Extreme diet continues

Marguerite

Active Member
Kumara - it's a type of sweet potato, the orange kind. We get it a lot, you can use it like either pumpkin or potato. In New Zealand you can get kumara chips as well as potato chips (fries).

With plants, sometimes you just have to grow what is suitable for your area. I'd love to grow raspberries, but we're too warm here.

You mentioned how hard it is to stick to your diet when eating out - I noticed that when I was doing Atkins. For all its faults, that Atkins diet did teach me just how unhealthy even 'healthy' food is, when you're out. I bought a rice paper roll, a chicken, lettuce and sprouts one, only to find it was stuffed full of rice vermicelli. Subway is about the healthiest fast food (other than sushi) and the bread is generous. A lot of it. Even the wraps - too much bread, not enough filling. And the 'roast chicken fillet' filling was like a large chicken nugget, a highly processed and reconstituted lump which was also oily. Even the sushi - not enough vegetables, too much rice (ie carbs again). Not that I'm eliminating carbs or even trying to reduce to Atkins level, but it's just too easy for shops to pad the meals out with carbs (they're cheap calories) and we're all just too used to it. Carbs make great comfort food and they're absolutely everywhere in just about everything. Even chicken kebabs which are just lumps of chicken threaded onto a wooden skewer - they've been rolled in flour and then deep fried. A disaster.
A snack tin of salmon is sold with crackers to go with it. Children's snacks all have added carbs (it's no wonder our children are all getting fat). And when I was searching for a breakfast cereal, I just couldn't find one which didn't have added sugar and often also added salt, in unacceptable quantities.

So I'm sticking with basics.

And today the scales finally admitted that I've now lost FIVE kilos. It's gotta be the pills (plus the diet) making the difference.

Marg
 

dreamer

New Member
WAY TO GO MARG!!!!!!! Yay!
Congrats on 5 kilos! (one of our kitties name is kilo)
difficult child is working at Subway, now....I steer clear, BUT was thinking one day I MIGHT have one of their salads with no dressing, with just turkey on top or something. If I had a sandwhich there, they now have minis....maybe a turkey mini with no mayo etc, and tons of vegs.......but...not yet. Soooooo I guess I am just gonna hafta figure out somethng new to be my fav thing to do--and adjsust my brain to say oh I love doing this. LOL.
I did hear on radio this week, people with food stamps are now being priced out of healthy food, and are buying all the unhealthy food etc becuz the prices on things has gotten so out of whack and well, I forget what else they said, but, I know it is hard to change what we eat and how, and it can be time consuming....it IS much easier for me to do bettter when I am HOME and can take the time etc.

Oh I am so happy for you! Thats great news!
 

dreamer

New Member
me- again.
Had to run to store for cat food. While there I got some fresh ginger, IIRC I heard, it is a nice anti inflammatory? I have never used ginger, much less fresh, but- guess I will check it out. :) I also saw this thing, looked sorta like a cross between a kiwi, a white potato and a coconut? LOL- it was hairy bristly and dark brown on outside, about the size of a small white potato, a little bigger than a kiwi. It began with "man-" It had a label on it, said you could use it similar to potatos? I did not buy it.....LOL, but I sure did study the silly thing.

I wound up getting sidetracked in bread aisle. UG....bread was not something I ever ate much of, not any bread products. So I was reading all the breads that sounded or looked remotely healthy and I was getting more and more frustrated. I guess I hate to use my calories on something so dull as a peice of bread? LOL. - even if it does have "good" qualities.

I did make it out to my yard today (YAY) and my parsley and chives for sure are greening up. (already! YAY) so much still loooks so sad, tho, becuz it is still not yet decent weather.But just the tiniest barest amount of green IS showing on at least that. :) And ALAWAYS snow comes before things get completely "cleaned up" here- so, I did work a tiny bit (in between chauffering kids) cleaning some of last falls debris out. The little bit of green is a motivator, just like the slight pound decrease also helped motivate. And the sunshine just felt SO wonderful, it sure has been a long long winter. (and here it began so early, and summer left us so fast, and we had so much FOG and RAIN in the fall, we had NO sun for MONTHS!, literally)

At the store I did not see an K things similar to sweet potatos, and almost got some sw pots, but they were SO expensive. I had turnips and parsnips in my hand, never used either of those, either- but, I set them back for today. I have a lot of fresh vegs at the moment to use up first. BUT I am getting adventurous, and getting into this, now.
 

change

New Member
My heart goes out to ANYONE who struggles with weight and is limited in their exercise regimen. That makes things so much tougher. Hang in there. Sounds like you're doing pretty well considering. Such discipline! I'm not anything medical ny any means but I just wanted to say that I have to take Topamax for headaches and they have a wierrd side-effect of appetite suppressant. My daughter takes twice the dose that I take to curb her binge eating. It does work except for when she falls off the wagon. Maybe you can check that out. On me, I lost 15 lbs. in like 3 months years ago when I first got on it so then the neurologist reduced my dosage because it was too much weight loss for me. (I liked it - what woman doesn't!!!) But, I still take it to help my headaches (though it doesn't work as well as it did at the higher dose). I work out a lot though too. It's worth a try. He said it's been scientifically proven to reduce a person's craving for sugar, sweets, and alcohol and that's why people lose weight.

Good Luck!
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Change, I have tried Topomax (for headaches). Thanks for the thought, though. The neurologist said that it had a side effects sometimes of causing weight loss, but I wasn't on it for long enough. I seemed to be making my headaches worse. And in the week I was on it, I lost no weight. The stuff I'm on now - Reductil - is supposed to curb appetite (no way, I'm still ravenous) and also to stop metabolism going into famine mode (THAT'S the bit I want!).

Dreamer, to use ginger - it's great in stir-fries.

Not sure what the "man" thing was - mangosteen?

I've found the art to gourmet poverty cooking is to stick with what's in season; buy in bulk but USE it in bulk; bottle, preserve or freeze what you can (cooked); and if necessary, 'store food in other people' (Terry Pratchett's description) by sharing your food with other people in the hope they will share with you some other time. When tomatoes are in season, I cook bottles and bottles of tomato relish. Tonight I'm making more strawberry sauce because we needed the room in the freezer and the strawberries I froze last year had to come out to make way for the side of lamb I bought. A side of lamb - $6.80 a kilo, and piecemeal various cuts of lamb can cost up to $20 a kilo (Aussie dollars).

Generic Stir-fry recipe:

Half an hour before you actually start cooking, cook the rice. I use the microwave, for absorption method. Put rice into a microwave dish, no more than a third full. Now add water until the water level is over the top of the rice to the depth of your first joint of your index finger (I usually go a little over, a third of the way to the next joint - I have pudgy hands). Whatever you set your microwave to will take a little practice (every oven is different) but the principle is - bring the rice to the boil, then simmer for somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes depending on how much of it you're cooking. If the rice isn't done, stir it, make sure there's still a splash of water and cook on high for another couple of minutes (adjust as you get the hang of it).
When rice is done - immediately fluff it up with a fork, then leave covered.
For brown rice - a little more water and double the simmer time. I'm still getting the hang of this one.

Get whatever meat you want to use thinly sliced. I will take a steak out of the freezer and let it begin to thaw. Once it is soft enough to cut, I will slice it while it is still partly frozen because that way I can get really thin slices. You can use otherwise tough cuts of meat this way.
And if you are using a tough cut, such as topside or round, you can marinate the sliced beef in a mix of 2 tablespoons warm water with 1 teaspoon bicarb soda. marinate for half an hour, rinse it off, then stir-fry.

What else - cut an onion into 8 pieces than separate out the layers. Finely chop a couple of cloves of garlic, grate or finely chop about a teaspoon of fresh ginger. Then cut up other vegetables, whatever you want - red or green peppers, shallot or two, carrot chunks, celery slices and whatever else including leafy greens.

Sauce - Tablespoon each of black bean sauce, hoi sin sauce, light soy. Or I sometimes use 2 tablespoons oyster sauce and one of mirin (rice wine) or sweet sherry. Don't use black bean sauce with chicken - too strong.

To cook - put things in in order.

First do the vegetables. have a large serving bowl handy.
Stir-fry in a splash of canola plus a bit of sesame oil -
1) onions
2) shallots, ginger, garlic (finely chopped chilli goes in here too if you're using it)
3) peppers, celery, carrots
4) any other fleshy bits such as baby corn, water chestnuts, snow peas, leafy greens - stalks
5) leafy greens - leaf

Then transfer it all to the serving bowl.

Add a splash more oil to the wok, heat it up. Now if you want, fry a small handful of nuts such as almond, cashews or peanuts (optional). Toss them onto the vegetables.

Now brown the meat. On its own in the wok. Once it's browned, toss in the sauce. Have some water handy if it starts to get too thick or too hot. Only a splash, though! Thicken the sauce if you want, with a mixture of about eighth of a cup water with a teaspoon of cornstarch (make sure it's made from corn, not wheaten cornflour!).

Now throw the vegetables and nuts back in, stir to combine and serve with rice.

The whole cooking time is about five to ten minutes at most. And you CAN serve it with brown rice.

Raw ginger is 'hot' - cooking it releases a lot of flavour, it can still be a bit hot, but in tiny pieces it's wonderful. grated - you don't notice the hot spots as much. You can also make ginger tea with some slices covered with boiling water and left to steep. great if you have a cold. It goes well with teriyaki marinade, it's fabulous with chicken. I make an Asian chicken stock with slices of ginger in it along with the boiling fowl.
I peel the ginger (with a potato peeler) but I only peel the bit I'm using. If I'm steeping slices, I don't bother to peel it because I won't be eating those bits.


I'd better go check the strawberry sauce, time to stir the pot again then cook it for another ten minutes (microwave ovens are wonderful!)

Just out of curiosity, do you notice if you get obsessed with food when dieting, and go into a cooking frenzy?

Marg
 

dreamer

New Member
I am not sure if I am in a cooking frenzy exactly, and or if it is due to the extreme diet or the weather and season. When I first started pred I went into a cooking frenzy - I think becuz I could finally feel alive and I finally COULD cook, and becuz the pred made me SO hungry. as that waned, I began to get into foodnetwork stuff, and seems as seasons change, I now get into seasonal type stuff. I never dieted before. ANd I was a late starter to cooking, becuz I worked in restaurants for many many years and my bosses were generous and always fed me and my husband and later, often, my kids.

Until the last year locally we had our choice of one grocery, and first due to my work keeping me local due to my long work hours and long work weeks, I did not leave town to shop, and then later due to my illness, I did not leave town. Local grocery is a national chain, did not carry much local things, and while we do have many roadside stands and a farmers market, they were never open when I was not at work. and the produce in our grocery is always VERY underripe and terribly overpriced. In the last year we have gotten 3 new groceries here, creating competition, and bringing us a wider variety of produce. We are also now starting to get food from different cultures trickling in.
I think there are many foods I thought I did not like and for a multitude of reasons, I am now finding i now do like. Strawberries for instance, I think I just never had a decent strawberry until 2 years ago. I think we are getting some better quality, and I think my tastebuds are changeing, too.
It does me little good to go into any serious frenzy, for one I only have the small freezer compartment over my refrigertor, and no space for a freezer right now, (my house is very very small) and my kids will not eat anything they consider to be "leftover" and anything frozen, in their narrow minds is a leftover) I am working to draw them more into food prep- but it is difficult, again becuz our house is so small, the kitchen is miniscule.
THank you for an idea on how to use this ginger. My kids found the peice of ginger funny looking, LOL- wanted to know what silly mom had gone and bought, now. I was so excited when I brought it home, and my son was with me when we were looking at it at the store.

I did not read much yesterday re the carbs....except IIRC all carbs turn to sugars? thus contributing to higher blood sugar and ?somehow also contributing to further insulin resistance? but of course, except for fats and ?meat? nearly everything else is carbs? UG I read the info 3 times, but it gets so circular, and then I get confused. I sure do not learn as easily as when I was 20! SO while I am not, as far as I can think at this time- going totlaly carb free or anything- I am thinking I should pay more attention to the carb values when makeing choices. Currently I am mostly useing the Food Pyramid, the food groups, calories, fat content, and then adding in whether it is something beneficial for one of my concerns, or harmful. LOL and that often has me busy enough trying to keep track! LOL. SO, more than on a cooking frenzy, right now I have a stack of books on kitchen table to check and double check things. I also have my food diary, where I write EVERYTHING that touches my lips and then see how I sit as the day goes on, sitting beside my blood pressure cuff. I also chart my blood pressure and weight daily on my diary. I am still frustrated to have not gotten a blood sugar meter.

Timerlady posted in this forum, I invited her to come check out this thread and join us. BUT I amnow thinking our threadmight be getting too long- plus I know this thread is starting to be difficult for my web tv to want to load.....

I was wondering if we should begin a fresh thread?

I am curious if you are FEELING any better at all ? SOrry to hear you feel hungry! SOme days I struggle to eat enough from the proper nutritious foods, but yes, I also have had times now where I feel hunger. But less than I expected. I am grateful for that.
 
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