bilrus

The latest from "Thread":

I can see where Ferhat (especially, given his personal stake in the argument) is coming from on this one, though. Corduroy is often overlooked or, if it is noticed, is denigrated for its decor and location and lack of presence. Calling it a 'casual' restaurant just further muddles its identity.

And the battering and deep frying are the definition of restraint. To each their own - I didn't like the bar until they rolled it in sugar. Helped with the texture.

But why?

With as many complaints as I've read (and had myself) about Bebo, he's going to be doing a lot of blogging. Isn't there an old bromide about not picking a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel and paper by the roll?

Overall Results # of active participants: 39 Total goal: 766 pounds Total lost: 228.75 pounds Lost this week: 25 pounds Percentage of goal lost: 29.9% Individual Results cjsadler ("Adam"): 10 pounds lost, 12 to go cucas87 (“Ahoy”): 4.75 pounds lost, 9.25 to go "Atlantic": 6 pounds lost, 8 to go "Beach": 5.5 pounds lost, 11.5 to go lackadasi (“Bicycle”): 4 pounds lost, 10 to go Al Dente (“Book”): 1 pounds lost, 20 to go ustreetguy ("Chilly"): 5 pounds lost, 15 to go Yentruoc ("Court"): 4 pounds lost, 12 to go bilrus (“Defense”): 14 pounds lost, 39 to go “Ethanol”: 3 pounds lost, 18 to go TedE (“Fender”): 17 pounds lost, 6 to go Tweaked ("Fiddle"): 4 pounds lost, 18 to go "Ingot": 4.5 pounds lost, 14.5 to go Scott Johnston (“Irmo”): 8 pounds lost, 20 to go "Jeep": 5 pounds lost, 14 to go Monique DC ("Knocks") 11 pounds lost, 3 to go "Kong": 2 pounds lost, 20 to go MMM (“M&M”): 8 pounds lost, 9 to go hm212 ("Manhattan"): 4 pounds lost, 18 to go “Marathon”: 6.5 pounds lost, 11.5 to go "Mayor": 9 pounds lost, 10 to go deangold (“Oil”): 1 pounds lost, 20 to go Porcupine ("Ouch"): 4 pounds lost, 16 to go “Park”: 7.5 pounds lost, 13.5 to go “Perfume”: 6 pounds lost, 14 to go “Pinto”: 3.5 pounds lost, 16.5 to go "Puff": 1 pound lost, 15 to go "Short": 6 pounds lost, 12 to go “Soccer”: 11 pounds lost, 10 to go "Sommelier": 5 pounds lost, 13 to go “Sonata”: 9 pounds lost, 12 to go ol' ironstomach ("Speed"): 5 pounds lost, 15 to go “Superman”: 11 pounds lost, 5 to go Anna Blume (“Suri”): 6 pounds lost, 12 to go MeMc ("Thee"): 3 pounds lost, 7 to go "Thread": 5.5 pounds lost, 8.5 to go Woodleygrrl ("Tiger"): 2 pounds lost, 17 to go "Victoria": 12 pounds lost, 12 to go purplesachi (“Violet”): 1 pounds lost, 13 to go Bold = New loss reported this week

This has been a pretty unexciting stretch for me and my journal. No real interesting recipes to share. No interesting stories or observations. Most interesting thing that happened was being so beat from working out that I couldn't eat anything more than a big bowl of cereal. That's OK though - sometimes interesting is a code word for bad. Monday, March 19th 1 Stonyfield Farms light smoothie (2 pts) 6 steamed pork dumplings (9 pts) 1 cup egg drop soup (1 pt) 3 cups cereal w/ 1 cup 1% milk (10 pts) Total = 22.5 points Tuesday, March 20th 1 Stonyfield Farms light smoothie (2 pts) 6 ozs grilled chicken kabob (5 pts) 1/2 round of flat bread (3 pts) 1 cup rice (6 pts) 3 tbs yogurt sauce (6 pts) Carrots w/ 1/2 cup fat free dill dip (2.5 pts) 2 cups aglio e olio spaghetti - light on the olio (17 pts) Total = 41.5 points

Thread's latest update. Keep up the good work.

Is anyone planning on continuing the challenge? My this week is to cook two nights from The Art of Peruvian Cuisine - a big and beautiful book my nother lugged back for me from a trip to Macchu Pichu. She personally hated the cooking there, but I've always liked stopping at my local Peruvian restaurant and I've also never had the guts to try the Peruvian "delicacy" cuy as she did. It turns out the cookbook has its own website and two of the three recipes I'm making are on there - the Lomo Saltado and one of the two ceviche recipes I'm doing.

My home internets were broken this weekend. This seems to be happening more frequently since Comcast took over from Adelphia. Here are a few days worth of journaling. Thursday, March 14th 1 Stonyfield Farms light smoothie (2 pts) Barbecue chicken salad (18 pts) Carrots w/ 1/2 cup fat free dill dip (2.5 pts) 6 ozs Ethiopian Beef Stir Fry (12 pts) 1 flat out flat bread (1 pt) 1.5 cups cereal w/ .5 cup 1% milk (5 pts) total = 40.5 points Friday, March 16th 1 Stonyfield Farms light smoothie (2 pts) 2 California Rolls (9 pts) Carrots w/ 1/2 cup fat free dill dip (2.5 pts) 1 can Goya black bean soup w/ can diced tomatoes and 1 smoked pork chop (11 pts) 2 100 calorie packages of cookies (4 pts) 3 cups 1% milk (6 pts) total = 34.5 points Saturday, March 17th Grilled fish tacos w/ guacamole (14 pts) 1 pacakge Totino's pizza rolls (11 pts) - yeah.. I know.. Haven't you ever had an irrational craving? Besides, look at my points total for today total = 25 points Sunday, March 18th 3 cups cereal w/ 1 cup 1% milk (10 points) 8 ozs corned beef, trimmed of fat (14 pts) 2 cup colcannon (mashed potatoes w/ sauteed onions and cabbage) (6 pts) total = 30 points So it turns out that I was pretty well under my points this week - aside fron that visit to Firefly on Wednesday - how many points in that bacon buerre blanc or foie gras sauce? Who knows and who cares. And it turns out that I lost 1 pound this week. So not bad.

I'd be in too and could fit four or five others.

I forgot my strangest and most un-foodie phobia. I really can't stand eating chicken on the bone. Aside from the occasional tandoori chicken leg or buffalo drummie (never the wing part), it just grosses me out. Too many pockets of fat and ligaments and veins and discolored meat.

That is pretty much the same price as most of the pastas at Tosca and cheaper than most were at Galileo. But Tom's verbiage certainly didn't seem to justify it here.

Simple day to day. I had the exact same lunch as Monday - it must have really hit the spot. And I couldn't resist sitting out on the deck and grilling last night. And when was the last time you went to the grocery store and your impluse purchase was a bag of carrots and fat free dill dip? Tuesday March 13th 1 Stonyfield Farms light smoothie (2 pts) Turkey sandwich on wheat bread w 2 tbs/ mayo (11 pts) 2 large deli pickles (0 pts) Carrots w/ 1/2 cup fat free dill dip (2.5 pts) Grilled chicken breast sandwich on bun w/ 1 tbs mayo, lettuce and tomato(11.5 pts) 1.5 cups cereal w/ .5 cup 1% milk (7 pts) total = 34 points Today is my official no-count day on account of a final trip tonight to Firefly for Wabeck's cooking. But I am going to try to keep lunch to a minimum to save room and calories.

I love a good corn dog.

Your results are speaking for themselves - the exercise is paying off. You are currently the challenge leader - 69% of the way to your 10% goal.

This is pretty much the way I do it too. For a complicated recipe, I try to use the recipe builder on the weight watchers web site if I am caring about points at that particular time. This allows you to input all the ingredients and the number of servings and it gives you back a points value. Of course you can also figure points by adding up the point value for the incividual ingredients. One of the keys is measuring everything, both going into the pot and going onto the plate. If you aren't doing WW and don't care about points, I think you can do the same thing - try to determine the caloric and fat levels of the individual ingredients and break it out into portions. Soon enough you should get comfortable enough with it to be able to eyeball it and go on instinct. Every once in a while you need to pull out the scale or measuring cups and give yourself a reality check. Often you'll find that your portion sizes start creeping up.

Another update from 'Thread":

Overall Results # of active participants: 39 Total goal: 766 pounds Total lost: 203.75 pounds Lost this week: 27.2 pounds Percentage of goal lost: 26.6% Individual Results cjsadler ("Adam"): 2 pounds lost, 20 to go cucas87 (“Ahoy”): 4.75 pounds lost, 9.25 to go "Atlantic": 6 pounds lost, 8 to go "Beach": 4.5 pounds lost, 12.5 to go lackadasi (“Bicycle”): 4 pounds lost, 10 to go Al Dente (“Book”): 1 pounds lost, 20 to go ustreetguy ("Chilly"): 5 pounds lost, 15 to go bilrus (“Defense”): 13 pounds lost, 40 to go “Ethanol”: 3 pounds lost, 18 to go TedE (“Fender”): 13.5 pounds lost, 9.5 to go Tweaked ("Fiddle"): 4 pounds lost, 18 to go "Ingot": 4.5 pounds lost, 14.5 to go Scott Johnston (“Irmo”): 8 pounds lost, 20 to go Monique DC ("Knocks") 7.5 pounds lost, 6.5 to go "Kong": 2 pounds lost, 20 to go MMM (“M&M”): 8 pounds lost, 9 to go hm212 ("Manhattan"): 4 pounds lost, 18 to go “Marathon”: 1.5 pounds lost, 16.5 to go "Mayor": 9 pounds lost, 10 to go deangold (“Oil”): 1 pounds lost, 20 to go Porcupine ("Ouch"): 4 pounds lost, 16 to go “Park”: 7.5 pounds lost, 13.5 to go “Perfume”: 6 pounds lost, 14 to go “Pinto”: 3.5 pounds lost, 16.5 to go "Puff": 1 pound lost, 15 to go "Short": 6 pounds lost, 12 to go “Soccer”: 11 pounds lost, 10 to go "Sommelier": 5 pounds lost, 13 to go “Sonata”: 1.5 pounds lost, 19.5 to go ol' ironstomach ("Speed"): 5 pounds lost, 15 to go “Superman”: 11 pounds lost, 5 to go Anna Blume (“Suri”): 5 pounds lost, 13 to go MeMc ("Thee"): 3 pounds lost, 7 to go "Thread": 4 pounds lost, 10 to go Woodleygrrl ("Tiger"): 2 pounds lost, 17 to go "Victoria": 12 pounds lost, 12 to go purplesachi (“Violet”): 1 pounds lost, 13 to go Bold = New loss reported this week

It has been a number of years and the setting was not the restaurant (so take it with a grain of salt), but the second best fish and chips I've had in the area (aside from Eamonn's of course) were at the DC Food Festival booth of Biddy Mulligan's, which is in one of the hotels on Dupont Circle. If anyone ahs any more recent experiences, feel free to shoot this suggestion down.

Am I sensing a pattern here?

By most standards, water is never really a problem for me (unless you consider that under some guidelines someone at my wieght needs to drink something like 6 gallons a day ). I normally drink 5 cups every morning on the way to work, 7 or 8 cups at work, 3 or 4 at lunch and anywhere between 2 and 6 at home in the evening. I haven't really changed this with the exercise, although I do drink 2 or 3 cups at the gym too. Maybe I really do need all that water. I feel all sloshy just thinking about it.

I finally got around to making the Ethiopian Stir Fried Beef Stew from the Samuelsson book. I don't think I had quite the right type of dried chiles when I made my Berebere, so I imagine that this would be hotter if I did, but as it was it was pleasantly hot and very flavorful. I'd also say that you can cut down a bit on the amount of butter in the recipe and not lose much except a bit of extra greasiness. I wimped out / was too lazy to make the injera so I ate it with some flat breads I had in the pantry. This worked fine and might even be a way into Ethiopian for those who are wiered out by the traditional, cold spongy bread (that does make it sound pretty nasty, doesn't it?). So I really enjoyed both of the recipes I made from the book. I'm going to move on to another in my collection- probably the Peruvian book I mentioned up top - but I expect I will be back cooking out of this book sooner rather than later.

As I mentioned above, I am going to try to count Weight Watchers points to see if that can help keep my on track. In my adjusted system, I allow myself 40 points a day and one day where I don't keep track of points). Part of the WW program is journaling, so here we go again... Monday March 12th 1 Stonyfield Farms light smoothie (2 pts) Turkey sandwich on wheat bread w 2 tbs/ mayo (11 pts) 2 large deli pickles (0 pts) 8 ozs Ethiopian stir-fried beef stew (16 pts) 2 Flat Out whole grain flat breads (2 pts) 2 100 calorie packages of cookies (4 pts) 2 cups 1% milk (4 pts) total = 39 points

I really do appreciate all the support I've gotten both in this thread and via PM. It has been a big help. It's been a combination of things that have kept me from being engaged the last few weeks. Weather and work are two big factors, but frustration (and a little embarassment?) are a part of it because the results I was getting don't seem in line with the effort I had been putting in. I wasn't terribly surprised when I gained a few pounds a few weeks ago since I wasn't working at it all that hard then, but even during the weeks when I have been 'on' I wasn't losing at nearly the rate that past diets would have led me to expect. This is the first time I've really exercised hard and dieted at the same time. I've found that instead of doubling the positive effect, the exercise is hurting the weight loss efforts. I'm both considerably hungrier and I'm worn out and don't feel as up to cooking after working out. So I often end up eating too much of the wrong things. But even when I have gone stretches where I've been careful with the eating, the weight isn't really coming off. I do feel better doing my exercise so I don't want to give that up. And of course it would be counter-intuitive to do that. I had my last session with my nutritionist last Thursday, so I am hoping that gives me a fresh start. I think for the time being I am going to try to take some of the good things I did learn from her and apply them to the Weight Watchers model. I want to get back to being committed to journaling - forcing my hand at weighing and measuring. I'm also looking at seeing a doctor who sepcializes in obesity treatment. We'll see how that goes Anyway, in the meantime, I've lost most of the weight that I gained a while back. Back to 13 pounds down, which is 25% of my goal. Not where I'd like to be at this point, but at least I'm not still sliding.