Brome Hill

Stories and more from an old Iowa farm boy and recovering newsman

Category Archives: Food


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Catching up with Dear Diary

This phone booth in New Boston, Ill., came in handy Sunday at the end of a 20-mile windy ride from Muscatine. Of course the picture was taken with an iPhone, which has helped make phone booths obsolete.

This phone booth in New Boston, Ill., came in handy Sunday at the end of a 20-mile windy ride from Muscatine. Of course the picture was taken with an iPhone, which has helped make phone booths obsolete.

After awhile, these blog posts tend to take on the feel of public journal entries. And I’m OK with that, because a lot happens in my life that I don’t write about here.

Such has been the case in the past few days. Friends and others have said things — sometimes just simple offhanded comments — that have really made me think. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve processed it all yet, but it ought to make for some interesting blogging if — and when — I figure it all out.

In the meantime, Dear Diary, it’s time to catch up on the simpler stuff.

A week or so ago, I wrote about some ongoing efforts at self-improvement that included scheduling visits with my doctor and dentist. Well, I’m supposed to meet with Nate Olson, my new dentist, on May 28, unless he can get me in sooner.

But I met Friday with Dr. Mike Maharry, who, for the purposes of full disclosure, is a Facebook friend and reader of this blog. Over the past few years, I’ve come to think of Mike as a friend — Facebook or otherwise. It made for an interesting and, I thought, pretty honest visit. (For what it’s worth, it gives me confidence for the dental appointment because Nate is someone else I’ve come to regard as a friend.)

But let me get to the point: I was worried mainly about my blood pressure and other issues I thought might be related.  On Friday anyway, my BP was 134/90, which, maybe isn’t the greatest, but it could have been worse, too.  According to the doctor, it wasn’t bad enough to put me on BP medication. At least not for now.

Instead he:

  • Told me to regard sodium as my enemy and said I should — for starters  — try to lose 5 percent of my body weight.
  • Gave me the book, Am I Hungry by Dr. Michelle May, and told me to read it.

As I mentioned, he sometimes reads this blog, so he said: “I know you’re a reader. You might benefit from reading this.”

It’s too soon to tell, but so far I think the book teaches a valuable lesson — one I’d have to agree with May is astonishingly simple, but definitely isn’t easy.

I’ll keep you posted, Dear Diary.

More follow-ups:  Nearly two months ago, I blogged about my goal to start lifting heavier weights at the Muscatine Community Y. Then, I farted around for the better part of a month before I got serious. But in the past month, I’ve been a regular.  And Saturday, I did the same workout I did on March 12, when I really started hitting the weights at the Y.

Even I have to admit I’ve made some progress — enough to keep me coming back to the weight room.

This particular workout consists of three sets of five repetitions of the bench press, squats and dead lifts.  The total amounts I lifted for each were:

Lift                                             March 30                 March 12               % increase

Squats                                       735 lbs                       575 lbs                   27.8

Bench press                             635 lbs                       525 lbs                   20.9

Dead lift                                    675 lbs                        450 lbs                  50

And that brings me to this …

Saturday, I thought it was pretty cool to lift heavier-for-me weights. I was especially pleased with my efforts in the Muscatine Community Y’s Kevin Garrison Squat Rack and at the dead lifts.

But then came Sunday and my first real outdoor bike ride of the year — a  20-miler to New Boston, Ill., in some challenging 20-25 mph crosswinds. It gives me just a little apprehension to realize RAGBRAI is only 111 days away.

Yikes. Someone, please pass the Icy Hot and the ibuprofen. I’ve got to get ready to ride again and soon.

A sure sign that summer is finally just around the corner.

A sure sign that summer is finally just around the corner. This was taken Friday at The Brew in Muscatine. I didn’t get to ride with them, but I did show up in time to take the photo.


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Giving thanks for small victories

CrossNCountry_86393_26ozTake victories where you can find them. At least that’s what I’m telling myself today.

In the past week or so, I’ve written a couple of times about my struggles with emotional eating. And that has garnered me some new blog subscribers and other readers. Welcome, all of you. I’m glad you’re here and I’m counting you today in the victory column.

To be clear, what I eat at meals is often pretty good. Far better, I’d say, than how I used to eat. It’s what I eat at other times that causes BIG problems.

But, as I already said, take victories where you find them — even if they’re small. With that in mind, I’ll point to two small victories on Sunday if for no other reason than it will help me remember them in the future.

In the past, I’ve written about a part-time job I have on the weekends. And often when I’m working, to combat boredom and the negative thoughts on which the job affords me too much time to dwell, I’ll eat one of these addictive bags of trail mix and wash it down with a Pepsi.

But trail mix is healthy, right? Maybe, but not when you scarf down the whole bag, which has somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 calories. Add in that 300-calorie bottle of Pepsi and it’s not hard to see how it becomes a problem — especially if I work Saturday and Sunday and have this 1,100-calorie snack on both days.

But on this past Sunday, when the Good Sense called out my name and tempted me, I used good sense and ignored the urge.

bean dipI was put to the test again later in the day, when I stopped at the neighborhood drug store to pick up a prescription. Because I’m one of the many Americans who doesn’t have health insurance, that prescription was going to cost me a good chunk of a week’s pay. For now, I left it there and did not get it. It was the sort of experience where normally I would have been tempted to console myself with a bag of Fritos and an entire jar of this bean dip. Now, there isn’t anything really wrong with bean dip. But if you eat an entire jar, that’s 630 calories and up to 4,000 more for a bag of the chips.  Eat that and then have a full meal in an hour or two and it’s easy to see how caloric intake gets out of whack.

But not on Sunday. Somehow, on Sunday, I said no.

Today is a new day. Wish me luck.

 


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The Other NFL

Dinner

Pork. The Other White Meat was on the menu Saturday night.

After an afternoon of judging at the National Forensic League’s Eastern Iowa District Congress tournament at West Middle School in Muscatine, I was in the mood to fix dinner at home.  More on the tournament in a bit.

I headed to the newly remodeled Hy-Vee, where I bought some asparagus, potatoes and two pork chops rolled and stuffed with apples and raisin. I brought it all home, baked the chops and the potatoes, steamed the asparagus and sauteed some onion, a red pepper and a green apple. If I say so myself, it was pretty good. Thanks to the staff at the Hy-Vee meat counter for recommending the pork chops, which were on sale for $2 each.

The other NFL …

Let me just say, there are some smart high school students in southeast Iowa.

Back in the day, my high school did not have a forensics team. Or, at least if it did, I didn’t participate. So I didn’t really know what I was getting into when Anna Payne, a math teacher and the head forensics coach at Muscatine High School, asked earlier in the week if I would help judge.

But from 1:15 to 4:15 p.m., there I sat, listening to a dozen or so students debate bills they had written on subjects ranging from a proposed tax on heavily caffeinated beverages to increased aid to Nigeria to help the African nation improve its water supply.

I judged alongside the forensics coach from Columbus Junction High School, and the coach from Burlington High School, who oversaw the whole exercise. My old reporter skills have really slipped, because I didn’t write down either of their names and now I don’t remember them. But I’d like to thank them for their patience while I figured out what the heck I was doing.

It’s safe to say I may have learned more today than many of the students did. They were an impressive bunch.


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Working to reach ‘after’

After.

After.

Before

Before

In search today before going to the gym for motivation to keep working out and trying to eat better, I found Weight Mirror. It is a visualization tool to help show people what they might look like if they lost (or gained) weight.

So I plugged in a photo that was taken  of me on Wednesday. And then I ran it through Weight Mirror, which says this is how I might look if I look if I lost another 40 pounds and then kept it off.

And then I decided to try it again.

workout

Before.

After

After

Definitely, there is less chin and neck in the doctored after pictures, which is all the incentive I need for today. So as soon as I post this, I’ll be heading to the Muscatine Community Y to throw around some weights.

And I’ll keep working to watch what I eat. On that front, I’ve worked hard in the past two weeks to not eat anything after 8 p.m. I wrote recently about my bad habit of emotional eating. Since then, I’ve learned from friends that many of them share this problem, which, for me, seems really to be a problem at night. I’ve been reminded of what it’s like to wake up hungry after a successful night of not eating after 8:00 so, I think, it’s helping.

Also this week, I took some big steps, for me, in the effort to improve my overall health. I scheduled an appointment with a Muscatine friend, who usually reads this blog and just happens to be a medical doctor. I’m to see him next Friday. It’s been awhile since I’ve been to a doc and I just need to get checked out.  I’ve been thinking about it ever since watching “Chow Down” the other night. It was even more effective than before and after pictures when it comes to pushing a fat guy to keep trying.

And while I was making appointments, I called another friend who just happens to be a dentist. Well, first, I call his mother. She is also a friend and a dental hygienist. It’s been even longer since I’ve been to a dentist, but I’ll be plopping down into one of Nate Olson’s chairs on May 23 and May 28 unless there is a cancellation and I get called in sooner. Or unless I chicken out.

The latter could happen.

I’ve always had an irrational fear and dislike for dentists. But I’m tired of worrying about my teach. I’m also tired of being embarrassed by them. My teeth have always been dark — mostly likely because of the tetracycline my mom was given when she was pregnant with me. I’m hoping Nate might have some suggestions on how to give me a slightly whiter smile — one that might match the dimples my mother also gave to me.

In the meantime, I’ll keep plugging away at reaching goals I’ve set for myself.

poster

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