Urgan Shows Up, Does the Thing

[Kishi]

9 minutes ago, ChrisWithaStick said:

I think you can find the brand at Costco?  

 

Well, I actually have the nibs, so I was going to see about trying to do something like this on my own. Although it looks like I'd have to pick up a grinder to do so, huh? At least, that's the impression I get off the site.

[Urgan]

1 minute ago, Kishi said:

 

Well, I actually have the nibs, so I was going to see about trying to do something like this on my own. Although it looks like I'd have to pick up a grinder to do so, huh? At least, that's the impression I get off the site.

 

Grinders are not expensive, although in your case space is especially at a premium. You can go the rolling pin + plastic bag route, right?

[Kishi]

Just now, Urgan said:

 

Grinders are not expensive, although in your case space is especially at a premium. You can go the rolling pin + plastic bag route, right?

 

Probably. Although, if I'm gonna go manual anyway, I'd honestly rather just take to 'em with a hammer. You know, get some percussive catharsis in addition to making a potentially delicious beverage.

[Urgan]

Just now, Kishi said:

 

Probably. Although, if I'm gonna go manual anyway, I'd honestly rather just take to 'em with a hammer. You know, get some percussive catharsis in addition to making a potentially delicious beverage.

 

I was gonna say mortar and pestle, but that works, too.

[Kishi]

1 minute ago, Urgan said:

 

I was gonna say mortar and pestle, but that works, too.

 

WAIT. Wait. I have one of those. I can do that.

[Urgan]

1 minute ago, Kishi said:

 

WAIT. Wait. I have one of those. I can do that.

 

I shall await the results eagerly.

 

 

 

Just gonna drop this here: https://grasslandbeef.com/all-organs I was surfing for braunschweiger. It's a thing I've had before years and years ago. Highly edible. 

[Urgan]

Want.

[ChrisWithaStick]

2 hours ago, Kishi said:

 

Well, I actually have the nibs, so I was going to see about trying to do something like this on my own. Although it looks like I'd have to pick up a grinder to do so, huh? At least, that's the impression I get off the site.

I haven’t tried it before, so I don’t know how fine the nibs are.   Looking online, I see two versions.  One is to boil or steep the nib pieces and strain, the other is grind and use like coffee.  I will say roasted will probably taste better than raw nibs. To me, raw nibs have a funky sour/aldehyde off flavor (intensity varies by brand/bean type or source)

 

Thanks for dropping the link.  

 

Final thought on guac- maybe just make regular guac and have a little dish of nibs on the side.  Sprinkle a few on top of a bite  of guac.  That way, if it tastes bad, you haven’t ruined a whole batch.  

[Urgan]

20 minutes ago, ChrisWithaStick said:

Final thought on guac- maybe just make regular guac and have a little dish of nibs on the side.  Sprinkle a few on top of a bite  of guac.  That way, if it tastes bad, you haven’t ruined a whole batch.  

 

Definitely going to make a test run, because I'm really uncertain either way but it's the easiest thing aside from oatmeal. Except that part where I have eaten all the guac in the house lol. Need to buy some more.

[Urgan]

9/27/2018

Dim bulb

 

Recovery

Calories. 2247: 2393

Protein. 120: 136

Carbs. 169: 187

Fiber. 17: 19

Fats. 119: 122

Sodium. 2100 :  2039

Weight. 119.0 : 118.8

 

Aikido

Jo. 6/8

Other Techniques. 3/4

 

Adulting

Math. 3/4 - 75%

 

Sooooooo Thursday. What happened on Thursday.....well not much at work, that is for sure. Stonewalled with low priority shit, you know how that goes.

 

I did a lot of research and y'all I ate a banana. Most of one, because bits were turning a little brown, but the texture was better than I remember, suggesting the one I had in the days of yore was unripe. Of course it gave me all the gas in the universe, but so far that and a difficult BM been the only symptoms. This says I shouldn't make it a frequent thing, but maybe every once in a while is okay. Full analysis pending next BM. Friday will involve pate late in the evening if all goes well during the day. 

 

Nearly got killed by a doofus who cut me off on a 3 lane exit ramp by going from the rightmost side across all lanes to the wedge-shaped white striped divider (between ramp and the rest of the highway) and coming to a stop right before they ran out of room. I was in the leftmost lane, so that was fun. I suspect they never saw me and/or were having an emergency of their own.

 

I had to go to the store to buy fish for dinner, so I did a little preliminary assessment of what is super easily available in my usual haunt--whole raw chicken livers and sousmeat are the only offerings I saw, which is okay but first I need to divine a recipe for livers and sousmeat unfortunately has MSG and corn syrup in it--and this stuff is made locally, y'all. SIGH. They used to sell braunsweiger but not anymore when I WANT to eat it, of course. Back to the drawing board and onto other stores. I am considering ordering myself some ground organ meats should local efforts turn up nada.

 

But when I got home, oh good grief. I took a nap that ended at 10PM. I'd put peas (cream + butter peas + actual butter) in the pressure cooker, and got the oven up to temperature, put the fish in, and about five minutes later....the power went out. I do not recommend cooking fish by flashlight. I let the fish sit in the oven for a while, took it out, and banzai'd the mess out dinner. I'm here, not dead, digestive tract is fine, we are allllll good. But I am by myself right now due to husband being on a business trip and it was just not fun holding the flashlight with my chin while scraping fish off aluminum foil. Not a way to spend any evening, let me tell you. As a consequence, no eggs were cooked because the power came on at like 11:30 and nope that wasn't happening. 

 

This morning I woke up 30 minutes late, the gym locker lights were half off (some were on, some not...), and I misloaded my OHP by .5lb, robbing myself of 2 sets of PR 5RM until I realized it, then hit that PR for a set. It was not a sure thing, because the weight I'd been doing was a challenge. 

 

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

 

To Do: 

How/if organ meat will ever be a thing in my life

1. Eat another slice of pate in the absence of any other new food - scheduled Friday night

2. Locate alternative dairy-less organ meat - raw livers, sousmeat

3. Decide to hoard to myself or bury it in other food during mealtimes

 

What to do with cacao nibs?

1. Oatmeal

2. Chili/stew

3. Avocado

 

Can I eat sunflower seeds? - not to be attempted within 48 hours of pate testing

Try a banana

[shaar]

25 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

Nearly got killed by a doofus who cut me off on a 3 lane exit ramp by going from the rightmost side across all lanes to the wedge-shaped white striped divider (between ramp and the rest of the highway) and coming to a stop right before they ran out of room. I was in the leftmost lane, so that was fun. I suspect they never saw me and/or were having an emergency of their own.

 

 

My god every time I see someone in the far left lane that suddenly cuts across ALL lanes to exit quickly on the right it makes me go.... ???? WHY YOU DO?  Are you paying an attention here or?? ?? ??  Maybe it's your first time here but even then ?? ?? ????

[Urgan]

30 minutes ago, shaar said:

 

My god every time I see someone in the far left lane that suddenly cuts across ALL lanes to exit quickly on the right it makes me go.... ???? WHY YOU DO?  Are you paying an attention here or?? ?? ??  Maybe it's your first time here but even then ?? ?? ????

 

It doesn't happen all that often to me, but when it does they scrape the bug carcasses off the front of my bumper.

[Urgan]

TFW you make a stop at a local grocery store at 9:45 to see if they have chicken livers (they don't), you return to your car serenaded by the sound of bats echo-locating dinner around a parking lot light. Continuing to the next store, get passed by a hearse, park next to three sketch-arse dudes associated with a battered red pickup with a wheel barrow in the back, one walks with a limp and another toting a bottle. Last guys sticks around outside the truck with the driver door open while smoking a cigarette. Am I being given a sign of some kind??

 

On that note, gut check: which is weirder, going to Walmart for chicken livers at 10 on a Saturday night or sitting on a tailgate with your buddies at same time and place?

[Urgan]

Tales from Walmart self-checkout.

 

I tried to buy a lemon. The station did not recognize the barcode, so I decided no lemon for me and tried to check out without it. The station refused to allow this on grounds of Unknown Item. Gave up on the station and moved to another. Paid for my livers and shallots. Walmart employees show up, one adult and one millennial. The adult asks the millennial what up, there's a mess by the main station and nobody was around. Millennial explains away responsibility for the mess because So Many Dang Words and makes a big production out of handling her job when the adult waves her off and says not to worry about it. Millenial, that hero of a human being, proceeds to do her job and cart Walmart store debris away to wherever. 

 

I accept responsibility for the lemon and explain that it wouldn't let me have my lemon, her presence unlocks the magical key to me now pay for the dang lemon. And away I go.

 

I have successfully made it back home. With livers and lemon both.

 

What a world.

[shaar]

12 hours ago, Urgan said:

TFW you make a stop at a local grocery store at 9:45 to see if they have chicken livers (they don't), you return to your car serenaded by the sound of bats echo-locating dinner around a parking lot light. Continuing to the next store, get passed by a hearse, park next to three sketch-arse dudes associated with a battered red pickup with a wheel barrow in the back, one walks with a limp and another toting a bottle. Last guys sticks around outside the truck with the driver door open while smoking a cigarette. Am I being given a sign of some kind??

 

On that note, gut check: which is weirder, going to Walmart for chicken livers at 10 on a Saturday night or sitting on a tailgate with your buddies at same time and place?

 

12 hours ago, Urgan said:

Tales from Walmart self-checkout.

 

I tried to buy a lemon. The station did not recognize the barcode, so I decided no lemon for me and tried to check out without it. The station refused to allow this on grounds of Unknown Item. Gave up on the station and moved to another. Paid for my livers and shallots. Walmart employees show up, one adult and one millennial. The adult asks the millennial what up, there's a mess by the main station and nobody was around. Millennial explains away responsibility for the mess because So Many Dang Words and makes a big production out of handling her job when the adult waves her off and says not to worry about it. Millenial, that hero of a human being, proceeds to do her job and cart Walmart store debris away to wherever. 

 

I accept responsibility for the lemon and explain that it wouldn't let me have my lemon, her presence unlocks the magical key to me now pay for the dang lemon. And away I go.

 

I have successfully made it back home. With livers and lemon both.

 

What a world.

 

All of this sounds like something right out of a Seinfeld episode.

 

At least you emerged from Sketchy WheelbarrowFest 2018 unscathed..........

[Urgan]

2 hours ago, shaar said:

 

 

All of this sounds like something right out of a Seinfeld episode.

 

At least you emerged from Sketchy WheelbarrowFest 2018 unscathed..........

 

I wish you could have seen it. It was setting off absolutely all of the alarm bells. And next to this truck were the trio of parking lot hangout crew on their tailgate. Who does this?? At o'dark 30???

[ixaera]

21 hours ago, Urgan said:

I accept responsibility for the lemon and explain that it wouldn't let me have my lemon, her presence unlocks the magical key to me now pay for the dang lemon. And away I go.

 

When life... doesn't??... give you lemons

 

 

[Urgan]

9/28/2018 - 9/30/2018

Farewell September, you were fun...ish

 

Recovery

2200 Calories. 2200: 2236, 2204, 2326

110 Protein. 112: 109, 109, 116

192 Carbs. 170: 189, 184, 159

20 Fiber. 18: 19, 21, 19

110 Fats. 118: 110, 111, 132

2300 Sodium. 2035 : 1588, 1878, 2173

Weight. 118.9 : 119.0, 118.2, 119.4

 

Aikido

Jo. 8/8

Other Techniques. 3/4

 

Adulting

Math. 4/4

 

Friday

OHP

45         2x5

55         5

60         5

72.5      2

68         2x5

68.5      5--5RM PR + .5LB!!

 

Bench

45         5

60         5

70         5

80         5

90.5      2

80         3x5

 

I feel like I kind of whiffed this session. Maybe it was getting up late, maybe it was misloading the bar, maybe it was consequently not being able to do nearly as many sets as I wanted to on either lift as a direct consequence. Ah well.

 

I found braunscheiger, y'all. Right next to where the pate was.... * sad trombone* 

 

Saturday

Squat

45           5

115         5

145         5

155         5

180         2

171.5     5x5--5RM PR + .5LB!!

 

Deadlifts

135         5

155         5

175         5

217.5     2

207.5      5x5--5RM PR + 2.5LB!!

 

I put cocoa nibs in my oatmeal and didn't hate it, so that was a win. Along with some additional PRs because that's what 5s week is made of, apparently. Had my little chicken liver adventure. Every day is going to have an organ meat story in it, also. Because of course.

 

Also reviewed jo kata.

 

Sunday

Laundry, including changing bedsheets after way too long, cat grooming, cooking, braunschweiger eating (mom said I might find eating it straight too rich....ate it with a spoon and could have eaten the whole 8oz sausage had I less restraint. Only 2oz per serving. It was great), and an attempt at doing dishes that failed at the point of turning the dishwasher on....sheesh. Lots of napping. And the jo kata, again for the win.

 

 

I'm sure I'm missing stuff, but that's the good bits. 

[Urgan]

13 hours ago, ixaera said:

 

When life... doesn't??... give you lemons

 

 

 

Life: the Reverse Indian Giver. 

[Mistr]

On 9/26/2018 at 11:18 AM, Urgan said:

Yeah, I immediately think of things I cannot have and I fear I may have done a dumb buying the nibs. Perhaps they would go in cinnamon oatmeal. Thoughts?? HALP??

 

Well, you have already tried oatmeal and found that acceptable. I eat them plain as a crunchy, kind-of-chocolatey snack. The texture and lack of sugar is the major draw for me. When I want smoother chocolate, I have 100% chocolate squares (Callebaut baking chocolate).

 

I've been eating darker and darker chocolate for a long time, so now I don't miss the sugar at all. When I eat commercial milk chocolate I feel like it was just a whiff of chocolate. I'll often follow it up with some 100% chocolate to get a real chocolate hit. YMMV

 

I hope you have good luck with your local sausage experiments. Braunschweiger is common in my part of the midwest. Elf likes it, but we don't normally keep it in the house.

 

For more fat in regular cooking, you could make curry with a can of full-fat coconut milk. Very yummy. This is my favorite way to use up random vegetables and bland chicken.

[Urgan]

October 2018 Goals

Never had heart

 

Remember that time when I said I was Done with hot summer weather? Still Done with it and so is my A/C. On the plus side, I am figuring out this sodium business and exactly how much/how little it really matters in terms of weight fluctuation. I am dealing with a headache resurgence that began, perhaps coincidentally, with Shark Week. I think it's mainly a matter of bad posture over the course of the day. On the plus side of the pain equation, I have made it over a month with this pair of contact lenses: the secret is not napping in them and building up crud on the surface of the lenses. WHO KNEW. I take them out before my evening nap and that seems to have pretty much cleared up that. HARR. Weight has become a concern, due exclusively to the fact that I do not want to outgrow all my clothes right now. 

 

I have been doing fairly well for not having an actual sleep goal. I have given up on not taking naps because I am only human and something has to give somewhere. Otherwise, my energy is okay on non-Shark Weeks. This set of goals is going to be for FIVE weeks again. Oh boy.

 

 

Nutrition 

I bumped calories down by 100 during last month and so far have not died also so far have not lost weight. That's okay, I'd rather stay stable and out-work these macros into fat loss territory than cut hard, lose fat and muscle, and bomb out my lifts. Also the point really is keeping my waistline under control, not so much the weight on the scale. So I'm still tracking both sodium and weight in MFP, but it's not really as much of a concern for me, since I'm choosing low sodium snacks and breakfast, letting lunch and dinner be what they are. That seems to be a good low anxiety way to moderate that micro and its impact on water retention. Fiber is still in the list because I still care about keeping BMs regular--it's no good trying to recomp if I'm fighting the BM battle at the same time. I'll be keeping the targets same as last month, since that seems to be okay, given I've PR'd every lift in some form (and some more than once....) since Friday. I realize I may run out of reserves and suddenly tank, but until then we mush on. 

 

2200 Calories. 0 : 0

110 Protein. 0 : 0

192 Carbs. 0 : 0

20 Fiber. 0 : 0

110 Fats. 0 : 0

 

I may introduce something drilling down more on tracking fat sources in more detail, but I need to think on that more.

Fun fact: due to the government hating on trans fat and saturated fat, those are the fats that have to be reported on food labels. The unsaturated fats don't appear to be on packages that aren't oil products like olive oil, coconut oil, etc. I am curious to how much fat I'm getting from where, you know (DOWN WITH SOYBEAN OIL)? If it comes from whole foods, I'm not fussed. It's the bonus items like salad dressing and packing oil that concern me. Which is why I bought that lemon on Saturday. Made my own salad dressing out of olive oil, rice vinegar, lemon juice, and some garlic powder. It feels so much better than sunflower oil and/or safflower oil. Like, they don't know which one they used so they listed it on the label like that.....wtf. It would be part of a larger project of tracking how much processed food I eat, by proxy. Smart eating choices. Stuff. Just because I'm trying to hit a higher fat macro doesn't mean I want to throw garbage in there--not that I am, I don't think, I'm just interested in auditing as an exercise since I really tend to reach for the same stuff week to week. The trick is how to track in a way that would be meaningful--again, I am not sure if I can track the unsaturated fats due to lopsided reportage. It'd just be fun to dig a bit more because this subject is of great interest to me for obvious reasons. 

 

Here's the philosophy.

Ideally I want to choose the most unprocessed food route possible. This is really important with this particular macro, in that it's where we've gone the most wrong ever since there were specific US federal food recommendations. Why do we have such high carb consumption in the US? Because of taking saturated fat off the table and by extension lowering protein, because the two go hand in hand. Carbs are not the enemy by any stretch...processed crap fried in processed crap oil obviously isn't what I'm aiming for, but that's neither here nor there since I can't eat most of it anyway lol. My only reservation about this macro tweak is making sure I keep carbs high enough to support my energy needs. Morning lifts and nighttime aikido do not happen by magic. I checked this morning. Still not magic-powered.

 

Measures 

This gets its own Section because I can. Weekly measurement tracking to expose 1 - whether my macros are Working, 2 - if I still care by month's end.

Format will be Previous Week - Current Week - Delta. 

 

Waist.

Hips.

Thigh L.

Thigh R.

 

Aikido

Jo. This is going to stay here until I get my purple belt and it becomes Jo Kata II, lol.

0/10

Tech Review. I'm getting better at doing this than I was immediately after getting my blue belt, but it still leaves something to be desired.

0/5

 

Adulting

Math. The Calculus continues. After this, a mere one week of the course remains. 15 weeks of Calculus I madness. I think further study will migrate to book form.

0/5

 

Weekly Debriefs:

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

[Urgan]

1 hour ago, Mistr said:

 

Well, you have already tried oatmeal and found that acceptable. I eat them plain as a crunchy, kind-of-chocolatey snack. The texture and lack of sugar is the major draw for me. When I want smoother chocolate, I have 100% chocolate squares (Callebaut baking chocolate).

 

I've been eating darker and darker chocolate for a long time, so now I don't miss the sugar at all. When I eat commercial milk chocolate I feel like it was just a whiff of chocolate. I'll often follow it up with some 100% chocolate to get a real chocolate hit. YMMV

 

I hope you have good luck with your local sausage experiments. Braunschweiger is common in my part of the midwest. Elf likes it, but we don't normally keep it in the house.

 

For more fat in regular cooking, you could make curry with a can of full-fat coconut milk. Very yummy. This is my favorite way to use up random vegetables and bland chicken.

 

So the verdict for the oatmeal is a solid It Just Might Work. I need to play with it a bit and give myself a chance to get adjusted to the strong cacao taste. Dark chocolate is no trouble for me, but there is at least a little milkfat present, so. The nibs are above my usual. If I can drink kombucha, I can probably figure out how to eat them. 

 

The brauschweiger was amazing and I will eat all of it. 

[Sam Ashen]

40 minutes ago, Urgan said:

Math. The Calculus continues. After this, a mere one week of the course remains. 15 weeks of Calculus I madness. I think further study will migrate to book form.

0/5

 

How is this going?  It has been a while since the last time I checked in.

[Urgan]

4 minutes ago, Sam Ashen said:

How is this going?  It has been a while since the last time I checked in.

 

Insert gif of me clinging to the door and console of a 57 Chevy that is worth more than our house while my husband does a burnout. 

 

I needed to have done algebra just to get in the right headspace to really absorb the theory because it's a trip to separate the theory from the magic trick of putting some undiscussed theorem into play. But otherwise great.

[Sam Ashen]

2 minutes ago, Urgan said:

 

Insert gif of me clinging to the door and console of a 57 Chevy that is worth more than our house while my husband does a burnout. 

 

I needed to have done algebra just to get in the right headspace to really absorb the theory because it's a trip to separate the theory from the magic trick of putting some undiscussed theorem into play. But otherwise great.

 

This is what I have heard.  Once you set up and execute the calculus part, it can generate a whole bunch of algebra.

 

Do they have something to get you remember that said algebra?