Posts by mellow_everest

Caseymichelle369-

Shiritake noodles are yam noodles.  I am pretty sure they are of Japanese origin, they are opaque and white or opaque white with small black/brown flecks throughout.  The great thing about them is that they contain bulk without a lot of calories, here is the nutritional info on the 16 oz. container I bought:

Servings per container about 5  3oz. (85gram) servings

Calories  5

Total Fat 0g

Cholesterol 0g

Sodium  5mg

Total Carb  2g

Protein 0g

I buy them in a large chinese grocery store and a small Korean grocery place.  They are sold wet packed and refrigerated.

Pregnancy is tough.  Your body is increasingly uncomfortable and your hormones are shifting constantly.  I totally hear where you are coming from, my last month pregnant was really difficult, I had bad edema and had pregnancy induced carpal tunnel syndrome... I didn't even realize before than this can happen. 

Talk to your doctor about the nausea and inability to eat.  You might want to try snacking on really small things all day long.  With my morning sickness (which thankfully didn't last long at all) I had really dilute smoothies to help me keep down my prenatal vitamins without making me too ill.

When people say that things are only going to get tougher when your newborn arrives - yes and no.  Your hormones are still raging.  You still won't be getting much sleep.  But you should be able to eat again and after the first six weeks or so your body will be feeling more normal. 

You can also prepare a little for when you have the baby.  If you can try to line up friends and family that can help a little with small tasks.  Little things like coming over once a week for an hour or two to let you get a nap while somebody else just holds the baby will help.  My sister used to come by and just "get bored" and fold some laundry... I'm lucky I had family that could take some time to come visit but anybody who offers to help and won't drive you crazy, take them up on it.  Anything helps.

If you find yourself with any in the last trimester think about pre-cooking and freezing meals, buying healthy frozen entrees or nutritious canned foods that you just need to heat up.  Those first three months can be taxing.

The good news is that when it's over it seems (honestly) like a really small price to pay.  My little guy just turned six months and at first I wondered how anybody ever has a second baby but now I know I'd do it over again.

Fat free cottage cheese and some spinach/sprouts and sliced tomatoes and dried dill is really good in pita bread.

Grilled or poached leftover shrimp or fish are nice mixed with veggies in pita too.

If you do like hummous you might like baba ghanoush which is a roasted eggplant dip that you eat like hummous.  Here is a recipe for it, you might need to get the tahini in a specialty store http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sues-Baba-Ghanou sh/Detail.aspx?prop31=2

Leftover bits of curry are really good in pita bread if the curry isn't too runny.

One of the best things you can do to save time and money is to plan on leftovers and what you are going to do with them to make them appealing for a second or third day, whether that means saving and freezing them for another week or cooking them into something else entirely.

After Christmas and Thanksgiving I buy a couple of frozen turkeys on sale.  We have roast turkey one night (usually just before the weekend so I have an whole day off to deal with the bird the next day) and make and freeze turkey casseroles, turkey stew, curries and shaved turkey for sandwiches.  Sometimes you can pick up hams after the holidays too... a little bit of ham sliced up with a healthier version of alfredo on pasta and you have a quick and cheap meal. 

Since you have a large and voracious family you can surf the discount produce area of your local grocery store for finds like "baking bananas" which are usually dirt cheap and perfectly good to eat fresh as long as they are eaten immediately. 

If you have a crock pot you can make fat free "refried" beans by presoaking the beans overnight then adding cooking water, cumin and a coursely chopped up onion and letting it cook throughout the day.  The first day it makes a good side with rice but it's also great for burritos and as a thickener for a veggie soup. 

Leftover pasta of any sort can become a frittata with some chopped mixed veggies and some eggs added... cheese if you don't mind the cost or calories and want to dress it up. 

Many, many entrees can be reincarnated into soup.  My husband's favourite soup is lasagne soup which  is literally lasagne with the cheese from the top layer removed, the rest of it chopped up a bit and added to a can of tomato soup and some extra water.  Instead of feeding the one to two people that canned soup normally feeds it will stretch for four or five people, use up lasagne leftovers and seem like a new meal if I make it from frozen lasagne from awhile ago. 

I live in a small town with really limited grocery options available so we do most of our grocery shopping once a month in a larger city an hour away.  Doing so has really cut my grocery bill because I actually have to map out what we are going to be eating on a meal plan and it helps to plan for leftovers and what you will be doing with them. 

Get a few good containers with seals to store things in, you may want to line those containers with a plastic bag as well. 

Okay, so you kind of cook this but time and contact with possibly yucky surfaces is minimal.  It sounds like you use the microwave anyway.  You can lightly spray with cooking spray a microwaveable container and microwave eggs (well mixed up so they don't pop much) for an addition to any meal but especially breakfast. 

Burritos with fat-free or low fat refried beans you can just keep in a tupperware type container in the fridge would be a good dinner option, everything from veggies to cheese can be prechopped and assembled as needed.   

Personally, I weigh in every morning just before I get into the shower.  A lot of times I don't even pay much attention to the number showing but for me it's a reminder that I DO have a goal in mind and that it's a new day and a chance to keep working towards that goal.  I plug that number into my calorie count account in the morning as I plan what I am going to eat and do activity-wise for the day.  For me the weigh in is just part of the process.

Pears are a great fruit for on the counter, as long as you don't get too many at once.  Since they are perfect only for a couple of days having them out means they ripen nicely and you actually see them when they are at the perfectly ripe stage instead of finding them too late in the back of the fridge (okay, this is what happens to me...)

At least you know why you gained a bit so you know what you have to do to get started again.  And you have lost before so you know that you can do it again.

I think a lot of us here know what it is like to feel like you have been making progress and then slip back a little bit, it's discouraginng and it's hard to feel motivated. 

The best thing is that you are already taking steps to make some new habits to help yourself, the pilates class is a great start,  you've recognized you need more excercise, and you also know that you might also need to start actually writing your calories down too. 

I don't know if it applies for you but I recently plateaued too and realized I needed to start measuring my food out again for awhile because I had a bad case of portion creep.

Wishing you the best

In the summer time on weekends I have a breakfast that I used to have in Spain.  Slices of white baguette (this is the splurge) with olive oil drizzled on top and then pureed tomato spread across it.  I only have it in summer because the tomatoes are so much tastier fresh it makes the baguette splurge worthwhile and I have it on weekends because it seems to be a leisurely type of breakfast that you don't want to rush with.

 Winter time it's the same on weekends as weekdays.  Smoothie or oatmeal.  Maybe I'm more likely to add a fresh chopped apple into the oatmeal instead of cranberries on weekends because I have more time but it's pretty much the same.

-gym, pool, fitness, yoga, pilates or fun dance class (hint a bit to see if she has time and is interested) these things are tough to afford, especially when you are in school.  Or an instructional video for something that seems more fun than fitness but still gets her moving, like bellydance or salsa.

- hiking shoes, trail books or maps if she is into the outdoors

- stop watch or other sport-type watch

 - water bottle

I'd like to be in... I am feeling really discouraged and think maybe this could help. 

I weigh 186 and want to be at 130

Is there an agreed on weigh in date during the week?

Thanks for all the help.  Even though I have found I really like lifting weights I am pretty new to it and until now my main resource was just a Men's Health Training Guide Supplement (I know, there is a lot of bad advice in magazines too but it seems like it's better than nothing).  Any and all tips are appreciated, even a good book recommendation.   Today I worked at the same weight levels but increased my reps. 

jerzeyguy- I'm going to check out the website you sent a link for.  

jem 599 -

I'm doing at least an hour of cardio daily six days a week, that increases if I'm out hiking or if I go swimming.  Partially it's because I have a fair amount of fat to lose, I'm at 174 and my goal weight is 130 (though I would be happy at a more muscular looking 135) and doing cardio helps me to increase my calorie deficit.

The big reason I'm doing this much cardio is that that my recommended calorie intake is about 1450 which I find very difficult not to binge with.  I allow myself to have another 150 -  200 calories of food if I burn at least 500 extra doing cardio and I find that just the increased amount of food keeps me from becoming too hungry.  Almost all of those extra calories I eat in the form of fruit and nuts and I eat them soon before a workout because it seems to energize me a lot to have that tiny bit extra of food.   I don't know why, it's not a lot of food but it feels like a big difference.

Starting today I've broken my workout in to two parts though.  I live and work one block from the gym so this is pretty easy for me to do.  Before work I put in my hour of cardio training.  During my lunch break I went in for a 45 minute weights workout, I warmed up with ten easy minutes on the stationary bike.

I have a spotter available about a third of the time, I think that I will take your advice and make certain that on days I work the smaller muscles first I am certain to have a spotter for those days.