Weekly weigh-in: the new status quo

This week's numbers:

• Today's weight: 203.0 lb
• Change since last week: 0.0 lb
• Cumulative weight loss: 131.0 lb
• Average weekly weight change: -1.54 lb

And we are back to the status quo ante new-bathroom-scale-purchase: plateauing along as the body catches up with the ever-continuing healthy eating pattern.

One change in my circumstances that may have an interesting effect on my routine: the part-time restaurant-reviewing gig that I've been doing for the past nine months has gone on a temporary hiatus. I will miss it--but at the same time, I'm relieved to be going back to eating out solely for my own enjoyment as opposed to being "on assignment." Or taking a bit of a break from eating out altogether.

Mind you, I was doing well enough with fitting all those dining assignments into my healthy-eating routine, but it did take some juggling. In particular, dining out a lot had been playing hob with my practice of breaking my daily food allotment into many small meals as opposed to a few large ones. So now I can go back to the small-meals status quo too, and that does feel a whole lot better.

Meanwhile, I continue to cook for Mr. E, and continue to fit his eating preferences in with mine. Very occasionally that has meant I've cooked entirely different dinners for him and for me, but the vast majority of the time I cook the same thing for both of us, and I either take bigger portions of vegetables, or cook an additional vegetable side for myself. This latter practice also allows me to indulge in really spicy stuff (like kimchee or salsa) without blowing E out of the water--even plain black pepper can be too "sharp" for his old-school New England taste buds.

But there are still many dishes we can unite on--like the good old-fashioned beef stew I made the other night. For me, it was great foodie fun as I made it with beef cheeks, which gave great flavor. For him, it was simply a real nice yummy stew. And even as I type, I have the left-over broth simmering away with a little bit of rice, on its way to becoming congee for my late lunch.