Superbowl Sunday

Get up or don't, nobody cares. Breakfast is served at 7:00am. Today we got:

6 oz. scrambled eggs with diced bologna ham

1 cup corm flakes

1 cup milk

1/2 cup grilled potatoes

1/2 cup canned fruit

2 slices of bread

3 oz. scoop of peanut butter

Weekend breakfasts are extra large as we only get 2 meals for the day.

The day is spent reading, working out, television, cards, visitation...the norm. Nobody wants to work on Superbowl Sunday so the prison operates on a skeleton crew. Dinner will be served in paper bags, so staff can watch the game. At 4:00, we received our bags that contained:

1 Hot dog bun

6 oz. roast beef

2 individually wrapped cheeses slices

1/2 oz. onion slices

1/2 oz/ tomato slices

1 snack size chips

3 duplex cookies

This meal was extra special, like Christmas and Thanksgiving. The only three meals with real unprocessed meat and fresh tomatoes. Still, knowing there wouldn’t be much food, I ordered some items from the store in advance and made my version of “Super Nachos”: nacho tortilla chips, topped with re fried beans, chili beans, jalapeno squeeze cheese, beef sausage, all stewed in an ice chest for 3 hours then poured over chips and topped with fresh jalapenos and a Green Bay Packers win!

Choosing your menu

Once again every situation is different but most institutions serve a lot of processed foods and foods high on the glycemic index. These are a few food rules I follow:

• Lots of fiber. Vegetables, beans, apples, citrus fruits, etc. When you eat fiber it will help you digest your foods and thin your waist.
• Carbs. Everyone's bodies react differently to carbs. I eat lots of oatmeal, brown rice, wheat bread and rolls. I don't eat white bread, white rice and pasta. Prison pastas aren't wheat pasta. Remember that many breads are colored to look like wheat. I reduce my daily bread intake anyway so I only eat one sandwich at lunch. 
• Protein. Protein improves your immune system. It also makes you big and strong so it is kept to a minimum needed in you meals and protein powder, not longer sold in most commissaries. You can get extra protein by getting extra meats at meals. Buy tuna at commissary, it also has omega-3 fatty acids which lower cholesterol. Also eat extra eggs, beans, and other fish products.
• Glycemic index. Try to familiarize yourself with them. They are very important but to complicated to go into now. Here's the short and sweet: 55 or less is low, med is 56-69, high is 70 or higher. Kitchen and commissary staff can give you the glycemic index of each food item. Avoid cherios, saltine crackers, corn chips doughnuts, raison bran, corn flakes, bagels, baked potatoes, pretzels, gatorade, table sugar, potato chips, baked beans, oatmeal, cream of wheat, grits, etc. As you can see, some of the foods you thought were healthful may be causing you to hold extra weight.

Clean up your eating habits. Eat a variety of foods, put more focus on vegetables, add fiber and watch glycemic index. Have fun with it.