July 4th is Sunday, and July is my month to cook for the office (you'll recall I alternate months with my coworker's wife, who is a professional chef), so I've decided to do the office luncheon this coming July 9th (Friday). I'm going with the typically Amurrican celebratory menu: burgers and dogs. The burgers will feature bacon, and the dogs will be chili dogs, but with the option to make regular dogs with standard trimmings. The twist is that it's going to be a keto menu so that I can eat with the troops: I found a keto-bread recipe that actually looks good, and I'll be using it for the office luncheon. If it doesn't work out, if the keto buns taste like shit, I'll eat the bread myself and buy regular bread for everyone else. My main worry is making the hot-dog buns, which I've tried making before to dubious success.
Over a week ago, in anticipation of this, I worked out the macro count for a keto burger, and it comes out to about 650 calories, which isn't all that different from a regular burger. The difference is in the carb count, which is only 19.35 grams for one burger (a regular bun plus regular ketchup would add 21 extra grams of carbs, effectively doubling the carb count). On a true keto diet, 20 grams of carbs would be my daily allowance of carbs right there, but I'm not actually on keto, so I plan on going over that because I also plan on having a chili dog with the burger. So July 9 will be a low-scale cheat day: keto-ish in spirit, but going over my 800-calorie limit, probably by as much as 500-700 calories, and also going over the carb limits for a keto diet. I'm not stressed about any of this because I budgeted extra time in my schedule for the Newcastle Diet—I'm doing it for ten weeks, not eight weeks,* so I'll have time to recover from the day's indulgences. There will be no potato chips or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for yours truly—just those two sandwiches (the eternal question: is a hot dog a sandwich?). This weekend, after my walk, I'm going to see whether B&C Market sells silicone hot-dog-bun molds. I kind of doubt it, but the place has a surprising number of goods for esoteric purposes. And I might find something that isn't a hot-dog-bun mold, but looks and acts like one.
So this gives me something to look forward to for next week. I haven't cooked for the office since the stroke, and I think this effort might be a bit therapeutic for me—a way to feel a little more human. It's going to cost me in terms of calories and carbs, but there's a price to be paid for everything we do in life, and what's the point of living if you can't enjoy yourself, ever? The lady at the hospital asked me, "Are you okay with dying?" I'm fairly stoic about the prospect of death; my religious studies helped me come to terms with death long ago. But while my heart beats, I do also relish the prospect of living, even if that entails nothing more than enjoying the taste of a nice burger and chili dog.
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*I mention this because the diet is supposed to go on for "two months." By one reckoning, "two months" translates to eight weeks (56 days). By another, more literal reckoning, two months is about 61 days, per the calendar, and if you have to do something for 61 days, why not just go on to 70, i.e., ten weeks?
3 comments:
"I'm fairly stoic about the prospect of death; my religious studies helped me come to terms with death long ago"
I'm sure you must have written about your views on this subject before--can you share a link?
I'll poke around, but I don't think I've written much about the question of stoicism in the face of death, aside from maybe a few mentions. Sounds as if a blog post is in order!
Hope so!
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