Posts by pfluegers

Snowshoeing is so much fun, and such a great workout. Make sure you try on the snow shoes with your boots - on my boot / snow shoe combination the straps of the snow shoes slide off the boots when I go downhill, and it gets very frustrating.

I agree with andesite that the boots are very important, I tried doing it with my regular hiking boots and had icy feet, and resorted to buying winter hiking boots - which are the ones I now have the problem with. But at least my feet are warm while I slide down the hill cursing!

I think the grilling / BBQ part is good, you can throw on a steak for him and skewer some nice marinated shrimps for you. Cook him a potato and yourself a sweet potato, mash both of them on the plate with a bit of butter for him and a bit of flavored milk for yourself.

Or how about grilled chicken? 

I've made burgers that are cheating burgers, i.e. half lamb or buffalo and half turkey, mixed with very finely chopped dry sauteed(?) / fried(?) mushrooms. Added a bit of feta to give it some more flavor, on the BBQ they went. Served in whole wheat pita, with a bit of tsatsiki and a bit of greens and tomatoes. I liked it so much that I made it at a party, where one of guests was a Midwestern meat and potatoes guy and he wolfed down the burgers without even thinking that they may be healthy.

If he doesn't like the whole wheat pita just give him standard burger buns and processed cheese.  

And with the winter coming, there's a whole world of soup coming. Does he eat lentil soup? Put a sausage in for him, you get the soup. Chili with black beans? Give him two bowls, you get one, you just put onions on top and he also gets the cheese...

Luckily no health issues here, but a very supportive husband who likes to loose weight with me. 

First time, for the big drop: A group of colleagues around me started a Weight Watchers at Work program and asked me whether I would join. I declined, saying that I could do without paying somebody to tell me to eat less. And I did, I lost 40 or more pounds (never weighed myself at the max and can just guess), beating everybody in the Weight Watcher group and keeping it off for 5 years.

Over the last 2 years the scale was creeping up. We planned a trip to and into the Grand Canyon, and I figured that I needed to work very hard on the way out, and that things would be much easier if I dropped that additional weight. Found this website and dropped 20 pounds, lower than I was the last time around. I feel great, look forward to the hike, and am just fighting to get the last stubborn pounds off.

And another motivator was a hike with a friend who almost never works out, but made it up the mountain faster and easier than I did. Did I mention I'm competitive? 

Purespark has all my favorite flavorings listed:

• Chocolate
• Beer
• Coffee

Sometimes I use all, sometimes only one of them. They'll do the trick. And nobody will guess it.

And I use masa harina instead of standard corn flour to thicken it, which definitely gives it some interesting flavor along with the thickening....

Hubby was 5 pounds heavier this morning than 2 days ago. We had pretty salty food yesterday, and spent a long time in the car, coming home close to midnight. No way it's fat, although we didn't eat great he didn't eat 10.000+ calories, and no way it's muscle, all we did was a pretty nromal upper body routine. It's possible for guys to retain water... lol

I think the increase in food (and hence sodium) and the increase in weight training can easily lead to water retention in your case.

This is a great thread - it should be stickied to encourage newbies! Congrats everybody!

I lost 20 pounds in about 2 months. Cal intake between 1200 and 1600 (counting obsessively), lots of fruit and veggies, next to no white carbs, next to no cheese , mostly preparing meals, limiting the dining out. The food is real good, we even excited a visiting father-in-law into starting to loose weight after he saw what we ate and how good it was.

Excercise between 30 and 60 minutes every weekday, and either long workouts or lots of gardening, or work on the house (i.e. painting, tiling...) on weekend days. 

Wow, the chili looks good. How do you only eat one serving, though? 

Ok, I'm bored, so I'll try. Should give an advance warning that I'm not super good with exact recipes, they are more general guidelines.

1. Easiest/quickest

Must be salad: Arugula + Radicchio, some finely cut onions, a tomato or two, with my vinaigrette consisting of 2 tsp of really good mustard, Dijon, or Dijon with some taste to it, 4 or so tsp of Balsamico, and 1 to 2 tsp of olive oil, or pumpkin oil if you have.

2. Healthiest

Hm. How do you define healthiest? How about:

Grilled chicken breast on top of wilted spinach? The chicken breast I'd rub with some chopped rosemary, lemon zest, and pepper, and then put it on the grill. I'd make the spinach by sauteeing 2-3 cloves of garlic and some chilies or pepper flakes, and then putting two bunches of well washed spinach in the same pan until it's wilted, and add a pinch of salt before serving.

3. Tastiest

Uhhh, I made some Moussaka yesterday that is my new favorite. It made a pot that filled my husband, father in law and me and we had leftovers for lunch. We could have eaten it all though, it was so good. Here's what I did:

2 Eggplants, cut in slices, put on a very lightly oiled baking sheet and stick in the oven at 375 degrees until nice and cooked and collapsed. I had loads of tomatoes, so I took 6, cut them in half and put them on the baking sheet with the eggplants. Not really necessary, though.

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 lb ground buffalo (will probably work well with lamb as well)

1 lb chopped mushrooms

Cook all four in large skillet until well browned, breaking ground meat up in little pieces. To reduce fat you could take the meat out when it's done and let it sit on a paper towel until the fat has drained. Then return to pan, add 1/2 cup red wine, 2 oz tomato paste, nutmeg, cinnamon, a chopped chili, oregano and whatever other herbs you have. Let everything simmer.

In a THIRD pan (didn't say it was easy...) start the sauce.

2 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp whole wheat flour

1 cup nonfat milk

nutmeg, pepper, or some more chili

Heat oil, whisk in flour, then stir well and slowly add milk, let it simmer a bit. Add spices.

6 oz low fat feta, 1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Prepare big pan, oil or spray lightly

Put layer of eggplant and some chopped tomatoes if you did them on bottom, then add meat, then feta. Repeat layers, then top with sauce, then with Parmesan. Stick the whole thing in the oven at 350 F for 60 minutes.

(Clean all the damn pans while you're waiting for the Moussaka )

Yum!!!

4. Best overall

Hm. Have to think about that.... will get back if the above get approval...

I second marneedear's packaged Indian foods. I rarely eat processed foods, but those are so delicious, and so low calorie.

Also, both the whole wheat pita and their German style whole grain dark bread are great. 

amora: Yours sounds yummy, I'm envious. 

Have the father in law in town so need to cook proper meals. Today we had leftover barley salad (with mushrooms, onions) with leftover chicken liver (in a tomato carrot celery sauce) stuffed into red peppers, and then baked with some parmesan on top. Made a bit of a sauce and poured it over so it was less dry.

Super high in fiber due to the barley, and otherwise healthy as well, about 250 calories for half a pepper. Not bad, for both for leftovers and little calories. 

(btw, I'm just so itiching to ask: Do you thank the cook for the meal?) ('cause of course, as you can guess, he just sits down and eats, no word of thanks or that it tastes good or anything....)