Yesterday, I set myself a menu. I stayed away from unnecessary bread and ate lots of vegetables, lean meats, and nuts. I packed my lunch so I would not be tempted to go out at work, and planned a nice healthy baked chicken breast dinner.
I stuck to it pretty closely for most of the day, until I got home a bit early and was waiting until it was nearly time for LL to get home so I could cook dinner. I thought "I'll just snack on some carrots and hummus while I wait" I brought out the bag of baby carrots and a tub of Trader Joe's Mediterranean hummus. This is an exceptionally tasty substance that comes with some oil and pine nuts on top. It also happens to contain fifteen 70 calorie servings in the tub.
Before I knew it, I had eaten 2/3rd's of the tub with half a bag of carrots. I actually said out loud "What on Earth did I do *that* for?" and proceeded to mindfully put away the hummus and carrots so that LL can have some at her leisure. I went on to cook a nice dinner of three color quinoa cooked with chicken broth in the microwave, steamed broccoli (Get yourself a steamer. Don't think. Just do it. A Steamer makes eating cooked veggies as easy as pouring water.) and baked chicken breast tenderloins. All of these were seasoned with Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute, which is a really tasty seasoning blend that just happens to also be salt free. I am not against salt but, like Tylenol, I prefer it to be its own product, added separately.
I overcooked my chicken a bit, but it was only a bit dry. the quinoa came out awesome with minimal work and the broccoli was, well, steamed broccoli. I love steamed broccoli. Dinner was great and it made me feel better to eat specifically healthy after over consuming my snack food.
Imagine my surprise this morning when I tracked my day's calories and I find I was less than 6% over my (arbitrary) 2200 calorie limit! This felt like a pretty major victory to me. It means I am starting to correctly plan my meals and making choices on snack food that protect me from crazy over consumption. It felt as good as walking out of Trader Joe's the day before having put a package of cookies in my cart with the intention of snacking on the way home and immediately replacing them on the shelf.
Interesting Link of the Day: http://www.crockford.com/pwl/. I have not really done anything other than read this page of Mr. Crockford writing, but, even if it has no factual basis, it rings really true to the forces I feel acting upon my appetite. Demons from the Ice Age telling me to be lazy and eat because food may not be plentiful for long just about exactly describes my consumption urges.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Camping Gear Review: Custom LeatherCraft EasySeat
[Image incoming soon!]
For my Greenbrier last minute camping trip, I had my first opportunity to try out a new pair of 5 gallon bucket seat lids I purchased on Amazon.com. I consider them a great choice if you dislike collapsible quad frame camp chairs and don't want to lug non-folding chairs to the camp site.
These seats are very simple, but don't let their simplicity fool you. There are some very well thought out design choices in this product. The contour of the seat funnels water to the center where there are 4 channels that guide the water out to the sides of the bucket. The sides overhang the bucket so the bucket's inside should stay dry in mist, rain or melting snow.
I was confident that, even with my current 385 lbs sitting on them, that they wouldn't collapse or fall in to the $2.50 Home Depot orange buckets I grabbed to use them on. I am not sure I would use them as a step stool at my weight, but that is not their purpose.
They are hard plastic, but are molded to a comfortable curve that is the same all the way around, so you do not need to worry about which way the bucket is facing.After a nice long evening of sitting at the campfire ( and moving the bucket every time the campfire decided I was a salmon in need of smoking) I had no painful spots on my legs and not even a hint of pins and needles anywhere. The lid fits snugly, but not so snugly that you cannot swivel when you sit.
As an added benefit, when I visited my friend Ted's campsite, I was able to transfer my beer and ice into the bucket instead of having to carry a chair and a cooler. This also meant that I had my beer handy. I did have to get up whenever LL or I wanted another beer though.
When I was packing for camping, a few buckets came in very handy for containing the various bits and pieces. I put my spare tent stakes, hatchet, mallet, and rope in one and our spare wool blankets and propane bottles in the other. All of this gear could either live in the buckets or get moved in to our 'outside' tote that lives in our larger tent's vestibule when we have longer trips.
A bucket comes in handy when you have to go get water to smother the fire or wash up dishes, so why not have a multitasker?
Protip: Don't cut off the retail display hanging loop. You can tie this to the bucket's handle so your lid doesn't blow away or get forgotten.
!fat
[Image incoming soon!]
For my Greenbrier last minute camping trip, I had my first opportunity to try out a new pair of 5 gallon bucket seat lids I purchased on Amazon.com. I consider them a great choice if you dislike collapsible quad frame camp chairs and don't want to lug non-folding chairs to the camp site.
These seats are very simple, but don't let their simplicity fool you. There are some very well thought out design choices in this product. The contour of the seat funnels water to the center where there are 4 channels that guide the water out to the sides of the bucket. The sides overhang the bucket so the bucket's inside should stay dry in mist, rain or melting snow.
I was confident that, even with my current 385 lbs sitting on them, that they wouldn't collapse or fall in to the $2.50 Home Depot orange buckets I grabbed to use them on. I am not sure I would use them as a step stool at my weight, but that is not their purpose.
They are hard plastic, but are molded to a comfortable curve that is the same all the way around, so you do not need to worry about which way the bucket is facing.After a nice long evening of sitting at the campfire ( and moving the bucket every time the campfire decided I was a salmon in need of smoking) I had no painful spots on my legs and not even a hint of pins and needles anywhere. The lid fits snugly, but not so snugly that you cannot swivel when you sit.
As an added benefit, when I visited my friend Ted's campsite, I was able to transfer my beer and ice into the bucket instead of having to carry a chair and a cooler. This also meant that I had my beer handy. I did have to get up whenever LL or I wanted another beer though.
When I was packing for camping, a few buckets came in very handy for containing the various bits and pieces. I put my spare tent stakes, hatchet, mallet, and rope in one and our spare wool blankets and propane bottles in the other. All of this gear could either live in the buckets or get moved in to our 'outside' tote that lives in our larger tent's vestibule when we have longer trips.
A bucket comes in handy when you have to go get water to smother the fire or wash up dishes, so why not have a multitasker?
Protip: Don't cut off the retail display hanging loop. You can tie this to the bucket's handle so your lid doesn't blow away or get forgotten.
!fat
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Camping
Camping is a whole lot of fun. Nothing beats a toasty campfire on a cold night and breakfast cooked over a fire.
Saturday night brought my Lovely Lady and I out to Greenbrier State Park in Washington County, MD. A convenient 1.5 hours from Baltimore. My good friend Ted was camping Friday and Saturday night and we decided to have a whirlwind one night camp to join them.
Our gear was all gathered and chosen Friday night. Since we have been slowly working on refining our gear choices, and we were bringing our smaller tent (an older Coleman 4 person dome) LL and I decided to forgo our usual Coleman queen-size air mattress to see if our military surplus green foam pads and old Coleman sleeping bags would be comfortable enough for a one nighter.
Our choice of sleeping materials consisted of a stacked layer of:
The sleeping bags were warm, but the padding was not enough for LL. She woke up with major hip pain. I am still too big to zip the sleeping bag all the way and that made for a slightly chilly night for me, though my feet stayed toasty. The bags are also too short for both of us.
Actual camping sleeping pads and bags are definitely high on the list of gear replacements.
We also were trying out a few other new pieces of gear:
I will post reviews of each of those items soon.
Greenbrier was a nice campground. I got to experience a few new things there that I haven't seen at previous sites.
They had a code accessed campground. When you checked in, they gave you a code to punch in on a parking lot style gate to access the camp loops and to enter and leave the park after hours. It made me feel a bit more secure about leaving gear around on future trips, though the technology seemed a tiny bit out of place.
They had leveled crushed gravel tent sites. I was leery at first until I got our tent and footprint tarp laid out. It was actually pretty nice. It held our tent stakes securely too.
Lastly, our fire ring was set on a 2-3 foot high concrete pillar. I have always previously seen rings on the ground. My friend Ted's site, where we spent most of our time, was more traditionally placed.
We are planning a late season trip to Shenandoah, so look forward to more reviews and maybe some videos this time!
!fat
Saturday night brought my Lovely Lady and I out to Greenbrier State Park in Washington County, MD. A convenient 1.5 hours from Baltimore. My good friend Ted was camping Friday and Saturday night and we decided to have a whirlwind one night camp to join them.
Our gear was all gathered and chosen Friday night. Since we have been slowly working on refining our gear choices, and we were bringing our smaller tent (an older Coleman 4 person dome) LL and I decided to forgo our usual Coleman queen-size air mattress to see if our military surplus green foam pads and old Coleman sleeping bags would be comfortable enough for a one nighter.
Our choice of sleeping materials consisted of a stacked layer of:
- Green military surplus 1/2" foam mats
- Folded wool blankets
- Coleman sleeping bags (generic older)
- a few sheets and a light quilt in case it was too cold.
The sleeping bags were warm, but the padding was not enough for LL. She woke up with major hip pain. I am still too big to zip the sleeping bag all the way and that made for a slightly chilly night for me, though my feet stayed toasty. The bags are also too short for both of us.
Actual camping sleeping pads and bags are definitely high on the list of gear replacements.
We also were trying out a few other new pieces of gear:
- A Coleman BlackCat catalytic propane tent heater
- A Harbor Freight magnesium block and fire steel
- Vaseline soaked cotton balls as fire starters
- Five Gallon Bucket lid seats.
- Coleman Head Lamp
I will post reviews of each of those items soon.
Greenbrier was a nice campground. I got to experience a few new things there that I haven't seen at previous sites.
They had a code accessed campground. When you checked in, they gave you a code to punch in on a parking lot style gate to access the camp loops and to enter and leave the park after hours. It made me feel a bit more secure about leaving gear around on future trips, though the technology seemed a tiny bit out of place.
They had leveled crushed gravel tent sites. I was leery at first until I got our tent and footprint tarp laid out. It was actually pretty nice. It held our tent stakes securely too.
Lastly, our fire ring was set on a 2-3 foot high concrete pillar. I have always previously seen rings on the ground. My friend Ted's site, where we spent most of our time, was more traditionally placed.
We are planning a late season trip to Shenandoah, so look forward to more reviews and maybe some videos this time!
!fat
Time to come back to the real world.
I have bounced back up to 385 again. I really need to stop this. I have spent lots of money on fitness equipment and I keep reverting back to laziness. My bikes are gathering dust in storage, my weight bench is sitting outside quietly waiting to clang.
My eating habits remain... impulsive.
I've got to stop this.
Here is a link to my calorie tracking site so you can follow along. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/darthValiant
Tasty microwaved healthy veggies for lunch today.
Something healthy for dinner. Chicken breast. With broccoli. Sauteed apples with cinnamon in a nonstick pan so no added fats
Oatmeal and low fat ham for breakfast tomorrow morning.
More veggies for lunch.
Lets see how this goes.
My eating habits remain... impulsive.
I've got to stop this.
Here is a link to my calorie tracking site so you can follow along. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/darthValiant
Tasty microwaved healthy veggies for lunch today.
Something healthy for dinner. Chicken breast. With broccoli. Sauteed apples with cinnamon in a nonstick pan so no added fats
Oatmeal and low fat ham for breakfast tomorrow morning.
More veggies for lunch.
Lets see how this goes.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
WiiFat
Hi Friends,
Welcome to my new blog '!fat'
Just a few weeks ago I experienced the last straw in a long coming revelation about my life.
I'm too fat for Wii Fit.
Yup, my brand new shiny toy told me "Whoaaaa there Bucky, if you wanna bounce around on ME you've gotta lose a few."
I'd bought my girlfriend Katie and I a Wii console a week before, finally found a copy of WiiFit, got it home, set it up, spent about ten minutes reading all the neat messages and setting up my game, got on and it told me I was over the weight limit. Wow, told off by a video game.
This got me considering my health again. I decided it was time to lose weight before it is too late.
I even decided on my method (more about that later.)
My problem, though, is I can't keep motivated. No matter what I tell myself or how good my intentions, I end up back in my old habits.
So I started this blog.
Cheers,
Rick
Welcome to my new blog '!fat'
Just a few weeks ago I experienced the last straw in a long coming revelation about my life.
I'm too fat for Wii Fit.
Yup, my brand new shiny toy told me "Whoaaaa there Bucky, if you wanna bounce around on ME you've gotta lose a few."
I'd bought my girlfriend Katie and I a Wii console a week before, finally found a copy of WiiFit, got it home, set it up, spent about ten minutes reading all the neat messages and setting up my game, got on and it told me I was over the weight limit. Wow, told off by a video game.
This got me considering my health again. I decided it was time to lose weight before it is too late.
I even decided on my method (more about that later.)
My problem, though, is I can't keep motivated. No matter what I tell myself or how good my intentions, I end up back in my old habits.
So I started this blog.
Cheers,
Rick
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