NEWEST CHICAGO WHOLE FOODS STARTING TO TAKE SHAPE

I have a few favorite supermarkets: Hy-Vee, Mariano's, Kroger, Fresh Thyme, and Whole Foods. So many people who I speak to always tell me how difficult it must be for me to eat on the road. It can be difficult. However, during the past 15 months I have discovered that there are plenty of places to make a great salad - and it is these types of markets that offer that option.  The newest Whole Foods that will open some time in 2017 is finally starting to take shape at the triple corners of Ashland/Lincoln/Belmont Avenues in Chicago.  This two story structure will be the second largest Whole Foods in Chicago.  Basically, it is moving across the street from a much smaller store which has been in the neighborhood since 1996.  A few months back this blog posted a photo of the empty lot.  Things are finally starting to take shape (literally).

This is what Chicago's newest Whole Foods looks like now

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This is what Chicago's newest Whole Foods will look like in one year

The first time I spoke of this new location was Tuesday, July 7, 2015.  The title of that blog post was:
TWO THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2017.  Aside from looking forward to a new Whole Foods in 2017, I was speaking about how I was looking forward to a new President in 2017 as well. If Donald Trump gets the nomination for the Republican Party - I will no longer be looking forward to the Presidential Election at all. A November general election between two progressive Democrats will not make me very enthusiastic.

Your Food Diary For:

Monday, March 7, 2016

BREAKFAST	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
2 Egg Omelette With Ham and Cheese, 1 Omelette	383	2	21	32	810	2
Kirkland - Pre-Cooked Bacon, 6 slices	240	0	18	18	1,050	0
Homemade - Egg and Cheese Sandwich, 1 sandwich	260	28	11	14	550	2
	883	30	50	64	2,410	4
L U N C H
EARTHBOUND FARM - ORGANIC BABY SPINACH, 85 g (approx 3 oz, two cups)	20	0	0	2	65	0
Louis Kemp - Crab Delights Leg Style, 3 legs (85g)	70	11	0	6	430	1
Roundy's - Sliced Beets, 1/2 cup	40	8	0	1	250	6
Hard Boiled Egg, 1 Large Egg (50 g)	78	1	5	6	62	1
DRIED MANGO SLICES	220	56	0	4	2	40
	428	76	5	19	809	48
D I N N E R
Spaghetti With Meat Sauce	320	84	2	14	0	0
	320	84	2	14	0	0
S N A C K S
Malt O Meal - Honey Nut Scooters	240	48	3	6	420	18
YOGURT PRETZELS	190	28	0	2	180	19
ORGANIC SOY NUTS ROASTED & SALTED	300	21	17	23	105	3
	730	97	20	31	705	40
Totals	2,361	286	76	128	3,924	92
Your Daily Goal	5,753	719	191	288	2,300	215
Remaining	3,392	432	114	160	-1,623	123
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
	*You've earned 3,823 extra calories from exercise today

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       Your Exercise Diary for:

Monday, March 7, 2016

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Walking, 4.5 mph, very, very brisk pace	40	636
PRECOR AMT (ADAPTIVE MOTION TRAINER)	125	2,241
Walking, 5.0 mph	17	638
Walking, 4.0 mph, very brisk pace	17	176
Walking, 5.0 mph	9	137
MFP iOS calorie adjustment	N/A	-5
Daily Total / Goal	209 / 30	3,823 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	209 / 210	3,823 / 4,130

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total calories consumed 2361 calories

total calories burned (elliptical) 3828 calories

total net 1467 calorie defecit

. . . . . . . . . . .   

fitbit day 187

30134 steps  
. . . . . . . ...

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I have been talking about it for weeks now... While I have continued to congratulate myself for maintaining a rigorous adherence to a workout schedule - I have definitely 'dropped the ball' when it comes to curbing my appetite.  One problem is that it true that one who works out, increases one's one appetite which can negate the whole point of working out in the first place. But here's the thing.  At one point, I will get it together.... and....

It might be a few days before I get this 'bitmoji' thing out of my system....!

MARC @ MARC'S

In the past few months I have visited and discovered some fabulous regional grocery stores around the country.  In my old lifestyle I almost never visited a grocery store.  Yesterday, I visited a store that had a what I thought was a catchy name.  I ended up buying some flavored waters and when I checked out I couldn't figure out why my credit card was not being accepted.  It turns out that this particular chain accepts cash, checks or Discover Card only.  One must admit that that is a bit odd.

On my current trip to Ohio, I specifically selected a hotel that purported to have a fitness room.   Upon arrival at this Howard Johnson's (which turned out to be re-branded Baymont Inn) I was advised that the Fitness Room was closed.  Although I had not pre-checked to see if any YMCA's were close by - I did find one within 4 miles of my hotel.   I was able to fit in a 95 minute session on an elliptical machine in the evening.

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 Tuesday MENU

breakfast  oatmeal, poached eggs, bacon, rice cakes                       386 calories
lunch        salad bar, oat n' honey bar                                               690 calories
dinner       peas, papaya, chewy ginger, sesame crunch, veg chips  938 calories
SNACK   rice cakes, apples                                                             706 calories
  

total calories consumed 3171 calories

calories burned

YMCA elliptical machine 95 minutes, level 20 resistance, level 20 incline,  1238 calories

CALORIES BURNED 1238 CALORIES

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Tuesday net calories 1933 calories

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PIZZA PARTY

I accomplished two BIG things yesterday.

1. I managed to satisfy my craving to enjoy some pizza
2. I managed to string together one consecutive day of under 1000 calories!

For the past few weeks and months - I have let my appetite and my food cravings swerve out of control.  It was not a total abdication of the program but I was starting to really turn in the wrong direction.  I absolutely needed to prove to myself that I could summon the willpower necessary to get through the day without consuming 3000+ calories.  The funny thing about this was that since I woke up yesterday morning with this goal - it was not so difficult.   Please remember, IT IS ALWAYS EASIER TO EAT WHATEVER ONE WANTS - but it is likewise NOT SO difficult to cut back if one desires.

Since December 24th, 2014 I have not had a hamburger.  Considering that I used to average eating 6 or 7 hamburgers per day - this was no small lifestyle change.  I also have refrained from eating pizza. That particular itch needed to be scratched.  While shopping in Mariano's Market, one of the sample stations had a tasty low calorie boxed pizza for their customers to try.  I tasted it and it was quite good.  And with that one taste, my dinner was decided.   I ate only enough to maintain my extreme low calorie consumption for the day.

I am not sure if having 1/2 of a boxed pizza qualifies as a Pizza Party - but from my perspective, it did!

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 Wednesday MENU

breakfast   John McCann Steel Cut Oat Meal                                   300 calories
lunch         Organic Baby Spinach Salad w/hearts of palm, tomato    80 calories
dinner        1/2 Roundy's Organic four cheese pizza, chicken broth  470 calories
SNACK     one apple, corn thin                                                          123 calories

total calories consumed  973 calories

calories burned

HOME STAR TRAC ELLIPTICAL 92 minutes, level 20                     2260 calories

CALORIES BURNED 2260 CALORIES

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Tuesday net calories NEGATIVE 1287 calories

Yesterday, my net calories consumed was MINUS 1287

AND WHILE WE ARE ON THE SUBJECT OF THE NUMBER 1287....HERE IS A COMPLETELY USELESS FACT:

A famously long sentence in Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner contains 1,287 words.

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It has been so long since I have had an actual LOW CALORIE salad - THIS SALAD WAS ONLY 80 CALORIES!
This salad was simple, spinach with hearts of palm and tomato - NOTHING ELSE!

one half pizza is only 450 calories - and that was my dinner (although I did add a chicken broth soup as well)

from wikipedia:

The 1983 Guinness Book of World Records claims the "Longest Sentence in Literature" is a sentence from Absalom, Absalom! containing 1,288 words. The sentence can be found in Chapter 6; it begins with the words "Just exactly like father", and ends with "the eye could not see from any point". The passage is entirely italicized and incomplete. Some claim that the Guinness Book of World Records is wrong about the longest sentence. The Molly Bloom soliloquy at the end of James Joyce's "Ulysses," is 4,391 words, not to mention dozens of stream of consciousness novels such as Bohumil Hrabal's Dancing Lessons for the Advanced Age which is an entire novel written in one 13000 word sentence. However, it should be understood that Absalom, Absalom! has the longest grammatically correct sentence in literature, whereas a sentence like Molly Bloom's soliloquy is really just many sentences with no punctuation.

HY-VEE SALAD BAR

Hy-Vee is a regional chain of supermarkets. Hy-Vee operates more than 230 retail stores in eight Midwestern states, including Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Yesterday for dinner I visited a Hy-Vee to sample their salad bar.  Since I have learned which foods are both healthy and low calorie I was able to create a salad which was quite a delicious meal.  I don't know precisely how many calories it was - so I have conservatively picked 300 calories which is a high number.  The greens of the salad were spinach leaves and they are very low in calorie.  I added mushrooms, onions, tomatoes.  I also added some imitation crab, some chicken, ham and turkey.   There are all fairly low calorie foods.  For salad dressing I used my zero calories salad dressing that I travel with.  So even though, I had a large portion of salad, it hard to imagine that the calorie content would have exceeded 300 calories.  Before I leave Madison, Wisconsin today, I intend to stop again and make another of these delicious salads.

TUESDAY MENU
breakfast   cup steel cut oatmeal w/prune, two poached eggs, two slices turkey 'bacon'    505 calories
lunch        JIMMY JOHN'S BOOTLEGGER UNWICH  w/Pickle, 28 ALMONDS
                 spinach salad w/beets, tomato, mushrooms, hearts of palm                               509 calories
dinner      HY-VEE salad bar spinach, tomato, mushroom, onion, imitation crab,
                turkey, ham, chicken with Zero Calorie Dressing                                               300 calories

TOTAL CALORIES CONSUMED 1314 CALORIES

calories burned
MADISON YMCA elliptical 40 minutes 420 calories

TUESDAY NET CALORIES 894 CALORIES

               

LOST TURKEY

Regular readers of this blog know that I reported this past Saturday that I had lost 24 lbs in 24 days.   I am currently only weighing myself once per week so although I assume that I have continued to make progress - I can offer no evidence of additional progress at this time.

There is a reason why I am resisting the urge to weigh myself daily.  Seven years ago when I did lose 80 lbs (before I added them all back on and tacked on nine more for good luck) I did weigh myself daily.  One's weight can fluctuate a pound or two within a 24 hour period.  It would sour my mood to hop onto the scale and discover that my weight had bounced back up a pound or even two pounds over 24 hours.  I have removed this annoyance by weighing myself only weekly.

Over the three day holiday weekend I was focusing on just how much weight 24 lbs really is.   I found my answer at Mariano's Supermarket in Chicago when I was shopping with my family on Sunday.   I am posting a picture of me holding a 23 lb turkey.   As you can see, it requires two hands to hold it.   This turkey represents the amount of weight that I have lost.  It does appear that the additional spring in my step is not my imagination. You try carting around a 23 lb turkey all day and all night and see how debilitating it is.  Conversely, if one is freed from the burden of carrying an extra 24 lbs, the increased energy and zest for life skyrockets.

The thing is....
I am planning on LOSING THREE MORE TURKEYS (and maybe a couple of hens!)

Holding a 23 lb turkey.  I can't imagine carting this around all day.  No wonder I am lighter on my feet these days.

Tuesday started off well.  I woke up early and spent one hour on the treadmill before breakfast.

I made a mistake during the day when I ordered lunch at Applebee's.

Previously I had found something on the Applebee's nutrition website that I wanted to try.

A Grilled Shrimp 'n Spinach Salad should have been only 260 CALORIES.

(I failed to note that this is the calorie count without the dressing.)

When the salad came with dressing, it was absolutely fantastic - and I ate it....

The calories for this with the dressing is a whopping 500 calories.
I will not make that mistake again.
Lunch was more calories than I had planned.
I cut down on dinner to keep under 1000 calories for the day.

From now on, every time I order a salad - I will always ask the for the dressing on the side.

When I arrived home, I jumped back on the treadmill for another hour.

TUESDAY MENU

BREAKFAST   three poached eggs with two slices of turkey 'bacon'                                                                         280 CALORIES
LUNCH            APPLEBEE'S GRILLED SHRIMP 'n SALAD w/dressing                                                                        500 CALORIES
DINNER           3 Cups Baby Spinach w/two tablespoons of Marie's Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing         
                         Trader Joe's 1 cup Chicken Noodle Soup with veggies                                                                       175 CALORIES       
                               
 TOTAL CALORIC CONSUMPTION TUESDAY        955 CALORIES

Total calories burned during 2 hours of exercise 1200 CALORIES

NET CALORIC INTAKE WAS NEGATIVE 245 CALORIES

I am looking forward to stepping onto my scale on Saturday.