Category Archives: Food

The Big Event! (or The Reason I’m In Maui)

On Tuesday the 10th, it was finally the wedding day! (BTW, this is a very photo heavy post, but I think you will all love the photos.)

Since the wedding didn’t start until 4:30, my brother and the rest of my family spent the morning relaxing at our rental house.

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My parents and I got ready at the house, but my brother got ready at the hotel he had reserved for that night. We all went to the hotel together and just before we left for the wedding, we got this picture of all of us.

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Yes, I wore that dress to Marie and Chris’s wedding last year, but Krystle wanted me to wear it. Her mom, my mom, and I all wore lace dresses so I think she wanted us to match a bit.

We then drove 5 minutes down the road for the wedding. It looked just as beautiful as it did for the rehearsal the day before.

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While we waited in the air-conditioned bar, guests started to show up. Ross had a couple of friends from elementary school and college there.

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And the guys got him this gift for his wedding.

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Finally, it was time for the wedding to start. I walked with my parents down the aisle and took our seats in the first row. Then Ross was there waiting for his bride.

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Because the sun was in our eyes, it was tough for me to get photos of the wedding (I’m sure the professional photos will look awesome though). I did get one that turned out nicely.

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It was a pretty quick ceremony (they did write their own vows though). And before you knew it, the officiant was announcing the new Dr. and Mrs. Levin!

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We all headed back up the aisle to celebrate the wedding.

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I got a picture with my new sister.

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And of course a picture of the bling.

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Then the family headed over to the side for the official pictures. I tried to snap a couple of my own between shots. This one is of me, my brother, and our cousin Adam.

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Then Ross and Krystle went off to take their photos alone and the rest of us went to enjoy cocktail hour with an amazing sunset.

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Just as cocktail hour was coming to a close, Ross and Krystle joined us again.

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And we headed inside for dinner.

I was seated at the head table with the rest of the immediate family. It was nice that we all got some time to chat because I know how tough it can be at some weddings.

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Dinner was 4 courses (when you counted cake). And it was seriously delicious!

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There wasn’t really a cake cutting (just a photo-op), so I didn’t get any pictures of that.

After the food, it was time for dancing.

There was the traditional first dance.

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And then even though I think technically we weren’t supposed to have music out on the deck where the dance floor was, the wedding coordinator plugged her iPhone into a speaker so we could have some good dance music!

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I spent a lot of the dancing time just catching up with family. We don’t get to see each other all too often, so I take advantage of any time I get.

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I also got this picture with two of Ross’s oldest friends (they’ve all known each other since kindergarten). My dad may or may not have said a pretty dirty word to try to get us to smile (which explains the surprise face on one of Ross’s friends).

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Overall, I’d say it was a pretty great wedding. It was very small, but that made it easy to talk to people. And I think Ross and Krystle were beyond happy with how everything turned out.

I still have a few more Hawaii posts ahead with the rest of my activities, so those will be coming next week!

Rehearsal Time (or A Relaxing Day Of Vacation)

Monday was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. In the morning, my brother had to go and get his marriage license (got to make sure it’s official!), so my parents and I spent that time reading by the pool for a few hours.

Once my brother got back, it was time to change into our nice clothes and head over to Kapalua to Merriman’s for the rehearsal. My parents and I had driven by Merriman’s before but it wasn’t open so we hadn’t gotten a chance to see the venue.

It was pretty gorgeous at the ceremony space.

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All my parents and I had to do for the rehearsal was sit in the chairs and watch the rehearsal take place.

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This was the first wedding rehearsal I’ve attended, but I’m pretty sure this was just a standard rehearsal. The guy marrying them just went over the order of the ceremony. Easy peasy.

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After the rehearsal, we got a sneak peek at the reception room. It was getting set up for another wedding, so the tables weren’t what would be there tomorrow, but it gave us an idea of the room.

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After that, the rehearsal was technically over. But we sat at the bar and waited because another wedding was happening at the ceremony site right after that, and we wanted to see how it looked. While we waited, we had some drinks.

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I, of course, had a Dirty Shirley (and water because it was so hot out!).

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After spying on the other wedding for a bit, we headed over to the rehearsal dinner at Lahaina Grill. We had a semi-private room (it was a private alcove in a small part of the restaurant). We got our waiter to take a picture of the entire group.

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The food there was incredible! For a starter, my mom and I split a mozzarella tomato salad (this picture is my half of the salad and it’s still pretty big).

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And for my entrĂ©e, I got the pork shank. What I didn’t realize was how huge this thing would be!

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The whole middle of it was the bone, but it was still a huge meal. I ended up taking over half of it home.

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Although we all laughed at my doggy bag because we all thought it said “pork smack” instead of “pork shank” (we might have found that extra funny because of the wine at dinner).

After dinner, Krystle’s family headed back to their condo and my family headed back to the rental house so get a good night sleep before the big day tomorrow!

The Pie Hole (or Discovering Deliciousness in Downtown LA)

I was very lucky this past week to get to try out some pies at The Pie Hole. I’m usually not in downtown LA, but on this particular day, I was out there to help out with an interview for Inside Acting.

I knew that we were all meeting at The Pie Hole to interview Lindsay Hollister. What I didn’t realize was that Lindsay was one of the owners of the bakery! It was a little too noisy to do the interview in there, but we did make a stop afterwards to try out some pies (and do a little recording to review the bakery for the podcast).

First of all, I have to say that Lindsay was so generous to let us try all of these pies. I would have been more than happy to pay for them, and I know that I’ll be going back in the near future to purchase some (I’m thinking of getting one and bringing it to Thanksgiving this year).

I was a little too focused on trying the pies, so I only have one picture.

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Starting in front and going counterclockwise we have a chocolate crostata, mushroom and spinach pie, mac and cheese hand pie, maple custard pie (slightly hidden), and a side salad (the guest co-host can’t have gluten).

I didn’t try the side salad, so I don’t have a review on that, but I have lots of yumminess to say about the other pies!

The chocolate crostata was so rich! It was like a fudgy chocolate brownie on top of a pie crust with caramel and sea salt on top of it! I really loved the crust on it, it was so nice and flaky.

The mushroom and spinach pie was a really great savory pie. I didn’t try much of the crust on this one (I was sharing it with a couple of people and just dug into the filling). The mushrooms are so nice and chewy (like a perfect piece of steak). It wasn’t too rich but it was nice and filling.

The mac and cheese pie was my favorite of the savory options. The crust reminded me of the nice crusty top of a mac and cheese casserole (my favorite part to eat). The pasta inside was perfectly cooked and it wasn’t runny (a problem I’ve seen before). When I go back, this is something I know I will be getting.

And finally, the best pie (possibly ever!): the maple custard pie. This is seriously the best pie ever. It is like a creme brulee inside of a pie crust. It’s not overly sweet and the maple flavor is a wonderful touch. Even though we were sharing all of the pies, I know I ate a good portion of this one! It was addicting! I really want to go back to have this again, but since it is a bit of a drive away, I won’t be going too often.

I highly encourage all of you to go and try The Pie Hole. It’s seriously a gem in downtown. And no, they aren’t paying me to say this. They don’t even know I’m writing a blog post about this. I had no idea that when I was going to work at the interview that we were going to get a tasting too. But I’m so glad that we did because now I’ve discovered my new go-to place for desserts!

Another Birthday Outing (or Seeing My Birthday Twin)

I haven’t been taking advantage of a lot of the birthday freebies this year. Maybe it’s because I’m a bit busy. But there is one birthday freebie that is a tradition that cannot be missed.

My free entrĂ©e and dessert at Truxton’s with my birthday twin, Joanna! Joanna and I have enjoyed our $0.00 meal for the last couple of years, so this year was no exception. There is now a Truxton’s in Santa Monica (just down the street from my work), so we went there instead of the one by LAX.

As soon as we sat down, we each got out our free birthday coupon.

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The servers were actually excited that we were celebrating our birthdays and even more excited when they found out we shared a birthday (I was afraid they wouldn’t be happy to wait on a group that had a completely free meal).

Joanna and I each got a burger as our main dish (we had to save room for our desserts!).

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As always, the food was delicious! I had never had a burger in all of my previous Truxton’s adventures and I was glad that it was a good choice.

Joanna and I had actually picked out our desserts before ordering dinner (doesn’t everyone do that?). We always get this crazy banana dessert thing and then we also decided to get a cream cheese brownie.

It was pretty crazy when both desserts were brought over to us.

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We split them pretty evenly, but either of us was able to finish our half. I have to say, the brownie thing is my new favorite dessert! I know that Joanna and I will be ordering that again next year at our birthday outing.

It was seriously so great to have a nice dinner with a friend and catch up (I don’t think we’ve seen each other since Christmas). We chatted a bunch about my brother’s wedding (her brother recently got married), crazy day jobs, and just general life craziness.

Before we knew it, we had been at dinner for a few hours and needed to each head home.

Even though our bill was nothing (literally), we still left a very nice tip.

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I know that people who come in with a freebie meal or Living Social deal get a bad rap because they don’t tip enough (or at all), but I want to make sure that I go above and beyond what the tip should be when a meal is completely free.

With this being the last week of my birthday month, I’m almost out of time to use up my birthday freebies. I still have my $30 at Benihana, but I won’t get to use that one because it’s only good for weekday dinners. Oh well.

At least Joanna and I made sure to do what is one of the most important birthday tradition meals.

Hiking And Off-Roading (or Taking Advantage Of Every Moment Of My Vacation)

Day 2 in Tahoe starting off pretty relaxing. I woke up early (since I’m used to always waking up at 7am) and spent my morning hanging around the condo reading. Once the rest of my family was up, we were out the door for our first adventure of the day.

There is a railroad track right behind the condo. So we have done a lot of walking back there. And if you follow the path next to the tracks long enough, you get to some really cool ponds. So we decided to do a loop around the ponds.

On the way out toward the ponds, there are some pretty awesome boulders that you can walk out onto. During the winter, my dad likes to snowshoe up them (but in the summer they are too steep to hike up).

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We got to the path that led us down to the ponds, and of course I took advantage of another photo op.

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We are so lucky to have this in our Tahoe backyard!

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It was probably around a mile or so for the entire loop, but there was some elevation change and I was in a high altitude, so I was pretty out of breath at some points.

After getting back to the condo and having some lunch, we decided to go off-roading. A few years ago, my parents got a Jeep to off-road in (they are very adventurous people if you couldn’t tell already!).

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We went up a dirt path in the mountains. It was extremely bumpy, but fortunately there are hand holds to hold on to!

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When we got to the top, we were rewarded with a gorgeous view of Lake Tahoe.

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I mean, seriously, it’s so beautiful in the mountains! I really need to make sure I go there more often!

Also while we were at the top, I got a really cute photo of my parents with the dog.

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We headed back down the mountain, where at times it seemed like the road was just dropping off into nothing.

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Finally, we were back on a paved road (but I really did have so much fun on the dirt roads). We then went over to Northstar, which is the ski resort that I grew up skiing at. There is a Ritz-Carlton hotel on the mountain, and I had never seen it. So we rode the gondola up there and went to the outdoors bar for a snack.

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Again with the views! Bars in LA have some awesome views, but nothing like this!

Once we took a look at the menu, we realized it might have been a bit expensive.

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$14 for chips and salsa?!?!?! We all decided to have some frozen drinks. My mom had a pina colada, I had a strawberry daiquiri, and my dad had a margarita.

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It was the perfect refreshment for the hot mountain sun!

Finally, it was time to head back to the condo. My mom made a nice steak dinner with baked potatoes at the condo, so we had a relaxing evening. We all earned it from the on the go day that we had!

Tomorrow I’ll write about part 3 of my trip!

Hello Tahoe! (or The Start Of My Weekend Getaway!)

As I mentioned before, I spent this past weekend hanging out with my parents (and dog) in Lake Tahoe. I’ve been going to Tahoe since I was a baby to go skiing in the winter and do some hiking in the summer. Several years ago, my parents got a place in Tahoe (we rented a cabin before then), so now there are more chances in a year for me to get up there.

Somehow, with all the craziness of work and life, I hadn’t been to Tahoe in a couple of years. So I was more than excited to make it up there and get some nice outdoors time in.

As soon as I go there on Friday, my parents and I had to do some errands. We had some things to figure out on our family cell phone plan, and since I was listed as the primary account holder, I had to be with my parents when they changed things. So most of the afternoon was spent at the Verizon store doing not so fun stuff.

That evening, we went out for dinner. Since we were technically celebrating my 30th birthday, I got to pick the restaurant. For me, there has only been one place that has been my go-to restaurant in Truckee (the town in Tahoe where we stay): Cottonwood. Honestly, I cannot remember a time when we didn’t go to Cottonwood when we were in Tahoe.

We had to sit inside because there were about a million bees out on their deck, but we sat near the windows so we still got to enjoy the view of historic downtown Truckee (and of course, I forgot to take a picture of the view).

The menu had some great specials, so I decided to get the chicken dish (it sounded relatively healthy).

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For a starter, my parents and I split something that we always get every time we go to Cottonwood. The whole leaf Cesar salad.

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This is seriously the best thing in the world! It used to say on the menu that it is traditionally eaten with your fingers, so that’s how we eat it (except my mom who goes against tradition by using a knife and fork). This salad is so wonderfully garlicky. I love it! You do smell like garlic for a few days after, but to me, that’s totally worth it!

After we got through most of the salad (it was pretty huge for 3 people), our entrees arrived.

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The chicken was delicious and the mashed potatoes were great (although they didn’t seem too garlicky after having the salad).

We didn’t have dessert since we were so full on salad and our entrees, so we headed back to the condo my parents’ own to take Dante (the dog) for a walk.

Near Tahoe there is a fire, and that made the sunset pretty gorgeous.

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Although the smell of smoke in the air was pretty strong.

So that was day one of my Tahoe trip. More to come in the next few days including our off-roading adventure and going out on Donner Lake in our inflatable boat!

Another Birthday Celebration (or A Pie Date!)

I’ve mentioned last year how much I love birthday freebies. I print out all the freebies I get emailed to me as soon as I get them and I really do try to use a couple (I have yet to ever use the free ice cream at Baskin Robbins though).

One of the freebies that I always look forward to is the free pie at Marie Callenders. It’s a tradition for me to go with my friend Emily for free birthday pie (or pie to celebrate any other special occasion).

There is a fancy Callenders Grill in the Mid-Wilshire area in the same building as the SAG-AFTRA office. We pretty much always go to pie at this one so we can multi-task (we have a friend who works for the SAG Foundation so we try to visit him after pie).

As anyone who enjoys meals at Marie Callenders knows, all meals start with their super yummy cornbread!

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Emily and I both ordered the chicken mac and cheese (my photos of it came out really badly).

And then it was time for the main event (at least for us). Pie!

We always get 2 pieces of pie and then we each have half. We also always get the chocolate satin pie. We jokingly call it chocolate baby pie because we think it tastes like chocolate pie and chocolate mousse had a baby (it’s seriously that good!). We get something different for the second piece of pie.

This time, we got cream cheese pie along with the chocolate satin one.

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They were seriously sooooo good! And yes, I did track all of my calories for the meal (this ended up being my only meal that day so I actually managed to stay under my calorie goal).

I know that this entire meal is a huge splurge, but since we usually only do it twice a year, I figure that’s ok. Plus, how could I turn down free pie?!?

Birthday Evening (or What Happened After 4pm)

So, the adventures of my 30th birthday continue.

After getting my hair done, I went home to get dressed for my party at Bodega Wine Bar. I had rented a cute sparkly top from Gwynnie Bee and I was super excited to wear it! The only problem was, the top was now a little too big on me (guess I have been losing a bit of weight). So I ended up wearing a sweater on top to cover up the too-big arm holes. But I think I looked pretty cute.

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The actual party was pretty chill, which is exactly how I wanted it. My friend Rayshell came over to my house early (since she works very close to where I live), so we hung out for a bit before heading over to the bar.

When we got to Bodega, we saw the reserved sign right away.

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The area we got was right next to the bar (we had a waitress so that didn’t matter too much) and right by a window looking out onto the street (that will come into play a bit later).

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Over the course of the evening, about 15 people made it out to celebrate with me. But it was nice that everyone wasn’t there at once so I actually had a chance to chat with everyone who made it.

As I mentioned before, Rayshell was there.

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So were my friends Kate and Beth.

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And my friend Jennifer who was married earlier this year (her husband came too!).

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As well as a bunch of other people (too many pictures to include everyone on here!).

I ended up drinking Prosecco the entire evening (it is one of my favorite things), but our waitress also brought over some celebratory shots for the group to enjoy as well (one was a Soju pineapple mint thing and I don’t remember what the other was). We also got some food for the table.

While the entire evening was fun, one of the funniest things that happened was when one of my co-workers tried to come by. I guess that she forgot to grab her ID with her when she came, so the bouncer wouldn’t let her in. As she was leaving, she noticed me in the window and I guess either she was waving or pointing at me (my back was to the window, so I only heard from my friends that someone was trying to get my attention). I saw her, walked over to the bouncer, and we finally convinced him to let her in without an ID. I was getting a good laugh from that.

Eventually, the evening came to a close (it was pretty close to midnight and I had to work the next morning).

I’m usually not the sort of person who has birthday parties. I normally just do a bunch of little events. Those seem easier to organize and are less stressful. But I have to say that this party was so much fun! I didn’t feel stressed at all (thanks Bodega for making things easy on us!) and I got to see a bunch of friends!

To everyone who said happy birthday to me (in person, on Facebook, on twitter, via email, on the phone), thank you! I had an amazing birthday and you were all a part of it!

Now, I get to move on with my life as a 30-something!

Reality TV (or How Losing 200 Pounds Can Be Something That Is Booed)

I’ll admit that reality tv is one of my guilty pleasures. I love “America’s Next Top Model”, “The Amazing Race”, and “Food Network Star”. But I also watch a couple of weight loss related reality tv like “The Biggest Loser” and “Extreme Weight Loss”.

One reason that I enjoy the weight loss reality shows is because most of the time, the people at the beginning are in a worse place than me. I know this is a horrible thought, but it’s nice to see that I’m not the most out of shape person in the world. And it gives me a bit of hope that maybe I can win this battle eventually.

But there are a lot of negative things about these shows. First of all, they are extremely unrealistic. The contestants on them typically aren’t working their jobs (and they get a small stipend from the show for participating). Also, they are working out sometimes 5 or 6 hours a day. If you have a job, you probably don’t have the time to do that. Sometimes contestants on these shows also have either a chef or food delivery service so they don’t have to worry about their food.

Another negative thing about these shows is how the contestants feel about weight loss. On “The Biggest Loser”, when a contestant loses 7 or 8 pounds in a week, they feel like they are a failure. Sometimes the other contestants mention how that person isn’t doing enough. Seriously?!?!?! If I lost 7 pounds in a week I’d be so excited!

But something that really ticked me off happened on this week’s “Extreme Weight Loss”. If you don’t watch the show, it takes place over 1 year and each episode follows one person’s journey. This week is was a girl name Alyssa. She weighed over 400 pounds when everything started. The show gives weight loss goals for every 3 months. She met her first weight loss goal and then started to struggle with the second. And in her struggle, she started to have anorexic and bulimic tendencies. The host of the show did offer her help and had her do a blind weigh in (this is something I have to do at the doctors because I don’t trust their scale).

At the final weigh in for Alyssa, they did it in front of all her friends and family (this is the format for the show). She weighed in and had lost over 200 pounds in one year! But she was a few pounds short of her overall weight loss goal, so when the final number came up, the crowd booed. My mouth dropped open when I watched that. Since when is losing 200 pounds something to boo about? They should be cheering her on no matter what.

But I guess that wouldn’t make good reality tv.

Will I still watch these weight loss reality shows? Yes. They do have good tips in them and they do help motivate me. But I really hope that other people watching can see how what they see on tv isn’t always the most helpful thing when trying to lose weight.

While it may be reality tv, it isn’t reality.

Staying Under (or Does It Really Matter What I Eat?)

I’ve been having some battles with food lately. Nothing as bad as it’s been in the past, but it’s not as good as it’s been lately either.

I’m making crap choices with my food. I’m still logging them in to My Fitness Pal so I’m able to keep track of my calories, and that’s helping me a lot. When I’ve made bad choices, I’m still trying to stay under my calorie goal for the day. I’m not sure if this is a good plan or not, but it’s what’s happening and I figure I might as well share it.

I remember when I was in group therapy at the UCLA RFO program and we would discuss calorie goals. I remember the group leader saying that it doesn’t matter if you eat 1,200 calories of fruits and vegetables or 1,200 calories of Dove bars. It’s still 1,200 calories and if you are below your calorie goal for the day, you will lose weight.

And I’m totally aware that eating 1,200 (or whatever your calorie goal number is) calories of good food is better for you. You will be able to eat more, feel fuller, and have a more nutritious day.

But sometimes, all that practical reasoning doesn’t matter.

So on Monday, for example, I ate a relatively healthy breakfast (at 11am since I worked a late shift that day), but in my craziness of getting ready I forgot to pack my lunch. There aren’t a ton of healthy choices that I can get in my 30 minute lunch break (7-11 for fruit and yogurt is one of my best options), but I didn’t feel like doing that. So, I went through a drive-through. I got food that normal people eat on occasion and nothing too crazy. I didn’t get fries or a soda. And I planned it out so that I was still under my calorie goal for the day.

This meant that I couldn’t eat dinner when I got home from work, so my last meal of the day was at 3:30pm.

Was I hungry when I got home? Yes. Did I eat a small dinner? No.

I didn’t want to go over the calorie goal for the day. And in a twisted way, I wanted to punish myself for eating the crap food at lunch.

My plan did work a bit. I gained a portion of a pound, but I’m pretty sure that’s from the excess sodium in my lunch. It helped me feel more in control that I knew I was under my calorie goal.

Yes, I realize how crazy I must sound, but in the years that I got therapy for my eating disorder, I learned that I’m probably going to battle this my entire life. I’m going to have moments where I’m weak and eat things I shouldn’t. But part of winning the battle is how I react after. I didn’t give up for the day on Monday and eat more crap for dinner. I said that I was done with my meals and went to bed a little hungry. And the next morning, I was back on track with better eating.

That’s how I know I’m getting better.