Queen of Swords

I'm seriously thinking of signing up for the Academy, but I have a type of autoimmune arthritis that is unpredictable. It also means there will be certain kinds of activities I can't do, like squats or burpees. Has anyone with mobility issues like this tried the Academy with success? Are there workarounds?

I haven't been on here in ages, but I've been griping about my weight forever. My husband and I decided enough was enough and it was time to dump a ton of weight. One of his coworkers had had a lot of success on Ideal Protein. I'm a skeptic when it comes to prepackaged foods because 1) I don't trust what's in it, and 2) it feels like I'm cheating and taking the easy way out. Plus it was SO expensive! It cost us $200 a week for the packaged products, plus other food. People are shaking their heads and wondering why on earth anyone would do that to themselves. I'll tell you why: because our asses were huge, and "trying" wasn't working. We needed to lose weight. Period. We had gotten to a point where we just swallowed our pride and did what we knew would work. After we crunched the numbers, we realized it was actually probably only costing us an extra $50 a week after subtracting all the money we weren't spending on junk food. But even so, it cost money. But you know what? I think we needed to spend it. We had to dish out the cash, almost as a symbol of how committed we were to this. If you didn't follow the protocol to a tee, you dropped out of ketosis and stopped losing weight. You eat so much as a sore throat lozenge, it stops your weight loss. So we had to be all in, or we were just throwing money down the toilet. We like our money. We don't like spending it on un-fun things. This had better work. It did. I went from 204 lbs in February of last year to 154 lbs by the end of July. Relatively painlessly. My husband lost nearly 60 lbs in the same time. Plus, we both felt great. The diet cuts carbs to a bare minimum, eliminates all processed crap, saturated fats, most dairy and all sugar. Nothing fried. No bakery goods (farewell Tim Horton's). But we were reminded that it was only temporary, and that we could look forward to reintegrating healthy balanced foods into our diet in phase 4. In the meantime, we had to restrict our diet like crazy, and take supplements to make up for the lack. For the skeptics, it is a doctor-approved diet. Women should lose 2-3 lbs a week consistently, men 3-4 lbs/wk. You come in for weekly check-ups for body-comp analysis, measurements and a weight check. It's not for everyone, but it worked SO well for us. You can definitely do this diet without the packaged foods, but it's so much harder. Like I said, we were so beaten down by years of try-fail-try-fail-try-fail that we just wanted to put our heads down, put one foot in front of the other, and have something finally work. You are talking to the QUEEN of non-conformity. You have no idea how big a lump it is to have to swallow something like this, having to just do as you're told. But I cared more about losing weight than doing it my way. Anyway, I just wanted to share this with you. If anyone is thinking of doing the Ideal Protein protocol, ask me anything. We were on it for something like 5 1/2 months (back on it again now for a touch-up), so we pretty much know it inside out. Consider this my glowing review.

Is there a map-dot widget that could be used on this site? It would be really great if we could put ourselves on a map and actually see others who live nearby...because I haven't read all 22 pages of posts.

My hubby and I have each lost a bunch of weight on the Ideal Protein diet: since mid-February, I've lost over 40 lbs, and he's lost over 50. It's a reduced calorie, protein-rich, ultra-low carb diet plan designed by a doctor to throw your body into ketosis and keep it there. This forces the body to use fat as fuel while protecting lean mass by feeding the body plenty of protein and nutrient dense foods. You do need to buy their products (yes, they're expensive), and yes it's very restrictive, but the program really works. You could probably do something similar, without buying the pre-packaged stuff, but we chose to go that route because it was so much easier. The DIY version would look something like this: Lean protein in the morning (protein shake maybe?) 8 oz lean protein + 2 cups veggies at lunch High-protein, low carb, low fat snack (protein bar?) 8 oz lean protein + 2 cups veggies for dinner 2-3 litres of water per day (Two words: Crystal. Light.) A cereal bowl of supplements This probably totals less than 1000 calories a day. You DO get used to it. No eating after 8 PMNo alcoholNo dairy (too much sugar)No wheatNo fruitNo corn, beans (except green or yellow string beans), peas, lentils or pulsesABSOLUTELY no sugarAvoid MSG, artificial flavourings and colourings, saturated fats and preservatives You can only eat certain kinds of vegetables, too. Carrots, for example, are too high in sugar and are not allowed. Other veggies are unlimited, such as any kind of leafy green or lettuce, cucumber, celery, radish, etc. Certain veggies, like tomatoes, asparagus, brussels sprouts, rutabaga and string beans are allowed, but in limited quantities: only 4 cups of these per week. You will learn to love broccoli. You will learn to drink your coffee black and like it. You will learn that cauliflower is nature's miracle vegetable. Also on our hit list are dill pickles, sauerkraut, hot peppers and Frank's Red Hot. You need to eat a 1/4 tsp of high quality salt per day (such as Himalayan), and a 1/2 tsp olive oil per day. You will also need to take supplements to make up for some of the missing elements in your diet, such as calcium, magnesium and potassium. Splenda or stevia make the whole thing much easier. This sounds ridiculously restrictive, I know. But it was actually very do-able. You just have to focus on doing what you can with foods that you CAN have.

I'm from Napanee, Ontario. It's about half an hour west of Kingston. A lot of cows out here. EDIT: Just realized the cow comment might have been somehow misconstrued. There are literally a lot of cows out here. Farm country.

Hi everyone, I just wanted to post this link to a punchy pep talk that I found in my virtual wanderings. It uses some colourful language. I kinda liked it. http://www.rebellesociety.com/2013/06/05/fight-for-your-life/

I remember running through the woods as a kid, ducking and weaving under branches, scrambling over logs, grabbing at saplings to yank myself right or left, running up steep embankments...I grew up in the Canadian shield, so there's tons of rocks and trees to mess around on. I especially loved playing at the forestry training ground. They had old boot camp type training obstacles still set up: parallel bars, catwalks, jumping stumps, and my favorite, the rope swing. It was great. I keep hoping to get something similar set up on our property. I was going to comment on the "excuses" part of the thread, but let's just say there are excuses and then there are reasons. I have some physical limitations, and I'm not about to risk injuring myself just because someone (who doesn't have to deal with the consequences, and doesn't know what it's like) decides to label it as a weak excuse. I would be happy just getting back to that rush of running through the woods. Avoiding death or injury is a good reason to not do something when you know it's a probability, but an excuse is what you use to not do something that you are fully capable of doing, but are just too lazy/afraid/stubborn to try. So the fact that I am able to still hike through the woods, and I haven't, can be chalked up to making excuses.

I don't know much about leptin and whatnot. All I know is, after a week of being a good girl, eating a lot of plain veggies, salad, meat and good fats, I would "splurge" by getting a chicken breast burger from Harvey's - no onion, NO mayo - and eat it WITH the bun. We also included stuff like a modest serving of french fries (yeah, yeah I know...), actual desserts (like strawberry "cheesecake" made with fresh strawberries and vanilla Greek yogurt), and just for the hell of it, an extra serving of corn chips or maybe even mashed potatoes or rice. We basically just removed the "absolutely not" rule for one day a week, allowing us to eat the off-limits foods in moderation, and still with a tip of the hat to nutritional value. If we could make it healthier, we did. Like having a grilled chicken burger on a whole wheat bun, small fries (or even side salad) and a water instead of a greasy double cheeseburger with extra mayo on a white bun with extra large poutine and bucket of regular cola. We would struggle all week to lose those last pounds, but we'd get up on Sunday - the day after cheat day - and weigh ourselves and a pound would have disappeared overnight. Until now, I had no idea what caused this phenomenon where the body "relaxed" enough to lose the weight. The more you know.

I saw a flyer in a store here in Napanee for a local 5k zombie dash, but didn't grab it. I googled it and found this one: http://thezombiedash.com/ I guess that's in Grand Rapids. I love the little kid-zombie with the shirt that says "Bigger People are Tastier". Aha, here it is: Dash of the Living Dead - Kingston, ON I don`t know if 5 weeks is going to be quite enough to get me from professional Gluteal Horizontologist (does nearly 10 years qualify for a PhD?) to running a 5k...

Wow. I think he's got a bright future in personal training.

Okay, this recipe IS scalable to smaller batches. Mom said she got this recipe from an old guy in our community and I guess his sauerkraut is amazing. We grew up growing a lot of our own veggies, foraging and canning/freezing/preserving our food. A cold room or root cellar has been kind of an assumed need when planning to build a house. I have uploaded a tattered and stained scan of Mom's recipe, but here's the text version: SAUERKRAUT 50 lbs cabbage1 lb pure salt (pickling salt, NOT table salt)3 bulbs garlic This works out to about 3 tbsp salt to every 5 lbs of cabbage. You will need a large earthenware crock (often available at old fashioned hardware stores that sell kitchen stuff). Be careful of very old crocks as you can't be sure whether or not the glaze or clay contains lead. Clean thoroughly and rinse well. You can also use a plastic wine fermenter, essentially a big plastic pail with a tightly sealed lid and airlock. Using a mandoline board or food processor, finely shred the cabbage to no more than a dime's thickness. Start layering cabbage, salt and slivered garlic cloves in your crock, pounding it down to pack it with each layer. Finely shredding and pounding the cabbage will "bruise" it and give you the juice you need to get things fermenting. Once you have added all the cabbage and packed it into the crock/pail, you should see some juice forming. If not, don't worry; the salt will begin to draw it out. Be sure to leave a few inches at the top of your crock. Use a clean, heavy gauge piece of plastic - like a heavy-duty garbage bag (unscented of course!) - and press it into the top of the cabbage. There are two keys here: keeping the cabbage submersed under the cabbage juice, and preventing air from getting at it. My Mom places a large heavy dinner plate on top of the plastic, on top of the cabbage, and weighs it down with a rock. Another trick is to fill the plastic bag on top of the cabbage with water. This helps weigh it down and forms an air-tight seal. If you're using a wine fermenter do the same thing, weighing down the cabbage, but you can add the lid and airlock as well. Store crock/pail at room temperature (68-72 degrees F) for three weeks. This is the stinky part. Your family will curse you. Do not attempt this project if you live in an apartment because other tenants will likely complain. After 3 weeks, you can package it. Either seal it in vacuum sealer bags and freeze or hot-pack it in Mason jars. The instructions say heat the sauerkraut to 185-210 degrees, but do not boil. Pack tightly into sterilized jars & fill with hot juice leaving a 1/2 " space at the top. Put sanitized snap lids on top with rings and put in a hot water bath for 20 minutes. Makes 14-15 quarts. *NOTE: According to Mom, it's nearly impossible to avoid getting some mold on top of the kraut due to air exposure. Carefully remove the top layer and discard. The sauerkraut underneath should be a nice uniform pale gold colour. It should have a nice pungent odour and should be crunchy and tangy. I guess there's a real art to making this stuff. I grew up eating it, and it tastes great. I've eaten lots of it and survived, but I don't know how your local health authority would react to the "peel the mold off the top and just eat it anyway" statement. The boiling water bath and acidity of the food itself should help fend off any stray bacteria, but follow this recipe at your own risk. Please let me know if any of you have success with it.

I think I will need to revise my list significantly to take into account my annoying habit of biting off more than I can chew. French and juggling are the sort of stuff is on the 'nice to have' list. I need to prioritize. Step #1: dump about 20-30 lbs in a month. Wow. Aggressive, you say. Yes indeed. While fasting is not a long-term weight loss solution, and it doesn't teach one to eat properly in a consistent way, if you're looking to just DUMP some excess weight, the results can be dramatic. The bottom line (no pun intended) is that you shrink all the way around. All that fat your body was saving for a rainy day? Well guess what: it's about to start pouring. The body panics at first, pushing the human to find food...now. Then it accepts that the idiot behind the wheel is too dumb to figure out how to find a food source, so it goes to Plan B. Are there nutrients coming in? Yes (juice fasting), and in fact it's better nutrition than the body has seen in a long time. Great! This means the conditions are perfect for healing up and purging. I've got a veritable warehouse of toxic waste stacked up inches deep, padded in fat to make it inert. Time to take out the trash. And aren't we glad we stored up all that fat? Imagine how handy that'll be now that we need some good, dense high-calorie fuel to power this whole process. Pretty much any fuel source is up for grabs: fat, bacteria, parasites, dead, dying and useless/cancerous cells. Cells that are necessary are preserved, including muscle tissue if you keep using it. You won't make any actual gains during a fast, but that's okay. Fasting hits the reset button. Like taking your body in for a much needed complete tune-up, oil change, detailing, retread, you name it. Energy levels are way up and you no longer have to carry the extra weight 24/7. Try carrying a 20 lb plate strapped to your gut for even a day when you're not used to it. Now multiply that by three and that's what I'm carrying around all the time. Cutting that weight by even 1/3 gives an immediate energy boost and relief to squealing creaking joints. This means when you end your fast and start eating a clean, simple, healthful diet and working out, your body is working at its optimum.so gains will come faster. In other words, you get better gas mileage. So I think I will probably make that a formal 6-week challenge next go-round. Two weeks of transition diet, then three to four weeks of juice fasting. If I can't make it the full four weeks of fasting (I've only made it up to a week before), I'll wean myself back onto a clean/paleo diet and try again another time. It will still be a win. I don't know, are we allowed to do that for a first challenge? These are my goals, and it seems silly to change my goals to suit the rules, so I won't. I guess it sort of fits in with a Druid Guild challenge, doesn't it? I'm in no hurry, so if this won't do for a first challenge, I guess this will have to qualify as the pre-tutorial phase. That's fine.

Hi shibz, sorry about that. I'm a in a pretty rural area (south-eastern ontario) where, if I need a root cellar/cold storage room, I just dig one with my backhoe. I know about snow! It sucks. Maybe tap into clubs or networks through your college/university. I work at a university and I'm sure these kind of student-run co-ops are around. If you don't find one, start one. Join a couple of freecyle groups and keep an eye out for helpful kitchen gadgets (juicers, spiralizers, blenders, dehydrators etc,). Hope this helps.