badnoodle Member

Special K protein cereal w/ cashew milk and raspberries, 1 egg sunny side up. Otherwise would have had a breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs, warm black bean salsa, and picante sauce in a low carb wrap.

Butternut & Black Bean Chili: I made this last week and it was really good, although I think it needed more tomato. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/butternut-squash-and-turkey-chili.html Chicken Butternut Tagine. This is in my regular repertoire, although I usually omit the olives. I usually serve…

I made that on Monday night, as I happened to have several southwestern seasoned grilled chicken breasts in the fridge. I added a can of black beans and about half a cup of corn, and it is 1.) delicious 2.) super filling and 3.) <400 calories for a 1/8th serving. The only downside is the sodium from the canned soups, but…

Several years ago, M&Ms experimented with dulce de leche as a filling. It was really, really good as a counterpoint to the chocolate and candy, and I was lucky enough to live in one of their test market areas. I hope that plain caramel is as good.

@Nikion901 From a couple days back, I absolutely hear you on the troubles with dried fruit. I think I shared here about how I ate an entire 2lb bag of dried mango in one sitting? #toomuchfruit is a real thing. Now two weeks without a binge, although I've been eating somewhat less than is altogether healthful. I just know…

I wish that made less borscht on Saturday. It's really good, there's just. so. much. of it.

It's late for it, but I'm present for Monday check in. Last week I didn't meet a single one of my fitness goals. I barely made it past "sedentary" on my misfit. But, I didn't cheat at all, not even a little, so I'll count it a win.

I admit that I have dreams about tacos. Decadent dreams about tacos, and the pulchritudinous glory of stuffing them in my face. And since I'm a Texan, my internal vision of taco perfection has three basic characteristics: 1.) Crunchy. Perfectly crunchy, so you bite through it rather than shattering it along the midline and…

@Nikion901 Sure - this is the recipe I used http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/butternut-squash-and-turkey-chili.html I did make some alterations to the recipe: I used Boca crumbles instead of meat, chicken broth instead of water, and a pint jar of tomatoes. If I had used real meat, I think it would…

I have meal prepped this weekend like crazy! Yesterday I made giant pots of butternut squash chili, hearty beef borscht, a pan of coleslaw, and today I've grilled some chicken breasts and broken down a whole pork loin. In order to fit the loin in our freezer, I had to pull out all the chicken carcasses I've been…

This may seem a weird method, but I looked up the USDA yield rate for different meats after cooking. For chicken in direct heat, it's about 75-80%, so I use the package calories, but log a serving 25% larger than I actually eat. I did verify this myself. I weighed some breasts, grilled them, and weighed again. The cooked…

@Mermaid I don't know if it's available to you, but the big club stores often have really good meat prices. I think last time I went, pork loin was 1.78/lb, and 90/10 beef was 2.98. Portion it out, freeze the majority, and you're good to go.

Oh goodness, I go away for a week and have so many posts! I spent last week in Orlando at the International Congress of Entomogy. It was a fantastic meeting, and since my hotel was 1.5 miles from the convention center, I got a pretty good walk every day. One day I logged 19.2 miles, which is rather a lot for me. On the…

@Nikion901 I think strength training is part of it, but not in the dramatic way that a number of posters on the Success board seem to feel. I certainly haven't lost the hoped-for inches around my waist! I started strength training because I knew that by trying to lose 2lbs a week, I was in a pretty severe dietary deficit,…

@JustMe602 It really depends on how easily you can commit to the restriction, and how well your body copes. Some people who lose fast seem to have more trouble with flappy skin and list muscle, but those who go slow seem to get discouraged more frequently. For me, I spent some time this weekend reorganizing the kitchen to…

There are a number of seated weight exercise, if you have access to dumbbells or just something heavy. If you have a gym membership, there are "bicycles" that use arm power instead of legs, plus seated weight machines.

Friday...this has been a pretty good week to me. I *finally* got the scale to move off of August 1, and this morning finally entered the merely "overweight" category, which was a nice goal met. Next goal is into the 180's by Oct. 23, when I go see some old friends. My fitness goals for this week are to practice better form…

Cheez-Its, Cheese Nips, Cheddar Goldfish, Cheetos, Toast Chee sandwiches (cheese crackers & peanut butter), Doritos, cheese wontons, and nachos. I, uh, might have a problem with cheese flavoring and carbs. Except, weirdly, cheddar popcorn, which I find disgusting.

@skinny I think, some days, you just have to eat what you're gonna eat. But you did do the strong character thing and cut it off at one day, so kudos to you on that. I've been inactive on the thread a couple of weeks (the start of a semester is hard), but I'm still watching and tracking, and trying. I've positively…

I've been really struggling with motivation the past month, ever since I came back from vacation. It's a really vicious cycle: the scale doesn't move, so I get <<feelings>>, so I binge on something, then work really hard to make up for it, but the scale doesn't move, so I get <<feelings>>, so I binge, so I work, and so on.…

@skinny Yup, West Virginia University. Although as of this afternoon, I picked up another handful, and both my sections are maxed out. I've now got 305 students between the classes I'm teaching this semester. I'm glad that it's Friday, because I need to lift heavy things while swearing a lot under my breath. It's been that…

Today was the first day of the semester, and I have 296 students. 194 and 100 in my freshman intro class, 2 in my senior seminar. Thank god I'm not also teaching our writing class. I'd go starkers. The scale is really making me angry the past couple of weeks. I know what I've logged is correct, and should have lead to a…

I canned 10.5 pints of homemade spaghetti sauce today, and that kept me on my feet for a solid four hours chopping veggies, skinning and seeding 15lbs of tomatoes, washing jars, and cleaning everything. Everything but the garlic either came out of my own garden or from our farm box, so the ingredients were super fresh. We…

Seconding others on the need to dry-fry them, although I like slippery noodles anyway, so the texture doesn't bother me much. I really like them as a bulker in cold salads. My favorite is shiritaki, shredded carrot & cucumber, pickled radish, sesame seeds, and Ken's lite Asian Ginger Soy dressing. Add chopped chicken, or…

I have to disagree with you, Niki - volumetric measurements are often inaccurate for any solid that can "pack" - flour, beans, nuts, M&Ms, pasta, what-have-you. As someone who discovered that my "1 cup" of Lucky Charms translated to almost 2 servings by weight...those inaccuracies can add up fast. Given how inexpensive a…

@skinnyjeanzbound I have learned that small, specific goals work better for me...though I meant 10 kilometers, not 10 miles. My truth this week is that I have been legit struggling with exercise calories. I tend to exercise late in the evening, when it's dark and cooled off. It's not uncommon for me to finish up at 10:30,…

@skinnyjeanzbound I'm in northern West Virginia. The pepperoni roll is thelocal delicacy. At it's simplest, it's a small amount of stick pepperoni wrapped in a dinner roll and baked, which renders the spices and grease from the pepperoni. But they is great variety in dough style, amount of filling, cheese, etc. They don't…

This was a good weekend, overall. Since we wound up not going to the county fair on Saturday, I did not have a good excuse to eat funnel cake. Although I was very sad that I missed the demolition derby, which is the most fun you can have for $10 in these parts. On Sunday, I did go to the local Pepperoni Roll Cookoff.…

My success - I canned 9 pints of homegrown tomatoes this afternoon, and a quart of tomato juice. No added salt, just lemon juice and 'maters. But if I don't see another tomato again for a couple of weeks, I think that will be OK.

Checking back in after a very satisfying vacation back home to see family and friends. Everyone was really excited to see me, and were really proud of my progress. It also felt really good to eat roughly at maintenance. 1200 calories was really becoming a grind, and it was amazing how much difference an additional 650…