Chicago: customers are advised to allow extra travel time

Not drinking alcohol is another surefire way to lose poundage.

Yes, not to mention the saddest one.

I've tried not drinking alcohol for periods of time, but it's hard to be social without it. By which I mean, I feel weird at bars drinking soda, not that I haven't done it. I know this is just an excuse though.

I don't drink soda. I have coffee in the a.m. & then it's usually just water all day. sometimes booze at night, but rarely. not even once a week on average lately. :(
i also avoid artificial foods pretty successfully. i guess i'd say that i eat relatively healthy most of the time but i do love pizza. so there's that. sometimes i allow cheese to have a higher priority than it ought to.

I hear you. I friggin love cheese.
Which reminds me, I should ask Nick to make homemade pizza tonight. MIAM!

And Kelsey, I generally picture you being a very healthy eater - and picture correctly it appears, so maybe you just need more exercise then?

I bought some Athenos hummus the other day because Harvestime didn't have the brand I usually like (Sabra), and I got home and realized that there's mufuckin' high fructose corn syrup in it. F that.

I also do the calorie estimation thing, kind of reflexively. But basically what it comes down to is that if I'm exercising, then I eat healthier anyway (even though it doesn't matter what I eat as much), and if I'm not exercising then I start eating tons of food every day.

I think I'm making quiche tonight although my quiche is without cream or much cheese. I haven't decided about a crust yet. my butter crust is amazing, but it's also made with butter.

sarah: i definitely need more exercise. i'm going to start training for a triathlon soon though. maybe i'll wake up early tomorrow & go running even though i loathe running.

isn't that crazy about exercise? it's like doing it regularly helps you eat less which is so counterintuitive.

I love me some high fructose corn syrup. Bring it to me by the barrel.

Why not grains or beans, Kenan?

the idea, which is debatable, is that humans were hunter/gatherers in the ancestral environment, and have evolved to best deal with foods that can be hunted and gathered. So nothing that requires agriculture or animal husbandry is allowed.

I'm just going to give it a shot because cutting out all grain and dairy will FORCE me to abandon processed foods and eat a bunch more fruit and fresh free-range meat and stuff.

It really is. You'd think that burning calories would = being hungry for more calories to make it up.

I guess part of what's weird is that I have no idea how many calories are in anything. Like I know that 2000 is supposed to be the maximum for an adult male, but how much is a single banana? 50? 200? No idea. ("How much could a frozen banana cost? Twenty dollars?")

Just a question:
How much is a person supposed to exercise before it takes over his/her life? If you're biking to work and doing kickboxing, maybe this is just the size your particular body wants to be?

I dunno. Body engineering freaks me out. If I'm doing what I need to do and things stay the same, I assume that's the way they're supposed to be.

Fresh Fruit: Banana, Common, raw, peeled: 172 calories

Deluxe Ice Cream: Banana 1,998 calories/1 litre

Totally, Amanda. My problem is that unless I specifically go running or to the gym, my normal daily exercise = 0.

And wait... Do you really need to lose weight, Kenan?

A bit. Not a huge amount or anything, but yeah. I need to be healthier no matter what. That's the main thing, not that I'm a big fattey, but that I don't eat well enough to properly control my blood sugar and such.

Also, when I exercise, I'm on a virtuous kick and am more likely to eat healthy afterwards. It just doesn't seem fun to have some guilty pleasure food after knowing how hard I worked at the gym or what-have-you.

John, I'm with you on that. I have no clue about that stuff. I did do some calorie counting a couple years ago. I was trying to stay at the recommended 1500 calories a day to lose weight. Counting them made me LOCO IN EL COCO. I was coming in around 1200 a day instead because of my constant fear of going over the 1500. This is why obsessive types like me should never, ever do that.

I need to be healthier no matter what.
Good answer!

I've actually put biking on hold b/c of wrist problems but today I got a brace for it. I think it will help when I start up again (hopefully tomorrow). Aaaaannnnd I'm not kickboxing, only wii boxing. I DO get sweaty doing it but does that really count?

Kelsey, imagining you kicking ass wii boxing is hilarious! :)

Now I'm just concentrating my obsessive number crunching on beating my debt.

Jesus H, yes it counts!

I totally agree that there is a line where exercise takes over someone's life, I guess I just feel like it isn't well steeped in mine. I go through phases. Last year when I was training for the triathlon, I was exercising 6 days a week & that actually felt quite good. I don't think that 6 days is realistic for my entire life, but I think that on days where I don't do anything specific, I should at least be walking or something.

haha! Dan! I think you would laugh so hard if you saw me doing it! I was unintentionally cracking leaf up last night b/c i get SO SERIOUS about kicking ass. I was, for many many matches doing a "Knock Out" in the first round. This meant that I didn't know there could be a round two so as my skill level increased & my competition got harder, I was working harder & swearing a lot & then walking around cheering after I defeat them. Sometimes I would grab my imaginary balls & yell "take that bitches!" I mean, I get really into this.

I have this fiercely competitive side that emerges sometimes. It came out during the triathlon last year and now, wii.

I told leaf we need to get another controllery thing so that we can box each other.

You can't even box each other?! That is the whole point.

Once you a get a second controller, you will never have to pay for couples' therapy.

we can play each other in every other game but you need the nunchuck (sp?) to box.

we only have one.

Sorry! I didn't mean to turn this thread into an episode of "My Wii Life" or anything.

Oh ok. I don't have one, I've just played it at a couple friend's houses.

we decided it would be a good wedding gift. i had only played it once before & now i am hooked!

right hooked, that is.

get it? it's because i have a mean right hook.

Ali is homeless now. I finally got in touch with my mom and she's in Missouri sans Ali. :-(

I think I missed some of that - did your mom misplace her cat in Chicago somehow?

No, my mom is moving from Memphis to Omaha. One of her kitties went missing last night, and she was supposed to leave yesterday, but promised my sister she'd stay another night in case Ali turned up. She never did. So now my mom is driving the other kitty and herself to her new home.

that's awful! Poor kitty!

She gave the neighbors a bunch of cat food, which they agreed to keep putting out in case she turns up. But even if she turns up, I don't know how my mom would get her to omaha.

:( :( :(

that's so sad!

I know. I'm upset about it, but I'm sure Hev is even more so, since Ali was her kitty in high school and college summer breaks.

hev? I hope that's short for something.

My lifelong cat ran away when my dad moved, summer after my first year in college.

Surely you met my sisters at the wedding, K?

I don't want to start talking about cats running away or getting hurt.

My stories are too horrible (perhaps in general).

Surely you met my sisters at the wedding, K?

yeah, but i don't remember a hev