Don't do tempura (it's wonderful to eat, but it's battered and deep fried food). Avoid the fried rice as well. Too much oil there.

I would do the lunch special. Miso soup or salad with maybe the cucumber roll. Of course some of the Asian Cuisine lunches are pretty good served with the brown rice. Just keep in mind that glazes are often sweet and therefore more calories. Saute would mean in oil, so be careful there.

Or gosh, just get a salad.

saef, your apartment looks beautiful!

Allison, our former feral kitty now spends about 23 1/2 hours a day sleeping on various soft surfaces in the house. I started feeding her and her siblings thinking that they might help keep down the mole and chipmunk population in our yard. One cold, rainy day I opened the door; Alexis walked right in and she's never left. Meanwhile, the moles and chipmunks happily multiply and dig all in our grass. Once we got our dog the other feral cats won't come near our house.

Jen, have you ever tried sushi or raw fish? Usually at the restaurant they will have a more detailed description of what ingredients are in each roll. Like Allison said, tempura means deep fried, and also spicy sauce has mayo, eel sauce surprisingly has sugar in it. If they have special rolls with words like "explosion" or "volcano" or things on top with spicy sauce, they are usually quite rich. Sashimi is raw (or usually raw?) fish alone. Miso soup is quite light and low cal, and I think wonton soup is pretty light. Seaweed salad is yummy and healthy but not enough for a meal. I like raw fish, so I often order raw tuna and it sounds like they have several good-sounding raw tuna appetizers (under "from the sushi bar"), but they have seared tuna also. The tuna and avocado salad sounds yummy. If you haven't been to a Japanese restaurant before you'll have to ask questions anyway, perhaps you can glean some more info before ordering. The Asian Cuisine Lunch options all look pretty fried and heavy on the sauce to me. It's nice they have a brown rice option.

ward . if you want the feral cat or any feral cat to keep the mole or chipmunk population down, DO NOT FEED THEM when they are hungry the moles and chipmunks will be mighty appealing to them.

Thanks for the advice. I am new to eating fish (although not shellfish) and I have never had raw fish. What do you guys think about the coconut soup with the scallops, clams in it? Coconut broth has to be good, right?

Coconut milk is pretty high calorie I think, I don't know about coconut broth. The soup sounds good, though. I might go that route - soups are filling. Though, soups at Japanese places are notoriously huge as well.

I don't love sushi, but I love seared salmon. Seared tuna is good as well. Not quite raw, so not as intimidating for me.

Raw fish totally turned me off until I dared to try Ceviche in a Mexican restaurant and just like Mikey I liked it !

Morning all,

Is it Monday? Wednesday? Do-over Monday x3! Yesterday afternoon I realized it was beautiful out, and low tide, so I ran home to take Emma out for a 2-hour walk on the beach. We both had a lot of fun. I did my weekly cooking that I usually do on Sunday last night since I didn't have rehearsal, and ended up staying late in the kitchen working on that. I have some healthy foods ready to go for the rest of the week now. Tonight I have rehearsal but after that sleep "wins" and will be first priority.

I love raw fish! I didn't try sushi until I was about 22-23 but love it now. Raw tuna with some wasabi and soy sauce....mmm. I love ceviche, too. Scallop ceviche is actually my favorite.

Jen, coconut milk is pretty caloric but coconut water is not as bad, especially if it's not sweetened coconut water. I guess it depends what the soup is made out of.

Ward, Alexis sounds like she knows how to reach out and take advantage of a good thing!

Allison, people who are supposed to do work on one's house never show up at the beginning of the time frame they give you. Unless of course you aren't home. Then they show up early. Did they ever arrive yesterday?

Chris, congrats on maintaining for 2 months. Not eating until I'm stuffed is something I do ok with day-to-day, but struggle with at big events or holidays where there are tons of options and "special" foods. Someone on this forum (bargoo? JayEll?) told me "Eat until you are 80% full".

Have a good Wednesday, or do-over-do-over Monday, whichever you pleasure, everyone.

saef - Your condo is stunning indeed. Gotta admire your perseverance and consistent good taste.

I've completed the first pass at polishing the silver plated serving spoons. They look good enough to use now, but I may work a bit more. The challenge is to leave the pleasing black highlighting of the design while removing the apparent tarnish. The drawback is that polishing reveals any worn spot in the silver plating. I declare that it's character and move on. I'm a big fan of Downton Abbey and am inclined to think there is supposed to be someone in my basement making this happen, LOL.

Jen-- I am a sushi convert-- love it! I'll be curious to see what you get. At my new favorite sushi spot, we get grilled edamame, tuna cerviche salad, and spicy tuna. Sometimes we get miso soup or salmon sushi. Never tempura or anything with mayo.

I need to remember and look here at home as I can't see Saef's pics at work!

I think we are reaching the point where a decision is going to have to be made on DH & XW's cat. He isn't eating, DH can't get him to take any of the medications and keep it down, he isn't drinking and he is starting to make noticeable sounds of discomfort when you pick him up, isn't very steady when he walks. XW is still on vacation so I'm afraid DH is going to have to make the decision and take care of it. It is sad, and has been a tough week for him.

Bill, since you are becoming expert at polishing silver, do you think it would be cost prohibitive for me to ship a service for twelve from Ca to Mass for you to polish ?

Having to put down a beloved pet is truly a traumatic experience but sometimes it must be done. What does the vet say ?

Megan thanks for the encouragement... The 80% full rule is a good one, and if I want to go beyond that, I am cultivating inner mechanisms to more directly experience the source of whatever emotional force is driving that.

JenCherryPie, one option might be to call the restaurant in advance and ask what they have for people wanting a lo-cal option but not too Spartan. I don't know about you, but I feel a certain social "tug" at business dinners etc not to stand out by just ordering salad. I imagine people can get uncomfortable. So when in Rome, I do the lowest-calorie option the Romans do. Oooh, bad metaphor, since the Romans invented the vomitorium...

Good news... today I'm tied for my lowest weight ever in my adult life! At 179.0 that's 35.2 pounds below where I started June 1, but more importantly, I'm seeing consistency by not going over 184 or so since reaching my goal in August.

Bargoo, the vet said last week that at this point our options were either some pretty invasive surgery that likely wouldn't solve the problem (and that he might not be strong enough for anyway at this point) or just keeping him comfortable until things started to turn. When DH talked to her on Tuesday she said that once he fully stopped eating and drinking that they would talk again, so he is going to call her tonight after we see if he ate anything today. I believe that she is of the opinion that if he is suffering we should put him down sooner rather than later.

Chris - on the weight low, and the maintenance since August. That is awesome.