Monday, July 30, 2007

So far so good...

Well, it's awfully nice to still be noticed after my long absence. MoMR commented, April noted my reappearance in her blog today. I half worried that I'd fallen off everyone's radar because of my long silence.

I'm sure my initial posts will be a bit dull, since I'm basically working to psyche myself up to vigorous CRON practice, so I'll be focusing a lot on my food, and less on my Gratuitous Musings. Beside, I can't write those on demand--they are the result of something hitting me in a certain way that I simply must write about it.

So if you are in the mood to be bored, here's how my Re-CRON-ized life is starting out today:

I had my usual favorite breakfast, which I'm not sure if I've ever listed, so here it is:

Chris's Breakfast Smoothie

  • 1 cup egg whites (pasteurized, from Trader Joe's)
  • 1 cup fat-free yogurt
  • 1 cup frozen blueberries
  • 1 scoop vanilla Spiru-Tein (more on this below)
  • 1 tbsp flax seed oil
  • 2 rounded tbsp Lewis Labs brewer's yeast
  • 2 tbsp psyllium husks

Nutrient Info for Smoothie

General (33%)
Energy620.7 kcal 34% 
Protein65.4 g 48% 
Carbs64.7 g 30% 
  Fiber18.4 g 48% 
Fat15.3 g 25% 
Water461.2 g 12% 
Vitamins (91%)
Vitamin A5080.7 IU 169% 
Folate496.7 µg 124% 
B1 (Thiamine)2.8 mg 235% 
B2 (Riboflavin)4.7 mg 359% 
B3 (Niacin)31.2 mg 195% 
B5 (Pantothenic Acid)12.1 mg 242% 
B6 (Pyridoxine)3.0 mg 229% 
B12 (Cyanocobalamin)7.3 µg 306% 
Vitamin C66.3 mg 74% 
Vitamin D400.0 IU 200% 
Vitamin E33.1 mg 221% 
Vitamin K25.7 µg 21% 
Minerals (74%)
Calcium629.4 mg 63% 
Copper1.1 mg 125% 
Iron6.9 mg 86% 
Magnesium171.9 mg 41% 
Manganese5.3 mg 229% 
Phosphorus463.9 mg 66% 
Potassium1564.5 mg 33% 
Selenium138.0 µg 251% 
Sodium714.6 mg 48% 
Zinc18.0 mg 163% 
Lipids (30%)
Saturated1.5 g 8% 
  Omega-37.4 g 464% 
  Omega-62.0 g 12% 
Cholesterol2.7 mg 1% 

Some notes about this meal: yes, it's pretty high in calories, and the Spiru-Tein ups the carbs more than I'd like, but it also ups the protein, vitamins, and minerals. I've also used whey protein in the past--or just left it out altogether. It also functions as a supplement for vitamins and minerals, which if I'm supplementing, I prefer to take with food and an oil (the flax oil here), for better absorption.

I should be more sophisticated in my supplementation approach, and somewhere I have notes from Michael Rae on how to do this better, but right now I just don't have the time nor energy for it, and it's more important for me to get started and ease my way back into CRON.

Also, I am never hungry in the morning. This is a meal I can get down, because it's a liquid and mildly sweet tasting. I'm no good for chewable food until late mid-morning. I think coffee is somewhat responsible for my a.m. "anorexia" since it's an appetite suppressant, but I am unwilling to give it up--and it has niacin!

For the rest of my day: I'm eating more fruit right now than usual. Why? Because about half the time, I work outside in the sun all day, and my appetite is not good in these circumstances, while dehydration is a real risk. So today's food, which I've been grazing on all day is: an apple, a grapefruit, 400 g of wonderful cantaloupe from my local farmer's market, some almonds, some white-meat chicken, and 10 g of 85% cacao chocolate.

It's 2:45 pm, I've been munching all day and still have the melon left to devour, and then a whole dinner still tonight! It's amazing how much food you can cram into a calorie-restricted diet. I can't imagine why people eat low-volume, calorie-dense foods when they are on a weight-loss diet. No wonder they are hungry all the time. I bet 90% of my food is 90% water--and I'd say that's a good approach. Granted, CRON is not necessarily intended as a weight-loss diet, but still, if you DO want/need to lose weight, is there a better way?

Tonight I'm cooking up a bunch of veggies on the grill that I will eat on all week long (yes, I'm aware there are some unfriendly compounds produced on the grill...I'm willing to risk it for the taste, at least this week when I'm craving barbecued pulled pork and worse nasties!). And I can hardly wait for tonight's dinner! I'll make wraps with the grilled veggies and my previously mentioned whole sprouted multigrain Fat-Flush tortillas, a Quorn Naked Cutlet (jauntily sliced on the bias), a couple tablespoons of guacamole, and just a smidgeon of Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue sauce. Delicious!

All of this will get me very close to my 1800 calorie goal, but I'll be short on protein. This seems ever to be the case for me--I have a hard time getting enough protein, and I don't like egg whites much (except uncooked in my smoothie). A calorie goal of 1800 might be too low for someone my size, but that was my target before and I was hardly withering away. I have proven to be resistant to weight loss in the past. I will be all too happy to increase my caloric load in a few days if I start melting away. I can hardly wait to eat dried figs with goat cheese...but I'm gonna wait until need 'em! I'll check in again later.

1 comment:

April said...

Chris,

I think 620 is a great calorie level for a male breakfast. It's almost exactly what MR's breakfast is, and his entire day is 1913.

So glad you're back!

a