Week 8 – In Appreciation of the Grill
Most healthy diets suck. Keto is passable for a while, but the lack of potato chips is a limiting factor. Low fat is just.. Ugh, not thanks. Vegan? Vegetarian? I don’t even want to think about the mental contortions you have to go through to tell yourself “This seitan is really good. I enjoy seitan. Seitan is a think I wish to eat more of.”
The problem with diets is that they are all negative. You can’t eat meat. You can’t eat chips. You can’t eat outside of a particular time window.
That shit don’t work. You can’t even not think about a pink elephant.
So instead, I propose you think about it as an active thing. You need to get certain things into your body. How will you actively go about doing it.
On thing your body needs, no matter what the diet, is high-quality protein and fiber. It would be nice to do that in as few calories as possible, so you can spend your calories on other stuff. Did you know an entire Hershey has only 210 calories. That’s like 2 tablespoons of olive oil. If you could cut out that oil from your meat prep, you could go and actively have a Hershey’s bar. Or three ounces of Scotch. Pick your poison.
Next, you’ve gotta salt the meat
From the back to the front and make the taste complete
Not to little, not too much
With a little finesse, you’ll get the touch!
Fortunately, like every Red Blooded American, you own a grill. Or if not GTFO and go get one.
Grills are great. They cover your meat with smoke and cook it without having to add any oil. That means you are saving calories that you can actively go spend on chocolate or Scotch or whatever your poison is.
There are lots of vegetable that are great on the grill too. Up here on Ice Station Hoth, we only get about 19 days of nice weather a year, but I spend as many as possible with as much on the grill as possible.
Meats a no brainer, but meat should grill next to bait. That is, grilled vegetables. Onions, peppers, asparagus, zucchini, tomatoes. Hell, it’s the summer. Get whatevers cheap and throw it on.
And yeah, it was just one of those holidays where everyone grills and tries to remember what patriotic thing we are supposed to care about that day. But that’s not why I love my grill. I love my grill for the Tuesday night where I come home from a long, stressful day at work and I need an excuse to stand around and not be bothered by my wife or kids for a half hour. So I can come home, throw some meat on the grill, and stand around and decompress for a bit while the grill does its magic.
Bonus 1 week challenge
Put something on the grill that never walked on two our four feet.
I weigh 330 lbs. Just like I did a month ago. But in that time, I’ve gone down another hole on my belt. So operation recomp-as-a-fat-guy is working.
Still tracking everything I eat. Still going to the gym 6 days a week.
Progress is always good.
I am tracking like you recommended and found I was eating more than I thought.
I am at 215, but I need my belt o0n the third hole to keep my 34″ jeans up.
Go, you!
Thanks SP
Woohoo! That’s a great measure to use!
Nice job, Leap!
I just got done grilling some mango/jalapeño sausages! Add a salad and it’s a perfect outdoor lunch.
Today is one of those ‘this is why I live in Minne’ days.
Nice. I’ve been… sitting behind a computer trying to get my brain to cooperate for just a few more hours.
I did sit outside for a half hour and read over lunch.
I was the only one at the office yesterday, so I decided to call it early today.
I dropped a little over 40 lbs this year to get myself down to 235. In the course of doing that I got sick a couple of times (which kept me out of the gym) and suffered an injury that sidelined me for awhile. I’ve been back at it though for about 2 months now and I’ve finally got my deadlift back over 400 for a set of 5. And I got my squat back to 310 for 3 sets of 5.
It’ll be a long road to getting back as strong as I was while at a new healthier weight, but I’m happy with my progress so far.
That’s awesome!
That’s great, Negroni!
Any progress counts. The problem with aging, too, is that those youthful amazing feats of strength become somewhat elusive…
Keep on trucking!
Damn, son. I’m only dead lifting 225 x 5. Then again I weigh 160 lbs so I’ll take it.
I need new pants and a new belt. These 38s are loose even with the belt on the last notch.
Weight: 175.4
Avg Calories: 1428
Avg Carbs: 23
My weight is fluctuating during the week. For last week’s post, I was 176.4, then on Monday I was 174.8, and as of this morning I’m 175.4. Am I correct that this is normal, and — as long as it keeps going down each week — I’m good?
Indeed. All sorts of things contribute to the small variables. Salt intake, hydration, and bathroom habits to name a few.
Yes, the downward trend is what matters!
Hydration – That would be the culprit. I tend to not drink as much over the weekend, so I’m relatively dehydrated on Monday morning when I weigh myself.
Yes, that fluctuation is normal. Your body is mostly water, and therefore most of your weight is water. I’ve dropped as much as 5 pounds in a day when I’m dehydrated. Now that it’s summer it will be more pronounced. That’s why it’s important to weigh yourself at the same time every day. I like to weigh myself in the morning, before I’ve had anything to eat or drink.
Your weight can vary by a few pounds throughout the day. I use a 10 day average to filter out the noise.
I weigh myself every day.
If anyone is interested, this spreadsheet will take your daily weight and daily calorie consumption and give you a pretty good estimate of your total daily energy expenditure (aka TDEE, your ‘calories out’).
Linky: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mXWSUDaxVk1l5NKw4F35jD96Q0ytMrV7pqFAwxEcj6A/edit?usp=sharing
Absolutely. Don’t worry about it.
And buy yourself one of these. Almost infinitely adjustable and super nice.
No way. Get a leather punch and keep your hilariously oversize belt like a trophy.
I like that the buckle will open beer bottles. Nice touch.
Which is good if you’re driving, because having to reach into the glove box for a bottle opener can be dangerously distracting.
The more you know…
Leap, will you cook my dinner for me? My parents aren’t around and I’m not allowed to turn on the stove.
Just pour some of the cat’s water in a plastic bowl, drop in a hotdog and microwave. Voila! Dirty water hipster hotdogs!
If you are ever in the Twin Cities, shoot me an email at my username (all one word) at gee mail dot com. I make a mean octo-dog.
I made a few changes in the past few weeks. First, I’m incorporating more cross fit type stuff to my workouts. Doing more exercises in a row without a break, more body weight exercises, things like that. I’m a bit more sore and worn out after my workouts now, but I’m hoping that extra cardio pays off.
The other thing I’m doing is adding more vegetables to my diet. I’ve been eating low carb for a while, but it’s usually more meat and dairy and, I will admit, not enough green stuff. Now that my garden is producing I’m adding kale, lettuce, or zucchini to as many meals as possible. I notice I do feel better on days where I have leafy greens.
Good for you! (I crack myself up.)
I love salad. So much. My tomatoes are not ready to harvest yet, but any day now. I am so excited!
This time of year we save so much money on food. We just have to buy meat and milk, and we get the rest out of the garden.
That’s fabulous. For a variety of reasons, I can’t do a large garden any longer (or at least not now, not here), so I have elevated 2ft x 4ft planters full of tomatoes and a ton of herbs in pots on the porch, along with a perennial herb garden out back. OK, and more tomatoes in containers on the porch. Did I mention we like tomatoes?
Fresh tomatoes from where we live are amazing, aren’t they? Every other tomato tastes like wax to me.
Somehow my wife and I have become preppers, so she makes her own jam and cans tomatoes.
What type of canner do you use? The garden wasn’t quite big enough this year, but I’m going to need one next year.
I don’t know the brand, but it’s an electric canner and I wouldn’t use anything else. It makes it so easy. We run the jars through the dishwasher to sterilize them first. We can make a batch of jam in less than an hour. The most time is spent cutting up strawberries.
Nice. I saw there’s a new electric canner out for jams that’s entirely automated. It seems really easy to use but unfortunately doesn’t do anything else.
I looked it up, it’s a Ball FreshTech electric canner.
She’s my soul sister.
Seriously, we’ve always done all this. It’s part of the self-reliance thing in my family.
With just two of us here most of the time, I only canned 100 quarts of tomatoes last year.
Good plan, Kevin! You’re gonna be a beast next season!!
That’s the plan! I’ve also got a sheet a plastic in the garage so I can practice shooting.
You need this!
For what? He’s shooting people in his garage and wrapping them up in plastic sheeting. Not practicing sports.
That’s kind of where I went, too.
/reads too many mysteries and thrillers
I just finished the third of those Ravenwood books, btw. Damn good.
I have gone the cheap route. I have an old canvas tarp against the wall, so it absorbs the pucks. I have missed a few times and put some dents in the drywall. (oops!) I suppose I could use some chalk to draw targets.
Next I’m going to put a bungee cord across the plastic to practice passing. Have you tried that? I have a hard time catching hard passes, and I’m hoping that will help.
There’s a passing trainer on that site. Actually a really nice tool.
But yeah, any kind of rebounder will work. Nice of you can set it so bad passes don’t come back to you.
Not a good Glibfit cycle for me. I put on another 8 lbs instead of losing 5.
I couldn’t button or fully zip my tux pants at my sister’s wedding. At least the cummerbund covered it.
I started eating salads everyday for lunch. The garden is starting to produce so at least I’m able to walk a few steps out the backdoor to get fresh tomatoes and lettuce each day.
Well, don’t beat yourself up. That is not productive. You’re already getting back on track!
Gardening FTW!
Thanks SP!
I thought the goal at a wedding was to cut a bridesmaid out of the herd so you could unzip your tux.
Mission Accomplished, did I forget that part?
Of course, it made it much easier that my wife was bridesmaid.
Did you convince her to play the role of the Judas goat?
Not for this one, but I’ve got a few months to work on her, and my waistline, before Sister #2 gets hitched.
Hold long before the wedding were you fitted for your tux pants?
8 years.
To make it worse, I was sick when they were tailored and about 10 pounds under weight at the time. Rookie mistake.
I was desperately trying on suit jackets a week before my niece’s wedding. It didn’t help when one hanger said 42 regular but the jacket was a 50 long.
I have lost 8 pounds and am down to 138. SUCK IT, HATERS!
I grilled some pork chops & halloumi cheese last night. Yummy.
I just saw a positive article on Trump at CNN. It’s all over, the world is ending, this is it for real this time. When I go to the train station in a few to get wifey, I expect cats and dogs sleeping together in the streets, swarms of locusts, and the sun will probably turn black like sackcloth.
They’re just trying to egg him into calling it fake news.
Here is the top of their page:
11 dangerous things Trump said in Montana
ANALYSIS
President made comments at a rally that predecessors wouldn’t have uttered even in private to their friends
Trump calls journalists ‘bad people’
Trump mocks George H.W. Bush at campaign rally
Analysis: In the #MeToo era, Trump continues to say #HeDidnt
Opinion: Trump’s disgusting message to women
The positive one must be buried, I didn’t see it.
What was it?
Donald Trump’s winning streak is transforming America
By Tim Stanley
It’s mostly positive. I can’t even believe I just read CNN agreeing with Trump for getting out of the UN Human Rights Council. I nearly fell out of my chair. I wonder if that guy is fired yet?
I read it and you’re right, the end of days is upon us.
the WaPo/NYT/CNN etc run ‘contrarian views’ the same way Hannity used to have Colmes
iow, a contrarian take, but usually a particularly weak version of one. its not there as some “here’s the best argument from the other side’s POV”; its more like, “here’s a relatively shallow and superficial version of what you might hear from competing outlets”
at best, its an effort to sweep up some extra clicks/views from outside their normal doctrinaire POV
They didn’t have this on the TV CNN, just the webpage, right?
CNN usually has a dimwit “Republican” who ends up agreeing with all his superiors on the Left, who outnumber him 5-1 on the panel — but Hannity does the same thing when he has Geraldo Rivera as his token ‘liberal’. CNN usually even gets bonus points, though, with their token GOP guy, as he is always an ugly old white male, who seems there to justify the need for diversity in all aspects of the USA.
President made comments at a rally that predecessors wouldn’t have uttered even in private to their friends
Trump calls journalists ‘bad people’
I suspect Nixon said worse, probably on those tapes somewhere.
Trump mocks George H.W. Bush at campaign rally
How hard would I have to look to find Obama mocking ex-Presidents?
Analysis: In the #MeToo era, Trump continues to say #HeDidnt
Along with a lot of other people accused by #MeTooers.
Opinion: Trump’s disgusting message to women
More disgusting than Kennedy’s or Clinton’s? Doubt it.
Obama spent eight years mocking GW Bush for destroying the country’s economy so badly, that 2% growth that Obama was bringing was a miracle and no one could ever expect better again.
People forget about the “new normal”.
Please, please, please don’t grill your vegetables all mixed together. Keep them separate so you can cook them for only as long as needed. Just say no to sad, over cooked peppers next to half raw onion!
+1 million mixed kabobs.
I always do them one at a time. Same way I stir fry stuff. If there’s going to be shrimp, that gets cooked last since it literally takes one minute to cook.
Correct. Nothing sadder than a lad with a floppy zucchini plank.
Pretty well dialed in at 190 pounds, it seems. Better, but with my bones I could easily lose another 10 pounds.
Diet is what Mrs. Dean feeds me, which is invariably fresh cooked, healthy, balanced, all that. Hell, I even ate kale earlier this week. The only exceptions are when we travel, Saturday pizza dinner (delivered), and maybe one other restaurant or take-out meal per week.
Hitting the rower probably 5 days a week. Need to build strength/power strokes, so I’ve been pushing for 2:00 500 meter splits. Can’t quite get to four in a row, but I’m still at the bottom of the steep part of the curve. Next week I expect to hit that target.
Did you like the kale?
My wife tried to cook it once and it tasted like grass clippings.
Not a kale fan. Too bitter and kinda gristly for me, unless its chopped really fine and mixed with something that tastes good. Its a running joke now at our house. As I told Mrs. Dean, I saw a recipe for kale on the web that looked good:
Barely cover the bottom of a frying pan with olive oil. Add kale. Dump in trash – the olive oil helps the kale slide right out.,
Lol.
I don’t mind it in salads.
Freshii, in Gaviidae, puts kale in their super-foods soup. It’s great. Oh and add chicken and corn to it.
Sounds like it may even be worth the drive!
We use watercress sometimes, which is also on the bitter side, but when you combine bitter with the texture of kale, that’s just awful.
Yeah, its the texture that kills it for me. Its like a cross between tissue paper and cellophane Easter grass.
My wife and I eat a lot of salad greens, and I like pretty much all of it, except for kale. I freaking hate kale, blech! I’ll stick to different types of lettuce, arugula, spinach, no freaking shitty kale.
Instead of kale, try bok choi for cooking or napa cabbage as a raw vegetable. I prefer either of those over kale.
I made some southern-style greens yesterday using kale. I have a co-worker originally from New Orleans and she gave it a thumbs up. If you cook kale like this, the flavor is better and it collapses down to about 25% of its size, and you don’t have to eat as much!
Here is the quick version of my recipe.
Cut up about 6 pieces of raw bacon into small chucks. Cook in a stock pot until the bacon gets crispy.
Add one dice onion, saute until the onions are clear.
Add a few teaspoons of crushed garlic, cook for just a few more minutes.
Add a few bags of kale (center stems removed and cut into 1/2 inch strips), and toss.
Add 2 cups of chicken broth.
(My friend says to add a few tablespoons of cider vinegar, but I haven’t tried that yet).
Put a lid on the pot and simmer about 30 minutes, or until the kale is the consistency you prefer.
Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.
Replace the kale with mustard green or turnup greens or collard greens or spinach or arugula or bok choy or broccolini or chard or grass clippings or carrot greens or green construction paper or shredded florists foam and I’m there.
^^^
If you cook them down that long, you won’t notice the difference! Give it a try!
The cider vinegar is a great garnish/topping for greens. After they’re done.
The wife is a big fan of cooking greens with balsamic vinegar, if you go for that sort of thing. Not always my cup of tea but sometimes it turns out pretty good.
You had me at “Cut up about 6 pieces of raw bacon into small chucks”
I have a better recipe:
– don’t use kale
I don’t like kale. I like most vegetables, so I don’t think it’s a big deal to not eat it.
Bonus 1 week challenge
Put something on the grill that never walked on two our four feet
Grilled salmon sounds good to me!
Technically correct is the best kind of correct.
Also lobster, crawdads and shrimp.
And, in AZ, tarantulas.
Now I’m going to have to look up spider locomotion to see if they are temporarily on two or four legs. You’d think I would know this, having programmed the gate for a 8 legged robot that uses spider locomotion once…
Yep, as slow speeds at least some spiders will have 4 legs on the ground some times.
Biomechanics of octopedal locomotion: kinematic and kinetic analysis of the spider Grammostola mollicoma
I know you were all waiting with bated breath for the answer.
https://i.imgur.com/LcVDPAw.jpg
Arachnids on the barbie? Gross!
The trick is to put them on a really hot grill (I use the infrared burner), and wait for their bellies to split. That way, you get a nice char on the legs, and the interior steam-cooks.
I refuse to eat any bugs. No bugs, I won’t even eat escargot.
Psst, hey, Hype. I don’t really eat (or cook) tarantulas, you know.
“Psst, hey, Hype. I don’t really eat (or cook) tarantulas, you know.”
No, I don’t know, how could I know? I would believe anything from you crazy fuckers around here.
Spiders aren’t bugs, so you’re good!
All the cool kids are eating spider sashimi.
I’ll have the kale before THIS.
I thought they were eating fruit sushi.
That kid is definitely not cool.
Pretty good week even with the holiday. Got to the gym four times (deload week) and kept the diet under control. Gonna get out for a few long hikes to get ready for vacation, maybe a few mb rides as well.
I fucking love summer.
Me too. I hate winter more and more every year, although now I have hockey season to look forward to.
I hate winter more and more every year
Hence, my migration from Wisconsin to Texas and then Arizona.
Next…THE SUN!
Nah. Too cold.
And your lunch sounds great, too!
I hate de-loading but I’m going on vacation and won’t be able to go to the gym, so I’m afraid I’m going to have to.
What’s de-loading?
I think it’s what I do every morning after the coffee wakes up my innards.
Correct.
I call that unloading, but I’m not as cutting edge as some of these crossfit types.
I hate it, too, but when I do it religiously I make pried and don’t get hurt.
Go figure.
So… from what I gather…..
You guys don’t like pooping in hotels?
Or restaurants.
Work is OK though, right?
Wow.
Yeah, last time I didn’t deload after missing a week I paid dearly. It’s no big deal but it sucks to crawl your way back up.
Keto is passable for a while, but the lack of potato chips is a limiting factor.
These are pretty good, but pricey.
http://www.whatsgoodattraderjoes.com/2016/05/trader-joes-parsnip-chips.html
Parsnip chips
Parschnips.
This guy portmanteaus.
Costco sells those too
Yes. Yes they do.
Speaking of grilling, there appears to be a surplus of meat on sale right now. Probably 4th of July leftovers.
I got a whole bunch of stuff that’s already on skewers. One of them is pork marinated in some sort of peach sauce. It’s either going to be really good or really bad.
I’ve had peach and pork. It was good; pork does well with fruit/sweet sauces.
That’s a classic pairing. It’ll be great.
pork and peach or mango or apple are all delicious pairings.
In various regions, I’ve had apple, pear, plum, mango, orange, guava, and pineapple with pork, but never peach.
Every fall my wife makes apple sauce when I grill pork chops. Chunky, hot, not-too-sweet applesauce with salty, crusty pork chops are divine.
*drools*
I managed to gain 7 lbs in four days of binge drinking and eating pub food at the National Homebrew Conference last weekend. But I’ve dropped 4 since getting back to normal life.
Only 7 pounds? I’d be happy with that after four solid days of beer and pub chow.
Lots of miles on foot between the hotel, convention center, and said pubs.
Right?
I’d be concerned if you didn’t put on weight at a 4 day beer conference.
That’s terrific! AND you had fun.
It was a great time. I am managed to bring a full case of 750 ml bottles home on the plane without damage.
Maintaining weight right around 280. Not great, not terrible.
Maintaining is good! It’s not gaining!
I weigh 330 lbs. Just like I did a month ago. But in that time, I’ve gone down another hole on my belt. So operation recomp-as-a-fat-guy is working.
And this is exactly why I think a major focus on weight is not good. Muscle is heavier and denser than fat, so you can get “heavier” while losing fat and materially improving your health and physical conditioning.
I’ve been slacking off on formal exercising for the past 3 weeks due to the heat. Been holding steady at 213lbs the last 3 weeks though, and haven’t seemed to gain any fat. Not to say I’ve been laying around like a lump for the past 3 weeks, I’ve just been doing all my moving around in the form of tending my veggie garden (I have 5 pickling cucumbers and a slicing cucumber on the counter right now, there’s at least two more slicing cucumbers I’m probably going to pick tonight, and I have my eye on two zucchinis and a bunch of tomatoes that aren’t ready yet) and helping in the yard (tree limb cleanup after a possible microburst or EF0 tornado the other week, and we’re starting on the shed).
That’s outstanding!
“Most healthy diets suck. Keto is passable for a while, but the lack of potato chips is a limiting factor. Low fat is just.. Ugh, not thanks. Vegan? Vegetarian? I don’t even want to think about the mental contortions you have to go through to tell yourself “This seitan is really good. I enjoy seitan. Seitan is a think I wish to eat more of.”
I am an avowed meat lover. Filet mignon grilled Rare+, bleeding into a heap of garlic masshed potatoes is the best thing there is. However, I was 100% vegetarian back in the 90’s for eight years. There are some phenomenal vegetarian dishes. Thing, Indian, Thai, etc….
I was a vegetarian for several years in the ’90s as well. Actually ate reasonably well. I lived in the Wisconsin countryside at the time, which is packed with deer, and just decided to go deer hunting one year. I was technically still a vegetarian when I kilt my first deer on opening day. If memory serves, Wisconsin beat Ohio State later that day (I was in attendance; what an awesome rivalry that was, and fuck the Big Ten for splitting the teams into different divisions), and even got laid later on that same day.
Looking back, my last day as a vegetarian was one of the best days of my life.
No links thread?! TIME TO RIOT.
Aw, I don’t have anything to say anyway. *kicks pebble*
Your “patience” would have been rewarded in just 5 short minutes, but NO, you just couldn’t wait.
/tapping foot
I just ate two bacon beef and cheddars from Arby’s.
I think I’m going to die.
abgus 2 cheese and bacon. very much a weakness.
angus
I didn’t do so hot about going to the gym on a regular basis this week. I indulged on Independence Day in beer and ice cream, but that’s OK.
Strangely, despite my indulgence, my weight has stayed the same, 284 lbs. I won’t make my glibfit goal.
I won’t check in next week as I’ll be away at a festival. It will be interesting to see what happens to my weight. I’ll be on my feet all day, I’ll have a guest membership at a local gym which I will use, I have a short hike planned, but during the festival I’ll be indulging in ice cream, beer, and strudel. I’ll weigh myself again in two weeks.
I have two goals for the week: 1. No pop (I am dependent on diet vernor’s and diet squirt, pure Michigan baby); 2. Bring your lunch every day (saves money, saves time, saves calories).