Newbie reporting for duty

[Luminous Kells]

Hi, everyone!

 

I'm Kells and I've gotten myself into a pretty bad spot health-wise.  Year of self-neglect have left me very overweight, diabetic and struggling to perform normal physical tasks.  I need to make some major changes now before I no longer have the option.  I'm the only one that created this mess and I'm the only one that can fix it.  However, I do have some great IRL support from my family and my amazing doctor; this is doable.

 

Since my core problem is all this excess weight, that's where I'm concentrating my efforts. 

 

To get my eating under control, I am starting Intermittent Fasting M/W/F under my doctor's supervision.  (This is the easy part. Coming up with what I eat on those other days is the problem.  )  Instead  of concentrating on what I shouldn't eat, I am trying to design a food plan based on what I should/need to eat.  I am researching programs/recipes and how well they fit in with the whole diabetes mess; advice welcome!   

 

For exercise, I am going to walk at least 30 minutes every day.  I am a very amateur birder that lives in an area with great trails (and birds!) , so my teensy binoculars and I should enjoy some good one-on-one time with each other.  However, I am in desperate need of strengthening my core and improving my flexibility (which is basically non-existent).  I have discovered a couple of super-remedial yoga videos, but am open to any suggestions about safe stretches or poses suitable for an incredibly unfit person.  I know I need to incorporate strength training, but my thinking is to establish the routine of walking and stretching first, then start adding the strength work.

 

As a new recruit in this Great Rebellion, I know I'm currently weak and under-equipped.  However, it might be hard to find someone whose skills could be improved so quickly by application of basic common sense.  I am delighted to have found such a wonderful training camp and look forward to supporting the rest of you in your battles. 

[Mortimer]

Hi for food, I can help some. I've been batch cooking my noms for about 2 weeks now because I generally get into a hissy fit on not getting enough vegetables outside. The last time I ordered out, I told them to change my fries to pasta, and they swopped out the brocoli as well ><

 

Anyway here's my breakfast:

The zucchini boat (if you don't mind mushy zucchini on reheating) 

 

Ingredients:

300g ground pork

180g red pepper cubed

4 zucchinis

150g mozarella cheese

200g sliced white button mushrooms

 

1. Preseason a day before the 300g of pork with seasonings of your choice(for me I used 2 tablespoons of singlong black pepper sauce) 

2. Slice the zucchinis into 2 and scrape out the centre with a teaspoon to form a boat. 

3. Toast the zucchinis at 170 degrees Celsius, 15 min on skin side, 30 min on flesh side and remove from oven.

4. While the zucchinis are toasting, fry the red pepper with garlic and salt. 

5. While the zucchinis are toasting, fry the sliced white button mushrooms with garlic and then add the pork and stir fry more. 

6. Once everything is cooked drain the moisture from the pork and mushrooms and put it on zucchini boats, top up with the red peppers, add on the cheese then toast in the oven at 170 degrees for another 3 min. They're done! 

 

They can be stored in the freezer (I've tried a week) if you don't mind mushy.  

 

I used https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076 to calculate the calories, each boat is below 200cals(140-180 ish), so you may want to have 2 boats for breakfast. 

 

My lunch and dinner consisted of baked firm tofu(tau kwa), stir fried brocolli and cauliflower and corn with spicy teriyaki soya sauce and stir fried chicken with spicy teriyaki soya sauce and boiled chickpeas. 

 

I am not diabetic but other then the cheese and corn - the rest of the menu is clear for people with diabetes. Cheese you can skip - it's just there to help hold the boat contents in shape, and you can skip the corn as well. 

 

I just got on the birdwatching wagon since I previously couldn't (sunlight sensitivity), now I have transition lenses which actually let me look up at the sky without squinting. 

[Luminous Kells]

Thank you, Mortimer!  Batch cooking looks like a really good approach for me (saves me from those OMG I need to eat now times) and your zucchini boats look very interesting.  I am a boring meat/potatoes cook, so pictures of new recipes like what you posted help a lot.  Good luck with the birding --- hope you spot some exciting specimens!

[Mortimer]

I found a baby bird stuck on the security barrier a couple months back and was told by wildlife rescue to pop it back into the nearest tree. Few months back, I spotted green pigeons at another park that I was going to join the run clinic at. People keep saying I'm pulling wool over their eyes right until I show them the pics. Last week at Park run, I spotted 2 kingfishers in the tree, but couldn't take photos as I was volunteering as timer. 

 

Chickpeas you'll want to soak the night before(since it requires 8h soaking) ,(5 ml water per gram of chickpeas) then the next morning throw into the pot to boil for 2h with salt, black peppercorns/black pepper, onion and garlic(after peeling off their skins), and a bay leaf. Smash the onion and garlic with the flat of your knife to squish them before throwing them unto the pot. You have to boil the chickpeas for 2h, topping up water as necessary. If you want extra flavour, sprinkle the chickpeas with curry powder and mix well just before you serve. 

 

I eat the baked tau kwa with pesto sauce or Thai chilli sauce. 

 

I have some cook in me(in Tamora Pierce Circle of Magic books it'd translate to me having ambient cook magic) , so I don't believe that eating healthy means you can't have fun along the way. 

 

I have different kind of pickiness for food - I don't care for yoghurts or most salad dressings (no balsamic vinegar, no mayonnaise), and would rather eat a salad without dressing, so I ended up tubbing cooked vegetables and using a microwave on them. But other then that I'm fortunate that I will literally eat next to anything and some of the things I've eaten are actually Fear Factor worthy. 

[Luminous Kells]

If you are as good at Rebelling against bad health as you are at spotting birds, you are going to be making steady and significant progress.  I had to expand the second pic to even find the darn thing and it's not like any pigeon I've ever seen.  Weird and wonderful!  Thank you for ending my night on such an interesting note.  And thank you for the advice regarding the food prep --- I venturing into uncharted waters there.  Life is good!

[Mortimer]

I'm not from your part of the world, I suspect, so I will see things you've never seen. Same for the bird species if you started posting pictures here - likely I will never have seen them before. 

 

Meat + potatoes = stew. You can put in carrots, pre-soaked beans and mushrooms in there too =) Anyway... What did I do with the zucchini that I scrapped out to form the zucchini boats? Stir fried it with the gravy that came from the black pepper pork and mushroom, then had it for tea. Waste not want not =) 

[harborcoat]

17 hours ago, Luminous Kells said:

my thinking is to establish the routine of walking and stretching first, then start adding the strength work.

 

this is also what i'm working on.  i think birding is such a cool incentive to get outside. how did you get started? 

[Luminous Kells]

Harborcoat,

 

I was 90 minutes from Yellowstone Park when I went to college --- you can not imagine what an incentive to ditch classes that was!  I really enjoyed spotting animals (deer, elk, moose, antelope, coyotes, the occasional bear) and birds (swans, osprey, pelicans, sandhill cranes once) and the habit stuck.  I have bird feeders outside my kitchen and watching their antics keeps me interested.  So watching for birds as I walk gives me that last little kick to get my butt out the door.  You don't know what new thing you will see or what cool behavior.  It feels more like I am an active person engaged in a healthy hobby than a fat person forced to schlep along to drop some pounds.   I'm not preparing for the life I want, I'm already living it  (if that makes any sense.)  I need to work on consistency, however:  get out every day, push myself to walk a little faster and a little further each day, and not stop to identify every new flash of color.

 

Do you have an interesting (and safe) place to walk?  Do you ever listen to music?  (It seems like that would help with keeping your speed up?)  Do you find that just getting outside is a mood lifter?

 

[Luminous Kells]

Hey, Mortimer! 

 

Here are a couple of birds that have been at my feeders the last week or so.  (Pictures are not mine.  Note that these look like birds and not blobs.  Nope, not my pictures.)  They are an American goldfinch, a Western tanager, a lesser goldfinch and a lazuli bunting.  Both goldfinches dine here pretty regularly, but the other two are new to my feeder.  It's the first time I have seen the bunting at all.

 

Edit:  Well, I messed that up.  Please ignore the HUGE pictures and the duplicate one.  Sigh.

 

 

 

[Mortimer]

Oh! Those are really colourful!  And yes, I have never seen those before, you're in States, I'm in Asia. We have a black and yellow bird called an oriole, which you will likely hear, rather then see. It goes ooo-ooo. Were the shots taken by actual camera or a cellphone? To be honest it's not easy to get near a bird, usually they fly off before you can get good pictures (I'm only equipped with a cell phone). That's why some photos the birds are very small - get closer and they fly off.  I'm a generalist wild life watcher - if I'm watching wildlife I rather go without music, because my spotting tends to be more of hearing the animal then turning around and finding the creature. If the trail is too rough/I am trail running, then my attention will be too focused on the trail trying not to twist my ankle and I won't be able to spot wildlife. 

 

Yes there was a monitor lizard running around freely at the zoo.