hurricanes in ohio? and other news.

so i've been out of touch with the news that past few days. i was in NC for my brother's MBA graduation, then had a crap-busy day at work on Monday. i didn't hear about the "hurricane" in ohio until late last night! yikes! i called mom and dad this morning, and they are fine. they have a generator, which they are using to power the fridge and freezers... and they are living in the camper, since it uses much less power than the whole house. fun! still no power, but they are thinking of it as extended camping. wow. i still can't get over it. hurricane in ohio.

anyway!

so today is day three of a self-imposed "no refined sugar, no refined flour" diet. i did it a few years ago, in the month leading up to halloween. i lost about 7 pounds, then went on a tootsie-roll-dorito-pizza extravaganza for a week and never looked back. the fridge and cupboards were bare, and i needed to stock up on essentials - what better time to clean the slate and try again? i can't do no-carbs, because i like a little starch. and i can't do it forever, because i love bread. but for a short while, it's a good challenge.

monday:
breakfast - oatmeal with skim milk, coffee
lunch - seaweed salad, miso soup, futo maki roll
dinner - turkey sausage and potato pancake with cabbage, peas

tuesday:
breakfast - puffed rice cereal with skim, apple, coffee
lunch - green salad with feta, green beans, 1/2 grilled chicken breast, fresh fruit (catered at work!)
dinner - zucchini cut into long strands like pasta, steamed; sauce of fresh tomatoes and red peppers, with ground turkey, olives

for snacks and guilty-pleasures, i can have popcorn (whole grain)... potato chips (hey, they're just potatoes, right?)... cheese... apples... and other assorted, more boring stuff.

last time i did this, i cut out all artificial sweeteners. and coffee and all caffeine. i think that was a swell idea, but sometimes i just want something sweet and that became a deal-breaker. so this time i am allowing sugar-free hot chocolate and sugar free pudding, if i reeeeeaaally need it. and coffee. last night i had sugar free cook-n-serve tapioca pudding, with a cinnamon stick boiled in. it was worth the chemicals, let me tell you. i can only find sugar-free cook-n-serve in two kinds - chocolate and tapioca. the cook-n-serve taste (i.e. slightly toasty) hides most of the sugar-free taste. try it. you'll like it.

we are going to a Nationals game tonight. let's see if i can find anything to eat there.... yikes! i suppose a hotdog, sans bun? some chili? this could prove to be interesting.

it's too bad all i can think about are pancakes like these - jess, i think these look right up your alley. sort of like those nifty breakfast muffin thingies you make and then freeze. make some, then mail them to me in approximately one month. :)