New Thoughts On Coffee

On second thought, I have decided that quitting coffee was a stupid idea. I am reading a book written by my future co-worker at Fancy University, Walter Willett. The book is called Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy, and has these things to say about coffee:

Con:
-"drinking too much coffee can give you the shakes, make you irritable, and keep you from sleeping." (duh. actually, this whole time I've tried to quit drinking coffee, I haven't gotten more than 5 hours of sleep a night. is insomia a symptom of caffeine withdrawal too?)
-"people who drink a lot of coffee may be at risk of osteoporosis or breaking a bone....increased risks with four or more cups per day have been seen in several studies, but the final answer is not in." (I have never really broken a bone, for the record, although I've sprained my ankles approx 11 times. honestly i've forgotten how many times. i own my own set of crutches.)
-"drinking espresso, French press, ot other coffee that doesn't drip through a paper filter can increase your cholesterol a few points." (he goes on to say later that cholesterol is not as important a health problem as previously thought.)

Pro:
-"coffee is a remarkably safe beverage. it's dubious health reputation, which stretches back hundreds of years, is more image than substance."
-people who drink coffee have a "lower chance of developing kidney stones", "lower chance of developing gallstones" and "fewer suicides." fewer suicides is kind of weird, but according to the Nurses' Health Study, "suicide rates are as much as 50% lower among coffee drinkers than non-coffee drinkers." coffee may be a mild anti-depressant.
-"given the body of research on coffee, it's safe to say that there aren't any major health hazards lurking in the murky depths of your cup. in short, when drunk in moderation, coffee is no threat to your health."

Welcome back, coffee!

Yesterday Morning:
-coffee
-sweet potato
-apple

Lunch:
-chicken breast with lemon-butter sauce and steamed broccoli. the chicken breast tasted like it had been cooked in a microwave, and was like eating a chicken-flavored rubber sole. otherwise, a pretty good meal. vinny t's. i had a $5 off coupon, so this was pretty cheap. not a place i would probably eat if i didn't have a $5 off lunch and $10 off dinner coupon. the place wasn't as obnoxious as i expected it would be, however. it's more trying to be a homey corporate family-style italian restaurant rather than a goofy corporate "pieces of flair" type gimmick-fest. my waiter sounded like he was from a foreign country i couldn't quite identify.

Dinner:
-3-bean chili with soy protein granules
-salmon fillet with olive oil and soy sauce
-spinach salad with delicious goddess dressing. is goddess dressing the actual name, like ranch or bleu cheese, of the dressing i love? it's like a canola oil and sesame tahini-based dressing. it's really good, but do they have to call it goddess dressing? why do salad dressings need to be gendered?
-oh, it was a little while ago (monday), but i had a chicken massaman curry (chicken, carrots, potato, broccoli, baby corn, onion, all floating in a soup of curry sauce) at the new place in inman called spice and rice, which despite its silly name and bizarre interior design, is a great restaurant. the girlfriend had sushi which was very good as well. i've had a lot of bad sushi in my life, and this was not it. reasonable prices, as well. the whole time we were there, family who i presume owned the place were taking pictures of each other in their halloween costumes. when i went to the bathroom, the guy who was dressed as batman had to take his entire costume off in order to use the urinal, and was standing there half-naked when i walked in.

hey. hi. it's been a little while. so the new job starts soon and i've been eating pretty badly for some reason and i'm tired and i think coming down with something. yesterday every thought i had was slowed down like my brain was bouncing the signal off a satellite high in the stratosphere before allowing me access to it, and today clearly that satellite has been hit by a small meteor. headaches, irritability, spaced-outedness, feeling generally like a slimy discharge. let's see if we can figure out what went wrong.

Morning:
-oatmeal w/ blueberries. nothing too shocking here. i've just run out of oatmeal, so let's see if the world ends if i eat something else for breakfast.
-decaf coffee. ok. this is the first sign that something is seriously awry. in a questionable plan to live a less useful and interesting life, i am trying to cut out caffeine and alcohol from my diet. on the former fronts i am succeeding beyond my wildest dreams, but the alcohol consumption is holding steady. i'm holding caffeine (or lack thereof) mostly to blame here, but let's continue this exercise, shall we?
-protein bar. nothing new here either.

Lunch:
-buffalo chicken salad with iceberg lettuce. what a depressing salad this was. just looking at it made me sad, and i'm sad again thinking about it. comprised of deep fried chicken fingers submerged in a spicy buffalo sauce dropped on half a head of shredded iceberg, looking at this salad was like looking at a guy who has just been served his divorce papers after 8 years of marriage because he cheated or maybe he killed someone in a car accident or did something stupid that was his fault and you could tell he knew this was coming but he wasn't prepared for the incredible sinking feeling and he's sort of looking at his hands and feet like they aren't even attached to him and he's wondering what the force is exactly that is holding him together. sometimes he's not sure he really loved her and maybe he hadn't ever loved anything and maybe no one had ever really loved him. not the real him, the person who did those terrible things. he's feeling the depths of this, connecting his sadness with all sadness everywhere, the hopelessness of it, and he hasn't shaved or taken care of himself very well and maybe he puts on whatever clothes are nearby and writes a check for milk and eggs at the store and people look at him and it's true, it doesn't look like there's anything holding him together other than tendons and skin. that guy is like the salad. no dressing or bleu cheese. served cold (the chicken). just because something has the word 'salad' in it does not mean that it has to be in any way good for you. in the back of my mind i knew this, but decided to go with the buffalo chicken anyway because, well because i didn't think it would be like this. sidebar.
-green tea. in the coffee-free world that i envision, green tea is king. i would love it just as much as coffee, if not more. maybe i just need to drink a lot more of it to make this work. thing is, i really like coffee. the desire to be healthy and drink green tea is at war with the coffee-loving part of me, and it's tearing me apart.

Dinner:
-huevos rancheros. 3 omega-3 eggs w/ tortilla, salsa, and sour cream. eaten cold because i totally forgot about picking up the farm share yet again and rushed out to meet my wonderful girlfriend at the co-op. (good stuff at the farm share. 7.5 lbs of sweet potatos! i don't really like sweet potatos, but i am going to try to eat all of them. also a big stalk of brussel sprouts. i don't really like those either, but i will also give them a try.

possible themes of the week:
"force it down week"
"just a few more bites week"
"here comes the locomotive, choo choo! chuggachugga-chuggachugga mmmmmmmm! week"
"why do i do this to myself? why?! week"
"that wasn't so bad week")

-big bowl of spinach w/ newman's italian dressing. good. i would like to see more of this sort of thing in the future. hardly any vegetables these days, though. not good.
-bourbon and water (maker's mark). this is my new drink because i really feel every sip of this drink. it is not easy to knock back a lot of this, at least for me.
-schaeffer lager. one 12 oz can. cheap. bukowski tavern.
-one boneless buffalo wing. i don't know why i ate this. i was still hungry. i didn't really eat a lot of food yesterday. nutritionally this was just me throwing up my hands. bukowski's.

a brief analysis
-strong symptoms of caffeine withdrawal
-malnourishment from lack of vegetables
-not enough healthy fats
-probably not enough total calories when taking into account 4-5x a week vigorous exercise
-maybe bourbon is not the right unpleasant-tasting liqour for me

Weekend Roundup:
Morning:
-coffee
-oatmeal w/ walnuts and raisins and probably brown sugar even though i specifically asked nicely for no brown sugar or walnuts. watery. probably instant. bad oatmeal. carberry's. good pastries and sandwiches, though. the oatmeal is probably their worst item.
-tomato and feta cheese omelette w/ brocolli, carrots, peppers, onions. pretty awesome. the feta was just sitting in a block on top of the eggs rather than in them, which is more traditional for an omelette, but that was cool. brookline cafe.

Lunch:
-almonds
-orange juice
-salmon burger w/ soy sauce
Not a lot of lunch. Morning stuff was pretty filling.

Dinner:
-roast chicken with pan sauce, japanese eggplant, broccolini, and garlic mashed potatos. really good.
-green soy pasta w/ marinara sauce and grated romano
-chicken sandwich w/ pesto and mayo

Yesterday Morning:
-oatmeal w/ blueberries
-green tea
-protein bar
-pear

Lunch:
-that awesome falafel king salad with the chicken kabobs, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, green pepper, hummus, tahini, and falafel. i am going to seriously miss both that salad and the falafel king himself. i told him i was leaving the area for a new job in a different part of the city and i probably wouldn't be seeing him for a while (i see him at least once a week for the past three years) and he suddenly stopped and looked up quickly - but just as quickly his face relaxed and he smiled and said, "you come back and visit, ok buddy? i give you falafel. ok? you come back and visit." i just might come back and visit, falafel king. i just might.
-fish oil
-almonds
-like half a pound of carrots. i ate a lot of carrots yesterday.

Dinner:
-2 seared ahi tuna steaks, (count 'em, 2 steaks. they were kind of small. ) rare, with lemon, fresh garlic, soy sauce, and extra virgin olive oil. they were seriously delicious.
-stir fried cabbage with a winey, soy saucey sauce.
i was really hankering for a beer or glass of wine last night, but all i have is sake and aftershock. sake at least can be useful in cooking (see stir fry above), but aftershock to my knowledge has no known uses. it is like the liqour equivalent of say, fruitcake. i imagine if you gave someone aftershock as a gift you would probably receive the same confused, hurt, angry look from the person that you would receive if you gave them a fruitcake. wait, i think i have met at least one person in my life who likes fruitcake. i cannot say the same about aftershock.

Well, it's been a little while, but I have excuses:
-no internet at home
-work was closed for a little while renovations to the building
-malaise
-red sox lost in the playoffs
-pants uncomfortable
-sore left shoulder
-angry stomach
-insanely loud jackhammering outside my window
-floods

So that's why. Also, I have a new job, working in, of all things, the Department of Nutrition at a Fancy University. Perhaps at some point I will have thoughts about food that are actually backed up by some kind of research and have valuable scientific information. Perhaps they may one day be interesting or have some kind of consistent capitalization scheme. You never know. Stay tuned!

I would do like a two week roundup here, but honestly I don't feel like getting into it. I haven't been eating a lot of vegatables recently. Oh! there was a wedding in there somewhere.

Wedding:
-chicken cacciatore
-root vegatables
-swiss, cheddar, and some other kind of cheese. havarti?
-pumpkin soup? i don't exactly remember. it has been a while. soup was good though. it was nice to have a warm soup on a cold, rainy wedding day. it was the coldest, rainiest wedding i've yet been to. the girlfriend and i were forced to dance much of the time in order to stay warm. for some reason i cannot dance in a circle not touching anybody like everyone else - i have to dance and like spin my partner and do all kinds of elaborate dance things. one day i will dance at a wedding like a regular person again and not be the obnoxious overdancer. i promise.

Yesterday Morning:
-pear
-coffee
-protein bar
-apple

Yesterday Lunch:
-spinach salad w/ onion, cherry tomato, egg, bacon, and honey dijon dressing.
-green tea
-fish oil

Yesterday Dinner:
-yogurt w/ oat bran
-2 fried scallops in a sweetened smooth butternut squash sauce
-1 piece rare steak, 1 piece rare venison wrapped in bacon
-morbier cheese w/ walnuts
-4 different kinds of wine (1 voignier, 2 malbec, 1 cabernet)
went to a wine tasting "flight" to argentina, with wonderful wines and tasting foods. unfortunately, i hadn't read the description of this event properly and had assumed that i would be eating dinner there. i went there starving (having just returned from completely exhausting myself at the gym), and when the sommelier started talking about the wines for an hour, my heart was basically dying and i began hungrily eyeing the paper tablecloth as well as any stray hand that came too close. the worst part was this would-be wonderful evening was a very kind gift celebrating my new job and i was perhaps the worst company imaginable. just yawning and dying inside and feeling like a turd and acting like one too. who sucks? me. i do. les zygomates.
-3 egg omelette w/ pesto, broccoli, and parmesean. had this when i got home.
-bowl of broccoli soup. also ate this at home.
-fish oil

Monday Dinner:
-eggs and extra egg whites from a carton w/ salsa, broccoli, curry sauce. i don't know what moved me to put the curry sauce in there. i pulled out some ranch dressing and considered adding that to the mix, but i suddenly i realized what i was doing and slowly screwed the cap back on the bottle, put the bottle back in the fridge, sat down and reflected quietly for a few minutes about what i had nearly done.
-steamed kale
-glass of wine (red). this wine has been on sale at the store recently. it is much better than charles shaw, which is the acidic, tooth-staining crap i usually buy.

Yesterday Morning:
-apple
-coffee
-protein bar

Lunch:
-delicious delicious chacarero sandwich. chicken. ordered a large for the first time and ate the whole thing happily. i don't know if i'll make a habit of ordering the large, but i was really hankering for chacarero. i have problems with the american habit of ordering huge servings of food all the time and i don't want to be like that. however, i don't eat a lot of crappy food and i run so my calories have to come from somewhere. if that means that when i eat healthy-ish foods that i have to order large sizes of them then ok. there's a concept wherein eating healthy, nutrient-dense foods makes you less hungry later, so you get the first benefit of eating the nutrient-dense food over the junky food in the first place, and the second benefit is you are less hungry later than if you ate the junky food so you don't look for some other quick, likely empty, food again. (was that a comprehensible sentence?) i think this concept is called dietary displacement, but i could have just made that up.
-vitamin water

Dinner:
-yogurt w/ oat bran
-broccoli w/ curry sauce
-chicken breast w/ pesto
small portions. i should have eaten more last night but i got distracted.

Today Morning:
-oatmeal w/ blueberries. back to the steel cut oatmeal. i'm realizing that the steel cut is a better deal. the rolled oats are fine and they cook faster, but the steel cut oats last seemingly forever (about a month, i think) whereas the rolled oats barely last me a week. the steel cut oats are way more dense and of course take way longer to cook. i have figured out how to cook them without boiling them over, though, which saves me from spilling boiling hot water on my weak, fumbling, uncaffeinated hands first thing in the morning.
-apple
-coffee

Weekend Roundup!

Morning:
-coffee
-omelette w/ peppers, onion, tomato, mozzarella
-omelette w/ spinach, broccoli, peppers, onion and a tremendous amount of cheese. brookline cafe. a nice little find, the brookline cafe place. kind of like a diner but not a diner atmosphere, really. it was a good place to read the sunday ny times (which was surprisingly slender this week).

Lunch:
-6 apples. went apple-picking this weekend in bolton and got macintosh, mcauon(?), and i think cortlands. oh my god i was so full of apple. the trees went up a hill and we climbed up picking apples along the way and at the top had a gorgeous view of the area and the beautiful beautiful day. the farm place also had fresh made donuts and i had a few bites of jess' caramel apple. it was my first caramel/candy apple! as we were leaving we were strafed by several of what looked to be WWII aircraft. they were enormous.

Dinner:
-3 slices buffalo chicken pizza consumed after another win for my softball team. finally my power came back and i had some home runs after a long stretch of doing little but grounding weakly to second.
-2 glasses of wine
-salmon burger w/ soy sauce
-steamed kale w/ curry sauce
-cheese dip with chips. pretty good. homemade tortilla chips. eaten with chip at bukowski's.
-3 beers, 1 Amstel Light, 1 Schlitz, 1 strange beer with a long German name that was "smoked." it was like drinking liquid smoke, this beer. if you could liquify mesquite and turn it into a beer, it would be this. kind of overwhelming but a memorable way to celebrate the red sox' playoff win.

Today Morning:
-oatmeal w/ blueberries
-coffee

Lunch:
-extra lean ground beef w/ broccoli
-green tea
-fish oil