Mornin’

It’s been five weeks since I had surgery–so far, so good! Everything is as it should be, which is all I can really ask for.

A lot of my time has been consumed with work, but that is due to me taking an offer from my boss to make up for the time I won’t be working later this year.

Now that I have the boring bits out of the way…

I’ve made some changes to my diet. After watching a video and reading the transcript of an interview about the science behind obesity, I’ve decided to cut carbohydrates as much as I can, especially grains.

Here’s the first video by Dr. Gary Taubes:

And here’s the transcript of an interview:

Gary Taubes, interviewed by Seth Roberts November 30, 2007 from Seth’s blog

Now, there’s a part of me which says, “of course you’re going to latch onto this diet–you’re obese and desperate to lose weight!” Well… yeah, that’s true, to a point. But I did start eating this way about 7 years ago for about 5 or 6 months and my weight dropped to 240lbs, and I never felt healthier.

However, the woman I was dating at the time was a pretty cold-hearted person and pretty much undermined my food strategy, and I had no support from my friends or family.

I mean, they had to have noticed how healthy I looked as I lost the weight, and nobody said a damn thing to me when I started putting it back on.

In 2003, I was not in a stable place in life. It is pretty difficult to do anything long-term in the realm of self-improvement when the sands around you are constantly shifting, and I would remain unstable for several years.

My peak weight was probably over 310lbs in 2007/2008. I lost some weight (down to the 280s) when I cut normal soda out of my diet without making any other changes. Now, I am down to the mid-260s (I weighed in at 266lbs right before my surgery, which was probably due to an overall decrease in calories, which is part of why I needed surgery), which means I am about 25lbs from my weight in 2003, which, incidentally, was my weight when I graduated high school.

Granted, I was probably just at the level of obesity then, but how many people can say that they have returned to their high school weight more than a decade after college?

I’ve never been at a sustained healthy weight as an adult, but my feeling is that it is somewhere in the 180-200lbs range. Being 6′3″ with (I assume) a moderate-to-large frame, it might be in the upper end of that range… but of course, it’s not the number as much as how I look and feel and how my habits effect my weight that will determine the “resting zone” (so to speak) of my body weight.

And yes, Virginia, James will be exercising. I’ve been restricted in part due to the surgery (I still have stitches!) and in part due to working a lot. I do find that exercise becomes far more enjoyable the less I weigh, especially walking around, and I’m prepared to take advantage of whatever nice weather we have this winter.

Finally, the best for last: I believe I have found my therapist! I have my first therapy session this coming Monday. I found that when I approached it as me interviewing her for a job that the questions I wanted to ask came quite easily.

[edited to add] – I had my first appointment with this therapist and it was quite nice; we did some body work and I have to say that I much prefer this approach to all the other therapists I’ve encountered–we’re not discussing content but working with form.

New awarenesses:

• The distance between now and 1979
• Carrying an intergenerational burden
• The degree of tension in my back
• The imbalance of tension in my back

I won’t promise a report like this every therapy session; I just wanted to put these out there since it was so novel and so nice.

So, here’s an experiment using made-up numbers, but not completely unreasonable ones:

Let’s say that my average income over the rest of my life if I live to 80 is $50k/year. I am 30, so that’s $2.5m in income. If I continue to make the same decisions about food, my life can easily be cut short to–say–55. So that’s $1.25m in lost wages (this applies even if I retire because I will not be able to spend the money that I would have saved).

So, poor decisions about food are costing me at least $1.25m (this is not including the cost of this food, which is usually drive-through or take-out). When you break this down per meal, this comes out to $50k/year, $137/day, or $45.67/meal.

(Of course, the dynamics would change if I were to improve my diet.)

I don’t ever think I’ve had a burger I would now say was worth $50.

My recipe repertoire isn’t too large, and I’d really like to get a few more ideas for dinner. Does anybody have any suggestions for dishes I might try? I might even comment on them here if they go well (or maybe even if they do not!! ).

If you don’t want to register with my wordpress, you can send me a comment using my contact form, but then your comments won’t be attached to this entry (unless I go slightly more insane and add them to the database manually).

If you’re like me and grew up on prefab spice packets when it came to Tex-Mex food, you began to wonder how exactly food like that is made.

Well, I won’t claim to have reinvented the contents of the Old El Paso spice packet, but I think I have improved on it with regards to taste using fresh ingredients and spices.

Do remember, however, that I tend to like my food pretty spicy (at least in comparison to standard cheeseburger-and-fries American fare)!

Whenever I approach Tex-Mex, I always think in terms of “onions and cumin.” I don’t know if this is how other chefs do it, but it’s my kitchen and I think it tastes pretty damn good.

I rarely measure things out, so every meal has its own character, but I’ve also developed a bit of an eye towards consistency during preparation so that they’re not completely different dishes.

It’s a biological process, okay?

So here’s the shopping list for Steak Fajitas for Two:

• 1 medium sweet vidalia onion
• 1 medium-large red bell pepper (you may go green if you like; my girlfriend prefers reds)
• 3/4lb to 1lb steak, preferably sirloin… you’ll want something that’s not supposed to be cooked well done
• Ground cumin (if you have less than 1/3″ in the bottle, it’s time to buy some more)
• Chili powder
• Ground cayenne pepper
• Salt
• Black pepper (I prefer to grind it fresh)
• Olive oil (or your preferred fat for frying on high heat)
• Optional: 3-4 large white cap mushrooms

First, cut up the onion and bell pepper into strips. Depending on the size, you may wish to slice them in half (bell peppers are good but 4″ strips are unwieldy for me). Slice up your mushrooms into parallel slices if you’ve got ‘em.

Now, trim the excess fat off of your steak (if any) and cut it up (if it’s not already pre-sliced, though I think that cutting it yourself makes it taste a little fresher and it’s really not that much work) into approximately 1/3″ by 2″ strips. This may or may not be so easy depending on the thickness of your steak, but eh, I’m not looking for perfection, I’m just looking for taste.

Oh, and if nobody ever told you this: sharp knives are a MUST for cutting up beef. I mean, seriously, invest in a good knife and a blade sharpener. It will save you plenty of aggravation and it’ll be safer, too.

I prefer to use two skillets. For the veggies, I use a wok (not really a wok, but it’s wok-shaped and does the job) and for the meat (initially) I use a flat griddle pan.

So, to cook! The first thing to do is to brown the meat a little. Spread a thin layer of your favorite oil over your fryer and heat up the pan on high. When the pan is heated, start putting down the beef! You’ll need to keep an eye on it to make sure it does not overcook. When you’ve got one side browned, turn to the other and heat that one up. Sprinkle a small amount of salt over the browning beef. If/when the juices begin to flow out of the meat, remove from the heat and set aside, retaining any juices.

Put some oil into the wok… consider that it’ll need to be enough to saute a full onion and bell pepper… I play it by ear. Heat up the oil to medium-high-high heat. When the oil is hot enough (I usually take a bit of onion and touch the oil–if it sizzles, it’s ready), dump in the onion. You want to have the heat high enough to brown the onion as it sautes but you do not want to start burning the onion. It took me a while to get this, though, so it’s sort of an art.

When the onion begins to turn translucent, put in the bell peppers and mushrooms. Also, at this time, add some salt, black pepper… I take the McCormick cayenne and give it four brisk shakes–that’s the right amount of spice for me, but it might be hot for those with sensitive tongues. And now, the cumin and chili powder. I add a lot of cumin. I might even add too much. But I’m the one that’s eating this, so what do you care? I know that I add at least a teaspoon, probably two… I judge it based on the color I’m looking for (here, we’re looking for “earthy”). Do what you like. And as for chili powder, add what you think will taste good, no rules here. I don’t do nearly as much chili powder as I do cumin, however (the balance shifts when I make chili, hooboy!!!).

As you’re putting in the spices, add the bell pepper, mushrooms, beef, and any beef juices from the browning. Keep everything on high, stirring around, until you get the spices covering everything. Maybe cook for another few minutes, test if you like, but at this point you’re pretty much done cooking.

We had this as part of a salad last night, so we made more beef to make up for the lack of tortilla… but it works no matter what you want to do with it. I like to eat mine with salsa and sour cream and shredded cheese, as well as fresh tomato and lettuce. We also put some refried beans on top of it all, but in retrospect, that was a bit too much.

So there you have it! Pretty easy, in fact… to me, just about as easy as buying the Old El Paso packet!