diet starting today

[Cascadian]

I have a friend like that.
He will eat everything left on the table and half of his wife's food and never gains a pound.
My Mom was the same way.
If I walk past the bakery section in the grocery store I gain 2 pounds just from the smell.

Maybe there is more of a lag time for me. Now after eating all that sugar I REALLY want a soda.

 

[sonya123]

So to help manage sugar spikes (which are a problem for both diabetics and for weight loss), brown rice is preferable to white rice. Whole wheat bread is preferable to white bread. Sweet potatoes are preferable to white potatoes. Etc.

As far as I know I don't have diabetes so not worrying about that

Cheated LOL, having a glass of wine at 6.30 pm

 

[Haertig]

As far as I know I don't have diabetes so not worrying about that

That's why you routinely have your A1C and other things checked. I can't tell you how many people have been seen by my wife, tell her they are healthy as an ox, then she orders some blood work and tests and has to tell them "No, you're not healthy as an ox".

 

[Cabin Fever]

I found out I had T2D when I couldn't satisfy my thirst and got up a bazillion times at night to go potty. The meds corrected all of that. But several year later, after committing to a WFPB diet, my T2D was reversed, and got me off of the diabetes meds.

 

[elkhound]

SO, here is my result: I lost 3 lbs. Meh....I was hoping for more but oh well, it's reasonable. Calculating...3 lbs times 3500 in a pound of fat comes out to 1500 calories a day less but some of it is water and maybe muscle so maybe 1000 cal....yeah that's about 10 cookies or a half a bag of chips...sounds about right

But now I have to do this again for a few months to get to a good weight.

One more thing: I did a rough calculation of how many calories in my typical meal and it comes out to around 1000 . That's not really much at all. 1\4 pound of ground meat is about 300 calories, plus oil to cook it in maybe another 100. Cauliflower is negligable amount so maybe 100 for the cheese sauce, potato is around 300 to a total of around 800 plus I am guessing 200 for soup.

3 # in a week is a bunch...dont sell yourself short on what you did..that great for first week..hope you repeat it again...3# at 3500 calories burnt to lose a pound equals 10,500 calories you burnt over what you ate.that works out to my rough math 1500 calories a day above what yo ate for a week.

 

[Haertig]

My daughter just gave me a tip on this: Chop up some onion and saute that with a little oil in a frying pan. Add some chopped garlic and saute a little longer. Then add the brown rice and saute still a little longer to give the rice a little edge and get some oil coating it (you're not trying to cook the rice). Then dump the entire mess, with the proper amount of water, into your rice cooker and cook as normal. She says the onion and garlic add flavor, and the oil keeps the brown rice from drying out and becoming sticky (the oil adds flavor too).

I haven't tried this yet, but it sounds like a good plan to improve brown rice!

THIS came out great! My wife, son and I - all originally of the "we don't like brown rice" klan - loved the stuff. I haven't made brown rice in years because of my bias against it. This is the first time I have made it in a rice cooker (the times I cooked it before were prior to us owning one). So I'm sure the rice cooker helped in getting it cooked well. The onion and garlic boosted the flavor nicely. We had to add a little salt and mix that in when we put it on our plates. Normally we don't have salt on the table, but the rice needed it. I will say that after tonight, I think I will be cooking more brown rice than white rice.

I found that brown rice takes a lot longer to cook than white rice. White rice, I normally mix 1:1 with water. This brown rice, I did my research, and tried a 2:1 mix (double the water). I don't know if that's what made the rice cooker cook it longer, or if it was because I pushed the brown rice button instead of the white rice button on the machine. Probably both things contributed. It took about 1:15 for the rice maker to say it was done. I just used store brand cheap brown rice. It came out great!

For dinner we combined this rice with grilled chicken breasts and grilled zucchini and yellow squash. Olive oil, salt, pepper and an Italian seasoning mix were added to the squash. Dessert was one of those little "Cutie" mandarin oranges that come out of California this time of year. This was a really good, and really healthy, dinner.

 

[UrbanHunter]

This weekend went well... The wife made odobo and rice. I was able to limit my portion sizes and keep my weight constant. The wife has been baking breads, orange-cranberry, banana, and zucchini bread; we are planning to slice them up and give them away on platters. Last night we made peanut butter blossom cookies, tonight she plans to make strawberry thumbprints.... I have been lucky, so far the bathroom scales have not realized that all those goodies are in the house!

 

[sonya123]

That's why you routinely have your A1C and other things checked. I can't tell you how many people have been seen by my wife, tell her they are healthy as an ox, then she orders some blood work and tests and has to tell them "No, you're not healthy as an ox".

I had a blood test done to get my blood pressure meds refilled maybe half year ago. Nobody in my family has had diabetes, not worried about it

I think a lot of problem in the US is people eat too much processed food and eat out too much and too much period. The way I eat now was pretty much the way everyone ate when I was a kid (except not a lot of rice but more potatoes) , a plate full of potatoes, vegetables and a piece of some sort of meat. Nobody was fat. We ate chips and cookies for holidays or birthdays pretty much only. There was no soda except then either. My mother baked a cake once a week for Sunday ( so did most everyone else I knew) . We had 1 piece, maybe 2. It was shared with the entire family. We ate bread but heavy dark rye not the mushy crap they sell here. Nobody was fat. Well, very very few people Nobody in my classes in school was. There was one fat kid in the neighborhood ( not US size but overweight) and he was "the fat boy " to everyone. There is something wrong with US food. Just look at one entire isle in the grocery store with cereal. Yuck, cardboard with sugar on top! Why would anyone want to eat that ? I buy whole oats, and grits and cook them.
The other problem is lack of exercise

 

[sonya123]

3 # in a week is a bunch...dont sell yourself short on what you did..that great for first week..hope you repeat it again...3# at 3500 calories burnt to lose a pound equals 10,500 calories you burnt over what you ate.that works out to my rough math 1500 calories a day above what yo ate for a week.

yeah I know...I just don't have a lot of patience...lol. The Indian diet I used to do would make me lose 10 lbs a week. But some of it was water of course.

Day number 2 of week 2

today I am going to make some sort of chicken and rice dish with veggies
plus French onion soup, not low cal , but it's snowing and cold and I feel like making it

Didn't eat anything yesterday evening except that glass of wine

 

[Cabin Fever]

I had a blood test done to get my blood pressure meds refilled maybe half year ago. Nobody in my family has had diabetes, not worried about it

I think a lot of problem in the US is people eat too much processed food and eat out too much and too much period. The way I eat now was pretty much the way everyone ate when I was a kid (except not a lot of rice but more potatoes) , a plate full of potatoes, vegetables and a piece of some sort of meat. Nobody was fat. We ate chips and cookies for holidays or birthdays pretty much only. There was no soda except then either. My mother baked a cake once a week for Sunday ( so did most everyone else I knew) . We had 1 piece, maybe 2. It was shared with the entire family. We ate bread but heavy dark rye not the mushy crap they sell here. Nobody was fat. Well, very very few people Nobody in my classes in school was. There was one fat kid in the neighborhood ( not US size but overweight) and he was "the fat boy " to everyone. There is something wrong with US food. Just look at one entire isle in the grocery store with cereal. Yuck, cardboard with sugar on top! Why would anyone want to eat that ? I buy whole oats, and grits and cook them.
The other problem is lack of exercise

We call the grocery store's cereal aisle, the "breakfast candy aisle."

 

[lonewolf]

I had a blood test done to get my blood pressure meds refilled maybe half year ago. Nobody in my family has had diabetes, not worried about it

I think a lot of problem in the US is people eat too much processed food and eat out too much and too much period. The way I eat now was pretty much the way everyone ate when I was a kid (except not a lot of rice but more potatoes) , a plate full of potatoes, vegetables and a piece of some sort of meat. Nobody was fat. We ate chips and cookies for holidays or birthdays pretty much only. There was no soda except then either. My mother baked a cake once a week for Sunday ( so did most everyone else I knew) . We had 1 piece, maybe 2. It was shared with the entire family. We ate bread but heavy dark rye not the mushy crap they sell here. Nobody was fat. Well, very very few people Nobody in my classes in school was. There was one fat kid in the neighborhood ( not US size but overweight) and he was "the fat boy " to everyone. There is something wrong with US food. Just look at one entire isle in the grocery store with cereal. Yuck, cardboard with sugar on top! Why would anyone want to eat that ? I buy whole oats, and grits and cook them.
The other problem is lack of exercise

its not just US junk food, we have an obesity crisis in the UK because everybody eats too much of the wrong sort of food.
processed food in moderation say once a week is okay but most people eat it 7 days a week.
portion sizes are huge! would feed 2 or 3 people not just one.

 

[sonya123]

its not just US junk food, we have an obesity crisis in the UK because everybody eats too much of the wrong sort of food.
processed food in moderation say once a week is okay but most people eat it 7 days a week.
portion sizes are huge! would feed 2 or 3 people not just one.

it's funny you say that, but I have a feeling some of this type of food might have been in the UK for a long time also
A friend and myself stayed with an English family for a summer once ( to improve our English, it was a school thing) and the food we got there was a lot like the junk in the US. Mushy white bread for breakfast, cereal ( that was the first time I ever had corn flakes) , burgers, fries. This was late 70s. At that time that type of food wasn't even available in Germany. I remember being hungry a lot but ended up with my clothes not fitting well at the end of summer. But maybe it was just that family

 

[havasu]

I absolutely love this new scale, which is tied to my phone via Bluetooth. This really is giving the incentive that I need.

 

[sonya123]

So Day #2 of week 2

french onion soup , french chicken with white wine sauce and asparagus, salad
I used a can of asparagus and it was mushy. Not a good thing to buy in a can, will not do that again, but they didn't have any decent looking fresh and I couldn't find any frozen. Other than that it was ok

had 1 piece of rye bread with peanut butter this morning, and will have yogurt and fruit later

 

[lonewolf]

it's funny you say that, but I have a feeling some of this type of food might have been in the UK for a long time also
A friend and myself stayed with an English family for a summer once ( to improve our English, it was a school thing) and the food we got there was a lot like the junk in the US. Mushy white bread for breakfast, cereal ( that was the first time I ever had corn flakes) , burgers, fries. This was late 70s. At that time that type of food wasn't even available in Germany. I remember being hungry a lot but ended up with my clothes not fitting well at the end of summer. But maybe it was just that family

in the 70s mushy white bread was all we had, corn flakes and rice crispies was the standard cereal, burgers not so much back then, fries yes-we call them chips.
things have moved on a lot in the last 50 years but people seem to not have the time to cook anymore, by the stacks of ready meals I see in peoples trolleys.
my mother was a good cook, so were all my wives.
I told all my friends, dosent matter who you marry but marry a good cook but I dont think they took any notice.

 

[sonya123]

in the 70s mushy white bread was all we had, corn flakes and rice crispies was the standard cereal, burgers not so much back then, fries yes-we call them chips.
things have moved on a lot in the last 50 years but people seem to not have the time to cook anymore, by the stacks of ready meals I see in peoples trolleys.
my mother was a good cook, so were all my wives.
I told all my friends, dosent matter who you marry but marry a good cook but I dont think they took any notice.

it might have been fish and chips we ate a lot, not sure I remember, long time ago....
but definitely remember the corn flakes and mushy bread. For lunch sandwiches we had mushy bread untoasted with some pink mayo like stuff , lettuce and hard boiled egg on it , or a slice of some aweful cheese

Today I have no idea what to cook, really no time. THIS is probably were a lot of problems come in, people don't make time to cook. Proper cooking requires time! It's what it is. I look up 15 minute recipes, and what do I get?! An hour worth of prep work just to clean and cut up salad stuff and veggies...there are no 15 minute recipes unless you just eat an apple, a piece of leftover chicken or something

So no idea yet on today, I need to see what time we get home. Will make grits and eggs before we go

 

[Amish Heart]

Agree there. I plan on starting dinner an hr before we are going to eat it. Chopping up stuff to cook is alot of time. The quickest thing I make is breakfast for husband....typically an egg white omelet with spinach, cheese, tomato, and a piece of toast. Sometimes a banana, too. I don't eat breakfast. Lunch varies with what he wants...a plain chicken breast or a turkey patty, then whatever vegetable is left from the night before, like broccoli or gr beans, some yogurt...the good stuff, and maybe fresh fruit salad. Dinner, well that takes awhile. I do like to go out, but I always have to get it to go because he can't sit there anymore, and mostly the food is disappointing. And the prices make it not worth it. So we'll be getting take out the next few days, so hoping we'll find something good. And eating hospital cafeteria food for lunch. And the hotel's breakfast in the morning. I'll bring the antacid. Ha.

 

[Pearl]

I absolutely love this new scale, which is tied to my phone via Bluetooth. This really is giving the incentive that I need.View attachment 121182

SEEING results in that way is a great incentive!!

 

[lonewolf]

it might have been fish and chips we ate a lot, not sure I remember, long time ago....
but definitely remember the corn flakes and mushy bread. For lunch sandwiches we had mushy bread untoasted with some pink mayo like stuff , lettuce and hard boiled egg on it , or a slice of some aweful cheese

Today I have no idea what to cook, really no time. THIS is probably were a lot of problems come in, people don't make time to cook. Proper cooking requires time! It's what it is. I look up 15 minute recipes, and what do I get?! An hour worth of prep work just to clean and cut up salad stuff and veggies...there are no 15 minute recipes unless you just eat an apple, a piece of leftover chicken or something

So no idea yet on today, I need to see what time we get home. Will make grits and eggs before we go

we do batch cooking in a slow cooker, have one meal out of it then the rest is left to cool, put in tubs and frozen for another time.

 

[havasu]

typically an egg white omelet with spinach

What do you do with the yolk?

 

[UrbanHunter]

So every few days I sit down with the wife and say, we have these leftovers in the fridge but what are we doing for dinner tomorrow? It's funny how often she says that she does not want to think about it.... Fortunately, we can a few flats of quart fast meals every year, and we make frozen casseroles about once a quarter. We have 12 8X8 stainless steel casserole pans and they stack and go into the cupboard once clean. If I look there and see 10 pans I know that we need to stew a chicken or something to fill them back up soon... but is does seem like a constant battle.

I can't imagine what a "modern" family with two working adults and a passel of kids does to cover their meals as the week grinds on...

Based on the lines at McDs and BKing, I'm betting that they are not cooking from scratch.....

 

[sonya123]

I can't imagine what a "modern" family with two working adults and a passel of kids does to cover their meals as the week grinds on...

Based on the lines at McDs and BKing, I'm betting that they are not cooking from scratch.....

priorities

when we both worked and the kids were young I still cooked
We went to the gym 3 times a week after work, then I cooked, then husband loaded the dishwasher and cleaned the counters
I shopped on the way home from work , it was on the way
There was just no time for tv ( but we didn't have any so that didn't matter)

oh and I had a very nice lady to clean the house, so I didn't do much cleaning. She even folded and put the laundry away and babysat sometimes , thank you Betty!!

 

[sonya123]

so today we got back at 3, now cooking lentil soup in the pressure cooker, it will have sausage in it, and I made some garlic bread ( $1.47 bread from walmart made into garlic bread, cheaper and less greasy than if you buy the frozen version)

this morning I made grits bacon and eggs , so waiting until late to eat was ok
I will have an orange for dessert

 

[LadyLocust]

We had pork chops for dinner.
Not very good. Not much taste but at least they weren't dry and tough.
I defiantly didn't over eat tonight. I do not like pork chops.
The way the pigs are raised and processed they never have much flavor to me.

You should try home raised.

 

[LadyLocust]

She buys these big thick bone in chops and has me grill them. They are ok, I'm just not a fan. I do like the little boneless tenderloins chops with biscuits and gravy

Next time she makes them, try sprinkling with lemon juice then add sauteed diced tomatoes (& onions if you like them). The flavors together are complementary.

 

[LadyLocust]

it might have been fish and chips we ate a lot, not sure I remember, long time ago....
but definitely remember the corn flakes and mushy bread. For lunch sandwiches we had mushy bread untoasted with some pink mayo like stuff , lettuce and hard boiled egg on it , or a slice of some aweful cheese

Today I have no idea what to cook, really no time. THIS is probably were a lot of problems come in, people don't make time to cook. Proper cooking requires time! It's what it is. I look up 15 minute recipes, and what do I get?! An hour worth of prep work just to clean and cut up salad stuff and veggies...there are no 15 minute recipes unless you just eat an apple, a piece of leftover chicken or something

So no idea yet on today, I need to see what time we get home. Will make grits and eggs before we go

Just a morsel of info.: I use the terra cotta earthenware roasters. No you don't have to soak them. Place frozen chunk of meat, whatever veggies and seasonings in it then lid. Place in oven at about 230* roughly 7AM by 5PM when you return from work, it's done, juicy and delicious. I will say works similar to a crock pot I guess, but for some reason seems less stew like and more savory & tender.

 

[LadyLocust]

So every few days I sit down with the wife and say, we have these leftovers in the fridge but what are we doing for dinner tomorrow? It's funny how often she says that she does not want to think about it.... Fortunately, we can a few flats of quart fast meals every year, and we make frozen casseroles about once a quarter. We have 12 8X8 stainless steel casserole pans and they stack and go into the cupboard once clean. If I look there and see 10 pans I know that we need to stew a chicken or something to fill them back up soon... but is does seem like a constant battle.

I can't imagine what a "modern" family with two working adults and a passel of kids does to cover their meals as the week grinds on...

Based on the lines at McDs and BKing, I'm betting that they are not cooking from scratch.....

When my kids were at home (I was a single mom) and the kids had sports etc. I would fry up a 5 lb. pkg of hamburger and make taco meat then put it in the freezer in an ice cream bucket so all I had to do was scoop some out to heat up. Also, canned spaghetti sauce and did several things like that so meal prep was easy. Weekends, we'd have more laborious meals.

 

[Amish Heart]

I cooked and worked every day at our school. And cleaned. And did everything. It's possible. And kids can help. We had a commercial kitchen at our school, and sometimes if I was stuck working till 6:30, I'd start dinner there. You do what you have to do.
Egg whites....what to do with the egg yolks for the omelet: It takes 9 whole eggs for enough whites, so don't want to do that. So I buy a carton of egg whites. Aldi carries it.

 

[sonya123]

Just a morsel of info.: I use the terra cotta earthenware roasters. No you don't have to soak them. Place frozen chunk of meat, whatever veggies and seasonings in it then lid. Place in oven at about 230* roughly 7AM by 5PM when you return from work, it's done, juicy and delicious. I will say works similar to a crock pot I guess, but for some reason seems less stew like and more savory & tender.

oh I know what you are talking about. I think my mother had one, it was called Roemertopf there. Only problem here would be I have been cooking on the wood stove. My gas ovens outdoors for baking and summer doesn't have a temp that low, it would burn. But I do use crockpots. LOL mostly for making THC gummies but still

 

[Bacpacker]

Next time she makes them, try sprinkling with lemon juice then add sauteed diced tomatoes (& onions if you like them). The flavors together are complementary.

Sounds like something to try on the flat top