Hacking Combinatorial Abundance (and Cheat Days)

The cooler days that are signaling the dwindling down of summer and autumn’s approach are here. There are fewer days are left to enjoy my beverages outside, and to dangle in the hammock to read. I’m dying a little already in knowing that. I’m still healing my legs; so I haven’t done as much running lately. I’ve been cutting back both in frequency and intensity from what my program mandates. Thankfully, there have been fewer cracking and snapping noises coming from my hips and legs since I opted to tune it down. I mustered up the gumption to try for six kilometers last Thursday after a bit of a lapse. My substitute exercise after that has simply been longer walks with the dog. Saturday and Sunday was left for me to build a meal plan as the rain came.

As I said in my last entry, I’ve got a new eating/menu plan going on*, and in an effort to not feel desperately deprived, I’m taking advantage of starting it during this season with its bounty of newly harvested local fresh vegetables. I don’t know what is working better: the actual eating plan and eating things that have their peak nutritional content, or just because the extra heat and stress last week was killing my appetite, but I’ve lost eight pounds of mass without even doing much of anything. Whether it’s loss of actually body fat or from dehydration is debatable. Pounds lie all the time.

One thing that I bring to mind which gives me comfort and confidence for being able to stick to the plan is mathematics: more specifically, being mindful of combinations and permutations. In the same way that I determined that a reckless and unorthodox science geek/recipe buster like me will never make or eat the same kind of homemade soup or pizza twice, I reasoned that I should never feel deprived if take into account of utilizing even a small set of healthy ingredients (and omitting the junk carbs) that conforms to my plan, and by playing with the various combinations of them, resulting in hundreds, if not thousands, of unique recipes. Within all that, there have to be some options in there somewhere that are not only low-carb, high-fibre, high-vitamin, and high in protein, but delicious as well, and . . .  most importantly, will allow me to be less bored and frustrated with eating within these limitations. I should have added a subtitle above: How to diet without going totally f^%!ing insane!

Does that sound impossible to do? No, it really isn’t, is the answer. However, it’s sobering to realize that I’m more of a fixed habitual eater than I care to admit, and I have to learn to think outside the box more than I already do. How do I approach them, these changes I mean? I do the following things, with numerical reckonings by the use of a tool like the Supercook website (www.supercook.com). Simply input all the ingredients you have (or should be eating), and then let the automation take care of generating all the possible/plausible options you have for yourself. I thought my fridge and pantry were almost bare, until I plugged in the items of my inventory, and had over 6000 recipes listed for me with just those things.

Breakfast: The major habit change is early morning. I may not eat most of my carbs in the morning, but the way I eat them (or rather having the absence of them) is a radical change. I don’t fancy pancakes, so they are no loss to me. Neither is hot or cold cereal**. However, no toast for six days of the week though, that is a challenge for me. Bread is my most frequently used vehicle for eating carbohydrates, and to eat eggs without toast or English muffins, without being able to pile them with my eggs and other fixings on this platform, is like some sort of sacrilege of my ritual for me.
The remedy is scrambled eggs or omelettes about three or four times a week. There are countless ways to fill an omelette even with the ingredients and condiments I already have; scrambled eggs are one of those dishes that appear in some form in all international cuisines, each with its own ethnic signature. Lots of healthful options there; so I shouldn’t feel at all lacking in anything***.

Lunch: It’s easier to think of options for this, since it is already largely a part of my lifestyle. Mindful and simple advanced preparation is a bonus about it too. Twenty minutes of prep time at the most is all I need to make about five or six meal portions with my chop/slop/plop/drop-in-a-crockpot method of cooking. Anything with meat, vegetables, beans and lentils in it to poach, braise, or stew is fair game. I have a good stockpile of frozen healthy homemade soups as well. Raw salads, pickles, and fermented vegetables take care of the rest.

Supper: Another difficult phase because I’m at work, and there isn’t the stock of spices or ingredients that I like that I have at home. Lots of processed, trans-fat laden, and preserved food is there. Meals were brought from home instead most of the time at the last go around. I just have to be a little more mindful to check their menu in advance.

Bad Carb Plan: Being not the wasteful sort, I choose to cook and process any remaining “white” carbs and sugars around the kitchen into stuff that can be refrigerated or frozen, and eaten on the

Something I made to throw into the
"bad carb" bank for cheat day:
A Caramel and Apple Cheesecake . . .
to be thawed out for my birthday.

designated “cheat day”. See below.

Cheat Day: The holy of holies - a no-holds-barred orgy of gluttony for one day of the week (I choose Saturday). During the week, one banks the cravings. One can note them on a list or use a snapshot to record all the not-so-go-for-you food, and other diet violators into your own personal collection of food porn. It is the day when I could go to any restaurant without guilt, or drink alcohol more liberally if I so choose to. During the cheat day, you may also discover or do these things:

·         At the end of the week, you may notice that most of your craving targets earlier in the week were just passing fancies, and most of the stuff you noted or stuck in an album back then doesn’t turn your crank now. Whatever is left on there that you are just dying for is conveniently there to transfer to a grocery list, or is already cached in your freezer, and with the impulsivity element tamed and taken away, you will also save some time and money.

·         You may realize just how boring white carbs, all by themselves, really are. Just think about it - they are rarely consumed without some other flavouring: bread, potatoes, rice, tortillas, and pasta usually need to be enhanced with fat, sweetness, salt, meat, or zesty/savory/spicy sauces. When it does come to my cheat day, white carbs aren’t really the first things that come to mind when I want to binge on something, it’s the flavouring or seasoning in the sauce or other fixings on that pizza, or in the rice bowl, or on that potato chip, or in that pie shell. Targeting the flavours you crave, but not the carbs, is something to bring to mind for the next shopping trip or the next six days of the week.

·         Learn the easy way – while eating your bad foods, you may discover that you just can’t eat as much as you usually could, because your stomach will have shrank a bit during the first six or so days. You, by default, then are automatically and willingly reducing your own calorie intake, but you at least get enough of a taste of what makes you happy. Or, you may . . .

·        Learn the hard way – that is you up end ignoring your stomach signals, and go out on a full-blown rampage of a barbarous binge fest. The indigestion and the pain and discomfort of a near-bursting gut that you experience afterward from trying to overstuff your shrunken belly is enough to dissuade you from eating like that ever again for a long while, and you may approach the next six days with exercising a lot more self-control and discipline. In comparing people to jackasses: some people just can’t learn to move forward by following the carrot; they need to be beaten with the stick instead.

Eagerly Anticipated Cheat Day Foods (for the next ten Saturdays, at least****): Beer, Toast, Rye Bread, English Muffins, Liver Varenyky, Pho Soup, Homemade Pizza, Homemade Perogies, Piroshky, Spring rolls, Bagels and Cream Cheese, Kvass, Empanadas, Enchiladas, Croissants from Christine’s Bakery, Tacos, Linguini alla Vongoli, Sushi, Potato Pancakes, Battered and Deep Fried Pike, Dim Sum Buns, Cabbage Rolls, Whiskey, Ice Cream, Cheese Cake. But, as I said . . . these cravings too may pass.   

*- In hopes to peel off some weight to take more pressure and wear off my joints passively. Actually, to be more accurate, I’m redeploying an old plan that was successful for me: The Slow-Carb Diet™, from the book, The 4-Hour Body, by Timothy Ferriss.

**- A little bit of a cheat is eating course milled grain (like steel cut oats) porridge. I only eat it on the mornings when I do a longer course of running/walking. I don’t use milk or sugar though. I may throw in some yogurt after it’s cooked. I make it with a thinner consistency, and it’s flavoured by cooking it my slow cooker over night with cinnamon sticks, nuts, and other sweet spices (cloves, cardamom, poppy or chia seeds, walnuts, almonds, etc.). Enough is made for three running days of the week, which includes Cheat Day Saturday.

***- Around the World in 44 Flavor Combinations on pages 148-149, in The 4 - Hour Chef, by Timothy Ferriss, is an example of different ways to eat eggs with an ethnic flare. Including them with the combinations of ingredients I currently have in my fridge, pantry, and cupboards to add to and make omelettes, I have about 687 different variations to experiment with: more than a couple of years’ worth of breakfasts that are in compliance to this regimen.

****- Hopefully my legs, hips, and feet will be fully healed by then.