Weigh in - Dr Mom

I forgot to mention that I weighed in on Thursday at 152.2 lbs, which is some regain from the dehydrated state of the previous week, but still a loss on the week before.

The Impossibility of Restraint

I forgot to weigh myself this morning, so that'll have to be tomorrow. I didn't have any morning snackerel, but that resulted in a state of ravenous hunger by lunchtime. I was compelled to have french fries with my turkey and avocado panini sandwich at Epi (lunch out on a Wednesday being compulsory by virtue of my house cleaning team taking over every room in the house simultaneously).

Rainy, gloomy day today. I am so looking forward to watching Deep Thought play a soccer match in the rain this afternoon.

Putting the Water Pounds back on

I think I've regained a couple of pounds over the past week. I must have been spectacularly dehydrated after my food poisoning. The week started well with small meals and a general reluctance to eat too much. That seems to have gone now, though!

Yesterday, ate eggs benedict at the diner for breakfast, but then didn't eat lunch till 3pm, which was a cheese quesadilla (surprisingly calorific for something so small, but it is comfortingly cheesy and tasty). Dinner was rice with The Dish Formerly Known as Chilli. Evening snack = nuts and dried fruit.

The one difference I am finding is that I currently can't drink coffee. I've been to the coffee shop a few times in the week, but I've been drinking chamomile tea instead (yes, $3 for a cup of hot water and a tea bag). The coffee just doesn't taste good to me. On Monday I actually threw away most of a latte from Peet's. It was undrinkable, even with sugar. I wonder if this means that Deep Thought is right - and she claims to be right always - and that it was the coffee at Disneyland that gave me food poisoning rather than the clam chowder.

Food Poisoning: An Effective Weight Loss Strategy

On Wednesday, the family and I headed off to Disneyland in Anaheim, California, for a few days during Spring Break. We flew down to LA without incident - ate a rather nice bangers and mash lunch at the fake British pub in the airport - and booked into the Disneyland Grand Californian Hotel. Wow. What a place. Not too many mouse ears, but the whole Californian Arts and Crafts look gone into overdrive. Actually pretty impressive with an enormous lobby/seating area next to the check in desks.

We spent Wednesday afternoon/evening in the Disneyland Park (following Day 2 of the two day touring plan taken from The Unauthorized Guide to Disneyland). I particularly like "It's a Small World", a gentle ride designed to bust blood vessels in the head with sensory overload. We went back to the hotel, watched the fireworks from the balcony, and went to bed (all four of us in one room, which was the only downside).

Thursday we went back into Disneyland at 8:30am (Magic Morning for multi-day pass holders) and were able to get round most of the headliner rides before 10am. The Haunted Mansion has very good effects, and The Pirates of the Caribbean ride seemed longer than at Disneyworld. Just after noon, we headed out into Downtown Disney for pizza, then back to the hotel for a few hours by the pool. About 4pm we went back into the park for round three of rides...and the big mistake.

We ate dinner at The French Market in New Orleans Land. Deep Thought and I both had clam chowder in a sour dough roll and grapes. Little Starlet and Hubby had roast beef and veggies.

All seemed well until 1:00am, when I woke up with the most appalling food poisoning. I won't go into the gory details, but suffice it to say that by 5:00am I was as empty has a person could be, had taken two showers and was in a pretty feeble condition.

On Friday, Hubby took the kids out to Disneyland's Californian Adventure - which you can enter through the hotel to avoid the gate queues - while I lay limply in bed. He provided me with a couple of bottle of Coca Cola, some ice, and some Imodium and left me to it. I pretty much didn't get out of bed all day. The vomiting had more or less stopped by Friday evening, and I managed to sleep okay on Friday night.

The journey home on Saturday was uneventful, except for the plane being faulty at LAX so that we were delayed an hour. A lot of deep breathing and additional doses of Imodium got me through it. I was a bit concerned that the bus - plane - bus - car experience might be too much, but I survived. (I did fall rather pathetically onto the sofa when we got home and had to be revived by multiple cups of tea.)

This morning I am feeling fine and may be willing to tackle some soup or something. I must be very dehydrated still. My current weight is 149.6 lbs.

Snacking: The Final Frontier

The internet connection at home is pretty funky at the moment, which is one reason why the blog posting has been somewhat limited. Anyway.

Wednesday weigh in for Dr Mom was 153.8 lbs, which was the same as the week before. Given how much I'd eaten at Hidden Villa, that was amazing.

Participated in dance class as usual on Wednesday and ended up with a sore toe again. Too much pas de basque, I fear. But I went for a walk this morning at Rancho San Antonio with chums, and it isn't too sore. That was the first walk I've had time to do for ages. I'm doing so much volunteering for different nonprofits, I can hardly fit my own activities in. It's good for the soul to be useful and contributing to the community, but I shall be glad when the summer comes and I can give up everything for a while (except for my work with Breakthrough Silicon Valley - I'm helping to organize a summer program on girls in science). Hopefully I shall be fighting fit for next week's Disneyland adventure!

I'm having great difficulty not snacking all the time at the moment. One of the problems is that there is a great deal of yummy food in the cupboard, including far too much sweet stuff. Deep Thought is also having trouble resisting, which is bad given that she is diabetic. I'm starting to think about having a month when we don't have any sweet food in the house except for fruit. I keep threatening to make us all vegetarian for a month, but I think there might be a riot from Little Starlet if she is deprived of her meat.

Food Review: Sea's Gift (Korean Nori)

I picked up a 20g pack of "Sea's Gift: Sweet Seaweed Snack" from Whole Foods. This is, in fact, Korean Kim or Nori, and unlike the seaweed that is served in British Chinese restaurants it is truly seaweed. (The Chinese restaurant stuff is generally cabbage that has been chopped finely, dried out, and sweetened.) One 20g pack equals three servings of 25 calories each. I also got it to try because it contains no carbohydrates, so I wondered if it might be a suitable snack for Deep Thought, who has diabetes.

Well, the taste test results are:
- crunchy, yes
- sweet, yes
- fishy taste, extremely
- fishy smell, yes
- fishy aftertaste, you got it
- attractiveness to the under 12s, total failure
- likelihood of buying again, not very.

Death By Eating Redux

We spent the weekend at Hidden Villa, a youth hostel about half an hour away from us. It's the oldest youth hostel in the USA, and easily contains the 21 of us in our party (10 adults, 11 kids). It rained on Friday, was dry and windy on Saturday, and has absolutely bucketed down today. On Saturday we managed to do a walk over the hill, then toured the farmyard to look at the chickens and pigs. Friday was board games; Sunday was Easter activities for the kids. ("Why do we have to do so many stupid craft projects?" asks my grateful younger daughter.)

That gives you the basic shape of the weekend.

The main story of the weekend is the amount of food we brought and ate (and, to some extent, brought home again). Friday was baked potatoes with chilli and cheese, followed by fruit; then evening crisps and Roses. Saturday was cereal breakfast followed by bagel lunch - so far so good - but then we had roast chicken, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots, brussel sprouts, peas and gravy for dinner (with seconds), followed after the kids were abed by mango upside-down cake and ice cream, with a chaser of cheese and biscuits. I may have managed to eat some chocolate and rich tea biscuits in among that too. We collectively waddled to bed at midnight. This morning began with everything bagel and cream cheese; then lunch was bacon, sausage, fried egg, mushrooms, and half a hot cross bun with butter.

We haven't had a great couple of nights sleep - the beds at Hidden Villa are really titchy and, of course, sharing with the kids feels strange. So we're all rather tired. I had a bit of a nap on the sofa this afternoon... We attempted to go out for a pizza for dinner, but everywhere was shut. We ended up at Il Fornaio, which is a fancier Italian restaurant. In a moment of restraint I had cannelloni con pollo, resisting all the heavier pizza type foods, though the fact it came in cream sauce probably negates all the good intentions.