Huge portions, tiny price

by DMC

This weekend, during the birthday hiatus, I went out to breakfast with the family. We ate at a new restaurant in the Napa Valley--The Black Bear Diner. The restaurant is known for its huge portions and reasonable prices. Normally, that would be a good thing, but for someone trying to watch calories, that proved not-so good.

We had two children in our party, and their mother ordered one child's pancake plate and split it between them. Each "half" of the child's pancake platter (with chocolate chips!) was big enough to feed an adult. In fact, both children left over half their food on their plates, even after starting out with only half to begin with. So, if they had each had one child's plate, they would've eaten only 25% of the food on their plates--25% of the serving of chocolate chips, sweet cream pancakes, syrup and (just to make it "healthy") fruit! Oh, and I can't forget the orange juice. There wasn't an ounce of protein to be found.

As we stood up to leave, the younger child threw up. Her stomach knew what most of us have forgotten--the human body does not need nor want an entire meal made up of SUGAR and refined carbohyrdrates!

Not that I did much better. I ordered one of their most modest dishes -- the "shortstack" of pancakes. A shortstack is two pancakes. That sounded reasonable...until the pancakes arrived and each was the size of a small dinner plate!

The Black Bear diner does have a menu section titled, "A Little Less Breakfast" that supposedly offers smaller portions sizes. However, most meals listed in that section were still too much. For example, the diner offers a "small volcano." The small volcano consists of three pancakes stacked with egg on top and served with bacon and sausage. Another breakfast offers two eggs and two strips of bacon or sausage along with hash browns and a biscuit.

How about one egg and some fruit? Or one mini pancake and one egg? You know, a breakfast that most of us would consider a snack, with a price to match? Something 300 calories of less?

No wonder our nation is getting fatter and fatter. When kid's plates are four times the size they should be and restaurants offer single-serving platters that are big enough to feed a table, it's no wonder waste lines are getting bigger.

And for the record, I'm not against large portion sizes. I believe everyone should have that choice. However, I'd like to see more restaurants offering truly small portion sizes as another option. Doing so allows people like me to go out to eat with the family for special celebrations and still order something reasonable (sure, there's the option of taking leftovers home, but not everything keeps well. Who wants soggy salad or pancakes the next day?).

So, here is a shout out to restaurants like the Black Bear Diner and, while we're on the subject--The Cheesecake Factory. Offer TRULY SMALL meals and desserts. I'll be specific. Cheesecake Factory, your sesame seed chicken and rice meal is to die for. However, it's enough food for four people. How about offering a quarter size portion? And how about taster slices of your cheesecake? And, by a "taster slice" I don't mean half of the "feed a small nation" slice you normally provide, but rather a slice that's good for three bites. That's it. Three bites. Three normal human mouth sized bites, not three elephant-sized bites.

And Black Bear Diner, I have no qualms about how your food tasted and no qualms about the price. But when you have a section for "a little less," go the extra mile and truly offer "less."

My Weekend

My weekend wasn't nearly as eventful. Unfortunately, nary a glass of champagne did I touch. However, I had a binge on Saturday night...ate a cup of nonfat cottage cheese and about 3 chocolate graham crackers. LOTS of calories. Today I was right back on schedule.

I have found in the past that if I have a "binge," a word that to me means an overindulgence of fairly healthful foods, I find that my body stops bugging me, like it's ok with eating less as long as we (my body and I, who are apparently two separate entities with some disagreements about food) aren't actually planning to eat less EVERY day. Weird. Now I can be good for a week with no problem. I've read some interesting diet plans that involve eating different amounts every day so that the body doesn't get into a rut.

For that reason, there's no reason to beat oneself up for having a food freakout, as long as one keeps it within moderate levels and doesn't do it very often.

Birthday Excess

by DMC

Yesterday, I visited family to celebrate two birthdays, and as usual, the family served lots of food! Half the family also happens to be Muslim, and this being Ramadan, the food had to wait until after sunset--7:45 p.m.

I figured yesterday would be a wash in terms of the "waste less" food philosophy. I did my best to moderate myself, but I had a dilemma. I usually don't eat that late, and I knew it would be hard to fast myself until that time. I started off the morning with some of the leftover spaghetti squash and pasta sauce (about a tea cup's worth) and a peach from my tree.

That held me until about 2:00, at which time I was starving. My mother is not fasting, so we went to lunch and split a hamburger and fries plate at Marie Calendar's. I figured, while not healthy, at least halving the portion size was a step in the right direction.

Then the bulk of the food hit around 8 p.m. bechamel rigatoni, barbecued chicken, and bread. My family has not yet mastered the concept of volume estimation. My sister, mother, and I argued over whether five pounds of ground beef and X number of bags of rigatoni were enough to feed 10-12 people. We talked about the history of waste in the household (i.e., they always make enough to feed a small nation and end up with so many leftovers it takes a feat of creative restructuring to fit it all in the refrigerator).

Ultimately, my sister opted to get more rigatoni from the store. You know what happened, of course. Yep. There were leftovers. Not just a little, but she made TWO pans of the bechamel and the second pan never got touched. In fact, at the end of the night, the first pan still had about a serving of bechamel left.

Yes, we dutifully sent leftovers home with whomever would take them, but still there are leftovers in the refrigerator, crowding out the leftovers from previous nights.

I know the fear of having "too little" food. It's better to have too much than not enough when feeding guests, after all. But, on the other hand, if my stepfather didn't insist on plopping two pounds of bechamel on each person's plate, we'd never be in danger of running out! In fact, one of our guest's polite but insistent pleas for "just a little" were ignored as the heaping pile of rigatoni, beef, and white sauce made entirely out of butter and four was dropped on her plate.

Afterward, of course, there was cake and ice cream. A rich butter cream frosting enveloped the multi-layered white cake. In fact, butter cream frosting separated the layers of the cake itself. It was a white flour, white sugar extravaganza. Delicious, of course.

But I think my system is still in shock. After going nearly two months (with only a one week hiatus) of strict food moderation and little sugar, my body handled last night with admirable adaptability, but this morning I think it's still trying to process it all. I'll look at last night as a pop quiz for my digestive system--a way of keeping it on its toes!

Anyway, today it's back to the calorie restriction program.

Woman tries to feed family for one month without going to the grocery store

by DMC

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/08/27/mcguire.no.shopping.for.month.kusa

This woman has decided to try to go an entire month without visiting the grocery store. She's living on whatever food is in her home and working out balanced meals using the edibles on hand.

Good for her!

Food Waste

Here's an interesting website:

http://wastedfood.com/

I've been thinking a lot lately about how much food we consume, especially obese children. Not only is it huge in amounts, it's also huge in carbon footprint, because even if kids ate whole, natural foods, it'd cost the planet in water and fertilizer and tractor fuel and everything else in order to produce it. Then, if it's highly processed foods, things get very complicated. Take into consideration the conniption fits currently being had by Kellogg and other breakfast cereal manufacturers because of a major sugar shortage going on (so count on the really crappy cereals costing lots more in the immediate future). But it's not sugar from the US; it's sugar from India and Brazil, predominantly.

OK. So, there's a bunch of carbon footprint involved in growing the foods, including destruction of trees and habitat, careless water usage, and the rest of the list of production details. Then the sugar gets transported to the US on big fuel-greedy liners, soon to be moved onto diesel-greedy trucks, and sent to the various jillions of food factories that use sugar in their products. Then lots and lots of plastic and cardboard gets used to put the various products into, sugar as well as the infinite number of other scary chemicals and maybe a little grain. So. The factory mills the garbage into pretty pastel little munchies that people give their kids for breakfast and then trucks take those boxes all over the ENTIRE US. Difficult to remember that WAY BACK THERE, some human in Brazil drove a stinky old tractor around the sugarbeet field.

OK. So, a jillion little American fat kids stuff themselves on this crap and then get type 2 diabetes when they are ten years old.

Can you even imagine the MASSIVE reduction in carbon footprint and HUGE improvement in health and very cool monetary savings, if little kids would either eat something natural or just cut their intake of garbage in half???

This is all a REALLY good reason for me to reduce my calories drastically. I guess it would be cool to figure out a way to send the unused calories to Haiti or somewhere else where politicians eat all the food and let their citizens starve.

I ate 650 calories today. I read that in the malnourished parts of the Sehalian zone, they eat about 2,200 calories a day (http://www.find-health-articles.com/rec_pub_12891821-food-consumption-patterns-central-west-africa-1961-2000-challenges.htm). I'm confused, at least in part because so few of the websites about starvation actually give calorie counts. Of course, in Haiti they eat mud cookies that are full of fat, which has calories but still leads to malnutrition. See http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/02/19/dirt-poor-haitians-eat-cookies-made-of-mud/4120/

Dinner

by DMC

Yum. Romaine Lettuce. Spinach leaves. Freshly-picked tomato. Small pear, chopped. Sprinkling of feta cheese and walnuts. 20 squirts of raspberry vinaigrette. This mega salad brought my calories for the day up to 764 (and I counted everything, even the lettuce and spinach--70 calories). I made a miscalculation at breakfast and only counted ONE of the pieces of light bread, so it wasn't until I was totalling up my dinner that I discovered the error. By then, of course, I'd already eaten the salad. So, today I went well over my 600 calories...but that's okay. As I said in a previous post, when one's target is 600 calories, a mistake here and there is nothing to sweat over. After all, anything under 900 calories a day for an adult (even a short one like me!) is considered a seriously calorie-restricted diet.

But...the salad is truly a thing of beauty, isn't it?

Lunch menu--variety is the key!

by DMC

Lunch today was half a raw red bell pepper filled with 1/2 cup of lowfat cottage cheese along with some raw, crunchy bell pepper scraps on the side. I also had one rye cracker (25 calories) and 1/4 of a wedge of the laughing cow garlic and herb cheese (one entire wedge is a mere 35 calories). I finished it off with a glass of water, and by the end of it all, I'm actually a little full. Not stuffed. Just nicely satisfied.

Don't worry, I won't bore you with my daily menu, but for the first two days, I thought I'd give everyone an idea of what kinds of foods I'm eating. I'm aiming for variety over the course of a week. For dinner, I'm planning a salad. I have about 250 calories left for the day, so the salad will work in nicely. I may even have some of the kale I bought.

My main concern is eating things before they go bad!

Woo Hoo!

by DMC

Well, I avoided going on the scale at the end of my week off because I made the mistake of stepping on it once during the hiatus, and it proclaimed that I had gained about 7 pounds! It should be nearly impossible to gain that much weight in only three or four days, which is what I told myself.

Well, this morning, after Day One of our new calorie-restriction program, I stepped on the scale and it was back down--way down to only 2.5 pounds higher than where I left off the last day of the food strike. So, obviously, I hadn't gained terrible amounts of weight during my week-long hiatus (and it was a bloaty time of month, which is what I'm pretty sure is responsible for the insane and temporary scale gain--TMI?).

This morning, my breakfast consisted of 1.5 ounces of deli cut, low sodium turkey breast with 2 slices of light bread, a few slices of garden tomatoes, and three or four squirts of the honey mustard salad spritzer--all for about 185 calories.

The good thing about having a target of 600 calories per day is that I don't have to be terribly concerned about being 100% accurate on my calorie count. Sure, this morning I weighed my turkey breast (on a postage scale!), just to get an idea of portion sizes, but when I go to my online calorie database, I don't have to sweat over finding the exact turkey breast brand. I just go with something general and look at the sodium level to give me an idea (i.e, carved off the turkey or pre-packaged, high sodium lunch meat). I do the same thing with the bread. All light bread has about the same number of calories (roughly 45-50 per slice). I just pick something that's similar (light, whole wheat bread).

If I'm off by 15% on everything, I've only missed 90 calories. That would bring my daily calories up to almost 700, which is still a highly calorie-restricted diet. This method gives me plenty of wiggle room to eyeball and estimate (with good faith) my portion sizes and let's me find suitable foods on the online calorie database without too much effort. The only thing I've so far had to manually enter was the Trader Joe's pasta from yesterday. It was an alternative pasta and not something in the calorie database. Even then, I didn't enter all the nutritional information--just the calories per cup.

If we kept our target higher--to something like 900 or 1000 calories--we'd have to be very conscientious about measuring our food and calories. That's too much work!

Dinner Review

Dawn made a great dinner. I don't think she needed the pasta, even if it was a healthful brand; I think that spaghetti squash was so darned good that it makes pasta redundant. I just had that and the delicious homemade tomato sauce, and a little of that ground parmesan cheese on it.

I don't feel like counting certain vegetables in my diet; it's just plain too much hassle to figure out the calories in salad, assuming that one sticks to the veggies on the so-called "negative calorie" list. I don't believe that some foods have negative calories, but then, I also don't believe it's WORTH figuring out how many cups of lettuce I ate, or radishes or mushrooms or whatever. If I'm to keep up a 600 calorie diet for more than about two days, I'm going to have to make it as easy on myself as possible.

I will obviously count everything else-- tofu, seitan, fruits, dairy, eggs, oils, etc etc, AND higher calorie vegetables. Just not the really puny stuff, such as spinach and celery and so on.

We'll see how that works for a week or two. But one thing is for sure: As I ate my salad today, I thought about the number of people in the world who don't get such luxuries. And then I remembered the Keyhole Gardens again. Everybody should see this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjcjCCx3BWY

Back to Day One

by DMC

Today marks one week since the END of our food strike on behalf of prisoners of North Korean labor prisons. Laura and Euna have been reuinted with their families!

Jackie and I continued our food strike to remind everyone (including ourselves) that there are many other victims unjustly imprisoned and starving in labor prisons. Today, after a brief hiatus, we have decided to embark on a program to eat modestly. By this we mean we are limiting our daily caloric intake to almost double what we had while on the food strike -- a meager 600 calories per day. We won't be eating beans, rice, and corn exclusively. Rather, we'll be eating healthy, unprocessed foods--lots of fruits and vegetables, whole wheat breads, eggs from home free-ranged chickens, etc.

Today, I'm making some pasta for us for dinner. I made pasta sauce from my garden tomatoes (no oil, just tomatoes and herbs with a dash of salt). I also have some healthier pasta from Trader Joe's and a spaghetti squash I picked up yesterday to mix in with the pasta. My breakfast a few minutes ago was one free-ranged "home-grown" egg scrambled and mixed with a tablespoon of low fat cottage cheese on half of a toasted whole wheat English muffin.

Wish us luck! I will be having one day every week where I can have one small indulgence (like a treat from a yogurt shop). I'm very excited to start this program. In the one week that I've gone off my food strike, not only have I gained weight, but my stomach has not felt good.

Now, I realize many people will proclaim that 600 calories per day is not healthy. We'll monitor ourselves closely and likely take a multivitamin, just to be safe. But remember - we're eating 600 calories of fresh, whole foods -- with lots of fruits and vegetables. We're not eating empty calories. In fact, if you google "calorie restriction and aging" you'll find a plethora of articles that show the benefits of a severely calorie-restricted diet (as long as the diet is packed full of nutritious foods). In fact, my undergraduate thesis analyzed that very subject.

Ugggh

by DMC

My stomach is not feeling well, and yes I've gained weight this week. Yesterday, I had a wonderful lunch and later went to dinner with my father, who is ending his visit here. He wanted to go to the Golden Corral, a buffet restaurant that I've never before visited.

I ate too much food (one reason I dislike buffet restaurants), and for most buffets, the food is lesser quality. That was true yesterday, too. Anyway, my stomach isn't great today, and I'm slated to go to dinner tonight for an event. Uggggh is exactly how I feel. Our hiatus ends tomorrow (i.e., we start our light eating program Monday). I'm actually looking forward to it! I made some fresh pasta sauce out of tomatoes from the garden, and tomorrow Jackie and I will take a trip to the Farmer's Market for some fresh produce.

Jackie: Weirdness...

I am tempted, just for the sheer strangeness factor...

From the Travelzoo Newsdesk:

SAN FRANCISCO--AUGUST 21, 2009-- Singapore Airlines has
released an unheard-of fare for flights to Seoul, Korea,
from San Francisco. Fly nonstop on the top-rated airline for
just $499 roundtrip -- including all taxes and fees.

Tickets must be purchased for two or more passengers to get
the $499 per person price. This fare is for departures
through Oct. 31 and returns through Dec. 31. Book by Sept. 1.

Jackie: the Wastefulness of Modern Eating

Amazing how much weight a person can gain by eating maybe a plate of salad at Fresh Choice. The stuff must be painted with sodium, that's all I can say. I think I gained 2 lbs at Fresh Choice on about 600 calories, which is obviously not possible, so...come on guys, what do you put in that stuff? Anybody who thinks they are doing great by eating there...NOT. I bet the average person eats about 1500 calories there in one meal, and lots more if they really tuck in. I think I'm basically going to be removing Fresh Choice from my list because even if I AM very careful, I puff up. Bad. And Dawn, do you have any idea how much sodium there is in bread, tomato sauce, cheese, and pepperoni? Outrageous. You ate like a thousand mg of sodium in that one meal.

But that's no big, if it's just one meal. I've been pretty good besides that and the half-piece of cheesecake, which did NOT make my scales go up--not enough salt, probably!

It just really makes me think about restaurants. They have to keep the foods salty and fatty, or they won't be addictive enough.

This is going to sound really odd, but here goes. There's a premise in pornography (which I studied in Law Enforcement): viewers can't just keep watching the same level; the thrill wears off and they have to keep upping the ante. Well, it's the same with food. You eat one bite of brownie today, you are going to need two bites to satisfy you tomorrow, and then after a year of office birthday parties, you are grabbing seconds on cake, just to feel as satisfied as you once did on a single bite. That's how addiction works. We all know that heroin addicts have to keep doing more and more and more just to stay somewhat normal. And that's almost EXACTLY the formula that keeps people in fast food restaurants, and good luck getting second and third generation fast food junkies off the habit. I doubt it's possible; they are doomed to stroke and diabetes because their minds and bodies need garbage to feel normal.

Luckily I could never bring myself to eat in any of them except sub sandwich places, which at least have whole grain bread options and a bunch of veggies. I don't imagine any of it is the highest quality, of course, but at least it isn't french fried.

I have written out a shopping list. Not one of the items on my list has any ingredients listed; they are all basic staples, not processed foods. Well, maybe tofu is a little processed, but please, it's still just beans and water. I was going to buy hummus, but I've decided to buy the ingredients instead and make it. Less garbage that way, too.

This world I live in is phenomenally wasteful, and I want off the wasteful boat! This morning I put about 50 pieces of clothing that is too big for me on my front porch, and freecyclers have been coming by to rummage through it. It's 90 minutes later now and about half of it is gone. From now on, I don't want 4 green blouses when one will do; don't want 10 pairs of jeans when four will do. I am changing my ways.

And today is the first day in a month I've used my dishwasher. During the entire food strike, I just used it as a giant draining rack. Must be some energy saved there, too.

Oh, bittersweet regret

by DMC

Okay, so between Monday and Tuesday, the scale went up half a pound (after the Fresh Choice excursion). Between yesterday and today, it's up a pound and a half. Yesterday, I wasn't too careful. Four medium-sized pieces of pepperoni pizza and half of a brownie sunday cheesecake (Jackie and I split one after walking around the mall for about two and a half hours).

So, today I intend to be good, even though this is part of our "indulge in one thing" a day week (yesterday, technically, I guess I indulged in one and a half things).

This morning my breakfast was two scrambled eggs and a small plate of fruit--about 250 calories total. This evening, I am going to an ethiopan restaurant with friends. I'll have to be careful and choose my dinner wisely.

Jackie: Re Food

Yes, it sure did feel like the holidays! We did not, however, even eat a quarter of what we had been eating before the food strike, and we did discuss the phenomenal excesses that our society seems to encourage--such as the cakes and pastries Dawn mentioned in her old workplace. I can see how that would be nice once in awhile, but we all seem to do a whole lot more of that than is good for us, as everyone knows. But the nasty stuff is SO addictive. The champagne I toasted Nina with a few days ago...that sort of thing is plenty of sugar for me. Also, as a Recovering Fat Old Lady, I am quite clear about my own excesses...I can barely believe that I used to eat AT LEAST four times as much as I do now, and for no reason whatsoever. No hard labor.

In Kate Chopin's book The Awakening, there is a character, an older woman, who seems to pride herself on how little food it takes to sustain her life. I can totally understand that feeling now. I want to be proud of how little it takes to keep me alive...and proud of how little power I use to cook it and wash up after it, how little garbage I produce as a result of it, how little water is wasted to grow it, and how much healthier I am growing as a result of declining it. I cannot wait to hear about my blood test results next month.

It's true that I reaped a satisfying benefit of this hunger strike. It's also true that it was extremely difficult to break so many bad habits all at once in support of people I have never met and don't expect to. But I have learned a great deal about this American life just by eating like a North Korean for a month. I have also learned a bit about North Koreans, who never once crossed my mind in 55 years, until this year. I won't forget them ever, either.

PS. Dawn's photos below are of our LEFTOVERS, not what we ate!

FOOD!

by DMC

Aaaaah. Salad. Strawberries. Tuna Tarragon. Chocolate Chocolate Chip muffins. Hummus. Turkey Chili. Bread.

Yes, Jackie and I went to Fresh Choice for lunch. I finished less than half of what I piled on my plate. Except for the lettuce, I kept my portions of each "sample" small because I knew my stomach was used to only tiny amounts of food. BUT, this being the first day off the food strike, I was eager to try a little bit of all my favorites. I even took a corn muffin, hoping my 30 days of corn hadn't spoiled me on all corn-derived products. Thankfully, the corn muffin still agreed with my taste buds, though I only ate the top of the muffin.

Within about 1/3 of the way through our meal, our stomachs were starting to feel full. We picked at our salads for a few more minutes as we chatted, and we both left with full stomachs--a feeling we've not had since starting this food strike. The perpetual state of hunger we've become accustomed to finally vanished.

The salad (with sesame seeds and strawberries) had very little dressing, and it still was quite flavorful. The sweetness of the first strawberry instantly thrust my tastebuds into suprised delight. I only managed my way through about half the salad, though. As for the Tuna Tarragon, I took maybe 3/4 of a cup's worth, and I probably only ate half. The turkey chili tempted me, and I only put about 1/2 cup's worth in my bowl. I used that to top a small slice of sourdough bread.

Aaaah, bread.

Jackie and I ended our meal with a tiny vanilla yogurt/ice cream cone and walked around the mall for a little bit. Though we didn't start out this food strike to lose weight, we marvelled at just how much weight we actually dropped during these past 30 days. To the left are my before and after photos. I wouldn't say I present a dramatic difference, but I've gone down at least a full size--back to where I started before accepting a job where not-so-healthy food seems to magically appear around the office on a daily basis. And when it isn't magically appearing, it's being carried by helpers for birthdays, retirements, staff meetings, etc.

Well, gone are the days of office donuts, retirement cakes, and "surprise" Friday cookies.

We've decided to continue this blog because we intend, after a few days of modest indulgence, to work on losing the rest of our excess weight. Once a day, for the next five days, we'll each have one thing we've been craving. Tomorrow, for me, it's pepperoni pizza. For Jackie, it's Omelets with her mother. After our brief culinary "sabbatical," we'll resume a strict diet reminiscent of the old Weight Watchers quick start program, which, frankly, will seem like gluttony compared to how we've been living.

So, stay tuned! And, remember, there are people around the world who don't have the luxury of opting to eat a calorie-restricted diet.

Jackie: the End

Today is the first non food strike day. I have lost a total of 23 pounds. Two eggs from my pet hens are simmering in a poacher as I write this. I feel guilty because of the number of people who will never have anything quite this nice. Wish for today: no N. Korean inmates get beaten or killed.

Going on a food strike for victims of North Korea

We will be limiting our food intake to one cup a day.

Jackie: Corn

Luckily for me, it's corn season. That's about all I ate for the last forty eight hours, except one half a cheese sandwich that was nothing but french bread and thin cheddar. That's all I could find at the time that was the least bit like polenta, rice, and a few beans. Let's just say I didn't get full, and I didn't gain any weight, that's for sure. But the mountains in Calaveras County sure did me some good. I wrote in my little computer and I thought about the world of plenty in Sacramento, in comparison to the world of making do that takes place in some of these backwoods counties. Almost like backwoods Asia.

Well, I'm having one last day of fast. I don't think I ever did go over my calorie count except maybe for the champagne, which numbed the pain. I thank all my friends who came and saw the Grande Dame on her way to evolving into a higher state. They say that dog is the last step before becoming human; but Nina was already better than most people I know.

On this my last day of the fast, I am remembering all the starving people in N. Korea, prisoners or civilians. If I could send you something wonderful to eat, I would surely do it. I hope that at least a few of them know that I suffered along with them for a few weeks, and that they were on my mind, and that many of us know and try to understand the horrors that N. Korean lives hold.

The last day!

by DMC

Today is the last day of the food strike! Tomorrow is FRESH CHOICE day! I'm as excited about the prospect of eating salad, weak ranch dressing, and wannabe Pizza as I imagine the Obama kids were to move into the White House.

As of this morning, it looks like I've lost a total of 20 lbs since embarking on this food strike one month ago...and I certainly had and still have a buffer zone of weight to lose. I can only imagine how emaciated prisoners become after one month of hard labor, subsisting on about 350 calories per day--or less!

Well, today I'm thankful that Euna and Laura are home, but I'm remembering the many, many others who are still unjustly imprisoned, their lives threatened every day.

Goodbye, Nina

by DMC

Nina died today. Last night we were at the emergency veterinarian with Nina, Jackie's senior German Shepherd. She survived breast cancer and a major intestinal surgery just a few months ago, but she suddenly stopped eating and started to vomit and poop blood. The veterinarian couldn't do much for her last night except give her subdermal fluids, take X Rays, and put her on some medications. He said to see how she was today and, if she wasn't feeling better, to consider the hard decision.

Well, today she wasn't feeling better, and Jackie knew it was time to send Nina on her way, away from the misery. She went peacefully, with Jackie, friends, and her daughter Ally around her.

We celebreated Nina's life. Jackie departed from this food strike briefly to have half a vegetarian Subway sandwich and three or four glasses of champagne. I had two glasses of champagne.

Jackie said goodbye, and she's left for the weekend. She needed to get out of the house, and she took Ally with her. I'll see her Monday, our Fresh Choice day.

Goodbye, Nina. We will remember you as the sweet old girl who put up with chickens trying to steal your food.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCNQ0zggALg

What a night

by DMC

Last night this food strike proved particularly difficult. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say that Jackie and I spent much of last night at the emergency veterinarian's office. We waited in the lobby a few feet away from a jar of Oreo cookies and a container of coffee.

Both of us opted for a taste of comfort food -- one half of one oreo cookie (the half with the cream, of course). Not "POW" approved, of course, but oh well. I was up way later than usual, so my stomach complained loudly. I tried quieting it with water, but it wouldn't shut up.

I haven't really had sugar for a while, so the small half-cookie tasted particularly sweet, and the sweetness lingered on my tongue for quite some time.

What we both ended up discussing, in between talk of the patient, were apple fritters and pie.

On a separate note, this morning, I read a story that a high fat diet has a quick and significant effect on physical exercise and cognitive function. Since I've had a mainly low fat diet, I cannot say whether I've noticed any particular changes in my cognitive functions. Of course, I'm not going through mazes or taking tests, either.

The scale hasn't dropped any since yesterday. However, I've noticed my favorite pair of jeans are now a smidgen too big.... even after a good wash.

Laura Ling reaches out to supporters and countdown begins

by DMC

Laura Ling issued a statement to her supporters. You can read it on News 10. It's Day 27 of this diet. August 16th is our last day (technically Day 31, I think). It's getting HARD. Today, I was going through old food in the fridge and was about to throw away a stale sandwich from my housemate. I took a small bite instead and tried to force myself to throw it out. I had to get in one more bite before it went into the trashcan.

God, it tasted good. Stale, and all. Don't worry, it wasn't deadly or anything. It had only been in there about two days, wrapped in a paper towel. That made the bread stale, of course.

I'm going out of my mind. I need something other than rice, beans, and corn. I've even thought of trying to go to the store for the last few days and find all natural corn tortilla chips, almost convincing myself that that wouldn't really be cheating... corn is corn, after all.

Of course, there is more than just corn in chips. Thus far, I've managed to resist the urge.

The scale tells me I've almost lost 20 lbs. I'm down about a size, I think.

I'm so very much looking forward to Fresh Choice on Monday...even if I have nothing but a salad!

Jackie: stomach problems

I may have reached my limit, but I'm going to try to hold out. For two days I have been extremely nauseated, but of course I don't know if it has anything to do with the fast or if I just have a bug. Today I am going to trade in my usual rations for ginger tea with honey, in order to try to defeat it. My usual stomach meds aren't quite cutting it. I am going to do this remedy for a day or two before I find myself forced to quit.

Euna Lee thanks supporters

by DMC

Euna Lee wrote a thank you letter to her supporters. You can read that letter at News 10's website.

I'm trying to imagine what it must have been like to be in a small, guarded room for months, away from your travel companion, your family, and your friends, but I really can't. I can only try. Here I am with the full comforts of home on a self-imposed food strike, and my angst right now is that I can't have a glass of wine to unwind! I don't have wine often, but geez, every once in a while, I get the urge to pour myself a glass and watch T.V. I have that urge now, and unfortunately, wine isn't on the "POW diet," as my friends have come to call it (though of course, Ling and Lee weren't POW's--they were, essentially, political prisoners).

My angst is pretty pathetic compared to the months of involuntary incarceration Ling and Lee endured. I'm glad they are home with their families. I'm relieved they're reasonably unharmed.

I hope, someday, North Korea will ends its harsh prison labor camps. I hope it will stop killing newborn infants of prisoners. I hope for a lot of things, but I know none of those things are likely to happen in the near future.

Myanmar (Burma)

by DMC

I just thought I'd draw attention to another area of the world with an oppressive regime and horrific human rights violations

You can watch a brief video about Myanmar and its human rights issues here.

One week

by DMC

I don't know why sticking to this food strike has become so hard lately. Yes, it's always been hard, but not quite as hard as it is now. I just want tastes of things. A cashew. A chip. A bite of a sandwich. Anything other than rice, beans, and corn.

Jackie: SALT

I did a little research, and apparently N. Korean prisoners are fed a very salty soup every day. So they are getting sodium chloride, anyway, which I don't eat; I use natural sea salts. This is apparently to keep them from fainting with dehydration during their hard labor. So Dawn, maybe that's how they keep their inmates from losing water weight. You are still probably eating less salt than hard-labor camp inmates are.

I think our bodies are in starvation mode, which is gratifying since I'm pretty sure I'm starving to death. At least it's not all in our heads.

I made some FANTASTIC canario beans last night. Do N. Korean inmates care if something is tasty, or do they just want MORE? At this point, I want tasty. I'm not far gone enough to just want more. I feel like if my little ration isn't yummy, I don't want it...which comes from the pretty privileged position of choice.

Here is a recipe for Korean cabbage soup. I'm making it tonight.

Korean Cabbage Soup Recipe (Baechu Gook)

By Naomi Imatome-Yun, About.com

Baechu Gook

Naomi Imatome

This cabbage soup is not often found in restaurants but is a staple in Korean households. Healthy, low-fat, and rich in nutrients and vitamins, Baechu Gook is Korean comfort food and is especially popular in the winter months.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 head Napa cabbage, chopped
• 4 cups beef broth*
• 4 Tbsp Korean soybean paste (daenjang)
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 2 tsp black pepper**
• 2 scallions, chopped

Preparation:

In a large pot, bring beef broth1 up to a

boil. Add soybean paste when the soup is

very hot, stirring to dissolve. When it

begins to boil, reduce to a simmer and add

cabbage and garlic. Cook until cabbage is

very tender, about 20 minutes. Turn off

heat and add black pepper and chopped

scallions.

(Serves 4)

**I like my baechu gook very pepper-y, but

you can also replace this with red pepper

powder (kochukaru) if you want that type

of spiciness instead.

Evil Sodium

by DMC

I have not lost any weight in about two days. I wonder if it's because I've been subsisting on the leftover rice and beans from Dos Coyotes? I'm only eating about 3/4 of a cup of the leftovers a day, in addition to a small square of polenta. However, when I looked up the nutritional information on the web, it seems like there is a LOT of sodium in the rice and beans. The rice and beans I make here has very little sodium.

So, I've boiled a batch of rice and mixed in the lentils with the leftovers to dilute the sodium. I think I have about enough food to get me through at least half the week, maybe more... if it all keeps, that is. Of course, with that much sodium, it'll probably last until the next Presidential election.

I am looking forward to the end of this food strike. It is getting harder and harder not to munch of food. Yesterday, I visited someone's house and saw a bowl of chocolates on the table. I almost asked for one, forgetting momentarily about the food strike.

Yesterday, I cheated a tad. I had opened the cabinet to look for the package of rice, and I saw the can of mixed nuts on the top shelf. I was soooo hungry. I opened the lid and picked out a tiny cashew and put it in my mouth.

God, a cashew never tasted so good. The flavor seemed to literally explode all over my tongue, and it lasted for at least a minute after I'd disposed of the cashew.

Now, if I open the cabinet, the nuts are still there, tempting me. So far, I've been able to resist. I keep telling myself I have a week left, and then Jackie and I will dine at Fresh Choice and treat ourselves to lots of green salad and maybe even a corn muffin!

Details of Ling and Lee captivity emerge

by DMC

Laura Ling has provided tiny bits of insight into what they experienced during their captivity. The two women were separated, each in tiny cells, where they were fed rice mixed with rocks. She would also get very small amounts of vegetables and tiny bits of fried fish (she developed a reaction to the fish). Both women lost weight, apparently.

According to Laura Ling's aunt Mrs. Ling Pierce, Laura Ling was coerced out of fear for her life to confess to a crime of doctoring the film for propaganda.

Jackie and I will have food freedom again on August 17th. We've already marked Fresh Choice as our food establishment of choice for that day, thanks to its abundant salad bar and the ability to pick and choose however much or little food our stomachs can handle. We figure we'll start off very small on the 17th, with a tiny salad (ah! fresh greens!) and maybe, if I dare dream, a corn muffin.

Jackie: Starvation

This is not getting easier and easier; it's getting harder and harder. My stomach has been growling for about two days. It's all I can do to avoid overeating.

Jackie: Lisa on food

Lisa Ling, in a story in People, commented on her sister's N. Korean diet.

Ling, according to Lisa, not only was happy to be home but also to be able to eat fresh food.

"She was telling us how there were rocks in her rice [in North Korea]," revealed Lisa. "She's anxious just to eat fresh food. I know there's going to be a sushi dinner very soon!"

Man, I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall in that house, and learn more about what goes on over there. The conversations must be absolutely enthralling. So much for the current gossip that in the "guest house," the two women were eating like queens.

Now the two will get the chance to eat, eat, eat. Can't wait til I can, too!

Jackie: HUNGRY

Yes, that's the same as what I eat. I'm feeling finished with cabbage, although I know I need to eat it. I let the last batch rot. I think I'll go get a fresh cabbage tonight and start over.

And I'm SO hungry! Yet I let food rot. I had couscous and beans today instead of rice and beans, just for some variety, but it ain't cutting it. For the first time in many days, my stomach is growling and I feel like sleeping just to pass the time. I feel like this is getting harder, not easier, so perhaps my body is now feeling desperate. I am about to lose the second clothes size since this started.

I notice that Euna Lee and Laura Ling were a far cry from plump when they got off that plane with President Clinton.

Give us our daily...rice and beans

by DMC

What you're looking at is the daily amount of rice and beans Jackie and I have been surviving on. The plate is a tea cup saucer. The spoon is a small spoon. That should give you an idea of proportion.

In addition to this tiny amount of rice and beans, we usually eat a small slice of cornmeal measuring about 2 inches square--or at least I do. There have been many days, however, where I've gone without the polenta simply because I just cannot stomach it. This morning, I cooked a new batch of polenta, and I mixed in whole corn kernels canned only in water.

Oh, and the scale is down another pound and a half since yesterday.

Dos Coyotes

by DMC

Jackie and I returned to Dos Coyotes because, frankly, neither one of us could bear to make another batch of rice, beans, and polenta AND Dos Coyotes makes rice and beans way better than we do. So, this time when we both ordered the small side plate (with different cashiers), I received mine without any problem, but Jackie's cashier told her he could not give her the small side plate because that is only to be added to an existing entree. In other words, you have to order something ELSE to get it. He could give her a large plate of rice and beans for about $8.50. Well, after she objected and mentioned she'd had it just a few days before, he said he could give her a $2.50 plate.

So, here is what we both ended up with. I get the tiny plate (what you see represents half... I put the other half in a to go box immediately for the next day) and Jackie gets a much larger plate (probably about 3-4 days worth of food on that plate!) Of course, she only ate a small portion of the food on that plate!

All in all, I estimate the calories in my 1/2 of the plate to be about 250-300. That's all I had for the day (since they also mix in corn and I added a small amount of tomato from the salsa bar). As you can see, the front of the fork is almost as big as the serving of food! I'm so tired of polenta...it's worth the one tiny meal a day to have something that doesn't taste like drywall!

And just to bring this back to reality, the current prisoners in the North Korean labor camps don't even get the rice and beans. They generally get only cornmeal and cabbage soup, on good days. In the prefamine days of the 90s, prisoners got a very meager helping of rice and beans--sometimes--when that wasn't stolen by the guards! We've decided to incorporate rice and beans into our diet to mimic the prefamine "best case" diet of the North Korean prisoners, mainly so that we don't actually kill ourselves during these 30 days!

Two return home, thousands still imprisoned

by DMC

Jackie and I are so very happy that Euna Lee and Laura Ling have returned home! We made a decision at the beginning of our food strike that we would continue this strike for the full 30 days, whether or not the two women were released during the strike, in recognition of the hundreds of thousands of people who are and have been victims of the North Korean government. Many people, at this moment, are languishing in these hard labor camps--their crimes, by and large, are things like sitting on a newspaper that bears the photograph of Kim Jong il. Some are there because they said something critical about the "Dear Leader." Others are there because they're related to someone who allegedly said something critical about the government or otherwise didn't drink the Kool-Aid.

Those human beings are important, too. Euna Lee and Laura Ling did not spend one day in a hard labor prison -- I'm guessing that's because the North Korean government knew they would eventually release the two women, and Kim Jong il certainly didn't want these two journalists telling the world about all the horrors that go on in such camps.

However, a small number of people have gotten out of those camps. Their stories are always similar--starvation, illness, torture, public executions, the murder of newborn babies.

Right this second, thousands of miles away, that's what's happening. Let us not forget.

Euna Lee and Laura Ling return home

Raw Video:
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com

Jackie: Hey, Kat Fredericks!

I missed your comment! What a bummer, I was really wanting to meet you! Contact us--I'll keep a better eye out for comments.

Jackie: Woohoo! They're out!

That silly man was terrified that we would get weak and die, so he let our girls out! Yay team!

Too bad he doesn't let the REST of them out, the bastard.

North Korea pardons Euna and Laura!

by DMC

http://www.news10.net

Shortly after former President Bill Clinton visited North Korea to discuss the fate of the two journalists, the North Korean government has pardoned the two women.

Today is a good day!

As Jackie and I have stated before, our food strike will continue the full 30 days in protest of the labor camps and the thousands if not millions of people who have been and are being starved, tortured, and killed inside them.

Jack in the Box seduction

by DMC

Well, I cheated a little today, but JUST a little. Jack in the Box is issuing these coupons for two free tacos, August 4th (today) only. I'm out of rice and beans and polenta and I have a booked schedule today, so making up a whole new batch is not on my priority list.

So, the little devil on my shoulder said, "Hey! It's a taco. It's free. It's only for today. It's made of CORN and a few tiny bits of tomato and some lettuce and some meat or beans. And, look at the nutritional information on the website. Each taco is a measly 157 calories!"

The little devil was mighty convincing. I mean, 157 calories? It's tiny! It hardly has ANY meat whatsoever. It's mainly corn, tomato, and strings of iceberg lettuce, right?

So, after a meeting, I drove to the nearest Jack in the Box and redeemed my coupon. I pulled into a shady spot and consumed my little, tiny, miniscule taco that had hardly any meat. Then I pondered the ethics of eating the second taco. After all, 317 calories for both tacos would still be within the same caloric allotment as prisoners in North Korean labor camps...

But then I started to feel guilty. Prisoners don't GET tasty tacos or even microscopic bits of meat. And my stomach grumbled, though I'm not sure if it was from the guilt or the unexpected infusion of sodium and fried food. After all, I've lived over two weeks on just boiled rice, beans, and corn. No salt. No oil. No sugar.

So, I left the other one in the bag while my stomach and my conscience yelled at me, and then I drove home and acted the martyr as I donated the remaining taco to my father, who is up here from southern California for a visit.

Now, I still have to make my rice, beans, and polenta. I'll get to it...eventually. I just find it hard to muster any enthusiasm for the task.

Bill Clinton travels to North Korea to try to free Ling and Lee

Click here to read the Yahoo News Story!

And News10 hints that maybe Ling and Lee will be released as early as WED! (That is still VERY MUCH unconfirmed!)
http://www.news10.net/

Not feeling well

by DMC

As you can see, I haven't been as prolific on this blog as I usually am. I developed a slight sore throat, which is gone now, but that seemed to get replaced with a pain in my lower abdomen. I'm not sure if either of these ailments is related to the fast, but I've been taking it easy for the past few days. I am starting to get some of my energy back. Yesterday, I was a slug, practically glued to the couch.

I ate HALF of the other half of my Dos Coyotes rice and beans yesterday. I have the remaining half left for today. I have to make more polenta. This time, I think I'll actually mix in some canned corn. My "fresh" corn outside I think is toast. I'm giving up on what's left. I was going to go out there and pick it all and sort through the cobs to see what might be good to eat, but this pain is really putting a damper on any physical exertion. Of course, if I were in a North Korean labor prison, I wouldn't have the luxury of taking it easy.

Fortunately, the pain does seem to be slightly better than it was yesterday, so maybe there is a light at the end of this tunnel.

Jackie: Dos Coyotes

No my half wasn't bigger than I should have had! OK maybe by a few more beans! That stuff was spread out pretty shallow! And dang it, I was going to be good! I swear! Nobody should believe her when she says I was preparing to pig out! It turns out, after googling the calories in Chevy's food, that I ate about 255 calories. So it is possible for us to eat in a fast food place and not stray from our appointed rations. It just TASTES a lot better than the stuff we make at home. Don't know why. And probably one heck of a lot better than in a prison camp (not much of a vote of confidence; sorry, Chevy's).

Actually, I rather quickly learned that I COULDN'T have eaten the whole thing...stomach is a just a little shrunk up.

We went today to Dos Coyotes. Their rice and beans plate is a little more spartan, meaning that there isn't as much suspicious stuff in it, such as fat. Again, we cut the meals meal in half and put one side in boxes before eating. We are learning the difference between eating until satisfied and eating until stuffed, that's for sure. Plus it only takes a tiny amount to make us feel like we've eaten.

We looked at the burrito on one lady's plate and I swear, it would have been four full days' worth of food for one of us, maybe five. Wow. I don't think most Americans have the faintest idea how big a normal portion is. We actually judge restaurants by how much is on the plate rather than how nicely the food is prepared. We're kinda gross.

Oh, and for the record...steaks don't tempt me at ALL! Now, that sign that said fruit pies? That's another matter entirely.

Chevy's

by DMC

Jackie and I had a long trip yesterday evening, so we were both famished. I'd had my small serving of rice and lentils that morning. Jackie'd had only rice. We were both going on 12 hours without food and groaning about all the tempting food joints we were passing with various evil signs such as "sirloin steak dinner, $9.99!"

After much whining, we decided we could stop at a Mexican place and get a side of food that would fit the diet. Jackie got a side of rice and beans. I had already eaten my rice and beans, so I ordered a side of sweet corn (much to the dismay of the waitress). Okay, so the sweet corn has sugar added and the rice and beans that Chevy's dishes up isn't exactly the stuff of a labor prison camp, but--damnit!--we didn't much care.

Of course, Jackie's serving of rice and beans was way more than any prisoner in a North Korean hard labor camp gets, so, with some gentle persuasion, she opted to eat half and take the rest home for another tasty meal in the future. And, yes, even that half is more generous a serving than the prisoners get!

Just for posterity, I snatched up my camera and took a snapshot. You can see my pitiful sweet corn next to her delightful feast (with a tiny bowl of salsa for flavoring if desired-- you should have seen the look the waiter gave us when we asked for salsa but no chips!). Since the salsa is also not on the labor prison menu, Jackie used it very sparingly (if at all -- I'm not even sure she put any on.) Obviously, salsa doesn't go with sweet corn, so I had to be content with my tiny morsel of food and unsweetened iced tea.

Oh, and I photoshopped in a green line to indicate the dividing line on her plate, which she was very conscientious about honoring!

And as a final note, as if some higher being was finally taking pity on me for all my suffering, today the scale shows me down one full pound since yesterday.