Lyra Rigby

As part of my 2014 goals, I've decided to start a thread here called "Recipe a Week" or RAWT. Week 1: Mock Ramen Noodles For those of us who love ramen noodles and pasta-y junk foods of all kinds! Ingredients: shirataki noodles (also called miracle noodles)cooking oil (butter, coconut oil, olive oil)seasonings (Mrs. Dash, Chinese 5 Spices, chicken, beef, or seafood bullion or broth)Optional Ingredients: Srachi or Rooster SauceOyster SauceSoy SauceRaw HoneyPeanut ButterCream CheeseCheddar CheeseHeavy CreamFrozen VeggiesBasic Recipe: Drain and rinse noodles according to package directions. Tip: Cut package in half if you want your noodles to be a more managble length, lol. Heat a skillet. I use a stainless steel non-stick skillet, but a wok or cast iron skillet will work as well. Put your oil of choice in it, let it get warm, medium-high heat. Place noodles over the oil. Stir. Season with your seasoning of choice. Fry for a few more minutes, stirring well. Remove from heat and eat.Variations: Sweet and Hot. Add a 1-2 tablespoons of Rooster Sauce and 1/2-1 tablespoon of raw honey to the noodles after you add the seasonings. Stir the noodles extra well to coat.Cheesy Noodles. Once you have cooked the noodles through, add 2-3 tablespoons of cream cheese, 1/4 cup of whipping cream, and a generous handful or more of cheddar cheese. Stir well. VERY well. Until all of it is coated in fatty cheesy goodness.Veggie Soup. Cook the noodles through. In a microwave, heat some broth and steam some mixed veggies, peas and carrots, or other veggies of choice. Add the veggies to the noodles and cook over low heat for about a minute. Remove noodles and veggies from heat and place in bowl. Pour broth over noodles. Eat.Peanut Noodles. Add 2-3 tablespoons of peanut butter to your cooking oil. Watch and stir the peanut butter with the oil until it thins out. (I suggest low-medium heat for this.) Add your noodles, warm and stir very well to coat. These will take a little longer to cook than other variety. Scorched peanut butter is not good eats. Drizzle honey over the warm noodles prior to serving. Or add a pinch of cinnamon. Tasty-time!!! These noodles make an excellent side dish, a nice base, a good replacement for rice or rice noodles in Asian dishes, or a tasty snack. Depending on brand, a serving will have 4-8 carbs.

Yes, I have been a productive writer. Prolific, perhaps, as well. I wished that I loved exercising as much I love writing. Or Power Rangers and Sentai. I'd be super fit!!!!

My update: I don't think that writing is going to be a problem. I've found my niche and have also joined two communities that will help me on my way to writing-glory, I think. So far, I wrote around 40k last week alone. (3 days of nothing but writing, plus some late night boredom blitz writing sessions will do that for an anspiring writer.) Right now, I am just writing for the sake of writing, honing my craft and hoping to keep up steam so I can hit my 80-90k goal for this month and my 1,000,000 work goal for the year. I am staying positive about my self-publishing project in the spring. Diet and exercise, I need to focus more on. Career goals are on track. Reading, need to do some more of that, lol. Need to start my RAWT thread. Will have to get pics off of my iPad to share. Hopefully el iPad-o will cooperate. It's old and sometimes balks at the idea of sharing data with my Windows laptop or the internet in general. PS -- I want to watch Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger but it's not on youtube any more (the first few episodes are but I've seen those like 15 times apiece...).....Random thought, I know, but I get very motivated by the theme songs.... Opening Theme!!!!!!!!!!!! Ending Theme!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And yes, the gokais are indeed pirate rangers. So freakin' rad. I'm a grown up and I love them. I wish that the US were remaking this sentai series, but Nick and Saban have decided to skip this series and go to the next series due to gokaiger featuring pre-Mighty Morphin Power Rangers rangers. Sad, sad days. [insert cool pic here. extension not allowed whaaaaaat!]

Challenge Update Week 1: Diet: C -- I did manage to eat more veggies this week, but I only hit my goal of 5 servings one day this past week. Exercise: C -- I did stretch 2 times last week. I also did some walking and some commercial break exercises. Writing: A+++ -- Began working on my NaNo rewrite/rework. Also worked on and possibly finished three novellas that I uploaded onto teh interwebs last night. Overall: C+ -- This week: Exercise! Eat more veggies!

.....throw them at flying monkeys!

In 2013, I learned: Failure to plan leads to failure to train/work and failure to train leads to failure to succeed.In other words, without a vision, we perish.Opportunities are earned, not given. Goals are made, not gifted.I miss Drag Race. Why did they take it off Netflix?? *sad face*My favorite lesson of 2013: [remembered, not learned] How true it is! For years I hated myself, wanted to fade away and I still battle with depression. I will love myself today, no matter what. And I'll keep on doing it, because life is meant to be loved and lived, not hated and dead.

A little late to the party, congrats from my fellow sentai bretheren! And the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as well.

Good luck. That pic was very eye-catching. Hope you get to see it in person someday.

So my first 6 week challenge is this: Main Goal: Enjoy Life. Start doing things that I love and that I've wanted to do for a long time. See HERE for a more in-depth explanation of what this goal entails. Diet: Eat a minimum of 5 servings of veggies a day. (Part of my quest to manage my diabetes.) How will I accomplish this? No idea. Salads are not my idea of good eats and I tend to rely heavily on frozen veg with weird sauces to fill my requirements. Need to cook more....made some squash last night. Exercise: To stretch every day and to do at least 10 minutes of intense exercise each day. [30 days, begins today on 7 Jan 2014] Going to get my stretch out strap and do a full rotation of in depth stretches. Later tonight, I will be doing some reverse push ups to the breaking point using my coffee table as a makeshift bench press, followed by some commerical break squats (done to Chopped, if that's on.) Will do this for a minimum of 2 commercial breaks. My thirty days will end 9 days before this challenge, so after that...I continue doing commercial break exercise routines. Writing: Complete part 1 of my NaNo rework AND write 3 fanfics. 15,000 words to hit my rework goal. Going to knock out the rough draft for my first fanfic of 2014 tonight. <3 Any thoughts on this challenge?? Good?? Bad???

My Story: I joined NF in the spring of 2013. I was following Tim Ferriss' 4 Hour Body diet and was working out using a modified version of P90X. I lost almost 40 lbs and was under 300 for the first time since my early 20s. I was excited and had even went shopping to buy some new clothes. Then I was involved in a car accident, fractured my skull, hurt my neck and ended up with a concussion. I stopped working out and started slipping in my diet. I spent a lot of time in bed, taking aspirins and nursing gut-wrenching migraines that destroyed and derailed my life for about 3 months. In the middle of this, my younger sister had her first child, got married to a tool that I can't stand, and my oldest sister (whom I am very close to) moved across the state to take a job with a major company. In short, I was lonely and quickly became depressed. Fall came and I found myself slipping back into old habits as I finished up my last semester of school. Pizza every night, cereal in the morning, drinking tea 24/7....and then came NaNoWriMo. I started smoking again (had quit for almost 6 months!) to keep myself awake and to help myself come up with ideas. I beat NaNoWriMo twice over! As soon as I had beaten NaNo, my dad had major surgery. Then my grandmother had a serious accident. Guess who was called to take care of them? Me. The past month was devoted to caring for my dad and grandma and all other goals were pushed to the side. Now I'm ready to make 2014 my year. My Yearly 2 Word Goals: OVERALL: ENJOY LIFE!Diet: Diabetes management.Exercise: Build muscle. Career: Get job.Writing: Publish 10 books.Reading: Weekly book.Bonus: Weekly recipe.Bonus2: Build business. My January Goals: Diet: To continue consuming a low carb, low glycemic diet that will help me to manage my diabetes more effectively. [30 days, began on 3 Jan 2014]Exercise: To stretch every day and to do at least 10 minutes of intense exercise each day. [30 days, begins today on 7 Jan 2014]Career: To get my license from the state board so I can begin applying for jobs in my field [one more step and it's off to the state capitol for approval. ].Writing: I have 2 goals for January, both of which are part of larger goals.To write a total of 30k words [Current count: 15,333] on my NaNo rework. I have decided that I am going to split my novel into 4 separate novellas since the timelines of each section don't really match as I'd originally planned. I'm reworking part 1 this month, with plans to self-publish it in the spring. To sharpen my writing skills in preparation for milwordy (a million words in a year!) and also because I would like to do a novel a month in 2014, I am planning to write 3 fanfic one shots per month to help me generate ideas and blow off steam.Reading: 52 in 52. I am counting manga volumes as 0.5 books...which would bring my total so far to 3.5 books. (1 very short actual book and 5 mangas, lol)Bonus: My RAWT Challenge. I'm thinking of starting a "Recipe A Week" Thread here on NF to keep me motivated to eat better, cook more, and to get some feedback on my mad creative self-taught chef skills.Bonus2: I have been toying with the idea of starting an online business based on learning materials for self-taught persons and homeschooling families. I have several ideas and have done a lot of research. Thing is, I don't have the necessary skills to make my vision a reality yet. This will take some time and so I will have to start honing the skills I will need to make this a reality in the future. My January goals for this bonus2 include:Learning how to use a new program to design dynamic presentations to go along with my materials. Reading some books.In Closing: I have a lot on my plate, it seems. It's all about doing things with my life instead of just wishing I had done something. I've spent far too long with my head buried in my pillow, crying over lost time and squandered opportunities. I have made a list of things I'd like to accomplish before 30 and another list of things of goals that will get me closer to being debt free by 33 (five years, give or take). Most of these are centered around writing. Ideally, I'd like to be able to make a living by pursuing my passion for writing and to spend more time with my youngest niece. I'd also like to help my mother realize her business goal after she retires from her job in a few years. In the not-so-immortal words of a mediocre Bon Jovi song, Have a nice da-a-ay!!!

I used the recommended format in the sticky so here it goes: Fitness Goals - My ultimate goal is to get down 150 or a size 8, whichever happens first. Exercise Preference - Currently doing P90X. I love lifting, body weight exercises and ballet-style flexbility conditioning. Current Physical Stats Gender: Female Age: late 20s Height: 5'8 or 173 cm for those of you using metric. Weight: 299 lbs or 135 kg Previous Training History Past Programs: Tried P90X twice before - FAIL. Yoga - FAIL. Sitting on ass playing Candy Crush Saga and Diablo 3 - FAIL. How long: P90X Attempt 1 - 3 days, P90X Attempt 2 - 12 days, Yoga - about 4 weeks of classes and 2 months of at home routines - FAIL. Sitting on ass playing Candy Crush Saga and Diablo 3 - WAY TOO MUCH TIME!!! Current Training Present Program: P90X + 1 mile walk 5x/wk + ballet flexibility exercises 2-3x/wk, as needed. How long: P90x - 72 days, walking - roughly 3 months or since the end of winter, flexibility - roughly 3 months Current working weights: I use primarily 5lb and 8lb weights for max reps and resistance bands when I'm going for max weight. Current Diet Normal/Paleo/Vegatarian: Primal and Slow Carb Daily Calories: I aim for 1800-2000 on non-strength days and 2200-2400 on strength days. Cheat day is usually 2000-2200. Daily Macros: Don't keep track of these currently, except for protein where I aim for a minimum of 80g, usually 100+g. Current Resources/Limitations Gym Access: Nope. Work/School Schedule: School 3 mornings and 1 evening per week, work 4 evenings per week. Time Allowed: ??? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I'm satisfied with my current results, as I've lost 31 lbs in the past 72 days. I feel a lot better and looking better. However, I'm currently trying to plan my next phase. I will be done with P90X the first week of June and going on a mini-vacation shortly thereafter. I'm leaning towards doing another round of P90X this summer, or maybe doing Insanity. I could join a gym. There are 3 near me, one within walking distance of my home that has a pool, a sauna and tons of free weights. That gym also offers a seasonal pass that I will have to purchase soon if I decide to go that route...or I will have to pay by the month. I'd really like to focus on lifting and biking and to start doing Tabatas. I'd also like to work out at a gym so that I could possibly workout with a friend instead of always working out alone. However, I do like P90X and working out at home gives me flexibility with my schedule that I need. With a gym I'd have to either work out early in the morning or in between class and work on some days. Hardly ideal. Another thing is that I'm pretty sure I'm not lifting heavy enough. I just don't like using the bands for some exercises and I only have 3, 5 and 8lb weights. I also have zero storage space for more equipment right now. So the gym is looking more and more appealing for the time being. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good lifting program that I could transition to this summer? I like the P90X progression of doing shoulders/arms + abs, back/biceps (this alternates with another upper body routine) + abs, legs/back + abs, and 1 day of yoga or stretching. The other two days are cardio and I am currently limited to 1 day of this per week due to an knee injury. I suppose I should address this knee injury too. I shattered my patella and fractured the top of my tibia in a biking accident as a child and suffered damage to my patellar tendon as well. I tore the MCL in the same knee in college. I have to work around this knee issue. I work around it most of the time. Well that's all I have to say tonight. I'm hoping for some help and advice from my fellow nerds.

GOMAD - that's the milk diet thing. I think it's gross and unnecessary. I am severely lactose intolerant too...so I wouldn't advice it at all. If you are looking to gain muscle, there are two things you can do to make it happen. One is do some sort of resistance and/or body weight exercise on a regular basis, 3-4 times a week. I've been doing P90X and I focus mostly on the strength days. As a lady with a lot of weight to lose, that works well for me. I love lifting, though and I'm a total sucker for upper body stuff. I do modified pull ups with resistance bands and I've also spent a lot of time doing exercises to strengthen my forearms and wrists to make upper body exercises easier. The other thing you can do to build muscle is to get some extra protein in your diet. I drink a protein shake in the morning (roughly 30g of protein in it)...+20-30g per meal. That helps, imo. As far as soy goes, I wouldn't do it. Mostly because they put lots of sweeteners and chemicals in soy milk to make it taste ok and who wants that crap? If you are going to do soy, I'd go with a quality soy powder like Bob's Red Mill or Garden of Life Raw Organic Protein. I've tried both and they were only ok, imo...but you might like them. I use almond milk to mix my protein shakes and I like it. I buy the unsweetened version. I use Nutribiotic Rice Protein powder to get extra protein. I'm not vegan or anything like that, but I don't do whey or soy proteins anymore due to some digestive issues that I've had in the past. Quest Bars are another good way to work in some protein AND to satisfy a sweet tooth. Those are occasional treats for me nowadays, usually after a really intense workout. The chocolate and chocolate chip cookie dough flavors are the bomb. Apple Pie and Coconut Cashew are good too. I also allow myself one cheat day per week. What that amounts to is one cheat meal. I usually get pizza and eat it while watching a movie. I may also have a sweet treat, something like some Oreos or a soda, in the evening before bed or earlier in the afternoon if I want it. This method (if you call it that) comes from The 4 Hour Body, which may prove to be a good read for you. He discusses several methods to lose and gain weight, build muscle, fine tune your diet and eating schedule, etc. You should check that out. I wish you lots of luck on your journey.

As long as you think you can, who cares about people telling you can't? The naysayers are always people who wished they could but don't want to take the risks because they are scared. That's my opinion, fwiw.

I think that preventing obesity in children is important....but I am a realist. It's hard to limit screen time nowadays, at least compared to when I was a kid. Sure, we had tv....but kids shows only came on for an hour or 2 after school and on Saturday mornings. There was Snick and Disney movies at night when I was a kid, but getting to watch those meant staying up late...which was only allowed on weekends. We didn't have internet or even a computer until I was in middle school....no Nintendo either unless I went to a friend's house and even then, it wasn't the focal point of my time there. Gameboys were analog, black and white....and I had a whopping 5 games in my collection. Now? We have Netflix, YouTube, OnDemand, Xbox Live, several stations that play nothing but kid-friendly programming 24-7, the internet, smartphones, Wii. Not only do kids have more access to screen time, but some parents have totally passed on their 80s/90s eating habits to their kids. A lot of my generation still eats fast food, frozen pizzas, sugary cereal, pop tarts, mac and cheese, ramen, chips, soda, and other crap foods. We grew up eating it, we like it, it's easy and cheap, kids like it, most of the time the crap has characters on the box, kids beg for it at the store.....blah blah. School lunches are big collection of crap too. Breaded chicken by 10 different names, hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, burritos, potatoes by 10 different names, Trix yogurt (they actually serve this as a dessert at my nephew's school), cookies, cakes, brownies, skim milk, soft pretzels....yeah, most of it is crap. Add stranger danger and parental paranoia to the modern junk food diet and unlimited screen time and you've got a sure recipe for childhood obesity. But what are many parents going to do? In many cases, there's just one parent at home. That's not an excuse for making your kids fat BUT it is a reason why some kids end up that way. One person simply cannot oversee the food intake, supervise screen time, and make sure that their kids are getting 30 min-1 hr of exercise a day. In other cases, both parents are working, sometimes more than one job....and they are human, they are tired, and things get pushed to the wayside. Some parents just don't care what their kids eat, as long as they eating. Some parents don't feel like doing battle over the amount of Johnny's Xbox time. Some parents are a-ok with their kids watching tv and playing video games 24/7. And I've just accepted that is how it is. I don't like seeing overweight kids, especially girls, because I know what it is like to always be bigger, not to be able to wear cute clothes, to not getting invited out on dates, to be teased and laughed at because you can't run the mile, etc. But I honestly believe that it's not the kids' fault, it's the parents. Either they don't discipline their kids and reward with food like dogs to keep them from crying or fighting or whatever or they just don't give a damn and figure that as long as their kid is skinny or not too fat, they can keep swigging Sunny D with their Nutella covered white bread toast until the cows come home.

Here where I live in the Midwest, it is pretty common for boys to be circ'd. I haven't met many males under 35 who aren't circ'd. One guy I knew who isn't circ'd was born in Italy, so he doesn't count. Most people I know have it done for one of two reasons: either the dad is circ'd and they want potty training to go smoothly when their boys get older OR they do it for reasons of faith. I don't have a problem if a parent wants to have it done for reasons of faith, but the potty training one seems bogus to me. Mostly because I've only known a handful of guys who potty trained their sons. Most of the time, Mommy does most of the actual potty training once the little guy learns how to aim and when to go. So why does it matter if your son's penis looks like his dad's or not? On the issue of attachment parenting, I don't have kids but I did work as a nanny for a few years. I can say with 100% certainty that as long as you spend time with your babies and kids, listen to them and teach them things, they will be ok.

My recommendations: Starting Points: "Why We Get Fat", "It Starts With Food" and "The Primal Blueprint". Do head over to marksdailyapple.com and read the content there as well. Onward Progress: Try reading one of Jillian Michaels books. Disregard the diet advice if you're looking to go paleo. I'd recommend "Master Your Metabolism". I'd also recommend "Wheat Belly" and "Body by Science". Mind Explode-y Heavy Hitters: "The 4 Hour Body" and "Primal Body, Primal Mind" (My personal fave)

Lordi - In Flames - A7X - Turbonegro - Misfits - MSI - QOTSA - Tension Head

I weighed myself today...and I'm now in 200-land! I weighed it at 299 even. That's 31 pounds in 72 days! I'm stoked. My original goal was to be under 300 by the second week of June....and I've done it. With about 3 weeks to spare!

Top 5 All-Time, In No Particular Order: The Golden Girls (some full episodes available on youtube, I have the rest on my server) Freaks and Geeks Dead Like Me Saving Grace Whose Line Is It Anyway? (Check youtube for full seasons of the old US version that was broadcast on ABC and ABC family from 1998-2006...lots of good stuff there.) Top 5 Honorable Mentions: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Invader Zim Fringe Grimm Face Off Right now, I only have basic channels + Netflix + Youtube + my Plex server, so no newer stuff has made it's way to the list...except for Grimm and Face Off, which I record and upload to my Plex server a few episodes at a time since I can't watch them live due to scheduling conflicts.

English (first language), some Spanish (took 3 years in high school and 1 in college, worked with immigrants at my former work), some French (took 1 year in high school), small amount of Japanese (picked up from manga and anime), currently learning Chinese (using tower of babelfish methods and SRS)....I'm ok with languages, but not great. I'm a very visual person, so it usually easier for me to read and write a language than it is to speak it.

Hmmm..... I've been listening to a lot of random stuff lately. Metal (Chinese rock//metalcore, ballad-ish, has a very driving beat) -- (This is some seriously hard stuff....reminds me a lot of old A7X, In Flames, Chimaira, that type of stuff) -- (Has a nice melodic intro) -- (This is folk-ish metal. Like a Chinese version of Finntroll if you're into that....nice.) Theme Songs -- (Best theme song cover ever!) -- (My favorite PR theme...total fangirl here.) Other -- I am a child of the 90s.

Currently reading a big stack of manga that I checked out from the library. Some titles include: -Is This a Zombie? -Full Moon O Sagashite -Absolute Boyfriend -Haganai: I Don't Have Many Friends -And several others that I am waiting for.... I'm also finishing up "The World Until Yesterday" by Jared Diamond and a Donald Miller novel that a friend loaned me a few weeks ago.