Motleybird Member

I just made this one (video): http://allrecipes.com/video/1327/refried-beans-without-the-refry/detail.aspx Refried beans in a slow cooker. You don't have to soak the beans overnight this way. As someone who lives on the border, I would tell you to skip the jalapeno. Beans and guacamole are not supposed to be spicy! They…

I've been putting coconut oil in my coffee for about six weeks or so. My appetite did increase, but not, I think, because of the coconut oil. It increased a couple weeks after I started, when I added in more snacks. In other words, I spread my calories more evenly through the day, and that made me more hungry. Hopefully,…

I do a little bit of yoga to wake up in the morning. I teach a basic tai chi class, and practice tai chi sword at home. (Great for your core, and it's always a challenge.) Then I get on the exercise bike to catch up on cardio.

I don't, but only because I'm using the TDEE calculation that already has my exercise averaged in. It seems easier to have a set amount each day rather than the variation between workout and rest days.

When I was getting used to low calorie foods, I was hardly ever hungry. Then I started adding small things here and there through the day to get up to where I should have been calorie-wise. That's when I got hungry. I had to turn around from trying to fit more calories in, to trying not to go over with night time snacks.…

That author did a pretty good job of convincing me that obesity is a disease (despite strongly denying it). I started thinking of it in terms of disability, but, that doesn't sound right. She described herself as able-bodied. If you can do everything you need to do, then you're not dis-abled. But if your condition has…

This year, Thanksgiving will be on the road, visiting my nephew in college, restaurants all weekend. My strategy for eating out is to assume that they're feeding me twice as much as I actually need. Half of it goes in the to-go box. We're probably staying home for Christmas. We'll still cook. I probably won't be too…

It's better to eat when you're hungry and go light when you're not. Plenty of people say to eat a big breakfast with protein to make you less hungry later. That might work for them, but it doesn't work for me. I end up wishing I had those calories back by the end of the day.

Real sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and coconut oil. It's non dairy, delicious, and I know exactly what's in it. It's good without the coconut oil too. I recently started adding that part after reading about the health benefits.

I have Saturday as my free day. It's also 'grownup night' because the little one spends the night with grandma. If my husband and I want to eat out just the two of us, or watch movies with popcorn on the couch, I don't have to worry about it. I still try not to go too far overboard though.

I recently started adding a little bit of yoga to my routine. I tried doing the Sun Salutation and discovered that I'm horrible at it. So my next goal is to stop being horrible at it. I do ok with the tai chi stretches, and some of those are fairly intense. (Even experienced yoga people have said so.) I guess I'm just…

I'm so sorry to hear that. I lost one of my cats to cancer earlier this year. It hit us all pretty hard, especially the other remaining cat. We thought she would die too when she decided to hide and wouldn't come out to eat. She's back to her old self now though. I completely understand how losing a pet can knock you off…

I came back after getting on the scale and seeing it higher than it was when I started here before. It's all fine and good for people to talk about eating only healthy foods and working out at the gym. If it works for them, that's great, but you need to find what works for you. Studies have shown that willpower is a finite…

The last time I went out for Chinese for lunch, I ended up dividing what they gave me into three meals. That was just the lunch portions! A cup of soup isn't bad. A spring roll isn't bad. Add it together with rice and entree and it adds up to something huge! The rice is a big calorie hog. I limit my serving to a half a cup…

Em hotep, y'all! I'm Kemetic. My major gods, in order of divination, are Heru-sa-aset (Horus), Ra, Sekhmet-hethert, Sobek and Djehuty (Thoth.) Heru is a big fan of having me improve my health and my martial arts practice. The others certainly don't complain about the idea. My personal style tends towards journeywork and…

There was a whole teaspoon of sugar in that banana I just ate? Noooooo! That's going to kill my diet! :sad:

I tell people I'm 5'7" but my last doctor seemed to think I was 5'6" so we'll split the difference. My freshman year in college I LOST 25 pounds, rather than gaining 15 as everyone else talks about. I walked everywhere and ate in the cafeteria. That put me at 150. I felt healthy, but could still be labeled as big. Having…

Usually people marinade steaks, but I think it could work for mushrooms too. (Warning: I've never actually tried it with mushrooms.) Get a plastic bag and pour something tasty in it. I've seen people use Italian dressing. Teriyaki is another popular choice. Usually you want an acid like balsamic vinegar, or lime juice,…

My mom was just telling me today that you should not get fresh mushrooms wet or they will absorb the water and get rubbery. It sounds like you like them that way though. Maybe try making a marinade for them? There are several restaurants around here that serve mushrooms that taste like they've been soaked in wine. Those…

How you cook them makes a world of difference. Stay away from canned. Most things don't taste as good from a can. Canned spinach smells like wet dirty laundry to me, but if you take fresh spinach and chop it up, you can easily add it to whatever you're cooking. It would go pretty well in a cream sauce or in a soup. Add it…

I have no desire to be a bodybuilder, even less so after seeing all the pictures and listening to his idea of healthy eating. Even so, the article had a lot of good points in it. Don't let the stall freak you out. Stay focused. Do something you enjoy and are good at. Do what you need to do to keep yourself motivated. Good…

Internal stylist here, so I was told (in general, not me specifically) not to lift weights. I think that advice is geared towards males in a normal healthy strength range. Personally, I'm a bit behind the curve so I have to work just to bring myself up to standard. The chronic problem with my shoulders proved that to me.…

Tonight I'm hungry and don't have many calories left. I'm baking some portabello mushroom caps with spinach and cheese in them.

I've experimented with larger breakfasts before. It doesn't actually work as a hunger suppressant for me. I still want the same amount of calories later in the day whether I've had a high protein breakfast or not. My stomach doesn't really wake up until later, so I wait until it does to give it a good meal. Breakfast for…

If you're using MFP's system, then yes. If you manually set your numbers using a different calculation that already includes exercise, then no.

Once you start logging your food, and seeing how the numbers add up, you may decide to make a few changes yourself. For example, Campbells soup looks pretty good on the calorie side, but it is completely evil when it comes to sodium. Now I try to avoid the stuff unless the rest of my kitchen is bare and I'm starving.…

1. Yes, actually, you should quit. These people are crazy and don't know what the heck they're doing. There are other ways to get there. 2. You're seasonally affective. That's what the problem was all this time. 3. You have allergies and are very heat sensitive. Pick a different major. Something indoors. Sorry, but it's…

I've seen it listed in the cardio database.

According to my calculations, if you ate the entire stick of lip balm, and if it was made entirely of coconut oil, you'd have to work off a whopping 4 calories. (The stick sitting on my desk says that it contains .15 ounces.) Oh wait! Pesky decimal! You'd have to work off 39 calories.

I have a Schwinn that's a few years old. The seat is like a real chair and it slides back and forth so you can adjust the distance to the pedals. It has preset programs for resistance, up and down hills, or you can set it manually. It measures heart rate, calories, distance, time, even watts. It even gives you a score…