Category Archives: Fish

Better Balanced Meals

Posted on May 18, 2011 by inmytummy| 22 Comments

I had a mild freak out this past weekend when I went to try on a bunch of clothes and none of them fit. These weren’t clothes from five years ago, these were clothes that fit me last summer. I sat down with Jason and we tried to figure out a plan for me to fit into my clothes again.

You may remember that I tried Weight Watchers for a little bit. I never really blogged about it much because I stopped doing it. I kept going over my allotted points (perhaps the problem) and I didn’t like all of the tracking and counting.

My main issue that’s lead to weight gain, I think, is my snacking. Here’s a great example: For lunch on Saturday, I ate half a frozen Publix pizza (roughly 450 calories). After I ate the pizza, I ate a slice of bread, 2 pieces of cheese, a chocolate square and some nuts. Is this bingeing? I don’t know. But whatever you want to call it, it’s not making my clothes any looser.

In the past, I’ve had the most success when I think about what I’m eating instead of how much I’m eating. Jason pointed out that maybe the reason that I get so snacky is that I’m not eating satisfying meals. That made sense to me. I mean, the pizza – all carbs basically, right? And during the day, my breakfast and lunches are maybe 300 calories each. No wonder I’m hungry! Couple that with a carby snack and I’m just not full or satisfied. I think I do well on a higher-fat, higher-protein, lower-carb diet. LowER not low. Definitely not low carb!

So I started to track my food again. But not to try to keep under a certain calorie goal like in the past. Instead, I am really concerned with eating balanced meals. I’m going to make sure that I get enough protein and fat and I’m not just eating carbs, which I tend to do. I think if my three main meals are closer to 500 calories, or even a little more for dinner, I won’t be shoving random snacks into my mouth multiple times a day.

I’ve been testing my theory this week and so far, so good. I got home from the gym tonight and even though I was hungry, I waited until dinner was ready to eat. Actually, that’s not true, I snacked on some roasted seaweed snacks before dinner, but those don’t really count in my mind. For dinner, we had Szechuan Tuna Steaks with Asian Spinach with Peanut Ginger Sauce from Clean Start.

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This meal was very satisfying and I don’t have the desire to snack afterward, like normal.

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Posted in Fish, Weight Loss

Not a Great Meal

Posted on January 31, 2011 by inmytummy| 12 Comments

Our Spring-like weather didn’t last and today was raining and gross out. I was a bit sore from yoga, especially my neck for some reason, and thought about skipping my workout, but ultimately decided to go. There were only two miles on the training plan so it was pretty easy to convince myself to go. I ran the first mile at 6.0mph and the second at 6.2mph. My natural pace is probably more around 5.8mph and I keep telling myself that if I want to get faster, I need to run faster. Running at 6.2mph isn’t easy for me, but it’s not impossible. I just have to keep making myself run at that speed and maybe one day, it will feel like my natural pace.

After the gym, I stopped at Whole Foods and picked up some salmon. Even though WF is out of the way, I wanted to make sure that if I was eating fish, I was making a sustainable choice and I didn’t think I could do that at Kroger. I bought Alaskan Wild Coho salmon and used this recipe minus the onion because I didn’t feel like cutting it up.

With the salmon, I also made Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash.

It was a pretty dinner, but I wasn’t really a fan. The salmon had bones in it which I didn’t like. I think that my six months of vegetarianism last year really changed my eating habits. Even though I do eat fish and seafood a little bit now, it just doesn’t taste as good to me anymore. Even sushi, while still good, doesn’t have the same appeal. I didn’t even eat all the salmon. The apples from the squash were good but the actual squash was kind of bland.

Oh well. I tried. Dinner fails are bound to happen, right?

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Posted in Fish, Running

All Kinds of Random Thoughts

Posted on January 8, 2011 by inmytummy| 20 Comments

I was a pescatarian, meaning I only ate fish and seafood and no other meat, for something like six years. Then I briefly ate chicken again, went fully vegetarian and finally settled on pescatarianism again.

But I’ve noticed something. I seem to have lost the taste for seafood. Two of the things that I really missed when I was vegetarian were sushi and mussels. I have had sushi a handful of times since then and it seems like half the time I feel sick in the middle of the night and the other half, I just don’t like it as much.

My friend Jamie and I went to Twains on Thursday night for dinner and I ordered mussels.

Granted, it might not have been the best idea to order mussels from a brewery. But I didn’t think about that and ordered them anyway and they were gross. Now, I know that mussels can be bad and maybe these were, but I’m seeing a pattern here when it comes to eating seafood. I don’t really like it.

Maybe I’m destined to be a vegetarian. Or maybe I should stop trying to label my eating habits.

We’re supposed to get a huge snowstorm here tomorrow night. Huge being 6 inches. Considering the fact that Atlanta pretty much shuts down when we get one inch of snow, it’ll be really interesting to see what happens if we actually get six. Honestly, I’m a bit apprehensive. Not because I’m worried about the actual snow, I like snow, but because if it does snow, Jason will have to go into work and work some crazy amount of hours (he works for the news station) and I worry about him driving and all of that. Plus, I won’t get to see him much. It’s put me in a bad mood all day.

Despite my mood, I decided to risk it and go grocery shopping. Surprisingly, Kroger wasn’t that much of a madhouse. It was busier than a typical Saturday night, but not too bad considering the Snowpocolypse that we’re supposed to be getting. While other people filled their carts with bread and milk, I filled mine with Lee emergency necessities – refried beans, salsa, Vitamin Water Zero, Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli, Veggie Burgers and diet coke for Jason.

When I got home, I realized that I hadn’t planned very well and didn’t really have much to make a proper dinner, so I made a Mexican casserole of sorts.

Cheese, refried beans, corn, salsa, baked chips, avocado and olives. I realize that while this isn’t particularly high in calories, it’s not the most healthy of meals. Where are my vegetables? I should have cooked my emergency brussels sprouts and broccoli to go with it.

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Posted in Atlanta, Atlanta Restaurants, Fish, Vegetarian Meal

Sushi Chefs

Posted on December 18, 2010 by inmytummy| 25 Comments

I did something fun and different last night.

What’s so fun and different about eating sushi, you ask? We made it ourselves! Our friends Emily and Brian invited us over to have a sushi making party.

We had tuna, salmon and imitation crab as well as green onions, zucchini, cucumber and carrots. Brian cooked some sushi rice in his rice cooker and then put some vinegar on it and let it cool. After it cooled, we patted the rice down on some seaweed, put our fillings in and rolled it up.

We took turns making the rolls and I think they turned out great, especially considering Jason and I had never done this before. Take a look at our handiwork.

Pretty professional looking if you ask me! I really enjoyed doing this. I find that most of my social life involves going to restaurants and it was a really nice break to actually cook in someone’s house.

In other news, In My Tummy got a bit of a makeover. Please click over if you are reading in a reader to check it out. I decided that since I’m a graphic designer by profession, there was no reason that my blog needed to be so ugly! So I switched it up a bit. I’m happy with the results. Looks much friendlier.

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Posted in Fish, Friends

Weights at Lunch

Posted on December 6, 2010 by inmytummy| 9 Comments

I go to the gym during my lunch break two to three times a week. I usually go when I know that I have plans at night but sometimes I just go when I don’t have anything to do. It’s always nice to be able to go straight home after work, especially when it’s 33 degrees out like it was tonight.

I sometimes run when I go to the gym at lunch, but usually I do not. If I do weights instead, I don’t have to shower. I know, gross, but I really don’t sweat much and I do put on deodorant afterward! It’s always nice to get a weight lifting session in. I find that in 30 minutes, I can do about 8 different exercises – 3 sets of each. I try to split up upper and lower body and find exercises that hit each muscle. I don’t know if I am doing a good job of that, but this is what I did today:

1. pushups on a stability ball – 3 sets of 12
2. arnold press – 20 lbs, 3 sets of 12
3. dumbbell bent over low – 24 lbs, 3 sets of 12
4. dumbbell lateral raise – 16 lbs, 3 sets of 8 (I hate shoulders!)
5. assisted chin up – 100 lbs assisted, 3 sets of 8
6. back raise – 3 sets of 12
7. cable tricep overhead press – 22.5 lbs, 3 sets of 12
8. hammer curl – 24 lbs, 3 sets of 12

Am I missing anything?

Since I was able to go straight home after work, I was able to get a head start on dinner and we ate at a normal hour, instead of after 8, which is what usually happens when I work out after work. Even though I prefer to cook vegetarian at home, Jason has been requesting fish, so I made Baked Cod with Boursin Herb Cheese from allrecipes.com Except mine was Baked Cod with Goat Cheese. I went to Trader Joe’s yesterday and while they did have Boursin cheese, they didn’t have the light variety so I went with goat cheese, which I think has a similar taste. I also did not use the butter that this recipe called for. I simply sprayed the pan with cooking spray.

With the fish, I also cooked some brussels sprouts. Brussels sprouts are one of my favorite vegetables. I didn’t even like them until maybe a year ago. I think I’d only had them steamed or boiled and that’s not the best way to cook them. I remembered a recent post of Emily’s featuring brussels sprouts so I went back to look at it and realized that I had all the ingredients in my cabinets. So I made her Asian Sesame Glazed Brussels Sprouts to go with the fish.

You might be wondering what that Rice Krispie treat looking thing on the plate is.

It’s not a rice krispie treat, although I do like those, but a Baked Rice Snack from the freezer section at Trader Joe’s. I’d never had them before and thought they sounded interesting. It basically just tasted like a rice patty.

I think the brussels sprouts were the highlight of the meal. Even though I’m eating fish and seafood again, I just don’t seem to have the same taste for it anymore.