Cleaning Out The Larder: Day 3

Mabo Tofu Massacre!

Cereal in Milk:

Weight: 15 oz (2 oz cereal, 13 oz milk).

Ham and Radish Soup:

Weight: 4 oz (3 oz radish, 1 oz ham) + 12 oz of water in soup.

Mabo Tofu Rice Bowl #1:

Weight: 14 oz (3 oz mixed veggies, 4 oz tofu, 3 oz ground beef, 4 oz brown rice) + 4 oz water in rice.

Mabo Tofu Rice Bowl #2:

Weight: 18 oz (5 oz mixed veggies, 5 oz tofu, 5 oz ground beef, 3 oz brown rice) + 3 oz water in rice.

Clementines: 10 oz

Apple Juice: 9 oz

Milk: 13 oz

Summary:

Total eaten / Total daily allowance: 83 oz / 91.1 oz

Grains eaten / Grains daily allowance: 9 oz / 10.4 oz

Vegetables eaten / Vegetable daily allowance: 20 oz / 21.2 oz

Fruits eaten / Fruits daily allowance: 19 oz / 19.2 oz

Milk Products eaten / Milk Products daily allowance: 26 oz / 26 oz

Meat and Beans eaten / Meat and Beans daily allowance: 9 oz / 9.1 oz

Other eaten / Other daily allowance: 0 oz / 5.2 oz

Some thoughts:

Not very hungry today. I'm glad that I finally finished off the Mabo Tofu and the leftover rice.

According to this calorie calculator, I should be eating anywhere from 2100 to 3400 kcal per day, depending on activity level. I haven't been doing too much lately, so I guess I shouldn't be eating so much anyway.

Cleaning Out The Larder: Day 2

Still cleaning out the leftovers, but there are a few new items today.

Breakfast: Cereal in Milk:

Weight: 17 oz (2 oz cereal, 15 oz milk).

Lunch: Mabo Tofu (with some rice underneath):

Weight: 15 oz (3 oz mixed veggies, 4 oz tofu, 3 oz ground beef, 5 oz brown rice) + 5 oz water in rice.

Dinner:

Ham and Radish Soup:

Weight: 4 oz (3 oz radish, 1 oz ham) + 12 oz of water in soup.

More Mabo Tofu (with some rice underneath):

Weight: 13 oz (3 oz mixed veggies, 4 oz tofu, 3 oz ground beef, 3 oz brown rice) + 3 oz water in rice.

Oven-Baked Mixed Veggies with Beef Roast:

Weight: 10 oz (7 oz mixed veggies, 3 oz beef)

Other:

Apples:

Weight: 10 oz 

Orange Juice: 9 oz

Milk: 11 oz

Summary:

Total eaten / Total daily allowance: 89 oz / 91.1 oz

Grains eaten / Grains daily allowance: 10 oz / 10.4 oz

Vegetables eaten / Vegetable daily allowance: 24 oz / 21.2 oz

Fruits eaten / Fruits daily allowance: 19 oz / 19.2 oz

Milk Products eaten / Milk Products daily allowance: 26 oz / 26 oz

Meat and Beans eaten / Meat and Beans daily allowance: 10 oz / 9.1 oz

Other eaten / Other daily allowance: 0 oz / 5.2 oz

Some thoughts:

Made up the veggie deficit today, but ate a bit too much meat. Oh well.

Breakfast helped a lot with the milk requirement. It's a lot easier on my stomach to take milk in smaller doses, as one lactase pill sometimes doesn't cut it when you drink too much at once, and you never realize it until it's too late to correct the problem.

I feel a lot more full than I usually do after dinner. I should pack more for lunch so I'm not trying to get all my allowances in at dinner.

Not sure what I should do about the "Other" category. It already feels like I'm eating too much.

I also wonder how many calories are in all of this food... I should also look up how many calories is appropriate for my height, weight, and activity level. My wife mentioned that she only needs about 1200 kcal a day because she's only about 5'2" and slim, but the MyPyramid breakdown for females in her age group in the Thrifty Food Plan recommends almost 2000 kcal a day, so if she ate what was recommended then she would gain around 0.2 pounds a day (assuming all excess calories are metabolized, then saved as fat).

Would I actually gain weight under the Thrifty Food Plan? I'll look that up later.

Cleaning Out The Larder: Day 1 Dinner

Hi all!

My wife made dinner using stuff that was left in the fridge. Yum!

Ham and Radish Soup:

Weight: 3 oz (2 oz radish, 1 oz ham). 15 oz of water in the soup don't count!

Mabo Tofu (with some rice underneath):

Weight: 12 oz (3 oz mixed veggies, 4 oz tofu, 3 oz ground beef, ONLY 2 oz brown rice *cries*)

Keeping in mind that I still need to eat fruit today, some clementines for dessert:

Weight: 10 oz.

I also drank 2 full mugs of lowfat milk (26 oz) to get my milk allowance for the day.

So far today I have eaten:

Total eaten / Total daily allowance: 88 oz / 91.1 oz

Grains eaten / Grains daily allowance: 10 oz / 10.4 oz

Vegetables eaten / Vegetable daily allowance: 18 oz / 21.2 oz

Fruits eaten / Fruits daily allowance: 19 oz / 19.2 oz

Milk Products eaten / Milk Products daily allowance: 26 oz / 26 oz

Meat and Beans eaten / Meat and Beans daily allowance: 9 oz / 9.1 oz

Other eaten / Other daily allowance: 6 oz / 5.2 oz

Some thoughts:

I'm surprised how close I came to meeting the requirements "naturally". I guess I have to thank my parents and my wife for instilling good eating habits. The only things I had to consciously do was:

- Eat less rice. Boo.

- Eat more fruit.

- Drink more milk.

I'm 3 oz short on veggies. I just looked in the fridge, and the only things I found were bok choy and onions... nothing that can really be eaten raw. I guess I'll have to make up the difference tomorrow.

I'll have to remember to eat breakfast tomorrow - cereal in milk will take care of that pesky milk requirement.

I blew the "Other" limit with my cup of hot tea this morning. I'll have to ration it properly next time...

I just realized that I have been not measuring the amount of rice that I have been eating correctly. Rice absorbs about its own volume in water when it is cooked, so my rice weights so far probably are too high. I will have to remember to measure the rice weight before it is cooked.

...the fact that this allows me to eat more rice is pure coincidence, I assure you...

Cleaning Out The Larder: Day 1 Lunch

First real meal of the day (6 oz of tea this morning at breakfast)!

I had holiday leftovers for lunch.

First up is some Chinese sticky rice:

The box weighs in at 12 oz. I estimate that 8 oz is sticky rice (grains), with 2 oz of mixed vegetables (veggies) and 2 oz of Chinese sausage (meats and beans).

I also had some hotpot leftovers:

This one weighs about 10 oz. Estimate 4 oz daikon radishes (veggies), 3 oz tofu (veggies - soybeans are listed in Veggies instead of Meats and Beans), 3 oz lamb meat (meats and beans).

I also drank 9 oz of apple juice.

So far today I have eaten:

Total eaten / Total daily allowance: 37 oz / 91.1 oz

Grains eaten / Grains daily allowance: 8 oz / 10.4 oz

Vegetables eaten / Vegetable daily allowance: 9 oz / 21.2 oz

Fruits eaten / Fruits daily allowance: 9 oz / 19.2 oz

Milk Products eaten / Milk Products daily allowance: 0 oz / 26 oz

Meat and Beans eaten / Meat and Beans daily allowance: 5 oz / 9.1 oz

Other eaten / Other daily allowance: 6 oz / 5.2 oz

Some thoughts:

I have never given much thought to how much of each category I ate. Just from this lunch, it looks like I have been hitting the grains too hard. I guess it makes sense, since I am a big rice eater. I'll have to increase the amount of veggies I eat... I'll probably eat more potatoes to replace the rice.

The funny thing is that potatoes (starchy!) are listed under Vegetables (with their own subcategory - 1.5 pounds a day allowance!) while rice (also starchy!) is stuck under Grains. I would love to replace the potatoes with rice so I can keep wolfing down the rice, but I guess that would cheating. Boo.

I'll also have to drastically increase the amount of milk product I eat. The problem is that I am a little lactose-intolerant, so I'll have to pop some lactase pills to help digestion. Oh well.

Cleaning Out The Larder

First things first: Happy New Year!

Now that's out of the way...

I have a bunch of food left over from Christmas and New Year's. It's time to take inventory...

...or maybe not. I'll just measure and log everything a day at a time until it is all used up.