bojibridge

Yes, Hope, it's me! I'm still around, although just in mind, not really in effort If I can stick with the walks, that's good, though.

Hey Lisa, I'm a Ph.D. student in astrophysics, halfway through my second year. I'll be done with classes at the end of this year, at which point I'll be able to concentrate almost wholly on research. So I've got some end of semester projects coming up. The proposal is for a high-energy astrophysics class I'm taking, and we have to write a proposal to use a real satellite telescope (Chandra X-ray Observatory, if you're interested!) to do some kind of science. The other project involves original research I've been doing on star-forming galaxies. I have to have a report done by the end of semester, and hopefully next semester I can actually get it published in an astronomy journal.

Still struggling with water. I'm going to fill my water bottle right now! To be fair, I did better yesterday - maybe 40 oz.

twinkle2414

Hey Everyone,

I am brand-new on here, but found this forum and wanted to be a part of it. I have struggled with my weight for basically my entire adult life. I had been doing really well on Atkins, when an illness got me offtrack over the summer. I just pretty much threw caution to the wind after that and have been eating anything and everything I want, as much as I want, like I am naturally thin or something! Ha! Anyway, I have got to get this under control, and once and for all I have to find something I can stick with. I have a tendency to go to extremes on weightloss (and pretty much every other area of my life) b/c I want instant gratification. Well, I need to get over it, or I will be yo-yoing for the rest of my life. So...

My goals are:
-Eat 1800 or fewer calories per day (may sound like a lot, but it's a heck of a lot less than I have been eating)
-Walk on my treadmill 4-5 times per week
-Drink more water
-Take the stairs at work instead of the elevator (I work on the 4th floor)
-Take the stairs a few times a day even when there is no reason to just to get away from my desk (I sit in front of a computer 8 hours a day)
-Try not to obsess!

Anyway, I am sorry for such a wordy post. I hope to find some support and motivation here! I need it!

canary52

Thank you so much, Ama. I try not to gripe but it's so good to be heard. And to have another outlet for that tho I promise I won't abuse it by complaining too much. We all have our challenges. And DH is great: I am so blessed in so many ways. Forgive me if I sometimes forget that!

canary52

Twinkle, I love your energy and your humor. You seem like you are gonna fit right in here!!!

And I have a trouble with extremes too in diet but you sound very sensible in trying for a balanced approach. I'm trying for that too!!! Maybe we can all help each other out.

Welcome, welcome.

canary52

My comments are in red.

jjrudd

UGH only accomplished 2 goals today...raking leaves which was 20 mins of exercise. I did have water but not nearly enough.

Going to Christmas bazaar tomorrow. Going to buy chili sauce for my Mom and try to find some books for my niece for Christmas. My weakness is almond bark--guess I will just bypass the candy table!

Jenn

twinkle2414

Thank you for the great welcome, Canary!! I really hope that I can not only get help, but hopefully be able to help someone else along the way!!

twinkle2414

I am so sorry! I was so excited to reply to you that I didn't read down far enough to see that your name is Hope! My name is Brandy, by the way.

cjohnson728

Oh, my, feels good to have Friday!

Twinkle, welcome! Your post was not long at all; we have some chatty people here and we love to share. I'm glad you found our group.

Ama & Hope, my clean foodie friends . I would love to get some ideas from you also...maybe we could start a thread in the foods section. Seems to me maybe I did that several months ago? Will have to look.


Basically, I've just done bread, rolls, anything breakfasty like waffles, pancakes, muffins, English muffins, any baked goods, pizza crust, salsa, very recently 15 pints of applesauce, all my soups; I tend to cook meats and slice or chunk for lunches rather than buy lunchmeat (especially now with the freezer I can do that more often); pasta sauce (well, my hubby's mom's Italian, so I have to ), I've done pasta and noodles before but, like bread, can't figure out how to get the homemade as high in fiber, so still experimenting (and I have a pasta attachment for my mixer on my Christmas list). When we have them, mashed potatoes and gravy are always homemade, and I've done crackers and graham crackers (those were, um, challenging) and tortillas (time consuming); dried fruits. I have not tried cheese or yogurt but would like to (and frozen yogurt!!). Really, it's just the basic things. I'm still getting used to working it into a rhythm with my work schedule.

The processed stuff I do buy tends to be very simple...I buy potato chips (3 ingredients; potatoes, sunflower oil, salt) and my go-to snack is usually Triscuit Thin Crisps...again, 3 ingredients. Cheerios, Shredded Wheat (BHT added to packaging, so you know it's getting into the food ). It's a shame Nabisco butchered the Wheat Thins. I also have a ton of recipes for granola and granola bars and the guys are big now on "breakfast cookies" and biscuits. I just found a recipe for homemade Pop Tarts and I already do pie crust, so that should be easy. Not the healthiest, but I do have a teenage boy in the house and I can't be too militant or he'll revolt (and by revolt, I mean, go to the store and buy himself crap)! I am hoping to get into canning next summer so that will be interesting.

Yes, the label contents really jerk my chain...BHT, no thank you, and it's in everything. Also I've been watching for BPA (the plastic additive...it is in the lids to Mason jars, which makes me angry, but I found BPA-free replacement lids). I am just starting to research GMOs and I'm not liking what I see there, either. Do I think I can cut out all of this stuff from my life? No. Do I think I'll die if I ingest it? No. But if all other things are equal, I'll make another choice. Most canola oil is GMO. Safflower isn't. Easy switch. Things like that. I am learning and it's a work in progress. I wish I had known a lot of these things years ago, but am just trying to make the best decisions I can.

I wish Judipurple would come chime in...she is the one who truly does everything from scratch; she would have some awesome thoughts!

On the bread, I had the same experience. I tried using vital wheat gluten, a dough conditioner, but really the only thing that does the trick is to use some regular flour along with the wheat. I usually end up with about a third of white flour, two thirds wheat. I get the fresh ground wheat from Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck) and it makes a beautiful loaf. Sometimes I throw in wheat bran, oat bran, or oats, too, depending.

...and now I've hijacked the thread. Sorry folks . It's my current soapbox. But things tend to be quiet on the weekends so maybe we can get a good discussion going!

Did another test drive today and did cut off all my hair. I'm taking the night off and will probably just hang out with the family and peruse some used cars on the internet for the other person in the house that's busting a gut for one! Ugh! Maybe I can convince a dealer to do a buy one get one free!

HOPE! I keep forgetting to ask how DD likes college???

Okay, I'm done posting now. See, Twinkle, your post wasn't long at all!

amalthea1892

Cassie - I like it when you hijack the thread! You have such great information to share! I forgot that I make several breakfast foods from scratch also – pancakes, waffles, pie crust, etc. I did not think about granola bars and pop tarts. Now I am definitely going to try those! I have thought about making kefir and cheese also but have not gotten that far yet. And I think Judi makes yogurt – Where is Judi???

Thanks for bringing up that mason jar lids have BPA in them! I never would have thought of that! Nice to know there are replacement lids out there. I am not into canning yet, but once we get our garden up and running in this new place I am definitely going to go crazy with canning. I need to figure out how to not end up with 100 lbs of green tomatoes again, what a wasted effort this year. But I just planted garlic and started an asparagus bed last month and that is all doing great. We have about 6 blueberry plants that are recovering from transplant shock (couldn’t leave those behind)! I hope to have a lot more food to store by the end of next summer, especially if I get the tomato thing figured out.

I’ll definitely switch up the bread flour and see if I can get a better mix between the white and wheat. I think I had trouble for a while because I was not kneading it enough. When it says 8-10 minutes I was not following through! We have a local flour mill with a store front where I buy yeast, soup mixes, spices, corn meal etc… they have a lot of different kinds of flours – I’ll need to try some new ones out.

I get so disgusted at the crap that goes in food also. DH and I have been doing alot of label reading lately and the processed food selection is in pretty bad shape. Organic foods are doing better, such as using Vit E for preservatives instead of BHT, and beet juice instead of Red #40. I haven’t even started looking into the GMO issue yet – aye… We had a ballot measure in California about labeling GMO food, but it was so full of loopholes and special interest groups I am pretty sure it got shot down. I’ll put GMO foods on my list of things to research!

Good job with the hair cut, so tough to make that choice - I hope you’re having fun test driving cars!

Ama