h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It seems like I spend all of my time going around in circles. Whether it's diet or exercise or any of the other good intentions, I make no progress. I can't even succeed at giving up!

Food is a strong compulsion.

It is indeed. The battle between our primal instincts and our reason becomes exhausting.

I must try this at w*rk (where the only cooking facility we have is the microwave):

Quick Egg-Mushroom-Ham-Cup
http://www.cookincanuck.com/2011/09/quick-egg-mushroom-ham-cup-recipe-with-variations/#more-3610

Was it good, Ti?

I know this is going over old territory, but I am much more content now that I have shifted my focus a bit. I am weighing myself less often, finally having accepted that whatever number comes up is just one of many ways of determinig success or failure. For years I've understood that the journey is more important than the destination in other areas of my life. Now that I've transfered that philosophy to my eating, things are going so much better.

I have an extremely healthy eating plan worked out. As long as I stick to my program today, I'm a success. Today is all I can control.

It was so good that I've done it 5 times so far... definitely some kind of onion or leek, bacon/ham/sausage, mushroom/asparagus/your choice of veggie (fresh tomatoes are nice but will make it a bit watery, sundried ones might work better).

And a bit more than one tablespoon fluid per egg, and only 1 minute at the time with stirring inbetween, or it'll become a bit too solid.

And shreeded cheese on top once you take it out of the microwave - while you're waiting for it to cool down the cheese will melt.

I'm thinking of crumbling feta cheese into the next mug instead of putting shreeded cheese on top.

It's time to tell you what my latest JUDDDD modification is. I wanted to make sure it would work first. Well, it does.

I decided that I need to go ahead and start setting up life-long eating habits, something that hopefully becomes second nature. Begin the way you intend to end, as the old saying goes. So what I did was go to the JUDDDD calculator and put in my goal weight rather than my current weight and added four years to my age. Then I did a 50% maintenance calculation to come up with down day calories.

My reasoning was that if I could maintain goal weight at that level, then I should be able to lose slowly on it until I reach that weight. I started this exactly a month ago today and have lost a pound each week since. I know that losing that slowly won't suit most people, but I like the down days a lot better now. The best plan in the world won't work if you can't stay on it.

I have no clue how long it will take to get down to goal weight, especially since it will go slower and slower as I get closer. But it isn't hard to eat this way. It's enough food to satisfy me. Knowing how many up day calories I'll need for maintenance and staying in that range isn't difficult either.If Im careful and make good choices, I can have plenty of food for my up day claories. The totally fab news is that I haven't binged a single time since I started this.

Great news Hyp! Yeah, I find that slow and steady suits me best too.

Slow and steady is actually essential if you don't want to yo-yo. Studies have shown that losing like that lasts, too. I've gradually just stopped eating as much, and that's how I've done it.

Slow and steady is definately best... I've been loosing weight, very* gradually now over many years, and the past couple weeks, I've finally gotten down to just under 14 and a half stone, and, well really I've not exactly been calory counting recently or anything, just gradually adapted what I eat, so its on a sensible level so, that I guess means I've lost three stone now since my heaviest weight, though I spent a lot of time at about 16 stone, a few years back, and after the earlier success with the JUDD I languished at between 15 and 15 and a half for quite a while... I'm trying* though, to speed things up a little between now and Christmas, and hopefully if nothing else get down to 14 stone by then... which if nothing else is really quite attainible over err, well all of November and December, so aiming for about a pound a week, and I oughta be able to do it
At the moment I'm doing an awful lot of Indian/asian spicey meals, and have recently started eating beans (black eyed, kidney, pinto etc), which are new to me and I'm really liking Today I made biriani with a chicken breast, onion, garlic, ginger, and chillies, plus spices I ground in my new pestal and morter (I must be middle aged, I am so excited having bought the pestal and morter!)
err, cumin seeds, corianda seeds, seeds from a whole bunch of green cardamon pods, some pepper corns, corrianda seeds...
and I had leftover rice from yesterday, which was basmati rice, with onion and garlic, and spices (bay leaves cinamon stick, cumin seed, fennurgreek seed, corriander seed etc)...

And, the three days before tonight I had lamb dansak (well I made a big batch of it!) which was red lentals, onion, garlic, ginger, chillies, tomato, juice of a lime, fennurgreek seeds and err, mushrooms went in on day two with more chillies and things

Actually the lamb dansak was good, as I used as much meet as I'd normally expect to do two decent sized portions, but with the lentals and things, and then adding extra veg, the mushrooms on day two, it easily did three meals, the first on its own, the second and third with some rice...
I'm eating less bacon at the moment, no particular reason, cept that I've fallen in love with duck eggs, which I tend to have at lunchtimes, or with fish and rice as an evening meal, with plenty of low fat plain yogart

Duck eggs? Don't think I've seen them around here, not in the regular supermarkets at least.

You constantly impress me with your 'a little bit of this and a little bit of that' cooking, 2 legs Not to mention all of those spices - I'm afraid I'm a bit when it comes to using anything but the most basic stuff. The most daring thing I've bought is dried chili flakes

Well, except for my first attempt at making my own vegetable stock, which was the first time ever I've used lemon grass. And ginger. And some other stuff I can't remember.

I've got a can of Tom Kha Gai soup in the pantry, and chicken fillets in the fridge, and some canned beans, am thinking of combining them somehow. Must check just how old those bags of lentils in the pantry are, I think they'd fit better than the beans... *wanders off*

Good for you, 2legs! (and a belated congrats on the other thing... )

You always make me hungry when you talk about "...an then I had a little leftover..." and describing how you just bravely chucked in whatever it is! You are the gourmet impromptu chef of Hootoo, you are!

2legs!

Actually, I'm rather proud of all of us.

I've never eaten a duck egg.

Duck eggs really make hen eggs look like the poor cousin of the egg world....
They're fabulus soft boiled, or hardboiled, scrambled is a bit of a let down as they're too high in protein; fabulus omelettes; but I find you need to add a bit more fat (butter), than you would normally, and I also add a little water, just to make it lighter (milk would probably work too I ugess, or cream ) They're pretty good fried too

My main staples at the moment, things I can't imagine not having in the fridge, is ginger, garlic, onion and chillies, probably three quaters of what I cook involves them in some combination or arrangement (well I'm still doing a lot of asian, persian and Indian mainly, stuff at the moment... low fat plain yogart features highly with that too)
Just starting really exploring all these differnt beans, and lentals and things... I still have to decide what to do with these mung beans I bought

Since I started using whole spices (seeds and suchlike), I've begun getting more a feel for what each does to a dish, so I can predict, fairly accurately what I'll need to achieve a desired taste, when I'm combinding cinnamon, fennurgreek, fennel, cumin, corianda, mustard, pepper, ajwain, cardamon, bay leaves, etc., etc., in whatever mix to get a desired blend of ground spices to cook Indian style stuff with
The dansak I did was fabulus; but the first day a bit too sweet, so I made it more bitter ht enext day with mustard seed and fennurgreek

I did a kind of korma style dish last night, but an all in one pan thing, with lentals in the end (I was tired it was late) which worked really well Plain pasta tonight though, I'm too tired to do anythign more complicated than boil a kettle, and the pasta needs using up

Not made bread in a couple of weeks though, must restart that soon Whatever method I use to loose weight, it has to involve food I like, and enjoy cooking, otherwise... it won't ever work

Isn't food marvellous? So much to explore!

Didnt realise duck eggs were high in protein - thats one macronutrient I try to get more of, so I shall seek out some of those.

My current exploration is into unusual grains - quinoa, barley, spelt etc.

A friend of mine used to raise geese; she still has one, looks like Jemima Puddle Duck on steroids. Menchee lays her eyes all over the yard, in the bushes, so H is always giving them away. They make *great* cookies, as the eggs are high in fat. I probably shouldn't have them anymore, health wise, but they're good.

I think the duck eggs are probably higher in fat as well as protein, I'm not sure how well they'd work for baking through, as possibly a bit too high on protein might upset the balance in a cake or suchlike omelettes with duck-eggs though
2 duck eggs, a splash of water, a dollop of butter/fat fresh ground black pepper; I think I actually prefer them without cheese in, as the flavour of the duck eggs comes through even more... the secret I found was to heat olive oil in the pan, until really* hot, then throw a bit of butter in the pan, which oughta immediatley start bubbly and spitting, then* throw the beaten together pepper/egg/water/butter damn... I was all set to have some sausages for lunch today, but now I'm contemplating an omlette again No... must not* have an omelette, I want to do rice with fish and probably a couple of duck eggs tonight...

My new exploration food wise is definately these beans, I've only tried a couple so far, but have mung beans and pinto beans in the cupboard to try next....

My task this week is to write to my MP and counciler for this area; they're planning on putting a Sainsburry's' mini supermarket thing, on Mill road; which would be directly opposite the only* real* shops in theentire town/city!; its where in a short row of shops there is;
chinese ssupermarket (two actually I think),
Indian/asian supermarket,
an 'international supermarket',
several shops which just* sell spices.
A traditional butchers,
a traditional bakery,
about half a dozen or more 'general shops', all of slightly differnt nationality,
a korian resturant, a few indian resturants, a French resturant, a brazilian resturant, a all-purpose takeaway/kebab place, and more shops beside...

The Sainsburry's opposite wil affect the bisuness of some of these directly, and the others indirectly, and additionally, as what is already the bussiest traffic road in town, once the most poluted road in the entire country, the extra lorrys the supermarekt entails will make the road at tha tpoint so busy it'll just be nearly impossible to actually get* to the shops on the opposite side of the road...
They've already stuck about twenty million little Tesco stores within a mile or so of that area, and within a couple of miles is already a larger sainsburry's, tesco, waitrose, ASDA, so I can't see why we need another one, just to upset the balanc eof the only real shopping run of shops in the entire place

I'm contemplating now weather I should buy some fresh meat today, when I go by the Butchers in an hour or two maybe some lamb to do another dansak with tommorrow night, or tonight, or perhaps some beef steak to do a stroganoff or something simular

As William says, if I'm not thinkging about sex I@m thinking about food, and if I@m not thinking about food I'm either thinking of sex or beer... Heddonistic rules OK

Even if William is right , it's all good...

Ugh, about the Sainsbury's. A lot of folks over here try to fight Walmart, that wants to drop in everywhere. When they come in, a lot of the small mom-and-pop stores fail. Granted, in small towns, having *one* large outlet is good, as they have the room to carry what's harder to get in a small town. Trouble happens, though, as they also carry everything the small shops do, for cheaper. Good luck with your petition!

I always make an effort to shop the independent places, when I can. Best hardware store I know is a one-of-a-kind -- they have things the Home Depot doesn't carry, old timey kinda stuff that big box stores won't bother with.

I do a big supermarket shop, once a month, or once every two months; laundry washing tablets, cleaning stuff for the house, bathroom things and big bags of flour, plus frozen things.. all the vegetables I get from either the shop right nextdoor to me, the asian grocers (which does the best chilli peppers....), or off of the market veg stalls, Duck eggs I get direct from the farmers whife, via William who lives near the farm, (I have heard the ducks! when walking about near where William lives)... I now use the Butchers not far from me (on the way to the market which is handy), and, if* I buy bread I use the bakery just opposite the butchers All my spices, and herbs, seeds, pulses, beans, lentals, rice etc, are from the Asian supermarket... at some point I must check out the Chinese supermarket a bit more, which is right next to the asian one (they're basically oppoiste where the sainsburry's supermarket is planned to be put...
I do use the little Tesco supermarket just up the road from me now, mainly for cheese, plain yogart, fresh pasta and butter, but although I could get the veg there at the same time, its basically a lot better from any of the local small shops I use
Must pick up some more cumin seeds and pompadoms from the asian supermarket when I'm next there; Its difficult though, I have to prevent myself looking at too much of what they've got, especially with the dried herbs/spices and spice seeds, I really don't ahve any more room in the house for any more differnt spices!
Just wondering what to have in a couple hours or so, for lunch... maybe a duck-egg omelette again hmmm... just thinking, that Asian supermarket although its tiny, they oughta sell yogart I'd imagine... wonder if they do any of that err can't remember the name cheese...
I'd use the small Italian deli opposite where I live, but its so damn expensive, and there very expensive posh salami, well, I can't taste the differnce between it and a pre-packed mass produced one to be honnest and about the only thing I ever do with salami is Romainian style potatos, and you really want quite a cheap one for that, as the fat from the salami is essential to how it cooks and tastes

I sympathize with small businesses trying to compete with the mega-stores. When the prices are only slightly higher at the small stores, I'm happy to shop there. But when there is a huge difference in the prices, I choose the big store and lower price. I can't afford to pay a lot more for the same thing.

Buying my staples at Wal-Mart where they are a lot less expensive frees up a bit of cash for the odd expensive treat.