I'm spending a lot of time preparing an intricate morning meal targeting 500-700 calories and fasting the rest of the day (I don't count yesterday's afternoon tomato as violating that, everyone should be allowed an afternoon tomato). Today, I went into the kitchen at 7am carrying my laptop for a 90-minute conference call.
While heatedly debating the merits of an inconsequential business decision, I grabbed the pasta dough I put together last night out of the fridge, hacked off a hunk and fed it through the pasta machine I got a couple days ago. I then put a pot of water on the stove and sliced some onions and garlic, dropping them in a hot pan with olive oil to soften. Cherry tomatoes went in next until blistered and popping. Pasta mixed in, I chopped some basil, sliced some cured olives, microplaned some parmesan and by the end of the call I had a very tasty breakfast.
This has been my habit the last few days. The 60-90 minute ritual seems to satisfy my faux-gourmand desire to prepare fancy food (which I've used as a justification for high-calorie meals and sustained disordered eating). My only rule is hitting the calorie range. No choosing or avoiding any particular ingredient as I have no trust that I really know what's good or bad (nearly all information regarding nutrient choices is horseshit, including papers from well-known refereed journals).
At some point I might switch to 1000-1200 calories spread across a couple meals. But for now (and being homebound), things are working out.
