Making and Avoiding Delicious Homemade Bread

Back in late 2008 it occurred to me that I had never made bread in my life. Here I was in my mid 30s and I'd never made the most basic dietary staple of post nomadic civilization. Say what you want about carbs and breads...but bread and grains made civilization possible. And I do enjoy me some civilization, from space travel to Pokemon cards.

I had always heard bread was very hard to make. So I buckled down and actually Read a Reipe all the way through rather than just looking at the list of ingredients. That's very hard for an ADD person like me. You have to realize. Very hard. But I did it. And shortly after, I had bread.

I thought "Damn. That wasn't so hard." And I've been making bread ever since. For just about four years. Below is some bread I made today. And now that I look at the picture you can see other evidence of my Semi-Crazed Survivalist ways (canning jars and starter pots for my heirloom seeds. Don't look at meeee! I'm a freak). My deep dark secret: I am, in fact, preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse. I'm also stocking up on old yodeling records in case we see an alien invasion like in Mars Attacks and only yodeling can defeat the invaders.



I still make bread just about every week. But I've cut down on my carbs. It's kind of a pity. I love ripping off a chunk of bread, smearing it with butter or honey or both and eating it. Now I make the bread and the house smells like fresh baked bread and I have to observe extreme restraing and moderation.

Mostly I still make bread out of habit, and beause my family loves it. But I sure do miss it. I still have a little bit now and then. Oddly, it helps aleviate the cravings to watch my children eat the bread. I admit I do get some satisfaction from making food that my children eat and enjoy.

In other news, I expect to meet my February goal of 220 some time next week. And I just noticed my reasting heartbeat is down in the 60 beats per minute range now, rather than my usual high 70s low 80s Beats Per Minute. That's probably a Really Good Thing.

This Month, I Lose 10 Pounds. Here I Go

I'm feeling jaunty today. I'm feeling ambitious. I'm going for losing 10 pounds this month. I'm gonna do it! Gonna get below 225 by the end of January. I've got 28 days.

That's a calorie deficit of 1250 calories per day, 3500 calories per pound times 10 to equal 35,000 calories, divided by 28. Oof. That's a spicy meatball. NO! Wait! No spicy meatballs. Well..if they're low carb then it's probably okay. Anyhoo...

Let's see here...gonna do some calculating...that's.....hold on here...that's...

At 225 pounds I'd be going through 2700 calories per day (225 pounds per 12 calories burned per pound per day for normal body functions).

So...so if I eat 2000 calories of food per day that's 700 calories of my calorie deficit right there.

I still need to make up 550 calories per day lost. That's gonna require some....**gulp**...exercise. No two ways around it. Time to pull up the list of calories burned Per Activity chart from the Mayo Clinic. Just about any of these will do it. Maybe not Tai Chi...I'll have to reserve that one for another time. And dish washing...I'd have to do FOUR HOURS or dish washing to make 550 calories according to some other chart. While we do hand wash, I can't say I'm up for a daily 4 hour dish washing sprint.

Hiking. That looks about right for me. Though it's snowing quite a bit, and cold. But it's for the smaller good, right?

Oh hey! Here's a cool article on the Mayo Clinic site: Negative Calorie Foods: Diet Gimick or Weight Loss Aid?

Conclusion...incloclusive. BOOO MAYO CLINIC. BOOOOOOOOO....

Oh the Wisdom of Yoda: "Do or Do Not, There Is No Try"

This morning I'm feeling weary of counting calories. WEARY.

As I put some of my homemade bread into the toaster, I dreaded for some reason going to my computer to tabulate the caloies........what?

Why YES, I DID day "homemade bread"! Why do you ask?

Oh it's very delicious. What the recipe, you ask?

Well, perhaps if you guys are REALLY GOOD, some day I MAY share with you my GLORIOUS bread recipe.

But where was I? Something about calories?

Oh yeah, I'm getting weary of counting calories. I think what's going on is I want to eat without contemplation. I just want to enjoy the food without reducing it to contemplation of energy in and energy out.

This could very easily be where I slack off. Where I say "Oh geeze, one day won't hurt." And one day turns to two. And two turns to a week...all the while I feel like I'll get back into it. Get back to keeping track until the idea is far in the distance.

I could think about how I'm tired of being fat, and there are two swirling blue portals in front of me. I can pick to enter the portal where I continue on as I have, or I can pick to enter the portal where I could actually lose weight and be done with it.

The second one is really what I want. I'm SICK of TRYING to lose weight. I'm sick of feeling heavy and tired. I don't want to TRY.

It's times like these I seek the advice of Master Yoda Do or Do Not.

There is no try. I know what I need to do. I know that if I keep counting calories, get myself acquainted with healthy portions, and keep going, I will succeed. I need to do it, or not.