Greetings and Salutations!
Leg day this A.M. and the arms recovered enough to actually you know, like type again. The great news? I’n down quite a few pounds… I weighed in this A.M. at 347…
Do NOT ask how much I had gained.
Let’s just say emotional turmoil was not good for the waistline, nor the mindset. Which is now back in full effect. I mean the diet is going along well, I have my accountability sheet that I’m filling out daily, and making sure I keep it about 2200 calories for the entire day.
That’s waaaay down.
ESPECIALLY for a guy my size.
Add on what I’ve cut by completely going booze/beer free.
Mind you that sort of sucks, but I’m already way less bloated, and feeling better. My sleeping rhythms are back, and I’m up extremely early to either get my lift on or my walk on. Been doing a few laps around the neighborhood in a stripped down tac-vest with my XSAPI plates. Cardio donchaknow?
The left leg is doing much better as well, except that I literally ‘love tapped’ the passenger side running board on The Boat with the left shin, and because the skin is like tissue paper, I torn a big ole swath of skin off of it. AGAIN
So I’m back to square one.
However
The new secret weapon(s) which have been helping me?
One is Silver Honey:
It’s Manuka Honey and Antimicrobial Silver.
Supposedly it’s for horses.
Since I’m as large as one, it seems to be doing the job quite nicely. It also seems to be ‘fading’ the damaged areas that were inflamed and angry. Link to it is HERE
The other is a single compression boot:
Now I got that BEFORE Christmas, on the 17th so I got it for less than $50. Link to it is HERE And yeah, both wet my beak if you buy eithe rof them. The Leg Compression thing is great!!! It’s got 3 settings, the one I like most is the setting thats starts compressing my foot, and then works it’s way up my leg to my knee, squeezing all the pooled blood and lymph out or at least back into normal circulation.
The only major negative is you need to download and run it via a bluetooth connected app. I’m soooooo sick of apps I swear man… It does work however, and my leg looks much better for it, and I’m no where near as gimpy as I was.
So since the diet is now on full time, I’m cooking healthy like I did back in Baghdad. For that matter, I got a lil ‘homesick’ for my place back in Iraq from 2008-2011… Like genuinely missing my life and lifestyle from back then. It was a much simpler and straightforward existence to say the least.
The food was MUCH healthier overall as well, as Halal chow witht he Muslim Rules makes sure that GMOs are a nonstarter, and the grains you DO have available are from the same. exact. grains that Suliman the First was chowing on… Like the OG-Grains if you will.
So since I had previously stocked up on some quality meats that I had intended on using to impress a female (yeah… of course the deal fell through… story of my life amiright?) so Last night I yoinked! the meetza outta da deepfreeze and made ready for the cooking tonight.
In this case, this was Iraqi Kofta Kebabs.
I used to make these things at a minimum of 3-4 times a week in Baghdad. My Iraqi workers taught me how. God I miss them guys and gals… Anyways…
Kofta is a type of of spiced meat, usually cooked on skewers, made from ground meat (like beef, lamb, or chicken) or vegetables, mixed with spices, onions, and herbs. It can be grilled, baked, fried, or simmered in sauces, and is usually (for me) served over rice.
In my case?
I used a pound of Ground Waygu Beef, and a pound of New Zealand’s finest high-quality, tender, grass-fed Lamb. The skewers I got a lil ways back as a gift from bro who knows how much I like to cook, and got me the right skewers for the job:
Besides the spicing, in order to have a proper kebab, the meat has to cook from the inside as well as from the outside. The way this is done is that each one of those bad bois is about 3/4 of an inch wide. The tip of the skewer gets stuffed into the hot coals, allowing the heat to run the length of it, and cooks the inside of the kebab. The rick is to NOT allow the meat to peel apart and fall INTO the coals.
Thankfully I only had one do this, and I was quick enough to recover the meat. Part of the trick is making sure you have breadcrumbs as a binder… The way I did it, was I placed alllll the spices into a BIG honking bowl, and hand mixed it all together:
Where things went a wee bit sideways was I didn’t put enough breadcrumbs in, or at least that ONE skewer that fell apart didn’t get enough breadcrumbs… Meh… either way, it all cam out fantastically.
The Spices I used and how much are as follow:
One Medium Diced (via my smol food processor) Onion
Three BIG Tablespoons of Minced Garlic
1-1/2 Cups of Finely Mashed Plain Breadcrumbs (I used Pepperidge Farms)
1 Cup of Dried Parsley (or one whole fresh bunch, w/no stalks, diced up)
1 1/2 Teaspoons Ground Allspice
1/2 Teaspoons Green Cardamom
1/2 Teaspoons Nutmeg
1/2 Teaspoons Sumac
1/2 Teaspoons Paprika (I like a wee bit more, so dealer choice)
1 1/2 Teaspoons Aleppo Pepper
Large Pinch of Salt
I mashed all of it up, and then formed a small-ish ball of the meat, and skewered it. Then I worked it evenly down the skewer, thinning it out, and rounding it, keeping in mind that the first 3-4 inches needed to be free of the meat, so as to shove it directly into the coals:
Then I placed it in the outside redneck fridge to cool them for 20 minutes to keep them from falling apart. When they get to room temperature, the meat starts to seperate and fall off the skewers… chilling them keeps them together so you can get them on the grill.
Now I also chopped up another leftover half of an onion to grill, as there’s always a leftover onion in the fridge, as we use them in almost ALL the cooking around here:
I just slapped those w/some fresh ground pepper and salt, and roasted them on the grill… they came out great.
Now unfortunately, I didn’t get a pic of it cooking as I was as busy as a raped ape turning and shuffling the skewers from hot-spot(s) to cool(er) spots, and making sure nothing came completely apart. I need to fabricate a proper grill if I start doing this on the regular, as the Round Weber I have isn’t the best for this sort of cooking. I also made one of those “Middle Eastern/Spanish Yellow Rice” sides that was Meh! at best…
Sapper and I were not impressed with the rice (bland AF TBH, the majority got shitcanned it was so blah!) but at least it gave the plate some color. I served it with 2x pieces of freshly lightly toasted Na’an Bread, and some Peppered Humus for flavor. It came out looking rather good IMO:
(The onions are buried under the na’an BTW)
As you can see….
A perfect char on the outside, nice a cooked all the way through on the inside, and juicy as all get out. I think I stunned Sapper as he was beyond impressed.
I mean like I cook well, and he knows it, but there have been one or two misfires in the past. I think he was expecting this one to be a misfire, and was genuinely pleased to the point he said it’s better than the place we go out to eat at in Apollo Beach, a new Haji Shop. It’s good, but this is better AND it’s not $24 a plate. I agree with him… it’s absolutely what I used to cook on the regular back in the day, and outside of the rice? It’s healthy.
The only part that sucked was while I was doing the plating, BOTH puppers were literally drooling to the point that smol puddles formed on the floor, so now I’ll have to mop the kitchen again as this diet is heavy on the cooked meats, so both Puppers, Chili AND the Sausage Princess are in near-constant ‘hover/drool’ mode while Daddy Big Country is cooking up a storm.
Now as far as cook time for the skewers, these cannot be thrown on and left to cook. You HAVE to watch them, and constantly rotate them. I had the heat cranking on the coals to ‘blast furnace’ levels to get a good sear/char on the exterior, and rotated constantly to keep it evenly cooked so the meat didn’t get a chance to, as mentioned before, fall OFF the skewer and into the coals. YYMV.
So that’s my night and diet, and meal for dinner. Let me know what you think, and also let me now if you try it. My next experiment is going to be the same recibee, but using the Ninja Indor XL Air Fryer/Grill. The grill mode works pretty damned well, and I want to see if I can get the same results without the skewer, and making the Kebab thinner to cook evenly. If it works, I can whip up a PILE of them as pre-made food prep, freeze a bunch of them, and eat on them for a few weeks if I do it right.
What say you?
So More Later
Big Country
That butter dish! ❤️✓
Yeah, caught that as well. Appears to be a tiki type ash tray.
You have chosen wisely.
Go to Amazon and get this book; don’t jog eat bacon
https://www.amazon.com/Paperback-Grant-Petersen-Strong-Bullshit/dp/B07W6JJ259/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3Q54FOITHT2PN&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.iYtN6HbkzMBRUYBPZKlKglQAtSiqcb4a8S37OBupjKAP4jXay3EDSXcMXQPvL9De5oyhuwRi3xy79cvKt2kiCi0YiFNFaB88kO1y07bpLcTo3UAAUSK5aGs_O7R8InCS2I9wBuo5aS1UMrxVFXSfq-oSWhx0XOr4kIkFXhbayLAXtzn28KMSkLQszRGhQ19KIy1Jl-pKC86Jvtuty2-eb7nxrqFNjvRIbiTHgY5EroPV4KY-o4iu5IBROIcdzOTOxlnKV2S90N0WJH7VM_Y3X5kP5PFkckdTe0wp-0RknXE.lhI1Bgc4EDbLpjV2uEFWLSvuvKD67YU9RFjZkSZ-xnc&dib_tag=se&keywords=eat+bacon+don%27t+jog&qid=1768277866&sprefix=%2Caps%2C179&sr=8-2
Turn to chapter 2 and open the book to the two pages that tell you what to eat. Eat only the things listed. The weight will fall offa you. FAST. And stay off. I was a portly 350 and in 6 months I was 240 and have stayed near that, 225 to 235, for 6 years! I have given out dozens of that book to fatsos, and the ones who tried it have dropped the tonnage. There are always those who look at the book and say, ” I can’t eat that”. No, they won’t even try. Stay fat fuckers! TRY IT!
Amazon shows it unavailable but I’ll keep checking around for other places with that title. Thanks for the tip.
Try Abebooks.com.
A collection of small private booksellers online in one place competing on price.
Cheap or free shipping
Get the pdf here:
https://cdn.bookey.app/files/pdf/book/en/eat-bacon–don't-jog.pdf
It is an amazing book. Ex fat guy here that can vouch for it. Its available at goodreads.com for 3.83
Man, I can taste that through my puter, choice!
Do Scotch Eggs next if you please!
Great protein boost for the Old Timers.
OOOOOH! Forgot about them! I’m handy w/those too… they ‘fell off the menu’ ‘cos Gretchen wasn’t a fan.
Thanks for the reminder!
Hey BCE, those skewers look delicious.
The compression boot is good for lower leg edema (I have this as well).
If you still have problems with it, talk to your doctor about getting prescribed Lasix. It’s a fairly strong diuretic designed for edema, it takes it WAY down.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furosemide
Lasix is bad for the kidneys as I found out.
Jeezus, this fukkin guy. If I’da known it would fuck you up so often, I’da kept the damn boat parked across the street in the grass.
Fukin Army, I swear they can break anything, or make it into a weapon or both. Reminds me of the old joke about locking a private into a room for 12 hours with nothing but a 400lb anvil and coming back to find it either broke, misplaced, or sexually molested.
Oh, and if it was a member of the E-4 mafia in the room, the original 3 option apply, but also add “used as cumshaw for some shady shit”.
I miss the schwarmas…..
If you add a raw egg (1 egg per lb. o’ground) to your meat concoction plus a bit more breadcrumbs, I guarantee you’ll never lose another kabob. Mix it all in a large bowl by hand (a clean hand) ’til it’s a uniform consistency. Good on ya!
I like that! Will use next time!
Dude, that Manuka Honey is great stuff. Excellent for wound care. Use it myself for when my eczema goes haywire, and borders on a real problem for me…staph. Regardless, keep that shit on hand.
Another issue is I forgot to mention that the Red Hawt Chili Pupper, doing the “doggie-daddy’s hurt” thing and licked it once before I could stop her, when I first started to use it… it must taste damned good as now as soon as I slather it on, I have to cover up as otherwise, she’ll treat it like a popsicle LOL
It does taste good, it’s honey! LOL
a few years ago I got a spider bite. wolf, brown whatever, I don’t know. anyway, it started to look bad so I went to the ER at the VA. they gave me something that didn’t work at all.
then I remember that my Grandmother would go out to her hives for fresh honey and use it to cover the wound/ bite/ whatever. it worked great. so I bought some RAW honey and put it on with a dressing
the damn bite clear up in 3 days. no scar, or anything. so now a days I keep a jar of RAW honey around just for wounds, scraps or whatever. also cut any processed oils out of your diet as well.
I can’t stand that stuff. so I use only olive oil, butter and bacon grease here at home to cook with.
makes a big difference you see. you might want to try to add a little milk with the eggs to keep the meat mix bound together. learned that trick from Grandma ! yup, the one with the hives.
I remember the food in Saudi and Turkey was really good. I would eat a Shawarma from every shop I passed in Riyadh all the way to the gold souks. And those fruit drinks were great also. In Turkey the Tava dishes and Doner kababs were also banging good. So anyway when we were in Turkey I bought a dozen skewers with 17 inch SS blades with little copper birds as handles. I thought our girls would like them. We still have them but I almost lost them to German customs, but that’s another story.
been using medi-honey for years
that’s still more meat than i eat in a week, i’m holding at 175#s
and i see a major problem here “I had intended on using to impress a female”
fuck them cunts. they want to be shit on. if you treat them well they’ll just find another to shit on them on the side.. while you simp for them. TRUTH
just trying to help you bro
*SILVER
88.02 +2.929 +3.44
BIG SMILE 🙂
if i didn’t already have everything under the sun i’d go buy something…………LOL
Nah. Keep it for when the Gooberment fiat dollar collapses.
went to 90. earlier. i was up $20k for the day for a little while
better than sex, drugs, gambling, racing- well, not racing..
BCE ~ Been on a diet here and using ChatGPT as my coach, nutritionist, planner, manager and keeper of my stats. It’s a game changer. If you blog your daily plan, input, workup etc,. ChatGPT will blog back in a conversational style just the way you talk. I think you’d like it and ChatGPT will like you too! Good Luck with your diet!
I did that with Grok and it came back with basically what I was already doing.
I put in the type of eating I wanted to do; my health issues; exercise equipment I owned, including the dogs, and what I wanted to accomplish as far as weight loss. It came back with quite a routine using all the input I gave it.
Good for you!
80% of fitness is diet. You can walk all morning, but blow all those gains with some chips and a few beers. Alcohol is the boat anchor that keeps you from moving forward, fitness wise.
I was much in the same boat. I had both feet swelling and Hillary Clinton cankles. Got my diet straight, and lost enough ballast to exercise. I’d jog up my alley and walk back like 4x to start. Got to a point where I could feel the endorphins rise just walking to the alley. That’s a great place to be.
It’s nice to have normal legs and ankles now.
It is a shame how bad much of the food is in this country, compared to other countries. The girl watches a couple vlogs from the motherland. The markets are nuts with all those fresh, ripe fruits and veggies. Hell, it’s been forever that I’ve seen an actual ripe tomato. I’m old enough to remember how they tasted.
2200 calories a day is really low for a man of your size. It makes it hard to get enough protein. I know a big calorie deficit like that will help you shed pounds quickly, but it is hard to sustain long term, and you will lose some muscle mass.
At around 3000 calories a day, and 200 grams of protein intake, you could probably still shed weight pretty rapidly, do it more sustainably, while not losing much muscle.
That’s just my 2¢, as someone also working on losing weight.
Your dinner looked really good. 👍
Whey protein with 1 or 2% milk, especially after a workout, will help add protein and a few extra calories for the bump.
It’ll help stave off the sweet tooth as well.
The US Navy used to have an online calculator for basal caloric rates (as in big C for Calories or kcals) on the Internet, but the core of it was a small set of rules.
13x weight in pounds for resting
15x weight in pounds for moderate work
17x weight in pounds for heavy work and exercise
Adjust according to metabolic function
It wasn’t perfect but it worked OK enough to keep you from burning too fast (which creates its own set of problems).
2210 Calories is the 13x rate for 170 pounds.
That may be a bit of a load at a higher weight.
Get a bottle of Ketostix to check urine ketone levels and maybe also look into urine protein testing if you are trying intermittent fast burns.
Basically the problem to avoid is loading the kidneys until they’re used to the protein and fat burn producing ketone waste.
Instead of a downward ramp, a staircase downward works as well with plateaus to adjust to a current “new normal” that can hold for a few days to weeks.
Talking about homesickness – I got a craving for paella from when I lived in Spain. Every so often that hits. I have a traditional paella pan to cook it in, and prefer the seafood type, as I lived on an island when I was there. I believe I’ll be doing that this weekend. After I cook the chorizo (Spanish, not Mexican – there is a difference!), I’ll add some olive oil and sear some chicken thighs in the chorizo grease/olive oil combo. Then start the process of building up the dish. If the weather holds up, I’ll cook it outside on a portable stove.
Funny thing is, it is basically like jambalaya, as far as cooking method goes.
When our ship pulled into Palma, everyone headed for Texas Pete’s for their super hot chili, I preferred the Chinese restaurant, (almost better than Taiwan) but my best memories were sitting on the beach in Rota drinking Sangria.
Forget the carbs… both simple and complex (rice, potatoes, pasta). Eat all the veggies you want. No processed anything. Organic or uncured meats, eggs. Keep hydrated (non-alcohol). You will drop pounds whether you exercise or not but exercise is important. No more calorie counting and keeping silly lists.
Toast the dry spices in a dry cast iron skillet. Only takes a minute, literally. As soon as it smells like a spice shop in the kitchen, they are ready.
Look for some of that Laser Uzbek rice; they sell it on Amazon and it’s made for plov. I spent time in Baghdad and Bagram with the 10th Mtn Div; once you’ve had rice like they make it there you’re permanently ruined for the shite Americans call rice!
“Low GI” Indian rice, such as Laxmi brand, is a higher protein rice that may work well for BCE’s purposes.
Try it with saffron, mixed smoked paprika and cracked black pepper, and Turkish Maraş (or Marash) chile pepper in a rice cooker, it works out great.
Also looks a lot better than whatever that “Spanish rice” slop mix is.
As for Maraş chile pepper, it’s a milder heat but more flavored variation of Aleppo chile pepper, available at Turkish food shops.
Just add it to the rice cooker water along with the other spices after washing the rice.
A little Baharat to taste may also work out well, the New York Shuk brand is pretty good and Sprouts has it in Florida.
Very tasty looking recipe! Thanks for sharing, these culinary bits are always appreciated.
I stole this recipe as well as Bulgogi Stir fry. We eat that fairly often.
Still months away until I can sidle up to the BBQ. 24″ snow there at the moment.
I went to the vet’s place (animal) not VA place. and picked up a horse liniment called Mineral Ice. Good stuff. Human stuff is called Deep Cold.
Tiny, get yourself some Dixie Lily brand yellow rice. It’s good stuff! I usually find it at Grub Kitty (Food Lion).
There’s a lot of new cookware – Hexclad, Our Place etc. which is really excellent. I was using the LeCruset enameled iron – which is good but more for a chef I guess.
I’ve been baking our bread for the last several years. Used to do it a long time ago then got lazy. Now got back to it. Pretty easy – a Hitachi bread machine. Simple ingredients – not all that crap in the supermarket breads.
Anyway keep up the good cooking dude.
I’m already saying “Fuck Dry January” and finishing off this other half gallon of muscadine wine tonight.
Fuck the system.
Those Kabobs look WAY more than edible. And as far as that rice, toss a little cheese and some Rotel in with it and all’s good.