Getting Back on Track

Back to 222 something after a couple weeks!

Recently changed to having a hot bowl of oatmeal, instead of my typical breakfast smoothie. The bowl of oatmeal wasn't as filling either.     Maybe it's just the morning smoothie is easier to digest so my body gets the hit of protein more quickly in the morning, calming the appetite down

Anyhoo, my weight jumped up from 222 something to a consistent 224lbs for well over a week after I made the switch to Oatmeal bowls for breakfast.   Stayed stuck around 224 for almost 2 weeks even though I've been biking a lot.   Makes sense though after calculating the calories of my new breakfast.

A heaping cup of peanut butter flavored Oatmeal is about 400 calories, (see recipe), but I also ended up eating more for breakfast in general

• a peeled apple (100 calories)
• a hefty slice of 50% whole wheat sourdough bread with PB (200-250 calories)
• 9-12 dark chocolate covered almonds, 160 calories
• a 1/2 cup of roasted peanuts in the shell, 160 calories

total  = 970 calories 

I switched back to my Smoothie breakfast option, (~250 calories... 1 cup soy milk, 1 Scoop Orgain protein powder, 1 scoop pbfit powder, 1 cup of water)

• 1/2 cup COLD peanut butter oatmeal   OR  a thin slice of 50% ww bread with PB.  150-200 calories
• 1 apple or 1 peach  80-100 calories
• 3 dark choc almonds   50 calories

total = 500-550 calories 

I think the smoothie may help me feel "full" enough more quickly because of the bigger volume?   When losing weight you always feel slightly hungry, but there's tolerable hunger and then there's low blood sugar HUNGRY!!!!.       The smoothie keeps me in the tolerable hungry zone, where the bigger oatmeal breakfast pushed me completely out of weight loss mode, and it's hard to shift back and forth.

So I'm switching back to my Smoothie breakfasts as I do my final weight loss push to get under 220lbs. 

To lose 1 pound per week, I need a 500 calorie deficit per day, so it's easy to see why I got stuck at 224 after switching to daily oatmeal bowl breakfasts.   I added 500 calories of food per day, unintentionally.

 BUT!!! this experiment was worth it because I've found 2 new dessert ideas that should work long term with my new healthy lifestyle

Eating a cold half cup portion of the aforementioned peanut butter flavored Oatmeal satisfies my ice cream cravings and it's only 150-200 calories, (see recipe).   Oats are great for cholesterol too.    As the weather warms up, a salad for dinner with some cold oatmeal for dessert doesn't sound that bad to me.

I also found this  Almond Flour Based Protein Bars recipe     Completely unrelated to the smoothie vs oatmeal breakfast issue, I wanted to find a healthy alternative to Clif Bars when I'm out doing long bike rides.   I had a bag of almond flour in the pantry I needed to figure out how to use.   It's also corrected my cravings to overindulge in unsalted roasted peanuts.    Just a 1/2 cup portion of peanuts IN THE SHELL!!! is 160 calories.   Yowza!     And apologies for TMI, I'm already eating a lot of fiber, so the extra fiber from the peanuts was making #2's painful.   Who knew?    

The first batch of almond flour protein bars I made using Orgain Peanut Butter Protein Powder, https://a.co/d/03iQw5A7   and BJ's Wellsley brand natural peanut butter, and it frikkin rocked!   

Totally reminded me of these peanut butter squares I made a lot during Covid shutdown, this recipe,  which (oopsie) totals nearly 5000 calories per batch vs the 1600 calorie total of the almond flour recipe.     No wonder I ballooned to over 300 lbs during Covid.    Btw, it's easy to copy and paste recipes into Google's Search, and its AI prompt will give you a calorie total if you just first type, What is the calorie total of the following recipe.    Just FYI.

Back to the Almond Flour recipe, the 2nd batch I made with Orgain Chocolate Fudge Protein Powder, and BJ's almond butter.    Still good, but way less addictive, a good thing.      I cut them into small 50 calorie, 1 inch square sizes.    I also only use 1/3 cup of maple syrup because the Orgain Protein Powders have natural sweeteners like Stevia. 

The almond squares help me not overeat after getting home from a long bike ride.   They should pack well on longer rides too, but we haven't had a super hot day yet.   They could get messy when it's over 80F/27C.   Clif bars get boring after awhile, and I don't want to get in the habit of eating junk food when I'm out bike riding.    Part of my minor weight uptick was overindulging in ice cream or a pizza slice when I was out on a longer 2-3 hour ride.    I buy snacks more AFTER I get down into the lower 210's, but I need to lose the last 10lbs first.    No regrets, I need to take a short break and have some fun, but back to the final push.

Once I'm down to the lower 210's I can enjoy the extra 3300 calories per week then.   Subtracting about 200 calories because my Basal Metabolic rate will be less per day.    Food-wise,  I'm still very happy with the healthier stuff I make and eat now, but the occasional pizza slice or ice cream cone will be fun.     Almost there!

 

Peanut Butter Protein Oatmeal for Dessert

 

Peanut Butter Oatmeal 

ratio of steel cut oats to water is 1:3 

i usually cook  1-1/3 cups of steel oats to 4 cups water 

coat cooking pot in a thin schmear of neutral cooking oil first.  < 1 tablespoon 

• In a rice cooker, set to porridge setting.    
• In an instant pot,  4 minutes high pressure.    Wait at least 10 minutes after the 4min is done before releasing the pressure.

 

PER cup of water used....     

1 scoop of Orgain Plant Based Peanut Butter Protein Powder, https://a.co/d/03iQw5A7

1 scoop of  PB Fit Powder, https://a.co/d/0hF4yNRR 

1/2 tablespoon of natural Peanut Butter 

~ 1/4 cup of plain milk.     

NOTE:    I add just the powders and peanut butter with the cooked oats first and mix.   The oatmeal will be super dry and lumpy.    Then I slowly add milk to the mix as I stir to get the consistency I like.     Don't overshoot. 

(I prefer Soy milk for it's creaminess and long shelf life, but any milk works) 

so, if you cook 1 and 1/3 cups of steel cut oats in 4 cups water (~650 calories),   add the following

• cooking oil, 80 calories 
• 4 scoops of Orgain Peanut Protein powder (4x80 = 320 calories)
• 4 scoops PB fit powder (4x60 = 240calories)
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter  (180 calories)
• ~1 cup Soy Milk  (110 calories) 

Totals 1580 calories, and when I had it for breakfast instead of a smoothie, I'd eat about a quarter of it,   ~400 calories.    When I have it for dessert or a snack, I eat a small, half-cup 150-200 calorie serving.

It's very satisfying, reminds me of rice pudding.    But more fiber and doesn't spike your blood sugar.

Truck Camper Kitchen Drawer updates

 

Before I begin.  My weight backslid a couple pounds.    Currently at 223.5 after seeing a low of 221.1 lbs.   Sigh... will need to get busy to reach my goal of <220 before June 10th, which will end my 1 year weight loss mania that began at 291.6 lbs.    Heck <221.6 will be cool too.   70lbs lost.     Lately, I've just been eating too much of my sourdough bread,  unsalted roasted peanuts, and getting food or a beer when out biking for more than a couple hours.   

No regrets, I needed to have some fun before the final push.      The last 10lbs I want to lose should come off once Summer warms up and I can start doing week long bike touring trips.    Weighing lower 210's and staying under 220lbs over the Winter is my long term goal from here on out.  

Anyhoo, the truck camper's kitchen drawer bag project is done!   

First a couple photos of what the drawer looked like before I made the bags.     It was semi-organized dumpster diving AND I didn't have room for the 3qt instant pot in the drawer that you see in the After photos.   So this project fixed a bunch of problems.     And I designed the bags so I don't have to fully remove them if I'm just stopping somewhere to make a quick lunch.    Some bags use mesh fabric for air drying.   The hooks I added to the bumper swing arms work great for hanging the bags when I'm doing some proper cooking at the tailgate.

 I'll make a youtube video next time I'm out camping.     I will say, I'm a big fan of adding aluminum structure to sewn bags.    Lightweight and functional.    If I build my own van, I think i'll do cabinets that way.   3/4" thick wood is way too heavy and wastes space

 

 

After bags and rack hooks

 

  

Weight and Truck Camper Drawer progress

Weight loss continues!    Hoping to see <220 before June 11th (when I started dieting at 291.6lbs).   Still even if I say I'm only 6'1 now, i'm only overweight with a BMI of 29.2 (>29.9 is obese).   To be fair, I still feel like I've got a belly, but it's weird fitting into 36" waist jeans.    At my heaviest, I was wearing 44's

Honestly, I wasn't expecting such a low weigh-in today (was 222.9 yesterday), but I think because I took it a little easy the last couple of days, my body let go of the water it retains when I'm training harder.  AND, I've been eating sourdough bread.   Yay!    

Enough of the weight loss crud!    Lets talk truck stuff.   

This week, I rotated my truck tires (including the 5th wheel spare).    Because I added a cast iron rear diff cover, I can jack up the rear axle via the rear diff and drop the rear axle down onto jack stands easily.    Then, I jack up via the frame behind each front tire separately as I move tires around.    I have a nice wide driveway, a cordless heavy duty 1/2" Dewalt impact wrench gun, and a good floorjack.    I bet it takes me half the time to rotate tires myself versus driving to the tire shop and sitting in the waiting room, and I know the tires were rotated correctly.    The nice thing with my Ford Ranger, after you drive a couple miles the computer automatically updates the tire locations so when I'm on the tire pressure screen, the tire pressures are accurate, no need to update the truck's computer manually.    For weight reasons, I run my rear tires at 39-40psi, and the fronts at 35-36psi, so I use the onboard air compressor on the truck to fix that after rotating too.   Something the shops won't do.

 

I also changed the oil, but I didn't bother changing the oil filter for the first time.    I'm changing the oil every 5,000 miles (earlier than needed) and I'm using Mobil 1 oil filters rated for 20,000 miles.   On the Ranger, you have to remove the driver side tire and remove some of the wheel well flap to get to the sideways mounted oil filter.     When you remove the filter, it always leaks some oil.  There's even a drip tray for that, but I can't use it properly anymore after adding a skid plate to protect my transmission transfer case.   That skid plate also has some wing extensions so the crackheads can't steal my catalytic convertor with a sawzall.   So because I can't use the drip tray,  I have to use paper towels to catch the drips, and it's even more of a PITA.    I figure if the filter is good for 20,000 miles, I can safely leave it on for 2-3 oil changes (up to 15,000 miles).  

In the truck bed camper area, I also upgraded some usb charging outlets to new ones that include usb c .   Usb C charges faster than the old USA A outlets, and the usb C plugs go in either way.   These still have a USB A slot for my older gadgets.    https://a.co/d/00buJZGS     Easy change out.

 

First two bags for my kitchen drawer are complete.   See left image below.   I already had a bag for my induction burner, but as you can see the drawer will look way cleaner with everything in bags

Inside the bags I'm using 1/16" thick aluminum angle or flat bar that I rivet together to make framing as needed.   I use an angle grinder to round off any sharp edges.     The aluminum provides structure to the bags and it lets me re-add the plastic dividers.    I think for subsequent bags I'm going to switch to 1/20" thick aluminum to save weight, 1/16" is overkill.   I did buy a metal cutting blade to cut the aluminum and it works great.    Leaves a clean edge that requires almost no sanding/filing. https://a.co/d/0hsRd9Fy

First bag is what I'll call my Eat bag.   Likely to get the most use.    It holds everything I need to reheat or eat my food, but not stuff I need for proper meal prepping/cooking.     

 

In theory, I could have made my Eat bag into two separate bags, but I'm planning ahead for when I'm hanging bags on the rear bumper swing arm.    Attaching the lower bag holding the plates, bowls, cups means it'll take up less room horizontally when I hang stuff on the rear bump arms.   Should have photos of that by next Sunday.   I'm hoping I can hang my eat, cooking, and spices bags side by side on the tire arm.

Inside my Eat bag, I did re-use the pvc railings and post sleeves to help keep the cutlery organized and separated.  Lots of riveting to the aluminum framing I adding to the inside of the bag.  I'm probably going to add some of the smaller pvc railing pieces in the lower tray of the upper bag too.   For longer knives and scissors and stuff.     For the upper row, I back-cut them at a 60 degree angle, so I'm not storing forks, spoons knives straight up and down.   I didn't want them blocked by the top of the bag

the plate, bowl, cup/mug lower bag is open at the top when hanging open, but it inverts and threatens to dump everything out when I fold up the bag to put it away in the drawer.   So I added extra straps to keep stuff from spilling out, but I'm not 100% sure they're needed, I can cut them off in the future if I end up not needing them.    I also sewed the black mesh front panel on so I can put them in wet after washing.   I figure they can air dry in the bag.  I may also add a couple half inch grommets in the bottom to let excess water drain.   In retrospect I should have probably made then entire lower part of the bag out of mesh,  maybe I'll do that in the future.      

Next is the bag for my backpacking stove stuff.   I bring it as a backup stove in case my electrical system dies.

 

This bag is 15 inches wide, 10 inches high and only about 5 inches deep/thick.    It was a game of tetris to make it all fit, but I saved a lot of truck camper drawer space with this bag by vertically storing stuff.   in the drawer it was way more spread out.   Probably a subconscious thing because of the fuel