Urgan Shows Up, Does the Thing

[Mistr]

2 hours ago, Urgan said:

If I could only get past the milk thing, I would be all over that. Oatmeal + cinnamon sugar = yes. And I like my oatmeal on the al dente side, so no need to mushify it. Anybody know if coconut milk in oatmeal is edible? Shall I offer myself as taste testing tribute?

 

I eat my oatmeal with cinnamon sugar and butter. Or raisins. Or butter and brown sugar. I expect coconut milk would work extremely well. We await your test results.

 

In the summer I get my oats as granola. They are baked to make them dry and crunchy. Some fresh fruits such as apples and pears are decent sources of soluble fiber. You have options besides raw veggies.

[Kishi]

I've heard that non-dairy milk can work pretty well for oatmeal. My brother does overnight oats and tends to use soy and almond milks. I have no reason to believe that they'd fare badly in cooking. Also, +1 for coconut milk in cooking. Works on rice, should work on oats. Although, most recipes I've seen call for canned stuff as opposed to the carton stuff, so you may have to experiment a little bit with it.

[Urgan]

19 hours ago, ixaera said:

I'm the wacko that uses quick cooking rolled oats and puts the hot water from the spiggot off of the office coffee brewer in it to "cook" it. I only put "milk" in there if I'm doing cold overnight oats (also very tasty), but I don't like cow milk so I use cashew milk or some such thing (cashew & flax milk are my favorites, macadamia nut milk is also way up there for me).

 

Yeah, gotta have some creamy to compensate for the dryness.

 

17 hours ago, Mistr said:

 

I eat my oatmeal with cinnamon sugar and butter. Or raisins. Or butter and brown sugar. I expect coconut milk would work extremely well. We await your test results.

 

In the summer I get my oats as granola. They are baked to make them dry and crunchy. Some fresh fruits such as apples and pears are decent sources of soluble fiber. You have options besides raw veggies.

 

Cinnamon sugar is a nonnegotiable must-have for oatmeal. The thought occurred to me that dried fruit may also be an option? Lookit: https://www.amazon.com/Bare-Organic-Apple-Cinnamon-Gluten/dp/B01ANSLAAC?th=1 

 

1 hour ago, Kishi said:

I've heard that non-dairy milk can work pretty well for oatmeal. My brother does overnight oats and tends to use soy and almond milks. I have no reason to believe that they'd fare badly in cooking. Also, +1 for coconut milk in cooking. Works on rice, should work on oats. Although, most recipes I've seen call for canned stuff as opposed to the carton stuff, so you may have to experiment a little bit with it.

 

Yeah, canned vs bottle/carton is night and day. I still think of the sickly sweet taste when I think of coconut milk, though I have tasted the difference myself. Sigh. 

 

 

Well, I have quite the pool of possibilities to comb through and find the best options for dealing with getting enough fiber. Yesterday I did pretty okay at it. 25g for the day for an average of 24g PLUS a second elimination that was 100% textbook normal. My weight this morning came out to 114.4lbs, which is .4lb less than Saturday when I was crowing about my debloat. Gut is feeling normal, not crying for me to hurry hurry hurry to the bathroom every two hours for a whole lotta nothing. So. 25g it is. 

 

In Aikido we did bokken work and some randori after practicing sword takeaways. I made my own atemi to add to what sensei showed and made mock-jabbing the hilt of a sword into uke's ribcage the latest dojo rage. That was kinda funny. Sensei thought I was devious and congratulated my Ingenuity. A pretty good night.

[Kishi]

4 minutes ago, Urgan said:

Yeah, canned vs bottle/carton is night and day. I still think of the sickly sweet taste when I think of coconut milk, though I have tasted the difference myself. Sigh. 

 

Really? I did not know that. It might explain why I never got much out of the vaunted MCT properties of coconut milk, because I've only ever done the carton. Huh. Have to give the canned stuff a try, now.

[Urgan]

16 minutes ago, Kishi said:

 

Really? I did not know that. It might explain why I never got much out of the vaunted MCT properties of coconut milk, because I've only ever done the carton. Huh. Have to give the canned stuff a try, now.

 

I was unclear, but the canned milk is really really sweet and hard for me to drink. YMMV. I just need it to be a pleasantly flavored foil for whatever it's going into, as an ingredient. I don't know that I'd just pour myself a tall glass of coconut milk, ya know?

[CourtnieMarie]

14 minutes ago, Kishi said:

 

Really? I did not know that. It might explain why I never got much out of the vaunted MCT properties of coconut milk, because I've only ever done the carton. Huh. Have to give the canned stuff a try, now.

 

1 minute ago, Urgan said:

 

I was unclear, but the canned milk is really really sweet and hard for me to drink. YMMV. I just need it to be a pleasantly flavored foil for whatever it's going into, as an ingredient. I don't know that I'd just pour myself a tall glass of coconut milk, ya know?

 

you can get unsweetened coconut milk in cartons but the canned stuff is a whole 'nother level. just make sure not to get the cans near the mixers aisle called "cream of coconut" because that's for pina coladas and has a bajillion sugar. yeah CAN get unsweetened coconut cream for other cooking purposes... there's a lot of varieties lol

 

plain old canned coconut milk is thick and unsweetened and delicious. 

[Kishi]

2 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

I was unclear, but the canned milk is really really sweet and hard for me to drink. YMMV. I just need it to be a pleasantly flavored foil for whatever it's going into, as an ingredient. I don't know that I'd just pour myself a tall glass of coconut milk, ya know?

 

1 minute ago, CourtnieMarie said:

 

 

you can get unsweetened coconut milk in cartons but the canned stuff is a whole 'nother level. just make sure not to get the cans near the mixers aisle called "cream of coconut" because that's for pina coladas and has a bajillion sugar. yeah CAN get unsweetened coconut cream for other cooking purposes... there's a lot of varieties lol

 

plain old canned coconut milk is thick and unsweetened and delicious. 

 

More variables to experiment with! Would this just be the stuff that you can find in the Asian Foods aisle at a given grocery store? And do y'all recommend any particular brands?

[Urgan]

2 minutes ago, CourtnieMarie said:

 

 

you can get unsweetened coconut milk in cartons but the canned stuff is a whole 'nother level. just make sure not to get the cans near the mixers aisle called "cream of coconut" because that's for pina coladas and has a bajillion sugar. yeah CAN get unsweetened coconut cream for other cooking purposes... there's a lot of varieties lol

 

plain old canned coconut milk is thick and unsweetened and delicious. 

 

Just now, Kishi said:

 

 

More variables to experiment with! Would this just be the stuff that you can find in the Asian Foods aisle at a given grocery store? And do y'all recommend any particular brands?

 

Whatever brand was close to hand must be just junk, then. The carton variety boldly declares itself unsweet and is fine for my purposes. I will report on the brand I obtain tomorrow if that helps?

[CourtnieMarie]

5 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

 

Whatever brand was close to hand must be just junk, then. The carton variety boldly declares itself unsweet and is fine for my purposes. I will report on the brand I obtain tomorrow if that helps?

yeah some are cartoned/canned with sugar

 

6 minutes ago, Kishi said:

 

 

More variables to experiment with! Would this just be the stuff that you can find in the Asian Foods aisle at a given grocery store? And do y'all recommend any particular brands?

depends on the use! haha i use store brand canned coconut milk in my coffee or for curries. whole foods 365 brand actually has some of the cheapest cans i've seen and are good quality. 

 

i've tried all three of those brands and they're all good. none of these have sugar.

 

Edited to add: yes Asian food aisle. or Mexican, Goya has a decent coconut milk too.

[Kishi]

1 hour ago, CourtnieMarie said:

yeah some are cartoned/canned with sugar

 

depends on the use! haha i use store brand canned coconut milk in my coffee or for curries. whole foods 365 brand actually has some of the cheapest cans i've seen and are good quality. 

 

i've tried all three of those brands and they're all good. none of these have sugar.

 

Edited to add: yes Asian food aisle. or Mexican, Goya has a decent coconut milk too.

 

NIIIIICE

[Mistr]

On 10/5/2017 at 12:02 PM, Urgan said:

 

I was unclear, but the canned milk is really really sweet and hard for me to drink. YMMV. I just need it to be a pleasantly flavored foil for whatever it's going into, as an ingredient. I don't know that I'd just pour myself a tall glass of coconut milk, ya know?

 

As @CourtnieMarie says, there are several kinds of canned coconut milk. Coconut creme is mind-blowing sweet. I have a non-dairy ice cream recipe that uses coconut creme. It calls for one small can and no additional sugar is needed for a quart of ice cream. The creme stuff tastes like pina coladas.

 

Plain coconut milk has almost no sugar and a ton of natural fat (coconut oil). Look at the ingredients to see how much coconut you are actually getting and what other weird chemicals. The stuff I buy now is from Thailand and is 60% coconut extract with water and some stabilizer. There are lots of products based on coconut with less or no fat. These usually say coconut water instead of coconut milk. I certainly would not drink the coconut milk I buy. I treat it the same as heavy cream in making ice cream or cooking.

 

Keep looking at different grocery stores and you will find a product that is better for breakfast use. I got a coconut-almond milk that is tasty for drinking. 

[Urgan]

Well guys, I got sick. Yup. Not even cold outside and I picked up a thing that my dad got from God knows where. I did go to the gym that morning because I had no reason to believe it would not become more severe within 4 hours.

 

 

Good news is my lifts really were not affected by illness at all, because all I had was some post-nasal drip that was easily controlled by medicine. Later on....mad uncontrollable draining and sniffling/sneezing sent me home around midday after I decided I just SOUNDED too bad to stay there. Got home and started alternating between being stuffed up and draining with the sniffling, etc. This morning I can confirm it is sickness (not just cold sensitivity on parade) because now we're at the sore throat from drainage/coughing stage. This is the same garbage I had back in March. 

 

This led to snide observations such as how I have gone from being clogged on one end to clogged on the other in 48 hours, and nothing clears the sinuses like drowning (fun party game: try taking supplements while your sinus is acting bipolar. Instant hit).

 

On related but oddly more positive news, my gut is happy again. No more bathroom trouble when I have daily fiber >=20g for an average of ~25 on the week. A real trick given I'd given up on serious fooding after 1:30 yesterday. I will attempt to get fiber/food in general down sufficient to support my goals today, but no life-or-death promises. 

[Kishi]

Ugh. No worries. Good food and gentle movement are the order of the day, and at least a day of each for each day that you're sick. Lifts and aikido will still be there when you're better.

[Urgan]

1 hour ago, Kishi said:

Ugh. No worries. Good food and gentle movement are the order of the day, and at least a day of each for each day that you're sick. Lifts and aikido will still be there when you're better.

 

Yeah...about that. The lifts were lonely and I am not half as symptomatic as I was yesterday, so I maybe kinda hit the gym anyway. 94% successful. Well, 100% of all the attempts I made worked out, but I cut off a set from squats because even I have a threshold for stupid.

[Jord]

On 10/7/2017 at 1:00 PM, Urgan said:

 

 

On related but oddly more positive news, my gut is happy again. No more bathroom trouble when I have daily fiber >=20g for an average of ~25 on the week. A real trick given I'd given up on serious fooding after 1:30 yesterday. I will attempt to get fiber/food in general down sufficient to support my goals today, but no life-or-death promises. 

 

all the more reason fiber is turning into my favorite macro. and I don't care what anyone says, yes I consider it a macro and not a micro  

[Urgan]

On 10/9/2017 at 9:15 AM, Taddea Zhaan said:

all the more reason fiber is turning into my favorite macro. and I don't care what anyone says, yes I consider it a macro and not a micro  

 

And it's hard mode time when you are just getting ramped up to be accountable for it and then BAM. Nothing sounds good to eat when you're being waterboarded from the inside, you feel bad for going anywhere, and all you really want is that haircut you were going to get on Saturday except for coughing in people's faces is generally frowned upon. SIGH.

 

I'm back to work today, I do have a new bench 5RM. So far I am on track with a 24g average last week and 15g thus far with no dinner or evening snackage planned yet this evening, so maybe it will go up to 20. For the most part, I have not had any trouble there in spite of it all. Eventually I will figure out some goals after I crawl out of the rubble of my life. It will probably be fiber-related somehow. Like, I dunno, don't eat >=1 cup of Cheerios at a stretch, your gut doesn't love that and will refuse to fully digest it.

 

I did the oatmeal and coconut milk thing yesterday and nothing bad happened. It's a bit of an acquired taste--the coconut milk I obtained was unsweetened Silk brand--and part of that is rediscovering the perfect balance of ingredients, etc. More Research Needed.

[Urgan]

Chickpeas, man.

[Jord]

19 hours ago, Urgan said:

Chickpeas, man.

 

I tell ya. 

[Urgan]

4 hours ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

 

I tell ya. 

 

For srs.

 

 

I'm still alive, guys. Just coasting/coughing out the rest of this week. Went to the gym yesterday mostly because they replaced the lockers as I suspected they would.

 

 

But it wasn't hard to guess since we were supposed to get all our crap out of the lockers or it would end up in lost and found. 

 

Succeeded in not coughing in anyone's face. Actually I barely coughed at all compared to Monday. Got a weensy bit out of breath with the heavier stuff (top set of squats @ 154lbs for a double, not exactly the stuff of legends), but did that listen to my body thing and took longer breaks + cut out some volume. Good for the morale. Lifts have felt a little sluggish, but overall I have had worse Shark Weeks in terms of performance. At this point it's a minor annoyance. In March I had this mess for like 2.5 weeks because I was so stressed out. That reminds me:

 

Cue all the bullshit at work. All of it.

 

Went to Aikido. Forgot gi. Aikido'd in lent karate gi. Sensei showed me this awesome way to shortcut awkwardness with yokomenuchi sokumen iriminage by passing off the attacking hand to my other hand, then chucking it over my head so I can move in really close. The effect of tossing the arm after redirecting an attack is it jerks uke toward you right where you want to end up and does 90% of the work before you even throw. Uke more or less bounces off you, he's so unbalanced. I could make him spin and land on his stomach if I could just figure out foot placement the way Sensei does it at an agle. It was glorious to behold. My poor partner. #goals

 

Calories and protein are suffering, but I am nailing fiber thanks in large part to these things right here. Bean chips are the best idea invented by man. End of story. +-400 calories depending on the day, I am all over the map, weight is slowly increasing by fractions of a lb over the course of this week. Don't feel bloated and/or nasty, so. Body could be playing games with me. Fat and fiber are high on average, carbs are close to good, and protein and calories are a touch low. I've tried some new recipes recently that accounts for part of this, the other part being drainage poses a logistical (choking) hazard to eating certain kinds of food. You know, big strips of meat, that kind of thing. Next week is intensity week, I will have to get back on the horse then or, you know, die.

[Mistr]

Yay for the new 5RM!

 

Also for not sneezing and coughing all the time. Give yourself a break on getting anything else done while you are sick + shark week. Not killing anyone and not dying are major wins.

 

2 minutes ago, Urgan said:

Cue all the bullshit at work. All of it.

 

Went to Aikido. Forgot gi. Aikido'd in lent karate gi. Sensei showed me this awesome way to shortcut awkwardness with yokomenuchi sokumen iriminage by passing off the attacking hand to my other hand, then chucking it over my head so I can move in really close. The effect of tossing the arm after redirecting an attack is it jerks uke toward you right where you want to end up and does 90% of the work before you even throw. Uke more or less bounces off you, he's so unbalanced. I could make him spin and land on his stomach if I could just figure out foot placement the way Sensei does it at an agle. It was glorious to behold. My poor partner. #goals

 

Calories and protein are suffering, but I am nailing fiber thanks in large part to these things right here. Bean chips are the best idea invented by man. End of story. +-400 calories depending on the day, I am all over the map, weight is slowly increasing by fractions of a lb over the course of this week. Don't feel bloated and/or nasty, so. Body could be playing games with me. Fat and fiber are high on average, carbs are close to good, and protein and calories are a touch low. I've tried some new recipes recently that accounts for part of this, the other part being drainage poses a logistical (choking) hazard to eating certain kinds of food. You know, big strips of meat, that kind of thing. Next week is intensity week, I will have to get back on the horse then or, you know, die.

 

That yokomenuchi iriminage sounds awesome. Do you have a video that shows how your sensei does it? I think I know that first block/redirect entry, but I might be thinking of a different move.

 

That's great that you've found the answer to your fiber quandry. I'm amused to hear that you can eat all the bean chips you want and are still short in calories and on target for carbs. My family has been eating lots of tortilla chips. I wonder if those bean chips would be a good substitute. Both Dumbledore and Elf frequently complain of digestive discomfort. Fiber might help.

[Urgan]

12 minutes ago, Mistr said:

That yokomenuchi iriminage sounds awesome. Do you have a video that shows how your sensei does it? I think I know that first block/redirect entry, but I might be thinking of a different move.

 

No, sadly, but he drives the leg (that goes behind uke) at an angle instead of straight ahead, is what I know. It produces a most satisfying effect and uke has no say in the matter. Flips him over before you can blink. 

 

15 minutes ago, Mistr said:

That's great that you've found the answer to your fiber quandry. I'm amused to hear that you can eat all the bean chips you want and are still short in calories and on target for carbs. My family has been eating lots of tortilla chips. I wonder if those bean chips would be a good substitute. Both Dumbledore and Elf frequently complain of digestive discomfort. Fiber might help.

 

Dude. Get them to the bean chips. These things make you never miss tortilla chips. Seriously. + guac if they can do the avocados. 

[ixaera]

Bean chips are pretty amazing~

[Kishi]

Heavy doubles on shark week and sick? Nice. Now to get all the sleep and simultaneously get an IV of chicken noodle soup going into your system, and you should be good to go.

 

36 minutes ago, Urgan said:

Went to Aikido. Forgot gi. Aikido'd in lent karate gi. Sensei showed me this awesome way to shortcut awkwardness with yokomenuchi sokumen iriminage by passing off the attacking hand to my other hand, then chucking it over my head so I can move in really close. The effect of tossing the arm after redirecting an attack is it jerks uke toward you right where you want to end up and does 90% of the work before you even throw. Uke more or less bounces off you, he's so unbalanced. I could make him spin and land on his stomach if I could just figure out foot placement the way Sensei does it at an agle. It was glorious to behold. My poor partner. #goals

 

So, it's incredibly likely that I have no idea what I'm talking about, but one of the things that we talk about in judo is that if you're bouncing uke off of you then you're not maintaining proper contact. Either you rushed in too hard, didn't commit enough, or didn't pull them to you. (for reference, I've committed all of these infractions). It's great to unbalance someone, but without that contact it's more likely that you have to use strength rather than technique.

 

Which, I mean. You're heckin' strong, so you can get away with it, but my understanding is that the whole point is to not need strength to make someone do terrible things to themselves.

 

It could be that I'm misunderstanding - different technique, different application, all that - and I can't see video from where I am now, but the way you describe it, it sounds like you're pulling the dude in close, meaning that you want them unbalanced and close to your center of gravity. If that's the case, you wouldn't want them to bounce off because you lose some leverage and some ability to get technical about it.

 

Please understand I don't mean any of this as a critique! It's just a thing that comes up a lot in my own training, and seeing it here made me thoughtful. So.

[Urgan]

42 minutes ago, Mistr said:

Also for not sneezing and coughing all the time. Give yourself a break on getting anything else done while you are sick + shark week. Not killing anyone and not dying are major wins.

 

2 minutes ago, Kishi said:

Heavy doubles on shark week and sick? Nice. Now to get all the sleep and simultaneously get an IV of chicken noodle soup going into your system, and you should be good to go.

 

What I meant is Shark Weeks have been worse for my lifts than this cold has been. Sorry for the confusion. I am not due for that treatment for two more weeks, thank goodness. I hope for a merciful one because bodies usually go easy on that stuff when you have sickness in your life, but I am not holding my breath.

 

4 minutes ago, Kishi said:

So, it's incredibly likely that I have no idea what I'm talking about, but one of the things that we talk about in judo is that if you're bouncing uke off of you then you're not maintaining proper contact. Either you rushed in too hard, didn't commit enough, or didn't pull them to you. (for reference, I've committed all of these infractions). It's great to unbalance someone, but without that contact it's more likely that you have to use strength rather than technique.

 

Which, I mean. You're heckin' strong, so you can get away with it, but my understanding is that the whole point is to not need strength to make someone do terrible things to themselves.

 

It could be that I'm misunderstanding - different technique, different application, all that - and I can't see video from where I am now, but the way you describe it, it sounds like you're pulling the dude in close, meaning that you want them unbalanced and close to your center of gravity. If that's the case, you wouldn't want them to bounce off because you lose some leverage and some ability to get technical about it.

 

Please understand I don't mean any of this as a critique! It's just a thing that comes up a lot in my own training, and seeing it here made me thoughtful. So.

 

If it was only bouncing, that would be luck rather than technique. I used my elbow applied to the upper chest/collarbone area to make sure he was going down, no worries. At the same time, it was my first night with this variation on y.s. iriminage, so I am not pretending I have it down yet/ever. Lol.

[Urgan]

I did a doublecheck of a recipe I keyed in recently and realized I was accounting for 12oz of COOKED pasta.....the uncooked box is 12oz.....that puts my slow increase from 115.2 to 115.4 to 115.6 this week into perspective, doesn't it? Speaking of, I'm just about guaranteed to weigh less tomorrow because #fiber