That's a huge question... And to be honest, this is the "eating like a king" thread, not the "getting ripped" thread. We have one of those somewhere... EDIT: Here it is: https://www.miataturbo.net/insert-bs...at-folds-72197 Started out as a nutrition thread, but now it's all about liftin', squattin', and gettin' rippd.


If you wanna talk nutrients / carbs vs. fats vs. protein / etc., check out this thread and pick a fight with JasonC. He'll argue with anyone about anything pertaining to gluten / microbiome / nutrition / etc: https://www.miataturbo.net/insert-bs...-thread-75333/

Personally, fuck lean meats. When I stick a pork roast into the slow cooker, I wanna see that fat layer on the top. And lean beef? Dry, bland, boring. Duck is where it's at. All the fatty goodness.


But it also reminds me of a post from Y8s that I came across while browsing backwards through this thread last night:
18 months ago, I was a tad over 220 lbs and much above 20% BF. Even at 6'2", that put me right on the hairy edge between "overweight" and "obese." Before I adopted the advice above, I had a hell of a time getting below 200. This morning I broke through 170 (downwards):

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...147c229b67.png

Not a gym rat, don't lift, not looking to get ripped. So yeah, Lexzar and I have totally opposite goals. Just got tired of being the proverbial 40 year old fat guy (I used to have a co-worker 15 years ago who literally referred to himself by this exact moniker), and really happy to finally be right in the middle of the "healthy" BMI range. 50 lbs in 18 months, all courtesy of just learning how to cook and eating like a king.



EDIT: God damn. Looking at that photo really drives home the point the doc made about the nerve damage on my left side. You can really see a huge difference in the muscle-tone between my two feet. And I have to admit that while I haven't been falling over while walking, I have noticed that my clutch-etiquette is starting to get a tad sloppy. I gotta get my fucking spine fixed before I turn into a cripple...

I can't believe you weight less than me now, Joe!

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b3202f9f65.png


last night was barbere chicken on the grill, cilantro rice, and roasted zucchini.

Also taller, and more Hispanic, too. :giggle:

I'll admit that merely holding the phone pushed me over 170, and so I had to set it down on the countertop, get on the scale, let the reading settle, and then pick it back up again. That'll change.

Still waiting for someone to accuse me of orthorexia... I need to go out and buy some new shirts, as Spring seems to have finally arrived, and the old Hawaiian collection is hanging a bit too loosely.


That dish looks pretty good, though. I need to figure something out for this weekend... Got a hankering to try something new, but the culinary muse is silent for me right now. I feel as though I'm doing MT a disservice when I'm not posting food-porn. I just hate to put of photos of repeats of past dishes which, while yummy, have been done before.


One thing is certain, I need to hit up Coalfire Pizza at some point before I depart Chicago.

I got down to 165lb about this time last year, right before my italy trip. then i gained a lot in muscle mass and have been sitting pretty at 180lbs. I quit the gym in Feb and now im hovering at 175lbs, but im pretty sure im replacing muscle for fat :(

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a8afceddd7.png

I'm just looking forward to being back in a position where I can actually own an outdoor grill. You suburbanites make me jelly in this regard.

I've also been thinking about buying / building a house, assuming I get properly settled into the new job and everything works out ok. 17 years ago, when I build my first house in Cincinnati, the garage was literally the focal point of the whole design. It was a stock design in a cookie-cutter developed community, but I still made the builder modify both the foundation plan and the roof plan in order to add several feet to the garage in both axis. To this day, if you visit the Village on the Green neighborhood in Maineville, OH, you'll find that the house at 4590 Wild Turkey Walk has the biggest garage in the neighborhood by a fair margin.

This time around, I find that thought given to the design of the kitchen has caught up to thought given to the design of the garage.

yeah but im not sure this is worth it:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ccf2c64bc3.png
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a11777601b.png
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6480f7a63e.png

notice the direction of shadows in this before:after...
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c145a9c1e0.png

You are going to struggle to remain lean while gaining weight. Your body will resist gaining if you restrict anything. The best you can do is get your nutrients through food rather than supplements wherever possible.

You want a simple guide to eating better food?

It's highly unscientific, but that's OK. The spirit is in the right place.

Otherwise, I'd just eat the least processed, vibrantly colored food you can find.

And here's the thing you noticed: it aint cheap. Processed food is cheap because you've already paid for it in farm subsidies. 500 calories of high fructose corn syrup costs a few pennies. 500 calories of blueberries is like ten bucks.

Honestly you can still eat your fast food and sodas, but limit sodas to one (20 oz, not gallon) a week to start. And make it a game. If you want a soda one week, you have to eat a whole serving of dark, leafy greens the same day. Tell your girlfriend to sautee some spinach or chard with a few strips of bacon cut up into little pieces. It's delicious and nutritious. Eat salads. Salad dressing is fine. Nothing (and I mean nothing ever) low-fat. It's like wasting flavor and it's not that good for you anyway.

Cooking at home is also the best way to get your shit together. You'll have to buy the food and you'll see what is in it. It's cheaper that way too. You can start with a spreadsheet to plan your dinners. Be realistic to start. Maybe plan tuesday and thursday dinners only. Like this:

Main: whole roasted chicken (spatchcocked--because it's fun to say)
Side: wild rice with sauteed shallots and thyme
veg: steamed kale with salt, pepper, and lemon juice
salad: spring mix, grape tomatoes, and balsamic vinaigrette

none of that is hard to make. You can do all of it at once in like 30-45 minutes total--most of which is waiting (for rice or chicken).

pro tip: sweet talk your gf into doing the heavy lifting and teach you. you can pony up for the protein heavy foods and she'll pony up the sexy time because you're having fun and doing something she likes. sexy time raises testosterone and improves GAINZ.

i could live off brussel sprouts.

I (heart) Julia Child. That lady did not fuck around:







Lunch at work today. Just an ordinary spinach saag with lamb gosht.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...41faa9f2b6.png

Yes, I have been using the old kitchen set in WGN-TV Studio 3 to make lunch, since we moved the news production to the shiny new Studio 2. It's old, it's ugly, it's a tad grungy. But it works, and there are no union contracts which preclude me from using it. (And I've made friends with a few of the hot, young newsroom producers in the process. :D )






I dunno, man. I used to find mowing the lawn to be kind of a zen thing. Had a corded electric B&D mower back then. I'm sure that with current-gen LiIon battery tech (and the benefit of NPR / PRI / APM / MPR podcasts) it can only be better today.

Not worried about gaining bodyfat, expecting a 1:1 of muscle:fat for now, in an ideal world.

I am trying to just limit my fast food to once a week. Mostly have other sources of calories from meats, cheeses, pasta seem to be a large staple.
A little trick I've been using is just to use the HUGE 44oz sods cups and fill it with water instead. Kind of tricks my mind to drink more water = not so dehydrated and don't crave soda.

I did a ketogentic diet to go loose weight (eating ~2400cal) from 195 to 177. That was fun once I got used to it. Hard to get 3300cal without carbs. But it made me realize the importance of having fats, so I have "fatty" everything. Dark meats and beef. Mm.

Fun fact: if it wasn't for my lady friend, I wouldn't have ever started eating salads. We do salads probably every time we cook at home. Totally going to show her that meal choice, sounds great. She gets EXCITED about cooking foods.

Thank you for the tips. Just the tip.

Back to the program, SORRY for derail. We are cooking this weekend, if it is up to par, I'll share lol

oh no potato!

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...fda337c8d9.png

@y8s, I wanna say thanks for taunting me into making roux. Doing the Gruyere and Pancetta mornay again tonight. Threw in a little coarse black pepper and a dash of nutmeg this time around.

Just went into the oven.

I hate posting repeats, but this one is gooooooood.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...34504ddbcb.png


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...edcafe7451.png




EDIT: Aaaaaaw, hell yeah. That smell has permeated the whole apartment. I'm watching Julia Child's The French Chef on Youtube right now, and she's doing The Good Loaf episode. What's entering my nostrils is a perfect match for what's on the screen.



EDIT II: I have no idea what this countertop material is. Quartz, maybe? Regardless, if and when I build my next kitchen, I want it. It's hard, scratch-resistant, and I don't even think twice about setting a 450° pan onto it straight outta the oven. Never had a kitchen with this sort of countertop material before, and I will never* not have it again.

Bon Appétit!

Wanna know what's tedious as hell? Prepping fresh kale.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ae1689d680.png

Wanna know what makes it better? Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Green Day, Nirvana, Tool, Oasis, Pearl Jam, and ALICE IN CHAINS blasting out while you do it!

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c76ff0c936.png

Idea for a show pitch: "Heavy Metal, Hautè Cuisine!" Julia Child meets the Grunge generation. I'll even grow a beard and go down for skin-whitening treatments and hair-straightening, to appear Caucasian.

I hope you were wearing an oversized, unbuttoned flannel shirt over a muted t-shirt while prepping your dish.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0767b38033.png




Just gonna, like, leave this here, man.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...151c96acaf.png

That sausage and onion mix really tied the dish together.


(Also, do be careful if headbanging while knifing, particularly if you've already got a couple of glasses of whiskey in you.)

Forgot to add to the above: Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen.

God damn, that stuff is aural sex. Great cooking music. (You absolutely must have a large, good-quality subwoofer in order for this to work. If the pans aren't shaking, you're not doing it right.)

I made a roux last night for making a gravy to go in my shepherd's pie.

Joe: as long as your fat:flour ratio is close to 1:1, you can use pretty much any fat you want. Bacon drippings, beef fat, ghee, olive oil, whatever and it should cook up eventually.

Then you can dump in whatever liquid you're trying to thicken and cook that for a couple more minutes and bada bing bada boom.

e.g. my gravy was:
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
1 cup chicken stock
salt and white pepper
1 tsp liquid hickory smoke

...

you should seriously consider reading some Escoffier or that McGee book for some really interesting shit.

cooking is chemistry.

Just had lunch at Kuma's.

No pictures.

Had the Minotaur.

Amazing.

in (7) days I'll be eating french laundry for dinner.

here was my menu last year:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...78007e74ee.png https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6e25c2d496.png