Monday, January 31, 2011

Day 11 Ate some more cheese-less food

Yesterday wasn't too bad overall. For breakfast, which was fairly late at 11:30 or so, I had yet another BLACT. I think they're starting to irritate my palate now, so I'll have to give them a break for a bit. It was of course delicious, and certainly tied me off until dinner.

I did however have a snack when I was at the movie theatres with my mom in the late afternoon. I got myself a box of Nestle Raisonets(they didn't have Glossets which I thought was odd). What a ripoff though. You pay over $5 for this box, and it's less than half full. Lame. We saw Blue Valentine with Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. I'll let you know my take on it over at Stuffed Ashes later this evening.

After the movie, I returned home for a quiet evening with my husband. We'd planned on continuing our organization work from earlier that day, but, he instead showed me a new PC game, League of Legends. Big mistake! Now that's all I'll want to do again this evening. It's a lot of fun and I'll tell you all about it some time soon.

For dinner, I whipped myself up a brown rice pasta dish. In it, I put some sun-dried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, onions, broccoli, peppers, small bits of carrots, and a few other veggies from a frozen mix. I also added some chicken and fresh basil. Once all mixed together, I added some sun-dried tomato pesto, and to my individual serving, some sour cream to cream it up.

A very delicious supper. These past few days, I really haven't noticed my lack of cheese, which is both surprising, and very good. There must really be some actual addictive qualities in cheese, because the longer it's been, the less I long for it.

Later at night my husband made us a really healthy fruit smoothie. Frozen fruit included cranberries, peaches, and mangoes, to which he added fresh honeydew melon and watermelon. It was very delicious, and not too heavy for the late evening.

I managed to sleep okay last night, but went to bed far too late. This is typical for Sundays as we just don't want the weekend to end!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Day 10

I almost forgot! Today was a busy day.

Yesterday was Saturday, so a good day overall. Now to try and remember what I ate, lol. I'm pretty sure I didn't end up eating breakfast food, and instead waited around until 11:30 or so to have yet another BLACT. Or was that today? Geez. Oh no, now I remember!

Yesterday morning I had two pumpernickel toasts with butter and Nutella for breakfast. Very tasty.

I'd not slept well again the night before, so I took 2 naps later that day. The first was unsuccessful, but the second one worked out, thankfully. I napped from 1:00 to 3:30PM, and woke up feeling much better. I THEN made myself another BLACT(Bacon Lettuce Avocado Chicken Tomato sandwich on pumpernickel). I'm pretty obsessed, no? They are so freaking good, especially with bok choy as lettuce, and PC chipotle sauce with mayo. I can't get over them.

The rest of the afternoon and early evening were very productive with a full house clean. We had friends over at night, so that's pretty much where our motivation came from. Our suppers were had quite early, so we snacked quite a bit with our friends during our board game and wine session.

I snacked on roasted red pepper hummus with pita bread and pumpernickel bread. I also had some salsa flavored sun chips, which I used to claim I did not like. I like them now that my options for snacks have significantly diminished.

Even later that night, we splurged on some chocolate cream pie by McCain. Just a light sweet little dessert that hit the spot.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Day 9 TGIF

Yesterday was not the greatest day, mainly because I'd barely slept the night before due to insomnia.
I still went to work all day nonetheless. I've been really busy at work, so I never really got around to eating any breakfast. I did however have a morning coffee to wake me up. With 1 sugar.

My coworker and I went out for lunch as we typically do on Fridays. We decided to go to our local Vietnamese place, and have Pho. Well she had Pho soup, and I had a chicken vermicelli bowl, which is delicious.  Vermicelli is a long thin rice noodle, as it relates to Vietnamese cuisine. The vermicelli bowl is served with marinated chicken, cucumbers, carrots, Thai basil, other greens, and mini delicious spring rolls. All mixed together. Once it's served, you pour over some sweet fish sauce, and I also like to add lots of Hoisin sauce, and some hot sauce. Delicious.

In the afternoon, since it was Friday, I allowed myself to partake in the PM Starbucks run. I got a grande non-fat White chocolate mocha with whipped cream. Yes, I get non-fat JUST so that I can add copious amounts of whipped cream on top. A coworker, being a fun smart-aleck goes: "so, you're replacing 2% milk with 0% milk, so that your total milk fat goes from 37% to 35%?"

Um...Yes! Perfect logic, no?

For dinner, I was eating alone, so I had yet another BLAT. But THIS time, I added something else, I'll call it a BCLAT. What is this C you see? No, not the forbidden C, it was chicken! Leftovers from the store-bought pre-cooked full bird. The chicken added some protein, and really made the sandwich even more delicious.

I was alone pretty much the whole evening since my husband had gone out with work friends. So, I decided it was time for a trip to the LCBO to have some well deserved wine after a long week of work. I got myself some California Ravenswood red Zinfandel. It's superb.

Later that evening I made myself a snack. This time I took a banana and sliced in in half. I then generously spread some Nutella all over it. Soooo divine. You have to try banana with Nutella.

Hey! It's healthy because it contains some fiber.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Day 8 lots of pouting

I hate when I don't have enough time during the day to post... Such as today. By now, I've totally forgotten my hardships of yesterday. I'll think hard.

Breakfast. Coffee and yet again some more bird food. Are you surprised?

Well you shouldn't be. I haven't been to any stores since Day 6!

I also had a coffee. I tried to only have 1 spoonful of sugar. Heaping, that is. I cheat. But no cheese!!

Sugar is apparently horrible for IBS as well. Life really isn't fair, is it? I'm still eating sugar, the hell with it. I say 1 spoon less per week day is good.

Lunch time. Oh yes, I once again had leftovers from that great Asian stir fry I cooked up. It's all gone now. There was a bit left, but it became cut off as of yesterday. I don't like leftovers for more than 2 days. It was only a bit of waste, I think I'm still reasonable.

I went to the gym after work, finally. It had been a long while. Don't get me wrong, I'd still do the odd weights session in my basement, but my gym buddy was on vacation, so no cardio was had. I'm not one for gym-ming it up alone. Except of course in my underwear in my basement. My point about the gym? Well, I nearly passed out! I don't think I had enough protein or energy in me. I blame the lack of cheese.

Come dinner time, my husband brought home a cooked chicken from the grocery store so that we could have wraps. What was he thinking? I can't have a wrap without cheddar!? Just as I was unfriendly on the phone with him, said gym buddy offered the idea of tzatzicki. Hey! You know what? Tzatzicki sounded just about right. Plenty of flavour there. So I told him to get us some, but he's BETTER NOT get the kind that's made with sour cream. Eew. It has to be made with yogurt. Well. He couldn't find the right kind. So, after the gym, I made it home quickly enough to go right to the grocery store where I was sure he still was. Sure enough he just finished at the cash. I walked right to where I knew they had the yogurt kind, and picked it up.

I win!

So I had a whole wheat chicken wrap with tzatzicki, bok choy, avocado, tomatoes, BBQ sauce, and some grilled asparagus. It was very good I must admit.

I didn't have any snacks later that night. I was pretty grumpy over all yesterday evening. Not fun to be around I'm sure. I moped on how life sucks without cheese. I was more-so concerned with the fact that I'd never be able to convince my husband that I was allowed to have cheese again. He managed to reassure me otherwise. Somewhat.

I went to bed early, then had insomnia until 3:45AM. Note the late night post. It really wasn't pleasant, I totally jinxed myself with my "good sleep" comments the day before. I managed to put in a full work day today, and didn't stop, either. Let's hope red wine will do the trick for tonight.

Cheers

Jinxed

Well, I have jinxed myself with the sleep comments. Insomnia has attacked me again tonight. FML. It is 3:16AM and I'm been trying to sleep since 10:30.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Day 7 Already 1 week of suffering

Wow, I can't believe I've made it a week already. That being said, I still have not felt any better. I've been constantly bloated. Not fun at all. I wonder if something in my bird seed mix causes bloating, because I've been eating a lot of that. It's quite tasty, actually.

Yesterday morning, was another too busy for anything but coffee and bird seeds once again.  I was pretty much munching on my bird food throughout the entire day, actually. No one seemed to mind while in our 3 1/2 hour meeting yesterday. Ugh.

Yesterday's lunch consisted of leftovers from my stir fry supper on Day 6. It's a great lunch, and I was happy to not have to leave the office to go and buy food again. I received a 'smells good!' comment too.

When I got home, I really didn't have a clue what to eat. Hadn't I planned anything? Oh right, I'd wanted to prepare Thai Chicken burgers, but the store didn't have any ground chicken available.

When in doubt? BACON.

I had a delicious pumpernickel BLAT again. BLAT = Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, and Tomatoes. The lettuce is actually bok choy and spinach, though. I really like bok choy. I also added S&P, PC's Chipotle dressing, and some Helman's Mayonaise.

The pumpernickel bread is quite thin, and not as large as your typical bread slice. At least this is the logic I used when convincing myself that at 9:30 PM I needed yet another BLAT.

SOOOO tasty!

The problem has been that every night when I try to sleep, I am super bloated. It has not been fun at all, and even with my typical IBS-C bloating bouts, this is unusual. The good thing out of this? I've been trying some deep breathing exercises to try and combat said bloating, which has actually been helping me fall asleep! I've had a full night's sleep every night so far since quitting cheese.

There better not be a correlation there people, or I'll be pissed.

I'm associating this more towards the fact that I've been breathing through my stomach. I haven't mentioned this here yet, but usually I'll get severe occurrences of insomnia every few weeks for a few nights straight. It's horrible, so I'm thankful for not having had to deal with that recently.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Day 6

Wow, I cannot believe that I've nearly made it a week! Technically since today is day 7, I pretty much have.

Back to yesterday. It seems too far away now. For breakfast, I basically only had time for my coffee and a few mouthfuls of bird food. I was really busy at work, so time flew right by. For lunch, I didn't bring anything, and didn't have the time to go too far, so I just went downstairs in our building to the little Chinese "deli", where they have some Chinese cuisine, and odd sandwiches. None of their food I'd consider to be good, but, when you're pressed for time, there are no other options without driving anywhere.

So I got myself a plate of Chinese veggies, chicken fried rice, along with two spring rolls. The only part I enjoyed was the spring rolls. The vegetables were essentially a crapload of strong onions, and the odd broccoli and carrot. Not very good at all. The rice was decent, but only after I added some hot sauce. I definitely didn't eat it all, other than the two spring rolls.

After work, I finally got myself to the grocery store. I bought a whole bunch of healthy items, including vegetables, spices, meat, stir fry sauces, avocados, and bacon; among other things. Those were the most notable.

So for dinner, I made a big stir fry with sugar snap peas, zucchini, sweet onion, bamboo shoots, bok choy, garlic, mushrooms, brown rice, and steak. I added thai peanut sauce, spicy szechuan sauce, and some coconut milk. The coconut milk was on special, but I think I know why...

Is it normal for you to open the can of coconut milk and see a buildup of froth that looks like whipped cream? Then to mix it together and for it to look like curdled real milk? I only added a tiny bit because of that, and didn't save the leftovers. Everything tasted fine, but I've no experience using coconut milk at home. I usually see it in a smooth consistent state(i.e at Mongolian village). Please let me know if you've experienced this with your coconut milk cans. I'd bought two, so hopefully the second one is good.

I can't recall having snacked at all during the evening. It's funny how your short term memory can disappear when you work hard(for once) all day. Oh yes! I'd also purchased some pumpernickel bread, and some roasted red pepper hummus and whole wheat pita bread. I definitely had a pumpernickel toast with real butter last night, AND, some pita and hummus. Actually, we finished the hummus in one sitting, so now I have nothing for the rest of my pita. (Note to self: do not share).

Would you look at that! I didn't even mention cheese. Until now. it helps a lot when you eat Asian which would never incorporate cheese anyway. I definitely still long for it, that's for sure.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Day 5 A daze

It being a Monday yesterday, I was back at the office. This meant, I got to have my morning coffee with 3 milks and 2 sugars. Oh yeah.

That was the start to my day. I was very busy, so I basically munched on my mix of bird food all morning. Come lunch time, having not done groceries the previous night, I went out to order some Subway without cheese for the first time. EVER.

Usually I'd have ordered a 6-inch veggie sub with Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, hot peppers, lots of green olives, pickles, a strip of light mayonaise, a ton of chipotle southwest sauce, and some BBQ sauce.

So yesterday, I got the same thing, but with double bacon. Basically, a BLT. Except the bacon was a pitiful excuse for bacon. I was unimpressed with it, but surprisingly, and maybe because I'd added bacon, I didn't notice the missing cheese! Phew! Thank God, because do you know how often I forget my lunch and opt for Subway? ALL of the time.

On to the evening. Oh yes, the laziness!

We got home after work, and neither of us were in the mood to head back out into the really freezing weather to hit up the grocery store. Once again, my excellent procrastination skills came into play. We didn't go. Due to this, grocery shopping is on the menu for tonight yet again.

What we decided to have, since, as you know, the house is quite void of options for me, was chicken nuggets. With tons of honey, plum sauce, and Frank's Red Wingsauce. Oh, and something funny. I decided to sprinkle on some flax seeds. Why not?

My evening snack consisted of taking my bird food, roasting the seeds and nuts in butter, then adding the dried fruits, and some corn syrup. A makeshift dessert that was quite delicious.

All in all, these past 5 days have pretty much sucked, especially considering the fact that I do not feel any better. My stomach is still incredibly bloated, and constipated. Ugh.

I'd better see some positive results soon!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Day 4 Bird Food

Another day of longing for cheese. I'd woken up fairly optimistic yesterday, because I knew we were going to go buy ingredients, etc to start supplying the home with decent food that I can actually enjoy.

My first meal was around 10:30AM yesterday. Since we still didn't have any options (at least as far as I'm concerned- foods that don't REQUIRE cheese), I decided to have my favourite snack for breakfast.

This favourite snack is a dip for tostitos. Multigrain tostitos. My dip of choice that I eat frequently whilst sitting in front of the tv in the evenings, consists of a whole avocado, mashed and mixed with salsa, light sour cream, and Frank's Red Hot Sauce. I usually also add President's Choice chipotle hot sauce, but we had no more.

So that was my breakfast that was an anti-breakfast. I basically spent the day on the computer waiting for my husband to get home as he had plans that day. It wasn't a complete waste of time, for I managed to find numerous recipes, and wrote myself some detailed grocery lists.

I didn't eat anything else while at home. Once he was home and after a nap, we decided to get out into the frigid cold, and go to both the grocery store, and Bulk Barn. It was around 4:15PM by then, so we were both starving. We first went to Bulk Barn and I got a whole multitude of various bird food. I got myself some sesame seeds, Pepitas(shelled pumpkin seeds), rolled wholegrain oats, barley, sliced almonds, roasted sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, dried cherries, dried apricots, dried currants, flax seeds, and a few other seeds etc that I cannot remember right now.

After our Bulk Barn trip we were both extremely starving. So, we decided we would go to the Mongolian Village for an early dinner. Thank God! I love the food at Mongolian village, and nothing involves cheese, so it was perfect. I got just the boost I needed.

Here's what I had in my stir fry served on sticky rice(from memory): red onions, mushrooms, lots of bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, zucchini, shitake mushrooms, 3 dumplings, Australian lamb, sunflower seeds, soy beans, lots of garlic,Thai Peanut sauce, hot sheshuan sauce, hot black bean sauce, lots of coconut milk, and another sauce which I cannot remember. Mmm. At the table I added some Hoisin sauce and a few sprinkles of hot sauce.

Once we left the restaurant and had to walk around the shopping center in the freezing cold to meet up with our car at the grocery store, we were both too lazy to do said groceries. So, I still don't have the foods I need at home, but I'll be taking care of that this evening.

Last night, I once again required a late night snack, so, I ate a lot of my bird food, which wasn't too bad, AND, I once again prepared my mixed dip above. As you can see, I'm fairly obsessed with avocados too, which is totally fine thankfully.

On to my cheese-free meals today which I'll tell you about tomorrow.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Day 3 of misery

Miserable. I think yesterday was when it started settling in that I was actually giving up cheese.

After having gone to bed at no later than 5:30AM(gotta love parties, lol), and waking up but at 9:50AM, I started off the day on a tired, grumpy note. I was snippy, to say the least. All I could think of was what the heck I was going to eat all day, given that nothing in our home is suited to someone quitting cheese(yet).

I'd come up with an idea for breakfast, fortunately, which was to have a delicious BLT with avocado. So I sent my husband to the store to get breakfast for everyone(brother in law and brother, too), and he kindly did so.

Even with my yummy BLT at hand, I couldn't help but stare at their scrambled eggs with added goat's cheese. My mind kept telling me to reach out with a finger, and steal a dollop of it. This is when my snippy-ness started. Nothing else I would eat from then on, was good enough for me.

After a long nap, it was time to eat once again. I decided I was going to have my asparagus soup. That's usually quite good. I checked out the carton only to see that it now had reduced sodium by 25%. No biggie, I'd just have to add some flavour with pepper, and some Frank's Red hot sauce.  (Normally I'd add goat's cheese or old cheddar).

So I added the Frank's and pepper, only to realize that I'd added far too much. The soup was now too spicy. Now, I enjoy some good spice, but this soup was all spice, and I couldn't even notice the asparagus flavour anymore. So I wasted it. I decided I would have something else instead.

I raided the fridge once again, and found fresh spinach. I decided to make myself a salad with my favourite dressing, Extra Virgin Olive Oil Fig Balsamic by Kraft. You must try it if you haven't, it's very delicious. So to my spinach salad I added dried cranberries, organic sunflower seeds, and avocado. Normally I'd have added goat's cheese too(yes, once again, can you see the obsession?). Did I mention that while I was eating my soup then salad, I got to watch the guys indulge in a frozen pizza with added cheddar. Really not fair.

The salad was really good, and a flavour that I recognized well, at least. I'm thinking that it's a good thing to try to eat things that I used to, but without cheese. Only the really flavourful things will work out for now though.

Later that evening, a salad not tying me over much at all, it was time for a snack. I decided on sharing a multi-grain Dempster's overfresh baguette, with my friend, salted butter. Thank god for bread and butter.

The plan for today is to do a grocery shopping food extravaganza without cheese. I plan to go through my IBS-C books, and pick out some fiber-filled flavourful sounding recipes, that aren't too time consuming, and don't have any cheese in them. If you have any tasty suggestions, please send them my way!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Day 2 sin queso

Okay so I figured that it makes more sense to post the previous day's eating habits the following day, instead of waiting until late at night after I've finally done snacking. It just makes more sense.

Yesterday. Overall, not so bad.

It took me quite some time to brave the fridge yesterday, for fears of finding delicious cheesy tempting items. By noon I hadn't eaten breakfast or anything, so I finally went down to check things out.

I decided that it was too late for breakfast so I made up a healthy meal. I found some asparagus, chopped it up and fried it with a bit of butter. Then, I found some marinated deer meat.Don't hurt me! My husband's a hunter and the prior night I'd made hors d'oeuvres deer poppers to bring for my dad's birthday. I don't really condone hunting, but it's better to actually use the meat. So, where was I? Oh yes, I found the marinated deer steak pieces, and chopped up some jalapeno. I added that to the pan. I then added some extra frozen veggies, a bit of Imperial Blend, to be precise. I cooked up some brown rice(à la Bistro Express), then added that to the mix. Looking good, eh?
I finished it off with some sun-dried tomato pesto. Once all mixed together and served in my bowl, I added a small dollop of light sour cream.

Delicious! I was really happy, and on top of that, I'd made enough for another meal, so I had it again for supper.

Being Friday night, the food consumption was not over. We went out to a party, and other then large amounts of alcohol, there were snacks served. A HUGE cheese wheel of Brie. Costco sized. Thankfully, there were also crackers, whole grain tostitos, and two different flavours of hummus. Phew! I was saved, but it was very tempting to indulge in that cheese.

The only thing I did have, was two tiny crunchy cheesies, the kind that always come in the trail mixes. Two. That's pretty freakin' good, especially when alcohol is involved.

Today will be tough, because after a night of drinking, I always want to eat a bunch of junk. Cheesy cheesy junk.

Wish me luck!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Day 1 sans fromage

So day 1 was actually yesterday, so I will write two posts today.

Seeing as I have been suffering for years with IBS-C, and absolutely love cheese, why the heck am I doing this now? I had been doing fine for nearly 2 years thanks to these Dempster's Healthy Way snacks which I would eat each and every morning. The bastards discontinued them last month.
So, not being strong enough myself to make this decision, it was my husband who finally said 'that's enough'. Enough complaining. Enough hurting myself and constantly battling with sharp stomach pains to the point where it has affected both of our lives.

This is my struggle. Let's hope I can be strong enough to do this. You have no idea how hard this is for me. I add cheese to everything. EVERYTHING. What's the point of eating a sandwich now? What about pasta? No more grilled cheeses, no more eggs(I cannot have any eggs without having cream cheese on my toast, or an omelet WITH cheese in it). Those battles will have to come later when I attempt to try foods I've formerly NEEDED cheese in. Not yet. I just can't.

So yesterday. After a difficult night right before bed, and a long talk with my husband, it was determined that I should actually give up cheese. At least for a period of 6 months. I think I grew to accept this throughout the night, because in the morning I was feeling okay.
I haven't been a big breakfast eater during the week, so the morning was really no different than any other morning. I had my coffee with three milks and sugar, then had a Fiber bar. I really don't think that these fiber bars work very well, but they taste good and have lots of chocolate in them.
For lunch, since this new non-cheese diet was a last-minute decision, I had a microwaved Indian food dinner. It was okay. So my day yesterday by that point still didn't' feel like I was giving anything up yet. Nothing I ate would have previously required cheese.

On to supper. It was my father's birthday, so we went to my parents for dinner. They served us tacos. TACOS. A food that has always required cheese, and not just a bit of cheese, a huge amount of cheese. Thank god they also had guacamole on the table, because I would have died. I did it. No one actually noticed that I didn't put any cheese in my taco. This surprised me. My family all knows how obsessed with cheese I am. The tacos weren't that bad, but, I certainly didn't enjoy them like I normally would have, but the good part is, I did it. For dessert we had the usual Betty Crocker birthday cake. I had a little glimmer of hope secretly inside, because I knew I'd be getting cheese through the icing. My mom always(As do I) puts cream cheese in her icing. Well wouldn't you know, my my mom actually didn't have any cream cheese, didn't bother going to the store, so the icing had no cheese! You should have seen the smirk on my husband's face. He so knew I thought I was going to get away with it. Evil.

So that's it! Day 1 of no cheese had come and gone. I am at home today, so let's see how I make out because there is a ton of cheese in our fridge...