Food Log | Jan 3, 2007

note to anyone who is checking my blog expecting an update on my trip to Vancouver (I know who you are) - hold yer horses. Ima gettin' to it.



We came back from our trip to the west coast yesterday morning. What also came back with us were enlarged tummies from eating so. much. good. food. And drinking beer. Lots of beer. Too much beer. That Granville Island stuff is quite good.

As with so many people in the world, January will be my start of a more healthful diet. For me, this means an increase in raw vegetables and a slight decrease in my portion size of grains. I do have a bit of a dilemma in that Canada does not produce many fresh vegetables during the winter months, which conflicts with my desire to eat as much locally produced food as possible.

The other dilemma is the lack of indication of where in Canada and the US food is produced - a sign can say "product of Canada", but that could mean BC, in which case something grown in the US could potentially be closer and transported from only a few hours away instead of days.

In order to increase my raw vegetable intake but reduce my consumption of vegetables carted in from all over the damn universe (peppers from New Zealand?? wtf?), I will try to focus my leafy purchases on items that are cold-weather hardy, like kale and cabbage, which may be grown closer than other vegetables. Though I have to confess my purchase of 2 avocados last night. Perhaps I will make exceptions for organics. Yipes. Has anyone priced organic peppers lately? Cha-ching!

I also plan to take vitamins regularly. The ideal would be to get all I need from food - but who are we kidding? In 2007, it is a pretty tall task to eat all that food to get all your nutrients, and maintain the right amount of physical activity to use up the calories you would intake. I'm a graphic designer. Not a very physically demanding job. And running a few times a week ain't gonna cut it for burning off all those calories. The only way I can do it is to eat as much nutrient dense food as possible, do some exercise, and take a few pills. Easy peasy.

Now, on with the log...

breakfast:

• a bowl consisting of about 1 cup of mixed rolled oats and maple granola
• 2 tbsp ground flax
• 1/2 cup vanilla almond milk
  

lunch:

• large salad (say, 3 or 4 cups) of mixed greens* and 3 leaves of black kale*
• a reasonable drizzle of homemade sundried tomato dressing
• 2 carrots*
  

snack:

• 1 ambrosia apple*
• 1 container of chocolate soy pudding

snack #2 at 4:25 when I could stand the hunger no longer:

• about 1.25 cups of bulger cooked with a small bottle of 10 vegetable juice, garlic powder and black pepper
  
• 1.5 tbsp raw sunflower seeds*
  

dinner:

• medium, thin crust, cheeseless pizza with mushrooms, olives and sundried tomatoes
• diet pepsi
• 3 vegan cookies
  

Vitamins:

• taken: B6, folic acid, iron
  

*organic