And I thought *my* weight-loss was impressive (Day 114)

At this point, I am down 58 lbs. total and can no longer wear any of my existing pairs of pants without either a belt or a clip in the case of elastic waists.  Else they're down around my ankles.  Which is a fashion statement of a kind, of course, but one I prefer not to state.  One of these days, I'm going to get some pictures onto this blog, as I am less ashamed of what I look like, now.  I was hesitant to post a "before" picture out of shame but now the sting is out of the shame. Done!

I do look back, unfortunately, with a certain amount of disgust.  As I said, it's in our culture.

I feel lighter on my feet--I'm always feeling lighter, and still lighter, and then lighter again, on my feet--plus more physically capable and inclined.  I handle better, especially on corners.  Walking feels different in a way that's hard to describe... almost not quite right, like I'm not sure where my balance is, though I'm not staggering.  Or maybe it's disorientingly easy.  It's really nice not having my inner thighs rubbing together.

I also handle heat better. Just now I remembered that the forecast high today is 29 (Celsius), so I checked the temperature out of curiousity (it's about 1 p.m., close to when we usually hit the high) and found it was 28.  I was like, "No way!  There is no way it is that hot!"  I would have guessed maybe 23 or 24, and was wondering whether the forecast was wrong.

In previous recent summers, I would have been very uncomfortable, brain-fried and unable to work without a big-ass fan trained on me (or fleeing inside into the A/C) with my feet swollen up so much they almost hurt.  Whatever the physiological reason is for heavy people finding heat hard to handle, it no longer applies to me, or at least not to the same degree.  The real test will be when I go to Cuba in November.  Rico rico!

Another difference: on hot days, I still go for fairly frequent swims.  I no longer wear sandals for the walk from the gravelled parking lot to the beach, however; I go barefoot.  This is because with 58 fewer pounds pressing my soles into the stones, it doesn't really hurt any more.  There's a sense of freedom to it, like when I was a kid and went everywhere barefoot in summer.

These changes are all amazing and wonderful, but they pale in comparison to what another person I know of must be experiencing.

Last weigh-in, my coach told me that Medispa's Ideal Protein customers, over the year and a half they've been offering the program, have collectively lost more than 8,000 lbs.  I had vague notions of being the champion, once I've lost the whole 100 lbs, but she let me know I'm not even close.  They have a female client who has lost 180.

Can you imagine that?  How different must she look and feel!  How must her life have changed!  I try to imagine losing three times what I have, and I can't even do it.  I asked the coach how she feels emotionally: "Giddy."  I bet!

As you probably know, I am a freelance journalist, and hearing this of course pinged my newsy's antennae.  180 lbs. is definitely newspaper-worthy, imo, so long as the client is willing to be so open publicly about it.  I have emailed my editor with the idea, and if she likes it, I'll ask the coach to contact the client.  I really hope she says yes, and yes also to before-and-after pics.  They must be gob-smacking.  Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, in my kitchen adventures, I have begun to experiment with cooking vegetables in a very hot skillet, searing them to burned on the outside while only slightly done on the inside so as to get that carbonized, barbecue-ish flavour.  I once had a short-lived romance with a person who always used pans that were quite hot, and so learned this approach by observation.

This next soup may or may not work with your skillet at low medium; I don't know, I've only tried it this way.  It was also my first experiment with cooking daikon, which I think worked.


Mushroom Chicken Soup

1 packet IP Chicken Flavoured Soup, mixed in your shaker as usual
2 portabella mushrooms, diced
6-8 snow peas, cut into quarters
1 tablespoon diced daikon
2 tablespoons chopped red onions
1 tsp olive oil
sea salt, pepper and Greek-style spice mix to taste

Heat up the pan with the oil spread over the bottom at high medium until it starts smoking.  Throw in the onions, cook just long enough, stirring frequently, to turn their surfaces golden brown while they remain raw inside--remember, you're not supposed to have cooked onions, this is a micro-cheat--then remove them from the heat.  Throw in the rest of the veggies plus the pepper and Greek-style spice and cook, stirring frequently, until the veggies are partly burned on the surfaces.

Turn off the heat, wait until the pan cools way down and add the soup (you can't add it to a hot pan or it instantly curdles; I found this out the hard way).  Or, while you fry the veggies you can be gently heating up the soup in a different pot, then add the finished veggies to it.  Stir in the salt, if necessary (I personally rarely add salt to any IP soup-based dish), and serve.

The slightly-burned flavour is what makes it.  Next time I do this I think I might put in something like cayenne or nyonya or chili peppers to heat it up that way too, a nice burning foil to the crispy inner romaine lettuce leaves I'm nibbling with it.