisine or your typical pizza or Chinese food buffets. I'm sure I would have gained more than the freshman 15 pounds.

So this Chinese chain has an amazing variety, including racks of sushi (which I've never seen in a buffet before; personally I'm not into sushi--I remember my friend Ray in Sao Paulo, promising to find a restaurant that cooked fish). But they had a grill section where you could have a small steak cooked to order, crabcakes, crawfish, fried shrimp, pizza, sausages, the typical things you might see at a Panda's like Gen. Tso's chicken, side dishes (e.g., baked potato), soups, salads and more, not to mention a vast variety of desserts, fruit/melons and ice cream. I think it costs maybe $16 plus drink. I did not eat everything I mentioned; I did have steak, a crabcake and egg drop soup and a few other items.

But I find, especially as I've gotten used to small portion Nutrisystem foods and perhaps my aging metabolism, that I really can't eat that much food anymore. My Mom and I went to this seafood place (she particularly loves the gumbo); I also ordered the "catfish special" which came with so many fillets, I had to take a doggie bag home and made a full meal with the leftovers.

Long story short, I quickly dropped 4 pounds of water gain returning from my trip, maybe a typical bounce away from my new low a few weeks back. I can't predict when I'll revisit my low; I remember the last time I was in this situation, I dropped 6 pounds, just to see another 6-lb. bounce.

The nice thing is I now get fit into slacks 4 inches smaller than last year and I can use some of my late Dad's longer belts; also I can fit into shirts one or 2 sizes smaller. I still have a long way to go to get to my goal, but I'm probably in the weight range I had in the 1990's. I'm maybe 40 pounds from breaking the bottom of that range. Ironically, my cellphone holster slipped off one of Dad's old belts, and water-related damage required replacing the phone. (I recently wrote a related post in my core political blog.)

Nutrisystem wasn't happy when I postponed my next shipment by a month, but in part I knew I would be gone for a week, plus I had a backlog of certain products  Sometimes I just want a change of pace, like eggs or grass-fed beef.

Although I still follow a lower-carb regimen, in part for health reasons, I'm more price-sensitive relevant to nutritional elements. For example, I'm less willing pay a huge premium for food just because it has 'organic', 'paleo', 'keto', 'free-range', 'wild-caught', 'low-carb' or 'grass-fed' in front of it. For example, it may very well be that Eggland eggs or cage-free eggs have modest nutritional benefits over a dozen Walmart commodity eggs, but first of all, I don't eat that many eggs and if and when Walmart prices eggs at less than $1/dozen it's hard to justify paying double or triple that for premium eggs. Eggs are still nutrition powerhouses. Don't get me wrong: I still review nutrition labels and have preferences in ingredients. I am also more tolerant of potatoes which have gotten a bad rap; I simply eat them on occasion with protein and limit the serving size. But gone are the days I'll shell out $5 or more for a loaf of bread. For instance, I can buy Walmart Great Value 100% Whole Wheat bread for about $1.50 a loaf, with about 10 net carbs and 70 calories per slice. Some ingredients make me cringe a bit; I wouldn't classify it as a health food, but I've used it, e.g., to make a sandwich with Nutrisystem's BBQ chicken spread, and I don't eat bread most days.

This probably isn't a big item on most people's grocery lists, but as a native Texan, I love Tex-Mex and tortillas. Of course you can use tortillas for fajitas and various wraps, but I'll often use them for omelettes, topped with salsa or hot sauce. At any rate, I spotted some lower-carb tortillas in the Walmart bread aisle, including some sprouted wheat (like, although not, Food for Life) offerings at about $3+ a pack. I sometimes buy the Tumaros "ancient grains" packs on sale at Shoprite.