Frank's Diary (aka The Last 50 is the Toughest)

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The Big Fat Life Podcast: FRANKIE SAYS RELAX... and LIGHTEN UP: A 160 POUND WEIGHT LOSS STORY

Hey all - the episode of Dan Rosado's podcast on which I was the guest dropped this morning... I believe the above should work as a link. If you're interested, there you go. I enjoyed doing it, and hope it will prove at least somewhat helpful to a few people. I think his podcast is great at highlighting the successes, and struggles, that people have with their various weight loss journeys.
 
Hey all - I spent and hour or so last evening playing around with a low cal chili recipe for the big game this weekend. My wife said that’s what she was interested in, and it sounded good to me too... so I think I cracked the code on something. Unfortunately I’m not comfortable sharing it / posting it on the blog until I’ve cooked it and tested it on myself. Would hate to make someone else the guinea pig!
My goal was to get it to come in at around 250-275 calories for a 1 1/2 cup serving... and to have it include ground turkey and beans.

I’ll certainly share the results on Monday ... but in advance of this, if anyone else has any such recipes they like I’d love to hear them as I wouldn’t mind seeing if there are aspects of those recipes I can steal from an integrate into my experiment. LOL

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!
Frank
 
I make chili a lot - but I don't really have a recipe - it starts with a little oil, in which I saute/soften onion and garlic and two or three chillis - I cut them up with my kitchen scissors, but put them in seeds and all. I also usually toss in some mixed herbs. Then chopped carrot, in decent bite-sized chunks, and both fresh tomato, depending on the size of the tomato cut into sixths or so, and possibly (because I don't always have it in the cupboard) a can of chopped tomatoes, plus a spoonful (or so) of tomato paste. Then the beans in question - most recently a mix of red kidney beans and black beans which happened to be on hand. These are all either from a can or soaked and pre-cooked to a good soft stage.
And bubble, bubble away until ready. :)
Oh, and often a slosh of red wine, if on hand, and salt - how could I forget the salt? and often enough just a squeeze of lemon. So many things are the better for a squeeze of lemon.
(I sometimes also add textured soy protein, which comes out like ground meat.)
 
aiminglow said:
I make chili a lot - but I don't really have a recipe - it starts with a little oil, in which I saute/soften onion and garlic and two or three chillis - I cut them up with my kitchen scissors, but put them in seeds and all. I also usually toss in some mixed herbs. Then chopped carrot, in decent bite-sized chunks, and both fresh tomato, depending on the size of the tomato cut into sixths or so, and possibly (because I don't always have it in the cupboard) a can of chopped tomatoes, plus a spoonful (or so) of tomato paste. Then the beans in question - most recently a mix of red kidney beans and black beans which happened to be on hand. These are all either from a can or soaked and pre-cooked to a good soft stage.
And bubble, bubble away until ready. :)
Oh, and often a slosh of red wine, if on hand, and salt - how could I forget the salt? and often enough just a squeeze of lemon. So many things are the better for a squeeze of lemon.
(I sometimes also add textured soy protein, which comes out like ground meat.)
Click to expand...

Sounds very similar to what I’m doing (although I’m skipping the oil) and since I’m trying to build a recipe I can share, I’m trying to do something I can measure and record... also for calorie counts and serving size. It’s been a couple years of doing this and now it’s getting to be old hat. LOL

FYI, I don’t do wine in my chili usually... but red wine vinegar and cocoa powder. Those are my normal “add ins”. :)

Also, never thought to do carrots! I personally am not a carrot fan, but the wife is... so I might consider it!! Thanks for the suggestion!!!
 
Your chili looks great, and the carrots seem to be a good idea. I've never had carrots in chili, but will try them next time.
 
I didn't use carrots.... Those are red and green bell peppers. I couldn't go with carrots (maybe next time). Went with a mix of Kidney and black beans too (full can of kidney bean and 1/2 can of black beans). I THINK I got this down to 275 calories for a 1 1/2 cup serving... which will be pretty great, but honestly until it's down and we see how many actual servings we have out of this, I can't confirm the calorie total. That's my hope. It could end up being 300 or slightly more, but even that... or a bit of an indulgent meal that's still super high in protein, is fine with me.
I'll report back later!
 
Ok so here's the final statistics (lol ... in keeping with the Super Bowl, there NEEDS to be statistics!)

The yield on the chili was between 9.5 and 10 cups.... which means six 1 1/2 cup servings. That will work out to 291 calories per serving.

Happy with that for dinner, but for lunch it's a bit big... so for our lunches this week (since we'll be eating it a few times as part of our menu planning) we plan on having one cup servings over a serving of riced cauliflower.... which will be 194 calories for lunch... which is perfect!

For those who don't love to cook, this is one of the nice things about learning as part of menu planning. Made chili for dinner today, and it will yield dinner for us tonight, as well as up to six lunches during the week. Chances are we won't want to eat it three times, but my guess is we'll each eat it twice at least. So that's a) good use of our time in cooking and b) a great use of money when it comes to food shopping!

Enjoy the game everyone!!!
 
Hey Frank, I listened to your podcast, the whole thing. It is long, but I found it well worth the time. A lot of good sense for living happily on a lifetime sustainable diet. Lots of good stories, I particularly liked the one about sharing desert with your wife when going out. And the part about not eating if it wasn't real good was impressive, not something I have ever been able to do. I am pretty sure I have never left a bite of desert uneaten.

Your story about what the happy food times were is good too, and for me you are right, I had no trouble eating a whole bag of Doritos, but as you say only the first few really felt "happy" but that never stopped me from finishing the bag.

Great stuff, thanks!

I guess I am in that lose 100 pounds fast category right now. However I have been giving lots of thought as to how I will transition to a lifetime diet I can stick to and your blog and podcast are a big help.

Did you enjoy the Superbowl? I did, but as an LSU grad nothing could compare to their season, a once in a lifetime thing.
 
Hey Rob - glad you found it helpful... Dan does a nice job with the podcast. From that, I've gotten requests to do some other ones... which I'm going to get scheduled as well. Whatever method I can use to help people works for me.

Superbowl wise, I didn't really have a dog in the race so ... it was fine, kind of a boring game for 3/4 of it. My brother in law is a lifelong Chiefs fan and was at the game, so me and the wife were both rooting for them for his sake... so I was happy they won.

Yeah I imagine that LSU season would have been special. You know, after 20+ years working in Division I college athletics? I'll let you in on a secret, top-level DI college football continues to be my least favorite and followed of all the sports. Can't tell you why... just has always been that way. I can appreciate the traditions, I know lots of people who have worked at / coached at some big schools for a long time so I am happy for them when they succeed? But in general, my reaction is always just.... "eh". LOL
 
So I posted an article on my blog today about how people shouldn't rely on the scale as their only source of positive reinforcement for their weight loss program. It's titled "Keeping the Scale in Balance" for those who want to check it out.

But the thing I wanted to highlight here is that I started it off with what I THINK is a pretty decent, scale-related joke. When I asked a friend about it though (granted, it was over the phone), I swear I could "hear" the eye roll. LOL.


A customer walks into an outdoor adventure store to find the owner setting up a realistic model of Mt Kilimanjaro. “The detail on that is amazing,” says the customer. “Is it to scale?” “No,” says the surprised owner. “It’s for display purposes only.”

My point? The word “scale” can’t untangle every problem all by itself.

No good? Too "dad joke-y?" Inquiring minds want to know!
 
Hey all - Hope everyone's doing well! Sorry I haven't been around much lately. Was at the end of my 3-month cluster/migraine cycle so that's an especially rough time for me... but new round of Botox is kicking in and starting to reclaim a few hours per day and get a bit more sleep, so I'll try to pop in now and again!
Frank
 
Aw thanks. It’s just my day to day. Lots of people have it a lot worse. I don’t waste my time with why me stuff I just try to maximize what I can do during the hours in the day I’m without pain you know?
Plus, you can get used to anything. Sad as that sounds.
 
I am so grateful that I don't suffer from migraines. You do have a very positive outlook, Frank & that is admirable.
 
Cate said:
I am so grateful that I don't suffer from migraines. You do have a very positive outlook, Frank & that is admirable.
Click to expand...

Thanks Cate... I really appreciate the sentiment. But as I said, my attitude is, my choice is to wallow in "why me?" or maximize the joy I can get out of the time I feel well... it's not much of a choice at all. In fact, my whole weight loss journey came out of this. It was something for me to focus on during that little time each day when I feel good. It gave me a focus. That was a starting point for me. At least to get me to take the first steps.

Plus, if you can't laugh about the fact that after migraines all day and all night I then get a cluster headache every night at EXACTLY 1:06 AM (not 1:05... not 1:07... 1:06... that's why they're called "alarm clock headaches" in addition to other not-so-nice nicknames). It's just ridiculous.

By the way, I prepared this initially to show a friend, who, after seeing a "before/after" photo of mine said she could "never do something like that". Made me think that maybe we do a disservice to people with all these before/after photos sometimes.

If you look at this... it seems a lot more doable, right? Just small steps along a path.


wtlossprogression022020.jpg
 
Thanks for sharing those pics, Frank. What you have done is fantastic. I'm sure that you will be able to inspire some of our newer members.
 
The pictures are great Frank, you are looking good. Very inspirational! Wish I had some good before pictures, but I very effectively avoided the camera for years.
 
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