Tag: tofu

Weight Gain

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, Diet, Food, Noom, Pain, WeightLeave a comment

WeightGain

We went to the doctor’s office today so I could get my clearance note for surgery to remove my parotid gland.  They had me step on the scale and I was shocked to see that I was 205lbs.  So yeah, I’m a bit verklempt lol.

One of my issues with exercising is that when I walk or ride my bike or do anything that burns calories, the Noom app tells me that I can eat more calories, so I end up eating those extra calories, but then I might even go over those extra calories because I think to myself that I did such a good job that it’s okay.  Well, that’s not how it works.  I should still stick with 1400 calories, 1500 at the most.  Even if it says I can eat 1700, I should draw the line in the sand at 1500.

I’ve been using the Noom app for my cardio, but I decided to download the Noom Cardio Trainer.  I’m sure that it will still show the extra calories in the Noom app, but I just want to see how it goes with the Noom Cardio Trainer.

I’ve been eating those Quinoa and Tofu burgers every day with hamburger buns which is not a good idea; I should be eating them without any bread.  Here is my typical day:

Every morning I will either have a bowl of Malt-O-Meal or a banana for breakfast, which by the way the Malt-O-Meal is a green food (which means healthy) and the banana is obviously a green food.  For my morning snack (second breakfast?) I usually have a banana.  For lunch I normally eat a Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen dinner, although I’ve been eating the Quinoa and Tofu burgers, both by the way are green, except for the bun of course.  Afternoon snack (linner?) is typically a banana or crackers or sometimes I will have a bowl of broccoli.  That has been consistent.  Dinner is typically a Weight Watchers Smart Ones, but I’ve been eating the Quinoa and Tofu Burgers.  For evening snack I’ve been eating a lot of crackers.  I need to stop doing that, but I get so hungry that it feels like I’m famished.

I’m assuming that my issue here is the bread and the crackers.  I also have to admit that I’ve been eating candy corn, but not daily.  I’m guessing that the amount that I’ve eaten so far is finally catching up to me, so I will stop eating them for the rest of the season.  If I am having this much difficulty from the candy corn, just imagine how it’s going to be when Eggnog is available in stores.  I’m going to go crazy because I just LOVE eggnog lol.

So getting back to the Noom cardio trainer, I have set up 5 days a week to go riding on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.  I’m going to go out 5 days a week to do at least 11 miles per day, if I can do more, then great, but I’m not going to push myself that hard.  The app suggests 5 days a week, so I’m giving myself 2 days off, but not 2 consecutive days which is why I chose Sundays and Wednesdays as my days off.

balance ballI am also going to buy that Gaiam Total Body Balance Ball Kit which is sold on Amazon for $20.  It has an exercise DVD with it which I can watch while doing the exercises in my bedroom.  The doctor at Physical Therapy told me I should buy one so I can do exercises for my back since I only have 3 more sessions left.  My insurance only pays for so many sessions, then I’m on my own.  My back isn’t in as much pain as it was, but anyone who has, or anyone who knows anyone with scoliosis knows that the pain is really bad.  The only thing that really helps my pain is the exercises.  Pain meds don’t do anything for my back pain, they help my parotid gland pain, but not my back pain.  $20 is a small price to pay for pain relief.  I wanted to buy one at Target, but they were the same price, but without the DVD.

I really hope I can get back down to my comfortable weight of 192lbs and possibly get back on track with my weight loss so I can get down to my ultimate goal of 170lbs.  Considering I lost 70lbs this year, 35lbs shouldn’t be that difficult to lose, although it’s harder than I thought.

So to recap, my goal is to stay away from Halloween Candy and any other holiday sweets, bread and to exercise more and to try not to eat more than 1500 calories per day, even when the app says I can eat more.

Ready… set…  GO!

Quinoa and Tofu Burger

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Food, Noom1 Comment

quinoa and tofu burger

Here is a very good recipe for making Quinoa and Tofu burgers.  Now, the Quinoa was quite expensive at $6 for the box which only makes 3 1-cup servings, but the tofu itself was surprisingly cheap at $1.25 for the package.  This was the first and last time I will ever make this recipe because of how expensive it was and how difficult it was to make.  I will say that it is good though.

So here is the original recipe that I got from the Noom Facebook page.

  • 1 cup Cooked Quinoa
  • 125 g extra firm tofu
  • 1/2 cup Sweet Peas
  • 2 tbs chopped scallions
  • 1 tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 tbs oyster sauce
  • salt & pepper

Wrap tofu in dish towel. Squeeze towel-wrapped tofu to extract as much liquid as possible. Transfer tofu to medium bowl. Using a fork, mash into small pieces and add cooked quinoa, sweet peas, scallions, fish sauce, oyster sauce and salt & pepper. Shape mixture into ½ inch thick patties. Cook over medium heat w/a drop of oil.

My problem is that I hate 3 of those ingredients which are scallions, fish sauce and oyster sauce.  I hate onions and fish, so those 3 things had to go.  I have seen veggie burgers with red beans and corn in them, so I took those 3 things out and added 2 things and replaced the sauce with teriyaki sauce.  I also didn’t want to have leftover tofu, so I used all of it.  Since I used all of it, I basically had to triple the recipe.  I cooked the quinoa in the rice cooker and I thought I was making 2 cups because I used 1 cup of the quinoa with 2 cups of water, as per the rice cooker instructions, however, I don’t think I had 2 cups.  I had to make another serving and there is only 1 more serving in the box, which I should have just used the entire box, but I didn’t for some reason.

This is why I don’t like making food with ingredients that I hate, because I am always tempted to change it and it almost never works out.  I tried making a burger, but it wouldn’t stick in the pan.  Forget flipping it because it wouldn’t stick.  I was at my breaking point, but then decided to add some eggs.  My mother always told me that if you make hamburgers, add some eggs to keep the hamburgers from falling apart, so that’s what I did, and it did help, to a certain extent that is.  They didn’t fall apart when I flipped them or put them on the buns, but once you started to eat them, they basically crumbled into your mouth.  Oh and it wasn’t that tasty either  I put the bowl in the fridge and figured I would deal with it for lunch the next day.

So today I decided to add more eggs and that seems to have worked.  I made 1 single burger for lunch and it stayed firm and didn’t fall apart.  That is the picture you see above.  I made 16 more which are going in the freezer.  There was actually 1 more and I ate that when it finished because it’s actually quite tasty with the eggs lol.

The only reason I wanted to make these was because it was suggested by Noom, but the next time I want a veggie burger, I’ll just buy a garden burger from the store.