Castanet

Queen K wrote:I was raised on both, processed and home scratch. I learned early that a working parent is a tired parent who can not do everything all the time.

Having said that, my tolerance for processed has decreased over the years and we cook a lot from scratch. The other day we opened a can of Campbells Mushroom Soup, a mainstay when I was growing up. It was delicious. Now? I can taste their chemistry so badly that the metallic taste stays in my mouth forever. Feels like forever anyway.

Soup from scratch is something we do all the time, but when the blahs hit and you just want to open something? What is left when your childhood soups taste like metals?

A cost saving trick that I've found works wonders is to keep most food scraps in a ziplock and throw it in the freezer.

Stalks from herbs, peelings from carrots, the cut off ends and any uncooked veggies, and (separately) even cooked meat bones. Dump it all in a pot once a week and make a beautiful stock using stuff that you likely would have tossed otherwise.

Another wonderful way to save money is to buy larger pieces of meat and portion them yourself. As an excellent example, most people can afford to buy a whole chicken. Ignoring the fact that it's impossible to roast a whole chicken where each component is cooked optimally, cutting it down yourself leaves you with two chicken breasts (preferably bone still attached), two legs, two thighs, and two wings. Not to mention the rest of the bird for stock. A $10 chicken can go a long way.

Cheap cuts of meat are amazing, though they can take time to make tender. You can get a pack of four large organic chicken thighs for like, $5-$6 and if you braise it in a little liquid, you get an amazing, nutritious stock as well as fork tender thighs in a couple hours.

Food science has advanced our knowledge of various cooking devices, and if we invest in a decent pressure cooker, you can create these braised dishes (plus many other extremely delicious, more progressive dishes) in literally a fraction of the time.

Pressure cooker + cheap, tough cuts of meat = save money.

Fancy wrote:and salt - lots of salt and metal. I still eat the stuff once in a while but doesn't taste near as good like you said.

Salt is interesting, because I argue that you *must* add some salt to most scratch-dishes. The salt helps activate your tastebuds and contributes in elevating the flavour of food to another level. That said, adding a bit of Mediterranean sea salt to a dish is much different than all the sodium compounds added to processed foods.

One of the most common memories as a kid on the farm was how much canning my Mom would do. Mom would make huge batches of soup at a time (along with other items), we would some of that soup right away but most went into jars for later.

We had reasonable size cold room filled from floor to ceiling with shelves full of jars filled with everything from fruit to soup to homemade smoked salmon in jars to your choice of jams.

Looking back I wished I had learned more of my Moms skills.

Pink Hawaiian salt too. Atlantic grey. Salt has come alive for us since back in the day. I've discovered coarse salt with herbs, garlic and hot pepper flakes too.

Queen K wrote:Pink Hawaiian salt too. Atlantic grey. Salt has come alive for us since back in the day. I've discovered coarse salt with herbs, garlic and hot pepper flakes too.

The thing is pretty well every type of salt we may have on our tables, has a sodium content of between 35 to 39 percent. Other is combination of chloride with other trace minerals (hence some of the different colours).

GordonH wrote:The thing is pretty well every type of salt we may have on our tables, has a sodium content of between 35 to 39 percent. Other is combination of chloride with other trace minerals (hence some of the different colours).

Salt is fun because though table salt is literally devoid of any good minerals, salt that is procured using better procedures do actually have minerals and some nutritional value. It's still salt, so having too much of it will have negative impacts, but as with most things, most people can use with restraint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv3vEXy_EwU
^ Fat Sick and Nearly Dead video.

Wow - what an easy way for the 40% of Canadian fatsos to lose weight - just drink juice. Unfortunately
that's not a good idea. Why throw part of the food away, just to drink the liquid?

The first thing you need to do is think of an exercise you can do. I'm jogging around the track
at the field (at the schools) three times. That's what I've decided to do until it warms up and I can ride my bike
about seven miles a day. Right now I can't do one complete lap without stopping to rest.

After you got your exercise figured out - the food.

..... to be continued

Thinktank wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv3vEXy_EwU
^ Fat Sick and Nearly Dead video.

Wow - what an easy way for the 40% of Canadian fatsos to lose weight - just drink juice. Unfortunately
that's not a good idea. Why throw part of the food away, just to drink the liquid?

The first thing you need to do is think of an exercise you can do. I'm jogging around the track
at the field (at the schools) three times. That's what I've decided to do until it warms up and I can ride my bike
about seven miles a day. Right now I can't do one complete lap without stopping to rest.

After you got your exercise figured out - the food.

..... to be continued

I have a friend who swears by this juicing "diet". Yet, they are not losing any weight. I asked them what they are juicing... carrots, beets, apples, oranges etc... That's an awful lot of sugar! Also, if one were to try to eat all of those things without juicing them, they would have the benefit of the fibre they contain and it it's doubtful that they could even eat all of that in one sitting. How full are you really going to feel 45 minutes after a glass of juice compared to eating the fruit and vegetables themselves? Drinking your calories just doesn't seem like a great idea.

Thinktank wrote:After you got your exercise figured out - the food.

Well to be fair, you should probably concentrate on food first (or both) if you want to lose weight. "They" do say you can't out exercise a bad diet.

While exercise is super important in weight loss and overall health, it can take hours of exercise to burn off a food item that takes seconds to eat.

Maybe it's best to stop looking for the 'easy way'. Let's finally acknowledge that everything in life requires work, determination, and discipline.

When a person's metabolism changes and the body has its 'set point', caloric intake has to be even less than what is considered normal for weight loss, and that's hard to do; it's downright unpleasant.

It.
Is.
Not.
Easy.

Maybe society as a whole would be better in many areas if people stopped looking for the 'easy way'.

I second Low Carb, High Fat. After many diet and exercise failures, it's the ONLY way I've been able to get rid of 40 lbs of stress eating, sugar addicted excess weight . No more cravings and no problem eating this way for life. I don't like all the cooking from scratch, but feeling like a healthy person again is worth it. The burger in the photo looks delicious ... but I'd remove the bun and fries from my plate before eating it.

Spent a week on the scale . Wednesday is ordered a late pizza ate wings and drank beer . Gained 20 pounds. Last night I skipped supper and drank a case . Lost it all back . Basically. Eating anything I gain 5 times the weight of whatever I eat .

So I decided to weigh myself

212

That's four lbs heavier than I've ever been before.

So starting now I get serious. No more fooling around.

Well unless you are only 5 ft tall that's not bad.
You only outweigh me by about 5 lbs

So I got serious yesterday.

boiled egg, two glasses of spring water with lemon juice for breakfast. Soup for supper. How
can someone not lose weight doing that?

About an hour of exercise yesterday, but never overexerted myself.

"The easy way"
I don't want to punish myself, like in a gym. I'd rather do a leisurely one hour bike ride
when it warms up, than spend an hour in a gym punishing myself.

But I'm thinking an hour a day of medium duty exercise is the only way to accomplish anything.