I'm down 3.5 pounds this week. So, minus the one pound that I gained the week before, I'm now down a total of 21 pounds since starting the 20/20 program. I think the most frustrating thing is that as you become more active and eat well regularly, your body starts getting used to everything and it becomes harder to lose weight. I'm not scoffing at where I'm at so far, but it's definitely getting harder as time goes on.
So, it was time to shake things up a bit this week and change the routine. J. took me into the "scary" room in the gym...the room where the serious weight lifters train with free weights and benches. I'm a bit of a fish out of water in there, but he's got me doing some new weight exercises and some modified push ups, pull ups, and dips. Thank goodness he helped me stretch out well on Wednesday evening, since I'm always pretty sore after we increase intensity and switch things up. Goodness only knows what kind of crazy stuff he dreams up for my session tomorrow.
And, dare I say it...I'm seeing definition in my abs. There's definitely that nice little parenthesis shape starting, which is exciting. Nothing like nice abs...
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Music to the ears
Awhile back, I got a pair of noise-cancelling earbud earphones to use with my iPod at the gym. The sound on them was pretty good, but I forgot to turn them off a few times, and drained down the battery that is required to turn on the noise-cancelling function and to really amplify the music a bit. Without that part turned on, the music was pretty tinny sounding and quiet. The other problem is that each earbud had a little rubber attachment that fits into the ear, of which I have lost one of the attachments. The pair came with a few different sizes, and I needed the smallest size to fit into my ear, so once I lost one of the smallest ones, I was kind of up the creek. I can kind of sit the earbud into my ear, but it dislodges pretty easy and no longer really works to keep the noise out.
I've gone through a couple different pairs of headphones over the last few years, and haven't really been happy with any of the ones I've gotten. This last pair was the happiest that I'd been so far, but I hated how the attachments kept coming off so easily, and I knew it was just a matter of time before I'd lose one for good. So, after I lost that attachment on Tuesday evening and couldn't find it anywhere in the locker room, I finally decided to get a new pair of headphones. I'm spending enough time in the gym now that I need good tunes to keep me running and well-paced on the elliptical and stair climber, and I wanted something that would drown out the people who seem to use the gym for social time rather than actual working out. Case in point, last Tuesday night when two women in the row behind me managed to drone on and on about something and cackle away, while every once in awhile managing to actually move one leg or another. Usually I can't hear too much when I have my headphones on, and I don't really mind it when people are actually working out, but these women were pretty obnoxious.
Anyway, I decided to finally purchase a good, quality pair of headphones. L. has a nice pair of Bose headphones that his parents got him for Christmas one year, and I tried them out awhile back. I was really impressed, and decided that I'd get a good pair of Bose headphones, too. So, off we went to Best Buy tonight to get them. But they were out! So, we headed further south and checked out Fryes. Thankfully, Fryes had them in stock, and viola! Headphone city. This pair folds up pretty compactly, and fits in a nice, sturdy case.
We then came home and I started compiling a new workout mix in iTunes. I pulled about 35 tunes into a new playlist, and I'm currently listening to it with my new headphones. This playlist spans all kinds of genres and decades, and every song sounds great! I think these are going to really keep me motivated during my workouts, especially since I won't be worrying about losing earbud attachments.
I've gone through a couple different pairs of headphones over the last few years, and haven't really been happy with any of the ones I've gotten. This last pair was the happiest that I'd been so far, but I hated how the attachments kept coming off so easily, and I knew it was just a matter of time before I'd lose one for good. So, after I lost that attachment on Tuesday evening and couldn't find it anywhere in the locker room, I finally decided to get a new pair of headphones. I'm spending enough time in the gym now that I need good tunes to keep me running and well-paced on the elliptical and stair climber, and I wanted something that would drown out the people who seem to use the gym for social time rather than actual working out. Case in point, last Tuesday night when two women in the row behind me managed to drone on and on about something and cackle away, while every once in awhile managing to actually move one leg or another. Usually I can't hear too much when I have my headphones on, and I don't really mind it when people are actually working out, but these women were pretty obnoxious.
Anyway, I decided to finally purchase a good, quality pair of headphones. L. has a nice pair of Bose headphones that his parents got him for Christmas one year, and I tried them out awhile back. I was really impressed, and decided that I'd get a good pair of Bose headphones, too. So, off we went to Best Buy tonight to get them. But they were out! So, we headed further south and checked out Fryes. Thankfully, Fryes had them in stock, and viola! Headphone city. This pair folds up pretty compactly, and fits in a nice, sturdy case.
We then came home and I started compiling a new workout mix in iTunes. I pulled about 35 tunes into a new playlist, and I'm currently listening to it with my new headphones. This playlist spans all kinds of genres and decades, and every song sounds great! I think these are going to really keep me motivated during my workouts, especially since I won't be worrying about losing earbud attachments.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Getting stronger everyday
I got to 180 today on the overhead pull - 10 reps and I about left my arms hanging on the apparatus on the last rep. Felt damn good to get to that point though. I'm getting stronger every day. Did the stair climber for 20 minutes and elliptical for 20 minutes yesterday, and my legs are feeling a lot stronger now too. I almost float up the stairs to my condo when I get home. I love results!
Clean plate club
I found this interesting article about hunger cues by Brian Wansink on MSNBC. I recently read Wansink's book, "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think" on the recommendation of my group counselor in the 20/20 Lifestyles program. It was a fairly quick read, full of good information pulled from many years of studies on how people eat, and more importantly how they decide to stop eating.
It turns out that many cultures stop eating when they no longer feel hungry; this is a different feeling than being full where you're not able to shove another spoonful of something into your mouth, which tends to be the American way of eating. It also turns out that many people with weight problems rely on external cues (i.e. whether their plate is clean) rather than their internal cues (i.e. I'm not hungry anymore or the taste of my food has diminished).
I'm guilty of both of these things. I would always eat until I was full, and I had always qualified for the clean plate club. I think a lot of this had to do with my upbringing. I think every kid on the face of this earth has heard something like, "eat your peas, there are starving kids in Africa" and "no dessert unless you clean your plate". Over time, you start to figure out that it's a requirement to make other people happy or satisfied, and then it becomes a requirement for you to know that you can stop eating. And then pair that with my summers working on my grandparent's farm, and suddenly I'm stuffing myself at breakfast because I'm going to be out in the field all day long and need the food for energy. Then, when I get back at night, I stuff myself again because I worked so hard all day and I'm so hungry.
This pattern might have worked had I decided to go into the family business of farming, but sitting on my butt all day behind a desk is a whole different ballgame. Then add long hours and lots of overtime, which leaves little time for a personal life let alone time for exercise, and you see where I'm going. Thank goodness I got out of software testing when I did. Technical writing has gotten me to a much more balanced lifestyle where I do have personal time (which now includes my workouts), as well as some times when you still have to step it up a notch to get through a ship cycle. But it's not pulling 70-hour weeks nonstop like when I was in testing a few years ago. So, that's where I ended up after software testing for several years, and I carried those habits into the next phase of my career for a couple of years. Life is always learning, and I'm learning that I need to take better care of myself and pay attention to the situation at hand rather than get caught up in unhealthy habits.
This brings me back to Wansink's book. After reading it, I realized that I needed to pay better attention to my cues. I've been trying to eat slower so that my body can register the food that I'm eating and send me the signal that I'm not hungry anymore. And instead of eating until I'm full, I can stop and be satisfied when I'm just no longer hungry. And because I'm eating more regularly (every 3-4 hours), I don't get to that point where I'm so hungry that I'll just eat any junk around that I can get my hands on and then shove it all down as quickly as possible so I can get back to my life. In a different way, eating has become my life-the planning, the preparation, the measuring, the tracking, the timing. Some things are starting to become more habit, but at times it's still a lot of work to get it all right.
The other thing that I've done is to start figuring out portions. There are lots of measuring spoons, measuring cups, and a good scale involved in preparation of everything now. And I've started using my smaller salad plates for my food rather than the large dinner plates. It's a simple trick that really works. Five ounces of chicken breast and an ounce of cheese on my salad plate looks like a good meal, whereas it would only take up 2/3 of my dinner plates. I have little 1/2 cup bowls for my fruit or beans, or other foods that I need to eat in smaller portions. And I use my bowls to make a good big salad but make sure to measure out the dressing very carefully. By the time I get everything to the table, I've got a small plate with my lean proteins, a big bowl with leafy greens and healthy fats, a small cup with my complex carbs, and my 32-ounce water bottle. I have to run the dishwasher almost daily now to clean all of the dishes and utensils that I use for cooking and eating. I used to run it a couple of times a week. On a related note, I do laundry a few times a week now, too, because changing twice a day (once for regular clothes and once for workout clothes) makes my closet sparse quickly. Thank goodness L. likes to help me fold clothes :)
It turns out that many cultures stop eating when they no longer feel hungry; this is a different feeling than being full where you're not able to shove another spoonful of something into your mouth, which tends to be the American way of eating. It also turns out that many people with weight problems rely on external cues (i.e. whether their plate is clean) rather than their internal cues (i.e. I'm not hungry anymore or the taste of my food has diminished).
I'm guilty of both of these things. I would always eat until I was full, and I had always qualified for the clean plate club. I think a lot of this had to do with my upbringing. I think every kid on the face of this earth has heard something like, "eat your peas, there are starving kids in Africa" and "no dessert unless you clean your plate". Over time, you start to figure out that it's a requirement to make other people happy or satisfied, and then it becomes a requirement for you to know that you can stop eating. And then pair that with my summers working on my grandparent's farm, and suddenly I'm stuffing myself at breakfast because I'm going to be out in the field all day long and need the food for energy. Then, when I get back at night, I stuff myself again because I worked so hard all day and I'm so hungry.
This pattern might have worked had I decided to go into the family business of farming, but sitting on my butt all day behind a desk is a whole different ballgame. Then add long hours and lots of overtime, which leaves little time for a personal life let alone time for exercise, and you see where I'm going. Thank goodness I got out of software testing when I did. Technical writing has gotten me to a much more balanced lifestyle where I do have personal time (which now includes my workouts), as well as some times when you still have to step it up a notch to get through a ship cycle. But it's not pulling 70-hour weeks nonstop like when I was in testing a few years ago. So, that's where I ended up after software testing for several years, and I carried those habits into the next phase of my career for a couple of years. Life is always learning, and I'm learning that I need to take better care of myself and pay attention to the situation at hand rather than get caught up in unhealthy habits.
This brings me back to Wansink's book. After reading it, I realized that I needed to pay better attention to my cues. I've been trying to eat slower so that my body can register the food that I'm eating and send me the signal that I'm not hungry anymore. And instead of eating until I'm full, I can stop and be satisfied when I'm just no longer hungry. And because I'm eating more regularly (every 3-4 hours), I don't get to that point where I'm so hungry that I'll just eat any junk around that I can get my hands on and then shove it all down as quickly as possible so I can get back to my life. In a different way, eating has become my life-the planning, the preparation, the measuring, the tracking, the timing. Some things are starting to become more habit, but at times it's still a lot of work to get it all right.
The other thing that I've done is to start figuring out portions. There are lots of measuring spoons, measuring cups, and a good scale involved in preparation of everything now. And I've started using my smaller salad plates for my food rather than the large dinner plates. It's a simple trick that really works. Five ounces of chicken breast and an ounce of cheese on my salad plate looks like a good meal, whereas it would only take up 2/3 of my dinner plates. I have little 1/2 cup bowls for my fruit or beans, or other foods that I need to eat in smaller portions. And I use my bowls to make a good big salad but make sure to measure out the dressing very carefully. By the time I get everything to the table, I've got a small plate with my lean proteins, a big bowl with leafy greens and healthy fats, a small cup with my complex carbs, and my 32-ounce water bottle. I have to run the dishwasher almost daily now to clean all of the dishes and utensils that I use for cooking and eating. I used to run it a couple of times a week. On a related note, I do laundry a few times a week now, too, because changing twice a day (once for regular clothes and once for workout clothes) makes my closet sparse quickly. Thank goodness L. likes to help me fold clothes :)
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Week 7 recap
Well, this was not a great week in my weight loss goal. I actually gained one pound, which was disappointing but not entirely surprising. My nutritionist, C., warned me about this last week when I rolled in at the beginning of my flu and she told me not to expect a lot while my body was fighting the virus. So, even though I worked out five days last week and kept up my healthy diet, my body stalled this last week. The good news is that I'm under the 200 pound mark, which I don't think I mentioned in last week's recap. That was a really exciting moment when I weighed in. I'm still fighting the tail end of this sickness, but I'm feeling much better now so I hope that it doesn't continue to throw off my progress. This week, I'll work on adding beans and legumes into my diet, so that should be an interesting change.
My arms were really sore today. My trainer, J., had me add pushups to my routine after we'd already gone through 15 minutes of elliptical, 15 minutes of stair climber, and the typical weight machines for both the upper and lower body. He recently increased the weight and now the reps for each set, so my arms were already pretty tired (and not because I just flew in, hahaha). Anyway, by the time he got out the stability ball and told me to get into the push up position with my hands on the ball, and then actually do push ups, I was pretty beat. I could do one, but the next one was always sloppy and I'd almost do a face-plant into the ball and roll over to one side. After a couple of tries, we moved the ball up against the wall and I did five push ups without looking like a completely uncoordinated person.
He has me doing a few other moves that are interesting. I call one of them the Captain Morgan, because I stand on one foot on a mushy disk thing and do curls with dumbbells. Recently he's had me do curls paired with some kind of overhead movement, which makes it even more difficult to keep my balance. I've found that my ankles are pretty wobbly, so I'll get a few good moves in and then kind of lean to one side until I eventally have to put the other foot down quickly to get my balance. I'm getting better at it over time, though.
Another move is called the worshiper, and it involves the stability ball. You basically kneel on the ground with the ball in front of you and place your hands on ball like you were going to pray. You then lean and roll the ball forward. This move makes your abs scream like they're going to pop right out of your body and your under arms ache wildly the next day.
And another couple of exercises that just kill but are really good for the glutes are what I call the penguin and the side stepper. J. has a resistance band that I place around both legs. I then either sway from side to side while keeping my feet completely straight (the penguin) or I take small steps to the side over and over (the side stepper). The thing about these is that the body tries to compensate by angling the feet inward to use larger muscle groups, so it's important to keep the feet really straight to isolate the smaller muscles and tone them. I usually have trouble walking up the stairs right after these exercises.
Well, onto another week and hopefully my body will be back in the swing of things soon. I'm definitely doing the right things, so once the flu/cold thing is fully gone, I'll be back on track!
My arms were really sore today. My trainer, J., had me add pushups to my routine after we'd already gone through 15 minutes of elliptical, 15 minutes of stair climber, and the typical weight machines for both the upper and lower body. He recently increased the weight and now the reps for each set, so my arms were already pretty tired (and not because I just flew in, hahaha). Anyway, by the time he got out the stability ball and told me to get into the push up position with my hands on the ball, and then actually do push ups, I was pretty beat. I could do one, but the next one was always sloppy and I'd almost do a face-plant into the ball and roll over to one side. After a couple of tries, we moved the ball up against the wall and I did five push ups without looking like a completely uncoordinated person.
He has me doing a few other moves that are interesting. I call one of them the Captain Morgan, because I stand on one foot on a mushy disk thing and do curls with dumbbells. Recently he's had me do curls paired with some kind of overhead movement, which makes it even more difficult to keep my balance. I've found that my ankles are pretty wobbly, so I'll get a few good moves in and then kind of lean to one side until I eventally have to put the other foot down quickly to get my balance. I'm getting better at it over time, though.
Another move is called the worshiper, and it involves the stability ball. You basically kneel on the ground with the ball in front of you and place your hands on ball like you were going to pray. You then lean and roll the ball forward. This move makes your abs scream like they're going to pop right out of your body and your under arms ache wildly the next day.
And another couple of exercises that just kill but are really good for the glutes are what I call the penguin and the side stepper. J. has a resistance band that I place around both legs. I then either sway from side to side while keeping my feet completely straight (the penguin) or I take small steps to the side over and over (the side stepper). The thing about these is that the body tries to compensate by angling the feet inward to use larger muscle groups, so it's important to keep the feet really straight to isolate the smaller muscles and tone them. I usually have trouble walking up the stairs right after these exercises.
Well, onto another week and hopefully my body will be back in the swing of things soon. I'm definitely doing the right things, so once the flu/cold thing is fully gone, I'll be back on track!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Week 6 recap
Despite having a kind of rough week with the cold, I managed to lose about 2.5 pounds this week. So that makes for almost 20 pounds so far-19.5 really, but I like to round up ;).
I've been working hard at keeping my protein level up, and making sure to keep eating even though I don't really feel like I'm hungry right now. My nutritionist said that I'd done a really great job considering I haven't been well. She really stressed the importance of eating enough protein and carbs when I'm sick to keep my body from feeding on itself. It sounds kind of counterintuitive, as I want my body to use the fat stores, but the body doesn't burn fat alone. And she doesn't want me to backtrack on the muscle that I've been building up with my workouts.
Anyway, we decided not to introduce beans and legumes this next week, since I didn't really get a full week of adding back in dairy products that I can have, such as soy milk and yogurt.
I met with my counselor today for the third time since I started the program. She told me how great I'm doing so far, and asked how I'm feeling about all of the changes in my life. I told her that despite the sickenss this week, I've been feeling really great and I'm finally sleeping well. I went over my issues with being sick so much last year, and we discussed how important sleep is to a healthy immune system, weight loss, stress management, and concentration. I think it's a really good thing that I started this when I did, or my health could have become an even bigger mess than it already was. I've found that I actually need to exercise to sleep well at night. I don't know why I never really put those two things together before. I guess because I was always tired and wanted to sleep, but just not at normal times, I didn't really get that I needed to burn some energy to get to the right phases of sleep.
Recently, I had an important realization about how I've been living my life thus far. I can say that I've managed to keep moving up in life, and I've worked hard to do so. My job is rewarding, but often stressful and I'd deal with that by indulging in food. Additionally, rewards for my successes were often food-related. And because I have a rather healthy social life, a lot of my time with friends and family revolved around food. So, every week there was something special to celebrate or make an exception for. After awhile, exceptions were the rule and there was no signal to me to say no to another helping or piece of cake until my clothes became uncomfortable and my health started to fail.
I've now made a very conscious decision to only make exceptions when they actually apply to me - and only if I'm willing to do the work to make them worthwhile. For example, I'll have cake on my birthday (well, not this year, but in the future) but not for other people's birthdays. Once a year, I can have cake. Oh, and a piece of my wedding cake, which will be my only cake this year anyway. Holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, I will allow myself to indulge in the food and festivities on that day-not the entire season-and I will make a tradeoff. Either I only do one platefull, or I go to the gym an extra day that week (or even that day). A co-worker told me that the gym has 90-minute workout sessions for the holidays for this exact purpose.
And when I indulge a few times a year, I'll do it knowing that it may trigger some cravings afterward, but I will know that I can get back on plan and those cravings will go away. And in the end, I may figure out that it's just not worth it to have the cravings and withdrawals, and I'll stay on plan all the time. After working this hard to lose weight and get healthy again, I know that I don't want to backslide, so that will always be a strong impetus to my staying healthy. And my blog serves as an important tool for me to refer to whenever I might feel weak or wonder why I ever signed up for this in the first place. And believe me, there are times when I think of all of the time and work I've done thus far, and how much further I have to go, and I wonder if I can make it. But, I know that I can, and I will. I made a commitment to do this, and I don't take that lightly.
I've been working hard at keeping my protein level up, and making sure to keep eating even though I don't really feel like I'm hungry right now. My nutritionist said that I'd done a really great job considering I haven't been well. She really stressed the importance of eating enough protein and carbs when I'm sick to keep my body from feeding on itself. It sounds kind of counterintuitive, as I want my body to use the fat stores, but the body doesn't burn fat alone. And she doesn't want me to backtrack on the muscle that I've been building up with my workouts.
Anyway, we decided not to introduce beans and legumes this next week, since I didn't really get a full week of adding back in dairy products that I can have, such as soy milk and yogurt.
I met with my counselor today for the third time since I started the program. She told me how great I'm doing so far, and asked how I'm feeling about all of the changes in my life. I told her that despite the sickenss this week, I've been feeling really great and I'm finally sleeping well. I went over my issues with being sick so much last year, and we discussed how important sleep is to a healthy immune system, weight loss, stress management, and concentration. I think it's a really good thing that I started this when I did, or my health could have become an even bigger mess than it already was. I've found that I actually need to exercise to sleep well at night. I don't know why I never really put those two things together before. I guess because I was always tired and wanted to sleep, but just not at normal times, I didn't really get that I needed to burn some energy to get to the right phases of sleep.
Recently, I had an important realization about how I've been living my life thus far. I can say that I've managed to keep moving up in life, and I've worked hard to do so. My job is rewarding, but often stressful and I'd deal with that by indulging in food. Additionally, rewards for my successes were often food-related. And because I have a rather healthy social life, a lot of my time with friends and family revolved around food. So, every week there was something special to celebrate or make an exception for. After awhile, exceptions were the rule and there was no signal to me to say no to another helping or piece of cake until my clothes became uncomfortable and my health started to fail.
I've now made a very conscious decision to only make exceptions when they actually apply to me - and only if I'm willing to do the work to make them worthwhile. For example, I'll have cake on my birthday (well, not this year, but in the future) but not for other people's birthdays. Once a year, I can have cake. Oh, and a piece of my wedding cake, which will be my only cake this year anyway. Holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, I will allow myself to indulge in the food and festivities on that day-not the entire season-and I will make a tradeoff. Either I only do one platefull, or I go to the gym an extra day that week (or even that day). A co-worker told me that the gym has 90-minute workout sessions for the holidays for this exact purpose.
And when I indulge a few times a year, I'll do it knowing that it may trigger some cravings afterward, but I will know that I can get back on plan and those cravings will go away. And in the end, I may figure out that it's just not worth it to have the cravings and withdrawals, and I'll stay on plan all the time. After working this hard to lose weight and get healthy again, I know that I don't want to backslide, so that will always be a strong impetus to my staying healthy. And my blog serves as an important tool for me to refer to whenever I might feel weak or wonder why I ever signed up for this in the first place. And believe me, there are times when I think of all of the time and work I've done thus far, and how much further I have to go, and I wonder if I can make it. But, I know that I can, and I will. I made a commitment to do this, and I don't take that lightly.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Cough, cough, sniff
Sick...everyone around me has been sick recently, so I suppose my time was coming. Since I started the 20/20 program, I've definitely been a lot healthier and made it through January and February relatively unscathed. I had a slight flu-like thing for a couple of days but nothing that kept me out of work or down for very long.
Yesterday, I woke up and was pretty tired, and had some head congestion and a bloody nose. So, I slept in a little bit. Once I got up and took a shower, I started feeling better, so I headed into work and worked late last night to make up for the couple of morning hours that I took to rest up. Then last night, I went into the gym and did a half an hour of cardio but I didn't really push it.
Today, I woke up and was definitely worse. My head was stuffy and my throat was irritated. I decided to call in sick this morning, and worked this afternoon from home for a bit before the nausea set in. So, I finally decided to give in and cancel my training appointment. I could probably push through with a head cold, but nausea and stomach problems? No way. No one wants to see me puke all over the cardio theater.
I emailed my nutritionist to see what I can eat, since my usual sick diet would include many things not on plan (including chicken noodle soup, tea with honey, 7-Up, and crackers). She emailed me a recipe for program-friendly chicken soup, and some other things that I can eat to help me get better. I just wish that I actually felt hungy. I know that I need to get up and make the soup, but it seems like so much work right now.
OK, enough whining. I should make my way into the kitchen and start making the soup...
Yesterday, I woke up and was pretty tired, and had some head congestion and a bloody nose. So, I slept in a little bit. Once I got up and took a shower, I started feeling better, so I headed into work and worked late last night to make up for the couple of morning hours that I took to rest up. Then last night, I went into the gym and did a half an hour of cardio but I didn't really push it.
Today, I woke up and was definitely worse. My head was stuffy and my throat was irritated. I decided to call in sick this morning, and worked this afternoon from home for a bit before the nausea set in. So, I finally decided to give in and cancel my training appointment. I could probably push through with a head cold, but nausea and stomach problems? No way. No one wants to see me puke all over the cardio theater.
I emailed my nutritionist to see what I can eat, since my usual sick diet would include many things not on plan (including chicken noodle soup, tea with honey, 7-Up, and crackers). She emailed me a recipe for program-friendly chicken soup, and some other things that I can eat to help me get better. I just wish that I actually felt hungy. I know that I need to get up and make the soup, but it seems like so much work right now.
OK, enough whining. I should make my way into the kitchen and start making the soup...
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Cheese review
As I talked about in one of my previous posts, I recently got to the stage in the 20/20 program where I can have cheese. Because of my cow-cheese allergy, I stocked up on some wonderful goat cheeses, and decided to try a rice cheese and an almond cheese. I was very skeptical about the non-dairy cheeses. After my experience with Boca burgers, I wasn't really sure that I'd be able to get past the fact that they aren't really cheese from some kind of animal. And my vegetarian friends mostly told me that I shouldn't expect anything wonderful, so I wasn't getting my hopes up.
Tonight, I finally decided to give the non-dairy cheeses a try. First, the rice cheese: Galaxy Nutritional Food Rice Slices in Mozzarella Flavor. I can say that I'm definitely not a fan of this one, although I'm not sure whether it's because I don't like the cheese or because I don't like Mozzarella. Because I haven't had any kind of cow-cheese in so long, I have no idea whether this tastes like actual Mozzarella or not, and thus I don't even know whether I'd like cow-based Mozzarella. And L. isn't here tonight, so I couldn't pop a slice in his mouth to see how it compares to the real thing. I can say that it was a bit rubbery in texture (but I think that all cheeses in sliced form are rubbery looking anyway) and it was kind of bland in flavor. Definitely not an exciting specimen for my tastebuds. I'll have to get L. to try it out this weekend and see what his thoughts are.
Second, the Lisanatti Almond cheese in Jalapeno Jack flavor. I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It had a nice kick to it, and the texture was close to the hard goat cheeses that I've been eating. I doled out an ounce of it onto my plate with my chicken and munched it right down. Next time I hit Whole Foods, I'll have to pick up another flavor and see what it's like.
Now for the goat cheeses. Whole Foods really opened up a new world for me as far as goat cheese goes. They carry far more than the regular goat cheese that bears a resemblance to cream cheese or the crumbles (both of which I also love, and stocked up on). I picked up a block of hard goat cheese in Monterray Jack flavor, and one with various herbs. The Monterray Jack one is made by Greenbank Farms in nearby Preston, Washington. Again, I have no clue whether this is close to cow-based Monterray Jack cheese, but I couldn't care less. It's got such an amazing flavor and it's such a treat. They have a goat cheddar, so I plan on getting that next time and giving it a try. The other cheese is called Purple Haze, and it is made by Cypress Grove Chevre in California. Purple Haze has lavender and fennel added to it, and it's delicious. It's a little slice of heaven in the evenings.
Tonight, I finally decided to give the non-dairy cheeses a try. First, the rice cheese: Galaxy Nutritional Food Rice Slices in Mozzarella Flavor. I can say that I'm definitely not a fan of this one, although I'm not sure whether it's because I don't like the cheese or because I don't like Mozzarella. Because I haven't had any kind of cow-cheese in so long, I have no idea whether this tastes like actual Mozzarella or not, and thus I don't even know whether I'd like cow-based Mozzarella. And L. isn't here tonight, so I couldn't pop a slice in his mouth to see how it compares to the real thing. I can say that it was a bit rubbery in texture (but I think that all cheeses in sliced form are rubbery looking anyway) and it was kind of bland in flavor. Definitely not an exciting specimen for my tastebuds. I'll have to get L. to try it out this weekend and see what his thoughts are.
Second, the Lisanatti Almond cheese in Jalapeno Jack flavor. I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It had a nice kick to it, and the texture was close to the hard goat cheeses that I've been eating. I doled out an ounce of it onto my plate with my chicken and munched it right down. Next time I hit Whole Foods, I'll have to pick up another flavor and see what it's like.
Now for the goat cheeses. Whole Foods really opened up a new world for me as far as goat cheese goes. They carry far more than the regular goat cheese that bears a resemblance to cream cheese or the crumbles (both of which I also love, and stocked up on). I picked up a block of hard goat cheese in Monterray Jack flavor, and one with various herbs. The Monterray Jack one is made by Greenbank Farms in nearby Preston, Washington. Again, I have no clue whether this is close to cow-based Monterray Jack cheese, but I couldn't care less. It's got such an amazing flavor and it's such a treat. They have a goat cheddar, so I plan on getting that next time and giving it a try. The other cheese is called Purple Haze, and it is made by Cypress Grove Chevre in California. Purple Haze has lavender and fennel added to it, and it's delicious. It's a little slice of heaven in the evenings.
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