so the other day i was working out in Ditmas Park and went to the delightful Cinco de Mayo Restaurant for lunch. seriously, if you ever find yourself in the neighborhood you should definitely hit them up. the mole is epic.
anyway! whilst trying to order something for lunch i had the following exchange with the nice old lady that works there.
me: i want the pollo asada platter. but i don't want rice and beans on the side, i want salad. and any dairy that usually comes on it, like sour cream or cheese or whatever, can you leave that off?
lady: yes.
me: great! so, pollo asada platter with no rice and beans or dairy?
lady: yes.
me: awesome. (pause) actually can i get salad and beans but no rice? is that ok?
lady: yes.
me: ok great, that's what i want. (pause) i'm sorry, i don't think i want the beans actually, just the salad.
lady: no beans?
me: weeeell...
lady: you want the chicken, the salad, some guacamole and salsa, no tortillas and a diet coke.
me: how did you know??
lady: on a diet?
me: yes.
no jokes, this happened to me.
apparently i wasn't the first person to come into Cinco de Mayo with a weight loss agenda...
on the up side, my lunch was really delicious, only 9 points and now i know exactly what to order the next time i go to a taqueria!
'til next time!
-V
Friday, February 19, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
endorsements - Puffins
so... i work a lot. like 60 plus hours/week a lot. often i'm out the door by like, 4:30 in the morning and that means i certainly don't eat breakfast before i leave the house. luckily for me, my job provides breakfast. unluckily for me, that breakfast usually comes in the form of "delicious breakfast burrito from the truck," or "tasty bagel with half a cup of cream cheese on it," or when things get really exciting "sweet and spongy doughnut from Dunkin Donuts."
i don't know if you know anything about things that are good for you, but i can tell you right now that none of those things are.
so in my efforts to be responsible i've started just bringing a box of cereal with me to work and i eat that everyday. however, being on WW i'm often presented with some cold cereal related issues.
when they're good for you/low in points they usually don't taste good. honestly, GoLean tastes like moderately sweet cluster made of pebbles. then there's those that do taste good, Special K for example, but you're hungry again 45 minutes after eating it because it's basically made of air. maybe i'm being a baby about this but it's true, Fiber One actually tastes like a bowl of sticks.
now i know this doesn't seem like much of an issue, i mean, it's cereal right? how bad for you can it actually be? the problem occurs when you try to do things like add a banana to your bowl of cereal to beef things up a bit. then you have to add more milk because there's more in the bowl and i don't know about you but my cereal to milk ratio is constant and vital. so anyway, you add the banana and you put some more milk in to get it right and all of a sudden you're at like 8 points for a stupid bowl of cereal!
well the other day, i found my salvation:
this shit is awesome. seriously. 90 calories, 1 gram of fat and 5 GRAMS OF FIBER for 3/4 of a cup! that is 1 measly point my friend. fuck it, have a whole cup. i do. want a banana in it? GO AHEAD! it's still gonna be less than 5 points.
they're sort of sweet but not too much (perfect for the afore mentioned banana-adding), crunchy but not in a made-of-pebble way and pretty much just spectacular.
so go buy some, or don't actually, then there's more for me!
-V
i don't know if you know anything about things that are good for you, but i can tell you right now that none of those things are.
so in my efforts to be responsible i've started just bringing a box of cereal with me to work and i eat that everyday. however, being on WW i'm often presented with some cold cereal related issues.
when they're good for you/low in points they usually don't taste good. honestly, GoLean tastes like moderately sweet cluster made of pebbles. then there's those that do taste good, Special K for example, but you're hungry again 45 minutes after eating it because it's basically made of air. maybe i'm being a baby about this but it's true, Fiber One actually tastes like a bowl of sticks.
now i know this doesn't seem like much of an issue, i mean, it's cereal right? how bad for you can it actually be? the problem occurs when you try to do things like add a banana to your bowl of cereal to beef things up a bit. then you have to add more milk because there's more in the bowl and i don't know about you but my cereal to milk ratio is constant and vital. so anyway, you add the banana and you put some more milk in to get it right and all of a sudden you're at like 8 points for a stupid bowl of cereal!
well the other day, i found my salvation:
PUFFINS!
this shit is awesome. seriously. 90 calories, 1 gram of fat and 5 GRAMS OF FIBER for 3/4 of a cup! that is 1 measly point my friend. fuck it, have a whole cup. i do. want a banana in it? GO AHEAD! it's still gonna be less than 5 points.
they're sort of sweet but not too much (perfect for the afore mentioned banana-adding), crunchy but not in a made-of-pebble way and pretty much just spectacular.
so go buy some, or don't actually, then there's more for me!
my Puffins among the wreckage at the crafty table
-V
Thursday, February 4, 2010
a love story
i love food. let me just be honest and up-front about that. i have always loved food and i will always love food, nothing will ever change that.
there are some people who can love food without being consumed by it, i am not one of those people. since birth, my relationship with food has progressed from a young and innocent admiration to a Sid & Nancy like infatuation where all you want to do is hole up in a dark room and not let anyone else in.
it has recently occurred to me that this is not the relationship everyone has with food. perhaps it's not normal to think about what you're having for lunch WHILE eating breakfast? neither is it normal to plan entire vacations to another continent just so you can go to a restaurant. and maybe the most ridiculous of all, it's fucking weird to request a lobe of foie gras instead of flowers when you've accomplished something.
normal or not, these are all things i've done, and i have come to realize that while my relationship with food is not a common one, the love i have for it is deep and true. so rather than try to love food less, i'm going to try and love it differently.
that's where "the goal" comes into play. i want to lose weight. i know, it's shocking, a 26 year old woman living in New York City wants to lose weight? who's ever heard of such a thing?! here's where i'm different, i want to lose weight but not lose food.
you hear that food? i don't want to break up with you! i want to love you as much as i ever did, i'm just not going to let you make me fat anymore.
i'm gonna keep cooking good food, keep going out to amazing restaurants, keep drinking alcohol and even keep eating fast food. how is any of this possible? what incredible magic have i devised??
not to let you down, but i didn't devise anything, i'm just doing Weight Watchers. i will tell you a secret though, when you do Weight Watchers, you can eat anything you want. if you REALLY want like, a half a sheet pan of box cake (don't lie, we've all done it at least once), you can have it! granted you don't get to eat anything else for the rest of the day, but you can still have the cake.
this isn't really the sort of thing they like to emphasize at WW meetings but i happen to think it's one of the greatest things about the program. what you eat is entirely up to you, you're essentially designing a program to fit exactly your needs and likes, and that's why it works.
so why do i think this is the makings of a good blog? who knows? it might not be interesting at all, but part of what makes WW work for me is accountability. if i have to tell someone what i'm eating everyday, i'm a lot more likely to make good choices. so i thought, why not expand that sense of accountability that's built into WW? why not tell the WHOLE WORLD what i'm eating and see what they have to say about it?
however, in order to make this an equitable relationship (i'm all about equitable relationships these days) i thought i'd give you (the reader) something back. so i'll be posting recipes, product endorsements (and the inevitable admonishments), restaurant reviews (with my goals in mind), as well as any other bit of information that i think you might find useful.
so won't you join me? i think we'll have some fun…
-V
there are some people who can love food without being consumed by it, i am not one of those people. since birth, my relationship with food has progressed from a young and innocent admiration to a Sid & Nancy like infatuation where all you want to do is hole up in a dark room and not let anyone else in.
it has recently occurred to me that this is not the relationship everyone has with food. perhaps it's not normal to think about what you're having for lunch WHILE eating breakfast? neither is it normal to plan entire vacations to another continent just so you can go to a restaurant. and maybe the most ridiculous of all, it's fucking weird to request a lobe of foie gras instead of flowers when you've accomplished something.
normal or not, these are all things i've done, and i have come to realize that while my relationship with food is not a common one, the love i have for it is deep and true. so rather than try to love food less, i'm going to try and love it differently.
that's where "the goal" comes into play. i want to lose weight. i know, it's shocking, a 26 year old woman living in New York City wants to lose weight? who's ever heard of such a thing?! here's where i'm different, i want to lose weight but not lose food.
you hear that food? i don't want to break up with you! i want to love you as much as i ever did, i'm just not going to let you make me fat anymore.
i'm gonna keep cooking good food, keep going out to amazing restaurants, keep drinking alcohol and even keep eating fast food. how is any of this possible? what incredible magic have i devised??
not to let you down, but i didn't devise anything, i'm just doing Weight Watchers. i will tell you a secret though, when you do Weight Watchers, you can eat anything you want. if you REALLY want like, a half a sheet pan of box cake (don't lie, we've all done it at least once), you can have it! granted you don't get to eat anything else for the rest of the day, but you can still have the cake.
this isn't really the sort of thing they like to emphasize at WW meetings but i happen to think it's one of the greatest things about the program. what you eat is entirely up to you, you're essentially designing a program to fit exactly your needs and likes, and that's why it works.
so why do i think this is the makings of a good blog? who knows? it might not be interesting at all, but part of what makes WW work for me is accountability. if i have to tell someone what i'm eating everyday, i'm a lot more likely to make good choices. so i thought, why not expand that sense of accountability that's built into WW? why not tell the WHOLE WORLD what i'm eating and see what they have to say about it?
however, in order to make this an equitable relationship (i'm all about equitable relationships these days) i thought i'd give you (the reader) something back. so i'll be posting recipes, product endorsements (and the inevitable admonishments), restaurant reviews (with my goals in mind), as well as any other bit of information that i think you might find useful.
so won't you join me? i think we'll have some fun…
-V
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