Conner's Blog

It’s Friday today, which is good because I woke up yesterday thinking it was Friday. That was disappointing. I had a hard time deciding what to post today, a lot of stuff in the reader, but here goes, the standard wacky and disconnected collection of posts from the last week or so.

• This made me smile
• A fantastic photo from a new blog I recently discovered
• Crystal posts a really interesting recipe that involves turning an apple pie into a lollipop.
• The inspiration for what will probably be a very short lived night out to play strip Foursquare.
• Salt and Fat, a fantastic new food blog, posts a recipe for eggs poached in tomato sauce, which is something I’ve been meaning to try for years.

So that’s that, have a wonderful weekend, avoid the roads whenever possible, and if you see me out and about yell my name loudly so I can buy you a beer.

Over the last 18 months or so I’ve made some good changes to how I eat.  I rarely eat processed foods, I eat a lot more fruits and vegetables, and generally keep my diet varied.  One change I made, almost without trying, is limiting how much meat I eat.  I try hard to buy local meat which necessitates lower meat consumption and I found myself eating meat at every meal less often.

A few weeks ago I got on the scale for the first time all summer. My thoughts “….ummmm….what happened….I….wow”.  I had undone all the good from last summer and then some.  I still felt healthy, but it was a wake up call that eating healthy doesn’t mean I can eat as much as I want and that without some form of vigorous exercise I can’t maintain my weight.

So I made the decision then and there to do a few things.  One, I’m getting back on my bike.  As much as I love biking, I have put it off this summer in favor of reading, photography, and cooking.  Second, I’m keeping a food diary again.  It’s what got me where I was last summer.  Keeping track of what foods you eat and having to see your calorie intake is about the only way I know to control my appetite.  I also decided to try something new this time.  I’m going to try and be a vegetarian throughout the month of September.  It’s day eight and I’ve done pretty well so far, though I unintentional cheated once so far.

Thankfully I have a huge network of resources to help me with recipe ideas and protein replacement ingredients.  If nothing else it will give me a better understanding of what those who choose to not eat meat at all go through everyday.  I’m not doing that though, and expect to cook up at least a few pieces of bacon on 10/1.