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Guessing just a single egg or 2 scambled into the mix
Kinda like egg is incorporated into fried rice
Sounds good to me!
There are a few Thai recipes like Pad Krapow Moo (Stir Fried Pork with Holy Basil), a popular Thai street food that is often served with a fried egg on top. It's delicious sunny side up and crisped at the edges!
You can Google the recipe. It's one of my favorite Thai dishes!
The only difficult to find in America ingredient is the Thai basil, but you can sub ordinary sweet basil for almost the same result.
Sounds nice living there! Europeans eat food differently than Americans, as a culture, like making multiple trips to the store like you said LOL im lucky that im even going grocery shopping once a week and buying enough stuff. When i lose more weight i'll probably have more energy to do more things. I do have a little store on the way home if i run out of stuff.
Grocery shopping in any metropolitan Canadian city is not much different from American cities; I have lived in both. I hope I didn't give the mistaken impression that I'd lived in EU, although I enjoy their food and admire the fundamental healthfulness of what is often called the Mediterranean diet. (I've visited EU only a very few times, on vacation.) As it happens, I both attend school and work, so I'm out and about daily, and have a variety of markets and supermarkets nearby my home. My roommate also does her share of our shopping so we usually have a good selection of fresh, healthful food. Both of us are involved in the healthcare industry so we have a fairly good idea of what constitutes a good diet, and also completely agree on what is good. Even better, we enjoy the same cuisines!
Funny you should say, "When i lose more weight i'll probably have more energy to do more things." In fact that is exactly the truth! Not referring to you but rather to some arbitrary overweight person, if you are 40 pounds overweight it's almost like having 40 pounds of weights strapped to your body and dragging them around wherever you go. Lose those weights and of course you'll have more energy! This is yet another benefit of getting yourself into the normal range of BMI, because a healthy, trim person will have a lot more energy than somebody obese. This is true irrespective of gender, age or body size. Healthy people who engage in routine, frequent exercise are bound to have more energy! Not only is it intuitively logical, it can be scientifically proved too!
I can see only two reasons to not get to eat a healthy diet and get a routine exercise program going, to not get yourself to a healthy weight: 1. you may be one of the few, unfortunate people with health problems that prevent it, or 2. you just aren't willing (or psychologically unable) to make the admittedly difficult decision to eat a healthy diet and get healthy, routine exercise.
Sadly, there are people with infirmities (such as amputees or those suffering from serious, chronic illnesses) who physically cannot follow the necessary exercise regimen, for example a double amputee cannot run on a treadmill, or persons suffering multiple sclerosis (an incurable auto-immune disease with management as the only real option). Those with MS are encouraged to lead as healthy a life as they are able, but attacks can be debilitating, and sometimes ultimately fatal.
Be glad if you are just a typical person with no serious health issues other than being overweight. It won't be easy to fix your physical condition, but it's almost a sure thing you will succeed if you have the fortitude to stick with your diet and exercise program.
A final word about diet. Although I scoff at the idea of fad or weight loss diets, I have to accept that a combination of such a diet (in moderation) combined with exercise can help you reach your goal more quickly, and that if you are able to reduce your BMR by gain of muscle tissue (more practical for men) and loss of fatty tissue (all can join in), you may be able to shift from a "fad" diet to your correct lifetime diet (the amount of food you should be eating that exactly matches your ideal weight). In other words you could kick off your program with a faddy diet and then as your BMI improves you may be able to increase your food consumption. Remember, muscles consume more calories than fat even when you are at rest.
One final comment directed at women: I have mentioned before that adipose (fatty) tissue releases harmful hormones (a scary number of them including leptin—which affects appetite, angiotensin—may cause hypertension—and particularly in some if not many women can cause increased estrogen levels, release androgen, etc.).
The subject is too complex and too technical to cover in a post, but some scientists consider white adipose tissue as almost another endocrine gland! One consequence is that being fat may (probably does) increase your appetite, may have serious effects on the balance of the many hormones running through your body, and cause increased estrogen levels which have been correlated with increased risk of cancer although many studies are controversial.
Men, by comparison, are lucky that their endocrine systems are comparatively less complex than those of women. My point is that while I see the positive reasons of maintaining a good diet, a healthy exercise program and a good BMI as a gender neutral thing, I also recognize (or at least suggest) that the consequences of not doing so may be far worse for women than for men!
And furthermore—as if this weren't already scary enough for women—this issue can become much more serious after menopause where even healthy women experience serious consequences as their hormonal activity changes.
Everybody who is not eating a healthy diet and maintaining a regular exercise program, who is outside the "normal" BMI range, should be as scared as hell that their lifestyle choices may be harmful, even extremely harmful, may cause permanent damage, and may shorten your life and/or decrease your quality of life. If one can be scared into leading a healthy lifestyle, then my comments may be your wake-up message!
I've been following this topic with much interest lately (not the entire topic!) and I'm amazed at all the great advice! If people would follow even some of this advice, some of the time, it would have a huge effect on the incidence of obesity!
My recent interest was piqued by my semi-stagnant attempts at weight loss, noting that a couple years ago I was in perfect shape (well almost) and well within the normal BMI. In fact I had been shooting for the exact center of the normal range! But then I had an accident... carrying my elderly dog downstairs in the dark and I--you guessed it--slipped and fell. If I hadn't been carrying my dog I could have easily grabbed the rail, no problem. But I couldn't drop my poor dog about 10 feet just to save myself. It ended up we both went flying and I ended up doing a face plant into a pile of boxes. Ended up in the ER the next day with what turned out to be corneal damage but made a full recovery, and other miscellaneous aches, pains and sprains. Strangely, my dog came out fine. Must have had some cat in him!
I made a big mistake. I quit my regular exercising but continued my usual diet. But of course my diet was calibrated to maintain my weight based on my level of exercise. I gained perhaps 70 pounds. Through mostly dieting I have now lost about half of that but still have a lot to go. Of course I understand nutrition, I understood that no exercise means no chance of success (short of starvation) would get me back into good health and a reasonable BMI.
Lately I've been making feeble attempts to add exercise back into my lifestyle, and also cut out some empty calories by reducing my alcohol consumption. Upon finding and following this topic the last few weeks I have become inspired to resume my routine exercise habits, to a degree. What I mean is that just like an extinguishing behavior slowly recedes, reestablishing a behavior can be difficult and any expectation of instant success is unrealistic.
My healthcare insurance includes a free membership in a local gym and I have resumed working out, infrequently at first but as time passes becoming more frequent visits, and light workouts at first becoming more strenuous as I added reps, as I added routines, as I added machines. Today I attended my third workout session in a week, added a few more routines, and the strangest things are happening! I'm enjoying it! Okay I'll admit I particularly enjoyed their ab cruncher machine as I lollygagged at a feeble weight, mainly because I was facing the stair stepping machines (escalators to nowhere) which evidently is favored by women! And from my POV I had a very inspirational vantage as they worked out!
But this is the strangest part of my story and the reason why I chose to post in this topic today. I am literally bouncing off the walls! My mood has so amazingly improved that I'm finding myself chatting with strangers at the gym, with neighbors I haven't spoken to in months, I'm exploding with enthusiasm and good spirits! I have never in my life experienced such a positive mood change! Hell, the mood change and good spirits would be worth it alone even if not the weight loss and improved physical condition!
So I would like to add my own observation and contribution to this topic: Added to all the many benefits already explored at great length in this topic, I would like to note that making the lifestyle choices to embark on and maintain a healthy, properly sized diet along with a regular physical fitness program can not only lead to a huge improvement in your physical state, but evidently it can also lead to a huge improvement in your mental state!!! I'm just dumbfounded in how much improved my attitude and enjoyment of life has improved in the last few weeks!
BTW I just measured my weight, something I do only a very few times a month, and I'm now 40 pounds off my peak!!! I have planned another 30 pounds loss which will place me squarely within the exact center of the BMI normal range! And I've been to the gym only about 5-6 times since I resumed my workouts! My current workout schedule ideal plan is to visit the gym 3-4 times per week, about an hour per visit, a mile on the treadmill each visit, and explore other machines with my remaining time. My routine also includes some yoga-like floor exercises.
(ETA: BTW I just looked it up, and even now I'm just a dozen pounds above the maximum-normal BMI range!)
I am simply amazed at my uplifted spirits and increased energy! I never expected that big an improvement in mood!
Per se - thank you for the detailed post - it goes with my mind set right now!
Roscoe Conkling - THAT sounds great!! I gotta try this.
Right now i just made a salad of butter lettuce, grape tomatos, fresh strawberries, oregano, cucumber, cold shrimp, light dressing; and it is to die for!! so fresh and summery. Looks pretty and tasty too. shrimp and butter lettuce seem to go together perfectly
Chicago, I have been thinking along the same lines myself. I just love eating raw vegetables and after all what is a salad but a bowl of raw vegetables?
My thinking is that a vegetable salad alone would not satisfy my enjoyment I require in my food, particularly since cooking is one of my hobbies, but I've been thinking that the mere addition of some protein could be quite tasty! And I know from experience that a salad can be as filling as you like. Oh, and try getting fat eating lettuce! I double dog dare everybody to try to get fat eating lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms and the like!
I'm considering adding one or more of the following to salads as dinners:
1.) hard boiled egg
2.) cooked beef, chicken or particularly shrimp (I love shrimp!)
3.) fish, cooked, particularly if I have some left over like the overly large salmon I recently had.
4.) fish, raw! I'm fond of sushi and sashimi, and my neighborhood markets have both added sushi grade tuna, frozen in bite sized cubes. They sell it at the refrigerated display counter in a marinade (and thawed), but I confirmed that I can buy 1 pound bags, frozen if I arrive on the right day, at $10/bag! This is just perfect for 3 servings of sashimi or perhaps 4 toppings for salads. Best part, they're flash frozen. You can take out as much as you want to serve and leave the rest in the freezer!
5.) bacon, in moderation
6.) cheese
7.) or any combination of the above
I couldn't subsist on this menu every night but I think it would be very enjoyable perhaps once a week!
Chicago, I have been thinking along the same lines myself. I just love eating raw vegetables and after all what is a salad but a bowl of raw vegetables?
I couldn't subsist on this menu every night but I think it would be very enjoyable perhaps once a week!
Add fruit! you would not believe how the addition of fruit (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries) make the salad colorful and delicious!
Also, nuts, like pine nuts. Worth the price!
Also, sliced pickled beets.
Olives! black olives sliced! bacon.. cheese (shredded or cubes); croutons
Today for dinner, i made this salad and it was so fab - i posted it on Facebook and this other cooking FB page copied it to their page. LOLOL.. that was cool - ok here it is -
Butter lettuce, cold shrimp; strawberries, cherry tomatos, shredded cheese, organic cucumber (less seeds); oregano. light dressing. For some reason, all these flavors really come together.
The other fave salad i make is tuna salad. I like it with warm macaroni, warm boiled eggs, i mean you cook the macaroni an egg and slice it and put it on the cold salad. for some reason it tastes good. before my diet, i used to eat that tuna salad on Jays potato chips. For some reason, it had to be Jays' (the right texture, crunch and salt). now i just eat it on the dish. tuna salad is - tuna, mayo, black sliced olives, sweet pickle relish, boiled eggs, macaroni, parsley, salt, pepper.
So the moral of the story is - make salad colorful, mix veggies and fruit and a meat and fun stuff like almonds, walnuts, etc.
I could totally chop a warm hard boiled into my salad. That would harmonize perfectly with a warm bacon dressing and spinach salad. OMG, and another idea: blue cheese crumbles!
I'm not a canned tuna kind of guy. I keep canned tuna only in case of global thermonuclear war... I also don't have the macaroni gene. Particularly cheese 'n mac. Causes gag reflex. Honest, not my fault. I think it's congenial. Congenital. Whatever...
SRSLY, I get compliments on my salads every time I entertain guests. My "secret" is simple. I just start with romaine (or spinach) and then just keep adding stuff. I have no recipe. I just load up at the produce section (all the time) and then mine my produce drawer in the fridge when I toss my salad. (I should try adding cookies. Then I could toss my cookies.)
I'm in pre-prandial mode right now, munching raw asparagus, green onions, portobella (baby bell) mushrooms, and dried squid (from my Asian market), sipping wine (which calories I already pre-burned at the gym).
I think when I get down to a couple eggs I'll hard boil them and go with the shrimp, eggs, bacon and blue cheese crumbles soon.
I think we are getting off topic.
Let's let the dietitians back in! Seeya in cooking maybe...
A big bowl of crispy romaine lettuce,cherry tomatoes,parmesan cheese,grilled shrimp with balsamic and olive oil dressing.
I could eat the stuff every day and not get bored of it.
Just to add a thought that occurred to me yesterday... Men and women are different. Yeah, I know, duh?
But what I mean is that women have a far more difficult time changing BMR (metabolic weight) through exercise because due to different hormones (we women are testosterone challenged and estrogen doesn't build muscles) so women are less able to benefit from the effects of BMR changes due to increased muscle mass. That does not mean that women should not exercise—far from it—but that women just have to work harder at the entire concept of exercise + diet = good health and a good BMI.
Funny, one of my girlfriends does develop larger muscles with exercise. I don't know why that, but she looks good and not boyish at all. Sadly, she also tends to add on gluteus too. What the hey, at least she is comfortable when she's sitting on a hard chair!
That's true. We women get the short end of the stick sometimes, lol, especially as we age. It took a lot of effort to get to where I am now bc I'm older. But maybe that's why I'm gonna fight to keep the weight off, bc I put in the work. It's a shame folks think dieting with no exercise is a good thing. You can go but so far with caloric restriction before nasty effects like binge eating are triggered. If I go too low, the urge to binge rises. That is why I will never eat 1200 calories.
Working out has really helped with loose skin. For the most part, my skin has tightened to its pre obesity state except for my lower abs...maybe bc there were two babies in there ...also, I don't have saggy triceps aka bat wings. Now that's something I work very hard to maintain. Had I not exercised, when I lost the sixty pounds I would be leaner, yes, but squishier.
If anyone's interested in the results of my exercise check out my profile pic. I'm no fitness model, or a size 4, just a real woman who used to carry over sixty pounds last year.
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LOL im lucky that im even going grocery shopping once a week and buying enough stuff. When i lose more weight i'll probably have more energy to do more things. I do have a little store on the way home if i run out of stuff.
Through mostly dieting I have now lost about half of that but still have a lot to go. Of course I understand nutrition, I understood that no exercise means no chance of success (short of starvation) would get me back into good health and a reasonable BMI.
