Archive for the ‘Wegman’s’ Category

On the right track

Posted: June 25, 2012 in Bariatric surgery, Exercise, Food porn, The Management, Wegman's, Weight loss
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Greetings from the land of the slimmer!

I had an appointment this morning with the exercise physiologist and dietitian at the bariatric center. First thing, I got weighed. It was a cool 368 lbs. That’s a vast improvement over my last visit to the clinic for group where the number was 380. So, 12 pounds in about three weeks. Much better. The funny thing is that before you can have surgery, they ask that you lose 10 pounds. Guess I took care of that.

The first part of my appointment was with the exercise guy. I found Ryan to be very upbeat and encouraging. He was impressed by my walking regimen and wants me to keep it up. He also set up some appointments for me in their fitness center. It’s not big, but they only have six people at a time in there. They have shower facilities and most importantly, Ryan and/or Cory are there to show you how to exercise and lift weights safely and correctly. I start with a one hour session on Thursday and I’m really looking forward to it. Apparently, one of the risks with bariatric surgery is the  loss of muscle mass. As such, they want to build it up so you don’t lose all of what you have.

Cedar plank roasted Copper River salmon with mushroom risotto and steamed broccoli

Following my appointment with Ryan, I met Cory, the other physiologist. Then it was off to meet the dietitian, Shauna. She also seemed to be very supportive and was pleased with some of the dietary progress I’ve made. She was pleased to hear that both The Management and myself like to cook, and she was really pleased with last night’s dinner. We were at Wegman’s on Friday and I managed to pick up some Copper River salmon. I roasted it on a cedar plank with a sheen of olive oil, fresh ground pepper and sea salt on top. To go along with it, I made a mushroom risotto and steamed broccoli. The Management approved.

Today’s route.

So, I also added a new track to my walking playlist. I think my hair band loving friends will like it. Many might remember an 80’s hair band called Warrant. They were in the news in the past couple of years thanks to the death of lead singer Jani Lane. So, this weekend, XM 80s on 8 was playing a countdown from 1989 and Warrant’s little known track, Down Boys came on. It was very catchy and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. It sets a pretty good pace and I’m kind of scared to check my feet, because I might have overdone it a little. I did manage to walk about half of the Red Rose Commons perimeter. This gets me a little closer to my goal.

The one constant today is that everyone assures me I’m on the right track. It’s not easy, but when I saw 36_ instead of 37_, well, that’s a nice motivator. I’d love to have a 35_ next time. We shall see.

I almost forgot a title…

Posted: June 11, 2012 in Cooking, diabetes, family, The Beetus, Wegman's, Weight loss
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Today was a kitchen day. It didn’t start out to be, but it certainly ended up as such.

For whatever reason, I thought about making my own pico de gallo, but I started out with a little tomato, mozzarella and basil salad. Nothing to that… just dice up some Roma tomatoes, put them in a bowl with some cubed mozzarella (use part skim mozzarella for a little more health benefit), them I add just plain Italian salad dressing and some basil (fresh, if I have it, dried if not). Cover the bowl after tossing the salad, put it in the fridge, and it’ll be ready to go in an hour or so.

I followed that up by seeding and dicing more tomatoes and some red onion. I’ve never attempted to make pico before, but I’ve had it enough to figure out what I need. Just not sure if I got the proportions right. I also don’t have any cilantro, so I let the tomatoes and onions soak in the lime juice and will add cilantro when I get to the store. I know it needs to sit awhile, so no worries.

One tip, if you’re going to make something like this, make sure you seed the tomatoes. If not, you have a mess. It’s really easy to do. Just quarter a tomato and use a spoon to scrape out the seeds. It’s really easy with Roma tomatoes, since they don’t have much in the of seeds to begin with.

The other task I undertook was to make some marinated sirloin for burrito use. I looked at a few recipes and decided to improvise. I took a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, pureed them in a blender, then I forced them through a strainer to get rid of the seeds. To this puree, I added half of a red onion, some cumin, oregano, garlic and black pepper, ran it through the blender, dumped it in plastic bag with some sirloin tenders we located on clearance at the Greatest Grocery Store on the Planet. Picked the steak up on a good deal as it was about to hit its sell-by date. I’ll let the meat marinade overnight and grill it up on the morning to see what happens. Truffles, however, were NOT a good deal. Seems like the price fluctuates with the season.

In other news, we picked up a lot of ingredients to make a food contribution for a project we have in the offing. I’m cooking up a baked pasta dish with a choice of meat sauce or marinara sauce. That little project will keep us busy the next couple of weeks. I’m kind of doing it on the fly, but it’s pasta. Hard to mess that up.

Blood glucose reading this morning was 114. Pretty happy with that. It’s staying a lot more stable, which is a good thing. It was fluctuating wildly for a few months, plus, I wasn’t checking it as regularly as I should have been. Gotta toe the line if I want to succeed.

Anyways, back to work tonight. I have my first ever trainees… this should prove to be interesting.

Holiday weekend fun stuff

Posted: May 27, 2012 in friends, Magic Meets, Travel, Wegman's
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Good evening!

Hope that you are all enjoying the holiday weekend. Please make sure to celebrate responsibly.

The Management and I ventured to the wooly hinterlands of New Cumberland for a meet up/picnic with our Disney friends. We had a lovely time filled with lots of laughs, stories and yummy food that I managed not to go overboard on. Cindy, our gracious hostess, made some awesome sliders that included andouille sausage, beef and pecans of all things. There was a tasty buffalo chicken dip, mac & cheese, and much other goodness. I did a batch of my famous chocolate chip cookies that did not last long, and The Management and I brought along the frozen concoction maker, a selection of booze, and ingredients for various margaritas. One of these ingredients was a reduced sugar sweet and sour mix. Instead of 25g of sugar, this only has 1g. That’s pretty sweet (no pun intended) in my book. In this case, fresh pineapple and mangos. The first one we tried was avocado. The Management thought it looked like wheat grass. I was thinking more of a nuclear specimen, but maybe that’s just me. A little later in the day, one of the kids wanted a strawberry virgin margarita. Threw a bunch of strawberries in the jug along with orange and lime juices and it turned out to be pretty darn good. After the kids were done, the turned it into an adult margarita that got really decent reviews. I plan on making that part of the repertoire.

You may be asking what I was doing with all these drinks, because as a diabetic, alcohol isn’t my friend. That’s a good point. I’ve long since passed the point where I have to imbibe. I had a sip of the strawberry and of the pineapple. The nice thing is that our friends understand my condition and respect it so that there’s no pressure to drink. I’m not a total abstainer, but I know when to say when and these folks respect that. The downside is that it’s been over a year since I last had a beer. Temptation was kind of removed as we didn’t have any Sam Adams Black Lager in the beer fridge. Had there been, the previous statement probably would’ve been null and void.

So, getting back to our Disney crew… we all met through something called Magic Meets, founded by Fred Block. Most of us were volunteers who started helping out in hopes of meeting people in the fan community. At least that’s why The Management and I joined the ranks. We never dreamed it would pay off like it has, not just in the quantity of people we have met, but also the quality. Besides getting to know Fred and his family, we’ve met people who live locally and formed a strong bond with, even though we’re very different. Magic Meets is currently on hiatus, but through the friendships we’ve made, we’ve been able to keep the spirit alive.

Since we were on the West Shore, it would’ve been a horrible oversight to not pay a visit to Wegman’s. I swear I hear a choir of angels every time I walk though the door. Nothing groundbreaking except for a nice brisket that The Management is planning on turning into a shredded masterpiece. I can almost taste it! We also picked up a few other items. Not a major trip, but any trip there is worth mentioning. There is a rumor that they might be coming to Cow Country. That would make my socks roll up and down if it pans out. Keep your fingers crossed!

I have to go back to work tomorrow, but I’m headed to another facility for the week. I’ll be doing User Acceptance testing on a new version of our page management and design software. It’s always fun when you get paid to try and break the software. The week after that, I have my appointment with the psychologist and my first group session in the bariatric program. I’m looking forward to them both, but I’m strangely nervous as well. We will see what happens!

Until next time, have a great holiday and remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

The tyranny of the SPORK!

Posted: July 1, 2010 in Chick-Fil-A, Wegman's, Weight loss
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“Everything happens for a reason. Except for the spork. I mean, seriously, what the hell?” – Anonymous

Recently my employers have switched the provided plastic flatware from spoons and forks to the dreaded spork. You have no idea how much consternation this has caused. Grown men in the break room, weeping because they can no longer properly spear their manly steak and must resort to shoveling. A great wailing and gnashing of teeth from people attempting to spork their tomato soup without dripping any on their clothes. During a recent service anniversary party, employees were observed fleeing said party, handfuls of actual plastic forks and spoons secured to their bodies.

It is a sad state of affairs when one must fight the power of the spork. The spork has its place, that place, however, is not where I eat my dinner. An alert reader and fellow sufferer of the regime of the spork sent me the following information she found on Wikipedia:

            “Plastic sporks are common in prisons in the United States because they are difficult to form into weapons.”

Seriously? Could this be the true reason that the spork has been foisted upon us? Are there  really pressroom operators, composition specialists and CSRs in the exercise yard making prison shivs? This baffles me to no end. There are times when it feels like jail, but that’s only when you’re stuck in a windowless room for hours on end. There are no bars. There used to be bad chow, but then they closed the cafeteria on 2nd and 3rd shifts. I’m very confused.

Enough about the spork for now. Let’s get down to brass tacks, namely our excursion to the wooly hinterlands of Mechanicsburg. This is pretty exciting stuff for those of use who don’t get out much, so bear with me.

Around 11 AM, Mrs. T and I grabbed our environmentally conscious grocery bags, a cooler, some ice blocks and headed out to the Honda. After a stop for gas and a stop to drop off overdue library materials we were back on 283 west heading toward Harrisburg. Traffic moved pretty well until we got to the I-83 bridge. After crawling across the bridge, we entered the traffic wasteland of 581. Not pretty, but we made it to our destination…

Wegman’s. (Insert choir of angels singing)

After securing a parking space, we took our environmentally conscious grocery bags, grabbed a cart and entered grocery nirvana. First stop is usually the produce aisle. Brimming with every sort of produce you could want (and some you wouldn’t), we set to work grabbing healthy stuff. Broccoli crowns? Check. Four types of extremely crunchy apples? Check. Two bunches of celery? Check. $300.00 a pound summer truffles? (silence) Anyone? Anyone? That’s what I thought. When I posted a picture of the price tag of the truffles, the best comment was “Those truffle pigs have to be paid a living wage.”

After navigating the produce aisle, it’s considered good form to admire the tomato, basil and fresh mozzarella salad, then on to the meat aisle. They just have the nicest meats. The really nice thing is that the meat is vacuum packed and stays very fresh. Several trips ago, we bought pork chops and each chop was sealed individually on a sheet. Cut them into strips of two pork chops, stick them in the freezer, no worries. After picking up some pork tenderloin and chicken breast, we admired the brilliant red color of the wild-caught sockeye salmon and made our way to the checkout area.

All-in-all, a most excellent shopping trip. It should also be noted that Wegman’s stocks a decent selection of beers. There’s your typical mass-produced American swill (Yech, Budweiser) along with a decent selection of microbrews and imports. The prices are a little high, but you pay for convenience.

Upon leaving Wegman’s, we ventured across the parking lot to the true Holy of Holies. Chick-Fil-A. Anyone who knows me for any length of time knows about my affinity for Chick-Fil-A. These three words alone are the reason I could never pull off being a vegetarian. I’d drive too close to a Chick-Fil-A and next thing you know I’d be passed out in the middle of the restaurant surrounded by a sea of empty foil sandwich bags.

That was not the case yesterday, as I ate smart. I had half of a grilled chicken sandwich and half of a standard chicken sandwich with a small fruit cup and a bottle of water. Total caloric damage was around 435 calories. Little known fact about Chick-Fil-A is that all the entrée items are under 500 calories and the chicken is breaded on-site, as opposed to being breaded in a factory and shipped that way. If you’re going to eat fast food, eat Chick-Fil-A.

After lunch we headed to Dick’s Sporting Goods where I went looking for some new cross-trainers. I’m a big fan of New Balance, since they make their shoes in wide widths. I’ve been wearing their shoes for years now, starting with the 620, then the 621, 622 and now, the 623. Let me tell you, these are some COMFORTABLE shoes. Almost feels like you’re wearing slippers! Mrs. T. and I both left with a new pair of trainers. I wore mine last night and did nearly two miles on my break and no complaints from my dogs.

Tonight is going to be another drinking night, though, so I had better get my act together and sweat off a few. I leave you with the following:

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”- Maya Angelou

Today’s weight: 303.0 (Down 17 pounds since last Thursday)

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