I figured it was time to post another scary looking plate of pasta, so I made some foratini al pomodoro for breakfast. I bought the fresh pasta from Assenti’s, and made my the sauce from 6 roma tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and fresh basil. Foratini is a huge noodle, and is a little chewy. I bought it to scare the low-carb’ers. I’ll buy spaghetti next time.

I learned to make the sauce in Italy. You blanch the tomatoes in near-boiling water for a minute or two, until you see the skin break. Then cut the tomatoes in half, and remove the skin and seeds. Keep only the fleshy part of the tomatoes, and purée them. Heat some olive oil in a saucepan, and fry a quartered clove of garlic until golden. Remove the garlic from the oil. Add in the puréed tomatoes and basil, salt & pepper, and reduce without a lid at medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently. It’s a snap.

I’ve lose weight at a steady 100g/day, without restricting calories. I eat a whole-foods, starch-based diet, with lots of vegetables and fruit. I eat a lot at night, usually right before bed. I eat huge quantities of food while watching television on the couch. I could probably lose weight faster if I didn’t always stuff myself. Well, I might try harder now, since they’re offering a $200+ prize at my small spin studio for the most weight % lost from Jan 1 to Feb 28.

It’d be great to lose 10kg in two months. If I could do it, it’d save me a month off my current schedule (3kg/month). Overall, it’d get me to my goals a lot quicker. I may start running, and I’ll definitely do more strength training. Ok, I’m in.

I won’t show the pictures of the meat, but it was wonderful celebrating Christmas with family. We had veggies with butter, and cookies, and fruit cheesecake. I had a huge chunk of prime rib, and seconds. But it’s over, and there won’t be another feast until Easter.

Shredded Wheat is another of my staples, and I eat it by the box. Well, I probably buy a 0,5 kg box every 5 days, so I guess I only eat 100g/day, or 400 calories/day. I eat it straight out of the box, or if I slow down, I’ll get out the almond milk, banana, and blueberries. I almost never eat it for breakfast, since I make potatoes or have a veggie burger in the morning. I eat the cereal after dinner, usually just before bed.

My Chinese No-Chicken Salad is my go-to staple for filling up with nutrients, fibre, and volume with a relatively low number of calories. I add about 200 calories of Top Ramen, at least 300 calories from crushed almonds, and probably another 150 calories from my garlic sesame dressing. And, if you even bother to count it, the whole bag of cole slaw mix is 100 calories. I add chopped green onions, yellow bell pepper, and cilantro. So, that’s about 750 calories for the whole mixing bowl, which takes me about 1/2 an hour to eat in front of the television. Lately, I’ve been eating about 4 of these meals a week.

I could have easily eaten the whole package in one sitting, but I had the discipline and will power to make them last 24 hours. I used most of them between two huge Chinese No-Chicken Salads, which also shared a package of Top Ramen. Everything else was fresh greens (except for the 30g of sesame oil and 30g of sugar). This is how I lose about 100g/day. I also had two veggie burgers yesterday, and potatoes and cereal before bed. I did spin twice this weekend, so I’m not worried.

Interestingly, these almonds cans sell as cheap as bulk almonds @ $15 USD / kg.

I should really make this dish more often. It’s easy to make, and it’s so delicious. I really like brown rice, and the creamy sauce made with coconut milk and a little oil and butter. This should be a staple, but this is the first time in a month I’ve made it.

The low-carb crowd will convince you that “carbs make you fat”, and they’ll tell you about all the heavy whipping cream, lard, and cheese they consume. They’ll say that “a calorie is not a calorie”, and make it seem like you can eat a lot more under a low-carb diet. I’m pretty sure all the studies continue to show that “a calorie is a calorie”, and the non-statistically significant differences between a low-carb and low-fat (high-carb) diet depend more on adherence, and differences in actual calories consumed. Just to make sure, I checked with an online ketogenic diet calculator, using my particulars (age, weight, height, physical activity).

So, even if I starved myself to only 25g of carbs a day (vs. my current 400g/day), then I could eat 100g of protein, and 212g of fat. It calculates I’d only lose 75g/day. Where’s the metabolic advantage of a ketogenic diet? I already lose 100g/day eating 2 lbs of starch everyday. I’m happy with the 50g of fat I’m already eating. So why would I cut out carbs entirely? Because I was afraid of them?!

Does this bread make me look fat? It’ll take over a week to eat them, so I keep them in the freezer. I make veggie burgers, and eat them on the couch watching Dr. Davis’ Wheat Belly talks on YouTube. I might contact his website and tell them that I’ve lost 30 lbs after reading his book. I won’t tell them I read it for comedy, and ignored his advice.